Louise Allen answers your questions about the rewards and challenges of being a foster carer.

She also discusses reports that a new government strategy will back a scheme that helps foster carers expand their properties to give more young people a home.

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Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan

Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.

Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Jonny Hall. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

As the government prepares to introduce a strategy to boost fostering in England, Amol speaks to foster carer and author Louise Allen about the crisis in the system and what it will take to fix it.

At the end of March 2024 there were 83,630 children in care in England, of whom 56,390 were being fostered, but there is a shortfall of around 6,000 foster carers nationwide.

In this episode Louise explains why we need to be more honest about the realities of caring for often vulnerable kids and focus on retaining foster carers rather than recruiting new ones.

She also explains why there needs to be more practical support like providing a cleaner for every fostering household so that they can focus on emotionally supporting the children in their care.

(00:03:10) Why is there a fostering crisis?

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Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Dave O'Neill. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Professor Helen Thompson, an expert on oil and global politics, answers your questions about Europe’s energy security, whether America would intercept Russian-flagged tankers carrying oil to Cuba and what uncomfortable truth she would inject into political debate.

She also explains how the shift away from burning gas and oil and towards electricity and renewable energies will affect geopolitics?

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Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Jonny Hall. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

The capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro by the United States feels like confirmation that we are in a new era of global politics, but what has caused this shift and where does it leave Europe?

Amol speaks to Professor Helen Thompson, an expert on the history of globalisation and author of Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century, about how oil is fuelling competition between the US and China.

They explore how it’s reshaping global power politics, whether it's possible for Europe to decouple from the US and why high levels of national debt threaten to undermine Western economies.

And Helen, who is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge, explains why she thinks there is a case for potentially reversing the independence of central banks like the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England to give politicians more control.

(00:05:11) What is the Western Hemisphere?

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Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Jonny Hall. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Academic and social media influencer Louisa Munch answers your questions about her left-wing politics, whether online algorithms mean she’s preaching to the converted and what schools should be doing to develop critical thinking skills.

She also faces questions about her support for free university education and whether she feels pressure to bend her politics to suit a more mainstream line of argument.

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* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480

Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan

Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.

Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Gareth Jones and Dafydd Evans. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

What is the point of going to university? In this episode, Amol sits down with the critical theorist, academic and social media influencer Louisa Munch who thinks you shouldn’t have to pay for higher education.

With the graduate premium in decline, she explains why people should go to university to gain knowledge rather than get a job because she believes having an informed society is good for everyone in an era of competing narratives about the past.

She also reflects on why people of her generation feel disillusioned and what can be done to give them some hope for the future.

(00:05:04) What is critical theory?

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Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Gareth Jones and Dafydd Evans. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Historian and The Rest Is History co-host Tom Holland answers your questions about whether Britain is currently in a more precarious state than it was in the 1970s, what definition of ‘radical’ best describes him and if he will ever score a century playing cricket.

He also explains why American presidents are often compared to Julius Caesar and faces a question he’s never heard before.

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* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480

Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan

Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.

Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis and Joe Wilkinson. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Historian and co-host of The Rest Is History podcast Tom Holland joins Amol to explore the history of radical ideas and what it means to be radical today.

Tom explains why Christianity represented such a radical break from what came before, how it shaped secular thought in the West and how that compares to other religions. He also talks about his interest in Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.

And Tom discusses the phenomenal success of The Rest Is History, which he presents with fellow historian Dominic Sandbrook.

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Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis, Sophie Millward and Joe Wilkinson. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

From social media to artificial intelligence, one of themes of the first six months of Radical has been whether modern technology augments and improves what it is to be human or, on the contrary, degrades and damages our species.

In this final episode of 2025 Amol reflects on what he’s learned from the people he's spoken to on the podcast about how technology is changing our lives and brings you some of his personal highlights.

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Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Best-selling author Naomi Alderman answers your questions about her first non-fiction book, how she feels about her writing being used to train AI models and whether there will be a new series of ‘The Power’ on Amazon Prime.

And Naomi also reveals exciting new details about her latest novel, called ‘The Strangers’, which is set to be released in September 2026.

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* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480

* Email: [email protected]

Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.

Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by James Piper. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.