Back in March, to mark 20 years of the Today guest editors we gave people the chance to apply in teams to make a programme with us. Thousands of you applied and every Saturday through August we’ll be featuring programmes guest edited by those successful teams of listeners. Today it was the turn of Anne, Moyra, Alan and Andrew who are all members of the Dunbartonshire Concert Band. They wanted to use their guest edit to explore the benefits of community music. They commissioned a special report o...
Aug 19, 2023•38 min
Our programme is guest edited by Moyra, Anne, Alan and Andrew, four members of the Dunbartonshire Concert Band. For their programme they wanted to look at the contribution community music makes to society. The were very keen to hear from the violinist Nicola Benedetti. Not only is she a world acclaimed violinist, but she has campaigned for years for better music provision – especially for children from underprivileged backgrounds. Nicola Benedetti is also “Big Sister” to a social change and musi...
Aug 19, 2023•11 min
Back in March, to mark 20 years of the Today guest editors we gave people the chance to apply in teams to make a programme with us. Thousands of you applied and every Saturday through August we’ll be featuring programmes guest edited by those successful teams of listeners. Today it was the turn of Hannah, Cenya and Huzaifah. They are three friends who have all experienced the loss of someone close to them and want to talk about what good grief looks like. Their programme features the former Engl...
Aug 12, 2023•25 min
Back in March, to mark 20 years of the Today guest editors we gave people the chance to apply in teams to make a programme with us. Thousands of you applied and every Saturday through August we’ll be featuring programmes guest edited by those successful teams of listeners. Today it was the turn of Amy, Jo and Gig. They've called their team, Messy Fostering. Amy who’s now 23-years-old was fostered at 14 by Gig and ended up spending her summers with her teacher Jo. For them, it worked. But sometim...
Aug 05, 2023•37 min
The Today Debate is about taking a subject and pulling it apart with more time than we could ever have during the programme in the morning. Today presenter Mishal Husain is joined by a panel of guests in the BBC's Radio Theatre, where in front of a live audience, they discuss the current state of the housing market. On the panel are George Clarke, architect and broadcaster; David Simmonds the Conservative MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hous...
Jul 05, 2023•37 min
The Today Debate is about taking a subject and pulling it apart with more time than we could ever have during the Today programme in the morning. Today presenter Mishal Husain was joined by a panel of guests in the BBC's Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House to look at the future of the Royal Family in 'The Today Debate: Do we need a Monarchy?' Joining her were Billy Bragg, the singer and songwriter; Juliet Samuel, a columnist for the Times; Polly Toynbee, a columnist at the Guardian; Charles Moor...
Apr 25, 2023•36 min
Björn Ulvaeus has guest edited BBC Radio 4's Today and his programme included a lot of insights and encounters about Eurovision. Hear him talk to one of the British jurors who in 1974 gave ABBA's Waterloo "nul points" - and doesn't regret it! He also discusses with Erasure's Andy Bell, Radio 1's Adele Roberts and UK Eurovision presenter Rylan Clark the appeal of the contest and ABBA itself to the LGBT+ community. Bjorn also speaks to Martin Österdahl, executive supervisor of Eurovision, about wh...
Jan 31, 2023•24 min
Today's fourth Christmas guest editor this year is Sir Jeremy Fleming, director of GCHQ, the UK's largest but probably least known intelligence agency. Hear highlights from his programme which centres on the theme of data and trust, including how we all share our own personal information and how intelligence agencies across the world handle that data. Guests include Avril Haines, the United States director of national intelligence, Vint Cerf, one of the founding fathers of the internet, and mult...
Jan 06, 2023•38 min
Today’s final Christmas guest editor this year is Dame Sharon White, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership and former head of telecoms regulator Ofcom. She was named as the most powerful black person in the country in the 2023 Power List. One of the key issues for her programme is how society can help more people who have been in care get into employment – and includes a report from the BBC’s Ashley John-Baptiste, who grew up in care. She also speaks to world renown choreographer Sir Matthew Bo...
