Podcasts presented by Simon Rose

Steve Caplin discusses robotic aerial sheepdogs (with performance problems), the French crows tidying litter, copycat scientists trying to ween us off salt, sound technology to let four people in a car listen to different music, the "Where's Waldo?" facial recognition robot, an expandable electric car, magnetic eyelashes and problems with unfettered electric bikes.

Target posts its best quarter in a decade, Alibaba drops despite a strong first quarter report, Pepsi buys SodaStream, Gap struggles with its namesake brand, Investors put sports retailers in the penalty box, and Lowe’s hits an all-time high.

With the heavy push towards university education in recent years, have we been neglecting apprenticeships as an option for school-leavers? Simon Rose talked to Neil Hammond of the National Careers Service and Josh Tapper, former star of Gogglebox, who took up an apprenticeship in the Civil Service. They both believe the pendulum needs to swing back towards technical and vocational training.

Political commentator Mike Indian, author of the Groucho Tendency blog, looks at Jeremy Corbyn's Edinburgh speech, assessing his attitude towards journalism, new media and the BBC. He also looks at the Government's no-deal Brexit plans and the divisiveness of the calls for a second EU referendum. He also wonders how the calls for Donald Trump's impeachment might affect the US President's behaviour.

Helal Miah of The Centre looks at recent results from BHP Billiton, Persimmon, John Wood Group and Costain. He looks forward to numbers due from Bunzl, Petrofac, W H Smith and Hays.

James Cameron-Wilson looks at a remarkable UK box office, with 8 films taking more than a million pounds at the weekend. He reviews Disney's Christopher Robin, The Equalizer 2 and The Festival. He also discusses the home video release of Beast and looks at the flop that is Kevin Spacey's latest film.

Steve Caplin regales us with tales of tennis at the International Space Station, AI-generated art that is going to be sold at Christies in New York, meat fraud, a pocket tripod the size and shape of a credit card, a bottle with an automatically-opening lid and a shopping app innovation from Sainsbury's.

Want to keep up with the latest earnings updates from the States? Well join Chris Hill and the Motley Fool Radio Show team here on Share Radio, direct from Washington DC, for news, views and analysis of the US stocks that matter. In this week's show: Walmart racks up its fastest sales growth in a decade; Nordstrom dazzles; Macy’s slips; J.C. Penney plummets; Home Depot nails it; And Amazon goes to the movies.

If your smartphone has ever run out of better, Hugo Tilmouth has the solution for you. His company, ChargedUp, is establishing a system enabling people to borrow portable batteries, much in the same way as they do bikes. He discusses the venture with Simon Rose, explaining how it came about, how it works and how the company hopes to expand in the future.

Professor Tim Evans of The MIddlesex Business School examines China's authoritarian plans to reshape the world, looks at what Turkey's monetary woes may mean economically and strategically and wonders why the recent protests in Romania have not opened the rest of the EU's eyes to the true nature of the government.