Podcasts

The football season is back with bang but what happened off the pitch in the summer when it comes to money created major talking points. Assistant editor Lee Boyce and broadcaster Georgie Frost pick six of the financial hot topics when it comes to football from the last few months to give their thoughts and opinions. This includes £1.4billion being spent in the summer transfer window, with half of Premier League clubs breaking their individual player transfer record – so who got the best deal? We've got confirmation of Wayne Rooney heading back to England, but why have the financials caused controversy? Bolton Wanderers and Bury are on the brink. What has happened, will they be saved and is Financial Fair Play working? Elsewhere, the Forbes rich list of sports clubs makes for interesting reading, the Chinese cash influence grows and women's football received a huge surge of interest meaning more money.

Adam talks to international speaker Ben Ivey about the nature of humans to seek gratification and comfort but rarely fulfilment. They discuss that fulfilment is and how to achieve it as well as the major obstacles that get in the way.

In this episode of Policy Matters, hosts Franz Buscha and Matt Dickson discuss how science funding in the UK is disbursed to Universities. They examine what the Research Excellence Framework (REF) is and how it affects the work behaviours and career prospects of modern academics. Franz and Matt discuss the impact of metrics for evaluation purposes and consider how they are personally affected by the various University evaluation schemes such as REF, TEF and KEF. They also discuss the concept of ‘impact’ and how it encourages academics to go beyond their ‘ivory towers’ and engage society with their research.

Saving, spending, planning — you've got money questions and we've got answers. Every week host Alison Southwick and personal finance expert Robert Brokamp challenge the conventional wisdom on life's biggest financial issues to reveal what you really need to know to make smart money moves. In this week's show, most of us have only a vague idea of how much we should be saving. Jeannie Thompson, Head of Workplace Solutions Thought Leadership at Fidelity Investments, explains the company’s age-based savings guidelines, the cost of health care in retirement, and how retirement planning can present more challenges for women.

It's fair to say environmental issues have moved to the forefront of the agenda in recent times. This week, editor Simon Lambert, assistant editor Lee Boyce and host Georgie Frost take a look at potential changes you can make to help the pound in your pocket turn a little greener. Simon explains his rallying cry for us to be his acronym 'Layby' rather than being labelled 'Nimbys'. Layby – or look after your back yard – is a movement to look after the country we live in. When it comes to investing, there is a growing movement where savers who want to combat climate change invest a small amount of money in the very companies eco-activists traditionally rally against, such as fossil fuel giants Shell and BP – so why? What can you do to be a more eco-friendly tourist? And finally… it's hard enough trying to predict how rapidly a normal car will depreciate, but estimating the loss of value of an electric vehicle is a whole other ball game. We reveal all.

Political commentator Mike Indian looks at Boris Johnson's meetings with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron and reckons that if no deal has been arranged by September 30th, a no-deal Brexit is inevitable. He rates the chance of a General Election the day after Halloween at 80% and looks at the report that the state pension age might have to rise to 75.

Steve Caplin looks at a facial recognition system for bartenders, the death of the man who invented computer passwords, the tweeter who got round a parental device ban thanks to a smart fridge, the new use for hot water at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and a robotic tail from Japan that is designed to prevent falls for old people.

Helal Miah of The Share Centre looks back at recent results from BHP, Persimmon, Wood Group and NMC Health and looks ahead to forthcoming figures from Bunzl, James Fisher, The Gym Group, Hays and Petrofac.

James Cameron-Wilson looks at the latest UK box office figures, with Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood storming into #1 position, despite its near three-hour length. Dora & The Lost City of Gold enters at #4, near-the-knuckle comedy Good Boys is in at #6 and Uglydolls debuts at #11. For his home release of the week, James admires the violent Western The Sisters Brothers, starring John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix.

Walmart stock pops on another strong quarter, while shares of Macy's and Tapestry both suffer double-digit losses. Ron Gross and Jason Moser analyse the current state of retail and share why they believe Nordstrom and Under Armour have genuine opportunities to improve their standing with investors. We discuss the latest with General Electric, NVIDIA, Darden Restaurants, Berkshire-Hathaway, and Hologic. Plus, Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner discusses when to sell, when to add to your winners, investing takeaways from his recent trip to China, and his upcoming investor presentation on August 20th. (For more information on David Gardner's investor presentation visit http://Blast.Fool.com.)