Episodes

Japan has the bullet train, Spain, France and Italy have fast connections across the country, China has a huge high-speed network...... and we have the shrunken remains of HS2. Why can't the country that invented railways now create its own efficient, well-managed express train system? Phil and Roge...

As Andy Burnham vows to tackle the cost of living, could a Universal Basic Income be part of his reset of the economy? He’s supported pilots of the scheme, which would give every citizen a living wage, whatever they do or don’t do. Could it end financial insecurity, and boost the economy? Or is it a...

The BBC licence fee is a busted flush, ITV's in the hands of an American media giant - what is the future of public-service broadcasting? Can the BBC find a way of getting people to pay for it? Does the next generation just want YouTube and Netflix anyway? Jamie Medhurst, Professor of Film and TV at...

After more than four years of destruction and slaughter, is the corner being turned in the Ukraine war? Kyiv is able to strike deep within Russia now and the pace of Moscow’s advance is slowing to the point of invisibility. But there’s no sign of an end to fighting - if anything, the scale of the co...

How corrupt is our politics? Is a £5 million gift from a supporter to a politician - when he wasn't an MP - anyone's business but his own? Is it fine for a sitting MP to accept free gifts from a betting company, provided it's all declared? Does it matter if a minister who awarded a contract to ...

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...