Psilocybin may curb mental illness linked to eating disorders

By Dennis Thompson, 

Sept. 24, 2024 

HealthDay News


Psilocybin could help people suffering from a mental health problem that can lead to eating disorders, a new study suggests. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News

Psilocybin could help people suffering from a mental health problem that can lead to eating disorders, a new study suggests.

Psilocybin, the active chemical in "magic" mushrooms, significantly reduced symptoms in people with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), researchers reported Tuesday in the journal Psychedelics.

BDD causes an obsessive preoccupation with perceived flaws in one's physical appearance, and is frequently tied to eating disorders and other unhealthy behaviors, researchers said.

For this pilot trial, eight people with hard-to-treat BDD received a single 25-milligram dose of psilocybin.

Brain scans showed that the psilocybin treatment increased levels in connectivity between different brain regions related to emotional processing, cognitive activity and feelings and thoughts about oneself.

People who had the greatest strengthening in these connections experienced the most improvement in their BDD symptoms within a week, results show.

The findings "align with a growing body of evidence indicating that psychedelic compounds like psilocybin can promote mental health by enhancing the brain's capacity for flexibility and integration," concluded the research team led by Chen Zhang, a research assistant with the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

"By facilitating communication within and between brain networks that are often dysregulated in psychiatric disorders, psilocybin may help restore more adaptive cognitive and emotional functioning," the research team said in a journal news release.
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However, more studies in larger groups of people with BDD are needed to verify the effectiveness of the treatment and how long it will last, the researchers noted.

More information

Johns Hopkins Medicine has more on psilocybin therapy.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Sanders tells Ozempic drugmaker's CEO to stop 'ripping off' Americans

Novo Nordisk charges $969 per month for Ozempic --- in the United States. 

The drug can be purchased for $155 in Canada, $122 in Denmark and $59 in Germany.

The CEO of Novo Nordisk is on Capitol Hill Tuesday to testify before a Senate committee about the high costs of its drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. 

 Photo by Ida Marie Odgaard/EPA-EFE

Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The CEO of Novo Nordisk is on Capitol Hill Tuesday to testify before a Senate committee about the high costs of its drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.

Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during his opening comments, had a simple message for Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, after highlighting the costs of his drugs are as much as 15 times higher in the United States than other countries.

"All we are saying, Mr. Jørgensen, is treat the American people the same way you treat people all over the world," Sanders said. "Stop ripping us off."

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions began its investigation of the Danish drug company earlier this year. Jørgensen is the only witness testifying in Tuesday's hearing.

The hearing is live streaming on the Senate committee's website.

Sanders called the prices for Ozempic and Wegovy "outrageously high."

During his opening remarks, Sanders speculated that Jørgensen would argue that lowering the costs of his company's drugs would result in pharmacy benefit managers not covering them.

"I'm delighted to announce today that I have received commitments in writing from all of the major PBMs that if Novo Nordisk substantially reduces the list price of Ozempic or Wegovy they would not limit coverage," Sanders said. "In fact, all of them told me they would be able to expand coverage for these drugs if the list price was reduced."

Sanders submitted the letters he received from PBM's, along with more than 200 letters from doctors warning that tens of thousands of their patients will die or experience a significant decline in their quality of life if these drug prices were not substantially reduced.

"Over 40,000 lives a year could be saved if Wegovy was made widely available and affordable to Americans," Sanders said.

While Sanders grilled Jørgensen over the "corporate greed" involved in the high prices for Ozempic and Wegovy, he noted that Novo Nordisk is not breaking any laws. Instead it is a symptom of America's broken healthcare system.

"What they're doing is lawful. They are taking advantage of the fact that the U.S., until recently, is the only major country in the world not negotiating our drug prices," Sanders said. "Novo Nordisk can charge us as much as the market can bear. And that is precisely what they are doing."

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said the committee must balance reining in prescription drug costs and maintaining a financial incentive that encourages innovation. He added that going after "big pharma" is not a silver bullet solution to bringing down drug costs.

"We still have to preserve the profit incentive for the creativity, for the drug companies to invest in developing drugs that are going to positively affect the burden of disease in our country," Cassidy said.

