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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Are Western free-market eco...

10.15.2019

We hear the arguments of leading US academic and author, Daniel Markovits, whose book The Meritocracy Trap argues that meritocracy in the United States is a myth that fuels inequality. The principle of one US private school outlines the role ...

Business Daily episodes:

10.15.2019 Are Western free-market economies really meritocratic? We hear the arguments of leading US academic and author, Daniel Markovits, whose book The Meritocracy Trap argues that meritocracy in the United States is a myth that fuels inequality. The principle of one US private school outlines the role ...
10.14.2019 How to be angry From hotheads to curmudgeons, is anger always bad for business? Can anger management techniques help? Or should we put our wrath to profitable use? Laurence Knight speaks to an entrepreneur who hit the headlines following an air rage incident about ...
10.11.2019 The vaping scare and big tobacco Why health concerns over vaping is bad for cigarette companies. In the US hundreds of illnesses and even some deaths have been linked to vaping. That's bad news for a tobacco industry looking for a long-term replacement for cigarettes. Manuela ...
10.10.2019 Losing your mind at work On World Mental Health Day, we hear the experiences of people who've suffered a mental health breakdown at work, and ask what employers can do to support them. We hear from Ian Stuart, the UK CEO of the global bank ...
10.09.2019 Why whistleblowers need protection A new EU directive grants new legal rights to those reporting corporate and government misbehaviour. Ed Butler asks David Lewis, professor of employment law at Middlesex University, how significant the new legal framework is and why it was needed. Plus ...
10.08.2019 Choose your own pay What happens when a company lets its employees decide what their salaries should be? Will anyone ask to be paid less? A number of tech companies are finding out, as they see it as a way of achieving greater fairness ...
10.07.2019 The George Soros conspiracy Why one financier is the target of a global conspiracy theory. Manuela Saragosa speaks to the BBC's Mike Rudin, who made a recent documentary on the Soros conspiracy, and to Joe Uscinski, associate professor of political science at the University ...
10.04.2019 End of the road for US truckers? Truck drivers and the robots that could replace them. Jahd Khalil visits a truck stop in the US state of Virginia to find out why there's a chronic shortage of truckers in the US. Robert Brown from the robotics company ...
10.03.2019 The right to repair Why is it so hard to fix your own things? Ed Butler speaks to those campaigning for manufacturers to make it easier for us to fix our electronics goods - everything from tractors to smartphones. Clare Seek runs a Repair ...
10.02.2019 The search for sustainable fabric Modern textiles are environmentally problematic. Cotton needs gallons of water to produce, while polyester comes from crude oil. So could organic materials such as mushrooms and banana leaves hold the answer? Manuela Saragosa speaks to Dr Richard Blackburn, chemistry professor ...
10.01.2019 The onward march of Chinese debt Is the rapid build up of consumer and corporate credit a threat to China's economic wellbeing? On the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, Ed Butler asks whether the increasing dependence on debt of this officially communist ...
09.30.2019 Brexit and the currency speculators Some traders are betting on the UK crashing out of the EU without a divorce agreement. Should we be concerned that they wield too much political influence? Both the British Prime Minister's sister Rachel Johnson, and the former Conservative finance ...
09.27.2019 WeWork and the cult of the CEO How WeWork's Adam Neumann lost his job after a disastrous attempt to list the company on the stock market. Manuela Saragosa speaks to the Wall Street Journal's Eliot Brown about the charisma of Adam Neumann and how it helped raise ...
09.26.2019 Climate Action: Should we plant more trees? Ed Butler speaks to Professor Tom Crowther from the Swiss university ETH Zurich, who says planting billions of trees around the world is by far the biggest and cheapest way to tackle climate change. Marcelo Guimaraes, chairman of Mahogany Roraima, ...
09.25.2019 Climate Action: The moral imperative What is our ethical duty to eliminate carbon emissions? Was Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg right to express such anger at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York this week? Justin Rowlatt asks leading moral philosopher Peter Singer, professor ...
09.24.2019 Climate Action: Uninhabitable Earth Just how bad will it get if the world fails to get to grips with climate change? On day two of the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, Justin Rowlatt speaks to David Wallace-Wells, author of the apocalyptic book ...
09.23.2019 Climate Action: Greta Thunberg's mission The Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg explains how she aims to get the world's governments gathered for the UN Climate Action Summit in New York to take meaningful action on global warming. Justin Rowlatt speaks to her about her ambitions ...
09.20.2019 The future of Facebook What next for the social media giant? Jane Wakefield speaks to one former mentor of Mark Zuckerberg, and a British member of parliament about what changes Facebook needs to make after data scandals and concerns over its power. (Photo: Facebook ...
09.19.2019 Robot race cars and AI What robots driving cars can tell us about artificial intelligence. Ed Butler speaks to Bryn Balcombe, chief strategy officer of the autonomous vehicle project Roborace. Gary Marcus, professor of psychology at New York University, explains why he thinks AI development ...
09.18.2019 Trading tinned fish and powdered milk How economies spring up in extreme places from refugee camps to prisons. Ed Butler speaks to economist Richard Davies, author of a new book called Extreme Economies, who describes the economic activity in extreme places, from a Syrian refugee camp ...
09.17.2019 Whom should the corporation serve? Should shareholders come first? Or should companies also serve their employees, customers, and society in general? Ed Butler explores the growing backlash against "shareholder primacy" - the idea espoused in the 1970s by economist Milton Friedman that businesses should only ...
09.16.2019 Africa's mobile credit revolution Will the roll out of online lending stimulate economic boom or just a credit binge in Africa? Ed Butler speaks to many of the businesspeople providing the continent with much needed banking services via mobile phones. They are optimistic that ...
09.13.2019 The cost of sending money home Why it's time to start paying attention to the global remittances industry. Ed Butler speaks to Monica, a nurse from the Philippines working in the UK - one of millions of people around the world who regularly send money back ...
09.12.2019 The cannabidiol craze The cannabis extract CBD or cannabidiol is legal in many countries, and now it's finding its way into everything from soaps to cosmetics. But is it just a fad, and are its health claims bogus? Manuela Saragosa asks Harry Sumnall, ...
