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

Who is Haruki Murakami - and why does he matter?

Haruki Murakami

As a new Murakami book is published, a look at the Japanese author's back pages

The temporary public toilet on Dublin's Wolfe Tone Square set up during the Covid pandemic in 2020. Photo: Dublin City Council North City Centre @DCCnorthcity

The jacks are back: why it's time for more public loos

'People evaluated work pretty partially and pretty badly regardless of your reputation if you're late'. Photo: Getty Images

Missing deadlines has a more negative impact than you might think

Work and careers

General Richard Mulcahy speaking in Dublin during the 1927 election campaign. Photo: NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

5 historic election scuffles & fights between FF & FG supporters

'A strong education system relies on a well-educated, motivated and supported teaching workforce.'

Why election manifestos miss the mark on real education reform

'As the phenomenon of drone deliveries increases, the concerns of home owners and residents negatively impacted by the rapid rise in the number of flyovers have attracted ever greater media attention'. Photo: Getty Images

Can I stop drone delivery companies flying over my property?

People wearing face masks as a precautionary measure against Covid-19 in Dublin in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Photo: Getty Images

What we should & shouldn't expect from Ireland's Covid-19 review

'Attractiveness is often an instinctual trait that elicits positive responses'

Would you vote for a candidate based on their appearance?

Ireland's Finn Azaz and England's Harry Kane in action at Wembley Stadium last night. Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Are professional soccer players overworked?

The Urban Sense project has deployed monitors utilising rooftop mobile phone masts to record greenhouse gas emissions around the city. Map: Terrain-AI

Why we're measuring greenhouse gas emissions across Dublin city

Science Week 2024

Paul Mescal as Lucius in Gladiator II: the first Kildare lad to step into the Colosseum. Photo: Paramount Pictures

Does Paul Mescal really speak like a Roman gladiator?

The lighthouse of Skellig Michael. Co Kerry: 'weather observations were made several times a day for many decades by our lighthouse keepers through fair weather and foul weather'. Photo: Nutan/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Where did all the historical Irish weather records go?

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have historically been the most frequent general election polling days. Photo: Getty Images

November, February, June: is there an ideal time for an election?

General Election 2024

Some of Ireland's Olympic medal winners from Paris 2024 - and the President - at Áras an Uachtaráin.

Are Olympic medals an indicator of a nation's sporting prowess?

Tá sé ag teacht: beidh Alf the Giant Newt ar shráideanna Bhaile Átha Cliath anocht do Sheachtain na hEolaíochta. Grianghraf: Emilija Jefremova

Seachtain na hEolaíochta: ag cruthú comhráite idir bheag agus mór

Science Week 2024

More Brainstorm

Election 24

General Richard Mulcahy speaking in Dublin during the 1927 election campaign. Photo: NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

5 historic election scuffles & fights between FF & FG supporters

'A strong education system relies on a well-educated, motivated and supported teaching workforce.'

Why election manifestos miss the mark on real education reform

'Attractiveness is often an instinctual trait that elicits positive responses'

Would you vote for a candidate based on their appearance?

'Experts have noted the increasingly negative and bitter tone of Irish elections, particularly between the larger parties on the government and opposition benches.' Photo: Rolling News

Does negative election campaigning work in Ireland?

Your vote is in the mix

Why proportional representation voting has persisted in Ireland

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have historically been the most frequent general election polling days. Photo: Getty Images

November, February, June: is there an ideal time for an election?

General Election 2024

'The Government may be loaded enough to spend €336,000 on a bike shed, but Irish politicians won't be spending lavishly on the upcoming general election.'

How much money will politicians and parties spend on Election 24?

Work & Careers

'Reverse mentoring recognises that expertise and contributions to knowledge are not always aligned to an employee's age or years of experience.' Photo: Getty Images

How to tell your boss they could do better

Work and careers

'As working lives extend, age diversity has become a great opportunity for organisations, but not all employers will get this right'. Photo: Getty Images

5 ways to deal with being the youngest in the workplace

Work and careers

Against all expectations, remote workers appear to work harder and more productively than workers in traditional office. Photo: Getty Images

You can force employees back to the office, but not the good ones

Work and careers

'These individuals can be charismatic, conscientious, and exhibit strong planning, decisiveness, networking skills, self-control, and resilience'. Photo: Getty Images (stock image - photo posed by models)

Do you work with a psychopath? Here's how to know

Work and careers

"Eating with other people interferes with that kind of pleasure of just looking after yourself". Photo: Ground Picture/Shutterstock

What your sad desk sandwich says about your working habits

Work and careers

Have you met...?

