Sudesh Amman had been released from prisons days before he stabbed two people in a Islamist-related terror incident in London on February 2. Within minutes of the attack armed police shot him dead. In 2018 Amman was charged with spreading extremist material but was released after serving half of his sentence. Since the attack took place the government has announced emergency legislation will be introduced to end the automatic early release from prison of terror offenders. In this episode we spea...
Feb 04, 2020•18 min
On January 13 a bag containing the dismembered limbs of teenager Keane Mulready-Woods was found on a housing estate in Dublin. Keane is believed to have worked for a drugs gang in the coastal town of Drogheda, just north of Dublin, and his murder is thought to be gang-related. Two rival gangs are feuding in Drogheda over turf and the booming cocaine market. These gangs use social media to taunt each other, often with devastating results. In this episode we speak to Nicola Tallant, investigations...
Feb 03, 2020•21 min
With more of us becoming more conscious of our health and the environment, vegans and vegetarians look set to make up a quarter of the British population in 2025. But for those who haven’t completely committed to the cause there’s the national Veganuary campaign. Last year 250,000 people signed up, dedicating themselves to a month of no meat and dairy products for a mixture of health, environmental and ethical reasons. But does the food trend really have an impact on the way we live? We spoke to...
Jan 31, 2020•16 min
The country was shocked when 39 people were found suffocated in the back of a lorry on an industrial park in Essex last October. The discovery that the victims were economic migrants sparked a conversation about the scale of human trafficking in the UK. Vietnamese people are among the most trafficked people in Britain and many of those smuggled here end up in modern slavery; working on cannabis farms, in brothels and nail bars. In this episode we speak to investigative reporter Cat McShane, who ...
Jan 30, 2020•20 min
This week Huawei was given permission to build parts of the new 5G network in the UK. But, because Huawei is a Chinese company, there’s a lot of concern about it. What if China, which we know spies on its own people, uses Huawei to spy on us? The US has been urging us to reconsider, stressing that it needs to be sure that America’s allies have trusted information networks. Is it to do with the risk of espionage or is there something else going on? We speak to Garrett Graff, a journalist and auth...
Jan 29, 2020•19 min
A brand-new virus which causes severe lung disease has been detected in China. More than 100 people are known to have died there, and experts believe the death toll will rise. Coronavirus appeared in the city of Wuhan in December and the 11 million-strong population are being advised to stay indoors at all times. A new virus arriving on the scene is always a worry and health officials around the world are on high alert. In this episode we speak to Xinyan Yu, a journalist from Wuhan. She tells us...
Jan 28, 2020•19 min
In her new Netflix series The Goop Lab, Gwyneth Paltrow skates the fine line between wellness, pseudoscience and medicine. From orgasms and mushrooms, to ice baths and mediums, Gwyneth and the team tackle wellness methods that sit just outside the mainstream. While some of the scientific claims in the TV show stand up to closer scrutiny, many scientists and journalists worry about the ones that don’t. But why does it matter how scientific they are, when people say the treatments help them? In th...
Jan 27, 2020•22 min
“We must reject the perennial prophets of doom”. These were Donald Trump’s words at Davos earlier in the week, dismissing those who warn of the dangers of climate change. We know climate change is real, but Trump doesn’t seem to be listening to the experts who tell him this. It’s a tendency the author Michael Lewis noticed in Trump the day after he was elected. Lewis wrote the Big Short, a book that was turned into an Oscar-winning film about the financial crisis, and now he’s written about how ...
Jan 24, 2020•21 min
The trial of Harvey Weinstein started in New York this week. Once upon a time he was a Hollywood giant, then in 2017 allegations he sexually harassed a number of women began to surface. Over 80 women came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct, only a few of the complaints have led to criminal charges. For many people Weinstein facing justice symbolises the whole point of the #MeToo movement. But, what happens to #MeToo if Weinstein — who denies the charges — is found not guilty? In this epi...
Jan 23, 2020•19 min
The psychedelic powers of a traditional Amazonian plant medicine called ayahuasca are attracting more and more tourists. It’s becoming big business in countries such as Peru where backpackers and travellers, as well as rich Silicon Valley types are spending weeks and sometimes thousands of dollars to drink an indigenous cocktail. It makes them vomit and hallucinate, but is said to bring spiritual enlightenment and help with addiction, depression and trauma. But a string of allegations suggests t...
