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When we sat a classicist down to review Kaos, Netflix’s retelling of the Greek myths, it really could have gone either way. What would she make of Jeff Goldblum striding around in a tracksuit as Zeus? Could she tolerate Eurydice being called Riddy? Would the brutality of these ancient stories work as comedy?
Her response was positive on all fronts. In fact, she loved it. She insists that everyone should watch the series once and that hardcore fans of the Greek myths should watch it twice, for reasons she explains here.
A less convincing tale of tragedy was recounted from the Downing Street rose garden earlier this week, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer told us the nation was falling apart at the seams and that only by making some thoroughly unpopular decisions could he fix it. True as it may be that hard choices are needed, he wasn’t exactly getting us hyped up to help him fix things. An expert in political narrative said he felt like a citizen of Gotham City listening to the police commissioner when he really wanted to hear from Batman.
We also asked an expert to review a new trend in healthcare: full body scans to detect hidden diseases. Private clinics can charge thousands for the service so we thought it worth checking out whether it was worth the money. If Kaos got five stars from our classicist, then body scans got one star at best from our anatomy specialist. He’s especially concerned about the potential for false positives.
Also this week, unravelling Pompeii’s ancient scrolls with artificial intelligence, what a Kamala Harris presidency would really mean for Ukraine and a reality check for anyone who thinks they’re good at understanding
people.
Plus we have a special two-part episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast that hears from scientists on both sides of the debate about whether we should be trying to geoengineer the climate to counteract the rising temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
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