Just as coronavirus vaccinations are ramping up, a bunch of new variants are here, threatening to muck everything up. So we’re wondering — will these jabs still work, or is this the pandemic that never ends? To find out, we talk to Dr. Ben Reis, biochemist Prof. Pei-Yong Shi, virologist Prof. Ann Sheehy, and infectious disease expert Dr. Katy Stephenson.


Check out the transcript here: https://bit.ly/3mbc0hQ


This episode was produced by Wendy Zukerman, Rose Rimler, Nick DelRose and Meryl Horn, with help from Michelle Dang and Taylor White. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell, editing help from Caitlin Kenney. Fact checking by Taylor White. Mix and sound design by Bumi Hidaka. Music written by Peter Leonard, Marcus Bagala, Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. A huge thanks to the researchers we got in touch with for this episode as well as all the listeners who told us about their vaccine experience! And special thanks to the Zukerman family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson.

Science Vs

Coronavirus: How Scary Are the Variants?

Forest

Three Pieces from "The Snowman": The Snowman's Music Box Dance

26-APR-2015: New electronic arrangement.  

Synthetizers used: 
Roland V-Synth, Minimoog Voyager, Kurzweil K2600xs, Emulator III, Roland JD-990, Yamaha CS6R, Nord Lead.

The Nature is Playing

‘Crazy Rich Asians’ author Kevin Kwan chats to Nihal about his new book ‘Sex and Vanity’ - the story of a young woman who finds herself torn between two men.

Kevin discusses some objects which have inspired him and chats to Nihal about why the island of Capri is so important to him, and how he used to make best dressed lists #PenguinPodcast

‘Sex and Vanity’ is available to buy as an audiobook now - https://apple.co/33UuhbY

The Penguin Podcast: Kevin Kwan with Nihal Arthanayake

Words Mean More From You

Swan Dip

There's no point having a mind if you never change it.

In his best-selling How to Be Right, James provided an invigorating guide to how to talk to people with bad opinions. And yet the question he always gets asked is: 'if you're so sure about everything, haven't you ever changed your mind?'

In an age of us vs them, tribal loyalties and bitter divisions, the ability to change our minds may be the most important power we have. In this intimate, personal new book, James' focus shifts from talking to other people to how you talk to yourself about what you really think. Ranging across a dazzling array of big topics, cultural questions and political hot potatoes, James reveals where he has changed his mind, explains what convinced him and shows why all of us need to kick the tyres of our opinions, check our assumptions and make sure we really think what we think we do. 

Coloured with stories of changing minds from the incredible guests on his podcasts and callers to his radio show, and spanning big ideas like press regulation and Brexit through to playful subjects like football and dog-ownership, How Not to Be Wrong is packed with revelations, outrage, conversations and lots of humour. 

Because in a world that seems more divided than ever, if you can't change your own mind you'll never really be able to change anyone else's.

You can download the audiobook here: https://adbl.co/35h38PG

How Not to Be Wrong, written and read by James O'Brien

A luxury mountaintop chalet

The opportunity of a lifetime

Until guests start to disappear....

The unmissable new thriller from the queen of the modern-day murder mystery.

Snow is falling in the exclusive alpine ski resort of Saint Antoine, as the shareholders and directors of Snoop, the hottest new music app, gather for a make or break corporate retreat to decide the future of the company. At stake is a billion-dollar dot com buyout that could make them all millionaires, or leave some of them out in the cold. 

The clock is ticking on the offer, and with the group irrevocably split, tensions are running high. When an avalanche cuts the chalet off from help, and one board member goes missing in the snow, the group is forced to ask - would someone resort to murder, to get what they want?

One By One by Ruth Ware, read by Imogen Church

Forest 404: 9-part thriller, 9-part talk, 9-part soundscape and exclusive bonus documentary

Can you feel loss for something you've never known?

Meet Pan. She lives a few centuries from now, in a future beyond a data crash that wiped out most records of life from before the 23rd century: The Cataclysm. Her job is to sort through the old sound recordings that survived from before the crash - from The Slow Times. When winters were still cold. When the USA still had people in it.

All day she listens to sounds from The Slow Times, and she decides which noises live, and which can just...finally die. Deleted to make space. Because data costs.

But when she finds an old recording of a rainforest, she has no idea what it is. Because forests no longer exist. And the sound of it haunts her - she is compelled to hunt down the truth about how the forests of the old world died. But the agents of new world have other ideas...

A sci-fi thriller starring Pearl Mackie (Doctor Who), Tanya Moodie (Sherlock, Motherland) and Pippa Haywood (Green Wing, Bodyguard).

Each episode is accompanied by a talk which looks at the issues raised by the drama, featuring a diverse range of speakers: musicians, bio-futurists, anthropologists and tree-climbers. They explore questions ranging from 'Why should I listen to trees?' to 'Would you vote for an AI government?' and 'What is death in the digital age?'

Each episode also comes with an immersive soundscape of natural world environments, mixed in binaural sound for a 3D headphone experience. You can hear the sound of the Sumatran Rainforest, the songs of whales, a chorus of frogs, and a full playout of Bonobo's specially-composed theme music.

Lastly, this release includes an exclusive bonus documentary episode, which looks at the making of the programme and features interviews with the writer, Timothy X Atack. It also discusses the findings of The Forest 404 Experiment: a related project in collaboration with Exeter University and the Open University, which assessed the effects that different natural sounds have on mental health and well-being, and used many of the natural soundscapes featured in this programme.

Clip - Talk - Why Should I Listen To Trees

Intro To Winter

Listen to an excerpt from Nora Roberts' THE AWAKENING, read by Barrie Kreinik.

In the realm of Talamh, a teenage warrior named Keegan emerges from a lake holding a sword—representing both power and the terrifying responsibility to protect the Fey. In another realm known as Philadelphia, a young woman has just discovered she possesses a treasure of her own…

The Awakening

The Awakening by Nora Roberts -- Audiobook Clip

Listen to an excerpt from LET US DREAM by Pope Francis and read by Arthur Morey.

LET US DREAM Audiobook Excerpt

Penguin Books publishes blockbusting, prize-winning, celebrated, controversial, heart-warming, thought-provoking and inspiring books by a range of authors from Ali Smith to Zadie Smith, Jeremy Clarkson to Jeremy Paxman and Jamie Oliver to Oliver Goldsmith.

How Not to Be Wrong, written and read by James O'Brien

Penguin Books UK

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