What has parenting taught you about how systems respond to difference?

The system's not designed for difference.

I mean, and I think we all know that the education system is behind, hundreds of years behind, which is evidenced by the fact that they still get let out at three because we needed them to come and help in the factories and go up the chimneys.

There's no reason for school to finish at three.

Why is it not nine to five like their parents are working? And then we end up with all these bolt-ons, breakfast clubs and after-school activities and childminders and stress for the parents.

And crazily enough as well, we end up with entire school buildings that could house all of our children from nine to five, Monday to Friday, including half-terms and summer holidays.

And then they sit empty while we then find another building during half-term for them to go to.

So if you were leading this national conversation into social care, how would you draw people in? What would you want to say to people about social care? How would you make it interesting?

It's absolutely foul, and I give it one star out of five.

[laughs] Rhea.

I would like to review the common cold Um, I've been reviewing it for about five days now.

Uh, and I found that initially on day one, where actually all you're doing is just a few sneezes, there's something really satisfying about when you get that really irritating nose tickle, but you get it out with a good proper sneeze.

And I had a good three or four of those on the first day, and I was like, "Actually, you know what? I know what's coming, but I'm not not enjoying this day." But then day two to three when the sore throat kicked in, I was like, "Nah, no.

This- I'm not enjoying this as much." It's really difficult 'cause, 'cause, 'cause there's a solution.

You know, whether you're gargling saltwater or whether you're having to, you know, just drink loads of fluids.

Rhea Lina, can you tell us about these underwater super cockroaches?

Okay.

Yes, so we agree that it's a collaborative process of 553 people.

And can I just say, I would love for any of my artwork that I write to have 553 people willing to come in and help me create it.

That would be incredible.

But I would feel a lot of pressure for them not to feel disappointed at the end of the process.

And they said process as well, which is, I feel, Tom, why you felt like it goes into production.

Yeah.

it?

She really threw him under the

bus.

I'm going to counter that, actually.

Because... having watched it so first of all yes about her acting and i think the reason that she is such a phenomenal actress is because she is honest with herself in a way that he is not oh i think that honesty and that openness and that understanding of who she is as a person is why she's able to give the performances she gives and i love her round tables you know her multi-generational round tables and all of that conversation having seen what happened at, was it the Oscars? It was the Oscars.

And having seen that dynamic, this is a man who wouldn't let her divorce him.

And I think that is what's happened.

I think that she came to a truth within herself and she went to Will and she said, well, this isn't working for me and who I am.

No, I'm talking about in the viruses themselves.

How did you navigate that? Did you look back at your childhood and think, you know, there were signs there of being

autistic? Oh, the signs were there.

Oh, the signs were there.

But I think...

It's interesting, a lot of things.

I went through a year where I lost myself because I had spent my entire life going, okay, I don't have a lot of friends.

Okay, I'm not that popular.

So how did it affect you in your motherhood journey? Was there a change in your household when you learned accommodations or were you guys already accommodating? Was that like a before and after in family life?

Uh, Ria, have you got a first contact that you think is done well in science fiction or fantasy?

[lip smack] Well, I think that, um, Arrival was really interesting, um, how they, you know, for once, for once we didn't have... 'Cause so much first contact, especially in the movies, and I'll contrast that from Star Trek, but first contact in the movies is 95% of the time, "Aliens are here to kill us, so we must be aggressive ex- in exchange." And it's all about war, and it's all about the opportunity for one man to be a hero for the entire planet, and I, and I'm so bored of that narrative.

I'm so bored of it.

So I really liked the linguistic aspects of Arrival and, and how, [lip smack] and how we had to figure them out, and we got the space, and there was the space to be able to do that.

I loved, you know, that there was a, a female protagonist in this that, you know, and, and I think that's also not a coincidence that it was a female protagonist and a non-violent storyline as opposed to Independence Day or, you know, insert every single other, uh, you know, uh, storyline where aliens have suddenly appeared over multiple cities across the planet.

"We must save them.

Who will save them? The Americans, of course." Um, even though...

[laughs]

Mm

... you know, he's very tied with this, the success of Manchesterism.

Um, and is he gonna bring this with him down south, down to Westminster? How is that gonna work? Is there too much of a north-south divide? Are we in the south gonna be like, "We don't relate"? Or, you know, is it actually gonna work? Are we, are we actually all feeling in the south that we do need a little bit more togetherness, that we do need a little bit more of a feeling that the government sees us? Because that's one of the things about Manchesterism is, is that the people felt seen.

They felt acknowledged.

They've, you know, Manchesterism being primarily vibes, primarily a feel, isn't it? It's a feel rather than something you can put your finger on 'cause when you start to dig into the actual numbers of what Burnham achieved while Mayor of Manchester, it's, it's not like this wonderful clean slate of amazing achievements.

There's some highs, but there are also some lows, and there's some successes, but there's some big failures as well.

We've moved on, yeah.

[laughs] It's so true.

Thank you.

