Business Daily

The international companies investing in Nigerian cinema. France's Canal+ and streaming giant Netflix are among those who see potential for Nollywood, both inside and outside Africa. Are they right? Presented by Tamasin Ford. (Photo: Nollywood film DVDs on sale in Lagos, Nigeria, Credit: Getty Images)

The longevity industry aims to let everyone enjoy a healthy, active life well past the age of 100. But the question everyone will be asking is... will it happen in my lifetime?Manuela Saragosa reports from the Longevity Forum conference in London, where hundreds of researchers, investors, entrepreneurs and policymakers have gathered to try and answer this question.Among them, she speaks to billionaire investor Jim Mellon; London Business School economist Andrew Scott; the youthful venture capitalist Laura Deming; Columbia University geriatrician Linda Fried; and cryonics fan Anders Sandberg of the Future of Humanity Institute.Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: Retired couple larking about on a moped; Credit: stevecoleimages/Getty Images)

Google claims to have achieved a major breakthrough with "quantum supremacy". But what could quantum computers actually do, and how soon will they be useful?Manuela Saragosa speaks to Harvard quantum computing researcher Prineha Narang, who says that the devices she is working on are annoyingly "noisy", but could still make an important contribution to tackling climate change in the next few years. There are fears that quantum computers could one day crack modern encryption techniques - rendering private communications and financial transactions unsafe. But IBM cryptography researcher Vadim Lyubashevsky says don't worry, they've got the problem in hand.Plus, the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones delineates the greatest paradox of quantum computers - that nobody can explain how they work.Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: Engineer working on IBM Q System One quantum computer; Credit: Misha Friedman/Getty Images)

One of the world's top thinkers on artificial intelligence, tells us why we should be cautious but not terrified at the prospect of computers that can outsmart us.Professor Stuart Russell of the University of California, Berkeley, tells Ed Butler where he thinks we are going wrong in setting objectives for existing artificial intelligence systems, and the risk of unintended consequences.Plus IBM fellow and computer engineer John Cohn talks about blockchain, deep neural networks and symbolic reasoning.(Picture: Ponderous robot; Credit: PhonlamaiPhoto/Getty Images)

Liesel Pritzker Simmons and her husband Ian Simmons are billionaires who come from successful US business families. Liesel's family is best known for founding Hyatt hotels. Both say the the US government should be collecting more tax from super-rich people like them. We asked them why. And Dr Ted Klontz, associate professor of practice and financial psychology at Creighton University in the US, explains the psychology of a billionaire.(Photo: A gold Ferrari parked outside an expensive boutique in London, Credit: Getty Images)

Should the richest be taxed out of existence? Manuela Saragosa hears from Emmanuel Saez, a US-based French economist advising US presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren on a wealth tax targeting the super rich. The arguments against taxing billinaires more come from Chris Edwards, an economist at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington DC.(Photo: Bill Gates and Warren Buffet at an event in 2017, Credit: Getty Images)

The murky world of fake Instagram followers, fake comments, fake likes. Edwin Lane turns to the dark side in his quest for more followers for his Instagram account, with help from Belgian artist Dries Depoorter. Evan Asano from the influencer marketing company Mediakix describes how a mass following of bots almost landed him a marketing deal, and Andrew Hogue, founder of a company called Authentique, explain how artificial intelligence is being used to spot fake influencers.(Photo: Instagram logo. Credit: Getty Images)

How hard is it to make money on Instagram? Ed Butler hears from successful influencer Laura Strange, who makes a living from her Gluten-free food themed profile, and the BBC's Edwin Lane tries to become an influencer himself, with advice from Harry Hugo co-founder of the influencer marketing agency Goat, and Marie Mostad, influencer expert at the platform Inzpire.me. (Photo: Instagram logo displayed on a laptop. Credit: Getty Images)

