100% online radio, across the world

Individual achievement is recognised in many walks of life, and that recognition spurs people on to achieve even greater things. With education, good exam results and university entrance are celebrated, but this doesn't do much for those who find it difficult to get started in the first place. That's why The Share Foundation's introduction of incentivised learning is so important for young people in care, achieving an attitudinal transformation as they progress through the six-step Stepladder course. We need acceptance of incentivised learning to break the cycle of deprivation. Background music: 'Everything Has a Beginning' by Joel Cummins

England delivered a withering verdict on its ruling Conservative Party last week, but the motley spread of replacement parties plus low turnout revealed a population thoroughly disenchanted by politics. Democracy is calling for a fresh perspective, based on reason and logic. We need to draw inspiration from people like Thomas Jefferson who said, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' Background music: 'Freedom' by Dan Lebowitz

Voyager-1's legacy includes greetings in 55 languages, 35 sounds from life on Earth (such as whale songs, laughter, etc.), 90 minutes of music including everything from Mozart and Bach to Chuck Berry and Blind Willie Johnson, all dating back to its launch in 1977. There are also 115 images of life on Earth and recorded greetings from then-US President Jimmy Carter (1924– ) and then-UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim (1918–2007). It would take about 70,000 years to reach the nearest star to our solar system. In contrast, most tombstones in British graveyards date from well before the Voyager-1 launch, but for most of them it's no longer possible to discern who they commemorate or when they were erected. Burial grounds occupy over 19,000 acres in England, but the legacy they seek to preserve is forgotten within a very small number of generations. Background music: 'Elegy' by Wayne Jones

The Bank of England decided to hold the base rate for the sixth time in a row this week – but was it the right decision? Should the MPC have been bold and made a cut? What does it mean for our mortgages and savings? And when will a move come — and in what direction? Georgie Frost, Simon Lambert and Lee Boyce talk about the base rate decision and what happens next. In the world of property, the number of homes being devalued is on the rise. So, what's going on? And what can you do if it happens to you? Bungalows are having a moment. They're not just for the elderly and downsizers, young families and first-time buyers are also increasingly interested — pushing the price of them higher since the pandemic. Energy firms have been trying to push smart meters on us for years: have they uncovered a new trick to get us to make the swap? And finally, it's been good news for JD Wetherspoon — the no-frills pub chain said it expects annual profits to come in towards the 'top end' of forecasts. Where do you stand on Spoons? Lee and Simon face-off with different pints of view on the pub giant.

Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University looks at shadow foreign secretary David Lammy's attempts to woo Donald Trump as well as Joe Biden. With even the Prime Minister appearing not to believe the Conservatives will be in Government soon, he considers the future of the party and "Conservatism", wondering if there is going to be a massive shake-up of the order of British politics. And he looks at the shocking state of the NHS estate, with over 2,000 hospital buildings predating the birth of the NHS in 1948.

There are many reasons why people suffer from insecurity, a loss of confidence, or a sense of feeling unworthy: it could be personal issues or the circumstances in which you find yourself. The concept of 'The Hero's Journey' forms the bedrock of many stories and films where an ordinary person beset by challenges experiences something well out of their comfort zone, introducing a very new perspective on life. Through that experience they learn something about themselves, some as yet undiscovered strengths, and are then challenged to test that new realisation. As a result, their new sense of confidence builds as the journey unfolds — and that sense of insecurity is transformed into a new strength, enabling them to achieve their real potential in life.

James Cameron-Wilson takes Simon Rose through the UK box office chart, up 27% on the week. New #1 is ‘The Fall Guy’ about a stunt man. But James found Ryan Gosling smug and obtruse and Emily Blunt irritating in a noisy & cheesy film that, while possessing some impressive action scenes, makes little sense. At #6 is boring low-budget horror ‘Tarot’, which is one star all the way. James, however, did enjoy Amazon Prime's ‘The Idea of You’ with Anne Hathaway romancing a much younger pop star. Often delightful and touching – in a romcom sort of way – James felt it was like a music version of ‘Notting Hill’.

