Business Daily
Episodes
Coronavirus: Where's the joined-up thinking?
19 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What can be learned from East Asia's response to Covid-19, and from West Africa's Ebola epidemic? And why hasn't there been a unifed global response t...
Can the private sector help struggling hospitals?
18 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hand-gels, face masks, even nasal swabs – as the coronavirus spreads, health services are reporting a growing number of shortages at the moment as s...
Can airlines survive coronavirus?
17 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Travel restrictions and a slump in demand due to the coronavirus have forced airlines to cancel most flights and temporarily reduce staff. Will this m...
Coronavirus: Can the risk be contained?
16 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The US has cut interest rates to almost zero and launched a $700bn stimulus programme in a bid to protect the economy from the effect of coronavirus. ...
Wet markets and the coronavirus
13 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Where the coronavirus came from and why these diseases aren't a one-off. Manuela Saragosa speaks to Dr Juan Lubroth, former chief veterinary officer a...
The great North Korean crypto hack
12 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Crypto-currency and cybercrime have together provided the DPRK with the hard currency it needed to continue with its nuclear weapons programme.Ed Butl...
How to stop coronavirus crashing your economy
11 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As much of Italy goes into self-imposed quarantine, what can the authorities do to stop empty shops and restaurants going bust?It's an urgent question...
The psychology of panic buying
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How the spread of coronavirus is changing consumer behaviour. Elizabeth Hotson goes on the hunt for toilet paper and hand sanitizer on the streets of ...
The superforecasters
09 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How to predict the future and beat the wisdom of the crowds. Manuela Saragosa speaks to Warren Hatch, chief executive of Good Judgement, a consultancy...
The great face hack
06 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tech start-up Clearview scraped billions of people's public photos off social media, and then sold their facial recognition service to police forces, ...
Coronavirus: Global recession?
05 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Central banks are rushing to provide liquidity as many fear that the disruption from the coronavirus outbreak could push the world into technical rece...
Do stock-pickers have a future?
04 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Research suggests that they underperform robot traders, and most can't even beat the market, so are the days of the celebrity investors and stock mark...
Moving Uighur workers in China
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A new report brings together fresh evidence of the forced transportation of Uighur Muslims from Xinjiang province to provide labour in factories acros...
Trump's immigration crackdown
02 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How fewer Latin Americans crossing the US border is affecting the economy. Alice Fordham reports from Juarez on the Mexican side of the border on the ...
Firestone and Liberia
28 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rubber is Liberia's most important cash crop, and the Firestone Libera rubber plantation is the country's biggest employer. But the company faces accu...
Coronavirus: Fake news goes viral
27 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Misinformation about the coronavirus outbreak is undermining the efforts of health officials and medical researchers to contain it.Doctors find themse...
Supermarket archaeology
26 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What can soap boxes, sweet wrappers and tin cans tell us about our shopping history? Manuela Saragosa visits Robert Opie at his Museum of Brands, Pack...
A single West African currency
25 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Some West African countries already use a single currency - the CFA franc. Now there are plans to introduce a broader shared currency - the eco - acro...
Cognac and hip hop
24 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How brands forge strong relationships with music, from Cognac brands like Hennessy and Courvoisier to Coca Cola's Sprite. Elizabeth Hotson speaks to c...
The Airbnb rental scammers
21 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As the holiday lettings platform prepares for an IPO, what is Airbnb doing to clamp down on bogus, unregulated and unsafe property listings?Ed Butler ...
3D-printed pills
20 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Could the much-hyped technology of 3D printing have found a useful application - producing personalised prescription pills?Ed Butler visits the lab of...
Why you should hire an ex con
19 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Should employers simply stop asking job applicants if they have a criminal record? Tamasin Ford speaks to one American bakery that did exactly that. L...
A robot future and how to handle it
18 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What will happen to our working lives when the robots take over? Daniel Susskind, an economist at Oxford University, discusses his new book A World Wi...
EU farm subsidies: who's benefiting?
17 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Is the European farm subsidy system being left vulnerable to corruption? Each year the EU pays out billions of euros to landowners. But a New York Tim...
