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Health and wellbeing

43 public ChatShows on Health and wellbeing, by sub-topic. Each ChatShow is a spoken discussion of one question by AI heads under a chair, held to a standard set before it starts and checked by a fact desk after. Anyone hears the first minute free; a new account starts with free credits.

Diet and nutrition 5

• Warning Labels or a Sugar Tax for Ontario's Sugary Drinks Is Health Canada right to push front-of-package warning labels on sugary drinks sold in Ontario grocery stores, or should the province instead tax sugar-sweetened beverages at the till as British Columbia has been considering? 3 heads · 15 min · 6.2!
• Stars or Warnings: How Should Australia Label Packaged Food? Is the Australian government right to require a front-of-pack health star rating on packaged foods sold in Sydney supermarkets, or should it replace that label with a mandatory sugar warning like the one Chile uses? 3 heads · 15 min · 5.6
• Should South Africa Raise the Sugar Levy to Five Rand and Ring-Fence School Meals Factoring in South Africa's sugar tax of 2.21 rand per 100 grams of sugar on sugary drinks, and the rising rates of type 2 diabetes in Soweto and Khayelitsha, should the national government raise that levy to 5 rand per 100 grams by 2027 and ring-fence the revenue for school nutrition programmes? 2 heads · 30 min · 8.7
• Should Austin Schools Ban Sugary Drinks? Mill, Duty of Care and Water Is Mill's harm principle a sound guide for whether Austin, Texas should ban sugary drinks in public schools, and what specific policy should the school board adopt by 2026? 3 heads · 15 min · 7.8
• How to Meet Nutrient Needs When Fresh Ingredients Give Way to Synthetic Alternatives How should people maintain their nutrient levels when food producers are replacing fresh ingredients in ultra-processed foods with synthetic and cheaper alternatives? What is a heathy daily balance for the average man and woman? 3 heads · 15 min

Mental health 2

• Free Youth Therapy in Vienna: Levy or Existing Budgets for Shorter Queues How far should Vienna's public health service expand free, state-funded psychotherapy sessions for young people by 2030, and should the money come from cutting waiting lists or from a new payroll levy? 3 heads · 15 min · 6.4
• Free Talking Therapy Without a GP Referral: Should New Zealand Fund It? Should New Zealand's Ministry of Health fund a free, nationwide talking-therapy service for mild to moderate anxiety and depression, with no referral needed from a GP, starting in the 2026 budget? 3 heads · 15 min · 8.4

Psychology and behaviour 4

• Meta-analysis or one failed replication: how Zurich should judge placebo pain research Why would a Zurich research council trust a single replication failure less than a published meta-analysis when deciding whether to fund a follow-up study on placebo effects in pain trials? 3 heads · 15 min · 6.2
• Should Neuroscience Change How Argentine Courts Judge Moral Responsibility? Who should decide whether a Buenos Aires judge can hold a defendant morally responsible for a crime when neuroscience shows brain activity preceding the choice, and what standard should courts in Argentina adopt by 2030? 3 heads · 15 min · 6.7
• Anxiety in Young People: Play, Economics, Labelling and Graded Return Should anxiety be managed as a status quo or should the sufferer persistently engage their condition to overcome it by will power? Is anxiety a failure in childhood development to experience and be exposed to risk in play? Is anxiety endemic in our young people? 6 heads · 35 min · 8.1!
• Can Positivity Be Learned, or Is Acceptance the Better Path? Is 'positivity' a state of mind or can you develop it as a skill? 3 heads · 20 min · 4.8