Brittany Kaiser was one of the whistleblowers who brought down her former employer, Cambridge Analytica. She helped to expose how the data analysis firm had collaborated with Facebook to profile millions of voters around the world, in order to target them with tailor-made propaganda.In an extended interview, she tells the BBC's Jane Wakefield how our data is still open to abuse by those seeking to undermine democracy by manipulating the way we vote.(Picture: Brittany Kaiser in Washington, DC; Credit: Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Esther Duflo discusses her work on the economics of poverty, for which she won this year's Nobel prize, along with her husband Abhijit Banerjee and co-author Michael Kremer.The 46-year old French-American MIT economist is the youngest person ever to be awarded the prize, and only the second woman. Ed Butler asks her how she and her collaborators examined how people in poverty respond differently to economic incentives, and her views on how her profession could benefit from being less male-dominated.(Picture: Esther Duflo; Credit: Patrick Kovarik/AFP via Getty Images)

How hydroelectric dams are powering cryptocurrency mining on the eastern edge of Europe. Ed Butler travels to Georgia to visit the Bitcoin mines benefiting from cheap electricity and tax benefits.(Photo: A hydroelectric dam on the Inguri River in Georgia, Credit: Getty Images)

How social media is fueling the modern cosmetic surgery industry. The BBC's Regan Morris visits a Botox party in Los Angeles and Sarah Treanor investigates a cosmetic surgery industry event in London. Researcher Matt van Dusen from Alliant International University in San Diego discusses what the rise of cosmetic surgery tells us about how our identities are being defined by social media.(Photo: Botox treatment, Credit: Getty Images)

How social media is being used to target cancer patients with fake cures. Tamasin Ford hears from cancer bloggers dealing with a flood of 'snake oil' salespeople. A former naturopathic doctor Britt Marie Hermes gives the inside story. British chemist and Youtuber Miles Power and researcher Corey Basch from Willian Paterson University in New Jersey describe how social media algorithms are facilitating the scams.(Photo: Pills and capsules on a keyboard, Credit: Getty Images)

Texas is the second-largest state economy in the United States and if it were a country it would be the 11th largest in the world. Although it produces more oil than any other state in the US, Texas is rapidly becoming known for renewable energy and a vibrant tech sector. Professor John Doggett at the University of Texas at Austin explains just what Texas is doing right. At the same time, the state retains a lot of its tradition, as Elizabeth Hotson finds out at the Texas State Fair. And Sarah Carabias-Rush at the Dallas Regional Chamber explains why people are coming to Texas, and what it could mean for the state. Producer: Elizabeth Hotson.(Picture:The "Big Tex" sign of the Texas State Fair in Dallas, Texas. Picture credit: Elizabeth Hotson.)

As pressure grows on airlines to reduce their climate change impact, and “flight shame” grows among people concerned about their own impact, ever more research is being put into alternative, “cleaner” sources of fuel. Katie Prescott travels to Oslo to see new projects to bring more so-called biofuels into the system. Air BP’s commercial development manager, Tom Parsons, explains the difficulties in implementing and costing biofuels, while Dr Andrew Welfle at the University of Manchester describes the potential sources and applications of biofuels. (Picture: At a plant near Chiang Mai, Thailand, cooking oil and palm oil are processed to produce biodiesel. Picture credit: John van Hasselt/Corbis via Getty Images)

This week marks a changing of the guard at the European Central Bank, one of the world’s most important financial institutions. The bank, under the stewardship of outgoing president Mario Draghi, was instrumental in averting a collapse of the Euro earlier in the decade, as the BBC’s Andrew Walker recounts. Now, with former IMF Chairman Christine Lagarde on her way in, veteran bond buyer Mohamed El-Erian says there will still be an uphill battle to keep the currency stable. One issue in particular, as Jana Randow, economy editor at Bloomberg in Frankfurt, explains, is keeping German savers from revolting against continued low interest rates.Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: Christine Lagarde speaks with Mario Draghi in Luxembourg on June 18, 2015. Picture credit: THIERRY MONASSE/AFP/Getty Images)

The food we'll be eating in the future may look the same, it may even taste the same, but it may well have been grown in a lab. In today's programme we're talking volcanic fungi, eggless scrambled eggs and meat that doesn't come from an animal. But will it all get past regulators and fussy eaters? Manuela Saragosa and Regan Morris investigate the California companies involved in the race to replace the meat we eat. (Photo: Non-meat burgers from Beyond Meat, Credit: Getty Images)

