Podcasts presented by Simon Rose

Helal Miah of The Share Centre looks at recent company news from SIG, Mondi, Dunelm and recruiters Robert Walters and Page Group. He also looks ahead to Hays, in the same field, as well as Unilever, Rio Tinto, BHP, ASOS and W H Smith.

Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University considers the issue of institutional decline and asks if modern organisations – whether private of public – have lost track of how to assess their reputation in the eyes of their customers, instead using statistics to prove that everything is wonderful. And admitting his obsession with obituaries, Tim looks at the death of a former editor of The Morning Star.

James Cameron-Wilson on the UK box office chart, dominated by a huge £12.6m opening for Joker with Joaquin Phoenix. Judy, with Renee Zellweger, only managed £2.1m at #2. James forecasts that both stars will be Oscar-nominated or, in the case of Judy, "garlanded". For home release James chooses the Mexican film The Chambermaid, which he found compelling in the extreme.

Steve Caplin looks at the new service to choose your own flavour of KitKat - for a price. He has news of how fast our thumbs are getting, of earbuds to help you get the most out of the sound at a concert, of the new warnings on e-scooters, of a clever new suitcase that charges your phone as you wheel it, of why high rooftops are being bought up in London and why workers in the UK are sabotaging robots.

Simon Rose is joined by political commentator and author of The Groucho Tendency blog, Mike Indian, to discuss how UK politics has got to where it is today. In this episode, Simon and Mike discuss the history of the Liberal Democrats, from roots in both the Liberal Party and the SDP right up to the modern day.

Political commentator Mike Indian, present at the Labour Party Conference when the Supreme Court decision was announced, looks at what that means for Parliament and the Brexit process. He analyses that conference and that of the Conservatives and explains Boris Johnson's Northern Ireland proposals and considers how they may be received in the UK, Ireland and by the EU.

Steve Caplin explains the problems with the app that lets you summon your Tesla - and there are many. He also looks at the drawbacks of the problematic Galaxy Fold and has news of Microsoft's new folding phone, a Chinese phone that is almost all screen, Amazon's smart glasses, how you could soon be ordering Samuel L. Jackson around and how a new Indiegogo project could end the problems most of us have with rechargeable household batteries.

Graham Spooner of The Share Centre looks at recent news from Tesco, where the departure of Dave Lewis is the big news, Gregg's, Flutter Entertainments and Ferguson. He also looks at what we might expect of forthcoming results from Mondi and Easyjet.

James Cameron-Wilson with the latest news of the UK box office, where Downton Abbey reigns supreme for the third week, amassing an extraordinary £19.4m. New films are horror pic Ready Or Not at #4 and The Goldfinch, based on the Donna Tartt novel at #10. For his home release of the week, James recommends Eighth Grade, an impressive high school drama, billed a comedy, though he didn't feel that was the case.