No one wants to be told they’ve lost their job, or that their entire department is disappearing, but the way that message is delivered can have consequences - both in the short term and sometimes years into the future. We hear the best techniques for delivering negative tidings; and some clangers. Elizabeth Hotson gets tips and advice from Heather McGregor, entrepreneur author and Dean of Heriot Watt Business School, hears about a very awkward conversation from former Chairman of the airline Jet...
Jun 14, 2021•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Earlier this week the FBI, in conjunction with the Australian authorities, used an encrypted messaging app to swoop in and arrest more than 800 suspected criminals. On Business Weekly, we look at how they were able to crack global organised crime groups by running their own messaging service, putting it on bespoke phones and handing them out, through undercover officers, to the criminals themselves. We also look at the booming business of ransomware. Hackers are making millions from demanding Bi...
Jun 12, 2021•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why do some of the super rich describe themselves as frugal? Is it something about the inner psyche that makes us natural savers or spenders? Elizabeth Hotson speaks to Dolly Parton, who despite earning millions, doesn’t particularly enjoy spending it. We also hear from Karam Hinduja, banker and scion of the billionaire Hinduja family. Tech entrepreneur, Richard Skellett tells us why he sees being wealthy as a responsibility, plus we hear from big savers, Tim Connor and Francesca Armstrong. We'r...
Jun 11, 2021•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ibrahim Diallo got his first computer when he was five, which triggered a lifelong passion for programming. He has worked as a software engineer in the US for 12 years. A Guinean citizen, who went to French school in Saudi Arabia, and now lives in California, Ibrahim says he can count on one hand the number of black people he has worked alongside. He shares his experience of being a black programmer in the US with Vivienne Nunis. (Photo: Ibrahim Diallo at his office in LA. Credit: BBC)
Jun 10, 2021•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hackers are making millions from ransomware attacks. What can be done to stop them? Ed Butler speaks to professional ransomware negotiator Kurtis Minder, about the increasing professionalisation of the ransomware business. Kimberly Grauer, head of research at Chainalysis explains why following the bitcoin trail may be the best way of bringing ransomware gangs to justice and Vishaal Hariprasad, boss of cyber insurance company Resilience, tells us why the ransomware threat means there needs to be ...
Jun 08, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Nobel prize-winning economist and professor of psychology Daniel Kahneman focuses his latest research on the high cost of inconsistent decision making. In Noise, co-authored with Oliver Sibony and Cass R Sunstein, he looks at why humans can be so unreliable, and what can be done about it. He tells Andrew Marr that people working in the same job often make wildly different judgements, influenced by factors like their current mood, when they last ate, even the weather. He argues that ‘noise’ i...
Jun 07, 2021•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Chinese government is pleading for young people to have more babies. On Business Weekly we ask whether this new “three-child” policy will help reverse the ageing population. You can’t send babies out to work, so does the nation face a demographic time bomb? Plus, the growing industry of forensic genealogy is cracking decades old murder cases. Our reporter asks how much privacy do we have to surrender - and is it worth it? And as the US marks 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre, we head t...
Jun 05, 2021•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mei Xu is a Chinese American entrepreneur who made it big in the US by setting up a global candle business. She grew up in Chairman Mao's communist China, but was educated at an elite school, where she learnt English with the aim of becoming a diplomat. That was until the pro-democracy, student protests of Tiananmen Square in 1989. After that she managed to get a passport out of China and went to the USA, where she set up her multi-million dollar business. What does her story tell us about the s...
Jun 04, 2021•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast The World Bank has declared Lebanon's to be "enduring a severe and prolonged economic depression" and said it is one of the worst economic crises since the mid-19th century. As fuel and food supplies dry up, and cash reserves dwindle, Lebanese economic columnist and former bank executive Dan Azzi warns "Armageddon" could be just around the corner for the country. Meanwhile Diana Menhem, economist and managing director of advocacy group Kulluna Irada, explains how the country's economic got into ...
Jun 03, 2021•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast The rise of electric vehicles could see traditional service stations closing across the planet over the next two decades, and replacing pumps with fast chargers is unlikely to save them. Justin Rowlatt speaks to one entrepreneur hoping to profit from the rollout of EV chargers in every home and parking space, Erik Fairbairn of Pod Point. Meanwhile Isabelle Haigh, head of national control at the UK's National Grid, explains why she is confident they can meet the electricity demand from all these ...
