Talk Podcasts

JOE BIDEN will become the 46th President of the United States. It’s been an extraordinary week – Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins return to assess the situation. Biden won the most votes of any presidential candidate in US history. Donald Trump won seven million more votes than he got in 2016, and four million more than Hillary Clinton got, but still lost. Marcus and Greg discuss just how divid...

WE’RE ALL familiar with the quote from Evelyn Beatrice Hall’s biography of Voltaire, which says: “I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Freedom of speech is under attack in Britain and across the Western world, with the rise of ‘safe zones’ in universities, and the ‘woke’ movement. With every year that passes, the limitations on what it’s permissibl...

THE ONGOING pandemic has resulted in millions more Britons working from home, and a recent report revealed that almost nine out of ten employees who worked from home during lockdown wish to continue doing so in some capacity. The report, called ‘Homeworking in the UK: before and during the 2020 lockdown’ said 88% of employees who worked from home during lockdown would like to continue doing so to...

FROM THURSDAY, pubs, cafes and restaurants will have to close at 10pm each evening as part of a wider package of restrictions aimed at halting the spread of Covid-19 cases, which have risen sharply in recent weeks. We need to get real about this – ahead of us is a winter where there’ll be a significant amount of disruption to our lives. In this podcast, Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins discuss...

BRITISH society is now split into two groups: In the one group are people who are behaving in a sensible, cautious and responsible way to prevent the spread of Covid-19. In the other group are people who, if they ever cared to begin with, no longer do so, and are behaving in any way that suits themselves. Between 11-16 August, the United Kingdom recorded more than 1,000 new Covid-19 cases every da...

IT’S AUGUST, and perhaps it’s time for some ‘silly season’ light relief. In this edition, Marcus Stead interviews Greg Lance-Watkins about his pet hates. There may well be further podcasts along these lines in the future, but in this edition, Greg picks music in movies, dramas and TV programmes, and so-called ‘experts’ on TV programmes who don’t know what they’re talking about. Greg isn’t a fan of...

AS WE come towards the end of July, how bad is the COVID-19 situation, in Britain and overseas? How much credibility should we place on official figures? And what about masks – their use wasn’t compulsory when the virus was at its most prevalent in Britain during March and April, but now it is. What are we to make of the Government’s U-turn? Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins assess the situation...

In this edition, Marcus Stead is joined by Graham Miller, an experienced journalist and broadcaster, probably best known for his years as the face of Saturday teatime sports bulletins on the ITN news. Graham began his career in hospital radio, but his big break came in 1973 when he joined BBC Radio Birmingham, where he worked on both news and sport. A year later, he moved to BBC Radio London, wher...

In this edition, Marcus Stead talks to Graham Perry, a leading authority on China and Anti-Semitism, as well as a former radio presenter on LBC during the 1990s. Is China’s economic development and growing political influence something that should be feared or embraced? What will the long-term implications be for the USA’s dominance as the world’s leading political and economic power? Is China cre...

IN CHINA, at least one million Uighur Muslims have been taken from their homes and put in what the Chinese government calls ‘correction facilities’, which are in reality concentration camps, where brutal human rights abuses are taking place. Harrowing details of those human rights abuses are detailed during the podcast. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the Chinese government has introduced harsh measures...

In this edition, Marcus Stead talks to Geraint Powell, one of Wales’s leading rugby union bloggers and writers, perhaps best known for his work on the Dai Sport website. Geraint has a wide range of life experiences, having lived in South Africa and in various parts of England, and he has a good understanding of the problems facing rugby union at all levels. In this wide-ranging discussion, Marcus...

HAVE YOU noticed the way in which online adverts are targeted at you based on private conversations you've had with other members of your family in your living room? Do your household smart devices know far more about you than you think? Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins discuss the enormous influence a small number of technology companies now have over our lives, from what information we receiv...

