BBC Radio 4 Podcasts

What happens when the Prime Minister suddenly stops being Prime Minister?One day you're the most powerful person in the country, the next you're irrelevant, forced into retirement 30 years ahead of schedule and find yourself asking 'What do I do now?'Miles Jupp stars as Henry Tobin - Britain's shortest serving and least popular post war PM (he mana…

30 JUL 21By BBC Radio 4

As an abattoir in Machynlleth prepares to shut its doors on Saturday Caz Graham speaks to the owner about his decision and asks an industry spokesperson what needs to change in order to keep these smaller facilities going. Moira Hickey is in Scotland to speak to the owners of two small farms about the challenges they face. Presenter: Caz GrahamProd…

Twenty years after the UK's worst outbreak of the livestock disease foot-and-mouth, Dave Howard recalls how it affected the Herefordshire hill-farming community where he grew up.Images of burning piles of livestock carcasses became grimly familiar across the UK in 2001. More than six million sheep and cattle were killed in a bid to control foot-and…

In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspectiveBy BBC Radio 4

A supermarket chain is offering £1000 welcoming handshakes to new truck drivers - just one indication of the shortages in the haulage industry. The Road Haulage Association says that there is now a shortfall of 100,000 lorry drivers across the UK and other sectors of the economy are also finding it difficult to find workers, including in hospitalit…

Geeta Pendse visits the new Museum of Making in Derby - an £18 million redevelopment that celebrates the city's 300-year industrial heritage. Jamie Thrasivoulou, Derby County Football Club's Poet-In-Residence, shares what it's like to perform a poem to a stadium of roaring football fans.The writer Mahsuda Snaith discusses her flash fiction written …

England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer has urged young adults to get a Covid vaccine, as new figures show the impact the programme is having on reducing infections and deaths.By BBC Radio 4

In the UK we have seen a recent fall in Covid 19 cases. Good news, but we don’t know yet if this will be sustained. The virus is now thought to be spreading predominantly amongst the under 30s, most of whom remain unvaccinated. Young adults are the demographic most likely to be vaccine hesitant or vaccine averse. Kavita Vedhara from Nottingham Univ…

29 JUL 21By BBC Radio 4

Jeanette Winterson talks about her new essay collection which covers 200 years of women and science, from Mary Shelley to AI. She asks what love, caring, sex and attachment will look like when humans form connections with non-human helpers teachers, sex-workers, and companions? And what will happen to our deep-rooted assumptions about gender? Will …

A year ago Johnny Khawand saw the home he grew up in ripped apart by the massive explosion in a chemical dump in the port of Beirut, Lebanon – one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in history. For hours Johnny fought to save neighbours trapped in the rubble, seeing some die in front of him. Now, after months of restoration work, he’s coming back to…

It’s easy to see how lots of people singing, shouting and smooching in a stuffy space would keep a virologist up at night. Within hours of nightclubs reopening the Prime Minister announced that full vaccination will be the condition of entry from September. The Netherlands recently tried reopening its clubs and quickly decided to close them again a…

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas developed by the Anglican priest John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), drawn from his reading of scripture, in which Jesus would suddenly take His believers up into the air, and those left behind would suffer on Earth until He returned with His church to rule for a thousand years before Final Judgement. Some belie…

Should farms under five hectares be eligible for ELMS, the Government's new post-Brexit environmental farm funding scheme? The Landworkers' Alliance thinks so. DEFRA plans to initially roll the scheme out only to farms currently signed up to the old EU Basic Payment Scheme and that excludes farms that are smaller than 5 hectares. We hear from Jyoti…

In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspectiveBy BBC Radio 4

Tokyo: Art & Photography at The Ashmolean in Oxford is a celebration of the city currently hosting the Olympics. The exhibition’s curator Lena Fritsch discusses the show which spans the arts of the Edo period (1603-1868) when the country was officially closed to the outside world, to today, and considers the sprawling metropolis’s appetite for the …

The changes will come into force in England on Monday morning.By BBC Radio 4

How can our workplaces become an inclusive and fair environment for employees with a disability? If you’ve an idea or experience about job hunting, career support or staff retention e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now, whether you’re an employer or an employee, we’d love to hear from you.On the panel with presenter Charmaine Cozier are:• Liz Johnson, Co-…

In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspectiveBy BBC Radio 4

Professor Matthew Cobb looks at how genetic engineering became big business - from the first biotech company that produced human insulin in modified bacteria in the late 1970s to the companies like Monsanto which developed and then commercialised the first GM crops in the 1990s. Were the hopes and fears about these products of genetic engineering r…

"So fill to me the parting glass...Goodnight and joy be to you all."A popular toast at the end of an evening or a heartfelt farewell to a departed or deceased person? The Parting Glass has become synonymous with leaving. It was written in Scotland and has criss crossed the Irish Sea becoming a popular song among Celtic peoples around the world.Folk…

