The WiSER Podcast | Season Five

We are pleased to announce that later this week, Season Five of The WiSER Podcast will be launched. The Institute will release episodes every ten days or so between June and October. The first four seasons of The WiSER Podcast attracted over 28 000 listeners and we invite you to tune in to our new season’s offerings, featuring the work of WiSER researchers. Most episodes will be 15 minutes long and can be listened to via a range of social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Apple and Spotify. We encourage you to circulate episodes you find compelling via your own channels. Upcoming episodes include -

Rekgotsofetse Chikane in discussion with his father Rev Frank Chikane focuses on the extraordinary fact that they were both, in different eras of South African politics, accused of treason – by the apartheid and the post-apartheid state – and what these experiences meant for them and for each other.

Tim Wright explores a small and fascinating node of vampire culture in Johannesburg and ways in which Joburg vampires become caught up in the networks and economies of the city.

Caio Simoes De Araujo talks about the new Maputo-Katembe bridge, linking Mozambique and South Africa and what it tells us about shifting, infrastructurally mediated relations in the region, not least by Chinese interests.

Simon van Schalkwyk discusses our new nuclear age, the re-emergence of a long latent Cold War atavism, including the politics of containment and psycho-warfare. Online ‘nuke maps’ mean you can now simulate he effects of nuclear strikes anywhere in the world. He sets the location for Braamfontain, Johannesburg and sees what (would) happen.

And much more….

The WiSER Podcast Team this year is convened by Sarah Nuttall, sound editing by Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh and designs by Bronwyn Kotzen.