Steve Caplin delves into the world of gadgets. You can swim faster with an underwater bike or the thrusters of the Jetdrive Pro. You can speedwalk with Moonwalker robotic shoes. There's an electric quadricycle and a personal flying system. You can now strap bike clips to your shoes. If you're after a megayacht, Bill Gates is selling his – unused. The new Swiss Army Knife has no blades. And accountants BDO will no longer be doing Zoom interviews to cut down on cheating.

With the Bank of England's MPC displaying "studious inactivity", Russ Mould of A J Bell looks at why interest rates are so important to pricing in stock markets. Despite no change in rates, the UK market is now anticipating a cut soon helped by the Swedish Riksbank cutting its rates for the first time in 8 years, along with other European banks. Russ also looks at the types of shares that will benefit from falling rates – assuming investors are reading the runes correctly.  

Relatively strong earnings results from Shopify and Roblox were overshadowed by questions about the outlook for the rest of the year and whether consumers will keep up the online shopping and in-game spending. Ron Gross and Andy Cross discuss Disney’s path to streaming profitability, and the warnings from Shopify and Roblox that growth in the back half of 2024 might be a bit lighter, Trade Desk’s relative strength in a tough earnings environment, and Airbnb bracing for some travel slowdown, and how drinkmaker Celsius continues to find the energy for growth. Then, 19 minutes in, Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner provides some timeless advice for college grads. Finally, 27 minutes in, Ron and Matt break down two stocks on their radar: Toast and Trex. Stocks discussed: DIS, SHOP, RBLX, TTD, ABNB, CELH, TREX, TOST. Host - Dylan Lewis; Guests - Andy Cross, Ron Gross, David Gardner, Mary Long

When Warren Buffett talks, investors listen. We unpack the quotes and commentary from the market’s most anticipated annual meeting and check in on the state of Berkshire Hathaway. Jim Gillies and Dylan Lewis discuss Berkshire’s past and future succession-planning, what Buffett’s cash stack and shrinking Apple position might signal about his view of the market and tax policy, and why investors shouldn’t be looking at Berkshire on a strictly total-return basis. Companies discussed: BRK.A, BRK.B, AAPL. Host - Dylan Lewis; Guest - Jim Gillies

The core of the problem with unclaimed, adult-owned Child Trust Funds (of which there are over £2 billion waiting to be claimed) is with accounts opened by HMRC. That's why The Share Foundation has proposed a 'default withdrawal at 21' process, based on the young person's National Insurance number. Danny Kruger MP took part in the CTF conference in Westminster on Tuesday 5th March, and two weeks later in a Westminster Hall CTF debate, and supported this initiative which could release £1/4 billion each year to help these young and predominantly low-income young adults. Background music: 'Waiting' by Andrew Langdon

The debate on 19th March 2024 was hosted by Sir Jeremy Quin MP to call for the need to simplify family access to Child Trust Funds for disabled young people, and a number of MPs contributed to the debate, including Danny Kruger and Ed Davy. The audio record is provided by Parliament Live, and is an unabridged recording of proceedings, without additional comment. Listeners may notice an adjournment for voting in the House of Commons.

Adam Cox is joined by Gemma Bourne from Big Society Capital to discuss why the government should reallocate a larger proportion of its existing spend to further scale initiatives that tackle the UK's homelessness and temporary accommodation crisis. With new research showing that these house funds are already having a major impact, it could help us combat homelessness. https://bigsocietycapital.com/

Adam Cox is joined by Sarah Calcutt from City Harvest, and they discuss the large number of issues surrounding food waste. Sarah tells us some shocking stats, one of which states that if food waste was a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. https://cityharvest.org.uk/

The full unabridged UK Budget speech as delivered by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in the House of Commons on Wednesday 6th March 2024, without additional comment.

Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University explains why he so enjoyed new Argentine President Javier Milei lecturing the great and good of the World Economic Forum about libertarian and Austrian economics, attacking corporatism and socialism. He feels Milei could be the most consequential politician economically-speaking for many years. He also looks at falling EV car sales, lamenting the way in which politicians set goals for achieving their hobbyhorses irrespective of scientific progress and consumer demand. And he is fascinated by a meeting between journalist John Humphreys and members of Gen Z, which showed them to be different to the popular perception.

