BBC Radio 4 Podcasts

In the last of the current series, Andy Zaltzman and the panel take on the week's headlines.Ayesha Hazarika, Matt Winning, Geoff Norcott and Elis James join Andy in 'convivial, fraternal spirit' to look take a close look at COP26, and whether Brian Cox is right about earth's extinction leaving the galaxy bereft of meaning. They also discuss Southen…

Critics Michael Donkor and Jan Asante review actor Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut feature film Passing and the series Colin in Black and White, about former NFL player Colin Kaepernick.In the fifth of our Booker Prize Book Groups, listeners put their questions to author Richard Powers, shortlisted for the second time for his novel Bewilderment. H…

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said extra public spending, wage increases and benefit changes in yesterday's Budget would make little difference in living standards for manyBy BBC Radio 4

This week London's Ultra Low Emission Zone was extended to 18 times its previous size. In an effort to cut levels of various nitrogen oxides and other gases dangerous to humans from urban air, cities encouraging lower emission vehicles is a trend soon stretching across the UK and other European countries. But some are sceptical as to their efficacy…

Why does my heart not ache after exercise? asks listener Keith. Rutherford and Fry explore how and why heart muscle cells are special.Dr Mitch Lomax is a sports scientist at the University of Portsmouth. She helps actual Olympic swimmers get faster. She explains how most of the muscles attached to our skeletons work: Tiny fibres use small-scale cel…

28 OCT 21By BBC Radio 4

Women in the military are suffering serious long term physical and mental health problems because of widespread bullying and sexual harassment. Research by the University of Oxford, King’s College London and the charity Combat Stress found over 20% were sexually harassed, over 5% were sexually assaulted and over 20% were emotionally bullied. Laura …

Sudan has this week experienced yet another military coup, with generals seizing power, locking up elected officials and declaring a state of emergency. They insist this was all done in order to help the country move towards democracy; they have promised elections, though not until 2023. It is only two years since a popular uprising overthrew Sudan…

Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has set out the government's tax and spending plans for the year ahead. Today's Martha Kearney speaks to him about the autumn Budget and how it will affect families. Today's Justin Webb gets Budget analysis from Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and Labour Party reaction from Shado…

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the simple animals which informed Charles Darwin's first book, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, published in 1842. From corals, Darwin concluded that the Earth changed very slowly and was not fashioned by God. Now coral reefs, which some liken to undersea rainforests, are threatened by human activity, i…

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the simple animals which informed Charles Darwin's first book, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, published in 1842. From corals, Darwin concluded that the Earth changed very slowly and was not fashioned by God. Now coral reefs, which some liken to undersea rainforests, are threatened by human activity, i…

In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspectiveBy BBC Radio 4

Front Row visits Truro to report on the re-opening of the Hall for Cornwall after a 3 year, £26million refurbishment. The new 1300 auditorium complements the granite of the old building, and the Cornish landscape. And the opening show – the world premiere of the Fisherman’s Friends musical, of course.We hear from Matt Hemley, News Editor for The St…

The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has delivered a Budget he said would help build an economy fit for a new age of post-Covid optimism.By BBC Radio 4

What will Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Autumn Budget mean for your personal or household finances? Paul Lewis and guests would love to hear your views and questions on Wednesday's Money Box Live. Joining Paul are:Laura Suter, Head of Personal Finance, A J Bell Heather Self, Corporate Partner, Blick RothenbergMike Brewer, Chief Economist, The Resolution…

Covid: Laurie Taylor explores the financial impact of the coronavirus & asks if it represents an opportunity, as well as a crisis. He's joined by Lisa Suckert, Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, whose recent study examines the way in which the pandemic has disrupted our sense of time and the tempora…

27 OCT 21By BBC Radio 4

We talk to an Afghan family housed in one of the many hotels which have become home for thousands of others like them. Many families and children often struggle to exercise which has an impact on their physical and mental health.BBC producer Sue Mitchell a keen swimmer is working with them to enable them to be able to make use of hotel and local au…

In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspectiveBy BBC Radio 4

Flying London to New York and back. 244 times every day. For half a year. That’s the size of the carbon footprint of all the personal protective equipment used in health and social care in England during the first six months of the pandemic. So I take a look at how the NHS is going green including efforts to make a reusable facemask. Also, a shorta…

With an ageing population, it’s estimated that over one million people in the UK will be living with dementia by 2025. But what happens when someone with the condition is deliberately targeted and led into marriage for the financial gain of the partner? Unlike in Scotland, marriage in England and Wales revokes any previous will that may have been m…

Patricia Lockwood is the latest author to join our Booker Prize Book Groups. Three listeners will ask her about No One Is Talking About This, a novel that’s been described as “ferociously original”, exploring a relationship with the online world and how it changes when an incredibly moving event happens in real life.The Science Museum has come in f…

Unions and Labour have called for a promise of a real terms increase to counter the rising cost of living.By BBC Radio 4

Writers Musa Okwonga (One of Them, Striking Out) and Sophie Heawood (The Hungover Games) share their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Musa chooses The Bone Readers by Jacob Ross, a crime novel set in the Caribbean. Sophie picks Lunch Poems, a collection by Frank O'Hara written on the streets of New York and Harriett introduces them to An Expe…

Abandoned by its entire population in 1930, St Kilda has been uninhabited ever since. What's it like to spend six months with the birds on one of Britain's most isolated islands?Conor McKinney is a naturalist and broadcaster with what might be- depending on your personality- either the best job in the world or the worst. St Kilda is seriously isola…