THE PAST is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” So reads the opening line of L.P. Hartley’s novel ‘The Go-Between’, published in 1953. Last weekend saw ‘Black Lives Matter’ protesters in Bristol tear down a statue of Edward Colston, a philanthropist who supported and endowed schools, hospitals and churches, especially in Bristol and London, in an era when the state couldn’t be bo...

WHAT IS ‘the new normal’? It’s a phrase we hear a lot on TV news bulletins and read a lot in the papers, but what does it actually mean? As the lockdown begins to ease, and economic activity picks up, what restrictions on working life and on recreation are we going to have to learn to live with well into the future? Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins discuss whether restaurants, theatres and othe...

IN A SPECIAL ‘double dose’ edition of Twenty Minute Topic, Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins assess the impact of devolution in Wales 20 years after its inception, and at a time when the institution has recently changed its name to the ‘Welsh Parliament’. Greg played an important role in the ‘No’ campaign leading up to the referendum of 1997, in which the ‘Yes’ side won by the narrowest of margi...

THE UK Government’s slogan ‘Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’ has been replaced by the altogether more woolly, ‘Stay alert, control the virus, save lives’. In this week’s Coronavirus Update podcast, Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins assess the Government’s strategy, as we enter a new phase of the pandemic. Marcus and Greg also look into the problems devolution is causing in preventing a UK...

MUCH HAS been made of the news that the UK death toll from COVID-19 is now higher than that of Italy. But is that a fair comparison because the figures were collated in very different ways? Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins discuss how much emphasis should be put on the statistics. They also explore what the ‘easing’ of restrictions in Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria really means and how their...

PRIME Minister Boris Johnson is back in Downing Street and has returned to work, but he’s warning against complacency and is saying that the lockdown must remain in force for the time being. Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation warns that having the virus once doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t get it again. And there is a rare but serious new syndrome in children that could be linked to COVID...

MARCUS Stead and James Easton return with another Coffee Break podcast, taking a look at the lighter side of life. Topics discussed include rude website URL names past and present, Brian Clough’s 44 days at Leeds United, Admiral retro football shirts, things you notice when watching old episodes of The Bill, home cooking experiments, darts gamesmanship, how much money you can save by taking a pack...

THE LOCKDOWN in the United Kingdom is set to continue for the next three weeks. Schools will not be reopening any time soon, and there is a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in hospitals. In this week’s podcast, Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins assess the situation in Britain and around the world, and also look into the effect the lockdown is having on people’s personal relationsh...

AS THE number of global COVID-19 cases passes the two million barrier, Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins assess the situation and conclude it is highly unlikely that life will return to normal any time soon. The figures from Spain, Italy and France suggest the threat to life posed by the virus remains very real, and that the scientific community knows very little about how COVID-19 actually work...

ON THE EVENING of Sunday 05 April, Her Majesty the Queen gave a very rare address to the nation, and just over one hour later, it was announced that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been admitted to hospital for tests after suffering from the coronavirus for more than a week. Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins reflect on a dramatic evening. They also assess the latest statistics, which make very...

In this edition, Marcus Stead talks to Jeremy Jacobs, a familiar voice to radio listeners in southern England, who has worked as a football reporter for Capital Gold Sportstime, BBC London and BBC Kent, as well as having read sports bulletins on a range of commercial radio stations. Jeremy is also a widely-respected conference and events host. Sales is another of his passions, and he now can teach...

MARCUS Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins return with another Coronavirus Update.  In this week's podcast, they reflect on the death of Seb Lewis, a 38-year-old Charlton Athletic super-fan who died from Covid-19 on Wednesday. Other topics of discussion include the Chancellor Rishi Sunak's proposals for helping the self-employed, which Marcus says are too complex and don't go nearly far enough. The area...

LIFE IN Britain has changed dramatically in the last seven days. At the start of the week, the Government encouraged people to work from home where possible. By midweek, it was announced that schools were to close indefinitely from this Friday onwards. And on Friday afternoon, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that all cafes, pubs, restaurants, theatres, cinemas and leisure centres were to cl...