According to a press release from Sanders published before the hearing, Novo Nordisk charges $969 per month for Ozempic -- a drug prescribed to adults with type 2 diabetes -- in the United States. The drug can be purchased for $155 in Canada, $122 in Denmark and $59 in Germany.

A month's prescription for Wegovy in the United States costs $1,349, compared to $186 in Denmark, $140 in Germany and $92 in Britain.

Sanders alleges that three CEOs of generic pharmaceutical companies have said they could sell a generic version of Ozempic for less than $100 per month and make a profit. Novo Nordisk has made about $50 billion in sales from the sale of Ozempic and Wegovy alone.

Telegram agrees to turn over IP addresses of users with arrest warrants


Telegram founder Pavel Durov said on Monday that his messaging app has made changes and will turn over IP addresses of users with warrants.

File Photo by Nick Lubushko/Wikipedia Com

Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Telegram announced it will give authorities the IP addresses and phone numbers of users who have search warrants against them or other legal action, as its founder Pavel Durov faces scrutiny over crime on the messaging platform.

Durov said in a post Monday that the updates to its privacy policies that would hand over data of users in response to "valid legal requests" should "discourage criminals."

"While 99.999% of Telegram users have nothing to do with crime, the 0.001% involved in illicit activities create a bad image for the entire platform, putting the interests of our almost billion users at risk," Durov said in a post on Monday.

French authorities arrested Durov over suspected criminal activity on Telegram that included gang activity, trafficking and the platform's previous position not to cooperate with law enforcement during investigations. He was released on a hefty $5.56 million bond.

Durov said in other changes being made by Telegram, moderators and artificial intelligence will help find and remove "problem content" from public search features.

"Search on Telegram is more powerful than in other messaging apps because it allows users to find public channels and bots," Durov said. "Unfortunately, this feature has been abused by people who violated our Terms of Service to sell illegal goods."

"Telegram search is meant for finding friends and discovering news, not for promoting illegal goods," he added.

The concessions announced Monday came after Durov said earlier this month that his arrest by French authorities was "misguided" and "surprising."

He argued at the time that he could not be held responsible for Telegram posts connected to criminal activities and that French authorities should have sued the company rather than targeting him personally.

Law enforcement agencies in the United States and other countries have argued that Telegram has become the messaging app of choice for criminals, allowing drug gangs, human traffickers, and extremist groups to communicate freely.

Survivors of sexual abuse in Belgium urged Pope Francis to take stronger action against abusers and advocate for deeper reforms within the Catholic Church, just days before his visit to Brussels.

 

U.S. home insurance rates rising fast -- climate change plays big role

By Andrew J. Hoffman, University of Michigan
THE CONVERSATION

Sept. 24, 2024 

For millions of Americans, homeowners insurance premiums have grown as coverage shrinks. Nationwide, premiums rose 34% between 2017 and 2023, and they continued to rise in 2024. 

Photo by Kelly/Pexels

Millions of Americans have been watching with growing alarm as their homeowners insurance premiums rise and their coverage shrinks. Nationwide, premiums rose 34% between 2017 and 2023, and they continued to rise in 2024 across much of the country.

To add insult to injury, those rates go even higher if you make a claim -- as much as 25% if you claim a total loss of your home.

Why is this happening?

There are a few reasons, but a common thread: Climate change is fueling more severe weather, and insurers are responding to rising damage claims. The losses are exacerbated by more frequent extreme weather disasters striking densely populated areas, rising construction costs and homeowners experiencing damage that was once more rare.

Parts of the United States have been seeing larger and more damaging hail, higher storm surges, massive and widespread wildfires, and heat waves that kink metal and buckle asphalt. In Houston, what used to be a 100-year disaster, such as Hurricane Harvey in 2017, is now a 1-in-23-years event, estimates by risk assessors at First Street Foundation suggest. In addition, more people are moving into coastal and wildland areas at risk from storms and wildfires.

Just a decade ago, few insurance companies had a comprehensive strategy for addressing climate risk as a core business issue. Today, insurance companies have no choice but to factor climate change into their policy models.