Four semi-finalists join Russell Davies in the challenging general knowledge contest.By BBC Radio 4

Budget 2021: What do you want to change? We hear from Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director of the Women’s Budget group, an independent not-for-profit organisation that monitors the impact of government policies on men and women When you look back over your past relationships do you see patterns? Whether it’s being drawn to bad boys, ending up with narciss…

Today's Nick Robinson visits Royal Preston Hospital a year on from his last visit, when the city in Lancashire was the country's COVID hotspot. He speaks to doctors at the hospital about the situation there now and a new treatment which they hope will reduce further transmission. Nick also hears from patients there recovering from Coronavirus who w…

Good morning. A few days ago I came back from a wonderful week in Portugal, the first time for my husband and I without any of our children with us. Before we went I’d been reading up a bit about Portugal and its history. During the 8th to 13th centuries, Muslims, also known as Moors, ruled over large parts of Portugal and Spain. A Jewish friend po…

The huge popularity of meerkats is in no small part down to Professor Tim Clutton-Brock, zoologist and evolutionary biologist of the University of Cambridge.‘Meerkat Manor’ and many natural history TV documentaries that have followed the lives of these small appealing mongooses were filmed at the field research centre in South Africa which Tim set …

It's 75 years since the judgement at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. Nineteen high ranking Nazis were found guilty of war crimes, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and conspiracy to commit those crimes. Twelve of them were condemned to death. The trial, which lasted almost a year, made history and the principles of int…

In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspectiveBy BBC Radio 4

Splitting up where children are involved is tricky. Especially when it ends up in the family courts. It’s even more tricky when a child decides they don’t want a relationship with one of the parents. Over the last two decades a controversial psychological concept has emerged to describe a situation where children - for no apparent reason - decide t…

In the first instalment of our new series, Inside the Songs, Paul McCartney talks about his life and song-writing through the prism of ten key lyrics, beginning with The Beatles’ classic All My Loving.Poet Paul Muldoon discusses working with Paul McCartney on his intimate and revealing new book, The Lyrics, and explains why he sees McCartney as a g…

Millions are to get a pay rise in April when the National Living Wage increases to £9.50. Labour say higher energy bills & changes to Universal Credit will cancel out any windfallBy BBC Radio 4

Good morning. Last week I had to go clothes shopping. My dog has eaten all my socks; the moths have eaten all my jumpers. I generally try to buy a replica of what I had before and so, on the hunt for a mustard coloured v-neck, I wandered into a department store - only to discover that they are already decorated for Christmas. In October. Normally I…

If you want to send a message without any chance of it being intercepted then end-to-end encryption services are the way to do it. Governments and intelligence agencies can’t even intercept these messages, without compromising the phone they’re sent or received on, because the tech companies themselves don’t even have access. In the pursuit of prot…

This week, while teaching a class on mysticism, I showed my students a picture of the mythical King Oedipus. It showed him raging for answers as to why nature was suffering and his people ill or dying. On the palace walls behind him were paintings of past generations caught in an inherited web of tragedy alongside trees, animals and crops – all cry…

Last week, a whole new set of climate-related phrases entered the Oxford English Dictionary including global heating, eco-anxiety and net zero. But despite being increasingly used in conversation, do people really know what terms like 'net zero' mean - and what is the general public willing to do to get us there? Prof Becky Willis from Lancaster Un…

Can you be friends with someone who’s politically very different? Are anti-vaxxers welcome in your house? Have you fallen out over anyone over Meghan Markle? What about climate change deniers? Someone who insists All Lives Matter? Someone who boos footballers taking the knee? Someone who paid to go and see Nigel Farage? In Geoff Norcott's new Radio…

Labour joins calls from doctors' leaders and health unions for the government to reimpose some Covid restrictions in England, saying the vaccine rollout is losing traction.By BBC Radio 4

Elizabeth Day talks to Sarah Hall about her latest novel, BurntcoatBy BBC Radio 4

Netflix has announced that South Korean survival drama Squid Game is its most popular series ever. We scrutinise the statistics behind the claim, and look at the odds of surviving one of the show’s deadly contests.By BBC Radio 4

The hospitality sector has a problem: it just can't get the staff.Businesses from bars to hotels are facing a massive worker shortage, as job vacancies in the sector hit their highest levels since records began. Last month, in an open letter to the government, various hospitality professionals warned that the sector was “close to imploding” because…

Michael Sandel is a political philosopher and professor of government theory at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has also presented the BBC Radio 4 series The Public Philosopher and The Global Philosopher, in which he examines the thinking behind a current controversy.His books have tackled the idea of meritocracy and the moral li…

The UK’s ‘strictest’ headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh has landed a new role as head of the Social Mobility Commission, a public body designed to boost the life chances of the country's most disadvantaged children.Born to Jamaican and Guyanese immigrants, Katharine Birbalsingh first rose to prominence at the 2010 Tory party conference. Her speech a…

City region leaders in England say more will be needed than the initial £6.9 billionBy BBC Radio 4

The former presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has a new book out, “State of Terror”, a political thriller written with the award winning author Louise Penny. The two women were already friends before deciding to pen the novel which features a President who “smells of meat” and appears to resemble Donald Trump and a British Prime Minister…

The government has launched its new green investment bond for savers. The money raised will go to the Treasury and it says help pay for existing green priorities such as making transport cleaner and supporting energy efficiency. Individuals can put up to £100,000 into the National Savings & Investments green bond. It will pay 0.65% a year for three…