Jan 02, 2023•1 hr 15 min
Today’s sixth Christmas guest editor is Anne-Marie Imafidon – computer scientist, CEO and co-presenter of Countdown. Hear highlights of her programme, whose central theme is opportunity. She looks at how we work, how we fund science, and how we recognise the achievements of women which have been lost to history, such as Dr Gladys Mae West, whose maths work paved the way for GPS navigation. We also explore two of Anne-Marie’s big passions – Nigerian food and trainers.
Dec 31, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Today's fifth Christmas guest editor is Björn Ulvaeus from ABBA. Hear highlights from his programme, which looks at the impact of Artificial Intelligence and technology on music, the future of democracy and of course Eurovision - the contest which launched Abba's global success nearly 50 years ago. Guests include Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics, the historian Noah Yuval Harari, Andy Bell from Erasure, the boss of Eurovision, as well as its UK presenter Rylan Clark, and former culture minister L...
Dec 30, 2022•1 hr 19 min
Today's third guest editor this Christmas is Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was detained for six years in Iran - before being freed and coming home nine months ago. Hear highlights from her programme including the voices of families of current political prisoners in Iran and Nazanin speaking to chef Yotam Ottolenghi about why one of his recipes has a special resonance for her - and about the solidarity that can be found in food and cooking. Nazanin also has an emotional encounter with tennis ace...
Dec 28, 2022•1 hr 13 min
Today's second guest editor this Christmas is Jamie Oliver, the chef, entrepreneur and campaigner. Hear highlights from his programme in our Best of Today podcast, including interviews with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne about expanding free lunches in schools and providing a healthy array of options for students. Jamie Oliver has been open about his struggles in school with dyslexia. He says he was told he was taught alongside those with spec...
Dec 27, 2022•41 min
Today's first guest editor this Christmas is Lord Botham, Ian "Beefy" Botham, former England all-rounder, now crossbench peer and UK Trade Envoy to Australia. Hear highlights from his programme in our Best of Today podcast, including an interview with the current England Cricket captain Ben Stokes, about the future of the Test format of the game. It was a chance meeting after a freak injury in 1977 which first put Lord Botham on the path to nearly four decades of fundraising. He reflects on that...
Dec 26, 2022•40 min
The Today programme has asked some well-known faces to talk about the walks they do and why they’re so important to them at this time of year. Author Joanne Harris, best known for her novel Chocolat, describes her favourite walk from Almondbury, near Huddersfield, and up to Castle Hill. (Image credit: Simone Padovani/Awakening/Getty Images)
Dec 09, 2022•4 min
The Today programme has asked some well-known faces to talk about the walks they do and why they’re so important to them as part of a winter walks series. Author Hunter Davies, best known for the only authorised biography of the Beatles, describes his favourite walk along Ryde Sands on the Isle of Wight. (Image Credit: Laura Palmer/BBC)
Nov 26, 2022•3 min
The Today programme has asked some well-known voices to tell us about their favourite walks at this time of year. Novelist and journalist Jojo Moyes - best known for 'Me Before You' - describes a walk where she is often accompanied by her dogs in Essex, and how it’s helped her when life is challenging. (Image Credit: Jojo Moyes)
Nov 22, 2022•4 min
The Today programme has asked some well-known faces to talk about the walks they do and why they’re so important to them as part of a winter walks series. Author Michelle Gallen, who wrote 'Big Girl, Small Town' and 'Factory Girls', describes her favourite walk near her childhood home in Castlederg, West Tyrone. (Image Credit: Deci Gallen)
Nov 17, 2022•3 min
The Today programme has asked some well-known faces to talk about the walks they do and why they’re so important to them as part of a winter walks series. Author Michael Morpurgo, best known for children's novel War Horse, describes his favourite stroll near his home in Devon.
Nov 11, 2022•4 min
The Today programme has asked some well-known faces to talk about the walks they do and why they’re so important to them as part of a winter walks series. The poet, who was National Poet of Wales from 2008 to 2016, Gillian Clarke has chosen a path close to her home in Ceredigion.
