Business Daily

More and more women are choosing to freeze their eggs in their twenties - but is it all just a big waste of money? Manuela Saragosa speaks to Jennifer Lannon, who paid thousands of dollars at the age of 26 to preserve her eggs as a hedge against infertility later in life. But are the companies that offer this service - sometimes at special cocktail parties - just exploiting women's anxieties? Patr...

Will indictments against China's tech giant overshadow US trade talks? We hear from Timothy Heath, defence analyst at the Rand Corporation, about the threat to security Huawei is perceived to pose in the US, and from cyber security expert Dmitri Alperovitch on the history of industrial espionage by Chinese actors. Dr Jie Yu, China research fellow at the London thinktank Chatham House assess the ri...

Two rival presidents, oil sanctions from the US and hyperinflation. Venezuela's economic and political crisis is deepening and we hear from some of the people caught in it. Venezuelan economist Carlos de Sousa from Oxford Economics explains the economic context. Presented by Ed Butler. (Photo: A protester on the streets of Venezuela's capital Caracas, Credit: Getty Images)

Drones have been used increasingly in Africa for survey and mapping, but will cargo drone delivery companies be the next big thing? Jane Wakefield visits Mwanza on the banks of Lake Victoria to speak to African and international companies hoping to cash in on the drone delivery market. During a trial for a big World Bank project called The Lake Victoria Challenge Jane speaks to the Tanzanian drone...

China's economy is slowing down. What does it mean for the rest of the world? We hear from Shanghai where consumers are spending less. Economist Linda Yueh gives her analysis while Shaun Rein, managing director of the China Market Research Group in Shanghai, worries about the growing trade war with the United States. Presented by Ed Butler. (Photo: A worker in a Chinese grocery store waits for cus...

The mega-philanthropist is in Davos lobbying governments and the global business elite to donate money towards the fight against infectious diseases. But is the world's second richest man the best person to spearhead this effort? Ed Butler speaks to Mr Gates about why he considers it critical that the US and other rich world governments continue to finance efforts to fight Aids, malaria, polio, TB...

Dating apps like Tinder are a multi-billion dollar business, but have they reduced romance to a commodity? Vivienne Nunis speaks to Stanford University economist Paul Oyer, author of Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Economics I Learned from Online Dating. Historian Moira Weigel, author of Labor of Love, explains how dating and commerce have always been intertwined, and Eric Silverberg, CEO a...

The number of female executives in the UK’s top companies remains stubbornly low. Vivienne Nunis speaks to Heather McGregor, dean of the Herriot Watt Business School and Sue Unerman, co-author of The Glass Wall, to hear what women can do to get a seat at the table in big business. (Photo: Young businesswoman in a meeting, Credit: Getty Images)

China is lending Pakistan billions of dollars as part of an ambitious policy to disrupt global trade. Beijing is six years into a trillion-dollar plan that's been dubbed the new Silk Road. The project – officially known as One Belt One Road – aims to connect Asia with the Middle East, Africa and Europe, through a network of new trade routes. Vivienne Nunis visits Lahore in Pakistan, where Chinese-...

At what point will the standoff in Washington DC start doing serious harm to the US economy? Vishala Sri-Pathma speaks to two victims of the shutdown. As a prison officer, Eric Young is currently not getting paid by the government, even though he is still legally required to turn up for work. He is also a national union representative, and is calling on the government to start planning for a lockd...

When is it acceptable to vanish from a job without warning or explanation, and why are more and more people doing it? Ed Butler hears one woman give her reasons for doing just that, while web design entrepreneur Chris Yoko retells the tale of one no-show employee who took the art of ghosting to a whole new literal level. He also talks to the founders of the Japanese company Exit, which offers to p...

Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is becoming technologically feasible, but will it ever be commercially viable at the scale needed to halt climate change? Ed Butler speaks to Louise Charles of Swiss-based Climeworks - one of the companies that claims it is already turning a profit from the direct capture of carbon from the air. They're selling the CO2 to greenhouses. But what the world...