The case for free trade
14 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Does the backlash against globalisation ignore the huge benefits of world trade? And how realistic are post-Brexit Britain's ambitions to become a glo...
Firing workers in Virtual Reality
13 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Virtual Reality is finding a surprising new application - training managers how to handle delicate situations such as dismissing employees or giving p...
Tesla: To infinity and beyond
12 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tesla's share price has tripled in the last six months - can anyone stop it, or even make sense of it?Ed Butler speaks to Craig Irwin, stock analyst a...
Coronavirus: A shortage of masks
11 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The business impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Ed Butler speaks to the BBC's Robin Brant in Shanghai about the partial return of Chinese workers in ...
When a work colleague dies
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How companies and staff deal with death at work. Manuela Saragosa hears from Carina, an employee at a global marketing company who saw the mistakes he...
Out of jail but not out of work
07 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Unemployment in the US and UK is at near-historic lows. In such a tight labour market, many companies are seeking new pools of talent to recruit from....
Saudi money, English Football
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A multi-million pound takeover of the English Premier League team Newcastle United by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund could be in the works.BBC S...
Will immersive tech ever go mainstream?
05 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality have been around for years, and billions have been spent on popularising them, so far to little avail.Ed Butler ...
So is the future hydrogen?
04 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The gas could provide the critical missing piece in decarbonising the global economy. But can the hydrogen itself be sourced cheaply and carbon-free?O...
Does coal have a future?
03 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Burning coal to generate electricity is one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions. But climate change aside, does it even make commercial sense a...
Brexit day, Brexit visions
31 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As the UK officially leaves the EU, what kind of economic future should it aim for? Should it be left entirely open to free market forces, or should t...
Does quarantining do more harm than good?
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How will China's efforts to contain the corona virus affect the country's economy? Ed Butler asks our economics correspondent Andrew Walker, as well a...
Britain's Huawei gamble
29 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The UK's decision to give the Chinese telecoms equipment maker partial access to its 5G network risks trade retaliation from the US. But a decision to...
Chinese forced labour: The brands
28 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Are Western brands doing enough to keep forced labour out of their supply chains? Ed Butler speaks to researcher Darren Byler at the University of Col...
Forced labour in China
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We hear from the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, where perhaps 1.5 million Uighur Muslims are believed to be held in what Chinese authorities ca...
What next for Africa's richest woman?
24 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Isabel dos Santos faces charges in her native Angola. The daughter of the former long-time president is accused of corruption after a leak of document...
The products used again and again and again...
23 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why don't more manufacturers embrace the principles of the circular economy? It's a pertinent question, given the dire state of the recycling industry...
Mapping paradise
22 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Katie Prescott revisits the efforts of the Zanzibar government to chart its territory by flying drones across the African spice island.A year ago she ...
Cities at a standstill
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How strikes and protests affect the economies of major cities. Will Bain visits Paris to see how strikes on the transport network are affecting local ...
Being watched at work
20 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The monitoring of employees in the workplace is becoming commonplace. Ed Butler speaks to Sean Petterson, boss of StrongArm Technologies, a company th...
Insomnia and the smartphone
17 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Modern tech is accused of interfering with our sleep, keeping us up late anxiously staring at our phone screens. But could a phone app provide the cur...
Microworkers teaching robots
16 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How the rise of 'microwork' is helping develop artificial intelligence. Ed Butler speaks to New York Times reporter Andy Newman about his experience o...
Where has all the good soil gone?
15 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Soil degradation is reducing crop yields and adding to climate change. It's a big headache not just for farmers, but for all of us.But fear not, as Ed...
The power-hungry internet
14 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why our growing use of technology is a threat to the planet. Ed Butler speaks to Ian Bitterlin, a visiting professor at the University of Leeds in the...
The next big thing
13 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How easy is it to predict where tech will take us in the next decade, and have we hit a plateau in the pace of innovation?Manuela Saragosa speaks to a...
Brand Meghan and Harry
10 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Royal brands and the value of the monarchy. Manuela Saragosa speaks to the BBC's royal correspondent Jonny Dymond about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle...
OK Boomer...