Rising damage costs, higher premiums

There's a saying that to get someone to pay attention to climate change, put a price on it. Rising insurance costs are doing just that.

Increasing global temperatures lead to more extreme weather, and that means insurance companies have had to make higher payouts. In turn, they have been raising their prices and changing their coverage in order to remain solvent. That raises the costs for homeowners and for everyone else.

The importance of insurance to the economy cannot be understated. You generally cannot get a mortgage or even drive a car, build an office building or enter into contracts without insurance to protect against the inherent risks. Because insurance is so tightly woven into economies, state agencies review insurance companies' proposals to increase premiums or reduce coverage.

The insurance companies are not making political statements with the increases. They are looking at the numbers, calculating risk and pricing it accordingly. And the numbers are concerning.

The arithmetic of climate risk

Insurance companies use data from past disasters and complex models to calculate expected future payouts. Then they price their policies to cover those expected costs. In doing so, they have to balance three concerns: keeping rates low enough to remain competitive, setting rates high enough to cover payouts and not running afoul of insurance regulators.

But climate change is disrupting those risk models. As global temperatures rise, driven by greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use and other human activities, past is no longer prologue: What happened over the past 10 to 20 years is less predictive of what will happen in the next 10 to 20 years.

The number of billion-dollar disasters in the United States each year offers a clear example. The average rose from 3.3 per year in the 1980s to 18.3 per year in the 10-year period ending in 2024, with all years adjusted for inflation.

With that more than fivefold increase in billion-dollar disasters came rising insurance costs in the Southeast because of hurricanes and extreme rainfall, in the West because of wildfires, and in the Midwest because of wind, hail and flood damage.

Hurricanes tend to be the most damaging single events. They caused more than $692 billion in property damage in the United States between 2014 and 2023. But severe hail and windstorms, including tornadoes, are also costly; together, those on the billion-dollar disaster list did more than $246 billion in property damage over the same period.

As insurance companies adjust to the uncertainty, they may run a loss in one segment, such as homeowners insurance, but recoup their losses in other segments, such as auto or commercial insurance. But that cannot be sustained over the long term, and companies can be caught by unexpected events. California's unprecedented wildfires in 2017 and 2018 wiped out nearly 25 years' worth of profits for insurance companies in that state.

To balance their risk, insurance companies often turn to reinsurance companies; in effect, insurance companies that insure insurance companies. But reinsurers have also been raising their prices to cover their costs. Property reinsurance alone increased by 35% in 2023. Insurers are passing those costs to their policyholders.

What this means for your homeowners policy

Not only are homeowners insurance premiums going up, coverage is shrinking. In some cases, insurers are reducing or dropping coverage for items such as metal trim, doors and roof repair, increasing deductibles for risks such as hail and fire damage, or refusing to pay full replacement costs for things such as older roofs.

Some insurances companies are simply withdrawing from markets altogether, canceling existing policies or refusing to write new ones when risks become too uncertain or regulators do not approve their rate increases to cover costs. In recent years, State Farm and Allstate pulled back from California's homeowner market, and Farmers, Progressive and AAA pulled back from the Florida market, which is seeing some of the highest insurance rates in the country.

State-run "insurers of last resort," which can provide coverage for people who can't get coverage from private companies, are struggling too. Taxpayers in states such as California and Florida have been forced to bail out their state insurers. And the National Flood Insurance Program has raised its premiums, leading 10 states to sue to stop them.

About 7.4% of U.S. homeowners have given up on insurance altogether, leaving an estimated $1.6 trillion in property value at risk, including in high-risk states such as Florida.

No, insurance costs aren't done rising

According to NOAA data, 2023 was the hottest year on record "by far." And 2024 could be even hotter. This general warming trend and the rise in extreme weather is expected to continue until greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are abated.

In the face of such worrying analyses, U.S. homeowners insurance will continue to get more expensive and cover less. And yet, Jacques de Vaucleroy, chairman of the board of reinsurance giant Swiss Re, believes U.S. insurance is still priced too low to fully cover the risk from climate change.

Andrew J. Hoffman is a professor of management & organizations, environment & sustainable enterprise at University of Michigan.


