Radical with Amol Rajan

This week, Amol puts your questions to the businesswoman Emma Grede - from opportunity and motivation, to how dyslexia can contribute to our work ethic and the way we approach tasks.

Emma Grede is the co‑founder of Skims, created with her husband Jens and Kim Kardashian, and the CEO and co‑founder of Good American, a fashion label known for its focus on inclusivity. She also serves on the board of the Obama Foundation and is an amb...

This week, the entrepreneur Emma Grede challenges ‘old thoughts’ about work-life balance, money, motherhood and success. She argues that focus, trade-offs and relentless effort matter more than comfort. From growing up in East London to building global businesses, she makes the case that opportunity still exists, if you’re willing to chase it. But are her ideas liberating - or just unforgiving?

Emma Grede is the co‑founder of Skims...

Amol puts your Radical questions to Adrian Wooldridge, a Bloomberg columnist and author of ‘Centrists of the World Unite: The Lost Genius of Liberalism’. They discuss individualism and society, a decline in support for the centre ground, the potential dangers of nostalgia, and how the political centre could engage young people.

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Episodes of Radical with Amol Raj...

This week, the columnist and author Adrian Wooldridge joins Amol to argue that liberalism is not only the best ideology for the future, but that it’s also under serious threat. Wooldridge sees populist movements on the right and identity-focused politics on the left as potentially fatal to liberal principles. The once dominant post-war philosophy has had a bad rap recently, so why should we bring it back? Has liberalism itself grow...

Amol runs through your questions with the Times columnist James Marriott. They take on whether we could use technology to encourage people to do more reading, pessimism on social media, and whether we risk changing our sense of what it means to be human when we lose our connection to imaginary worlds in books. James’s Radio 4 series ‘How Reading Made Us’ is available now on BBC Sounds.

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This week, the columnist and writer James Marriott argues that reading is essential to the rise and fall of liberal democracy. He proposes that reading helps the spread of information, encourages critical thinking, and forces people to structure their ideas logically.

But he’s concerned the shift from deep reading to digital skim-reading - driven largely by screens - is weakening our ability to think in complex, reflective ways. He...

Yale political theorist and author of Politics Without Politicians, Professor Hélène Landemore, answers your questions about her radical vision for replacing electoral politics with citizen‑led democracy. She answers questions on app‑based referendum systems, how to persuade politicians to embrace open democracy, and why ‘de‑bundling’ policies could lead to decisions that better reflect the public.

They also explore how the archit...

In this week’s episode, Amol sits down with Yale political theorist and author of ‘Politics Without Politicians’, Professor Hélène Landemore, to discuss her argument to revive citizen‑led governance. She explains why she believes our current electoral systems fall short of representing the full diversity of the population and lays out a practical roadmap for what she calls an “open democracy.”

Hélène also addresses the most common ...

Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan, neurologist and author of The Age of Diagnosis, answers your questions about her book, what it means for women who are under-diagnosed and how she deals with criticism of her work.

GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk 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 hos...

Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan thinks that we are getting diagnosis wrong.

In this episode the neurologist and author of The Age of Diagnosis explains how advances in screening have led to certain diseases being over-detected and why she thinks giving a condition a label can sometimes do more harm than good.

And Amol asks about some of the criticism she’s faced since her book was published last year.

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Simukai Chigudu, author of ‘Chasing Freedom: Coming of Age at the End of Empire’ and associate professor of African politics at Oxford University, answers your questions about statues, reparations for slavery and decolonising the curriculum.

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* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk

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

Is removing statues and decolonising the curriculum the answer?

A member of the first generation born after the end of colonial rule in Zimbabwe, Simukai Chigudu came to the UK as a teenager and later became one of the founding members of a campaign to try to get the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes moved from Oriel College in Oxford.

Now an associate professor of African politics at the University of Oxford, he’s written a memoi...

Leading pollster James Kanagasooriam answers your questions about how his idea of agency could advance social mobility, how it might be used by politicians and whether there are any reasons to be cheerful at a time of global instability.

He also explains how voters might be influenced by the reporting of opinion polls.

GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are r...

On this week’s episode, leading pollster James Kanagasooriam explains how a sense of powerlessness amongst voters is shaping politics.

His research suggests that people who feel like they have control over their lives are more likely to vote for traditional parties whereas those who don’t tend to vote for populists promising to change the status quo.

So what can we learn from this and how could the idea of ‘agency’ help solve some ...

Ed Davies, research director at the right-leaning anti-poverty think tank Centre for Social Justice, answers your questions about modern family life and relationships.

He also discusses why young men are falling behind in work and education, how economic pressures are reshaping marriage rates, and why he argues that we need to re-prioritise social connection and community.

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Marriage rates in the UK have fallen to historic lows, but what are the consequences?

Ed Davies, research director at right‑leaning anti‑poverty think tank the Centre for Social Justice, explains what has led to this shift and argues that it has caused a decline in family stability with profound consequences for society.

To deal with it he says we need to modernise marriage and adopt a range of policies that promote family life.

...

MasterChef winner and founder of Mexican restaurant chain Wahaca, Thomasina Miers, answers your questions about the quality of kids’ meals in restaurants, how to make hospitality an attractive career and whether cooking should be made a compulsory part of the curriculum in schools.

She also tells Amol about the virtues of worm salt!

GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk Episodes of Radical with Am...

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...