One of the toughest challenges or one of the lessons that I've learned in hindsight is I have children with various diagnoses and one of them got diagnosed quite early.

And so we knew from very early in primary school that he needed extra support for that.

And one of the things that as an autistic mother, I wanted to make sure didn't happen to my kids because it happened to me, was that they were never punished or disciplined for being neurodiverse.

And every school that we've been with has been great about feedback and the rest of it, but there have been a lot of emails of me going, hi, I saw that you disciplined my kid for standing.

Once it was, he stood up and the teacher found him standing between the blind and the window.

[laughs]

But it, it just, I think we just have to leave it.

Like, this Hormuz hokey pokey that we keep playing, like, all these boats have got, have got, you know...

They need massages.

They, metaphorical neck massages for the number of times they're going, "Oh, we can go.

Oh, no, we can't.

Oh, no, wait, we can't." They've got, like, whiplash from going, "Can we go? Can we not go? Can we go? Can we not go?" You know, and the one good thing that's coming out of it though, apparently, is that Trump is using up all of their own gas and oil reserves in the US.

The remorse gene is long gone, I think.

Whoa

...

I've never had that confirmed.

Uh, but there is a condition, and if you haven't heard of it, where have you been? Because up until last week, it was known as polycystic ovary syndrome, so PCOS, polycystic ovary syndrome.

And they have, after a worldwide campaign, and this took 14 years to achieve, they've successfully managed to rename it polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome.

And the reason that's so important is because when it was named polycystic, it implied that first of all-That's how you look for it.

And in fact, polycystic, uh, multiple cysts on the ovary is not always a sign in this particular condition.

Yeah, that's how they sell the Edinburgh Fringe.

Do you know about the history of medicine?

I know bits and pieces.

I did the, uh, evolution of herpes.

That was sort of my-- Well, not the evolution of it, like from what it looked like at the beginning to what it looks like now.

I mean, it was pretty much the same.

Uh-

[laughs]

And I don't know why barbers had to have big hands, but I knew that to be a surgeon you had to have big hands because you wanted to be able to grip.

[laughing]

It was simple math, but no perv's gonna pass the test.

No, but get this, the pervy guy over there didn't want our pervy guy.

Like, originally, he ha- he was really happy with the ambassador that they had.

He was happy with Karen Pierce.

And in hindsight, you go, "Why in the world, Starmer, do you think that he's trying to distance himself from the Epstein files by starting a war? So why do you think he'd want you to send him someone in the Epstein files?" Like, that was, that was poor thinking.

It's just bouncing back.

And again, this wasn't, like, a humanoid robot with elbows and knees playing against a human with knees and elbows.

Yeah.

Um, and so it was, it was, that was huge for me, to walk onto the set and see the little people that, that turn the panels, and, um, you know, and they all have to do it in sync as well.

It's really impressive how they do that, and they just, they turn it around once at the beginning, and they turn it around once at the end.

They work so hard.

Uh, and, uh, but to see all of that and to do all that, but you're s- I'm, you know, you sit next to, you're sitting next to Ian Hyslop, who's essentially on top of the news and has been for 30 years.

And I, and my thought, my, uh, my logic was, "What am I possibly gonna bring to this?" Because a flippant, a flippant jo- like Mock the Week is, is such a fun show.

It, but it is one-liners.

True.

on the way on the way here i was like i went to say hello to ria and you were like sorry i'm on the phone to my dentist

Because I was reading the story going, I should really get in touch with my dentist and make sure that they're still my dentist.

Because now it used to be every six months.

You used to get a checkup every six months.

They'd send you a text.

They'd send you a letter.

Whatever it was, you would go.

dental-related injury?

[upbeat music] That's right, The Goggle is back.

The glossy magazine pull-out section to The Bugle's audio newspaper for a visual world is back and better than ever.

Check out our first episode, which is already live with the fantastic Allison Spittel and John Luke Roberts, as we bring you all of the latest from the world of science and technology.

All of the news now with some of the politics.

Watch us on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

[upbeat music] That's right.

The Goggle is back.

The glossy magazine pullout section to The Bugle's audio newspaper for visual world is back and better than ever.

Check out our first episode, which is already live with the fantastic Allison Spittel and John Luke Roberts, as we bring you all of the latest from the world of science and technology.

All of the news now with some of the politics.

Watch us on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Yeah.

Okay.

[laughs]

... that's a very different thing." You know, that, that could be as big as we don't poo inside, uh, outdoors anymore.

Do you know what I mean? Like-

[laughs]

... doing their thing.

Definitely.

But if you're gonna narrow it to the 1500s, and of course you've mentioned Shakespeare-

(laughs)

Hi, I'm Rialina.

I'm a comedian and lapsed forensic scientist and virologist.

And I don't understand why we're even investigating fusion when we already have the technology of hamster wheels that we could do at a size large enough to put all the children with ADHD in them.

I will take that as a compliment.

I thought that was, like, the 12 Step Program.