Podcasts

Graham Spooner of The Share Centre looks at Next, the first of the retailers to reveal how Christmas trading went. As he discusses, soon to come will be Morrisons, Marks & Spencer and Tesco, all still struggling to cope with Aldi and Lidl and all facing ongoing restructuring. There's also a trading update coming from Taylor Wimpey which will give an indication of what's happening in the housing sector.

James Cameron-Wilson examines the UK holiday box office, led by Disney's Mary Poppins Returns, starring Emily Blunt. He has his head in his hands when discussing the much-derided Holmes & Watson with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. His favoured home release is the much-garlanded Polish film Cold War. James also looks ahead to what he thinks could be some of the biggest movies of the early part of 2019.

Steve Caplin, Share Radio's gadget guru, highlights the most commonly-chosen (and thus most unsafe) passwords as well as the most expensive Google keywords. He looks at Amazon's apparent purchase of potential shops in the UK and why some of their workers might wish Amazon didn't stock bear repellent. There's an update to computer game Doom, some 25 years on, Bosch are planning autonomous taxis and the latest crowdfunding project is a lounger that inflates using your mobile phone!

Ed Bowsher speaks to top US fund manager, Meb Faber, as well as David Stevenson from ETFstream to find out where markets may go in 2019. Both Meb and David think that most US shares are too expensive while the UK is much more attractive. We also find out which parts of the Japanese market are cheap, and look at which emerging markets to avoid or invest in.

Adam talks to Ben Edwards relationship and human behaviour expert about the key reasons for relationship problems and how to fix them. They then discuss why so many people set goals in the New Year and how this year we can increase the likelihood of achieving them.

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: Most surprising business story of the year? Best & worst CEOs? Andy Cross, Ron Gross, and Jason Moser analyze those topics (and more), reflect on the year that was, and share the dumbest investments of 2018. Plus, Oaktree Capital co-founder Howard Marks shares investing insights and talks about his latest book, 'Mastering the Market Cycle: Getting the Odds on Your Side'.

Dr Audrey Tang is an expert in bringing psychology techniques - particularly mindfulness teaching - into the workplace. She's worked with many prestigious corporations and individuals, and delivers talks and workshops on the topic. She's the author of 'Be A Great Manager' - Now and the new title, 'The Leader's Guide to Mindfulness'. She's TV presenter and a keen amateur performer, having once ruin her own theatre company and says you can learn a lot from being on stage - and directing those on it!

Welcome to our special - 2018: A Year in Review. Joining our Associate Director Kate Andrews today is IEA Director General Mark Littlewood, Research Director Dr Jamie Whyte and Director of the IEA’s FREER initiative Rebecca Lowe. The four talk through the biggest stories of the year, ranging from the ongoing Brexit negotiations, to the state of British political parties and ideologies, to other important happenings around the world. You’ll also get to hear who Mark, Jamie, and Rebecca have chosen as their person of the year, event of the year, and best of all, their top prediction for 2019.

James Cameron-Wilson casts his critical eye over the cinematic highlights of 2018, a year in which musicals were to the fore, as were films directed by actors. He marvelled at the array of strong roles for women and wondered why so few male performances stood out in the year. As well as examining the winners at the UK box office, James also gives his own, personal top 10 of the year.

Steve Caplin looks back at some of the most interesting - and daft - crowdfunding ideas of 2018. There's a camping light running of a tea candle, a 4G phone the size of a credit card, music generated by plants, an add-on screen for laptops, a gravity light and a snorkel that lets you dive further as well as levitating water drops, the world's most advanced underwear, a magnetic wax seal and a rocking bed on chains.