Business Daily

On this edition of Business Weekly, we look at an alternative view of the economic future, a year on from the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. We hear from musicians on different continents who have found different ways to pay the bills when the live venues closed. And we head to Nairobi to meet Josephine, a woman living in an informal settlement, who has recorded a pandemic diary for us. We will also hear from the fishing villages around the Indian Ocean where people in the Seychelles and Maldives are worried the yellow fin tuna stocks are fast depleting. It’s being blamed on a love of sushi in the west. And to finish off, we’ve an insight into a very unusual career that has brought someone a great deal of happiness. Business Weekly is presented by Sasha Twining and produced by Matthew Davies.

As women begin to speak out against sexual violence and harassment, does the music industry face a #metoo reckoning?Manuela Saragosa speaks to her colleague Tamanna Rahman about her investigation for BBC television into numerous claims of abuse, assault and rape, as many women finally break their silence. They discuss the cases of grime artist Solo 45, who was sentenced to prison for multiple counts of rape, and the superstar DJ Erick Morillo, who died last year shortly after being accused of drugging and raping a colleague. But Tamanna says there are numerous other women she has spoken to who are still afraid to go public with their stories, in many cases because they fear destroying their careers. So what can be done, and what should the big record labels be doing in particular?Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: Lone female street artist holds head in despair next to a guitar; Credit: JoseASReyes/Getty Images)

Josephine is a single mother of four in Kibera, the sprawling slum in Nairobi, Kenya. At the beginning of the pandemic she was working as a cook, but soon lost her job, and when the BBC's Ed Butler spoke to her a year ago her situation was dire.In this episode, the first of a short series about Josephine and Kibera, we hear how she struggled to start a small business to help feed her family. Also in the programme, Kibera community organiser Kennedy Odede explains how those first few months of desperation impacted the slum's residents. And economist Edward Kusewa, explains how those early months of lockdowns in East Africa are still affecting lives.Producer: Frey Lindsay.(Image: A woman walks home through empty streets after the 7pm curfew in Kibera, Nairobi; Credit: Kabir Dhanji/AFP via Getty Images)

Are chicken nuggets grown from animal cells the ultimate innovation, or a flash in the pan? As Singapore allows the sale of cultivated chicken nuggets, Elizabeth Hotson speaks to Josh Tetrick, whose company Eat Just brought the innovative snack to market. Colin Buchan, executive chef at the exclusive club 1880 in Singapore, tells us what it's like to cook the nuggets, while two vegan friends in London talk about the ethics. Plus, the BBC's Regan Morris tells us why bringing lab grown meat to market in the US may be a tricky task, and Kelly Laudon, an attorney with law firm Jones Day takes us through the legal implications. Producer: Elizabeth Hotson(Picture: Lab-grown chicken nugget; Credit: Nicholas Yeo/Getty Images)

Central banks and many companies are rushing to develop their own digital currencies. Why are they doing it? What are the risks? And how might it upend our relationship with money? Ed Butler speaks to Jay Joe, who runs a company providing some of the tech behind the Bahamas’ new digital currency, the Sand Dollar. Josh Lipsky of the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center, explains what central banks in the Bahamas and elsewhere hope to gain from digitisation.Samantha Hoffman, senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Unit, explains how China might use its new digital version of the Yuan to snoop on people. And David Birch, author or The Currency Cold War, hopes digital currencies may soon allow our fridge and car to manage our finances for us.Producers: Edwin Lane, Benjie Guy(Picture: currency symbols. Credit: Getty Images.)

On International Women's Day, we ask what Covid-19 lockdowns have done to gender equality at work - and at home.Mum Leslie Chiaramonte was forced to quit her nursing job amid the demands of juggling childcare and work. British politician Stella Creasy fears the pandemic will lead to a "tsunami" of unemployed mothers. But Holly Birkett, co-director of the Equal Parenting Project at the University of Birmingham, says it has helped to remove the stigma attached to flexible working.Producer: Szu Ping Chan(Photo: Stock photo of a mother multi-tasking with her young son; Credit: Getty Images)

Next week marks the first anniversary of the World Health Organisation officially labelling Covid-19 a pandemic. In the year since that announcement was made over two and a half million people have died from the disease. Global unemployment rose by 33 million, social gatherings have been largely forbidden and millions of children have had their education disrupted. On this episode of Business Weekly we’ll be looking at the cost of the coronavirus on our jobs, lives and wellbeing. We’ll hear from women forced out of the workforce, young people who had to grow up in lockdown and health workers who battled to save lives at the expense of their own mental wellbeing.Business Weekly is presented by Lucy Burton and produced by Marie Keyworth.