Does coming second in a prestigious professional competition still boost the bottom line? Is it worth the time, money and emotional investment?Manuela Saragosa visits Pied-a-Terre, a one-star Michelin restaurant, and speaks to its owner David Moore about what it would mean to him and his staff if they could regain a second star. Plus Sam Jordison of the small independent publishing house Galley Beggar Press tells of the joy, sales lift and resulting logistical nightmare of printing more books that they experienced when their author Lucy Ellmann was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for her novel Ducks, Newburyport.(Picture: Novelist Lucy Ellmann poses with her book Ducks, Newburyport during the 2019 Booker Prize awards ceremony; Credit: Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images)

The radical plan to transform the economy and tackle climate change has taken off in Washington DC, with the backing of the left-wing Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, as well as most of the Democratic candidates for the US presidency.But what is the plan? Manuela Saragosa speaks to Saya Ameli Hajebi, a 17-year-old spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement of young people lobbying for action, as well as to one of the plan's original authors, British economist Ann Pettifor.And Ms Pettifor isn't the only economist calling for radical economic change. Nobel prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz says why he thinks the American economy is failing most of its people and what needs to change.Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: Los Angeles youth at a nationwide school strike for the Green New Deal; Credit: Katie Falkenberg/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Investors are losing faith in Uber's promise of rapid growth and market disruption, and are demanding to see actual profits. Oracle's founder Larry Ellison has gone as far as to describe the transport app company as "almost worthless".Manuela Saragosa speaks to Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, who says the company's problem is that it is a great brand and great app that have been built upon a fundamentally unprofitable market - ride hailing. Meanwhile Patricia Nakache of Trinity Ventures says that Silicon Valley venture capitalists such as hers are becoming increasingly wary of businesses that generate rapid growth by simply burning through billions of dollars of cash.Producer: Edwin Lane(Picture: An UberChopper helicopter in Gdynia, Poland; Credit: Michal Fludra/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The demands of the working day and our 24-hour economy mean many of us don't get the recommended seven to eight hours sleep a night. Experts say all that sleep deprivation comes at an economic cost. Manuela Saragosa looks at the business case for sleep. Contributors: Danielle Marchant, Executive Coach. Matthew Walker, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and founder and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science.(Picture: Tired young businessman sleeping on his desk inside of the office during the day; Credit: PeopleImages/Getty Images)

Is the Saudi state oil company Aramco finalising its much-delayed share offering just as financial markets are losing faith in the future of fossil fuels?Manuela Saragosa speaks to energy geopolitical analyst Indra Overland, who says that the transition to electric vehicles could happen much faster than expected, posing a direct threat to what is the world's biggest oil company. Meanwhile Andrew Grant of the think tank Carbon Tracker says that big institutional investors are beginning to take the financial risks posed by climate change far more seriously.But according to oil industry consultant Cornelia Meyer the highly profitable Saudi company could still prove an attractive proposition for Western investors.Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: A Saudi petroleum plant silhouetted at dusk; Credit: Scott Peterson/Liaison)

Cement and concrete have one of the biggest carbon footprints of any industry, and eliminating it is no easy task.By volume concrete is the most heavily used resource by humanity apart from water. Our houses, offices, dams, roads, airports and so on all depend on pouring vast quantities of this magical, versatile material. But not only does making cement - the glue that binds concrete - involve huge amounts of energy. The chemical process itself also produces carbon dioxide as a bi-product, and nobody yet knows how to avoid that.Manuela Saragosa speaks to three people who offer partial solutions. Architect Simon Sturgis of pressure group Targeting Zero wants to design most of the concrete out of buildings, and recycle what's left. Benjamin Sporton, chief executive of the Global Cement and Concrete Association, is trying to coordinate global research efforts. Meanwhile Professor Mohamed Saafi of Lancaster University says the answer may lie in carrots and sugar beet. Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: A shoe print in the cement of a sidewalk; Credit: Morgan Frith/Getty Images)

