Drill music has a reputation for inciting violence and crime. The Metropolitan Police believes the genre is linked to the rise of stabbings and murders across London, and the Met chief Cressida Dick has said social media platforms should be more vigilant of drill content being uploaded online. But many argue that drill is not only a form of expression, but it’s also the reality for many young black men who live in urban areas across the country. With attempts being made to ban the genre, what do...
Mar 17, 2020•24 min
At first coronavirus was just a health story, but now it’s pretty clear employment and the economy are taking a massive hit. Travel bans have led to airlines cutting jobs and the hospitality sector is in trouble as people stay at home. In this episode we ask what will happen to workers. It’s a global problem so we speak to Harriet and Ray, a freelance couple in New York, as well as documentary director Emily in London. We also speak to Chris Giles, Economics Editor at the Financial Times, about ...
Mar 16, 2020•17 min
Kiley Reid’s debut novel shot into the bestsellers list and has been lauded by critics here and in the US. Such A Fun Age follows the lives of babysitter Emira Tucker, a young black woman, and her wealthy, white employer Alix Chamberlin in post-Obama America. Kiley’s book explores race, class and wealth, and how well-meaning wokeness can actually exacerbate those issues. Presenter: Tina Daheley Producers: Alicia Burrell and Katie Gunning Mixed by Emma Crowe Editor: Philly Beaumont
Mar 13, 2020•17 min
The world is in the midst of a pandemic. For most people, symptoms of the virus are mild, they might develop a cough and a fever before getting better. This has led many people to compare the new coronavirus to seasonal influenza. But, for a minority of those affected, particularly older people and those with underlying heart or lung conditions, the new coronavirus can cause severe difficulty breathing, and in about 1% of cases, death. Infectious diseases expert, Dr Nathalie MacDermott tells Mat...
Mar 12, 2020•24 min
Most people who transition to another gender do not have second thoughts. In fact de-transitioning is thought to be relatively rare. There are no accurate figures revealing how many people reverse or change their gender, as academic researchers have never studied a large group of transitioning people over a long period of time – but some studies suggest that fewer than 0.5 per cent of trans people choose to return to the gender they were assigned at birth. Whatever the numbers, we know that more...
Mar 11, 2020•26 min
Middlesbrough has the highest number of teenage pregnancies in England and Wales. Even though national figures show rates have dropped by nearly 60 percent over the past 10 years, the number of pregnant teens in the north-eastern town rose by 20 percent from 2015 to 2017. When the average age of a mum in England and Wales is 30 years old, why are there so many teens having babies in Middlesbrough? We speak to Charley and Robyn, two teenagers who tell us what it’s like to have been fast-tracked t...
Mar 10, 2020•21 min
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the 70-year-old billionaire ruler of Dubai and vice-president of the United Arab Emirates, has been found by the High Court in London to have abducted and forcibly returned two of his daughters to Dubai, and to have conducted a campaign of intimidation against his former wife, Princess Haya. Princess Haya used to speak of a perfect family life in interviews, but cracks began to appear in 2018 when Sheikha Latifa, one of Sheikh Mohammed's adult daughters wit...
Mar 09, 2020•15 min
It was just before 10 o’clock in the morning on 27th October 2018 when a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle and three pistols opened fire on worshippers at a synagogue in the US state of Pennslyvania. 11 people died that morning at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. It was the deadliest attack on American Jews in US history, and it sent shock waves around the world. For the writer and New York Times columnist, Bari Weiss it felt personal. She grew up in Pittsburgh and used to go to the...
Mar 06, 2020•20 min
There have been mounting allegations over the past few weeks that home secretary Priti Patel has bullied her staff. Last weekend the top civil servant in the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam, resigned. He’s heavily criticised Patel, and is suing the government for constructive dismissal. Priti Patel has denied any wrongdoing. In today’s episode we look into the multiple allegations against the home secretary. Our home affairs correspondent, Danny Shaw, talks about her path to one of the four Great...
Mar 05, 2020•20 min
Nearly 50 people have died in India following violence around a controversial citizenship law which critics say is anti-Muslim. Photographs, videos and accounts on social media paint a chilling image of what appears to be mostly Hindu mobs beating unarmed Muslim men. In this episode we speak to BBC journalists Yogita Limaye and Sachin Gogoi to find out what’s fuelling the violence. Presenter: Matthew Price Producers: Duncan Barber and Harriet Noble Mixed by Emma Crowe Editor: Philly Beaumont...
