Hi there,
It's been a huge week in international affairs this week.
On Global Roaming, we ask whether regime change ever really works. Iran, Venezuela, Iraq, and Afghanistan have all had their governments forcibly changed by the United States, and with conflict spreading across the Middle East following a recent Trump intervention.
All In The Mind brings us one of the most extraordinary sessions in Esther Perel's four-decade career about the day a man brought his AI girlfriend to couples counselling. The globally-renowned psychotherapist joins Sana Qadar to reflect on what AI companionship really means, whether chatbots can play a genuine role in therapy, and why she thinks we might be better off thinking of AI partners as "transitional objects".
Meanwhile, The Economy, Stupid asks a deceptively simple question this week: what is GDP actually measuring and is it still fit for purpose? One of the great quirks of modern economics is that war, disaster, and destruction can all make growth figures go up. And on the The Screen Show, Jason Di Rosso sits down with Simon Baker to talk Scarpetta, the new crime thriller bringing Patricia Cornwell's iconic forensic pathologist Dr Kay Scarpetta to screen.
P.S — The ABC TOP 5 program is now open to early-career PhD researchers with an interest in communicating their work to non-academic audiences. Five winners from each category, which include Arts, Science and Humanities, will spend two weeks at the ABC developing media and communication skills.