Does the China-NBA bust-up mean that the Chinese are falling out of love with US basketball - and US business in general?One thoughtless tweet in support of Hong Kong protestors by Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets Basketball team, has kicked off a diplomatic storm, with Chinese TV stations cancelling the planned airing of NBA exhibition basketball games. It certainly reflects a much more prickly, nationalistic mood in China at a time when the country feels under attack from the US government's trade sanctions. Fenella Barber of China business consultancy Bao Advisory says it is typical of the cultural misunderstandings that still occur when Western businesses try to break into the country's gigantic fast-growing consumer market. But Andrew Coflan of geopolitical strategists Eurasia Group says the kerfuffle says a lot more about internal Chinese politics than the business environment, which Beijing is actually working hard to make more foreigner-friendly. Meanwhile journalist and businessman James MacGregor explains why so many US companies are thinking about exiting China - and it's not just because of the escalating trade war.(Photo: Lakers fans with Chinese flags at an NBA game in Shenzhen. China: Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

We hear the arguments of leading US academic and author, Daniel Markovits, whose book The Meritocracy Trap argues that meritocracy in the United States and other Western free-market economies is a myth that fuels inequality.Temba Maqubela, the head of The Groton School - one of America's top private schools - outlines the role that elite establishments such as his could play in helping less advantaged students. Meanwhile Samina Khan, director of undergraduate admissions at Oxford University, says top universities like hers are working hard to target a more diverse range of applicants. Plus Kiruba Munusamy, an advocate at the Supreme Court of India, describes how a system of positive discrimination helped her get a top job despite India's caste system.Producer: Laurence Knight(Photo: Signposts for Yale and Harvard, Credit: Getty Images)

From hotheads to curmudgeons, is anger always bad for business? Can anger management techniques help? Or should we put our wrath to profitable use?Laurence Knight speaks to an entrepreneur who hit the headlines following an air rage incident about his chronic fits of rage. Anger management expert Dr Gina Simmons explains why he may want to consider doing press-ups. We also hear from Mustafa Nayyem, who helped initiate the bitter Euromaidan protests that brought down Ukraine's last government. Plus evolutionary psychologist Aaron Sell explains the circumstances most likely to bring out our inner beast.(Picture: Frustrated businessman screaming of disappointment and looking up; Credit: skynesher/Getty Images)

Why health concerns over vaping is bad for cigarette companies. In the US hundreds of illnesses and even some deaths have been linked to vaping. That's bad news for a tobacco industry looking for a long-term replacement for cigarettes. Manuela Saragosa speaks to Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, Anna Gilmore, professor of public health at the University of Bath in the UK and a spokesperson for STOP - a global industry watchdog aimed at stopping tobacco organisations and products - and Richard Hill, head of vapour products at the tobacco company Imperial Brands.(Photo: A young woman vaping, Credit: Getty Images)

On World Mental Health Day, we hear the experiences of people who've suffered a mental health breakdown at work, and ask what employers can do to support them. We hear from Ian Stuart, the UK CEO of the global bank HSBC, Paul Farmer from the mental health charity Mind, American comedian and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax, Dean Yates, the head of journalist mental health and wellbeing strategy at the news agency Reuters, Geoff McDonald, global advocate and campaigner of Minds at Work, and Dr Claire Douglas, head of occupational health and wellbeing at SCS Railways in the UK.Producer: Laurence Knight(Photo: Depiction of workplace stress, Credit: Getty Images)

A new EU directive grants new legal rights to those reporting corporate and government misbehaviour.Ed Butler asks David Lewis, professor of employment law at Middlesex University, how significant the new legal framework is and why it was needed.Plus we replay an interview from 2016 in which lawyer Mychal Wilson retells his early experiences as a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company in Los Angeles, and why he blew the whistle on underhand practices. And practicing Louisiana doctor William LaCorte talks about his reputation as a serial whistleblower - making tens of millions of dollars from exposing the wrongdoing of big pharma and hospitals.(Picture: Whistle hanging in front of blue background; Credit: thomas-bethge/Getty Images)

