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Professor Hinton, the 'godfather of AI', warns that the challenges of Artificial Intelligence are not just economic but also strategic. His quotation of Putin shows clearly the need for a convergent approach towards these risks. And remember the Bletchley conference just six months ago? The scientists have lost no time in preparing their interim report, but there's much to be done in planning the best way forward. Background music: 'Metamorphosis' by Quincas Moreira

Individual achievement is recognised in many walks of life, and that recognition spurs people on to achieve even greater things. With education, good exam results and university entrance are celebrated, but this doesn't do much for those who find it difficult to get started in the first place. That's why The Share Foundation's introduction of incentivised learning is so important for young people in care, achieving an attitudinal transformation as they progress through the six-step Stepladder course. We need acceptance of incentivised learning to break the cycle of deprivation. Background music: 'Everything Has a Beginning' by Joel Cummins

England delivered a withering verdict on its ruling Conservative Party last week, but the motley spread of replacement parties plus low turnout revealed a population thoroughly disenchanted by politics. Democracy is calling for a fresh perspective, based on reason and logic. We need to draw inspiration from people like Thomas Jefferson who said, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' Background music: 'Freedom' by Dan Lebowitz

Supermarket loyalty schemes have become even more of a big thing in recent years as the two giants Tesco and Sainsbury's have rolled out Clubcard and Nectar Prices. But while cards bring lower prices, the points collected still mean prizes for some loyalty scheme fans. So, what happens if a fraudster steals your points? This is Money's Angharad Carrick recently went on the trail of some stolen Nectar points and uncovered a story that delivered as many questions as it did answers. Ang, Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert discuss the mystery of the stolen Nectar Points and how our reader got short shrift from Sainsbury's, Action Fraud and the police when they had £230 nicked. Plus, are these loyalty cards any good and worth having anyway and why is the competition watchdog investigating them? Also — many more people are taking mortgages that run past state pension age but with work and retirement blurring and changing does this matter? Simon explains why he thinks it does but for another reason. Would you buy fake cash for a knockdown price off social media? It sounds daft, but this is a genuine thing — we look at how it is happening. And should a reader who is still working at age 77, worth £2.6million and who doesn't want a big inheritance tax bill, start giving money away — and splashing out on themselves and their family?

Mike Indian discusses Keir Starmer's six pledges as the long General Election campaign gets underway. He looks at why underinvestment in infrastructure in the UK is coming back to haunt us, offering some suggestions at ways to improve things. And he looks at who is pulling the strings in Labour behind the scenes at think tank Labour Together. Although Labour may mock the chaos of the Conservative Party, Mike wonders how turbulent the broad church of the Labour Party will be when it is in power.

The realisation that we have infinitely more potential than we access can be challenging — just look at the way that great athletes and performers can draw on their resources to achieve great things. Too often we settle for a mundane, safe and comfortable lifestyle which doesn't test us to reach for the potential that we know we have. In this episode, Adam Cox helps us to search for the anchor or trigger by going back to a point in time when we were highly resourceful, looking for a positive way to find the necessary belief systems and intentions to restore a new sense of determination.

James Cameron-Wilson laments the UK box office, down 32% because of the sunny weather. It meant ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ only took £3.8m. Despite his loneliness in the cinema, James found it a miraculous piece of cinematic magic; clever, multi-layered, exciting and often funny, with amazing production design. On Netflix, he was disappointed by ‘In the Lands of Saints & Sinners’, a plodding thriller with Liam Neeson. And he found Disney Plus's ‘Prom Dates’ to have a few amusing bits but to be far too crude and predictable.

Steve Caplin is excited by ChatGPT's latest innovation which combines text, audio and video and talks to you uncannily realistically. He also explains which AI system you should use and points out that AI is not guaranteed to tell the truth. There's the video portal between Dublin and New York which had to be shut because of mischievous activity. Scientists have found a way to consume alcohol without getting drunk. MIT is working on a way to combat noisy neighbours. There may be a way to stop satellite jammers blinding planes' navigation systems. And Ordnance Survey is incorporating local nicknames to its maps.

