Podcasts

Tim Evans, professor of Business and Political Economy at Middlesex University joins Simon for a look back at 2016

On the Travel Guide we like to take a look at some of the most popular holiday destinations- and speak to a local to get the insider's gen. This week, Olivia Demetriades spoke to Winston Wong, a guide from Tours By Locals in Vancouver and started by asking what he'd do if he was in the city for a day.

Adventure travel is booming- with many people choosing to take active holidays over beach breaks. To find out more about the rise in adventure travel Simon and Sarah were joined by Simon Grove- head of product at Explore- a company that runs small group adventure holidays.

This week on The Share Radio Travel Guide Simon Rose was joined travel journalist and author Sarah Tucker. They look at plans to revamp London's Stansted Airport, where people are planning to go this Christmas break. adventure and an insider's guide to Vancouver

Confidence in the UK's economic situation continued to dwindle in the face of uncertainty, but overall it remained resilient at the end of the year. This is according to the latest GfK barometer, which found that consumer confidence did not deteriorate further following November's sharp drop, instead managing to move up one point to -7. However, it seems we are more concerned about the economic outlook next year, with expectations for 2017 at their weakest since June's Brexit vote. As always when we discuss consumer confidence, Simon was joined live in the studio by Joe Staton, head of market dynamics, at GfK.

To finish off in what turned out to be a remarkable year, no year in review in the conventional sense, and no bog-standard, bank-type economic outlook 2017. Rather, and in keeping with the time of year, here is a list of nine economic lessons (but no carols) that we learned. ‘Learn’ may be a bit strong in many cases, so perhaps ‘became more aware’, instead.

As Christmas approaches many families will be spending several days in each other’s company. Now this could mean peace love and harmony, but in reality will probably mean a few rows. Roman Tagoe, head of content at music site Deezer rather optimistically thinks one way to soothe family feuds around the Christmas table is via music especially festive classics, as he told Share's Melanie Wray.

Georgie Frost hears why one Muslim-owned restaurant, Shish in Sidcup is promising to give elderly and homeless people a free three-course dinner on Christmas Day so ‘no one eats alone’. The man who came up with the idea is manager Irfan Genc and spoke to Georgie on the line.

The British medical funding firm, Assured Fertility, believes recent advances in IVF, have made this offer possible. Georgie finds out about a company specialising in In Vitro fertilisation - commonly known as IVF - is offering a ‘baby or your money back’ scheme which has no age cut off. To find out more, Georgie Frost was joined by the company's fertility specialist James Armitage.

The Payment Systems Regulator says banks are not shouldering enough responsibility when customers lose their cash after being tricked into transferring money by scams. Share’s Melanie Wray hears from consumer group Which's head of campaigns Pete Moorey told about the sophisticated payment scams they are seeing and Which’s "super complaint".