Left-right politics, it's at the very center of our political lives. Immigration, tax reform, and social welfare can all be placed on a left-right scale. But what makes something left or right? And is it possible to predict if something will be left or right? On this week's episode I chat to Jesper Lindqvist, A PhD candidate in UCD where he researches left-right politics.

Transitional justice can be traced back to the nuremberg and tokyo trials. Its goal is to address legacy issues of conflict or of oppressive regimes. A wide range of mechanisms have helped us understand the process of transitional justice. However, is there another paradigm at play? On this week's episode I chat to Emma Murphy, a PhD candidate in UCD where she researches transitional justice.

How do international secuity problems come to be? More importantly who plays a role in security policy formation? On this weeks episode I chat to Natalia Umansky, a PhD candidate in UCD where she researches the role that social media plays in the securitisation process.

Political science as a discipline has been grappling with understanding the re-emergence of political and social movements such as the sanders and corbyn left movements that operate outside of the traditional liberal paradigm. On this week's episode I chat to Micheal Colman, a PhD candidate in UCD where he draws upon a Marxist conception of rights to help us better understand these movements.

Over the last number of years More than 50,000 people from across 80 countries traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the ranks of the Islamic State. Among them were over 1,200 women and girls from Canada, the US, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. On this weeks episode I talk to Julia Canas, a PhD candidate in UCD where she researches women’s participation in ISIS.

On the first episode of the podcast I chat with Dave Moore, a PhD candidate in Trinity College Dublin about his research on the communication of conspiracy theories.

Welcome to the Rookie Researcher Podcast! My name is Redmond Scales, and I am a PhD candidate in UCDs School of Politics and International Relations. The aim of this podcast is to give postgraduate researchers the chance to discuss their research topics in a casual environment so you, the listener, can learn about their research topics and the challenges that they face.