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 research and opinions. It's half an hour to get across one of the key issues of the time, and they promise, it'll never be boring.
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- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 38 minutes
- Episodes
- 171
- Years Active
- 2022 - 2025
Tractors in Whitehall
Who’d be a farmer? You have tiny profit margins. You’re held to high environmental and welfare standards against cheaper less-scrupulous foreign imports, and now you’re facing unaffordable inheritanc…
00:36:29 |
Thu 28 Nov 2024
A Matter Of Life And Death
Should we be allowed to take our own lives? Should doctors or friends be allowed to help us? For the first time in a decade, MPs have a bill to consider on assisted dying. Parliament and the cabinet …
00:36:17 |
Thu 21 Nov 2024
Getting Ready For The Storm
How ready are we for the results of climate change? While leaders talk at COP29 about lessening global warming, some of the extreme weather predicted by scientists is already here. The hundreds dead …
00:34:58 |
Thu 14 Nov 2024
The Sum of All Fears
The Donald is back. Another Trump presidency - with a Republican-dominated congress. So how will a world that looks back on 2016-2020 and shudders, deal with a volatile, unpredictable narcissist, who…
00:43:01 |
Thu 07 Nov 2024
The US Election - An American Horror Story?
Just days from one of the most divisive and consequential elections in US history, what are the chances of a second Trump presidency, or the first woman being installed in the White House? And how tr…
00:37:19 |
Thu 31 Oct 2024
Not Budging on the Budget
Hard times and hard choices, but the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, seems determined to inflict pain on consumers, taxpayers and businesses in the short term, to plug what she says is a £40bn hole in the…
00:40:25 |
Thu 24 Oct 2024
Nips and Tucks
Why do so many of us opt to go under the knife to change our appearance? Cosmetic surgery is having a boom, with injections as well as scalpels and offering cheaper and barely-regulated treatments. I…
00:37:14 |
Thu 17 Oct 2024
Middle East On The Brink
A year after October 7 and the landscape shaped over decades is irrevocably changed - Palestinians and Israelis killed in unprecedented numbers, Hezbollah and Hamas decapitated, Iran humiliated. And …
00:40:19 |
Thu 10 Oct 2024
Blue Funk
The Tory ship seems rudderless, and the vote for a new captain less than enthralling. After their underwhelming Birmingham conference, what hope is there for the Conservatives - hitherto the most suc…
00:35:26 |
Thu 03 Oct 2024
The Love Labour’s Lost
The Labour Party in government for the first time in 14 years, but this week’s party conference seemed an exercise in damage control rather than celebration - delegates voting against the cabinet on …
00:39:41 |
Thu 26 Sep 2024
Just Grow Up - The Infantilisation Of Our World
Are we all failing to become adults? Does the world treat us as if we need to be told to carry a water bottle on a train, or hold onto a handrail, or that a bag of nuts may contain…. nuts? The way ou…
00:42:21 |
Thu 19 Sep 2024
Exit X? Curbing Social Media
X banned in Brazil. The boss of Telegram detained in France. Is state power finally moving to curb the big social media sites? There’s been a lot of talk about reining-in X, TikTok, Instagram, Snap a…
00:43:58 |
Thu 12 Sep 2024
UK/EU - A Closer Disunion?
Keir Starmer is pushing for a reset of relations with the European Union, but has ruled out rejoining in his lifetime. So how close can or should the UK get? How welcome is Britain in Brussels after …
00:39:37 |
Thu 05 Sep 2024
Central Banks - Power Without Reponsibility?
Interest rates, inflation, monetary control. What is it that central bankers actually do - and are they the right people to be doing it? The last decades have seen huge turbulence in the global econo…
00:35:55 |
Thu 29 Aug 2024
Kamala’s Coronation
Happy days are here again for the Democrats, as their new candidates gear up for the US presidential election. But does the razzmatazz conceal a weakness on the ticket that will be exposed once Harri…
00:39:20 |
Thu 22 Aug 2024
Getting It Right On The Far Right
Riots and disorder on a scale Britain hadn’t seen in a decade, but then the streets re-taken by anti-racist crowds - what to make of what happened after the Southport stabbings? Keir Starmer said the…
00:39:03 |
Thu 15 Aug 2024
Universities In Crisis
As students get ready to see if their A levels match up to their offers, how sure can they be the universities will still be there to award their eventual degrees? Higher education is in something of…
00:38:14 |
Thu 08 Aug 2024
Olympic Winners?
Paris, after a damp start, is sprinting through the games - but at what cost? Closed bars and cafes behind security barriers, fewer visitors in the run-up to the Olympics, and a massive bill for all …
00:38:36 |
Thu 01 Aug 2024
Harris v Trump - What To Expect
The US presidential election has been upended by the replacement of one candidate, and the attempted assassination of the other. Can Karmala Harris unite the Democrats and compete effectively with Do…
00:35:50 |
Thu 25 Jul 2024
Making Stuff
As the new Labour government pushes to get the UK economy growing, is it time we became a big manufacturer once again? For decades the driver of the economy has been services, but is that too difficu…
00:37:05 |
Thu 18 Jul 2024
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