"Being good at recognising a face doesn't necessarily mean someone is also good at face matching." Photo: Getty Images

Meet the people who never forget a face

What about my lovely dishes? Image: Universal History Archive/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Meet the 18th century Irish gents obsessed with plates and dishes

Sean Sexton looking through some of his photography collection at home in London

Meet Sean Sexton, the photo collector framing Irish history

'One third of migrant workers work in fast-food venues and takeaways'. Artwork: Lindsay Pollock via PositiveNegatives http://positivenegatives.org

Meet the invisible work force: women migrant nightworkers

Work and careers

'Connell teaches us that we can sympathise with a character without condoning their behaviour or hoping to find a boyfriend who reminds us of them in real life.'

Meet the 5 worst boyfriends in fiction

Lisa Meitner: 'a physicist who never lost her humanity'

Meet Lise Meitner, the hidden figure behind atomic science

Ireland's Bertie Messitt leads the way during the marathon at the Rome Olympic Games in 1960 from Abebe Bikila, Allal Saoudi, Aurele Vandendriessche, Rhadi Ben Abdesselam and Arthur Keily. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Meet Bertie Messett, the bus conductor behind the Dublin marathon

Dublin Marathon

Michael Collins' grave in Glasnevin Cemetery. Photo: Finegan/YouTube

Meet the people who look after Michael Collins' grave

Michael Collins

Lough Hyne Marine Nature Reserve in west Cork. Photo: Valerio Micaroni

Meet the 1,850 animals and plants we found in Cork's Lough Hyne

A photo of Lia Clarke published with her death notice in the Irish Press in 1943.

Meet the Irishwoman behind pro-Nazi propaganda in 1930s Ireland

Maggie Gough (Sister Mary de Lellis): 'women of her calibre and level of achievement were very rare in those days'

Meet Maggie Gough, the forgotten Irish maths pioneer

Anne O'Brien talking to RTÉ about her transfer to Stade de Reims in 1974. Photo: RTÉ Archives

Meet Anne O'Brien, the legendary soccer star from Inchicore

Audio

The lighthouse of Skellig Michael. Co Kerry: 'weather observations were made several times a day for many decades by our lighthouse keepers through fair weather and foul weather'. Photo: Nutan/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Where did all the historical Irish weather records go?

'Older people are not different to everyone else, and sex is important in older age as well as in youth.' Photo: Getty Images (Stock image - photo posed by models)

Why is society so surprised by older people having sex?

There is a sense that Halloween was a time when Oweynagat could open the gates of hell or become an entrance to a magical world." Photo: Gary Dempsey

'Ireland's gate to hell': a Co Roscommon cave and the Otherworld

Broadband is now a near-necessity in our modern world

How competitive is the Irish broadband market?

The ever-growing inbox is just one of many things that we need to attend to in our work and personal lives. Photo: Getty Images

Why do you have so many unread emails?

A soup pot in the interior of a 19th century Famine cottage in Co Kerry. Photo: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Where does the phrase 'taking the soup' come from?

How did the container become so prevalent in international trade? Photo: Getty Images

All you ever wanted to know about shipping containers

More Audio

Editor's Choice

The 6th vital sign: clinicians can learn a lot from how a person walks

How the way you walk tells the story of your health

We're here for the strawberries: US president John F Kennedy and Taoiseach Seán Lemass arrive for the state dinner at Iveagh House. Photo: Independent News and Media/National Library of Ireland collection via Getty Images

The night JFK came for dinner in Dublin

All children in Tusla's residential care units must have a written care plan, which includes provisions for education. Photo: Getty Images

Why is there no schools policy for over 700 children in care?

The price of the gas in your home depends on events nearly 6,000 km away in the Strait of Hormuz.

Will Irish gas prices see a sharp increase this winter?

Advancements in digital technology in conjunction with external factors such as the pandemic has brought a new look and feel to today's psychic industry. Photo: Getty Images

Would you use a TikTok psychic?

The man in black: referee Barry Tiernan keeps an eye on the action in the Munster v Ulster Interprovincial clash at Croke Park, played under the new rules. Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images

How proposed new Gaelic football rules will impact on referees

Gaelic football