- 1 hour 2 minutesThe Great British Housing Crisis: Is a Brand New Mega-City the Answer? (Shiv Malik)
This week, Amol is joined by the author and journalist Shiv Malik, to discuss his plan to build a new mega-city from scratch in East Anglia.
In 2010 Shiv Malik wrote a book called the Jilted Generation, which argued that anyone born since 1979 has been robbed of their future because of how expensive home ownership has become.
Now, he’s dedicating his life to a plan for a new city that he thinks will save Britain, and prove that we can be builders again.
Shiv wants to build ‘Forest City’ on 45,000 acres of farmland in East Anglia. His vision is one of Canary Wharf style sky-scrapers surrounded by England’s largest nature reserve of 12,000 acres, with 400,000 affordable homes for one million people.
The ambitious project has got some big economists and architects very excited. But people living in the proposed area are extremely upset by the prospect, with some experts saying it isn’t even logistically possible.
We put those challenges to Shiv, and find out why he thinks that his radical idea is necessary not just for housing British people, but also rebuilding British ambition.
GET IN TOUCH: - WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 - Email: [email protected]
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and Monday.
Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC’s media editor and the editor of The Independent newspaper.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Rufus Gray, Oscar Pearson, and Julian Paszkiewicz. Digital production was by Leona Gasper. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The series producer is Rufus Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
18 June 2026, 8:00 am - 17 minutes 44 secondsIs Our Idea of Economic Success Completely Broken? (Your Radical Questions with Kate Raworth)
Kate Raworth believes that mainstream economists have got it wrong for decades. For her, reducing everything to a simple measure of gross domestic product and increasing that number every year is a huge mistake that is harming both people and planet.
In 2017 she proposed a radical alternative in a book called ‘Doughnut Economics’. It proposes a new economic model that priortises social and environmental needs instead of how much we produce and consume.
Many of you asked us to invite her on the podcast, and you've also sent in your questions - so we put them to her.
We get Kate’s view on whether it's possible to build long term consensus for her approach at a time when people want short term solutions and whether there is a better metric to measure economic success. We also hear her assessment of universal basic income, and a former Radical guest challenges Kate’s fundamental beliefs on economic growth.
GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: [email protected] Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Monday and Thursday. Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Oscar Pearson and Julian Paszkiewicz. Digital production was by Daniel Raza. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The series producer is Rufus Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
15 June 2026, 5:00 am - 1 hour 6 minutesThe End of Endless Growth: Should We Put the Brakes on Economic Expansion? (Kate Raworth)
What if growth wasn’t the main goal for economic prosperity? Kate Raworth, the author and economist behind Doughnut Economics, tells Amol why she thinks that measuring success by GDP growth is unsustainable, immoral, and an unfit economic model for the 21st century. Kate’s thesis goes against centuries of economic consensus and has radical ideas for how to overhaul the system by prioritising nature and wellbeing. She argues that real abundance is possible, but only if we learn from nature and live within the planet’s limits.
GET IN TOUCH:
* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
* Email: [email protected]
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and Monday.
Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC’s media editor and the editor of The Independent newspaper.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Oscar Pearson and Julian Paszkiewicz. Digital production was by Daniel Raza. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The series producer is Rufus Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
11 June 2026, 5:00 am - 14 minutes 13 secondsCould Ben & Jerry's Be Created Today? (Your Radical Questions with Ben Cohen)
This week, Amol is joined by Ben Cohen, one half of the team behind Ben & Jerry's ice cream, who stopped by on his way to the South by Southwest festival to answer your questions. They include queries on whether ethics is more important to business success than a good product? Can companies be trusted to fulfil corporate responsibilities without government oversight? And how does he square his ethical stance with the fact that his ice cream is an ultra processed food?
* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: [email protected]
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Monday and Thursday.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Tom Smithard and Oscar Pearson. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
8 June 2026, 5:00 am - 58 minutes 13 secondsBusiness Reimagined: Should Firms Have a Purpose Beyond Profit? (Ben & Jerry’s Ben Cohen)
Amol is back from his stint in the Celebrity Traitors castle. This week, while in town for the South by Southwest festival, Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry's drops by the Radical studio to talk about what took his ice cream company from a single store in rural America into a billion-dollar business.
Ben Cohen argues that most corporations have trained people to believe profit and purpose are from separate worlds – while he says that a company’s values should be as important to its mission as making money. Cohen makes the case that consumers are not just shoppers – they are citizens with wallets.
He criticises companies that pay lip-service to that through short-term social media campaigns backing the trendy topic of the day, without embedding those values into their business model. But in an age when many companies are dropping their principles when the politics changes, can business really be a force for good – or does purpose melt away when profits are at stake?
GET IN TOUCH
* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
* Email: [email protected]
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday.
Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC’s media editor and the editor of The Independent newspaper.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Tom Smithard and Oscar Pearson. Digital production was by Leona Gasper. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The editor is Sam Bonham.
