Podcast
Currently
Hosted by BBC Radio 4 · EN
Reactive features from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines and unearthing untold stories, both at home and abroad.
14episodes
Episodes
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When Shiraz Calls
2w ago00:28:27Tap to summarizeA personal account of day-to-day life in Iran told through the calls of two Iranian sisters – one in the UK, the other in the Iranian city of Shiraz. Since the outbreak of war at the end of February, a near total internet blackout and a shutdown of international phone lines by the Iranian authorities has meant limited information has got out of the country. Despite the risks involved, the sisters have made recordings of their conversations which have been shared with the BBC. They discuss when the bombs land, the destruction of places they love and the realities of an economy that’s being brought to its knees. They struggle to sleep at night. Salaries don’t come through. It’s a roller coaster of emotions. But there are also moments of calm and comfort…a spot of dark humour and the scent of hyacinths.Actors: Leila played by Lisa Zahra Gita played by Zahra AhmadiPresenter: Caroline Hawley Producers: Adele Armstrong and Soroush Pakzad Sound design: Peregrine Andrews Editor: Clare Fordham
Transcribe →Under Fire in the Strait of Hormuz
2w ago00:28:12Tap to summarizeSunil was 26 when he went to work on a ship for the first time. He travelled from Rajasthan, India to a port in Dubai for a job on an oil tanker. When he boarded the ship, he met Dalip, who was from a neighbouring village. They helped support each other when they felt homesick, working on a ship so far from home for the first time. But then a few weeks into their contract, Sunil heard a loud bang and felt the ship shake. He ran to the deck and saw oil spreading across the floor and smoke rising from the engine room. Someone told him an Iranian missile had hit their ship. As the oil spread, Sunil feared for his life and jumped into the ocean. He stayed calm until he realised Dalip wasn’t there... Kayleen Devlin tells the story of three men who were working on ships as the US-Israel war with Iran unfolded. Their stories reveal a system where workers can be recruited through unlawful practices, sent onto ships with little protection, and sometimes left to fend for themselves. Most seafarers come from India and are often offered wages far below international guidelines to work on the cargo ships and oil tankers that keep our day to day lives moving and our economies afloat.Presenter: Kayleen Devlin Producer: Phoebe Keane Translation: Kinjal Pandya Sound design: Neil Churchil Editor: Richard Vadon(Image: Smoke billows from the Sky Light. Credit: Sunil Puniya)
Transcribe →Who’s Winning Muslim Voters?
3w ago00:28:09Tap to summarizeFollowing last week’s local elections, it's clear there’s a huge shift happening when it comes to the voting habits of British Muslims across the country.Why are so many British Muslims moving away from the Labour Party? And are they really all going to the Greens?Presenter Rima Ahmed returned to her hometown of Harehills in Leeds, once a Labour stronghold, just before the local elections to speak to ordinary Muslim voters about what's important to them.This episode of Currently... was made by Keiligh Baker. The technical editor was James Beard and the editor was Justine Lang.
Transcribe →Betting on Disaster
4w ago00:28:37Tap to summarizeHuge sums are being wagered on current events, from the weather to world wars, with fortunes being made - and lost. Mike Wendling investigates the rise of prediction markets.While gambling is a long-standing, if somewhat morally dubious, British pastime, there's a new crop of American companies which are supercharging the industry. They're called prediction markets.Who will win the World Cup? Will a celebrity show up on the red carpet? What words will a crypto CEO mention in their quarterly earnings call? Will the leader of Venezuela be toppled, and will famine be declared in Gaza? Platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket allow users to bet on almost any question imaginable. Prediction market entrepreneurs say their platforms are information discovery engines where users put their money where their mouth is, providing valuable information and clues to the future that they say are more accurate than experts, media or polls.But the industry has been rocked by insider trading scandals and manipulative behaviour by some traders, and critics worry that as demand for these platforms rise, so too does the risk that they could end up shaping reality, rather than merely reflecting it.For Currently, Mike Wendling speaks to industry insiders, traders, and experts to glean the future of the prediction market industry. Producer: Mhairi MacKenzie Audio engineer: James Beard Editor: Richard Fenton-SmithCredits: Kalshi advert (Kalshi) Shayne Coplan speaking at 2026 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (MIT Sloan). The Odds: Predictions for the 2028 White House (CNN) @Locksy/X Coinbase Q3 2025 Quarterly Earnings Call (Coinbase) Bet The House Podcast (Bet the House)
Transcribe →About the Girls: The Puberty Puzzle
Apr 2000:28:22Tap to summarizeThis week, as BBC Radio 4 explores what it means to grow up as a girl in 2026, health presenter Laura Foster is examining a striking scientific reality: that girls today are hitting puberty earlier than their parents and grandparents did. Question is why is this happening — and what does it mean for the adults they will become?With the trend showing no sign of slowing down, Laura speaks to leading researchers to decode the forces behind this shift. With girls hitting puberty earlier than ever - we pay a visit to one primary school which has moved puberty lessons forward to keep pace. From genetics and childhood obesity to screens, stress and the Covid pandemic, we examine the complex mix shaping the bodies and minds of today’s girls.What does earlier puberty mean for their physical, emotional and social development? Can the downward trend be stopped? And what support do young people need from families, schools and policymakers right now? Join us for About The Girls: The Puberty Puzzle as we explore why growing up is starting earlier than we expect.Presenter: Laura FosterProducer: Kate White Editor: Martin Smith
