Podcasts

Toys R Us and Maplin were sunk this week, investors are nervously watching Carpetright and Mothercare, and restaurants from Jamie Oliver’s, to Byron, and now Prezzo are closing their doors. This week’s shop closures could see more than 5,000 jobs lost. It looks like a slow motion crash on the High Street. But at the same time the economy is doing okay, and sales in the housing market are reasonably buoyant, so why the trouble? In this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Rachel Rickard Straus take a look at Britain’s high street woes and whether it is company debt, consumer confidence, overexpansion gone wrong, or a failure to keep up with the times that is sinking well-known names.

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: General Mills loads up on pet food; Walmart stumbles; Texas Roadhouse sizzles; Boston Beer fizzles; And Kylie Jenner breaks up with Snap. Plus, corporate governance expert and film critic Nell Minow talks Chipotle, Black Panther, and Academy Awards.

Just how does the mythical and bizarre world of credit ratings really work? How can you improve your score and what does the figure even mean? On this week's podcast, personal finance editor Rachel Rickard Straus and consumer affairs editor Lee Boyce join presenter Georgie Frost to discuss this and how one unknown fraud marker on a Cifas file left a reader with a 'do not employ' status when looking for job. Whisper it: but there could be a cash Isa season this year. For years, banks and building societies scrambled to offer attractive rates – and 2018 could see the tax-free accounts finally en vogue once more.

There’s been a panic in the stock markets in recent weeks after the Dow Jones plunged more than 1000 points on a single Monday in the first week of February. When the stock market plunges should we all be worried? Or does it only affect those wealthy enough to be trading? This week, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Frank van Lerven, NEF economist, and Anna Isaac, economics correspondent at The Telegraph.

After the market wobble three weeks ago, it looks like share prices will probably be more volatile in 2018. How should investors position their portfolios to cope? Should they put money into ‘diversifiers’ like Gold? And can ETFs help? In the latest edition of the Big Call, Ed Bowsher finds out by chatting to Oliver Smith of IG Smart Portfolios and Sean Corrigan of Cantillon Consulting.

Following new research which reveals that two thirds of us don’t love the home we live in, Adam Cox talks to Will Jones and Andrew Weiss of BHETA. They discuss the emotional aspect of home ownership, home improvements and renting, as well as how a bit of courage and enthusiasm could be an opportunity to create huge equity in your property – and to climb the property ladder.

James Hookham comes from an environmental background where he was a specialist in the transportation of dangerous chemicals. He's also written extensively about transport logistics, environmental concerns and logistics technology. He's worked as a journalist for trade publications before joining the Freight Transport Association. He's 30 years in a number of roles at the association., where he is deputy CEO, overseeing road, rail, air and sea freight.

Political commentator Alex Clark looks at the Cabinet Away Day at Chequers and wonders if anything solid will result from it. He ponders Theresa May's speech on education, looks at the allegations that Jeremy Corbyn might have been a Czech security service asset and looks at what it means that Martin Selmayr has been appointed the EU's top civil servant.

Ian Forrest, Investment Research Analyst at The Share Centre, looks back at figures from Reckitt Benckiser and banks HSBC, Lloyds and Barclays. With the annual results season in full swing, he looks ahead to numbers from ITV, WPP and Persimmon.

Steve Caplin looks at Apple's wood-staining Homepod speaker, the Winter Olympics drones nobody could see, ultra-strong "Super Wood", the LED lantern powered by a tea light, the fake news online game and the app that reminds you five times a day that you're going to die.