Podcasts

After its recent ban in Scotland, fracking is firmly back on the media and political agendas. But is fracking a necessary economics boost for the country, or an environmental disaster we should avoid at all costs? In our first transmission from the New Economics Foundation, host Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by NEF’s Environment Lead, David Powell, alongside Weekly Economics Podcast newbie Hanna Wheatley, Researcher at NEF.

Political commentator Mike Indian discusses the Brussels Summit and what it might mean for Brexit, the Universal Credit kerfuffle and the government's problems with the EU Withdrawal Bill.

One of the most striking developments in the past few years has been the disenfranchisement felt by many towards business and politics, particularly among the young, to the extent that it’s become a threat to the very continuation of the free market and capitalism. Gavin Oldham, Chairman of The Share Centre and of The Share Foundation, joins our host Simon Rose to discuss a set of proposals he has developed intended to introduce a more egalitarian form of capitalism, giving everyone in our society the opportunity to benefit from wealth creation enabled by the free market.

Bitcoin recently hit a new high of $5000. Expert on cryptocurrencies and UK Managing Director at trading and investment platform eToro, Iqbal Gandham, joins Simon Rose to discuss what cryptocurrencies actually are, the technology behind them, the risks and what investors should be looking out for.

Steve Caplin looks at cigarette butt-picking Dutch crows, folding dual-screen smartphones, sanitised door plates, Facebook's inability to count and a robot mop.

Steve Caplin looks at Dubai's police hover bikes, Google Maps on Mars and other planets, a rubberised car, Oculus Go, an electric E-type Jag, Ikea's smart lighting and the Mobu cable clip.

Helal Miah of the Share Centre discusses numbers from Convatec, Merlin, Reckitts and Unilever and looks forward to the main banks reporting.

James Cameron-Wilson looks at LEGO Ninjago Movie, The Snowman, Polish film Botoks (#5!) and The Party, also reviewing the DVD/BluRay release of the 1968 Peter Sellers/Blake Edwards comedy The Party.

In our first episode of Modern Mindset, Adam Cox has a discussion with Perry Carpenter, a cyber security evangelist, talking about the growing issues concerning phishing and ransomware and how emails play to the human emotions of fear, curiosity and greed. A warning of modern day tactics by someone who has been on the front line of cyber security his whole working life.

On the first episode of Mobile news we speak with Honor UK’s Sales and Marketing Director Wilkin Lee about its ethos, advertising approach and their technology developments. We also spoke with Will Black, a Senior Policy Advisor at FSB about EE’s recent voice outage last week, and the effect this can have on small business.