Unabridged and without comment from Share Radio, here's the King's Christmas message as broadcast on 25th December '23.

Neil Shah of Edison Group feels that the bond market has now normalised whch could help the equity market, where many companies have stabilised after a tough year, although he points out that the US market looks peaky. He admires the outstanding quarter year results from Gregg's. The business appears to be in the sweet spot where value is important to customers with a healthy balance sheet and a great management team. It pays a yield but there is still plenty of growth left, although the rating clearly anticipates this.

Steve Caplin takes Simon Rose through a cornucopia of techie Christmas gift ideas. Among his favourites are the crowdfunded Linka Lasso bike lock and the Hover X1 self-flying camera. There's an app to help with the office Secret Santa and a distillery to brew your own booze. You can get a magnetic wrapping tripod, a great phone case with a built-in stand, teflon mats for flaky BBQ food, an underseat suitcase for flights, magnetic bookmarks, a folding charger plug and even an electrified Land Rover Defender to use as a shore tender with your superyacht.

On Wednesday 22nd November '23 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt delivered his Autumn Statement to the House of Commons, focused on restoring UK economic growth. This is his full, unabridged speech as delivered, without commentary.

Welcome to a special episode of The Financial Outlook: the investment section of the Managing My Money course. What's the difference between saving and investment? It's all in the risk. We talk about shares, bonds and funds, and which perform best over the long term. The Managing My Money course has 16 sections in total, and is presented by Glen Goodman and Annie Weston. You can enjoy the whole course, produced in association with the Open University via Share Radio's home page. Here's the link to the slides for this episode: https://www.shareradio.co.uk/help-guides/managing-my-money/supporting-slides/mmm-week-5-episode-10-supporting-slides/

“The [Child Trust Fund] scheme has been closed to new entrants for over 12 years. In this time HMRC has been focusing resources on evaluating and improving existing schemes. We will continue to keep the need to evaluate old schemes under review.” So said Andrew Griffith MP, Economic Secretary to HM Treasury in reply to a parliamentary question from John Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. But this is not an 'old scheme' — there is currently over £1.7 billion sitting in mature accounts belonging to over 900,000 mainly low-income young adults throughout the UK who don't know anything about their good fortune! Their Child Trust Fund harvest is seeing too little action at present: but it's not too late to get it sorted, and the current focus from the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee will certainly help.
Background music: 'Hopeful Freedom' by Asher Fulero

UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt sets out his Budget for growth. This is the unabridged recording, direct from the House of Commons on 15th March 2023.

The huge take-up of ChatGPT over recent weeks has brought the challenge of Artificial Intelligence into sharp relief. As the Chief Executive of its creator, OpenAI, said in one of his blogs, 'Artificial Intelligence will bring unimaginable wealth but, unless something changes, most of us will get none of it. We need a radical solution'. Conventional wisdom sees Universal Basic Income as the way through this dilemma, but this will only bring us more state intermediation and human subservience. We can put forward a better solution, by enabling all to share in the wealth that technology brings and to play their part in its future governance.
Background music: 'Digital Solitude' by Silent Partner

Jonathan Davis, editor of the Investment Trusts Handbook, tells Simon Rose what makes investment trusts special and why investors should consider their merits. He explains the differences to other types of funds, including the premium and discount. He discusses the yields on alternative assets (including renewable energy and even music royalties) and how trusts can continue paying dividends even in bad years. The handbook, from Harriman House, is available in hardbook or free as an ebook (https://tinyurl.com/mt69fc24).

It’s the last episode of Answers (but don’t worry, we’re just moving to Motley Fool Money every Tuesday). We’ll reminisce on our biggest lessons learned over the last seven years and answer your questions, some financial, some festive.

The Talk by the WealthiHer Network, every month on Share Radio: this month we are here to talk about the secrets of some of UK leading female businesses leaders and their journeys within launching their businesses. Tamara Gillan is joined by Charlotte Bobroff, the executive director at J.P. Morgan who has been incremental with working with female founders from female high-powered businesses. She recently curated an event surrounding female high-powered businesses and she will be discussing her findings. Also, we have the pleasure of Daina Speddings, who is an investor at BGF and will share her perspective on the investment journey.