09 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Are millennials being given a financial raw deal by their parents' generation? And who do the Baby Boomers expect to pay for their retirement?Manuela ...
North Korea: Suffering under sanctions?
08 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How does North Korea raise foreign currency, and are the toughest economic sanctions in the world actually having any effect?Ed Butler looks at one of...
Uber and Lyft vs California
07 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A battle is looming over the future of the gig economy. A law classifying Uber and Lyft drivers as employees came into force in California on 1 Januar...
The US and China in 2020
06 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How the battle of the superpowers might unfold this year. Ed Butler speaks to Ian Bremmer, president and founder of the Eurasia Group, Linda Yueh, eco...
LA's housing crisis
03 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Regan Morris looks at the housing crisis in LA where around 60,000 rough sleepers bed down each night. In a city of sky high rents and scarce availabi...
The workplace re-imagined
02 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As a new decade dawns, Elizabeth Hotson asks if workplace design needs to be rethought to make work a more positive experience. We visit London-based ...
Rights of nature
01 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In July 2019 Bangladesh took the unusual step of granting all its rivers “legal personhood”. It was the result of a long fight by environmental ca...
Phosphates and the disputed corner of north-west Africa
31 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Phosphate mining is crucial to global food production, given that phosphorus is an essential ingredient in commercial fertilisers. By far, the largest...
Reinventing capitalism
30 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Can corporations be repurposed to prioritise society and the environment over profit? Ed Butler discusses the question with BBC Business Editor Simon ...
Are friends electric?
27 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When will artificial intelligence be capable of providing intelligent conversation? Jane Wakefield looks at two AI systems that still fall well short ...
Hack my brain
26 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Facebook and Elon Musk are among those interested in the potential use of brain probes to read minds and enhance human capabilities.Jane Wakefield loo...
Will flying taxis ever take off?
25 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Will giant drones one day ferry us all through the heavens all on our way to and from work? Jane Wakefield speaks to two German companies who are work...
Smart cities: Big Data's watching you
24 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
City streets are becoming a valuable source of big data, so should we care who is gathering it and how it is being used?In Shenzhen in China, the auth...
Smart cities: How Barcelona learned to listen
23 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Smart sensors can improve citizens' lives, especially when residents are put in charge of gathering the data.Jane Wakefield reports from the Placa del...
How 24/7 life is rewiring our brains
20 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A group of artists look at how our modern hyper-connected always-on lifestyles are affecting our behaviour and interfering with our sleep.Their work h...
Our digital afterlife
19 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What happens to your online presence when you die, and who owns your data? Manuela Saragosa speaks to Carl Ohman, a researcher in the digital afterlif...
Have you paid your taxes?
18 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tax evasion is rife in many parts of the world, but might that be partly because we are we taxing the wrong things?Ed Butler looks at two countries ov...
When women aren't counted
17 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Gender bias in data collection. Manuela Saragosa speaks to Caroline Criado Perez, author of Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, wi...
Brexit: What happens next?
16 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Three experts on the next steps for Boris Johnson, Britain and the EU, after a big win for the sitting British prime minister in national elections. E...
The death of expertise
13 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Why do so many people think they know best? And are they putting dolts in charge of government?Ed Butler speaks to Professor Tom Nichols of the US Nav...
Old city v new city
12 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Should we protect historic neighbourhoods from redevelopment when new homes are desperately needed?Manuela Saragosa looks at two cities at opposite en...
Surviving the surveillance state
11 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Facial recognition tech is spreading everywhere, but it can still be fooled with a bit of face paint. So should we be worried?Ed Butler speaks to Prof...
Delivering in the gig economy
10 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How online shopping is fuelling insecure work for delivery drivers. British film director Ken Loach talks about his new film Sorry We Missed You, look...
US drug companies and the NHS
09 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Is Britain's health service really up for sale? Ahead of a general election in the UK, Ed Butler looks at why the NHS probably gets a good deal on dru...
A machine to break down all language barriers
06 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The BBC's Kizzy Cox in New York tries out the developers at tech firm Waverly Labs say can translate between any of 20 spoken languages in just a coup...
