Podcasts

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, the team is answering your questions about the wash sale rule, preferred stock, retirement accounts for the self-employed, and more with the help of Motley Fool Contributor Asit Sharma.

Political commentator Mike Indian considers what difference it will make to control of the crisis having Boris Johnson back in harness. He considers the wisdom of Matt Hancock's testing target, where blame lies with the shortages of PPE, asks whether NHS bureaucracy will be cut back after the pandemic and marvels in how well the virtual Parliament has been working.

Steve Caplin talks all things tech, marking the 25th anniversary of GPS. He tells us about a robot dog triaging patients in a Boston hospital, at Channel 4's idea for dogs snooping Through The Keyhole and how, in lockdown, a new app can help you connect with random strangers. He offers advice for having parties on Zoom, discusses a robot that eats metal, a bit of PPE kit that resembles a large beekeeper's helmet and carbon threads that can store mechanical energy.

James Cameron-Wilson looks at the often-surprising list of the most-streamed movies on Netflix in the United States. He looks at the online premiere of exciting action thriller Extraction, starring Chris Hemsworth, as well as the unsettling Dutch drama We. His DVD of the week is Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen.

Ian Forrest of The Share Centre discusses the recent strength of the stock market. With company reports in full flow, he looks at the contrast between BP and Shell, which has cut its dividend for the first time in 87 years. He also discusses International Consolidated Airlines (parent of BA) and its gloomy outlook and the perkier report from Hikma. Looking ahead, he ponders what we might hear from Intercontinental Hotels and BT.

Adam Cox is joined by wireless internet experts, Tom Izzard and Warren Hampton, to talk about the importance of internet access during the current global pandemic. New research has shown that many Brits feel isolated without an internet connection, so the pair give advice on how to achieve the best connection possible and discuss how the UK is using the internet more than ever before.

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: More than 4.4 million Americans file for unemployment as the total number of unemployed climbs to 26 million; Netflix adds 16 million subscribers for the quarter; Verizon loses subscribers and withdraws guidance; Chipotle gets a big boost from digital sales; DraftKings makes its Wall Street debut; Snap surges on surprising growth; Coca-Cola falls on concerns over declining volume; And Domino’s delivers. Motley Fool analysts Ron Gross and Jason Moser discuss those stories and share a couple of stocks on their radar: Masimo and Roku. Plus, Time Value of Money Fund manager Michael Shearn talks about what he looks for in leadership and shares some of his favorite stocks.

Should you save cash and accept low interest rates, or invest and take the risk that you could lose money? This is the perennial dilemma for those with some money to set aside, who are looking to build their wealth. And it’s not been made easier by a rollercoaster 20 years. Since the turn of the millennium, we’ve had three hefty stock market crashes, but we’ve also had the past decade of historically low interest rates. In response to paltry savings rates, more people have been encouraged to invest in shares for a better return, but the coronavirus crash has left the UK’s flagship stock market index, the FTSE 100, below its level on 31 December 1999, and burnt the fingers of many recent investors. So, is it worth investing, or should you just stick with the relative stability of cash? On this episode of the This is Money podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost look at our exclusive statistics on who is investing, who is bowing out of the market, and what the new generation of younger investors are doing. They also dive back into the question asked last week: how long do you need to invest for to avoid losing money? With some charts and data sent through to the team by Duncan Lamont, head of research and analytics at Schroders, they compare how putting money into either cash or the stockmarket fared over the past 150 years against inflation – and what the likelihood was of losing money over varying time periods. The team also look at what might happen next to house prices after the coronavirus lockdown put the property market into a deep freeze. Simon dives into the varying predictions of how much property prices could fall – and the bullish suggestion of one estate agent that it’ll all be fine. And finally, we discuss the businesses that we spoke to this week who are fighting veteran insurer Hiscox, because they believed they should be covered against coronavirus with policies that cite infectious or contagious disease… but it says they are not.

This short reading of Night Prayer, without psalms, is taken from 'Prayers for use during the coronavirus outbreak' published by the Church of England.

Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University asks what the unlock will look like and which nations have got right their response to the coronavirus pandemic - if we can yet tell. He examines the power war between China and the United States within the World Health Organisation. And he highlights the project that is keeping track of government interventions and the impact they are having around the world.