Nov 10, 2022•3 min
The Today programme invites some well known faces to speak about their favourite winter walk. Novelist and history writer Kate Mosse describes her walk through Fishbourne Marshes, near Chichester in West Sussex, from the old duck pond round to Bosham and back again. (Image credit: James Watkins/ BBC)
Nov 09, 2022•4 min
The Today programme is inviting some famous faces to speak about their favourite winter walk. Poet Laureate Simon Armitage describes his walks up Pule Hill, the high point above Marsden and an exposed look-out post over Yorkshire, Lancashire and a high corner of Derbyshire. (Image, Simon Armistage, Credit, Emma Gibbs, BBC)
Nov 08, 2022•3 min
The Today programme is inviting some famous faces to describe their favourite winter walk. Actor Rory Kinnear lovingly tells of walking his son and daughter to school. (Image, Rory Kinnear, Credit, Sarah Jeynes, BBC)
Nov 07, 2022•4 min
Michael O’Leary has been Chief Executive of Ryanair since 1994, and was appointed CEO of Ryanair Holdings, Europe’s largest airline group, in 2019. He’s been speaking to Today’s business presenter Sean Farrington about his unhappiness with post-Brexit Britain, the impact of inflation on his business, and why we’ve probably seen the last of the €10 flight. (Image, Michael O'Leary; Credit, Getty Images)
Aug 11, 2022•35 min
Dame Sharon White is the Chairman of John Lewis Partnership. Overseeing a team of 80,000 partners working at branches and offices of supermarket Waitrose and department store John Lewis around the country, White took over the retailer in February 2020. She talks to Today’s business presenter Sean Farrington about the number of people who have left the labour market since covid and the impact she believes it could have on the economy. (Image, Dame Sharon White, Credit, John Lewis Partnership)...
Aug 09, 2022•38 min
Jacky Wright is the Chief Digital Officer and Corporate Vice President at Microsoft US. For her Today guest edit, she asked whether young people are being taught the skills they need for the workplaces and jobs of the future. She grew up in Tottenham, North London, and went back for the programme, asking A level students at a school there what they thought would make them employable. She also used the programme to explore what everyday life was like for the generation of multiracial children bor...
Jan 03, 2022•36 min
Mina Smallman, guest edited our first Today programme of 2022. Mina is a former Church of England archdeacon and school principal, who began campaigning on violence against women and equity in how victims are seen after two of her daughters were murdered. Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry were murdered in a London park in 2020. For her programme Mina invited Mishal Husain to accompany her and her family and friends on a difficult visit back to the place where Nicole and Bibaa died, where a tree wa...
Jan 01, 2022•33 min
Dr Jane Goodall is a primatologist, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a UN Messenger of Peace. She is best known for revolutionising the world's understanding of chimpanzees. She used her Today guest edit to explore some of the ways we can inspire change to protect animals and our environment. She asked the BBC’s Climate Editor, Justin Rowlatt, to look at the links between poverty and climate change. The programme featured reporting from Tanzania where 30 years ago Jane challenged a grou...
Dec 31, 2021•36 min
General Sir Nick Carter is a retired senior army officer who served as the UK’s Chief of Defence Staff until November this year. He used his Today guest edit to focus on the fallout from the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan. He spoke to former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the man in charge of the country before the Taliban takeover. He also chatted with retired racing legend AP McCoy about what his own retirement might have in store for him. Finally, Sir Nick explored his deep love of w...
Dec 30, 2021•1 hr 3 min
The England and Manchester City footballer, Raheem Sterling used his Today programme guest edit to look at the issue of social mobility, after launching his own foundation earlier this year. His programme featured reporting from Jamaica where he was born and North London where he grew up. For his programme he also sat down with England manager, Gareth Southgate, the man he credits for his transition from being a target for a hostile press to a young man now trying to be the role model which so m...
Dec 29, 2021•52 min
