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BBC World Service


The daily drama of money and work from the BBC.


Business Daily

As Japanese people prepare to head to the polls, economic concerns are back at the centre of public life.

We explore how inflation, wages, demographics and geopolitics are shaping expectations, and whether the country can finally move beyond the "lost decades".

To get in touch with the team, send us an email to businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Rahul Tandon
Producer: David Cann

Business Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.

Each episode is a 17-minute deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story.

Recent episodes explore the weight-loss drug revolution, the growth in AI, the cost of living, why bond markets are so powerful, China's property bubble, and Gen Z's experience of the current job market.

We also feature in-depth interviews with company founders and some of the world's most prominent CEOs. These include the CEO of Google Sundar Pichai, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and billionaire founder Judy Faulkner of Epic Systems, one of the world's largest medical record software providers.

(Picture: Office workers cross a road near Tokyo station in Tokyo, Japan, on the second of December 2025. Credit: Getty Images)

Japan's economic crossroads

The Spanish government has announced plans to legalise the status of half a million undocumented migrants. Many arrive with student or tourist visas but overstay and start working on the black market. 

Migration is a polarising issue in western Europe, so why is Spain keen to hurry up the process of regularisation? One reason is that Spain’s economy has been outstripping its European Union partners. In 2024 the economy grew by 3.5% but in sectors that struggle to recruit enough workers, so Spain wants its migrant population to work in a legal way to keep its economic momentum going. 

We meet some of the people the Spanish government wants to give legal status to and speak to organisations that are helping them to work legally.

If you'd like to get in touch with the team, you can send us an email to businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presented and produced by Ashish Sharma

Business Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.

Each episode is a 17-minute deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story.

Recent episodes explore the weight-loss drug revolution, the growth in AI, the cost of living, why bond markets are so powerful, China's property bubble, and Gen Z's experience of the current job market.

We also feature in-depth interviews with company founders and some of the world's most prominent CEOs. These include the CEO of Google Sundar Pichai, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and billionaire founder Judy Faulkner of Epic Systems, one of the world's largest medical record software providers.

(Photo: View of Madrid city skyline from a sky bar terrace where people are gathered. Credit: Getty Images)

Spain's economic case for more migration

As governments cut back on how much they spend on global aid, the head of the Gates Foundation Mark Suzman speaks exclusively to Business Daily about how the world’s poorest are being affected. 

He tells us world governments “should be embarrassed” that the Foundation has overtaken them to become the largest financial backer of the WHO.

When governments reduce their air spend, the organisation inevitably becomes more prominent. But is there too much reliance on the Gates Foundation globally for an institution with little democratic accountability? And are its priorities the right ones? 

If you'd like to get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Sam Fenwick
Producer: Matt Lines

Business Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.

Each episode is a 17-minute deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story.

Recent episodes explore the weight-loss drug revolution, the growth in AI, the cost of living, why bond markets are so powerful, China's property bubble, and Gen Z's experience of the current job market.

We also feature in-depth interviews with company founders and some of the world's most prominent CEOs. These include the CEO of Google Sundar Pichai, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and billionaire founder Judy Faulkner of Epic Systems, one of the world's largest medical record software providers.

(Photo: Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman speaking at an event in New York City. Credit: Getty Images)

Gates Foundation CEO on cuts to global aid

It’s probably the world’s best-known coffee chain but just over a year ago, business wasn’t doing well. Sales had slipped, customers were drifting away and the buzz had gone. 

Newly-arrived CEO Brian Niccol was handed a tough task: stop the fall and make the coffee shops somewhere people wanted to return to. 

In an interview with our North America business correspondent Michelle Fleury, he explains why customers are returning and seem to be giving the company another shot. 

If you'd like to get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Producers: John Mervin and Justin Bones

Business Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.

Each episode is a 17-minute deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story.

Recent episodes explore the weight-loss drug revolution, the growth in AI, the cost of living, why bond markets are so powerful, China's property bubble, and Gen Z's experience of the current job market.

We also feature in-depth interviews with company founders and some of the world's most prominent CEOs. These include the CEO of Google Sundar Pichai, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and billionaire founder Judy Faulkner of Epic Systems, one of the world's largest medical record software providers.

(Picture: Brian Niccol, CEO of Starbucks, sitting in one of the company's coffee shops in downtown New York.)

Can Starbucks regain its buzz?

From the deserts of Tunisia to the boardrooms of global tech giants, we meet Karim Beguir, the mathematician who turned two laptops and 2000 dollars into Africa’s biggest AI firm. 

We hear how his company, Instadeep, caught the attention of Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and how it helped to track dangerous new variants in the Covid pandemic using large language models.

If you'd like to get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Ed Butler
Producers: Niamh McDermott and Hannah Mullane

Business Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.

