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Program: Science Friction

Source:ABC Radio National

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ABC Radio National

Science Friction's latest series is: Cooked. We dig into food science pickles. Why are studies showing that ice cream could be good for you? Do we really need as many electrolytes as the internet says? And why are people feeling good on the carnivore diet?

Nutrition and food scientist Dr Emma Beckett takes us through what the evidence says about foods like meat, ice cream and potatoes — and unpicks why nutrition studies can be so conflicting and confusing.

All six episodes of Cooked are available now. Our next series, on digital devices and what they're doing to our brains, will be out in May.

We dig into food science pickles. Why are studies showing that ice cream could be good for you? Do we really need as many electrolytes as the internet says? And why are people feeling good on the carnivore diet?

Nutrition and food scientist Dr Emma Beckett takes us through what the evidence says about foods like meat, ice cream and potatoes — and unpicks why nutrition studies can be so conflicting and confusing.

Episodes

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06 | Cooked: Vitamin B3 ... and the media

For episode six of Cooked, we turn the lens on … science communication itself. We’re looking at how information travels from a scientific study to the world and what can go wrong along the way.

Published: 5 Mar 2025Wed 5 Mar 2025 at 12:30am

A podcast tile for the series Cooked - the word Cooked in white letters against a dark background made up of splodges of paint.

Duration: 25 minutes 44 seconds

05 | Cooked: Electrolytes — who needs them?

Over the past few years, you might have heard advertisements in your podcast feed or on social media for electrolyte supplements. If you haven’t seen them, they’re basically these little sachets or tubs that get mixed in with water as a drink.

Published: 26 Feb 2025Wed 26 Feb 2025 at 12:30am

A podcast tile for the series Cooked - the word Cooked in white letters against a dark background made up of splodges of paint.

Duration: 25 minutes 45 seconds

04 | Cooked: A peculiar potato experiment

Why did a group of anonymous strangers on the internet try to eat almost nothing but potatoes for a month? On Cooked this week, an unusual experiment and the possibilities and perils of a mono-diet. Guests: Andrew Taylor Melbourne, Australia

Published: 19 Feb 2025Wed 19 Feb 2025 at 12:30am

A podcast tile for the series Cooked - the word Cooked in white letters against a dark background made up of splodges of paint.

Duration: 25 minutes 45 seconds

03 | Cooked: Mystery in the Mediterranean

It was one of the world's biggest nutrition trials. A study of thousands of people which found that following a Mediterranean diet could meaningfully reduce someone's risk of heart disease and stroke.

Published: 12 Feb 2025Wed 12 Feb 2025 at 12:30am

A podcast tile for the series Cooked - the word Cooked in white letters against a dark background made up of splodges of paint.

02 | Cooked: All-meat eaters say they feel great - but why?

Diets like carnivore have been popping up all over the place. People who go carnivore aim to eat nothing but a select few animal products, like meat and eggs.

Published: 5 Feb 2025Wed 5 Feb 2025 at 12:30am

A podcast tile for the series Cooked - the word Cooked in white letters against a dark background made up of splodges of paint.

01 | Cooked: Could ice cream actually be good for you?

Two decades ago, nutritional epidemiologists made a startling finding – that people eating more ice cream were less likely to develop diabetes.

Published: 29 Jan 2025Wed 29 Jan 2025 at 12:30am

A podcast tile for the series Cooked - the word Cooked in white letters against a dark background made up of splodges of paint.

Duration: 25 minutes 30 seconds

00 | INTRODUCING — Cooked

For Science Friction, a new series — Cooked!

Published: 28 Jan 2025Tue 28 Jan 2025 at 7:00am

A podcast tile for the series Cooked - the word Cooked in white letters against a dark background made up of splodges of paint.

06 | Is super-intelligent AI around the corner?

Behind the rise of AI there's big questions about where this technology is going. Is it going to be super intelligent — and if that happens — is it going to kill us all?