4 June 2026, 5:00 am - 20 minutes 14 secondsHow Close Are We to a Cure for Cancer? (Your Radical Questions with Professor Sir John Bell)
The FT’s John Burn-Murdoch stands in for Amol, joined this week by the immunologist and geneticist Professor Sir John Bell. After talking about the radical change being ushered in by successive medical breakthroughs on the main podcast, Sir John takes your questions on implications of this profound change.
Will we see only wealthy people being able to benefit from these revolutionary treatments? What impact will the Trump administration have on the advance of medical science? And just how close are we to effectively curing cancer? * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: [email protected] Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Monday and Thursday. Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Rufus Gray with Anna Budd and Oscar Pearson. Technical production was by Stephen Bailey. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
1 June 2026, 5:00 am - 52 minutes 51 secondsHealthcare, Reinvented: How Dramatic Medical Breakthroughs Are Quietly Changing Your Life (Professor Sir John Bell)
This week, John Burn-Murdoch sits in for Amol to speak to Professor Sir John Bell, one of Britain’s leading medical scientists, about the huge (and often undiscussed) medical breakthroughs changing how we live, age and die. Medical advances have already added 12 years to average life expectancy in the UK in the last 50 years. But the next revolution may be even more radical: earlier cancer detection, personalised vaccines, obesity drugs, AI-driven prevention and treatments that could keep us healthier for longer. But with the science and technology moving this fast, can the health service, the economy, and the public keep up?
GET IN TOUCH WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 Email: [email protected]
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and Monday. It was made by Rufus Gray and Oscar Pearson. Digital production was by Leona Gasper. Technical production was by Stephen Bailey. The Senior News Editor is Sam Bonham.
28 May 2026, 5:00 am - 22 minutes 10 secondsIs Regenerative Farming Getting Greenwashed? (Your Radical Questions with Andy Cato)
Oli Dugmore is in for Amol this week, and he's joined by Andy Cato to answer your radical questions about the regenerative farming movement. Before becoming a farmer, Andy was a successful musician and DJ as one half of Groove Armada. He sold the rights to his back catalogue to pursue a career in agriculture, pioneering regenerative farming methods though his company, Wildfarmed.
In this episode, we put Andy in the hotseat, and ask him your questions about regenerative farming, including the potential scalability difficulties, whether it is being used for greenwashing, the role of rewilding, and whether it could be adopted around the world.
GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: [email protected] Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Monday and Thursday. Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Rufus Gray with Bella Saltiel and Anna Budd. Digital production was by Jem Westgate. Technical production was by Jack Graysmark. The Senior News Editor is Sam Bonham.
25 May 2026, 5:00 am - 57 minutes 54 secondsThe Future of Food: Can Regenerative Farming Save Our Soil? (Andy Cato)
This week, guest host Oli Dugmore, speaks to Andy Cato, one half of electronic music duo Groove Armada and a leading advocate for regenerative farming.
Andy argues that modern agriculture is reaching a breaking point. He says that a reliance on chemical farming has degraded our ecosystems, taken agency away from farmers, and made us over reliant on fragile international trade systems. Through regenerative farming, he believes it’s possible to restore ecosystems, rebuild soil health and create a more resilient food system for the 21st century.
They discuss Andy’s unlikely journey from global touring musician to farmer, including selling his music catalogue to buy land, and the founding of Wildfarmed, a business aiming to help farmers transition to regenerative agriculture while remaining profitable. Andy also explains why he believes traditional farming is no longer sustainable, how a different model could be financed, and what the benefits could be for farmers, consumers and the environment alike.
21 May 2026, 5:00 am - 13 minutes 45 secondsIs Social Media Making Young Women Hate Men? (Your Radical Questions with Dr Jilly Kay)
With Amol away, Eliza Filby, who an author and historian specialising in generational change, steps in for this week’s Q&A on young women and the “femosphere”. Jilly Kay, Professor of media and communications studies at Loughborough University, coined the term “femosphere”), and is here to answer your questions on the divide between young men and women, what role social media algorithms might have, and what men could do to help women avoid the “femosphere”. Plus, why might some people say that “femosphere” as a reasonable response to the patriarchy?
GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: [email protected] Episodes of Radical are released every Monday. Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Rufus Gray with Oscar Pearson and Bella Saltiel. Digital production was by Jonathan Greer. The Senior News Editor is Sam Bonham.
18 May 2026, 5:00 am - 18 minutes 26 secondsWhat Are the Tech Billionaires Really Like? (Your Radical Questions with Reid Hoffman)
Reid Hoffman is one of the founding fathers of the modern technology industry – an early investor and champion of the world of AI and the co-founder of the largest professional network in the world, LinkedIn. In this episode, he answers your questions on whether tech leaders understand the scale of their responsibility over the job market, how politicians will deal with the potential repercussions of tech on the working class, how AI could be used for evil, and what his contemporaries Elon Musk and Sam Altman are really like.
GET IN TOUCH
* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
* Email: [email protected]
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Monday.
Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC’s media editor and the editor of The Independent newspaper.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Rufus Gray and Oscar Pearson. Digital production was by Joe Wilkinson and Beth Pritchard. Technical production was by Stephen Bailey. The Senior News Editor is Sam Bonham.
15 May 2026, 9:29 pm - More Episodes? Get the App