Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Share Radio's tech guru Steve Caplin takes us through a selection of possible Christmas gifts, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Among them are gin that lights up, a Lego typewriter, a James Bond Scalextric set, a CO2 bike tyre inflator, a wooden DIY projector, LED candles, a Casio keyboard, the champion of Swiss Army knives, a Dyson that tells you about the dust it's gathered and a couple of tech games.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Political commentator Mike Indian looks at "Partygate" and the resignation of Allegra Stratton, as well as the fine over the refurbishment of the PM's Downing Street flat. With polls indicating a hung Parliament if there was a snap election, he asks what it would take for the PM to go. He considers the latest Covid rules and discusses how heavy they might get - could Christmas be cancelled again? And he puts the case for mandatory vaccination as an alternative to recurring shutdowns of society.
Guests: Mike Indian
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
With markets roiled by the new Covid variant and the Fed Chairman admitting inflation may not be temporary after all, Russ Mould of A J Bell asks if we are finally seeing the Taper Tantrum central banks have been so nervous about. Quoting the US Misery Index and the Fear Index, he feels investors - to whom absolutely rather than relative return is most important – should not think that what has worked for 10 years will necessarily work in future. He has some suggestions for protecting private investors' portfolios.
Guests: Russ Mould
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University discusses a paper from John Penrose MP which could galvanise the debate on poverty, tackling the underlying causes, rather than treating its symptoms. He reflects on Nigel Farage's interview with Donald Trump on GB News, wishing Trump had faced a rather less friendly interviewer. And, confessing his own bias, he looks at the timeless and messy issue of the politics surrounding abortion, explaining why it is so divisive.
Guests: Professor Tim Evans
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson on the latest UK box office numbers. Opening at #1 is House of Gucci with Lady Gaga, directed by Ridley Scott, pushing Ghostbusters: Afterlife into second place. Disney's 60th animated feature, Encanto, opens at #3 while a special screening of the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes was #7 ("like the best seat in the theatre"). James's pick of the week is Jane Campion's The Power Of The Dog on Netflix. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, James reckons it will pick up many Oscar nominations.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin looks into the latest tech, with Sainsbury's opening a checkout-free store – again, this time in competition with Tesco. South Korea is introducing dancing, singing and farting robots in 300 nursery schools, there's a singing cactus that's ruder than expected, an air taxi that will make you feel you're Superman, a camera the size of a grain of salt, the oldest iron and fridge that are still working and a way of using two lenses at once on an iphone.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
In his latest look at technology, Steve Caplin marks 50 years of the microchip. Uber is about to reach its 1 billionth trip in the UK, while Tesla's app locked owners out of their cars. There's an LED-lit zebra crossing, Adele putting an end to album-shuffling on Spotify, which has added lyrics to its songs, 8 million of them. There's crowd-funding for a gizmo that cancels out spurious noise when you're working at home and the Japanese are using discarded adult nappies to heat public baths.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson looks at the UK box office, with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, directed by Jason Reitman, storming into the #1 slot with £4.3m. King Richard, with Will Smith in a possible Oscar-winning role, enters at #5 taking only £570,000. On Netflix, James much admires Tick, Tick… Boom! with Andrew Garfield another possible Oscar nominee. He also looks at sports drama Bruised, starring and directed by Halle Berry.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Russ Mould of A J Bell looks at the shakeout in UK energy companies and casts his eye across the Atlantic where President Biden has been trying to talk down the oil price. Noting that price rises might have something to do with the $14 trillion pumped into the US economy since the pandemic began, he speculates on what will happen to the oil and gas price with new exploration so frowned upon. He also looks at the second interest rate rise in New Zealand and, with 91 rises around the world so far this year, he wonders whether the Fed, BoE and ECB can continue to hold out.
Guests: Russ Mould
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
In the wake of a shambolic speech to the CBI, political commentator Mike Indian looks at the political future of Boris Johnson and asks if we are seeing the beginning of his end as PM. After the tragedy with a migrant boat in the English Channel, he suggests a possible solution. And he turns again to the Northern Ireland protocol and Article 16 and wonders whether, if there is a majority in favour in Northern Ireland, a United Ireland is a possible outcome.
Guests: Mike Indian
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