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RTÉ Brainstorm - Brainstorm | Opinion, Analysis, Reports, Features | RTÉ

The story of America's first multi-racial vice-president

It was Charles Curtis rather than Kamala Harris who was America's first biracial vice-president

Maurice McCabe: "the final bill was not disclosed, but significant legal costs were likely involved given the 11 sets of High Court proceedings that had to be dealt with."

How much money does whistleblowing cost people who speak out?

Work and Careers

"Despite their popularity, only a few studies have investigated how accurate sleep devices are". Photo: Getty Images

Why your sleep tracker isn't as accurate as you think

"Standing on Grattan Bridge in Dublin's city centre, it's 2km to either the Royal or the Grand Canal, Docklands or the Phoenix Park." Photo: Getty Images

4 steps to make Dublin a better walking city

New Irish citizens taking place in a citizenship ceremony in October 2013

How Ireland could help 50,000 EU citizens in Northern Ireland

"There are positives and negatives to both natural and synthetic fabrics" Photo: Getty Images

All you ever wanted to know about fabrics

"A statement of fact about what is the case for some situation is categorically different from a statement about how we ought to respond to it."

The struggle between facts and values around Covid-19

"81% of respondents said that they would be interested in finding out more about a career in the public sector and 37% found a career in the public sector attractive"

How civil service careers can attract millennials and Gen Z

Work and Careers

Can Ireland provide leadership on the UN Security Council to reboot Iran's JCPOA nuclear accord?

Can Ireland help to get the Iran nuclear deal back on track?

Made in Ireland (until 1990): Faber-Castell's Columbus pencils. Photo: product shot

The high cost of outsourcing manufacturing

French police search for a suspect following a shooting at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France in December 2018. Photo: Patrick Seeger/EPA-EFE

How do people behave during terrorist attacks?

Lisa Harvey provides Irish Sign Language interpretation for Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan at a Department of Health media briefing

How sign language interpreters tell the story of what's going on

Irish Sign Language

An Taoiseach Micheál Martin giving a State Apology in the Dáil after the findings laid out in the report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes

Ireland's complex relationship with shame

"Check if the programme works for your child's specific strengths and challenges." Photo: Getty Images

Why healthcare by video is a great idea for children

"Frank Broome played for Shels from February to April 1955 and earned £5 per week, though a newspaper reported that it cost an additional £10 a week to fly him from Birmingham to Dublin and back home again". Photo: Aston Villa FC

The story of the Shelbourne player and Hitler's Nazis

More Brainstorm

Spotlight

Why clean air is key to preventing spread of Covid-19

John Wenger on why we need to clean the air more than we clean surfaces

Why clean air is key to preventing spread of Covid-19

John Wenger on why we need to clean the air more than we clean surfaces

What do our accents say about us?

Mairead Moriarty on how we speak is something which is ultimately controlled by ourselves

How to celebrate a child's birthday during the lockdown

Rebecca Boyd on how to mark the occasion in the middle of a pandemic

Why does the State have so many secrets on its citizens?

Maeve O'Rourke on how institutional abuse details are still being kept secret in Ireland

Ideas

"Everybody should have access to these spaces within 2km of their homes. If this is not in place in the next few years, then we will have failed to learn from this pandemic." Photo: Kevin Lonergan

How we've rediscovered the natural world during the lockdown

Haim are one of the acts whose new release has been rescheduled because of the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

How the lockdown is affecting new music

"As we attempt to manage lockdown, each of us are reliant on the arts"

Is it time for a daily arts report on the news just like sports?

The lights are still on in Brussels

What's next for the EU?

"Recent development at Ireland's sites, including Sceilg Mhichíl, reveal both the diverse challenges and rewards of managing, preserving and protecting world heritage". Photo: Getty Images

What's the role of World Heritage Sites today?

World Heritage Sites

"In light of regressive fantasies, our current fascination with food thought to have been first invented in the pre-Neolithic period makes even more sense"

The historical roots of our lockdown obsession with baking bread

"Burial instructions are often taken to be the posthumous manifestation of oneself"

Do the dead have property rights?

