Podcasts

If you're searching for Christmas gift ideas, Steve Caplin has suggestions from the sublime to the utterly ridiculous, from the cheap to the eye-wateringly expensive. Tripods, tyre inflators, exploding air rifle targets, cassette players, bluetooth buttons, sock clips, ipod stands for watching video in bed, an impressively powerful phone charger and even an underwater villa to stay in in the Maldives.

Helal Miah of The Share Centre pores through recent announcements from Hollywood Bowl, Ashtead, British American Tobacco, Dixons Carphone, Superdry and Osado, while looking ahead to forthcoming results from Petrofac.

Adam talks to Winston Ben Clements an international speaker who was born with a condition that has confined him to a wheelchair. Despite this disadvantage Winston shares his wisdom on the importance of resilience and that overcoming struggles and setbacks can actually give a huge edge. They also discuss what extreme ownership means and how doing more than you should can promote someone to a genuine leader.

As the Brexit crisis becomes ever more unpredictable, Ed asks whether now is a good time to buy some cheap UK shares. Do long-term investors need to worry as they see their portfolios sway up and down? Ed speaks to Oliver Smith, Portfolio Manager at IG Smart Portfolio, and Howie Li, Head of ETFs at Legal & General Investment Management. Howie tells Ed about a new UK ETF that LGIM has just launched which has a management charge of just 0.05% a year and takes a slightly different approach from the more established UK ETFs. There’s more to this ETF than just being cheap. Howie also explains more about five other ETFs that LGIM launched last month.

In this episode of Live from Lord North Street, Kate Andrews, Associate Director of the IEA was joined by Zoe Strimpel, a Sunday Telegraph columnist and historian of gender and relationships, and Madeline Grant, Editorial Manager at the IEA, to analyse the role of market forces in shaping our dating habits and personal relationships. Zoe and Madeline look at the early history of dating, and how economic, as well as cultural, trends have determined popular conceptions of romance. They also examine how the digital age - and the arrival of apps like Tinder, Happn and Bumble - have changed the landscape (for better and for worse). Does our data-and-algorithm centric approach help bring people together and make for happier relationships? Or have we instead removed the romance and humanity from the dating world? And what does the future hold for dating, in this new environment?

It might not be on the top of your to-do list when you have a child, but investing and saving for them to build a tidy nest egg for when they reach adulthood is best done sooner rather than later. In the latest This is Money podcast, editor Simon Lambert, assistant editor (and new parent) Lee Boyce alongside host Georgie Frost look at the best ways to save for your children. We discuss investment options, Junior Isas, a pension and other ways, and why 'the hardest step is the first, but it is also the most powerful'. Lee has a target of a £50,000 pot to build up for his new daughter ahead of her 18th birthday in 2036 – and discusses how he plans to achieve this, with a little help from Einstein's eighth wonder of the world, compounding. Elsewhere, we talk about how invest for your own retirement and Fidelity's 'Power of Seven' matrix, as it looks like the pensions dashboard is finally moving ahead. We talk about the collapse of online estate agent Emoov and the future of the industry with the Bank of England's latest Brexit predictions suggesting property values could fall 30 per cent in the worst case scenario. Finally, we reveal the latest British Gas rip off and whether could we have found the answer to expensive boiler replacements.

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: Mr. Market continues its wild ride; Restoration Hardware raises the roof; Altria bets big on cannabis; And Vail Resorts hits a few moguls. Analysts Matt Argersinger, Ron Gross, and Jason Moser discuss those stories and delve into the latest news from Toll Brothers, Yum! Brands, Altria, and Amazon. The guys also share why Equinix, Apple, and NVR are on their radar. Plus, Motley Fool Wealth Management’s Director of Financial Planning Megan Brinsfield offers up some year-end financial advice.

Andrew Kenningham of Capital Economics considers whether a global economic slowdown has now begun. He looks at the prospects for China, the United States and the Eurozone in particular, assessing the prospects for Germany, France and Italy. He explains why the flattening of the yield curve in the United States COULD be a harbinger of recession and discusses Capital Economics' new 20 year forecasts and the main conclusions that have been drawn.

Graham Spooner, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, looks at first quarter results from Ferguson, the world's biggest plumbing supplies distributor. He also looks at the way in which sentiment in the UK market is now trumping fundamentals. Graham highlights some changes in the FTSE100 share index, with Royal Mail and Just Eat departing. And he looks ahead to forthcoming results from Ashtead and BAT.

In the wake of the Marriott Starwood data breach, with up to 500 million customers' data compromised, how can we protect ourselves when using the web. Simon Rose spoke to Mike Ianiri of independent telecoms brokerage Equinox. In a chilling interview, Mike explains the options for guarding your data and warns that free wifi, which so many of us use widely, is a cyber criminal's dream.