Beyond Today

It was a pretty grim general election for Labour last year. As a result Jeremy Corbyn announced he would be stepping down. There are now just four MPs in the running to replace him: Jess Phillips dropped out while we were making this episode.

The ultimate task of any leader of the opposition is to get their party back into power. In this episode Bex Bailey, a producer from the BBC’s politics team, profiles the contenders. We also hear from The Times columnist Rachel Sylvester about where Labour got it wrong, and where they could go wrong again.

Presenter: Tina Daheley

Blue Monday is supposedly the saddest day of the year. 15 years ago that idea was debunked, yet every year in the UK #bluemonday trends on Twitter and the internet is flooded with deals for holidays, ‘wellness’ deals and products offering to boost our mood.

In this episode we look at the discomfort around brands adopting mental health awareness as part of their marketing strategy with psychiatry researcher Melisa Kose. We unpack the mythical origins of the Blue Monday with the BBC’s head of statistics, Robert Cuffe. We also speak to Carmen Papaluca, from University of Notre Dame in Australia, who has studied how the aspirational aspects of Instagram damage the mental wellbeing of young women she teaches.

Presenter: Tina Daheley

Sex Education, the delightfully uncensored drama about the life of a sex therapist’s awkward teenage son, has landed on Netflix for its second series. Last season the show racked up 40 million views in the first month after release. Why? Perhaps because it tackles all the topics adults and teenagers alike have been too embarrassed to discuss. From chlamydia in the eye, to excessive masturbation, it isn’t afraid to go there. Its stars, Otis, Eric and Ola, played by Asa Butterfield, Trish Allison and Ncuti Gatwa came into the Beyond Today studio to teach Tina about Vaginismus and tell us why they think Sex Education should be compulsory viewing in schools.

Presented by Tina Daheley

After the US killed one of Iran’s senior generals in a drone strike some people were worried we were on the brink of World War 3. Iran threatened revenge, and fired on a US air base in Iraq. But in doing so it made a colossal mistake, downing a commercial aircraft and killing the 176 passengers and crew on board.

The BBC’s Middle East correspondent Quentin Sommerville, who has just returned from the Al Asad air base in Iraq, and the BBC Persian Service’s Rana Rahimpour join us to explain how Iran’s strike has had consequences they weren’t expecting.

Presenter: Matthew Price

This year's Oscar nominations have reignited the row about representation in Hollywood. 19 of the 20 acting nominees this year are white - the highest number since the #OscarsSoWhite outcries of 2015 and 2016. No women have been nominated for best director. That means that over the past 10 years, 49 out of the 50 best director nominees have been men. That's despite huge support for Greta Gerwig for her adaptation of Little Women.

Are the Academy Awards changing fast enough? In this episode we speak to Anna Smith, film critic and host of the Girls On Film podcast who tells us why the nominations process is flawed. We also hear from BBC entertainment correspondent Colin Paterson, who has been covering the Oscars for 20 years, to explore why progress seems so slow.

Presenter: Matthew Price

Over the past decade a tension has emerged between Big Tech’s utopian vision of an AI future and the reality that many jobs are being threatened by data-driven automation. Many of us may suspect that artificial intelligence is going to transform the world of work, but exactly how isn’t always clear. The economist Daniel Susskind has written a book called ‘A World Without Work’ which considers how technology is shaping the economy. He spoke to Tina Daheley about how we overestimate our own job skills, the true meaning of work, and what we can all do to can prepare for an unrecognisable job market.

Presenter: Tina Daheley

This month Reynhard Sinaga was found guilty of drugging, raping and sexually assaulting 48 men. The judge told the 36-year-old student from Indonesia that he will “never be safe to be released”. Sinaga targeted young men on nights out in Manchester and lured them back to his flat where he would spike their drinks with GHB, a date rape drug, filming the attacks on his phone. Sinaga was offending for over two years before he was caught. Many of his victims were unaware they had been raped until they were contacted by the police.

In this episode we speak to BBC journalist Daniel De Simone, who covered the trials, and Endang Nurdin from the BBC’s Indonesia Service, to hear how the story has been received there. We also talk to forensic toxicologist Simon Elliot about the dangers of GHB.

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this article, help and support can be found on the BBC Action Line website.

Presenter: Matthew Price

We know that the NHS is under immense pressure, especially this time of year when it’s at its busiest. But January is also the month of resolutions, often health-focused ones such as giving up booze and getting fit. Even though these easily-adopted behaviours help to keep us away from the doctor, sticking to them can be difficult.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee might have the solution. He is a GP, author of the new book ‘Feel Better in 5’, and he presents the most popular health podcast on iTunes. We got him into the Beyond Today studio to talk stress, libido and gut health.

Presenter: Tina Daheley

Yesterday Prince Harry and Meghan announced they will be stepping back from their roles as senior royals. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made their announcement on Instagram, stating that they plan to split their time between the UK and North America and want to become financially independent. Their decision has come as a bit of a shock, not least to the Queen, who apparently wasn’t consulted before their statement was made.

We speak to Jonny Dymond, the BBC’s royal correspondent, who explains whether Harry and Meghan will be able to have their ‘happily ever after’ and, as they put it, “continue to fully support Her Majesty the Queen”.

Presenter: Tina Daheley

A British teenager has been given a four-month suspended sentence after being found guilty of lying about gang-rape in Cyprus. The 19-year-old was convicted following a trial after recanting a claim that she was raped in a hotel room in July. The woman has said Cypriot police made her falsely confess to lying about the incident at a hotel - something police have denied. Human rights groups and lawyers say she’s been failed by the Cypriot legal system. Some of the men and boys she first accused of raping her have been celebrated back in Israel where they come from. There’s a lot about this case that doesn’t make sense. In this episode BBC reporters Anna Holligan and Tom Bateman pick apart the case to try to find out what led to a sentence that has caused so much hurt and outrage.

Presenter: Matthew Price