New York rat-catcher James Molluso has been dealing with vermin since he was a teenager. The pay isn't brilliant, the hours are long and the chemicals are toxic. So why does he love his job so much? We hear from John Bowe, who recounts surprising tales of happiness from his years interviewing crime scene cleaners, lawyers and taxidermists in the book Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs. And with Covid-19 blurring the lines between work and home life, Laurie Santos, professor of Psychology at Yale University, tells us what we can all do to break the daily grind.Photo: Stock photo of a businessman holding a picture of a happy face (Credit: Getty).

A year of crisis has taken a toll on those tasked with caring for the sick and elderly. It’s almost a year since the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic. Manuela Saragosa revisits three frontline health care workers who she spoke to last year, about how they have coped. Dr Ma, a geriatrician in Hong Kong plus a care home worker in Spain and Dr. Laura Hawryluck, Associate Professor of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto and an ICU doctor herself. Laura tells us of the strains and physical scars of the past year. And Elena Rusconi, Professor of Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology at the University of Trento, explains the results of a survey she and colleagues conducted on care workers in Northern Italy last year, which found that almost half had symptoms of moderate-to-severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.Remember if any of the issues in today’s edition affect you, do seek the help of a professional mental health body if not a doctor or frie

How has mental health in the South American country been affected during lockdown? According to the World Health Organisation Guyana has for years had one of the highest suicide rates anywhere in the world. So how has the country fared during the pandemic? Ed Butler speaks to Supriya Singh-Bodden, founder of a non-profit organisation The Guyana Foundation, set up to foster development in the country, to Meena Upeachehan who works as a councillor for The Guyana Foundation, and to women in the country who have been suffering depression and domestic abuse. Plus he speaks to Dr Christine Moutier, Chief Medical Officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention who says early data shows that suicides have not gone up globally during the pandemic but may rise in the second or third waves. (Picture: Traditional wooden house on stilts in rural Guyana. Picture credit: Arterra/Marica van der Meer/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the lives of billions of people around the world, and with many countries still in lockdown the impact will continue to be felt for many years. Not least for teenagers, whose education, family and social lives have been profoundly disrupted. Today we meet such teenagers: Ayushmaan in New Delhi, Emma in Hamburg, Pelumi in Lagos and Gracie in Auckland talk to host Tamasin Ford and each other about the challenges of nearing adulthood in a world under lockdown, and how the extra pressures have impacted their mental health.Remember if any of the issues in today’s edition affect you, do seek the help of a professional mental health body if not a doctor or friends and family.Producer: Frey Lindsay. (Image credit: Getty Creative.)

It’s almost a year since the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic. Many embraced working from home to start off with. But has it lost its lustre? We look at the toll it’s taking on people’s mental health. We hear from Matthew Cooper, the co-founder of a start-up called Earn Up, a San Francisco-based financial technology platform that helps people automate their loan payments. He explains why the pandemic contributed to a breakdown at the end of 2020. We also speak to Margaret Heffernan, from the University of Bath, former CEO of five companies and author of several books including Uncharted, who tells us why checking in with staff must be done properly and personally, and hear from Mark Simmonds, the author of the memoir Breakdown and Repair: a fathers tale of stress and success; His own mental health issues led him to completely re-evaluate his career and working practices, and he offers some tips on coping with stress. Remember if any of the issues in today’s edition affect

As the global Covid-19 vaccination drive slowly gathers pace - on Business Weekly we’ll be looking at whether vaccine passports will help us return to life as we once knew it. While the travel industry is keen to use them, scientists warn that not only will they not work properly but they could pose serious ethical dilemmas. We’ll also hear from the people scooping facemasks out of the ocean - who are warning that Covid-19 has caused a pandemic of plastic waste. In the effort to save the planet from climate change, US President Joe Biden has promised to reduce the US’s carbon emissions. We’ll hear from the American coal workers who are worried for their jobs. Also, the pandemic has thrown the global wedding industry into disarray. We’ll meet the couples who got married during the pandemic in really quite extraordinary circumstances. And we’ll look at the history of hairstyles in the workplace.Business Weekly is presented by Lucy Burton and produced by Szu Ping Chan.

