Unfounded is a podcast series that aims to encourage accessible discussion of global issues and empower individuals to create change beyond the screen.
Through interviewing academics and professionals, join Megha as she deconstructs some of the complexities of several issues, crises and activist measures.
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Email: unfounded.podcast@gmail.com
In our final farewell episode, the Unfounded team gets together to share their experience with being a part of the podcast. Meet the team in this multi-starrer with Megha, Brianne, Rachna & Richa, as they reminisce about their journey, favourite episodes, and shed light on other BTS stories listeners didn’t get to see. We hope we’ve been able to produce something worthwhile over the past 1.5 years and thank our listeners for supporting us along the way! Join us in learning how the puzzle pieces came together to create the foundations of unfounded.
1 Nov 2022
Episode 16 - Abortion Rights: Access and Autonomy
The overturning of Roe v Wade was a step backwards for women’s reproductive rights - let's talk about it. Join us in discussion with Dr Sanjana Kannan Sud who gives us a doctor's perspective on understanding abortion and its accessibility.
What exactly falls under abortion from a medical perspective? Are all abortions covered under abortion law? What are the implications of this on women and society? What are abortion rights like in Australia, and how can they be improved?
Tune in to understand how the overturning of Roe v Wade prevents safe abortions, its disproportionate effect on minorities, and the dangerous precedent these laws could have on legalities around fertility and contraception.
About Dr Sanjana Kannan Sud:
Dr Sanjana studied a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery and did a Masters of Reproductive Medicine. She is currently a trainee in her final year of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of obstetricians and gynaecologists.
22 Sept 2022
Episode 15 - Student Debt: Should it be Wiped?
Student debt has been a hot topic in the media for a while now, would it be so bad if it was cancelled? In this Episode, we are joined by UOW Associate Professor of Economics Alfredo Paloyo and Megha, as they discuss concerns we often have about paying off HECS-HELP loans.
Why does the government pay for education in the first place? How much public money actually goes into universities? How can we better combat the increasing cost of living?
Tune in to understand the nuances of student debt in Australia and how we can better address concerns regarding equity and education.
About Alfredo Paloyo:
Alfredo has a background in policymaking on human-capital issues, substantially in the fields of labor, education and health economics.
2 Aug 2022
Episode 14 - Russia-Ukraine: Ripple Effects
Protections, morality and wheat? In part two of our series on Russia and Ukraine, Megha and Associate Professor Andrea Benvenuti explore how Russia's war on Ukraine has had huge global ripple effects on several countries within and outside of the EU.
How do other countries in the EU balance their morality and economic interests? What is the relationship between Australia and Ukraine?
About Andrea Benvenuti:
Associate Professor Benvenuti has a strong background on the impact of Western military power and strategic foreign policy. He has written and collaborated on over 40 publications from 2004-2020, including publishing 3 books and 14 book chapters. He is currently working on 3 new book projects too!
14 Jul 2022
Episode 13 - Russia-Ukraine: The Big ‘Why’
In this first part of our series on Russia and Ukraine, we’re in conversation with UNSW Associate Professor Andrea Benvenuti, who specialises in Politics and International relations and is a published author of 3 books.
In this episode, join Megha and Andrea as they explore the big questions on our minds - Why did Russia invade Ukraine? What's the relationship between Russia and Ukraine? What are NATO countries?
About Andrea Benvenuti:
Associate Professor Benvenuti has a strong background on the impact of Western military power and strategic foreign policy. He has written and collaborated on over 40 publications from 2004-2020, including publishing 3 books and 14 book chapters. He is currently working on 3 new book projects.
19 Jun 2022
Episode 12 - Covid Part 2: Civil Liberties in the Pandemic
In the second part of our COVID series, Brianne from our research team and Megha discuss the concept of civil liberties in relation to the pandemic. Tune in to our discussion on the different rules put into place during the pandemic and whether there was a balance between human rights and health concerns.
How do we trust whether rules being imposed on us are legitimate? What actually motivates us to follow restrictions? And how do we actually scrutinize these decisions more critically?
Resources:
What is the Commission's view on limiting human rights during COVID-19? (https://humanrights.gov.au/about/covid19-and-human-rights/what-commissions-view-limiting-human-rights-during-covid-19)
Australia: COVID-19 restrictions and the Civil Liberties - Human Rights quagmire (https://www.mondaq.com/australia/human-rights/1119122/covid-19-restrictions-and-the-civil-liberties--human-rights-quagmire)
Covid-19: An Excuse For Repressing Human Rights And Civil Liberties - McCain Institute (https://www.mccaininstitute.org/resources/reports/covid-19-an-excuse-for-repressing-human-rights-and-civil-liberties/)
Management of Civil Liberties During Pandemic - Tanushka Sharma, Arunima, 2021 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00195561211035931)
What happened to the civil liberties movement? (https://www.smh.com.au/national/missing-in-action-what-happened-to-the-civil-liberties-movement-20210513-p57rln.html)
15 May 2022
Episode 11 - The Politics of Selection with Anoulack Chanthivong
What is the relationship between a party leader and their party? How much influence do we have over the selection process?