Jun 02, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the US - but increasingly in other countries too - cold case murder, sexual assaults, and unidentified person cases once thought unsolvable are being cracked thanks to the proliferation of public genetic databases. But with this success come deep worries for our DNA data. Ivana Davidovic talks to Brett Williams, the CEO of Verogen - the owner of GEDMatch consumer DNA database - about their business decision to cooperate with the police, privacy concerns and new opportunities opening up in cou...
May 31, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast In Africa, malaria is far more widespread than Covid-19 - so what would it mean to African economies if it was eliminated? We speak to the man whose team in Oxford devloped an effective vaccine for the disease. Mice have overrun parts of Australia ruining crops and testing sanity. We learn about the effect this plague of rodents is having on the rural economy. We hear why Amazon has bought the iconic MGM Studios - and what it means for both Amazon customers and cinema lovers. Plus, our reporter ...
May 29, 2021•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Not everyone can be special, so should we embrace our mediocrity? In a programme first broadcast in August 2016, Manuela Saragosa investigates the appeal of being average. She talks to mediocrity advocates and bloggers Krista O'Reilly-Davi-Digui from Alberta in Canada, and Mark Manson in the US. But what happens when whole societies embrace mediocrity at the expense of excellence? Italian philosopher Gloria Origgi explains the concept of "kakonomics'" - the economics of being bad. (Picture of me...
May 28, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Will the craze for the cryptocurrency started as a joke end in tears? We delve into the world of Dogecoin and ask why people are investing and what the consequences might be. We hear why amateur investors, Vicki Richards from Philadelphia and Erik van der Zanden in the Netherlands, decided to buy Dogecoin. Plus, Kevin Roose, a tech columnist with the New York Times explains why the last year of financial trials and tribulations have made cryptocurrencies attractive to some seeking to make a fort...
May 26, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Does it pay for vicitms to complain? Ed Butler speaks to Emi Nietfeld about her experiences at Google who says she suffered this for years and claims it eventually forced her to quit her job. (Picture credit: Getty Images)
May 25, 2021•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast San Francisco is home to the oldest and largest Chinatown in North America. But with boarded up businesses and an upsurge in anti-Chinese attacks, the past 14 months have been some of the toughest this community has faced. Will this historic and bustling quarter of San Francisco recover? Vivienne Nunis meets Yiying Lu, a graphic designer from Shanghai who recently made the city her home. She's working with many local businesses to bring visitors back. We also hear from celebrity TV chef Martin Y...
May 24, 2021•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast The International Energy Agency has added its voice to those calling for the end of fossil fuels. The dramatic intervention from the body which helps keep global oil supplies moving is music to the ears of many scientists and environmentalists. Shareholder activists too are pushing from within companies for an energy transition so we ask what the future looks like for the oil and gas sector. Why are some companies resisting the call to go green faster and harder? We’ll look at what happened to t...
May 22, 2021•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast A new vaccine could help eliminate the disease. What would that mean for African economies? Manuela Saragosa speaks to the man who led the team behind the new vaccine, which has demonstrated a startling 77% effectiveness in recent drug trials. Adrian Hill of Oxford University's Jenner Institute says it is the culmination of 20 years' work - but how was it all funded? Research suggests malaria has been one of the biggest factors that historically held back African economies, according to Obinna O...
May 21, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Faster price rises are coming as countries recover from the pandemic. But how painful will it be for consumers and the global economy? Mohamed El-Erian, economic adviser and president of Queens' College, Cambridge, thinks central banks are already behind the curve when it comes to keeping inflation in check. Others believe the pandemic's impact on prices is largely temporary. Dana Peterson of the US Conference Board explains why. We also hear from restaurant owner Luke Garnsworthy. Now that Engl...
May 20, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast How ten years of conflict have destroyed the country's economy. As Syria prepares for largely symbolic elections to re-elect its President Bashar Al-Assad next week, we look at how ten years of conflict have destroyed the country's economy. Ed Butler looks at the growing evidence that Syria's government is now building its income around a multi-billion dollar trade in narcotics. He speaks to Syrian economist Jihad Yazigi, editor in chief of the online publication The Syria Report, Martin Chulov,...
