Best of Today

By BBC Radio 4

Listen to selected highlights from the Today programme.

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FAQs about Best of Today:

How many episodes does Best of Today have?

The podcast currently has 581 episodes available.

Best of Today episodes:

July 05, 2023 ‘We have some huge challenges‘ says NHS Chief Exec.
On its 75th anniversary, Today’s Justin Webb explores the challenges faced by the NHS and considers its future.
Justin speaks to Lesley Watts, the chief executive of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, and Robert Bleasdale, the hospital’s chief nurse. They discuss how the NHS has evolved over the years, and whether we should be optimistic about its future.
Justin then speaks to Amanda Pritchard, the Chief Executive of NHS England, who discusses the future challenges, and how the government can help reduce pressure on the NHS.
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19min
July 05, 2023 Today Summer Guest Editors
Back in March we asked you, our listeners, if you would like to have a go at making your own edition of the Today programme, to mark 20 years of our guest editors. We asked you to get into teams of three to six people and send us your ideas - and thousands of you did.
Our team have spent the last few months going through all your applications, and we called on the help of some former guest editors to make the decision.
Today's Amol Rajan reveals who we'll be making the programmes with.
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6min
July 05, 2023 Today Debate: Is the housing market broken?
The Today Debate is about taking a subject and pulling it apart with more time than we could ever have during the programme in the morning.
Today presenter Mishal Husain is joined by a panel of guests in the BBC's Radio Theatre, where in front of a live audience, they discuss the current state of the housing market.
On the panel are George Clarke, architect and broadcaster; David Simmonds the Conservative MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Planning; David O'Leary from the Home Builders Federation, which represents housebuilders in England and Wales; Claer Barrett, Consumer Editor for the Financial Times and Richard Fearon, Chief Executive of the Leeds Building Society.
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37min
July 04, 2023 "It’s a very raw space for us… we’re both returning to life”
Rachel Eliza Griffiths' first novel 'Promise' is published a year after her husband, the author Sir Salman Rushdie, was nearly killed in a knife attack.
The novel is a story of hope and resistance set during the early phase of the US civil rights movement.
Today’s Mishal Husain interviewed Rachel Eliza Griffiths to explore the influence of her mother, who was born during the period in which the novel takes place.
Rachel also reflected on the trauma of the near-fatal attack on her husband and said they had both been “very, very grateful and appreciative for the compassion and kindness on an international level” which had been shown to them in its aftermath.
Image credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
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7min
July 03, 2023 June heatwave threatens fish and insects
The UK's hottest June on record caused unprecedented deaths of fish in rivers and disturbed insects and plants, environment groups have warned.
The BBC’s Climate Editor, Justin Rowlatt, was at Knowle Locks in Solihull looking at some of the effects of this heatwave on fisheries.
Today’s Mishal Husain spoke to John Ellis, the national fisheries manager at the Canal & River Trust. He explained that when it’s warmer fish need more oxygen, but as the temperatures rise water holds less of it.
Mishal also spoke to Emily Shuckburgh, the Director of Cambridge Zero, who emphasised the need for action on climate change.
Image credit: Getty Images
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11min
June 27, 2023 'Cricket is not for all'
A long-awaited report into English and Welsh cricket finds that racism, sexism, and class bias are "widespread".
The chair of the report, Cindy Butts, spoke to Today's Nick Robinson about how the sport has 'institutional and structural discrimination'.
Martha Kearney put the report to the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, who accepted all the findings and promised action on equal pay for female cricketers.
(Image credit: Cricket bat and ball, Getty Images)
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13min
June 26, 2023 Tyrone Mings: An end to homelessness?
The Prince of Wales's charitable foundation is putting in £3m of start-up funding to help make homelessness "rare, brief and unrepeated".
Six locations across the UK will be used to test ideas to cut homelessness.
"Everyone should have a safe and secure home and be treated with dignity," says Prince William.
But Prince William will also face challenges about how someone with such wealth and extensive property holdings can make such calls over homelessness.
Mishal Husain was joined in the studio by Lord William Hague, who chairs the prince's Royal Foundation and the footballer Tyrone Mings, a supporter of the plan after experiencing homelessness as a child.
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10min
June 23, 2023 Are supermarkets profiteering in an era of high food prices?
The Prime Minister has raised concerns over the price of weekly shopping bills for average consumers.
On Thursday Rishi Sunak said: ‘We are looking at the supermarkets, making sure they are behaving responsibly and fairly.’
Latest figures released on Wednesday showed that the inflation figure has remained much higher than expected, for the fourth month in a row. The Bank of England has raised interest rates for the 13th consecutive time – from 4.5% to 5% – to try to stop such rapid price rises.
Today’s Nick Robinson spoke to Andy Clarke, who is now Chairman of operational improvement company Newton Europe and to Kathleen Kerridge, anti-food poverty campaigner and Chair of the Lived Experience Panel at the Food Foundation.
(Image, Customer in supermarket aisle, Credit, Yui Mok PA)
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11min
June 22, 2023 Interest rate rise expected
The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates for a 13th consecutive time on Thursday as it tries to stop prices rising so quickly.

On Wednesday it was revealed that UK inflation had remained much higher than expected for the fourth month in a row and Karen Ward, a member of chancellor Jeremy Hunt's economic advisory council, told Today that the Bank had "been too hesitant" in its interest rate rises so far and called on it to "create a recession" to curb soaring prices.

Today’s Amol Rajan spoke to the Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, about what the governments immediate plans were to tackle inflation. Nick Robinson spoke to the Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, about what approach a Labour government would take to slowing the rapid rise in prices.

(Image, Bank of England, Credit Yui Mok PA)
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18min
June 21, 2023 Fall in inflation fails to materialise
The UK's inflation rate stayed at 8.7% in May despite hopes of a fall. BBC Economics editor Faisal Islam joined Nick Robinson and Mishal Husain in the studio to breakdown the inflation figures.
Core inflation – which strips out energy and food costs - is at its highest level in the UK for more than 30 years, increasing the likelihood that the Bank of England will raise rates on Thursday.
The Office for National Statistics’ chief economist explained what’s behind the rise. Karen Ward, from JP Morgan Asset Management, told Mishal Husain there are signs that a wage-price spiral is emerging, which the Bank "has to nip in the bud".
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17min

FAQs about Best of Today:

How many episodes does Best of Today have?

The podcast currently has 581 episodes available.