Jan 22, 2020•21 min
It was a pretty grim general election for Labour last year. As a result Jeremy Corbyn announced he would be stepping down. There are now just four MPs in the running to replace him: Jess Phillips dropped out while we were making this episode. The ultimate task of any leader of the opposition is to get their party back into power. In this episode Bex Bailey, a producer from the BBC’s politics team, profiles the contenders. We also hear from The Times columnist Rachel Sylvester about where Labour ...
Jan 21, 2020•20 min
Blue Monday is supposedly the saddest day of the year. 15 years ago that idea was debunked, yet every year in the UK #bluemonday trends on Twitter and the internet is flooded with deals for holidays, ‘wellness’ deals and products offering to boost our mood. In this episode we look at the discomfort around brands adopting mental health awareness as part of their marketing strategy with psychiatry researcher Melisa Kose. We unpack the mythical origins of the Blue Monday with the BBC’s head of stat...
Jan 20, 2020•18 min
Sex Education, the delightfully uncensored drama about the life of a sex therapist’s awkward teenage son, has landed on Netflix for its second series. Last season the show racked up 40 million views in the first month after release. Why? Perhaps because it tackles all the topics adults and teenagers alike have been too embarrassed to discuss. From chlamydia in the eye, to excessive masturbation, it isn’t afraid to go there. Its stars, Otis, Eric and Ola, played by Asa Butterfield, Trish Allison ...
Jan 17, 2020•21 min
After the US killed one of Iran’s senior generals in a drone strike some people were worried we were on the brink of World War 3. Iran threatened revenge, and fired on a US air base in Iraq. But in doing so it made a colossal mistake, downing a commercial aircraft and killing the 176 passengers and crew on board. The BBC’s Middle East correspondent Quentin Sommerville, who has just returned from the Al Asad air base in Iraq, and the BBC Persian Service’s Rana Rahimpour join us to explain how Ira...
Jan 16, 2020•18 min
This year's Oscar nominations have reignited the row about representation in Hollywood. 19 of the 20 acting nominees this year are white - the highest number since the #OscarsSoWhite outcries of 2015 and 2016. No women have been nominated for best director. That means that over the past 10 years, 49 out of the 50 best director nominees have been men. That's despite huge support for Greta Gerwig for her adaptation of Little Women. Are the Academy Awards changing fast enough? In this episode we sp...
Jan 15, 2020•19 min
Over the past decade a tension has emerged between Big Tech’s utopian vision of an AI future and the reality that many jobs are being threatened by data-driven automation. Many of us may suspect that artificial intelligence is going to transform the world of work, but exactly how isn’t always clear. The economist Daniel Susskind has written a book called ‘A World Without Work’ which considers how technology is shaping the economy. He spoke to Tina Daheley about how we overestimate our own job sk...
Jan 14, 2020•23 min
This month Reynhard Sinaga was found guilty of drugging, raping and sexually assaulting 48 men. The judge told the 36-year-old student from Indonesia that he will “never be safe to be released”. Sinaga targeted young men on nights out in Manchester and lured them back to his flat where he would spike their drinks with GHB, a date rape drug, filming the attacks on his phone. Sinaga was offending for over two years before he was caught. Many of his victims were unaware they had been raped until th...
Jan 13, 2020•21 min
We know that the NHS is under immense pressure, especially this time of year when it’s at its busiest. But January is also the month of resolutions, often health-focused ones such as giving up booze and getting fit. Even though these easily-adopted behaviours help to keep us away from the doctor, sticking to them can be difficult. Dr Rangan Chatterjee might have the solution. He is a GP, author of the new book ‘Feel Better in 5’, and he presents the most popular health podcast on iTunes. We got ...
Jan 10, 2020•21 min
Yesterday Prince Harry and Meghan announced they will be stepping back from their roles as senior royals. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made their announcement on Instagram, stating that they plan to split their time between the UK and North America and want to become financially independent. Their decision has come as a bit of a shock, not least to the Queen, who apparently wasn’t consulted before their statement was made. We speak to Jonny Dymond, the BBC’s royal correspondent, who explains w...
Jan 09, 2020•22 min
A British teenager has been given a four-month suspended sentence after being found guilty of lying about gang-rape in Cyprus. The 19-year-old was convicted following a trial after recanting a claim that she was raped in a hotel room in July. The woman has said Cypriot police made her falsely confess to lying about the incident at a hotel - something police have denied. Human rights groups and lawyers say she’s been failed by the Cypriot legal system. Some of the men and boys she first accused o...
