Episodes

Andy Burnham seems poised to be the UK's seventh prime minister in ten years. Keir Starmer was widely seen as honourable but dull and ineffective - can Burnham take the Labour government in any better or even different direction? Is being a better communicator enough? Phil and Roger ask Profess...

Could Cuba be the victory Donald Trump is looking for? Phil and Roger discussed this back in March, but after the messy and fragile deal with Iran, could bringing the Caribbean island back into America’s embrace be about to happen? Joe Gonzalez, Associate Professor of Global Studies at Appalachian S...

The next El Nino could be the biggest in history. The Pacific atmospheric pattern that regularly disrupts global weather, is set to cause floods in some areas and droughts in others, on a larger scale than ever before, because of climate change. So how worried should we be? And what can we expect? P...

Three months of US efforts to tame Iran, and Donald Trump is in a bind - there's still no deal, and Iran has a stranglehold on the Straits of Hormuz. Oil price rises mean the cost of filling up the car is painful for many Americans, and that could spell trouble for the Republicans in the upcoming mi...

Has reality TV become too toxic? A number of scandals have shown the dark side of formats that put ordinary, vulnerable people in challenging situations - and let us be amused by the disastrous results. Whether it's Married At First Sight or Love Island, is there something wrong and damaging about t...

As Hantavirus and Ebola grab the headlines, how prepared is the world for the next pandemic? Have we learned from COVID both how to stop the spread and deal with a panicking population? Are we ready for the new animal-origin viruses that emerge as humans encroach on their habitats? Phil and Roger as...

If the polls are right, ReformUK could be in Downing Street in three years. So what would they do with the country? We know they don't like immigrants or Europe or windfarms, but what DO they want? How would they shape Britain's economy, foreign policy, health service? Dr Vladimir Bortun, lectu...

A global energy crisis - and yet Wall Street is still surging at record levels. It's largely AI that's fuelling stocks, but many see it as a bubble, and of course, AI needs a lot of the energy that is becoming increasingly scarce. So does this all mean a major correction in stock prices is coming? A...

Is humanity kinder now than it has ever been before? Today we are appalled at things that were commonplace only a generation ago - unmarried mothers forced to hand over their babies for adoption, gay soldiers imprisoned for their sexuality, landlords refusing black tenants. So has empathy changed us...