This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

Who’s to blame when climate change turns the lights off?

TUE CONVERSATION
Published: September 23, 2024 

Deadly Storm Boris has flooded large areas of central Europe and the UK, destroying homes and displacing thousands of people.

With the flooding of sub-stations, the scouring of the foundations of pylons and river embankment failures, the rainstorm has also caused power outages many miles away. This will create yet more disruption as sewage pumping stations stall, train and tram services halt and vehicle charging points fail.

The UK saw this ripple of infrastructure failure in the 2007 summer floods. The compound failures caused by flooding in Gloucestershire alone, a county in south-west England, left 350,000 people without mains water for over two weeks and 42,000 people without power.

Commuters were stranded on the railway network and the M5 motorway. The floods also made thousands of people homeless. Similar floods struck the UK again in 2013 and 2020.

All systems fail occasionally. But infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to disruptions caused by extreme weather, which is being made more severe and frequent as a result of climate change. The UK’s national risk register lists nine impacts of climate change (including storms, heatwaves and wildfires) that could seriously damage infrastructure that is increasingly complex and interconnected. A single failure can create a cascade of them.

Risky business

Your home may not be in the path of the next storm but the infrastructure it relies on might be. So who is responsible for making sure that the power stays on, the toilets can still flush and water keeps running from taps? Whose job is it to ensure infrastructure is resilient to climate change?

People are responsible for their own resilience and that of their homes and private companies are responsible for the resilience of their operations. However, companies that operate services such as public transport, communications networks or utilities are overseen by regulators such as Ofgem (energy) and Ofwat (water).

The resilience of the networks owned by companies is not subject to regulation directly, there is no minimum standard of resilience that must be maintained and no fines for failure. Instead, people affected by power outages, for example, can claim compensation after a certain degree of disruption.

Installations were, generally, designed and built in an earlier climate. David Calvert

/Shutterstock

Within the government, the Cabinet Office takes the lead on planning the country’s resilience and is responsible for the government’s response to emergencies and for producing the national security risk assessment and the national risk register. Each risk is designated a lead government department, which works with agencies and public bodies that fall under its jurisdiction.

For example, flood risk is considered by the Environment Agency which reports to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (or Defra). Advisory bodies like the Climate Change Committee and the National Infrastructure Commission make recommendations to the government and assess its performance but have no powers to enforce action.

There are 427 public bodies and agencies working under the legal frameworks set by the 24 government departments – none have a minimum standard for infrastructure resilience.

The previous government committed to publishing resilience standards by 2025. Such standards would instruct utility companies and infrastructure operators on what measures were needed to prevent power cuts and other failures in the future. Discussions are happening in Whitehall that will shape the quality of life of millions of people for many years to come.

Three futures

Without taking all infrastructure into public ownership, or without all homes generating their own power and somehow meeting their own needs, what does the future look like? Is it down to homeowners to fend for themselves while landlords assume responsibility for the power and water of their tenants? In the worst-case scenario, will people be left to their own devices in a world reminiscent of Mad Max?

There are three possibilities. The first is that society simply accepts more frequent failures and a lower standard of living for most. The second option includes the electricity grid, roads and railways, sewage treatment plants and other national infrastructure being updated and improved, with all the attendant costs.

The third option would see people take direct action by adapting homes and communities to make them less dependent on national infrastructure. In this scenario, services are more localised such that communities or households become self-sufficient to varying degrees, perhaps establishing autonomous off-grid settlements.

Renewable energy technology offers its generators a degree of autonomy. Hazel Plater/Shutterstock

No government would be elected promising to preside over falling living standards. The other options come with many challenges. Option two assumes a great degree of government intervention and a high level of investment in new and improved infrastructure: flood defences, additional power cables, new railway lines. Option three implies less involvement from central government and more power to local authority and community bodies to generate electricity and treat water for example.

The future may well be a combination of these scenarios, but doing nothing isn’t an option. It’s not a question of if serious floods will happen again, but when.