09.11.2019 Going after Google The attorneys general of 48 out of the 50 US states have come together to challenge the control of the search giant over what we buy or view online. Manuela Saragosa speaks to the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones about ...
09.10.2019 Tackling the male fertility crisis Sperm counts worldwide have been in steady decline for decades, and a group of tech start-ups are finally giving the problem attention. Manuela Saragosa speaks to the heads of two such companies: Tom Smith of Dadi Inc, which provides home ...
09.09.2019 The world is running out of sand The global construction boom is fuelling an illegal trade in sand used to make concrete, causing environmental degradation and spawning sand mafias in parts of the world. Manuela Saragosa speaks to Prem Mahadevan of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised ...
09.06.2019 Can technology read minds? The business of brain data. Real-life mind-reading technology is being developed right now, and it's already being used in places like China. Ed Butler investigates what the technology can really do, and what the implications might be for our privacy ...
09.05.2019 Brand Britain and Brexit What the rest of the world makes of the UK's Brexit crisis. Manuela Saragosa speaks to Jane Foley, head of foreign exchange strategy at Rabobank, about what the pound's value says about the state of the nation. Jiao Li, co-founder ...
09.04.2019 The hipster company that wants to save the world Is WeWork an exciting new tech firm with lofty ideals worth $47bn, or is it just an over-priced office rental business? Manuela Saragosa speaks to two sceptics. Rett Wallace of investment advisory firm Triton says the prospectus for WeWork's forthcoming ...
09.03.2019 Air pollution gets personal Can a greater understanding of how poor air quality harms us, enable us to tackle this urgent problem? Jane Wakefield meets British artist Michael Pinsky and explores an interactive art instillation mimicking the air of five parts of the world. ...
09.02.2019 Hollywood vs Netflix How are movie producers making money in the age of online streaming? In Hollywood, if you produce a hit show or blockbuster movie, a cut of the profits can lead to extraordinary wealth. That could mean producers lowering their salaries ...
08.30.2019 Can we trust Rwanda's data? Is Rwanda's economic success story really all it's cracked up to be? Ed Butler speaks to Tom Wilson, east Africa correspondent at the Financial Times, about some supposedly dodgy statistics behind the economic miracle, and the World Bank aid money ...
08.29.2019 Dying for insulin in the USA Why do Americans have to pay so much for this life-saving drug? There are reports of some uninsured diabetics dying as a consequence. Even the health insurers and drug manufacturers say the pricing system is broken. Manuela Saragosa speaks to ...
08.28.2019 How can women take charge of their finances? Is the wealth management industry still too geared towards male clients? And how do women plan their finances in countries where they don't even have an equal right to inherit? Katie Prescott explores the financial literacy gender gap, and how ...
08.27.2019 Why not buy Greenland? What does Donald Trump's shock proposal to buy the island from Denmark tells us about modern-day sovereignty and Arctic geopolitics? Manuela Saragosa puts the question to two law professors. Joseph Blocher of Duke University explains why the practice of nations ...
08.23.2019 The challenges facing Syrian refugees in Turkey As authorities in Istanbul start evicting undocumented migrants from their city, we look at the challenges facing Syrians generally in Turkey. Shrinking wages, child labour, and increasing hostility from many locals, are Syrians now paying the price of Turkey's economic ...
08.21.2019 Ecommerce in Africa - still finding its way Will Jumia and other online retailers overcome a lack of infrastructure, wealth and consumer trust to conquer the African market? Jumia is widely seen by investors as Africa's answer to Amazon and Alibaba. It launched its shares onto the New ...
08.20.2019 Helping Africa feed itself Much of east Africa has the potential to be a food basket for the region. But 250 million Africans remain undernourished and many depend on international food aid. That aid is often tied to donor countries export plans, there are ...
08.20.2019 The singing president who disappeared Turkmenistan's authoritarian president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow mysteriously vanished for a few weeks, while his country faced economic crisis. Then he reappeared. What happened? Ed Butler asks what is going in this Central Asian nation, considered one of the world's most secluded ...
08.16.2019 Are stock buybacks a corporate scam? Share buybacks are when a publicly-listed company uses some of its spare cash to buy up shares in itself, in order to drive the share price up and benefit shareholders. The practice has become so common that the amount of ...
08.15.2019 Has 3D printing met the hype? A few years back 3D printing was seen as the ground-breaking technology that promised a new industrial revolution. The revolution has not arrived yet. So, were we sold a lie? Or did the hype just get the better of us? ...
08.14.2019 Should workers be offered unlimited paid leave? A new idea has emerged in the business world over the last few years: maybe employees should take time off whenever they feel like it, and get paid while they do it. Lila MacLellan from online business site Quartz explains ...
08.13.2019 Vanuatu's sacred drink Kava is a traditional drink that's popular across the Pacific. It's made from the root of the Kava plant. Proponents say it's a recreational beverage that helps with anxiety. Vivienne Nunis visits the tiny nation of Vanuatu, which hopes to ...
08.12.2019 Radical toilets What can music festivals teach us about toilet technology? Vivienne Nunis tries out some portaloos at a music festival in the UK and asks if the same technology can help address a shortage of clean toilets around the world. (Photo: ...
08.09.2019 A Brexit game of chicken Is the UK's government really serious about a 'no-deal' Brexit? Ed Butler speaks to Brexit blogger Professor Chris Grey and Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, about what Prime Minister Boris Johnson's strategy really is. Maddy Thimont-Jack, ...
08.08.2019 How to be ambitious We hear about the negative effects ambition can have, and the tools you need to relieve them, with Neel Burton of Oxford University. Author Rachel Bridge defends the thesis of her book 'Ambition: Why it's good to want more and ...
08.07.2019 The smart home hype Has technology really made our homes better? Ed Butler talks to Henry Shepherd from the company Cornflake, which installs high-end smart home systems in London. So why haven't more of us installed the latest technology? Brian Solis, principal analyst and ...
08.06.2019 Vanuatu's missing women What happens when a country has an all-male parliament? Vanuatu is one of only three countries on the planet with zero female elected representatives. We find out why only men win votes in Vanuatu and what that means for the ...
08.05.2019 Sunscreen under the microscope Sunscreen is a multi-billion dollar industry. We’ve long been encouraged to apply it daily, to block out the sun’s rays. But one dermatologist argues some sunlight is necessary and sunscreen could be preventing our skin from carrying out a vital ...

