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The Standard episodes

August 10, 2021 Record A-level results, but why did girls do better than boys?
Students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are celebrating record-breaking success in this year’s A-Levels, with London doing the best in the country. Our Education Editor Anna Davis tells us why the Capital’s performed so well, and also looks at the mystery of why girls have done better than boys this year? She also discusses the dilemma facing universities with a record 435,430 people having a confirmed place, but also more people entering clearing and fewer courses available than last year.
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7 min
August 09, 2021 Is it really too late to stop dangerous climate change?
A UN report into global climate change has laid bare how extreme weather events are set to increase in coming years with global temperatures set to rise by more than 1.5C. We're joined by one of the contributors to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change study, Dr Laura Wilcox of Reading University. She tells how as a scientist the findings are "scary," but insists there are still ways to turn things around.
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8 min
August 06, 2021 In Tokyo as an Olympics like no other comes to an end
The Evening Standard’s Anthony France joins us from Tokyo where he’s been reporting on a unique Olympic Games. There have been Cold War-style defections of athletes, a typhoon, an earthquake, Covid-19 restrictions and even some events on the field like Simone Biles pulling out of competitions.
But Anthony tells us how his mind has changed about the Games, shifting from wondering why it was happening at all to being impressed at how Japan has pulled it off “through sheer willpower”.
He also tells us about some of the aspects of the coronavirus restrictions, including the joy of gourmet food delivery when you’re stuck in a hotel, and the mysterious ‘bus spotters’ lurking at stops in the city.
But will it be remembered as a classic Olympics, up there with famous occasions like London 2012?
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7 min
August 05, 2021 Another travel shake-up: Which places are green, is France amber now... and why’s Mexico red?
The Evening Standard’s Jonathan Prynn tells us about the latest changes to England’s traffic light travel list system. He tells us which countries have been put onto the green list and has the ‘amber plus’ column been scrapped now that its only member, France, has been taken off it.
We also talk about the plight of around 6,000 British holidaymakers in Mexico. That country has just been placed on the red list and there aren’t enough flights to get everyone home by the time the change takes effect on Sunday.
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7 min
August 04, 2021 Everything you need to know about 16-17-year-olds getting Covid jabs
The Evening Standard’s political correspondent Sophia Sleigh is on the show to break down reports that 16-17-year-olds are to be offered the Covid-19 vaccination.
We discuss why the move’s being made now and how difficult it might be to persuade busy young people, or sceptical parents, to actually take the shot. Under existing guidance, young people aged 16 to 17 with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious Covid infection should have already been offered a jab. Children aged 12 to 15 with certain conditions which make them vulnerable to coronavirus can also access the vaccine, as can those aged 12 to 17 who live with an immunosuppressed person, such as a parent or grandparent.
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6 min
August 03, 2021 Is it ‘Older’ workers “duty” to go back to the office?
Our political editor Nicholas Cecil joins the show to tell us about the government minister who says it’s the “duty” of older workers to get back to the office so they can guide their younger colleagues.
Skills minister Gillian Keegan is also urging firms to use the summer to “ramp up” getting staff back into the office. She stressed that many young employees had missed out on key development experiences in their jobs because they have been working from home.
However, the Government is under growing pressure to get civil servants back into Whitehall as it encourages more employees to return to the workplace in the private sector. Ms Keegan estimated that about 20 to 25 per cent of staff at the Department for Education are in the office on any one day at the moment.
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6 min
August 02, 2021 At Heathrow as London “opens to the world”
Evening Standard reporter Rachael Burford tells us what happened at Heathrow when the first passengers arrived following the UK lifting quarantine restrictions for the vaccinated. She tells us about the scenes of joy as families kept apart by the pandemic, some for nearly two years, were finally reunited. At Terminal 5, dozens of families were waiting to see their relatives, who live in the US, as restrictions in both countries have made travel between them almost impossible before today. We also discuss London’s tourism industry and the hopes that summer might be saved with more people able to visit a city that’s been battered by three lockdowns.
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7 min
July 30, 2021 The Malawi music student who became a Covid hero
In this special edition of the Leader podcast we’re in Malawi to look at how a 24-year-old music student has become a hero in the country’s fight against Covid-19.
Maggie Mkandawire had to return to her home village from the capital Lilongwe when coronavirus restrictions fell in March 2020. Finding herself at a loose end, she started making affordable facemasks from a traditional cotton textile for those struggling to afford disposable ones. Soon she was embroiled in the fight against vaccine misinformation, tackling rumours and falsehoods from the injections making people infertile to claims they’re connected to Satanic cults. In this incredible story we hear from Maggie herself and the health official who credits her work for increasing vaccination take up and getting more people to wear face masks.
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9 min
July 29, 2021 Simon Calder on what’s really happening with international travel
Leading travel journalist Simon Calder joins the podcast to try to explain what the government’s doing with international travel, as the UK opens up its borders but other countries keep theirs all but closed to Brits. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab’s hinted more destinations will be added to our so-called “green-list” and pressure’s being applied to the US to open up a corridor with the UK. But Simon says Joe Biden will “not be quaking in the Oval Office” with US domestic tourism on the rise, and Stateside airlines not suffering the same losses as their British counterparts.
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8 min
July 28, 2021 England’s opening up borders to more US travellers, when will America do the same?
England’s opening up its borders to double-jabbed US and EU travellers, now will other countries let our tourists in?

We speak to travel expert Paul Charles who suggests Washington’s unlikely to budge soon on its current restrictions against UK passengers as the Delta variant surges Stateside. But he suggests places like Italy and others in the EU might finally start to look more favourably on British travellers, possibly before the end of the summer. We also talk about how the new rules are going to work in the UK, and the pilot scheme at British airports that appears to have convinced the government it can be done safely.
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8 min