What happens when a company lets its employees decide what their salaries should be? Will anyone ask to be paid less?A number of tech companies are finding out, as they see it as a way of achieving greater fairness and transparency, as well as motivating staff to raise their effort to match their remuneration. Ed Butler speaks to Heather McGregor, executive dean of the Edinburgh Business School, and to David Burkus, the California-based author of a book about pay transparency, Under New Management.(Picture: Woman covering face with fan of dollar bills looking at camera on yellow background; Credit: SIphotography/Getty Images)

Why one financier is the target of a global conspiracy theory. Manuela Saragosa speaks to the BBC's Mike Rudin, who made a recent documentary on the Soros conspiracy, and to Joe Uscinski, associate professor of political science at the University of Miami - and an expert in conspiracy theories. And the BBC's Dhruti Shah speaks to David Mikkelson, the founder of Snopes, the company trying to debunk fake news for the last 25 years. (Photo: Anti-Soros placards during a political demonstration is Macedonia in 2017, Credit: Getty Images)

Truck drivers and the robots that could replace them. Jahd Khalil visits a truck stop in the US state of Virginia to find out why there's a chronic shortage of truckers in the US. Robert Brown from the robotics company TuSimple and Greg Hastings, associate partner at McKinsey & Co, tell Manuela Saragosa why long-distance driving is exactly the kind of job suited to robots.(Photo: A truck stop on the US-Mexico border, Credit: Getty Images)

Why is it so hard to fix your own things? Ed Butler speaks to those campaigning for manufacturers to make it easier for us to fix our electronics goods - everything from tractors to smartphones. Clare Seek runs a Repair Café in Portsmouth, England, a specially designated venue for anyone who wants to get their stuff to last longer. And Ed travels to Agbogbloshie in Accra in Ghana, one of the places where our mountains of e-waste end up being pulled apart and melted down for scrap. The programme also features interviews with Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Association; Kyle Wiens, founder of iFixit; intellectual property lawyer Jani Ihalainen; and Susanne Baker, head of environment and compliance at techUK.(Photo: Broken iPhones, Credit: Getty Images)

Modern textiles are environmentally problematic. Cotton needs gallons of water to produce, while polyester comes from crude oil. So could organic materials such as mushrooms and banana leaves hold the answer?Manuela Saragosa speaks to Dr Richard Blackburn, chemistry professor at Leeds University, who has been studying the ecological impact of the garments industry for decades. Meanwhile the BBC's Elizabeth Hotson investigates innovative new fabrics preparing to hit the market, including MycoTEX, a material made from fungal mycelium, developed by Aniela Hoitink.(Picture: Branch of ripe cotton; Credit: Gargonia/Getty Images)

Is the rapid build up of consumer and corporate credit a threat to China's economic wellbeing?On the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, Ed Butler asks whether the increasing dependence on debt of this officially communist nation is becoming a problem.The programme includes interviews with Shanghai-based journalist Liyan Ma, Shaun Rein of business strategy consultants China Market Research Group, and economist Linda Yueh.(Picture: People's Liberation Army personnel participate in a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China; Credit: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images)

Some traders are betting on the UK crashing out of the EU without a divorce agreement. Should we be concerned that they wield too much political influence?Both the British Prime Minister's sister Rachel Johnson, and the former Conservative finance minister Philip Hammond, have publicly voiced concerns in recent day that Boris Johnson is backed by financiers speculating on a sharp fall in the pound following a possible no-deal Brexit on 31 October.Manuela Saragosa asks how credible are such claims? How are the markets positioned for Brexit? And is there any way of even knowing who is "shorting" the pound, ready to profit from an unexpected fall in its value?The programme includes interviews with David Riley, chief investment strategist at Bluebay Asset Management, and with Jane Foley, head of currency strategy at Rabobank. Plus the BBC's Edwin Lane learns how to play the foreign exchange markets from Piers Curran of Amplify Trading.Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: A woman looks at a chart showing the drop in the pound against the dollar after the UK vote to leave the EU in 2016; Credit: Daniel Sorabji/AFP/Getty Images)