Mar 04, 2020•15 min
In the same week that Harvey Weinstein was convicted for sexual assaults in New York, Roman Polanski won the award for best director at the Césars, the French equivalent of the Oscars. The actor Adele Haenel, who accused a director of sexually abusing her when she was a child, denounced the decision and walked out of the ceremony. Polanski has been accused of assaulting several women, including a 13-year-old girl in 1977. France’s #MeToo movement also criticised Polanski’s award, saying that Fre...
Mar 03, 2020•20 min
In Paris in 2015 world leaders agreed on a binding commitment on climate change. They committed to keeping the increase in global temperatures to just 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Heathrow airport has been planning to expand by building a third runway. But last week environmentalists successfully challenged the third runway on the basis that it couldn’t demonstrate how the expansion of the airport was consistent with the UK government’s commitments on climate change. It’s the...
Mar 02, 2020•20 min
2020 has been quite a year, we're only two months in but have already faced an impending war between the US and Iran, deadly bushfires in Australia, and now coronavirus is spreading across the world. So, in light of that, we thought it was time to return to an earlier episode to make us all feel better. It’s about self-care and making time for some emotional first aid. Dr Laurie Santos is professor of psychology and cognitive science at Yale University. She was so concerned about the anxiety her...
Feb 28, 2020•26 min
For years there were allegations that Harvey Weinstein had assaulted women. This week he was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, including rape, and faces up to 29 years in prison. So, how did the Hollywood titan create his downfall? The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta has been covering Weinstein since 2002, and tells us how Weinstein became one of the industry’s most influential players and how his power led to his fall from grace. Documentary maker Ursula MacFarlane spent time with many of ...
Feb 27, 2020•21 min
Facial recognition technology is increasingly widespread. You might use it to unlock your phone or computer. It’s used in airports around the world and some shops are using the software to catch or deter shoplifters. Now it’s being used by the police in two parts of the UK. The Metropolitan Police is using live facial recognition cameras on London streets and it’s also being used by police in South Wales. The technology means that faces captured by the cameras can be checked in real time against...
Feb 26, 2020•20 min
With cases of coronavirus spreading across the world, one word we’re hearing more and more is “pandemic”. If the disease is declared a pandemic it would mean that cases of coronavirus are no longer able to be traced back to the country of origin and fall outside of the control of health authorities. The World Health Organisation doesn’t consider coronavirus to be a pandemic yet, and has stated there is hope that it is controllable despite major outbreaks in Italy and Iran. But that hasn’t stoppe...
Feb 25, 2020•20 min
Mark Zuckerberg says he wants new rules for social media. Every year politicians and security experts meet in Munich to discuss how to keep the world safe. This year they invited Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. He told the conference governments need to create new rules for social media platforms to stop the spread of harmful content and disinformation. So why is big tech’s biggest player asking for more regulation? The BBC’s tech reporter Zoe Kleinman came into the Beyond Today studio...
Feb 24, 2020•17 min
Billie Eilish is on top of the world right now. The 18-year-old recently swept the board at the Grammys, winning five awards including best new artist and song of the year. She also replaced Taylor Swift as the youngest person ever to win album of the year. She’s just performed at the Brit Awards and has written the theme for the upcoming James Bond film No Time To Die. She seems to be a rare example of organic streaming success in the music industry, having had her big break after uploading a s...
Feb 21, 2020•17 min
Since Caroline Flack’s death by suicide last weekend, many people have been trying to make sense of it. Yesterday her family released a previously unpublished Instagram post written by Caroline Flack detailing her ‘shame’ and ‘embarrassment’ at the truth being taken out of her hands and used, she wrote, as ‘entertainment’. Some have pointed the finger at the tabloids for her fragile mental state. Others are blaming a ‘toxic’ social media culture. In this episode, we explore this idea with entert...
Feb 20, 2020•23 min
At the beginning of the year Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s senior adviser, put out an unusual job advertisement. In a blog post he asked for “super-talented weirdos” and “wild-cards”. One of the people he hired was Andrew Sabisky, a twentysomething “superforecaster”. It was later revealed that Sabisky had previously expressed extreme views on race and eugenics. He subsequently resigned. In this episode we speak to Newsnight’s political editor Nicholas Watt who has been following the Sab...