Author

Chris Medland
PhD Candidate in Climate Change Resilience, University of Surrey

 CBS POLL

What voters think about climate change ahead of Election Day 2024

Sep 23, 2024

Climate change affects several aspects of American life — health, economics, the weather and possibly this fall: politics. According to a recent survey from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 62% of registered voters across parties prefer a candidate who supports action on global warming. Anthony Leiserowitz, who co-authored the study, joins CBS News to unpack the findings.

 

Examining the gap between voters and lawmakers on climate change

Sep 23, 2024

Climate change has not been one of the key talking points this election cycle when compared to other issues like the economy or immigration, but the planet's future is still on the minds of many voters. CBS News national environmental correspondent David Schechter examines why voters' views on the issue don't always match up with those who represent them.

Harris makes headway on economy among voters in new CBS polling

Sep 23, 2024

New CBS News polling finds registered voters have a more positive view of the economy now than August. It also reveals that Vice President Kamala Harris has narrowed her deficit with former President Donald Trump among those who call the economy a major factor in their vote. Molly Ball, senior political correspondent at The Wall Street Journal, and Brakkton Booker, national political correspondent with Politico, join "America Decides" with analysis.

One-third of former NFL players in Harvard study believe they have brain damage

By Susan Kreimer
Health News
Sept. 23, 2024 

 It is not unusual for players to land on their heads, like this play in which Los Angeles Chargers safety Derwin James Jr. pulls down Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens after a reception in the first quarter at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday in Pittsburgh. Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI | License Photo

NEW YORK, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- A Harvard study of almost 2,000 former National Football League players revealed that about one-third believe they have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disorder linked to repeated head impacts.

The study, published Monday in JAMA Neurology, draws attention to the injuries transpiring over a livelihood of training and playing on the field. A definitive diagnosis of CTE is possible only by performing an autopsy of the brain after death.

Researchers who surveyed former players found a strong connection between perceived CTE (34%) and mental well-being. One-fourth of the players who believe they have CTE reported experiencing thoughts and behaviors related to committing suicide, compared to only 5% of players who don't think they have CTE.

Knowing the share of retired players with perceived CTE and the associated increase in thoughts of self-harm is a major step in helping them pursue mental health treatment, researchers said.

"Until we have a way to diagnose CTE and treat it, going after conditions that cause cognitive problems that add to their CTE anxieties represents the best way to give these guys hope and more good years," said the study's lead author, Rachel Grashow, director of epidemiological research initiatives at the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University.

"We may be able to reduce the burden of these symptoms and improve the health and outlook of former players," said Grashow, who has a doctorate in computational neuroscience.

Players who thought they had CTE often reported cognitive symptoms, low testosterone, depression, pain and other treatable conditions that can affect thinking, learning and understanding.

"Low testosterone also impacts the brain and could be contributing to their depression and absentmindedness," she said.

The study used electronic and paper surveys to query players who played professionally from 1960 to 2020.

Collected data included demographics and football-related exposures, such as position and career duration. It also listed current health problems, such as anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, headache, high cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, pain and sleep apnea.

"This study is one of the largest surveys attempting to address CTE symptoms in former American-style football players," said Dr. Ray Chu, clinical chief of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is Los Angeles. He was not involved in the study.

"It is important to have physicians on the sidelines helping players recognize concussion symptoms and sitting out while they are symptomatic to try and reduce the odds of brain injury," said Chu, a concussion specialist who works with the Los Angeles Rams at home games.

Medical professionals and family members should be aware if a patient or loved one has perceived CTE. "Screening for suicidality and providing mental health resources could be life-saving," said Dr. Chris Miles, a sports medicine specialist at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

However, it's wise to exercise caution in making a diagnosis. Attributing symptoms to CTE may miss other possibly reversible causes, Miles said.

Significant changes have made football safer, especially for high school players and younger athletes. For instance, Chu noted that the kickoff is no longer one of the most dangerous portions of the game, with two teams running at each other head on with significant speed.

"Most games now have changed the kickoff so that is not the case, or even for young players, eliminated the kickoff entirely," he said. "For the NFL this year, there is an alteration in the kickoff such that the teams are standing in place until the receiver catches the ball, which hopefully will decrease the chance of that player being hit at high speeds while relatively unprepared."