An estimated 50% of women in the UK will have a urinary tract infection at some point in their lives and between 20-30% are likely to have a recurrence. For some, these recurrent infections can lead to a significant impact on their health and way of life. Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster, a medical historian from McGill University with a personal history of…

28 JUL 21By BBC Radio 4

Anna Hill speaks to Don Broome about a new study assessing the sustainability of food production, and asks how British beef and dairy compare to other systems in the world. Two years ago, Lucy George took a leap of faith and turned her fruit farm just outside Cardiff, into Wales's only tea estate - Caroline Evans has been to meet her. For small far…

Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre argues against the tyranny of positivity which forms part of a culture of "performative wellness", which she says sees illness as a form of personal failure. When extrapolated to other aspects of human life, this attitude is a "poison to society".Presenter; Olly MannProducer: Sheila Cook…

It’s time to talk about periods and contraception. Different birth control options alter the menstrual cycle. Journalist Nicola Davis tells me about her decade without periods and our resident GP Margaret McCartney and sexual health doctor Julia Bailey discuss the evidence and what you need to know. We’ve also got vaccination expert Adam Finn to di…

As a 3.5 metre tall puppet called Little Amal begins an 8,000km journey from Turkey to Manchester to highlight the difficulties faced by refugee children, Samira talks to theatre director and producer David Lan live from Gaziantep on the Turkish-Syrian border about ambitious artistic project The Walk.The longlist for the 2021 Booker Prize has been …

A London council has been heavily criticised for allowing hundreds of children to be abused in its homes over decades.By BBC Radio 4

A leading food processing company has warned of shortages. Anna Hill asks James Bielby of the Federation of Wholesale Distribution where the bottlenecks are in the system, whether government exemptions will improve the current situation, and how things might unfold in the coming months. On Saturday's Farming Today This Week we heard from a listener…

27 JUL 21By BBC Radio 4

Michael Rosen asks Dr Sophie Harrison about the strange and special new language she had to learn to become a doctor, having been an editor at Granta Magazine. She's written a book about her language journey: The Cure For Good Intentions: A Doctor's Story. Produced by Beth O'Dea for BBC Audio in Bristol…

Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.By BBC Radio 4

As the Chinese Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary, Celia Hatton looks at how party slogans reveal the turbulent history of modern China. Throughout its existence, the party has used key slogans to communicate policy and mobilise the country's vast population. These messages reflect not just the ambitions of party leaders but also have…

In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspectiveBy BBC Radio 4

Five years after Prince's death, the musician's music director of over 20 years, Morris Hayes, discusses Prince's posthumous new album Welcome 2 America. Recorded in 2010 and archived in the singer's legendary vault of unreleased material, it is released this week. Freya McClements, Northern Correspondent with The Irish Times, joins John to discuss…

Peaty, Daley and Pidcock all win gold on the third day of the OlympicsBy BBC Radio 4

Four more competitors join Russell Davies for the wide-ranging general knowledge contest.By BBC Radio 4

26 JUL 21By BBC Radio 4

The government’s new violence against women and girls strategy was published last Wednesday. Many organisations welcomed the commitments it made but many had criticisms for areas not addressed, not least the specific needs of Black and minoritized women when facing domestic violence. Ngozi Fulani is the founder and director of Sistah Space, a small…

An original short story for Radio 4, produced by Becky Ripley.By BBC Radio 4

There are very big changes ahead in British farming, how will small farms fare when the current system of subsidies is phased out? The Princes Countryside Trust supports smaller farm businesses with a range of programmes. We speak to Lord Curry of Kirkharle, chair of Trustees of the Prince’s Countryside Fund and for many years a farmer himself.More…

New comedy from stand-up comedian Ashley Blaker about his unusual home life. In episode one, Ashley considers the downside to having a large family - including a morning routine so challenging it would give Michael McIntyre a heart attack and an almost never ending need to replace phone chargers.Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children is a mix of stand-up and …

Alex Forsyth and guests discuss the latest political developments.By BBC Radio 4

Civil liberties groups say requiring proof of Covid jabs would create a "two-tier society"By BBC Radio 4

Elizabeth Day talks to Anuk Arudpragasam about his new novel, A Passage NorthBy BBC Radio 4

Ella Fitzgerald: Thanks for the Memory and Dory Previn: The Lady with the Braid.By BBC Radio 4

Dan Saladino finds out why a UN summit to transform the global food system has become so controversial. It has generated 2500 ideas for change but also a boycott by protesters. In 2019 the UN's Secretary General António Guterres highlighted ways in which the global food system was breaking down: hundreds of millions of people going hungry, billions…

Robert Macfarlane is a writer whose books about the natural world, including The Wild Places and The Old Ways, have won many prizes and taken root in the best-seller charts. He was born into a family of enthusiastic amateur climbers and his early memories include being carried up the Cairngorms on his father's back. This childhood experience led to…