Feb 19, 2020•22 min
Donald Trump is trying to shore up his evangelical support before November's presidential election. Ramping up his Christian outreach, he's been helping teenagers who say they’re being bullied for their religious beliefs at school. These students have organised “prayer lockers” and are running a nationwide “Pray Anyway” campaign. BBC reporter Tara Mckelvey visited one of them in Kentucky to find out how the teenager's struggle went all the way to the White House. Presenter: Matthew Price Produce...
Feb 18, 2020•21 min
Julia Ebner monitors extremists during her day job as a counter-terrorism expert, where she advises governments and tech companies on how to respond to their activities. Two years ago she decided to go undercover to find out exactly what drives people into these groups. She ended up meeting white supremacists in a Mayfair pub; she befriended female misogynists in America, and she travelled to a Nazi rock festival on the border of Germany and Poland. Julia’s written about her disturbing encounter...
Feb 17, 2020•19 min
Insomnia affects about a third of adults in the UK according to the NHS. It also says adults should be getting between 7 and 9 hours sleep a night, but very few of us actually get that. We speak to Samantha Harvey who has written a book called ‘The Shapeless Unease’ about her year of not sleeping. We also speak to Stephanie Romiszewski, a sleep physiologist and director of The Sleepyhead Clinic in Exeter. She came into the Beyond Today Studio to give us her top 5 tips for a good night’s sleep. P...
Feb 14, 2020•19 min
It’s been two years since the Windrush scandal, where at least 164 black British citizens were wrongly deported to countries of their birth or detained in the UK. The scandal has had a lasting impact on the Afro-Caribbean community, with many owed compensation from the government. The Home Office recently approved a flight from London to Jamaica which was deporting convicted offenders who have been here for most of their lives. Once again, many black Brits say they feel targeted and are being fo...
Feb 13, 2020•20 min
Coronavirus has reached 24 counties outside of China, with 8 confirmed cases in the UK. As the disease is spreading so is a lot of information, some of it misleading. The World Health Organisation has warned that "trolls and conspiracy theories" are undermining their response to the virus. We speak to Mike Wendling from BBC Trending and Vitaly Shevchenko, Russian Editor at BBC Monitoring, about the theories being circulated. Presenter: Tina Daheley Producer: Lucy Hanock Mixed by Emma Crowe Edito...
Feb 12, 2020•19 min
Callie Lewis was just 24 years old when she took her own life. Callie had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at a young age and had always struggled with chronic depression and suicidal thoughts, but at the end of her life she fell through the cracks of an overstretched mental health system. She sought solace online and ended up on a suicide forum where she was given detailed advice on how to kill herself. Callie’s death comes at a time when many people are struggling to connect with the se...
Feb 11, 2020•19 min
South Korean film Parasite has been named best picture at this year's Oscars, becoming the first non-English language film to take the top prize. It won four awards in total, including best director for Bong Joon-ho. The film is a vicious social satire about two families from different classes in Seoul - one who live in poverty in a semi-basement, and another rich family residing in a large home. We speak to the BBC’s Seoul correspondent Laura Bicker about how South Koreans have reacted to the f...
Feb 10, 2020•19 min
It was the celebrity scandal that gripped the nation in an era where tabloids ruled the roost and affairs and addiction dominated front pages. Right in the middle of the drama was one of the biggest entertainment TV presenters of the age - Michael Barrymore. In 2001, when a 31 year old man called Stuart Lubbock was found unconscious in Michael Barrymore’s pool in Essex he was initially believed to have drowned during a party. When a second post-mortem flagged up severe injuries consistent with s...
Feb 07, 2020•23 min
The president sort of won the Iowa Democratic caucus. This week was supposed to be when the race to be the candidate to take on Donald Trump in November’s presidential election really got going. But the Iowa Democratic caucus was a mess: a tech failure meant a delay in getting results, and a lot of red faces in the party hoping to unseat the current Commander in Chief. Nearly all the results are in, and it looks like Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders have come out on top. But, in a week that als...
Feb 06, 2020•20 min
Yesterday an inquiry into the harm that breast surgeon Ian Paterson did to his patients finally delivered its results. The inquiry recommended that all of his 11,000 patients should have their treatment reassessed. Paterson, who claimed to be a specialised breast surgeon, performed unnecessary surgeries, misdiagnosed patients with cancer and treated patients incorrectly. Paterson is already serving a 20 year jail term for 17 counts of wounding with intent, but his victims remain deeply scarred b...
Feb 05, 2020•18 min