It's critical to investigate how frequent suicidality is among former players to implement appropriate screening and treatment, said Jeffrey Schaffert, an assistant professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas who has published research evaluating cognitive outcomes in former NFL players.

Social media platforms feature comments from people who attribute depression and suicidal thoughts to playing football or contact sports years ago, Schaffert said.

While they may suffer from a mental health problem rather than an uncurable neurodegenerative disease, he stressed the importance of seeking treatment for depression, irritability, anxiety, suicidality or any related symptoms.

A proper geography conference


The Royal Geographical Society’s yearly conference highlights the discipline’s expanding horizons

By Andrew Brooks
Royal Geographical Society

23 September 2024

Afew years back, midway through the first term of teaching, a new undergraduate approached me after a lecture. As I collected my notes and rucksack, he asked ‘When will we start learning proper geography?’ The question took me back. What does he mean? What is proper geography? I had started the module lecturing on how agriculture spread around the world in the neolithic period, later given classes on the ways in which colonialism had made an uneven world, and recently been teaching about the geographies of financial crisis in the 2000s. For this fresher, use to a more traditional and conservative school syllabus focused on topics like gentrification and the climate change, these subjects were alien. He struggled to see the relevance of these historical processes to today’s global challenges. Yet for me these themes, while looking back at the past, were important dynamic moments, that shaped contemporary global inequality and are at the cutting edge of conversation in academic geography. I thought about this encounter as I was walking in the late summer sun through Hyde Park to the Royal Geographical Society’s 2024 Conference. What new ideas would I hear about and how would these shape and change what I thought of as proper geography?

The three-day RGS-IBG Annual International Conference attracts 2,000 geographers from around the world. It alternates between the society’s base in West London and cities around the UK. This year the conference had the overarching theme of mapping – surely a proper geographical verb – but this served as a point of departure for an impressively wide range of sessions: Mapping Fuel Poverty Around the World, Mapping the Future of Political Geography in the UK, Thick Mapping for Socio-Ecological Transitioning, and More-than-Human Cartographies: animals as map-makers and the mapping of animal worlds. And many other mapping acts filled the conference program, as well as sessions with titles that were further from the traditional heartlands of geography such as Digital Black Dance Ecologies and (Un)writing the Earth: genre, story and inscription in the Anthropocene. That said, despite breadth in topic areas on societal questions, the conference does not cover the full depth of the discipline as there are fewer sessions devoted to physical geography. Researchers from that side of geography tend to meet in more multi-disciplinary environmental science forums.

Royal Geographical Society


The first session I attended was for the launch of a new academic journal: Finance and Space. The lecture introduced how the publication would interrogate new fiscal relationships between businesses, cities and regions. For example, London is in relative decline as a financial hub, whereas former UK colonies and protectorates like Hong Kong and Dubai, that retain an understanding of British economic systems and English Common Law, are becoming increasing important. In a geopolitically complex world, flows of funds from places like Russia and Iran pass easily through these increasingly important spaces of finance. During this session the presenters used cartographic techniques to animate the ways in which different economic systems interact, this included the brilliant The Waterworks of Money presented by Dutch researchers Carlijn Kingma and Thomas Bollen. Visualization brings difficult to follow processes to life. New maps can chart the stormy waters of finance and well-trained geographers have a leading role to play in helping everyone understand the world economy.



Later that day I was in a very different type of session ‘Spatial Contestations: Dispossession, Dissent, and Development in Africa and the Levant’. A very academic sounding title, but a session that was less heavy in theory and more about telling stories of under-represented people. This included a pair of papers on Lebanon. One by a historian, Zeead Yaghi, from Beirut, who was drawn towards geography to progress his understanding of the interactions between cities and countryside. Yaghi showed how plans to irrigate land across Lebanon for agricultural development accompanied political change alongside new vision for farming. Ecological, political and sectarian obstacles to this plan were a microcosm of the challenges the state faced. Government aimed to reanimate rural life but had the exact opposite effect and propelled people towards the cities, and centralized power. The other paper by Diala Lteif focused on protest around a slaughterhouse in Beirut. It was an icon of modernity, that mechanized butchery, but with it came job losses, and created a moment of territorial contestation as there was a struggle to change a traditional place into a modern one. Other papers in the session came from Cameroon and Palestine. All of them opened questions about the ways in which geographers can understand movements for resistance and change.