May 19, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast When it comes to pandemic preparedness the United States was once one of the world’s best prepared countries. Today it has one of the world’s worst Covid mortality rates. So what went wrong? The financial journalist and writer Michael Lewis of The Big Short fame, has investigated and has published a book called The Premonition. It’s a real life, deep-dive account of how American public health officials warned about the impending Covid pandemic but were ignored by US authorities. (Picture credit:...
May 18, 2021•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why hasn't the autonomous car revolution happened yet? A few years ago industry figures were predicting driverless cars would take over our roads by the end of the 2010s, but so far there's no sign of them. Justin Rowlatt speaks to Oliver Cameron from Cruise - a company testing driverless cars on the streets of San Francisco, and to industry analyst Sam Abuelsamid from Guidehouse Insights about the technological and regulatory challenges that still exist. UK transport minister Rachel Maclean exp...
May 17, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast As the vital Colonial Pipeline in the US comes under cyberattack, Business Weekly hears how vulnerable infrastructure and companies are to being hacked. We take a look at the dirty business of car battery recycling - it’s an increasing health hazard in developing countries, as the lead acid seeps into people, plants and animals. We also hear from religious leaders who explain how the pandemic has affected the spiritual and religious life of their churches. And as the European Super League saga c...
May 15, 2021•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Calls are rising for a waiver of patent protections on Covid-19 vaccines - but would it do anything to accelerate their rollout in the developing world? Manuela Saragosa speaks to an advocate of the "People's Vaccine" campaign, which aims to end the control of the major pharmaceutical companies. Els Torreele of University College London says much of the research and development of these vaccines was publicly funded anyway, and the need to negotiate patent agreements prevents other companies from...
May 14, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast The chief scientist for the World Health Organisation acknowledges the frailty of the official numbers. Ed Butler speaks to Anthony Masters, the statistics ambassador for the UK's Royal Statistical Society who explains that one way to try to count the number of deaths is through excess deaths figures. But in countries like India there aren't very reliable national mortality statistics to start with, and there's often a long delay in delivering the latest numbers. One man who's done as much as an...
May 13, 2021•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast The recycling of lead acid batteries poses a growing health hazard in many developing countries. Vivienne Nunis looks at the case of Bangladesh, where a cottage industry has sprung up all over the country, with old car and auto-rickshaw batteries being burned in unsafe conditions, poisoning the surrounding land, animals, plants and people. Researcher Bret Ericson says that hundreds of millions of children across the developing world have dangerously high blood lead levels, risking damage to thei...
May 12, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why plans for a European Super League won't go away. Ed Butler speaks to James Montague, author of the book The Billionaires Club: The Unstoppable Rise of Football’s Super-rich Owners, about why creating a Europe-wide league of the richest clubs made so much sense to football club owners with backgrounds in US sport. Spanish football journalist Semra Hunter explains why for Spanish clubs, the ESL is seen as the only way to guarantee their financial survival. And Keiran Maguire, accountant and le...
May 11, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Paying extra to offset your carbon emissions may sound like a good idea. But does planting trees or paying to save a rainforest actually reduce your carbon footprint? Travel writer Manchán Magan and climate scientist Thales West explain why they're sceptical. We also hear from one of America's leading airlines, United, which is increasing the number of flights powered by waste products and old cooking fat. United's head of global environmental affairs Lauren Riley tells us more. Photo: A plane c...
May 10, 2021•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this edition of Business Weekly, we look at the battle between the makers of one of the world’s biggest computer games, Fortnite, and the world’s biggest tech company, Apple. The court case could have implications for how app stores and payment models are run in the future. We also take a look at the jewellery sector and hear two different tales of sustainability - from those selling diamonds made in a laboratory and those digging them out of the ground. Plus, we head to campuses in the Unite...
May 08, 2021•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Scientists, artists and some of the world’s biggest companies are carving up the visual spectrum, and claiming certain colours as their own, so who does have a right to use the colours of the rainbow? We explore the ongoing rift over the worlds “blackest black” Vantablack, which was created by engineering firm Surrey Nanosystems, and can only be used by the artist Anish Kapoor. Contemporary British artist Stuart Semple argues that creativity should not be limited by commercial agreements, while ...
May 07, 2021•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
