The Why? Curve
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The Why? Curve
Each week Phil Dobbie and Roger Hearing get to grips with one issue that impacts our lives. It could be economic, social, technological or geopolitical. Whatever the subject, they'll talk to the experts who can give help explain what's really going on. And Phil and Roger back it up with their own re...
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Jail Fail - Why Do We Have Too Many Prisoners?
The UK is running out of cells, but there’s an outcry that convicts are being let out early. We already lock up more people for longer than most compa...
Football For Sale
The head of FIFA is clinging to his job because he announced a plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity firms - resulting in cries of ou...
Homing In on Homelessness
Why do we still have people rough-sleeping in our cities? How can an advanced economy like ours allow people to slip through the net so far, they have...
Why Can't We Do High Speed Rail?
Japan has the bullet train, Spain, France and Italy have fast connections across the country, China has a huge high-speed network...... and we have th...
Money for Nothing?
As Andy Burnham vows to tackle the cost of living, could a Universal Basic Income be part of his reset of the economy? He’s supported pilots of the sc...
Turning Off? UK Broadcasting In Trouble
The BBC licence fee is a busted flush, ITV's in the hands of an American media giant - what is the future of public-service broadcasting? Can the BBC...
Ukraine Vibe Shift?
After more than four years of destruction and slaughter, is the corner being turned in the Ukraine war? Kyiv is able to strike deep within Russia now...
Paid-For Politics?
How corrupt is our politics? Is a £5 million gift from a supporter to a politician - when he wasn't an MP - anyone's business but his own? Is it fine...
The Mancunian Candidate
Andy Burnham seems poised to be the UK's seventh prime minister in ten years. Keir Starmer was widely seen as honourable but dull and ineffective - ca...
Cuba Revisited
Could Cuba be the victory Donald Trump is looking for? Phil and Roger discussed this back in March, but after the messy and fragile deal with Iran, co...
Big Storm Coming?
The next El Nino could be the biggest in history. The Pacific atmospheric pattern that regularly disrupts global weather, is set to cause floods in so...
Trump/Iran - Madman or Genius?
Three months of US efforts to tame Iran, and Donald Trump is in a bind - there's still no deal, and Iran has a stranglehold on the Straits of Hormuz....
Too Real TV?
Has reality TV become too toxic? A number of scandals have shown the dark side of formats that put ordinary, vulnerable people in challenging situatio...
Ready For The Next Pandemic?
As Hantavirus and Ebola grab the headlines, how prepared is the world for the next pandemic? Have we learned from COVID both how to stop the spread an...
Reform Government?
If the polls are right, ReformUK could be in Downing Street in three years. So what would they do with the country? We know they don't like immigrants...
Heading for a crash?
A global energy crisis - and yet Wall Street is still surging at record levels. It's largely AI that's fuelling stocks, but many see it as a bubble, a...
The Kindest Generation?
Is humanity kinder now than it has ever been before? Today we are appalled at things that were commonplace only a generation ago - unmarried mothers f...
Welfare or Warfare?
Can we afford to boost national defence alongside the growing bill for benefits, health and social care? Can the UK's shaky finances cope with both? O...
Poor Lebanon
The bombs have stopped falling on Iran, but not on Lebanon. Israel is talking to the Lebanese government, but has not let up in its assault on Hezboll...
Meanwhile in Ukraine
While the world’s attention has been fixed on the Iran war, the conflict in Ukraine has not gone away - and what’s happened in the Gulf is changing th...
The Arab View of Trump’s War
As Iran gets pounded by the US and Israel, how are the Arab nations of the Gulf feeling about the resulting disaster to their economies, and the missi...
Americans Don't Like This War
The Iran war is not going down well in the US. Donald Trump's MAGA movement is badly split - this was the president who promised an end to 'forever wa...
Cuba Next?
With the Iran war not going entirely as planned, does Donald Trump have his eye on another easier regime-change much closer to home? Cuba has been on...
The End of International Law?
The US attacked Iran without even trying to get the UN onside. It’s made it pretty clear it doesn’t feel the need to work within the UN charter, or an...
Gunboat Diplomacy?
The US aircraft carrier groups were in place to threaten Iran as talks were still happening - and they helped launch the war when Donald Trump felt th...
Is Britain Ungovernable?
A government with a thumping majority that can't seem to run the country. U-turns every week and a permanent sense of crisis. And none of this is new...
Welcome To The Splinternet
The internet transformed the world with free information on everything for everyone, but is that era ending? The Chinese and Iranians can control what...
Epstein’s Hidden World
Champagne on the beach of a private island in return for cosy deals and confidential memos - has the Epstein saga lifted the lid on a world of elite p...
Creating Life
Have we just, quietly, passed a key stage in human evolution? Scientists in California say they have created - not adapted - a virus. Artificial intel...
Right Going Wrong?
Is Reform UK looking increasingly like Conservatives 2.0? High-profile defections like Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman help add experience to Nige...
The Chaos of Trump World
There has been a seismic and permanent shift in the international order, and the President of the European Commission says this new world is defined b...
Teens Turned Off
Australia has launched itself into combatting the bad effects of social media on kids by banning under 16s from using them. It’s a world first, and a...
Marriage Guidance
As divorce lawyers enter their busiest season, how sustainable is modern marriage? Plenty of couples never bother to formally marry, and the rate of b...
MAGA Movies In 2026?
Is Donald Trump aiming to reshape Hollywood? His supporters are putting money into making movies that reflect the MAGA outlook - old-fashioned heroes...
Anglican Agony
The first Christmas for the new Archbishop of Canterbury, and the first Christmas message by a woman in that office at the head of the Anglican commun...
Is Starmer Stuffed?
Just eighteen months after a massive electoral victory, the man who leads the Labour party and the country seems to be unable to govern effectively, a...
What's happening in Gaza
Two months after the ceasefire came in to effect, what's happened in the Gaza Strip? As the world's attention moves away, how are the two million Pale...
Can we afford the welfare state?
With growing numbers of claimants for benefits, pensions and social care, and little sign of growth in the economy, how can we balance the books? Has...
Are We Already At Hybrid War With Russia?
Hacks of major parts of the UK economy, drones putting European airports out of action, a British politician convicted of taking bribes - does Russia'...
BBC - Yet Another Crisis
Why is the BBC in semi-permanent crisis? Is there a way the premier national and international broadcaster can escape a cycle of scandal and resignati...