Ferret Underground: We need you!

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This week's Ferret Underground newsletter has a great selection of stories as usual.

We're covering undetected cervical cancer cases, fox hunting laws, the far right, and welfare at fish farms in Scotland.

We also have a brand new podcast for you, For Fact's Sake!

Our refreshed fact-checking and misinformation show has brand new guests, and podcast exclusive fact-checking. Listen here or subscribe on your favourite podcast platform.

Our first episode deals with anti-feminist influencer Andrew Tate and his rise to infamy.

Do you want to come and work with The Ferret? We need a Business Manager to help us grow and achieve lasting sustainability. If you think this would be something you'd be suited to, please read the full role specifications here.

Hundreds of cervical cancer cases are going undetected in Scotland each year due to missed routine screenings, The Ferret can reveal.

Our analysis of data from Public Health Scotland found there were 440,000 eligible people in 2020-21 who had not had a cervical screening, also known as a smear test, in the last three to five years.

The Ferret compared these figures to incidence rates which show how many screenings are likely to result in a positive test. We found about 37,000 cases of Human Pappillomavirus (HPV) amongst those who had missed their screenings, of which 340 may be potentially cancerous.

For Fact's Sake podcast:
Why are young men drawn to Andrew Tate?

We’ve got a brand new series of podcasts, and a brand new name.

The FFS Show is now For Fact’s Sake! Paul and Ali are still here with great new podcast-exclusive guests and fact-checking.

This week we spoke to Robert Lawson, an associate professor in sociolinguistics at Birmingham City University, and an expert on masculinity and how men communicate online. He explained the appeal of Andrew Tate’s hyper-mascunile, mysogynistic persona to some young men, and how he managed to rocket from obscurity to international fame in such a short time.