How WeWork's Adam Neumann lost his job after a disastrous attempt to list the company on the stock market. Manuela Saragosa speaks to the Wall Street Journal's Eliot Brown about the charisma of Adam Neumann and how it helped raise billions from investors, and to Andre Spicer from the Cass Business School about the cult of the founder-CEO. Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, explains why WeWork's IPO failure should be a lesson to the markets.(Photo: Adam Neumann, Credit: Getty Images)

Ed Butler speaks to Professor Tom Crowther from the Swiss university ETH Zurich, who says planting billions of trees around the world is by far the biggest and cheapest way to tackle climate change. Marcelo Guimaraes, chairman of Mahogany Roraima, a commercial timber and reforestation plantation in the northern Amazon rainforest, discusses how that would work in practice. (Photo: A tree in a deforested area of the Amazon rainforest, Credit: Getty Images)

What is our ethical duty to eliminate carbon emissions? Was Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg right to express such anger at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York this week?Justin Rowlatt asks leading moral philosopher Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University, whether someone driving a petrol- fuelled car can really be held responsible for increasing the risk of drought in Africa. And why should we give up taking long-haul flights, if the tiny amount of carbon emissions that saves will make practically no difference in the grand scheme of things?Plus climatologist Emily Shuckburgh explains why she is not despondent about climate change - despite seeing the effects first-hand on polar research trips - and how a new institute she is heading at Cambridge University is generating a lot of excitement among academics.Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: Dead cow in drought-struck Kenya; Credit: muendo/Getty Images)

Just how bad will it get if the world fails to get to grips with climate change?On day two of the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, Justin Rowlatt speaks to David Wallace-Wells, author of the apocalyptic book Uninhabitable Earth, which lays out the dire predictions of climatologists for the coming decades if humanity continues to put ever more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere unabated.Yet despite the potentially terrifying outlook, it remains very difficult to motivate politicians and the public to take meaningful action to cut emissions. Why is that, and how might that change? Kelly Fielding is a social psychologist at the University of Queensland in Australia, and has some of the answers.Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: Dead bumblebee from the cover of Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells; Credit: FXseydlbast/Getty Images)

The Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg explains how she aims to get the world's governments gathered for the UN Climate Action Summit in New York to take meaningful action on global warming.Justin Rowlatt speaks to her about her ambitions for her transatlantic trip, and whether one person can really make that much of a difference. In order for her mission to succeed, it will mean rebuilding the global economy from the ground up, including the phasing out of most of the oil and gas industry. John Hofmeister, the former president of Shell's US subsidiary, claims the big oil companies are ready and willing to do their part, if the politicians will only give them the green light.Producer: Laurence Knight(Picture: Greta Thunberg testifies at the US Congress in Washington DC; Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

What next for the social media giant? Jane Wakefield speaks to one former mentor of Mark Zuckerberg, and a British member of parliament about what changes Facebook needs to make after data scandals and concerns over its power.(Photo: Facebook logo, Credit: Getty Images)

What robots driving cars can tell us about artificial intelligence. Ed Butler speaks to Bryn Balcombe, chief strategy officer of the autonomous vehicle project Roborace. Gary Marcus, professor of psychology at New York University, explains why he thinks AI development is fundamentally limited. Yoshua Bengio, professor of computer science at the University of Montreal in Canada, gives a defence.Producer: Laurence Knight(Photo: A Roborace robot-driven car in action on the track, Credit: Getty Images)

How economies spring up in extreme places from refugee camps to prisons. Ed Butler speaks to economist Richard Davies, author of a new book called Extreme Economies, who describes the economic activity in extreme places, from a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan to one of the toughest prisons in the world, in the United States. Former US prisoner Lester Young fill us in on how to trade behind bars.(Photo: A prison in Louisiana State Penitentiary, Credit: Getty Images)