Published: 28 Nov 2023Tue 28 Nov 2023 at 2:00pmwith James Purtill

A human soldier stands in rubble of a city and lifts a robot off the ground by its neck.

Duration: 25 minutes 44 seconds

05 | The year the world woke up to AI with a bang

2023 was the year powerful new AI technology went mainstream, with image generators and tools like ChatGPT. And people quickly started wondering where these advances were taking them.

Published: 21 Nov 2023Tue 21 Nov 2023 at 2:00pmwith James Purtill

Duration: 25 minutes 47 seconds

04 | If you control AI, you control the world

AI is often portrayed as being all about technology. But it is also about money and control. Because those who control AI, may control the world.

Published: 14 Nov 2023Tue 14 Nov 2023 at 2:00pmwith James Purtill

Duration: 25 minutes 43 seconds

Cooked

01 | Cooked: Could ice cream actually be good for you?

Two decades ago, nutritional epidemiologists made a startling finding – that people eating more ice cream were less likely to develop diabetes.

A podcast tile for the series Cooked - the word Cooked in white letters against a dark background made up of splodges of paint.

Duration: 25 minutes 30 seconds

Published: 6 Feb 2025Thu 6 Feb 2025 at 10:20pm

02 | Cooked: All-meat eaters say they feel great - but why?

Diets like carnivore have been popping up all over the place. People who go carnivore aim to eat nothing but a select few animal products, like meat and eggs.

A podcast tile for the series Cooked - the word Cooked in white letters against a dark background made up of splodges of paint.

Published: 28 Feb 2025Fri 28 Feb 2025 at 4:58am

03 | Cooked: Mystery in the Mediterranean

It was one of the world's biggest nutrition trials. A study of thousands of people which found that following a Mediterranean diet could meaningfully reduce someone's risk of heart disease and stroke.

A podcast tile for the series Cooked - the word Cooked in white letters against a dark background made up of splodges of paint.

Published: 12 Feb 2025Wed 12 Feb 2025 at 1:09am

04 | Cooked: A peculiar potato experiment

Why did a group of anonymous strangers on the internet try to eat almost nothing but potatoes for a month? On Cooked this week, an unusual experiment and the possibilities and perils of a mono-diet. Guests: Andrew Taylor Melbourne, Australia

A podcast tile for the series Cooked - the word Cooked in white letters against a dark background made up of splodges of paint.

Duration: 25 minutes 45 seconds

Published: 19 Feb 2025Wed 19 Feb 2025 at 1:45am

Feature Articles

ChatGPT was tipped to cause widespread cheating. Here's what students say happened

At the start of 2023, experts warned ChatGPT would swamp schools in a wave of cheating. With the academic year wrapping up, we asked students what really happened.

High school students sitting in a classroom using laptops

Published: 21 Nov 2023Tue 21 Nov 2023 at 6:30amby James Purtill

'The most shocking thing I've ever seen': How one move in an ancient board game changed our view of AI

A board game contest between human and machine in 2016 marked the birth of modern AI. This is the moment the world changed forever.

Lee Sedol during the Google DeepMind challenge match

Published: 25 Oct 2023Wed 25 Oct 2023 at 6:44amby James Purtill

'Look harder': How two little words kicked off a storm over diversity at an Australian conference

Controversy over racial representation at an international science conference planned for Cairns has put the spotlight on how Australia deals with cultural diversity in science.

Crop of IPMB2022 poster

Published: 30 May 2022Mon 30 May 2022 at 6:27amby Anna Salleh

When twins Elizabeth and Jen collected their baby teeth as kids, an 'eerie pattern' emerged

ABC podcast host Elizabeth Kulas and her twin Jen thought for years that they were fraternal, until their mother volunteered them for twin research where they discovered that they weren't only identical but they had even more unusual traits — they…

Twin adult sisters stand in a garden with their arms around each other.

Published: 27 Mar 2022Sun 27 Mar 2022 at 11:04pmby Elizabeth Kulas

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