Podcasts

Steve Caplin turns his roving eye towards robots, to robots doing Rubik's Cubes and building Ikea furniture, to the laws we ought to have in place for AI and to the slacker robots at Tesla. He also looks at a device to read our thoughts, curated walks and an impressive case to protect an impressively expensive smartphone.

James Cameron-Wilson looks at new action movie Rampage (and the career of its star Dwayne Johnson) as well as horror debutant Truth or Dare. He also comes up with a remarkable statistic about the nationality of the Oscar's Best Director winners over the past decade. Great pub trivia question in the making.

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: Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress; Bed Bath & Beyond takes a bath; And Walmart and Amazon battle it out in India. Ron Gross, Matt Argersinger and Jim Mueller analyze those stories and more.

In the first episode of this brand new series, Linda Lewis is joined by Tom Levitt: author, former Labour MP and consultant on responsible business. They discuss Tom’s latest book, The Company Citizen: Good for Business, Planet, Nation and Community, and why tackling the challenges of climate change, hunger and poor health makes sense in the long run for modern businesses – both within their companies and more broadly. Can business help change the future of climate change and human rights? Tom talks about why he thinks it can be done if businesses fully embrace a simple concept: long-term thinking.

In this episode of Track Record, Sue Dougan is joined by Ebony Gayle, a talented dancer who was one of the first intake at the BRIT School of Performing Arts in the 90s. Despite loving performance, a business module at the school fired her enthusiasm for public relations. Now a consultant, writer, presenter and volunteer with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, Ebony says we can all work on a freelance or consultative capacity – so long as we're prepared! She also discusses how easy it can be to become fearful in the workplace, questioning our own skills and experience – and how we can overcome that.

British Gas have revealed this week that more than four million households face a 5.5 per cent bill increase from the end of May thanks to changes to its standard variable tariff. Hot on its heels, EDF Energy announced it will be hiking the cost of energy bills by 1.4 per cent for 1.3 million customers. In this week’s podcast, Rachel Rickard Straus and Lee Boyce say it is time for people to fight back and switch. On the energy theme, we talk about our campaign to stop power firms using bullying tactics in order to force households into getting a smart meter – and why it is better to wait until the end of the year. We take a look at some of the methods to make your home more energy efficient, including insulation and wood burning stoves.

How much should we worry about inequality? With ongoing Corbyn-mania in UK politics, and the popularity of books like Thomas Piketty’s Capital in The 21st Century, it seems like we’ve never cared more about promoting equality of outcome. But is our concern justified? Is economic disparity a characteristic of modernity – or a persistent feature of human civilisation? On our podcast this week, Dr Steve Davies, Head of Education at the IEA, and News Editor Kate Andrews, examine this controversial topic.

Adam Cox is joined by Ionut Iulian Ungureanu – author of Live, Love, Dream – a man who was forced to be the breadwinner for his family at 10 years old, before being abandoned by his parents at the age of 14 with a younger sister to care for. Ionut shares how he was able to transform his life from being homeless and then living in an orphanage, to becoming a successful motivational speaker and author. A powerful and inspirational discussion on why it's important to live life to the full.

Steve Caplin looks at a Californian firm printing chicken and fois gras, at an exoskeleton for skiers, at a drone blood delivery service, a great scanning app, how autonomous cars will mean more compact car parks and a way of uploading your brain to the cloud that is "100% fatal"!

James Cameron-Wilson examines the continuing success of Peter Rabbit ("this year's Dunkirk") and reviews new releases A Quiet Place, Love Simon, Ghost Stories and Wonderstruck, failing to understand why the new Todd Haynes' film should be doing so badly at the UK box office.