Radical with Amol Rajan

The UK is one of the world’s largest consumers of ultra-processed foods, so Wahaca restaurants founder Thomasina Miers thinks the government should cut the taxes of businesses that serve healthy alternatives.

In fact, she challenges the idea that ultra‑processed products should be called ‘food’ at all.

From social canteens that teach people to cook simple meals to zero percent business rates for greengrocers, the MasterChef winner ...

Founder of the tech driven social enterprise Zero Gravity, Joe Seddon answers your radical questions about boosting social mobility in the UK and helping talented young people from low opportunity areas realise their potential. Amol and Joe explore how volunteering can become a powerful engine for skill building, discuss the rise in youth unemployment, and unpack Joe’s prediction that the next 15 years could bring a “blue collar...

Joe Seddon, founder of Zero Gravity, thinks “geography is destiny in the UK” which is why he has built a tech platform to do something about it.

In this week’s episode, Amol and Joe dig into the barriers facing young people across the country, from stalled social mobility to uneven access to opportunity.

Growing up in a single‑parent household in Morley, West Yorkshire, he went on to study at the University of Oxford, but he think...

Tech entrepreneur and founder of tailoring and repair company SOJO Josephine Philips answers your questions on fast fashion, manufacturing and scaling the repair economy.

She also discusses how big retailers are beginning to invest in repairs, the craft of making a garment and why we need to invest more in manufacturing clothing in the UK.

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The fashion industry is the world’s second‑largest contributor to carbon emissions, surpassed only by agriculture. With such a significant impact on the climate, the question is: what can we actually do about it? Tech entrepreneur and founder of SOJO, Josephine Philips, wants you to stop throwing clothes away and think about what you’re buying.

In her conversation with Amol, they explore the wider issues tied to fast fashion, inclu...

Social psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation Jonathan Haidt answers your questions on social media bans for under‑16s, the influence of YouTube, and the risk of restricting access to certain online platforms.

He also talks about Donald Trump’s second presidency and how technology is changing the nature of political debate.

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Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan ...

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt is at the forefront of the campaign to ban social media for under-16s and end what he calls “phone-based childhoods”.

His book, The Anxious Generation, sparked a global reckoning that has led countries like Australia and Spain to introduce laws restricting access to social media platforms.

He spoke to Amol ahead of a meeting with UK health secretary Wes Streeting about why he thinks we’re at a ti...

Panos A. Panay, president of the Grammy Awards and Recording Academy, answers your questions about how governments can better support musicians and whether an AI-free music platform could exist in the future.

He also explores whether royalties paid to artists’ estates could be redirected to help fund the next generation of musicians.

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Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan a...

Executive producer and son of John le Carré, Simon Cornwell, speaks to Amol about how The Night Manager was revived a decade after its first season and how his father’s work was reimagined for a new generation.

They also discuss the shifting realities of producing for linear TV versus streaming, the risk of losing distinctive British storytelling, and whether there should be a ‘streamers’ tax’.

And as the second series comes to an ...

As president of The Recording Academy, which organises the Grammy Awards, Panos A. Panay is grappling with how artificial intelligence and streaming is transforming the music industry, often at the expense of artists.

A former agent who worked with the likes of Leonard Cohen and Nina Simone, Panos tells Amol about his love of music and how that led to him becoming one of the most influential figures in the industry.

And against the...

Louise Allen answers your questions about the rewards and challenges of being a foster carer.

She also discusses reports that a new government strategy will back a scheme that helps foster carers expand their properties to give more young people a home.

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Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www...

As the government prepares to introduce a strategy to boost fostering in England, Amol speaks to foster carer and author Louise Allen about the crisis in the system and what it will take to fix it.

At the end of March 2024 there were 83,630 children in care in England, of whom 56,390 were being fostered, but there is a shortfall of around 6,000 foster carers nationwide.

In this episode Louise explains why we need to be more honest...

Professor Helen Thompson, an expert on oil and global politics, answers your questions about Europe’s energy security, whether America would intercept Russian-flagged tankers carrying oil to Cuba and what uncomfortable truth she would inject into political debate.

She also explains how the shift away from burning gas and oil and towards electricity and renewable energies will affect geopolitics?

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The capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro by the United States feels like confirmation that we are in a new era of global politics, but what has caused this shift and where does it leave Europe?

Amol speaks to Professor Helen Thompson, an expert on the history of globalisation and author of Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century, about how oil is fuelling competition between the US and China.

They explore how it’s reshaping glob...

Academic and social media influencer Louisa Munch answers your questions about her left-wing politics, whether online algorithms mean she’s preaching to the converted and what schools should be doing to develop critical thinking skills.

She also faces questions about her support for free university education and whether she feels pressure to bend her politics to suit a more mainstream line of argument.

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What is the point of going to university? In this episode, Amol sits down with the critical theorist, academic and social media influencer Louisa Munch who thinks you shouldn’t have to pay for higher education.

With the graduate premium in decline, she explains why people should go to university to gain knowledge rather than get a job because she believes having an informed society is good for everyone in an era of competing narrat...

Historian and The Rest Is History co-host Tom Holland answers your questions about whether Britain is currently in a more precarious state than it was in the 1970s, what definition of ‘radical’ best describes him and if he will ever score a century playing cricket.

He also explains why American presidents are often compared to Julius Caesar and faces a question he’s never heard before.

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Historian and co-host of The Rest Is History podcast Tom Holland joins Amol to explore the history of radical ideas and what it means to be radical today.

Tom explains why Christianity represented such a radical break from what came before, how it shaped secular thought in the West and how that compares to other religions. He also talks about his interest in Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.

And Tom discusses the phenomenal succ...

From social media to artificial intelligence, one of themes of the first six months of Radical has been whether modern technology augments and improves what it is to be human or, on the contrary, degrades and damages our species.

In this final episode of 2025 Amol reflects on what he’s learned from the people he's spoken to on the podcast about how technology is changing our lives and brings you some of his personal highlights.

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