Podcast Icon Podcasts
The Future of TV

The Future of TV

Young people may be turning their backs on the traditional TV set, but is it stimulating a golden age of drama?

Netflix, YouTube and Amazon are better at grabbing our attention via our phones and computers than the screen sitting in the corner of our living rooms. Manuela Saragosa asks how this is transforming the creativity of TV-making, whether it is leading to unhealthy binge-viewing, and if it will kill off the job of the TV channel scheduler.

Programme features Christoph Klimmer of TV streaming service Xstream, and Amanda Lotz of the University of Michigan. Produced by Laurence Knight.

(Picture: Abandoned TV; Credit: tacojim/Getty Images)

Are Things Getting Worse?

Are Things Getting Worse?

Millennials are the first generation set to be worse off than their parents. Daniel Tomlinson, economic researcher at the Resolution Foundation in the UK, explains. But one notable exception to the trend is Norway. The BBC's Maddy Savage reports from Oslo. And are things really getting worse? Hear why there are reasons for optimism from Gregg Easterbrook, author of a book called It's Better Than It Looks.

(Photo: A fishing cabin in Norway, Credit: Getty Images)

Putin's Great Nemesis

Putin's Great Nemesis

Businessman Bill Browder was singled out by Russian President Vladimir Putin, at his summit with US President Donald Trump, as a "person of interest".

In an extended interview, Manuela Saragosa asks the man who was once the biggest foreign fund manager in Russia how he came to incur Mr Putin's ire, and about his campaign to get Western nations to pass a "Magnitsky Act" imposing sanctions and visa restrictions on Russian individuals. Plus Dr Florian Otto of political risk consultancy Maplecroft explains what Mr Browder's case can tell us about the risks of doing business in Russia.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: Bill Browder testifying to the US Senate; Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Bosses, Babies and Breast Pumps

Bosses, Babies and Breast Pumps

Engineers showcase new technologies to help women return to work after maternity leave - but why is the engineering profession itself so male-dominated?

Jane Wakefield attends a breast pump hackathon at MIT, speaking to businesses venture capitalists and campaigners such as Catherine D'Ignazio from Make The Breast Pump Not Suck. Jane also hears from engineers Emma Booth of Black & Veatch and Isobel Byrne Hill of ARUP about their experiences of returning to a very male-dominated industry after the birth of their own children, and the importance of networks such as The Women's Engineering Society.

(Picture: Woman holds up smart breast pumps; Credit: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)

Music Stardom in the Spotify Age

Music Stardom in the Spotify Age

Recording artists and industry figures discuss the impact of the streaming revolution. Edwin Lane reports on how emerging artists are looking to streaming services like Spotify to help them build a fanbase. Manuela Saragosa hears from recording artist Verite on how she makes a living from streaming revenues alone, and Conrad Withey, the boss of a company called Instrumental, explains how streaming data can help record companies discover new talent.

(Photo: A phone displaying Spotify in front of old vinyl LPs in a Paris record shop, Credit: Getty Images)

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

What responsibility do corporates have to promote LGBTQ rights in countries where homosexuality is still illegal, or gay people are widely persecuted?

Ed Butler speaks to Mark McLane, the global head of diversity and inclusion at Barclays, one of the sponsor's of London's pride march this week about what his company is doing in the many countries in which it operates, including the US, where legislation still limits LGBTQ rights. And Nigerian actor Bisi Alimi tells his personal story of why he had to flee his home country because of his sexuality, and why he is now lobbying multinational firms to do more to protect gay and lesbian staff in Nigeria.

(Picture: Ugandan men hold a rainbow flag during the annual gay pride in Entebbe, Uganda; Credit: Isaac Kasamani/AFP/Getty Images)

Living Fast and Slow

Living Fast and Slow

Abbreviated books, short-form TV, time-management gurus - has the cult of speed gone too far and is it time to slow everything down?

Ed Butler speaks to two business people hoping to cash in on our ever more hectic lives: Holger Seim co-founded Blinkist, which offers boiled down versions of long-form non-fiction books, while Perrin Chiles runs Adaptive Studios, which produces TV mini-dramas squeezed into slots that can be as short as 10 minutes.

But rebellion is afoot in the form of Carl Honore, whose unabbreviated book, In Praise of Slowness, pushes back against our culture's supposed need for speed.

(Picture: People rush through Manhattan, New York City; Credit: Georgijevic/Getty Images)

Fighting Fraud in the Food Chain

Fighting Fraud in the Food Chain

Could blockchain technology solve the global problem of food fraud? Rahul Tandon reports on a meat scandal in India and Manuela Saragosa speaks to Jessi Baker, the boss of Provenance, a company that uses the blockchain to make supply chains more transparent, and to Chris Elliott from the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen's University in Belfast in the UK.

(Photo: Cow farming in the UK, Credit: Getty Images)

Battling Mongolia's Pollution Problem

Battling Mongolia's Pollution Problem

Coal fires used to beat the bitter cold of Mongolian winters blanket capital city Ulaanbaatar with smog in the winter, the BBC's Roger Hearing finds, when he meets residents from the Ger District.

Typical sanitation is makeshift and in the form of latrines, says Choikhand Janchivlamdan, a sanitation expert at the Green Initiative. This can lead to the spread of disease. Lost livestock due to harsh winters and a desire for better education is leading people to the city, she says. As people move to the city from the countryside, the problem gets worse as no new sewage systems are built.

Tserenbat Namsrai, Mongolia's environment minister, plans to introduce smokeless fuel in a bid to combat pollution and introducing more electric heating.

Robert Ritz, a US professor who lives in the city, says PM2.5 particulates - that's atmospheric particulate matter that have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres - kill thousands of people per year.

A Spectacular Merger

A Spectacular Merger

Two companies dominate the global eyewear industry - and now they are merging into a glasses behemoth. What does it mean for the bespectacled public?

Manuela Saragosa investigates the story behind these two anonymous giants - Italian fashion frames designer Luxottica, and French lens-maker Essilor - with the help of American eyewear retail pioneer E Dean Martin, and Gordon Ilett of the UK's Association of Optometrists. And she asks the European Commission why they were happy to wave through their merger earlier this year. Producer: Laurence Knight.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: Glasses model frames - black silhouettes isolated on white; Credit: Alxyzt/Getty Images)

Mongolia's Mega Mine

Mongolia's Mega Mine

The gigantic Oyu Tolgoi copper mine will certainly make some people rich, but how many of them will be Mongolian?

Ed Butler speaks to the BBC's Roger Hearing, who is at the mine, fresh from taking a taxi ride hundreds of metres below ground. He has been delving into who will profit more from this vast project in the middle of the Gobi Desert - the Mongolian state or mine operator Rio Tinto. Meanwhile, above ground, the BBC's Joshua Thorpe speaks to some disgruntled herdsmen.

(Picture: Mongolian herdsman; Credit: BBC)

Britain's Brexit Befuddlement

Britain's Brexit Befuddlement

The UK still doesn't know what kind of future trading relationship it wants with the EU, more than two years after voting to leave and with less than nine months left to go.

Ed Butler and BBC politics correspondent Rob Watson explore the difficult choices that London politicians still refuse to face up to. Audrey Tinline looks at one of the most vexing issues in the negotiations - the Irish border. And Ed speaks to Allie Renison of UK business lobby group, the Institute of Directors, about what kind of a deal her member companies would like to see.

(Picture: British Prime Minister Theresa May stands at an EU press conference podium; Credit: JP Black/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Shafaq Live
Shafaq Live
Radio radio icon