Jan 08, 2020•19 min
Millions of Iranians have flocked to the funeral of their top commander who was killed in a US drone strike at the weekend. The killing of Qasem Soleimani has raised fears of a conflict between the US and Iran and the hashtag World War Three has been trending. We speak to the BBC’s Rana Rahimpour who covers Iran for the Persian Service. We also caught up with the BBC’s Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen in the region who told us about the wider implications. Presenter: Matthew Price Producers: Rory...
Jan 07, 2020•19 min
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned that the devastating bushfires raging in the country might go on for months. At least 26 people have died since the fires began in September. Air quality in the capital Canberra was, this weekend, rated the worst in the world. In this episode Beyond Today producer Heidi Pett tells us the personal cost of the fires in Merimbula, a coastal town in New South Wales. We also speak to climate scientist Michael Mann who explains how a specific climate...
Jan 06, 2020•20 min
We listen in on the big moments, memes, and the music that defined a decade: from the Arab Spring to Greta via the Olympics. The rise of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the memes they have generated - from Kim Kardashian to #MeToo, via the Peru Two – it’s all in there. Let us know what you think and what we missed #BeyondToday Producer: Seren Jones Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields
Dec 20, 2019•28 min
In 2000 a relatively unknown man called Vladimir Putin came to power in Russia. While his European and American counterparts have come and gone, Putin has stayed in the Kremlin for the past 20 years. In this episode we speak to Vitaly Shevchenko from the BBC Russian Monitoring Service to find out how Putin came to power and how he has kept it. We also talk to Maria Korienko and Katherine Zeveleva from the BBC’s bureau in Moscow to find out what life is like for young Russians who have grown up k...
Dec 19, 2019•22 min
Raheem Sterling is one of the best footballers in the world. But 2019 has proved that he’s even more than that, becoming a key voice in the fight against racism in football. With deals with big brands like Nike and H&M, his reputation is expanding beyond football. We speak to one of Raheem Sterling’s former coaches, Steve Gallen, who tells us what makes him tick, and to Danny Rogers from PR Week, who explains what Sterling needs to do to make the jump from sporting superstar to global icon. ...
Dec 18, 2019•20 min
The Kurds are an ethnic group living in the north of Syria and in neighbouring Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Since the conflict in Syria started almost nine years ago they’ve been fighting to establish their own state in northern Syria. The US allied with the Kurds to defeat ISIS and supported the Kurdish cause. That was until President Trump announced he was pulling US troops out of Syria leaving the Kurds exposed to the threat of the Turkish army, the Kurds’ political enemy. In this episode we speak ...
Dec 17, 2019•20 min
It’s hard to escape Amazon at Christmas. Even if you haven’t been using them for last minute shopping you will most likely have interacted with the company in some other way. Amazon Web Services is now the most valuable part of the business, and whether you know it or not, you probably used it. In this episode, we speak to two people who have been tracking Amazon’s relentless growth: Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, and Alan Selby, a Sunday Mirror journalis...
Dec 16, 2019•21 min
It was a result not many people predicted: the Conservatives won their largest majority since 1987, and Labour lost seats in its northern heartlands, despite social media suggesting there would be a ‘youthquake’ at the polls. There was also an array of bizarre moments from the TV coverage. So, what exactly happened last night? In this episode BBC 5 Live’s Scott Bryan takes us through the TV highs and lows of the night. We also speak to Marianna Spring and Joey D’Urso from BBC Trending, who tell ...
Dec 13, 2019•25 min
The mathematician Dr Hannah Fry is on a mission to improve the PR of maths. Hannah presents radio and TV shows on how maths runs the world, how data underpins everything we do, and on Boxing Day she’s giving the prestigious Royal Institution’s Christmas Lecture on the hidden secrets of maths. Hannah has also written a book about the inner workings of algorithms, and she came into the Beyond Today studio to talk the power of maths and how algorithms can help us live better. Presenter: Matthew Pri...
Dec 12, 2019•23 min
This year has seen protests spread across the globe, from Latin America, to Hong Kong and the Middle East. While some have specific political origins within their own countries, others have similar characteristics; people fed up with inequality and corruption. We hear from Stephanie Hegarty, the BBC’s population reporter, about the tactics spreading from one protest to another, and why people are singing Baby Shark in Basra.
Dec 11, 2019•20 min