Scrooge has made the deal of his life with Chinese investors and must now quickly return to London on Christmas Eve to close the deal. On the flight back, during a fitful sleep, Scrooge confronts his past and present and learns the future consequences of his miserly life to find the true meaning of Christmas. Proscenium Online Theatre is super excited to be bringing you a whole new season of audio dramas in 2022. Starting off with 'The Girl in the Yellow Dress', a dark romance by South African playwright Craig Higginson, and 'Plunder', an original Hong Kong based thriller by American playwright Alan Olejniczak. In the meantime - sit back, close your eyes and enjoy the Proscenium Online Theatre’s production of 'A Christmas Carol'.

https://www.prosceniumonlinetheatre.com

Join the Sustain:Social panel session on December '21, considering the outlook for investors in the wake of the COP26 in Glasgow. The panel comprises of - Chair: Rodney Hobson Panel: Gervais Williams (Premier Miton Group); Jamie Broderick (Impact Investing Institute); Mohan Gundu (Sustainable Funds Group); Mike Appleby (Liontrust Sustainable Investment team); Gavin Oldham (The Share Foundation / Share Radio).

Food banks are providing a vital role to help people this winter, and the Trussell Trust supports more than 1,200 throughout the United Kingdom. In this special episode of The Bigger Picture, their Chief Executive Emma Revie briefs supporters about their progress, and their plans for the future. If you would like to support the extraordinary work undertaken by this charity, please visit https://trusselltrust.org

If you missed Chancellor Rishi Sunak delivering his speech on 27 October, here's your chance to hear it. Plus, read our commentary on Monday 1 November for Share Radio's perspective, including our assessment of the contrast with the mid-70s, when public borrowing last hit stratospheric levels.

Imagine a world in which everyone has a stake in the great tech firms that serve them each day, and where dividends are gradually replacing wages to provide regular income for everyone, as work becomes scarcer as a result of automation? Imagine a world where every young person not only has a small inheritance with which to start their adult life, but also the opportunity to build its value by learning life skills? Simon Rose is taking a well-earned break this week, so we’re taking the opportunity to bring you a talk given Gavin Oldham in August to the leading City of London think-tank Z/Yen.

Click link for slides for presentation

On 31 August '21 The Share Foundation hosted a virtual event for young people in Wales, to help them find money that the government put away in a Child Trust Fund for when they reached 18. All young people born in the UK from 1st September 2002 should have one of these accounts, but huge numbers don't know anything about them! With Welsh-speaking help from Jac, this audio podcast of the virtual event tells you all about your good fortune, and invites you to register at https://findCTF.sharefound.org so that Sharefound can help link you with your money. Please share! And if you want to join a virtual event yourself, please visit https://www.sharefound.org/ctf-virtual-events and register for your choice of date: they're taking place each fortnight.

Every child in the UK born between 1 Sept 2002 and 2 Jan 2011 has a Child Trust Fund (CTF). But one child in six has lost contact with the money. Gavin Oldham, Chairman of The Share Foundation – which runs the Junior ISA & Child Trust Fund schemes for children in care for the Department for Education - is trying to re-connect them. He talks through the CTF, how to track an account down, and what a child can and can’t do with the money.

In a new partnership with publishers Harriman House, Share Radio has produced its first audiobook 'Superinvestors', written by Matthew Partridge and read by some of Share Radio's best known presenters. 'Superinvestors' lays bare the investing secrets of legendary investors - from early 20th-century figures such as Benjamin Graham and John Maynard Keynes, through to more modern names such as Anthony Bolton and Warren Buffett.

How you can help young people in care prepare for adult life by supporting The Share Foundation’s ‘Stepladder of Achievement’ programme.

Reserve your 100% Internet Radio, pre-set with both Share Radio and Share Music channels!

Access over 15,000 more radio stations across the world!

We'll soon be supplying very competitively priced 100% online radios: be one of the first to get one.

Send us your details now.

Share Radio has put together a list of our ‘Top 5 Money Saving Apps’ to help our listeners make the most of their money.  All the apps featured here are free to download on either Apple or Android devices. Read more...