Each episode is a 17-minute deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story.

Recent episodes explore the weight-loss drug revolution, the growth in AI, the cost of living, why bond markets are so powerful, China's property bubble, and Gen Z's experience of the current job market.

We also feature in-depth interviews with company founders and some of the world's most prominent CEOs. These include the CEO of Google Sundar Pichai, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and the billionaire founder of Epic Systems, one of the world's largest medical record software providers, Judy Faulkner.

(Picture: CEO of Instadeep, Karim Beguir, at a photoshoot in Paris in 2024. Credit: Getty Images)

The man who built Africa's largest AI firm

We lift the curtain on how everyone from toothpaste brands to the United Nations is using science to influence your choices in ways you’re probably not aware of. Behavioural science has even made its way into TV drama. 

How does it work? And why is it so effective?

If you'd like to get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presented and produced by Rowan Bridge

Business Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.

Each episode is a 17-minute deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story. 

Recent episodes explore the weight-loss drug revolution, the growth in AI, the cost of living, why bond markets are so powerful, China's property bubble, and Gen Z's experience of the current job market. 

We also speak to some of the world's most influential business leaders. These interviews include the CEO of Google Sundar Pichai, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and the billionaire founder of Epic Systems, one of the world's largest medical record software providers, Judy Faulkner. 

(Picture: The hand of a woman about to cause a chain reaction by pushing over a domino. Credit: Getty Images)

Why you buy what you buy

Demand has been surging for copper around the world - from renewable energy projects, to AI data centres, to infrastructure networks. 

Production, however, has struggled to keep pace, pushing prices close to record highs in late 2025 and early 2026.

As the value of the metal has risen, criminals have increasingly targeted copper for theft - stripping it from telephone cables, railway power lines and solar panels. The resulting damage and disruption is costing economies billions.

If you'd like to get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presented and produced by Russell Padmore

Picture: Train passengers look at a train information board at Zwolle station in Zwolle on the first of December 2025 after an extensive track damage caused by an attempted copper theft disrupted train services. Credit: Getty Images)

Copper theft: A growing economic problem

Country music is in the midst of a grand renaissance. The genre - whose popularity was previously confined to the American South - is now climbing the charts, grabbing the attention of Gen Z audiences, and changing the perception of what it means to be a country listener.
 
Streaming of the genre in the US rose by nearly 110% in the five years to 2024. And it’s taking over markets all around the world. In the UK, the genre more than doubled its share of the singles market in two years. And Australia is now the third largest country music market globally. 
 
From ‘music city’ - Nashville, Tennessee - we speak to artists and industry leaders to better understand where the country music boom came from, and where it’s headed this year. How did country become so cool?

To get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presented and produced by Ellie House

(Picture: Neon lights spelling 'Music City Tonight' at Robert's Honky Tonk, Nashville. Credit: BBC)

How country music became cool

One of the world’s largest airline groups has told Business Daily that airspace closures, due to war zones, are now forcing substantial rerouting of flights. 

Lufthansa says the ban on using Russian and Ukrainian airspace is having a measurable cost impact on its long haul network, with typical detours of one to two hours.

A recent Conflict Intensity index report shows that areas affected by armed fighting have grown by 89% over the past five years, that is one and a half times the size of the European Union.

We examine the cost to consumers, and the environmental impacts of these changes. 

If you'd like to get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Producer/presenter: Rick Kelsey

(Photo: Planes landing and taking off against a coloured sky. Credit: Getty Images)

How global conflict is changing air travel

When Lew Frankfort joined Coach, it was a family run, wholesale handbag business worth six million dollars.

He spent 35 years at the company, from opening the company's first shop to growing the business now valued at over five billion dollars.

We find out what led Lew to an unlikely career in fashion and how a chance meeting with a US president sparked his social consciousness.

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Ed Butler
Producers: Hannah Bewley and Hannah Mullane

(Photo: Lew Frankfort, chairman emeritus and former CEO of Coach)

Lew Frankfort: Building a billion-dollar brand

The small Caucasian country, which borders Russia, has experienced increased demand for surrogates after the war in Ukraine meant that Russia and Ukraine were no longer options for couples wanting a baby. Those countries used to be international hubs for surrogacy - when a woman carries a pregnancy for another couple or individual. 

In Georgia, commercial surrogacy is legal, and regulations are extremely liberal. Affordable prices make Georgia an even more attractive alternative.
We hear from clinics who say they are struggling to keep up with demand, plus from a surrogate mother who says it has been life-changing for her financially. 

Producer and presenter: Khatia Shamanauri
(Image: A pregnant woman looking at her phone. Credit: Getty Images)

The rising popularity of surrogacy in Georgia

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