Healthcare systems 11

• Hip and Knee Waits at Karolinska: Staff, Private Clinics and the 90-Day Guarantee What could Region Stockholm do in 2026 to cut the waiting time for planned hip and knee replacements at Karolinska University Hospital below 90 days, given that staff shortages and the choice to send patients to private clinics are both in play? 3 heads · 15 min · 4.3
• Who Pays for Rare-Disease Gene Therapy Trials in Kraków, and What It Would Take What would it take for Kraków's university hospitals to start a publicly funded gene therapy trial for rare childhood disorders by 2027, and should Poland's National Health Fund pay for it if the trial succeeds? 3 heads · 15 min · 6.8!
• Should the NHS fund two IVF cycles per couple, or three? Would the NHS in England be right to fund a fixed number of free IVF cycles per couple, and should that limit be set at two full cycles or three? 3 heads · 15 min · 4.2
• Should Ontario Hospitals Guarantee Prayer and Ceremony Space by 2027? What would it take for Ontario's public hospitals to guarantee a private, quiet prayer and ritual space for patients of every faith, and should that be funded province-wide by 2027? 2 heads · 25 min · 7.6
• Should Gauteng Fund Acupuncture and Herbal Remedies Beside Clinic Care? Ensuring South African public clinics in Gauteng keep their evidence-based standards, should the provincial health department fund acupuncture and herbal remedy services alongside conventional care, and if so, under what evidence threshold and by when? 2 heads · 10 min · 8.7
• Count the missing referrals first, then keep the phone line staffed By when should the NHS in Greater Manchester switch its digital mental health referral system to a single shared booking app, and should patients who prefer phone calls be guaranteed a human-staffed alternative? 2 heads · 25 min · 8.1
• Mandates or Grants: How States Should Cover Cancer Patients' Fertility Care If a state legislature in the United States were weighing whether to require insurers to cover IVF and fertility preservation for cancer patients, which state should it look to and what coverage mandate should it pass by next year? 4 heads · 20 min · 7.3!
• Should Ohio Medicaid Cap Talk Therapy Sessions at Twenty a Year? What happens if Medicaid in Ohio stops covering talk therapy sessions for adults with anxiety and depression starting next January, and should the state restore coverage at a fixed number of sessions per year? 2 heads · 30 min · 7.6
• Should North East talking therapy waits be cut by moving crisis money? By when should NHS England in the North East cut waiting times for talking therapies, and should it fund that by moving money from new community crisis teams to step-up, step-down therapy hubs? 3 heads · 30 min · 6.4!
• Should Clinics Ban Kind Lies About Waiting Times? If a Vancouver family-doctor clinic wants its receptionists to tell patients white lies to protect feelings, such as saying a late appointment is nearly ready, should Canadian clinics adopt a written honesty policy that bans even kind lies, and what should it say about delayed waits? 3 heads · 15 min · 7.7
• Who Should Decide How Scarce Organs Are Shared in England Who should decide how the NHS in England allocates scarce organ transplants between patients, using a utilitarian count of expected life-years gained versus a rule of first come, first served on the waiting list, and what should the rule be from 2026? 3 heads · 15 min · 8.2

Ageing and longevity 1

• Should Victoria Fund Chaplains of Every Major Faith in Hospices and Aged Care? Ensuring that Australian hospices and aged care homes in Victoria respect the afterlife beliefs of residents from many faiths, should the state fund trained chaplains of every major religion, including reincarnation-based traditions, at a ratio of one per 50 beds by 2030? 2 heads · 10 min · 8.4!

Vaccines 3

• Should France Make Vaccine Studies Register Before Results Arrive? Ensuring that French public health researchers in Lyon can publish findings without distortion, should the Haute Autorité de Santé require pre-registration of all observational studies before they inform national vaccine policy, and by what date? 3 heads · 15 min · 7.9
• Should Vienna Make Flu Jabs Free for Over-Sixties and Mandatory for Staff? Consider Vienna's public health authorities weighing whether to make seasonal influenza vaccination free for all residents over 60 and recommended for all healthcare workers, should they adopt that policy for the 2026 season, and what uptake target should they set? 3 heads · 15 min · 5.1
• Should Scotland make the HPV jab a condition of school enrolment? What happens if Scotland makes the HPV vaccine a compulsory condition of secondary school enrolment for girls and boys from September 2026, given that uptake in some Glasgow and Edinburgh secondaries has fallen below 70 percent? 5 heads · 30 min · 8.7

Obesity 2

• Should Medicare Cover Weight-Loss Drugs, and How Would It Pay for Them? If Medicare covered anti-obesity medications like GLP-1 drugs for all enrollees at a set monthly price, should Congress fund that expansion from the existing Part D budget or from new taxes on sugary drinks, and what should it expect the program to cost over the first five years? 2 heads · 20 min · 5.1
• Should England Fund School Meals or Tax Sugary Milkshakes First? Where do policymakers in England, given that a fifth of children leave primary school with obesity, should prioritise spending: a sugar levy extension to all sweetened drinks and milkshakes, or free school meals and cooking lessons for every pupil in the most deprived areas? 2 heads · 25 min · 5.3

Alcohol 1

• Should Los Angeles County police influencer ads for vapes and sugary drinks? How far should Los Angeles County regulate influencer marketing of sugary drinks and vaping products to teenagers, and should it require paid-promotion disclosures and a ban on targeting under-18s by 2026? 3 heads · 15 min · 7.6