As Bitcoin's price hits a new all-time high, it's now estimated to use as much electricity as the whole of Argentina But is this remotely sustainable?Justin Rowlatt speaks to cryptocurrency expert and University of Chicago economics professor Gina Pieters about why such heavy energy consumption is an intrinsic feature of Bitcoin, and why the higher it's value rises, the more its energy footprint expands.But what about it's carbon footprint? That's a debate we get to hear both sides of, with crypto evangelist Ethan Pierse saying that Bitcoin miners are helping to finance the expansion of renewable energy sources, while the more sceptical data analyst Alex de Vries says they are burning plenty of fossil fuels to compete in an expensive and pointless lottery.Plus Kenneth Rogoff, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, compares Bitcoin to a work of modern art, and wonders whether its future may be as a curiosity at a Star Trek convention in the year 2100.Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: B

Poorer countries in search of Covid-19 vaccines are looking east. Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit, describes how China and Russia are stepping in to provide vaccines where Europe and the US aren't. Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, explains how this feeds into China's soft power aspirations. Yuan Ding, dean of the China Europe International Business School, and David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, discusses China's efforts at soft power so far. (Photo: A nurse in Brazil holds a sample of a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine)

Covid-19 has ruined millions of wedding plans. Will 2021 spark a race to the altar for those unable to tie the knot? California couple Lauren and Patrick Delgado tell their story. We also hear from Jordie Shepherd, host of the Corona Brides podcast, and the bride tear-gassed on her wedding day. Also, has Covid-19 put an end to the Big Fat Indian Wedding? We ask Lalita Raghav at the wedding planners Ferns N Petals.Picture: Bride and groom figurines are pictured wearing face masks (Credit: Getty)

The pandemic has brought with it a massive rise in plastic waste. Tamasin Ford looks at how the demand for hygiene along with plummeting oil prices boosted our use of single use plastics. In some countries, it has increased by 50 percent. In other countries, the increase has been even six or seven fold. She speaks to Gary Stokes, the Founder of Oceans Asia in Hong Kong, a marine conservation organisation. And to Amy Slack, head of campaigns and policy at Surfers Against Sewage, an ocean conservation group in St Agnes in Cornwall in the South West of England. Plus Jacob Duer, the CEO of the Alliance to End Plastic waste, based in Singapore - an organisation supported by the private sector. And Elsie Mbugua, an energy trader and founder of Elcy Investments.

The "hydrogen economy" has received a lot of hype, but could this explosive gas fill some critical gaps in a future zero-carbon energy system?Justin Rowlatt looks at Australia's plans to use its huge solar and wind resources to generate hydrogen from seawater. Miranda Taylor of the government-sponsored agency National Energy Resources Australia lists some of the many potential applications for the gas that the country is taking a punt on. But how many of them will actual prove commercially viable?Clean energy consultant Michael Liebreich says that despite hydrogen's versatility, in most cases it's likely to prove far less efficient than other technologies. But there are a few key exceptions, some of which could be life saving. Plus, chemistry professor Andrea Sella blows up a balloon, zaps some water, and nearly gives Justin a hernia.Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: Hydrogen pipeline with blue sky background; Credit: Getty Images)

They’re the technical bits of genius businesses cannot do without. On this edition of Business Weekly, we look at the world of semiconductors and why a shortage of them is holding up industries the world over. From consumer electronics to cars, the squeeze on semiconductors affects the supply of everything with a computer chip. Also, Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela becomes the first African and first female director general of the World Trade Organisation. We hear from the woman herself about the task ahead. Plus, should children be learning about bonds, shares and savings accounts as well as algebra and geometry? We speak to pupils around the world keen to learn about finance and money.

To some it may sound absurd to consider hairstyles a workplace issue, but for millions of men and women with African and Afro-Caribbean hair, it is just that. For decades, some hairstyles have been discouraged at work. But things are finally starting to change. This month, the US Airforce is changing its hair code to be more inclusive. We explore the historic racism behind hair-based discrimination and hear from the women who have united to change attitudes and laws. We speak to businesswomen, historians and those in the arts – from the UK, the US and East Africa – to find out what hair has to do with it all anyway. Presenter: Vivienne Nunis Producer: Sarah Treanor(Image credit: Getty)