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Business Daily

What's Business Daily about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Business Daily episodes:

Are Western free-market economies really meritocratic?

How to be angry

The vaping scare and big tobacco

Losing your mind at work

Why whistleblowers need protection

Choose your own pay

The George Soros conspiracy

End of the road for US truckers?

The right to repair

The search for sustainable fabric

The onward march of Chinese debt

Brexit and the currency speculators

WeWork and the cult of the CEO

Climate Action: Should we plant more trees?

Climate Action: The moral imperative

Climate Action: Uninhabitable Earth

Climate Action: Greta Thunberg's mission

The future of Facebook

Robot race cars and AI

Trading tinned fish and powdered milk

Whom should the corporation serve?

Africa's mobile credit revolution

The cost of sending money home

The cannabidiol craze

Going after Google

Tackling the male fertility crisis

The world is running out of sand

Can technology read minds?

Brand Britain and Brexit

The hipster company that wants to save the world

Air pollution gets personal

Hollywood vs Netflix

Can we trust Rwanda's data?

Dying for insulin in the USA

How can women take charge of their finances?

Why not buy Greenland?

The challenges facing Syrian refugees in Turkey

Ecommerce in Africa - still finding its way

Helping Africa feed itself

The singing president who disappeared

Are stock buybacks a corporate scam?

Has 3D printing met the hype?

Should workers be offered unlimited paid leave?

Vanuatu's sacred drink

Radical toilets

A Brexit game of chicken

How to be ambitious

The smart home hype

Vanuatu's missing women

Sunscreen under the microscope

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