Business Daily

By BBC World Service

Business

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The daily drama of money and work from the BBC.

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Climate weighs on German el...

09.27.2021

The fight to succeed popular German chancellor Angela Merkel could not be tighter. In late July the country’s climate policies shot to the top of the political agenda in the wake of devastating, and deadly, floods across western Germany. The ...

Business Daily episodes:

09.27.2021 Climate weighs on German elections The fight to succeed popular German chancellor Angela Merkel could not be tighter. In late July the country’s climate policies shot to the top of the political agenda in the wake of devastating, and deadly, floods across western Germany. The ...
09.25.2021 Business Weekly In just over a month world leaders will meet for a decisive climate change summit - we’ll ask if politicians are willing to accept the end of exponential economic growth in order to protect the planets resources. We’ll hear why ...
09.24.2021 After Merkel: What German companies want Small and medium-sized companies in Germany, the famous "Mittelstand", are fundamental to the German economy, employing more than 60% of the country's workers, according to official figures. Chancellor Angela Merkel is stepping down after sixteen years at the helm, so ...
09.23.2021 Can Ethiopia be brought back from the brink? The country is embroiled in an internal war which has taken a huge humanitarian toll with thousands killed and millions displaced. But that's not the only damage being done to Africa's second most populous nation. The war has incurred a ...
09.22.2021 US war on e-cigarettes The Federal Drugs Administration has withdrawn nearly a million e-cigarettes from the US market. Does this signal a turning point for the vaping industry? Small manufacturers like Amanda Wheeler, owner of Jvapes in Arizona and president of the American Vapor ...
09.21.2021 World gas prices surge Today small energy firms among those struggling to stay afloat as world gas prices spiral. Ed Butler hears from Peter McGirr, who runs Green energy, a UK gas and electricity firm supplying about a quarter of a million households. Higher ...
09.20.2021 Lebanon in dire need The new Lebanese government has been in place for a week, but with the economy still spiraling, Lebanese people lack confidence anything will be done in the short term to relieve the extreme economic crisis. Mohamed El Aassar, Middle East ...
09.18.2021 Business Weekly On Business Weekly, we hear how internal research at Facebook found that social media was harming the mental health of teenage girls. In the UK, the Royal Society of Public Health is calling for social media companies to identify which ...
09.17.2021 The business of seed banks Increasingly scientists are using genetic material from wild plants to make agricultural crops more resilient to climate change. To find out how, Rebecca Kesby heads to the Millennium Seed Bank for the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, in the south of ...
09.16.2021 The US and its trillion dollar infrastructure bill The physical infrastructure of the United States is crumbling and businesses there are feeling the effects. So why is this bill that aims to restore roads, bridges and communications facing such a treacherous political road ahead? Successive Presidents have tried ...
09.15.2021 The future of vaccines The founders of German biotechnology company BioNTech were researching how to fight cancers using messenger RNA, "the unloved cousin of DNA", when covid-19 first appeared and they realised mRNA could be used to make a vaccine for the disease. Financial ...
09.14.2021 Rethinking tourism in Africa Tourism in Africa, even before the pandemic, was still not bringing in as many visitor dollars as it might. But, from stargazing trips to plans for a brand-new museum of evolution, we hear from the people changing perceptions around holidays ...
09.13.2021 Does sustainable investing make any difference? Is corporate social responsibility, so called "greenwashing", really changing carbon emitting businesses or just making it look that way? Canadian businessman Tariq Fancy used to work as Blackrock's Chief Investment Officer for sustainable investing. He tells Ed Butler why he ...
09.11.2021 Business Weekly In this edition of Business Weekly, we look at why one of the poorest countries in Latin America, El Salvador, decided to make Bitcoin legal tender. We also find out what happened when the cryptocurrency crashed on the first day ...
09.10.2021 Where have the UK's lorry drivers gone? The UK's suffering a huge shortage of lorry drivers, but where have 100,000 drivers gone? The shortage is now having an impact on everything from chicken in restaurants, to mattresses in furniture shops, fuel at pumps and even beer in ...
09.08.2021 Reviving Kenya’s ancient trading port Lamu, once a bustling gateway to the Indian Ocean, has seen its fortunes decline in recent decades, not least because of its position near the border with Somalia, and the threat from militants. But earlier this year a new deep ...
09.07.2021 Where next for AI? AI will be the defining development of the 21st century and in the next two decades it is set to transform our lives. Kai Fu Lee, a former CEO of Google China and AI pioneer tells us that the technology ...
09.06.2021 Kenya and coronavirus During coronavirus, while case numbers have seemed relatively low, there’s been a huge economic impact on many Kenyans. We hear from the BBC’s Michael Kaloki about the particular challenges of the Kibera slum, from single mother and Kibera resident Josephine, ...
09.04.2021 Business Weekly On Business Weekly, we hear from the World Meteorological Organisation which has been tracking weather-related disasters for the last 50 years. We look at the economic and human cost of extreme weather - and ask if anything, really, can be ...
09.03.2021 Should you trust reviews? When are reviews real and when are they fake? We'll be asking a range of guests whether it's ok to be paid to do a review and how online sites can detect fraudulent write ups. We’ll also hear why negative ...
09.02.2021 OnlyFans flip flops on porn Why did one of the world's best-known porn provider platforms, OnlyFans, decide to ban porn? The controversial site has become a global phenomenon over the last five years, but its decision to outlaw adult content got everyone talking. It appeared ...
09.01.2021 Life after Messi: FC Barcelona's financial mess How did one of the world's biggest sporting brands end up in such a financial mess? FC Barcelona's collapse, from European Champions League winning juggernaut, to unable to register its players under salary cap rules took less than a decade. ...
08.31.2021 Child marriage is getting worse in India Closed schools and economic hardship due to Coronavirus are seeing more young girls married off. We’ll hear from a young girl who managed to resist her family’s attempts to marry her to an older man. But many other young girls ...
08.30.2021 Is office wear dead? Many of us are preparing go back into the office but after more than a year of working from home for a lot of people, have we forgotten how to dress professionally? Or are we chomping at the bit to ...