Should shareholders come first? Or should companies also serve their employees, customers, and society in general?Ed Butler explores the growing backlash against "shareholder primacy" - the idea espoused in the 1970s by economist Milton Friedman that businesses should only care about maximising the bottom line for the benefit of their investors, and that other stakeholders' interests should not be their prerogative.He speaks to Lenore Palladino, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who has a list of changes she wants to see in the way that American companies are governed, plus Ken Bertsch of the Council of Institutional Investors, who says that the real problem is not the role of investors like the ones he represents, but too much focus on short-termism.Meanwhile Chris Turner thinks he has the solution - he works for the non-profit organisation B Lab, which provides an objective assessment to hundreds of corporations of whether they are having a positive impact on society.(Picture: An American flag is displayed on a trading screen at the New York Stock Exchange; Credit: Bryan R. Smith/AFP/Getty Images)

Will the roll out of online lending stimulate economic boom or just a credit binge in Africa?Ed Butler speaks to many of the businesspeople providing the continent with much needed banking services via mobile phones. They are optimistic that financial inclusion for small businesses, farmers and rural consumers could stimulate much faster economic growth. But is there a dark side to the sudden availability of east loans?The programme includes interviews with Matthew Davie, chief strategy officer at the US micro-lending fin-tech Kiva; Omotade Odunowo, chief executive of the Nigerian digital wallet service Fets; Joshua Oigara, chief executive of Kenya's biggest commercial bank KCB; and Kevin Njiraini, regional director for southern Africa and Nigeria at the International Finance Corporation.(Picture: Young African woman using a mobile phone; Credit: wilpunt/Getty Images)

Why it's time to start paying attention to the global remittances industry. Ed Butler speaks to Monica, a nurse from the Philippines working in the UK - one of millions of people around the world who regularly send money back to their families abroad. Dilip Ratha from the World Bank describes the scale of the money flows, and the persistently high costs of international money transfers. Ralph Chami from the IMF highlights the challenges such big inflows of cash can have on developing countries. And Elena Novokreshchenova from the company Remitly explains how technology can help reduce costs. (Photo: A bank teller counts bills in Manila, Philippines, Credit: Getty Images)

The cannabis extract CBD or cannabidiol is legal in many countries, and now it's finding its way into everything from soaps to cosmetics. But is it just a fad, and are its health claims bogus?Manuela Saragosa asks Harry Sumnall, professor in substance use at Liverpool John Moores University, whether it is true that CBD is not a psychoactive substance - unlike the more infamous cannabis extract THC. And is it true that it can be used to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's, anxiety and cancer amongst others?Meanwhile Katie Prescott explores the booming market for CBD products. She speaks to Jim McCormick, president of cannabis brand Ignite International; Eveline van Keymeulen, head of life sciences regulations at law firm Allen & Overy; Alex Brooks of financial services firm Canaccord Genuity; and Chris Tovey of GW Pharmaceuticals.(Picture: Cannabis leaf; Credit: digihelion/Getty Images)

The attorneys general of 48 out of the 50 US states have come together to challenge the control of the search giant over what we buy or view online.Manuela Saragosa speaks to the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones about why the US anti-trust authorities have decided to join their EU counterparts in taking on Google.Jonathan Tepper, author of the new book The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition, takes us through the history and significance of anti-trust legislation. But are anti-monopoly laws equipped to deal with the tech giants of today? And can these companies even be called monopolies? We'll also hear from Sally Hubbard of the Open Markets Institute, and Alex Moazed, co-author of the 2016 book Modern Monopolies.(Picture: The Google logo displayed through a magnifying glass; Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images)

Sperm counts worldwide have been in steady decline for decades, and a group of tech start-ups are finally giving the problem attention.Manuela Saragosa speaks to the heads of two such companies: Tom Smith of Dadi Inc, which provides home kits for freezing sperm, and Mohamed Taha of Mojo Diagnostics, which is using artificial intelligence to make male fertility testing more reliable. Plus Mylene Yao of Univfy Inc, which focuses on female fertility, says she has noticed a generational shift in her clients' attitudes, with much more focus now on the joint responsibility of men in achieving a pregnancy.But why is there such a crisis in male fertility in the first place, and what can men do to improve their chances of having a child? Manuela asks Professor Richard Sharpe of the Centre for Reproductive Health at Edinburgh University.(Picture: Human sperm and egg cell; Credit: koya79/Getty Images)