With the threat of climate change looming, and growing ambivalence about whether the world can meet its stringent carbon emissions reduction targets to limit global warming, many people are searching for new solutions. But some people think they’ve already cracked it, as well as the solution to world hunger, simply by growing plants in salt-water. Dr. Dennis Bushnell, NASA's Chief Scientist, expla...

Did China steal the plans for much of its military hardware, like the J20 jet, from Western defence firms? And what has the US been doing to counter Chinese hacking? Ed Butler speaks to Garrett Graff, a journalist for Wired magazine who has been following the twists and turns in US-China cyber relations over the past few years, including a hacking truce secured by President Obama, that broke down...

Revenge of the nerds - how comedians are helping explain the world of science and tech. Reporter Elizabeth Hotson finds out how people are forging careers from our desire to know how the world works. We get a practical demonstration from Natasha Simons a science performer and writer. Ron Berk, Emeritus Professor at the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland explains why he creates musicals about bio...

There’s a shortage of affordable and social housing in most large urban centres around the world. But the construction sector is blighted by inefficiency and low productivity, and many say it’s ripe for disruption. Could modular or factory-built homes be the answer? We visit the factories and hear from two UK house-building ‘disruptors’; Rosie Toogood CEO of Legal and General Modular Homes and Nig...

The global pet food industry is predicted to be worth nearly $100bn by 2022. Premium pet food has become big business. Sheila Dillon asks whether we've gone too far in pampering our pooches with expensive treats. We hear from Kevin Glynn and David Nolan, co-founders of food delivery service, Butternut Box. Butcher John Mettrick tells us about the raw pet food he makes for dogs and we peruse the me...

Reporter Jane Wakefield explores the various ways companies can accommodate those on the autistic spectrum. Jane visits Autocon, a software company based in California which exclusively uses autistic employees. Jane meets company co-founder, Gray Benoist, the father of two autistic sons. We have contributions from employees, Evan, Peter and Brian and hear from Stephen Silberman, author of Neurobit...

Jeffrey Sachs, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Mohamed El-Erian discuss the big economic and political trends and risks to watch out for in the year ahead. Economics Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University explains his pointed views on the US-China spat over Chinese tech firm Huawei, for which he recently received a barrage of criticism on social media. Former Nigerian finance minister and World Ba...

Will we all abandon our cars in favour of self-driving taxi apps by the year 2030, or is this pure fantasy? Justin Rowlatt takes on the many sceptical responses he received from readers to an article on the BBC website in which he sought to explain "Why you have (probably) bought your last car". In it, Justin laid out the thesis of tech futurist Tony Seba that the convergence of three new technolo...

Had a late night? Well here's a programme about insomnia and the businesses trying to solve it. Elizabeth Hotson takes part in what is possibly the world’s laziest gym class, and speaks to bed manufacturers, sleep app engineers and the inventor of a sleep robot. But does any of these solutions actually work? Elizabeth asks Dr Michael Farquhar, sleep consultant at Evelina London Children’s Hospital...

How did whisky become the world's favourite tipple? Elizabeth Hotson discovers the secrets behind the water of life. Rachel McCormack, author of Chasing the Dram, tells us how the giants of scotch attained their legendary status, and we delve into the archives of one of the world's most famous whisky brands with Christine McCafferty of drinks leviathan Diageo. Elizabeth also talks to distillers fr...

What role can businesses play in filling Africa's cartographical gaps? And can better maps help fight diseases like cholera? In her third and final programme about the progress being made in properly charting the continent, Katie Prescott asks what companies can do in locations where satellite images cannot penetrate dense rainforest and cloud cover, or in slums whose streets are not navigable by...

The property market in some US cities has still not recovered from the 2008 meltdown, while others may be seeing the return of risky subprime lending. Vishala Sri-Pathma travels to Slavic Village in Cleveland, Ohio, which became a by-word for the mass repossessions that followed the bursting of the housing bubble a decade ago. In the nearby Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, where property prices remai...

Five years ago, Cyprus was in crisis. An international bail-out worth over ten billion dollars saved the economy from meltdown, but also cemented the Mediterranean country’s ties to wealthy Russians. Many of them received a slice of Cypriot banks for cash seized from their accounts to help fund the rescue plan. A controversial and lucrative investment-for-passport scheme has also attracted Russian...