How 'cheap' English is conquering the world
05 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
English language proficiency has become a basic skill worldwide, and kids are picking it up in some surprising places.Manuela Saragosa - herself trili...
Taking football global
04 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The pitfalls when soccer tries to break into the US and Asian markets - and when American football tries to break into Europe.Ed Butler looks at the p...
Hidden art
03 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Why the owners of movies and artworks don't want you to see them. Tamasin Ford explains why Disney is removing a catalogue of movies from the cinema c...
China moves from imitator to innovator
02 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Chinese tech giants are gaining further ground in innovation, with development in e-commerce, social media and more, even outstripping the west. Rebec...
Meetings, meetings everywhere...
29 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It's not unusual for office workers to complain about the number of meetings they have to attend, but are they a distraction from real work, as some c...
The sea they plan to cover in turbines
28 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Offshore wind power is about to hit the big time in northern Europe, yet 20 years ago many saw the plan to build such complex engineering in the middl...
How to change your career
26 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ever thought about changing your career? With people living longer and job security decreasing, sticking with the same career for the whole of your wo...
What happened to austerity?
26 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the UK approaches a general election, both major parties have been promising billions of extra pounds to go into hospitals, social care and other p...
Cryptocurrency's new frontier
25 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Cryptocurrency mining is booming across parts of the former Soviet Union, with a number of regions expending gigawatts of power on mining operations. ...
Why Americans are loving trade unions again
22 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Trade unions in the United States have seen a historic decline since their heyday in the mid-20th Century. But in many sectors labour organisation is ...
Mental health in Africa
21 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the continent's most neglected issues is finally getting some attention. Africa is affected by mental illness just like everywhere else, but wi...
The fight over the Parthenon Marbles
20 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Greece hopes to regain the ancient sculptures from the British Museum, which were taken from Athens two centuries ago by the Earl of Elgin.Tamasin For...
Africa's tech hub explosion
19 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What impact has it had on the continent's tech startup scene? Tamasin Ford speaks to Bosun Tijani, founder of the CcHub in Lagos, about why tech hubs ...
The scramble for Nollywood
18 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The international companies investing in Nigerian cinema. France's Canal+ and streaming giant Netflix are among those who see potential for Nollywood,...
Live long and prosper?
15 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The longevity industry aims to let everyone enjoy a healthy, active life well past the age of 100. But the question everyone will be asking is... will...
Quantum computers: What are they good for?
14 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Google claims to have achieved a major breakthrough with "quantum supremacy". But what could quantum computers actually do, and how soon will they be ...
The ethics of AI
13 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the world's top thinkers on artificial intelligence, tells us why we should be cautious but not terrified at the prospect of computers that can...
The billionaires who want to pay more tax
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Liesel Pritzker Simmons and her husband Ian Simmons are billionaires who come from successful US business families. Liesel's family is best known for ...
Who wants to be a billionaire?
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Should the richest be taxed out of existence? Manuela Saragosa hears from Emmanuel Saez, a US-based French economist advising US presidential hopeful ...
Fake me an influencer
08 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The murky world of fake Instagram followers, fake comments, fake likes. Edwin Lane turns to the dark side in his quest for more followers for his Inst...
Make me an influencer
07 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How hard is it to make money on Instagram? Ed Butler hears from successful influencer Laura Strange, who makes a living from her Gluten-free food them...
The Cambridge Analytica whistleblower
06 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Brittany Kaiser was one of the whistleblowers who brought down her former employer, Cambridge Analytica. She helped to expose how the data analysis fi...
The world's youngest Nobel-winning economist
05 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Esther Duflo discusses her work on the economics of poverty, for which she won this year's Nobel prize, along with her husband Abhijit Banerjee and co...
A hydro-powered Bitcoin boom in Georgia
04 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How hydroelectric dams are powering cryptocurrency mining on the eastern edge of Europe. Ed Butler travels to Georgia to visit the Bitcoin mines benef...
Tweaking your face
01 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How social media is fueling the modern cosmetic surgery industry. The BBC's Regan Morris visits a Botox party in Los Angeles and Sarah Treanor investi...