Work & careers

You on your fourth video call today with that lad from accounts who thinks he's a stand-up comedian

It's not all Zoom and gloom: how to improve video calls

"81% of respondents said that they would be interested in finding out more about a career in the public sector and 37% found a career in the public sector attractive"

How civil service careers can attract millennials and Gen Z

Work and Careers

"Research shows that women and mothers have borne a significant brunt of care responsibilities bought on by the pandemic restrictions." Photo: Getty Images

How to make homeschooling work for parents

Apollo points the way: "while not afraid of warfare, Apollo was a purifier, able to cleanse those stained with even the blood of their relatives". Photo: Getty Images

What can leaders learn in uncertain times from Greek gods?

"Irish Gen Z-ers have expressed apprehensions about their ability to communicate face-to-face and develop functional relationships off-line"

Meet your new workmates: Generation Z's views on work and careers

Ireland

Sister Kate McCarthy: "it's fitting that she should be remembered because she was an inspiration throughout her life and she still is to women and to Cork and to Ireland"

An Irish nun, the French resistance, the Gestapo and Nazi prisons

A queue for the new supermarket in Shannon. Photo: Shannon Group archives

How to build a new town in Ireland

What happens to the tax you pay on your gaff?

10 things you may not know about the Local Property Tax

Local Property Tax

A Wedding Dance (1848) by Daniel MacDonald. Photo: Crawford Art Gallery, Cork

Say yes to the dress: Irish wedding traditions back in the day

A bomb disposal officer checks for further devices as forensic officers inspect the remains of a van used in a car bomb attack outside Derry Court House. Photo: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Will Brexit increase the threat from dissident republicans?

Anyone for some sourdough? A woman leaves a Dublin bakery in the 1940s with all the bread. Photo: J. Merriman/Keystone Features via Gerry Images

What Ireland ate and drank during the Second World War

Genevieve Lyons: "audiences prefered to go to Dun Laoghaire to see Lyons as Sally Bowles than go to see Harris in the same role on the big screen". Photo: NUI Galway Archives

How one of the world's biggest musicals found its star in Dublin

Podcasts

French police search for a suspect following a shooting at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France in December 2018. Photo: Patrick Seeger/EPA-EFE

How do people behave during terrorist attacks?

It's my garden now, bud. Photo: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Why the fox has moved into our cities

"Even new furniture and the very insulation we wrap our houses with can contain indoor air pollutants"

Is your home making you sick?

"Whatever the weather, remember that men and women experience temperature differently in the same space the next time you get into a battle of the thermostat in the office."

Why do women feel the cold more than men?

Teenagers who have committed motoring offences taking a road safety course in April 1975 Photo: Watford/Mirrorpix via Getty Images

Why your kids (or grandkids) will not drive cars in the future

Editor's Choice

Nigella Lawson: waiting for eggy cream to ooze out on the spoon

How onomatopoeia links Nigella Lawson, Pokemon and Monster Munch

Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) with cat in The Godfather. The cat was a stray Francis Ford Coppola found on the lot at Paramount Studios.

A short history of cats on screen

"Geoscientists use unique fingerprints held within individual grains to piece together the history of sands in rivers, beaches and deserts" Photo: Gormanstown beach at sunset by Tony Mullen

Are we running out of sand?

Lisa Harvey provides Irish Sign Language interpretation for Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan at a Department of Health media briefing

How sign language interpreters tell the story of what's going on

Irish Sign Language

"I walk and cycle most days, it's always an adventure, I know the risks, I love it and don't want to stop, my friends encourage me. The only people that want me to stop are family." Photo: Getty Images

Are we protecting older people to within an inch of their lives?

"One simple explanation is the need for warmth at night during the winter: the birds need to gather together at warmer sites and roost in close proximity just to stay alive." Photo: Menno Schaefer/ Shutterstock

The science behind starlings' spectacular acrobatics