Transcribe →Licence to Hate - Racism on the Front Line
Apr 500:28:31Tap to summarizeNew data from the 2025 NHS Staff Survey, one of the largest workforce surveys in the world, shows that 1 in 5 minority ethnic staff report facing discrimination from patients or the public, compared with 1 in 20 of their white colleagues. The Royal College of Nursing reports that calls to their advice line about racism at work have increased by 55% in three years. This documentary listens closely to the experiences of nurses, GPs and care workers to try and understand if the current climate is different.Presenter: Farhana Haider Producers: Farhana Haider and Emma Close Editor: Clare Fordham Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound mix: James Beard
Transcribe →Power to The People: Rewiring Britain
Mar 3000:28:31Tap to summarizeBritain is turning electric, but the shift to renewable energy will require a major rewire. Business and Economy editor Douglas Fraser follows the journey of power generated on the north coast of Scotland to the socket in your living room, to discover the scale and the challenges of re-hauling the near century-old national grid. From windfarms in Caithness, pylons in the Highlands and huge undersea cables transporting power from Aberdeenshire to North Yorkshire, Douglas looks at the environmental and financial impact of the planned changes to the country's energy infrastructure. He also asks if Britain can meet a future surge in demand for electricity to power electric cars, heat pumps and AI data centres, while achieving its ambitious net zero targets.Presenter: Douglas Fraser Producer: Hayley Jarvis Executive Producer: Peter McManus
Transcribe →How Not to Kill a Politician
Mar 2900:30:07Tap to summarizeWhat is it that drives ordinary people to condone political violence, and some to commit it? As democracies increasingly exist in conditions where violence can flourish, Stanford University polarisation expert Alison Goldsworthy will scrutinise the latest research showing it is dogmatism, not just authoritarian tendencies that enable it. This means we are all susceptible - including, uncomfortably for ‘liberals’ who hold strongly to being open minded (like the ones who mused about the bullet going ‘just a few inches to the right’ after Trump's attempted assassination).Leveraging insights from political, behavioural and neuro sciences Alison will track the journey of the biology, instincts, emotions and actions to explain how and why a social media feed can trigger the rewiring of a brain to chuckle at, then endorse violence. She'll explain why this creating this climate increases the likelihood that some people will commit violence. And she'll examine what we can do to prevent ourselves sliding into this vice-like grip.Producer: Giles Edwards.
Transcribe →Britain by Bodycam
Mar 2500:28:36Tap to summarizeEvery month brings a new headline about shoplifting, confrontations with retail staff and disorder on our high streets. As a result, more and more security guards have taken to wearing bodyworn cameras, now visible in every part of our lives, from supermarkets to coffee shops, railway stations to hospitals. For some they are a welcome deterrent and bring peace of mind. For others, they are a sign of a country that has lost its way. But what is the world behind these bodycams? Miles away from the high street, dotted around the country on trading estates, in business parks on the edges of cities, even in disused military bunkers, staff work round the clock to monitor live footage that feeds through from bodyworn cameras. Aidan Tulloch has been allowed through the bombproof doors and secure airlocks to see what it is like to work in one of these alarm receiving centres. How does it feel to spend 12-hour shifts in one of these windowless rooms watching all corners of Britain? What is the psychological impact of seeing violence unfold in real time?Talking to employees from a number of security companies as they sit at banks of computer screens and watch notifications ping in from across the country, he finds out how the alarm receiving centres can often be peaceful places, full of the usual office chatter...until an alarm goes off. And as our social media feeds are filled with videos of altercations - often caught on bodycam - alongside people claiming the country is in decline, what does it say about society that we consume this content for pleasure? Presenter: Aidan Tulloch Producer: Tim Bano
Transcribe →Sophia v AI Slop
Mar 800:28:24Tap to summarizeWhile browsing online, the journalist and author Sophia Smith Galer was surprised to find a biography of herself on Amazon. She discovered that it was full of inaccuracies - and most likely written using generative AI. It's part of a new phenomenon in publishing and flooding all parts of our information landscape: AI slop, low quality content made quickly using artificial intelligence.While we might be used to slop on social media, what happens when it infiltrates areas where we expect fact rather than fiction? On her quest to get answers about her biography, Sophia looks at how far AI slop has polluted places we previously thought safe - from investigative journalism to academia - and asks if we can ever escape the onslaught of slop.Based on an idea from presenter Sophia Smith Galer Producer Lucy Wai
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