08.28.2021 Business Weekly While the eyes of the world are on Afghanistan and the US withdrawal, the American Vice President is trying to generate some headlines of her own during a charm offensive in South East Asia. We’ll hear what she’s been saying ...
08.27.2021 From 'nudge' to 'sludge' Nobel laureate Richard Thaler talks about why his and Cass Sunstein's 'nudge' theory needs a re-boot.
08.26.2021 Life under the Taliban Gaisu fled the Taliban when she was 18. Now she's fleeing again. Speaking to the BBC's Tamasin Ford, Gaisu recounts being engaged to the son of a local warlord at age 6, fleeing to the United States at 18, and ...
08.25.2021 Sexism, tribalism and housing Finding a place to live in Nigeria’s big cities. Finding somewhere to live can be stressful wherever you are in the world. But in Lagos, Africa’s fastest growing city, add in sexism, tribalism and stumping up more than a year’s ...
08.24.2021 The economics of the Taliban The economy of Afghanistan is collapsing as remittances and foreign aid dry up. As the militant Taliban consolidate their control over the country, it's unclear whether they will be capable, or even interested, in propping up the economy to prevent ...
08.23.2021 'Youngism' in the workplace Age discrimination doesn't just affect the elderly. The BBC's Tamasin Ford speaks with Priscilla and Nadirah about the discrimination they've experienced as young people in the workplace. We'll also hear from Michael North, an assistant professor of management and organisations ...
08.21.2021 Business Weekly As the Taliban takes control of Afghanistan this week, we ask what the future holds for the country. The central bank governor, Ajmal Ahmady, who fled earlier this week, tells us about the days and weeks leading up to the ...
08.20.2021 Rethinking time All our lives are ruled by time and it's a fundamental part of our daily routines but what if we could make time go more slowly - or quickly? Adrian Bejan, a professor in thermodynamics at Duke University says that ...
08.19.2021 Controversial new Alzheimer's drug in the spotlight After decades without progress, this June a new treatment was approved by the US Food and Drugs Administration - Biogen's Aduhelm. Ivana Davidovic looks into why this process has been so controversial that is now under investigation by a federal ...
08.18.2021 Should our photos and messages always be private? Apple is to scan users' iPhones for images of child abuse. Privacy advocates are dismayed. They say it's a slippery slope to monitoring a wider range of content. Andy Burrows from the UK's NSPCC tells us why Apple's move is ...
08.17.2021 Killer robots Are these the future of modern warfare and how concerned should we be? There are efforts to limit the development of these weapons. More than 50 nations met at the UN in Geneva this month to discuss a possible treaty. ...
08.16.2021 Sexism in the alcohol industry Women in the drinks industry share their stories to try to change the way women are treated in pubs, clubs and bars. After many shared stories of harassment in craft breweries, the consensus is: enough is enough. Charlotte Cook, an ...
08.13.2021 No boss, no problems A young entrepreneur builds the ‘happiest company in the world’, an online shoe retailer so profitable that Amazon snaps it up for over a billion dollars. But what if the company’s profits and happiness could be boosted by a radical ...
08.12.2021 Neurodiversity at work Neurodiversity is a broad term inclusive of a number of very different things including, but not limited to, autism, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia. And until relatively recently, it's not something that many workplaces have paid much attention to. But rethinking ...
08.11.2021 Electrifying Sierra Leone Bringing electricity to his village for the first time, we speak with Jeremiah Thoronka in Sierra Leone about the challenges of energy inequality in the country. As a teenager, using kinetic energy, Jeremiah changed the lives of hundreds of people ...
08.10.2021 Bitcoin ban has opposite effect in Nigeria Bitcoin’s popularity in Nigeria has exploded – with one of the youngest populations in the world, coupled with a high unemployment rate, its popularity was almost inevitable. Many young Nigerians are attracted to cryptocurrencies as an alternative and quick way ...
08.09.2021 Doping in eSports: the billion-dollar pill Doping is a growing problem in the multi-billion dollar industry of competitive online gaming – but remains an open secret. As prize money runs in to the millions, are more young people turning to drugs to stay focused to win? ...
08.07.2021 Business Weekly On this edition of Business Weekly, we look into Lebanon’s economy - a country going through the worst economic crisis since its civil war of the 70s and 80s, with severe disruption to basic services and food shortages. We also ...
08.06.2021 The company that invented the future Simulmatics Corporation pioneered data analytics in the 1960s - raising the same qualms then as fake news and social media manipulation do today. Manuela Saragosa speaks to historian Jill Lepore, whose book "If Then: How Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future" ...
08.04.2021 China's Tech Crackdown Is China's behavior towards its innovators separating the country further from the world? That's the question on everybody's mind, as the Chinese authorities continue to exert their political power over the country's rising tech companies. George Magnus, associate at the ...
08.03.2021 Why isn't Africa producing vaccines? Less than two percent of Africa’s population has been vaccinated against Covid-19. Could homegrown vaccines be the solution? If so, why isn’t it happening? Is it an issue with patents and intellectual property rights? Is big pharma standing in the ...
08.02.2021 GMOs - from 'Frankenfoods' to Superfoods? Since they first appeared in the nineties, GMOs have remained wildly unpopular with consumers, who see them as potentially sinister tools of big agricultural companies. Ivana Davidovic explores if the new scientific developments might make them shed their bad image. ...
07.31.2021 Business Weekly This week the major technology companies posted record-breaking quarterly results, as they reaped the benefits of a world in lockdown. However, as politicians seek to curb their power, will they be able to keep making such vast amounts of money ...
07.30.2021 The rise of digital therapy Mental health care apps have boomed during the pandemic. But can receiving therapy through an app ever be as good as face to face? And do they raise concerns over our privacy? Tamasin Ford speaks to Brad Kettridge, founder and ...
07.29.2021 Miles Copeland's life in the music business Lessons from nearly fifty years producing and managing bands, with industry veteran Miles Copeland III. From brilliantly promoting his brother's band The Police, to founding a record label for all the misfits in the industry: the Buzzcocks, the Cramps, The ...
07.28.2021 The billionaire space race Why Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are battling it out among the stars. Ed Butler speaks to Brad Stone, author of the book Amazon Unbound, about Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's lifelong obsession with space, and to Christian Davenport, space reporter ...