With the elections coming up it's more important than ever to take a deep dive into our leadership - we can choose our preferred party, but how are political leaders actually selected? Join us in conversation with Macquarie Fields MP Anoulack Chanthivong as we discuss whether we can affect the decisions of the people making our decisions.
6 Mar 2022
Episode 10 - Fast Fashion & Sustainability in the Contemporary fashion industry
What is Fast Fashion? Does social media impact our relationship to clothes? How can we stay trendy while consuming with care?
In this episode, we explore all things Fast Fashion with Associate Prof. Timo Rissanen, who is a published author of two books on fashion and sustainability! We had the opportunity to learn more about the fast fashion model, solving the challenges of clothing manufacturing waste, the impacts of social media's 'trend' based culture, and how we can make small changes to move towards sustainable consumption.
Further Resources:
- Zero Waste Fashion Design (2016) - Written by Timo Rissanen & Holly McQuillan, explores the need for fashion designers to play an active role in minimising the waste produced by their practice.
- Shaping Sustainable Fashion (2011) - Written by Timo Rissanen & Alison Gwitt, argues the need to incorporate 'future repair' as a central element of fashion design processes.
31 Jan 2022
Episode 9 - Covid Part 1: Misinformation & the Media
We’ve all heard the word ‘fake news’ being used in the news, but what is misinformation? In this first part of our Covid series, we are joined by Ashraf from our research team and Megha, as they discuss the impacts of misinformation around Covid.
Tune in to understand types of misinformation, how problematic social media algorithms can be, distrust in authority, and the difficulties of placing trust in news sources during Covid.
9 Jan 2022
Episode 8 - Decision Making: Understanding how to make better choices
In our first episode for the year, we explore all things decision making and the science behind it.
Do we tend to make different decisions to what we thought we would in theory? How do people make decisions as leaders and politicians vs as individuals? What are nudging processes and how do they impact our ability to make choices?
Join us in conversation with Professor Benjamin Newell to understand what impacts people’s decisions and how to improve our own decision making.
22 Dec 2021
Episode 7 - Afghanistan: USA’s conflicting intervention and how we can support change
In this second part of our Afghanistan series, Dr Bose and Sanjana discuss the role of the Afghani Government, what facilitates corruption, and the conflicting and chaotic strategies behind USA’s intervention.
Join us in learning about Australia’s involvement, how we can be good allies to Afghan communities, and how young people in Australia can play a huge role in mobilising change.
9 Dec 2021
Episode 6 - Afghanistan: Understanding the conflict
Special Episode! In this first part of our Afghanistan series, we’re in conversation with a member of our audience - Sanjana Sriram, and Dr Srinjoy Bose, who specializes in the study of Afghanistan and political order through his research on International Relations, Critical Peace & Security.
We break down the situation in Afghanistan so we can understand the conflict at a deeper level than the popular narrative mainstream news provides. How has the role of the USA changed? If the focus of the media is on American actors like the Taliban, how do we illuminate Afghani voices?
5 Nov 2021
Episode 5 - Protests
How do protests implement institutional change? Has social media influenced how they’ve been adapted in society? In this episode, we unpack the ethos of protests with Associate Professor of Sociology at UNSW, Claudia Tazreiter. We'll also discuss the dynamics of protests through an individual, collective and broader political lens.
18 Sept 2021
Episode 4 - Israel-Palestine: Creating Change & the influence of social media giants
In this last episode of our series on Israel-Palestine, we’ll discuss the role of social media platforms and their capacity to influence & censor the information we receive. We’ll also share the insights from our conversation with Peter Slezak, an Honorary Associate Professor at UNSW, who shares an interesting perspective on acknowledging guilt and privilege.
6 Sept 2021
Episode 3 - Israel-Palestine: Why aren’t things changing? UN and USA - do better.
In this episode, we’ll look at three core elements of what is impeding change. Is the United Nations actually preventing problems from being solved? How does the USA exacerbate the issue? Is Australia doing enough?
Sources:
(PDF) Palestine: A Protracted Peacebuilding Process (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319638854_Palestine_A_Protracted_Peacebuilding_Process)
US Foreign Aid to Israel (https://sgp.fas.org/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf)
What is the Security Council? | United Nations Security Council (https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/content/what-security-council)
Associate Professor Peter Paul Slezak | UNSW Research (https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/associate-professor-peter-paul-slezak)
6 Sept 2021
Episode 2 - Israel-Palestine: Roots of the conflict
Why does the Israel-Palestine conflict exist? In our first episode of the series, we’ll delve into the roots of the conflict and take a brief look at the settler-coloniser dynamic that exists between Israelis and Palestinians. What are the reasons behind the present two states for two people approach?
Sources:
(PDF) Palestine: A Protracted Peacebuilding Process (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319638854_Palestine_A_Protracted_Peacebuilding_Process)
US Foreign Aid to Israel (https://sgp.fas.org/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf)
What is the Security Council? | United Nations Security Council (https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/content/what-security-council)
Associate Professor Peter Paul Slezak | UNSW Research (https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/associate-professor-peter-paul-slezak)
6 Sept 2021
Episode 1 - Welcome to Unfounded
Welcome to the first episode of Unfounded! In this introductory episode we’ll discuss the aim of this podcast – to equip our audiences with academically-fuelled information and suggest actions they can undertake to overcome performative activism.
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