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Keynote lectures are often a highlight of the conference program, and this year included one sponsored by the radical geography journal Antipode, hosted in the Society’s historic Ondaatje Theatre (a handsome wood-paneled space familiar to anyone that has attended a Monday night lecture). This was delivered by Laleh Khalili a scholar who writes with passion and beauty. Here, her talk, titled ‘Where is Palestine? Singapore on the Med, Spaceships, and the mount of Olives’, considered the interrelationships between struggles for Palestinian spaces, and the way Palestine is built by artists as a site of memory, desire and dream. Against the backdrop of the unfolding tragedy in the Middle East her lecture moved some audience members to tears. One of my own interventions in the conference was in a panel on Geographical responsibility and scholasticide in Palestine. Scholasticide is this context is a term which describes the ways in which Israel’s violence in Gaza extends to universities and represents a systematic assault on Palestinian education and knowledge production.


My other highlights of the conference were two ‘author meets the critics’ sessions. The first was on the new book Decolonising Geography? Disciplinary Histories and the End of the British Empire in Africa, 1948-1998 by Ruth Craggs. Much of the history of the discipline is associated with colonialism and that is very present in the past culture of the Society. As a rejoinder to all that, this book talk showed the way in which geography departments in the world’s poorest continent evolved through the decolonial process. The critics introduced us to the books many strengths and provoked both the author and the audience to think about what still needs to be done to decolonise the discipline. There was an interesting exchange around the provocation ‘What topics are Black geographers allowed to write on?’ In the 1970s when Black PhD students came to the UK they had to change what they wanted to study when their white supervisors were unable to support their projects. Yet these experiences are familiar in the present and oftentimes topic areas are bent away from the new ideas of young BAME scholars and towards the established practices of ‘proper’ geography. Secondly, I was the other side of the lectern for the critics’ review of my own Bullsh*t Comparisons: A field guide to thinking critically in a world of difference. Despite a few butterflies before the session, I was pleased to have a really engaged and colorful discussion, and flattered by my fellow geographers considered and thoughtful comments, which were (mostly) complimentary.

I

Away from the heavier conference sessions the event is also a great opportunity to showcase the vibrancy of the Royal Geographical Society’s work and there were exhibits, film screenings and examples of recent publications. At break times the grounds of 1 Kensington Gore were overflowing with conference guests, and as is often the way, the really networking happened beyond the confines of the formal sessions. Here I enjoyed meeting with an early career researcher and helped them develop a new project idea, and in turn bumped in to my own undergraduate tutor of two decades ago, who wanted to learn about what I had been up to. Feeling part of a community of geographical scholars which is bigger than a single workplace, is a real strength of the discipline. Sadly though in multiple sessions we had to hear from international geographers speaking online because their visas to attend the conference had been denied, but it was a small grace that the technology enabled their partial participation in the gathering. The geographical community present at the conference extended far beyond academics and I enjoyed talking with teachers, consultants, publishers, government officials and journalists. When I speak about the RGS to lecturers from other disciplines they are often envious of this unique and valuable learned society which does not have a direct equivalent in many other fields.



Returning to the question of what is proper geography? This summer’s conference opened my eyes to many new and exciting ideas and a few strange ones. Some of the topics like Dance Ecologies, Scholasticide and More-than-Human Cartographies, might not sound like geography as you know it, but that is one of the purposes of academic geography – to push forward the frontiers of the discipline. In previous years terms like the Anthropocene and decolonization where debated and contested in conference sessions, but now are moving towards the mainstream of the discipline. Even established ideas like climate change and gentrification got their first airings in forums like the RGS-IBG conference many decades ago. I will certainly be taking ideas from the conference back to my lecture theatre, and sharing some in future columns, even though it might take longer for them to percolate to, and change, the familiar, proper school syllabi.