Older episodes

Business Daily

What's Business Daily about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Business Daily episodes:

Climate weighs on German elections

Business Weekly

After Merkel: What German companies want

Can Ethiopia be brought back from the brink?

US war on e-cigarettes

World gas prices surge

Lebanon in dire need

Business Weekly

The business of seed banks

The US and its trillion dollar infrastructure bill

The future of vaccines

Rethinking tourism in Africa

Does sustainable investing make any difference?

Business Weekly

Where have the UK's lorry drivers gone?

Reviving Kenya’s ancient trading port

Where next for AI?

Kenya and coronavirus

Business Weekly

Should you trust reviews?

OnlyFans flip flops on porn

Life after Messi: FC Barcelona's financial mess

Child marriage is getting worse in India

Is office wear dead?

Business Weekly

From 'nudge' to 'sludge'

Life under the Taliban

Sexism, tribalism and housing

The economics of the Taliban

'Youngism' in the workplace

Business Weekly

Rethinking time

Controversial new Alzheimer's drug in the spotlight

Should our photos and messages always be private?

Killer robots

Sexism in the alcohol industry

No boss, no problems

Neurodiversity at work

Electrifying Sierra Leone

Bitcoin ban has opposite effect in Nigeria

Doping in eSports: the billion-dollar pill

Business Weekly

The company that invented the future

China's Tech Crackdown

Why isn't Africa producing vaccines?

GMOs - from 'Frankenfoods' to Superfoods?

Business Weekly

The rise of digital therapy

Miles Copeland's life in the music business

The billionaire space race

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