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Episode details

World Service,10 Aug 2017,49 mins

Raising Other People's Children

The Thought Show

Available for over a year

Raising children is demanding. It takes time, money and devotion. So, why would anyone want to raise another person's child? Can mothers who adopt or foster have the same connection to their children as a birth mother would? We explore what it means to be a parent. Mathematician Matt Parker on the unsung prime numbers such as the Mersenne 49 - the largest ever found. Whistleblowers from inside YouTube's voluntary Trusted Flagger scheme, which helps identify potential child groomers, tell us that the company are failing to respond to the vast majority of reports from them and the public. An unsolved murder of a young man in Washington DC last year has sparked widespread conspiracy theories online. But these aren't just any kind of conspiracy theories – they are linked to people in positions of power. Why has one murder led to such a huge response online? (image credit: Shutterstock/family)

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