Smoking and vaping 2

• Should Holyrood back a generational smoking ban and the January 2027 date Factoring in the UK's Tobacco and Vapes Bill and the disposable vape ban, should Scotland's Parliament in Holyrood adopt a generational smoking ban that stops anyone born after 2009 from buying tobacco, and by what date? 2 heads · 25 min · 7.6
• Halving Youth Vaping Without Sending Smokers Back to Cigarettes What could a global government do to cut youth vaping by half within five years without pushing adult smokers back to cigarettes, and should flavoured vape sales be banned outright, taxed heavily, or restricted to adult-only licensed shops? Wilson · 5 min · 8.1

Drugs and addiction 3

• Should Hartlepool Council Rebut a Fluoride Conspiracy Theory Within Forty-Eight Hours? When would a council in Hartlepool be right to publicly rebut a local conspiracy theory about its water fluoridation, and should it publish the evidence in plain English within 48 hours? 3 heads · 15 min · 7.8
• Should Stockholm and Malmö Open Supervised Drug Consumption Rooms? Is it time for Sweden's Stockholm and Malmö councils to open supervised drug consumption rooms, and if so, how many sites should they open in 2026 and how should they be funded? 3 heads · 15 min · 6.2
• Gambling Addiction: Abstinence or Harm Reduction? Discuss gambling addiction, is it the same as other addictions or how does it differ? Is gambling a form of self-loathing a destructive behaviour? Is there any indication that GLP-1 weightloss treatments could treat wider addictions such as gambling? 6 heads · 35 min

Pandemics 2

• Should Denver Fund a Pandemic Reserve or Routine Hospital Capacity First What could a city like Denver do before the next pandemic arrives, such as funding a standing surge-staffing reserve or pre-contracting ventilator and PPE stockpiles, and what budget and trigger rules should it adopt by 2026? 3 heads · 20 min · 8.7
• Can a Pandemic Rule Bind Governments Before the Next Crisis Arrives? Can governments commit to a fixed, legally binding rule that triggers pre-approved lockdown-style restrictions only when hospital occupancy or excess mortality crosses a set threshold, rather than relying on ad hoc emergency decisions during the next pandemic? Wilson · 5 min · 5.9

Reproductive health 2

• Who Should Pay for IVF Access for Single Women and Same-Sex Couples When would Brussels public hospitals be right to expand free IVF access for single women and same-sex couples, and how should they fund it within existing Belgian reimbursement rules? 3 heads · 15 min · 4.2!
• Polygenic Embryo Screening in Argentina: Who Should Set the Rules? How would Argentina's national health system and its provinces regulate access to polygenic embryo screening for in-vitro fertilisation patients in Buenos Aires over the next five years, given the cost and the limited predictive accuracy? 3 heads · 15 min · 7.9

Assisted dying 2

• Prayer at the Bedside: Whose Choice Counts When Patients Are Dying When would a Christian hospice in Dunedin or Hamilton be right to offer patients prayer-led bedside rituals that assume heaven, given that many residents hold no such belief and the hospice is publicly funded? 3 heads · 30 min · 8.4
• Scotland Is Not Following England on Assisted Dying, and Safeguards Matter Should Scotland's Parliament follow England's lead and pass an assisted dying law for terminally ill adults, and if so, what safeguards like a minimum six-month prognosis and independent panel approval should it insist on before the first deaths are approved? Wilson · 5 min

Alternative medicine 1

• Should Austria's Insurers Stop Paying for Homeopathy Consultations? Is it time Austria's public health insurance in Vienna and Styria stopped reimbursing homeopathy and other unproven alternative therapies, and redirected that money to evidence-based care, starting with a specific budget cut for 2026? 3 heads · 15 min · 8.4

Women's health 2

• Should Italy's regions expand free menopause clinics and hormone therapy by 2027? How far should Italian regional health services in Lombardy and Campania expand free menopause clinics and hormone therapy access within the public system by 2027, given rising waiting times for gynaecology visits? 3 heads · 15 min · 8.1
• Should Manchester GPs Prescribe HRT at the First Appointment for Women in Their Forties? When would the NHS in Manchester be right to offer menopause hormone therapy to women in their forties on the first GP appointment, rather than requiring a waiting-list assessment, and what budget should it set aside for that? 2 heads · 10 min · 3.7

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