Podcasts

Adam Cox looks back at some of his most inspirational interviews from 2020.

Low-tiered James Cameron-Wilson managed to get to see Wonder Woman 1984, one of the only blockbusters released this year. He also reviews Netflix's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, with Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman tipped for Oscars. He is less enthusiastic about Dreamland with Margot Robbie or Victorian melodrama Gone Away. However, he strongly recommends Nothing To Hide, a hilarious French comedy, which is one of several remakes of a recent Italian film.

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: Teladoc and Livongo join forces in a mega-merger; Airbnb, DoorDash, and Snowflake headline a red-hot IPO market; Jose Andres and Jack Dorsey set a high bar for benevolence; Medtronic shares its design for ventilators with the world; Disney makes a successful pivot to streaming video; And DraftKings and Rollins score big returns for investors. Host Chris Hill and Motley Fool analysts Ron Gross and Jason Moser discuss some of the year’s top stories and explain why Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, and Zoom CEO Eric Yuan get their votes for CEOs of the year. We talk about some of the year’s more questionable investments, including Lululemon’s purchase of Mirror and Viagogo’s purchase of StubHub. We reflect on two of the year’s big surprises: Bed Bath & Beyond and Cloudflare. And Jason and Ron share two stocks on their radar: Alarm.com and Editas Medicine. Plus, Motley Fool cofounder and CEO Tom Gardner talks with Appian founder and CEO Matt Calkins about the big business of low-code software.

Is buy now, pay later the demon it’s made out to be? Klarna, Laybuy and the rest of the delayed spending crew are coming in for lots of scrutiny at the moment. Shoppers love them and shops pay them, but there are concerns on over-spending and the cost of not meeting payments. Yet, surely spreading the cost of a purchase interest-free is a sensible financial move? On this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert discuss the rise of the buy now, pay later firms, how they work, how they make their money on interest-free credit, and why there are worries over what on the surface looks like a great deal. On the topic of shopping, the team also talk trying to avoid Amazoning everything this Christmas – and where to turn to get things from local shops with convenience. Also, the team looks at why the Bank of England held interest rates even as more tiers pain descended on Britain, the website that matches start-up ideas and the people who can do the work and finally Grace Gausden joins the show to discuss her Grace on the Case consumer column.

James Cameron-Wilson, overjoyed to be back in a cinema again, discusses the boost to the box office just as restrictions in many areas will reverse it. He reviews Netflix's female assassin movie Ava, starring Jessica Chastain. He looks at the Argentinian film Murder Me, Monster on Curzon Home Cinema. And he delights in the exuberance of The Prom, another Netflix title, starring James Corden Meryl Streep.

Share Radio's tech guru, Steve Caplin, is delighted - in a week of space failures - that NASA had some success on Mars by playing a high-tech game of whack-a-mole. The Royal Mail delivered a parcel to the Isle of Mull by drone. Basketball hoops have become "smart". The first ever computer mouse is being auctioned off. A Kickstarter project aims to end trips to the optician. The UK unveils its first electric forecourt. And Shanghai launches its fully autonomous taxi fleet - with no safety drivers.

Graham Spooner of The Share Centre looks back at recent news from Bunzl, one of the beneficiaries of the pandemic, WPP and Dixons Carphone, which has benefitted from the success of its online business. With little company news to look ahead to as the holidays approach, Graham discusses the latest on banks paying dividends and on how the market is still prone to reacting to the latest news on the Brexit talks.

Adam Cox is joined by Christine Gouldthorp from PriceRunner, to discuss new research findings that show how older consumers lack trust and confidence in online retailers. They look at why more older people are shopping online, despite the worries and concerns that they have, and what consumers should look out for to ensure they are staying safe when shopping online.

Adam Cox is joined by Max Halliwell from Mitsubishi Electric to discuss how the heating industry needs to change in order to aid the UK in becoming carbon neutral by 2050. They talk about heat pumps, how exactly these work and the grant opportunities out there for those who want to make their homes more sustainable. They delve into what needs to change in the UK’s mindsets in order to truly make an impact in the UK when it comes to heating our homes.

In his final live interview of 2020, Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University explains how we live in a world of ever-increasing information - rather than physical - warfare and how the United Nations Human Rights Council has become a proxy battleground for the world powers. He argues that the United Kingdom is an ideal trade partner for the United States, whatever its new President's views on Brexit. And, after the death of John Le Carré, he muses on the British obsession with spies from Bond to Smiley.