 Neil Shah of Edison Group discusses the latest changes to his amazingly successful model portfolio The Illuminator. Although still of interest, Rolls-Royce and Rightmove are ejected to make room for two newcomers. Online appliance retailer AO World has embarked on a turnaround and its guidance is optimistic, showing a great increase in profitability. Possessing a good balance sheet, they should earn a decent return for shareholders. Renew Holdings is a boring, but worthwhile compounder. It's a market leader in its area of engineering and construction, a fragmented marketplace. It has a high level of recurring revenue, well-disciplined management and will benefit from UK infrastructure spending. More here: https://www.edisongroup.com/insight/the-illuminator-march-2024/.

The Dow’s fresh 40k milestone reminds us that the index isn’t all about industrials, and that it’s caught up with the tech-heavy times. Jason Moser and Matt Argersinger discuss the Dow Jones at 40k, and a look back at the major companies that have led the exchange as it’s moved from traditional industrials and manufacturing to other industries, why the current market environment is helping Walmart reach new customers and leaving Home Depot shoppers on deferral mode, and the latest addition to Warren Buffett’s portfolio: Chubb. Then, 19 minutes in, Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey talks through lessons learned about life and business and his upcoming book The Whole Story. Finally, 35 minutes in, Jason and Matt break down two stocks on their radar: Shopify and T. Rowe Price. Stocks discussed: WMT, HD, CB, BRK.A, BRK.B, GOOG, GOOGL, SHOP, TROW. Host - Dylan Lewis; Guests - Jason Moser, Matt Argersinger, John Mackey.

Step aside, Siri. A new generation of AI voice assistants has arrived. First, Asit Sharma and Mary Long dive into today’s inflation report and talk through the latest AI offerings from Alphabet and OpenAI. Then, 16 minutes in, Ricky Mulvey asks Jason Hall whether co-CEOS are ever a good idea. Companies/Tickers discussed: GOOG, GOOGL, MSFT, BOC, SKYH. Host - Mary Long;
Guests - Asit Sharma, Ricky Mulvey, Jason Hall.

During this Mental Health Awareness Week, new research from Personify Health has revealed how workplace stress is at an all-time high. In fact, approximately 3.9 million of us are stressed at work every single day. Joining Adam Cox now to discuss what needs to change to support employees, is workplace health & wellbeing expert Jill King from Personify Health.

Since the most recent escalation of the conflict in Gaza in October 2023, the charity Start Network has received over 60 other global humanitarian crisis alerts that you may not have heard about. For one reason or another, these global events don’t get the coverage they deserve and, as a result, miss out on necessary donations and aid. But Start Network are doing things differently, and this year marks the 10th anniversary of their Start Fund. Joining Adam Cox now to discuss this is the CEO of Start Network Christina Bennett.

As GCSE and A-Level exam season sets in across the nation, students will no doubt be contemplating their futures. Given that it's 'Learning at Work' Week — and there’s an ongoing rise in those seeking university alternatives — it’s probably time we chatted about apprenticeships. Joining Adam Cox now to do just that is Matt Butcher from New College, Swindon and Darran Marks from the Swindon and Wiltshire Institute of Technology.

The core of the problem with unclaimed, adult-owned Child Trust Funds (of which there are over £2 billion waiting to be claimed) is with accounts opened by HMRC. That's why The Share Foundation has proposed a 'default withdrawal at 21' process, based on the young person's National Insurance number. Danny Kruger MP took part in the CTF conference in Westminster on Tuesday 5th March, and two weeks later in a Westminster Hall CTF debate, and supported this initiative which could release £1/4 billion each year to help these young and predominantly low-income young adults. Background music: 'Waiting' by Andrew Langdon

The debate on 19th March 2024 was hosted by Sir Jeremy Quin MP to call for the need to simplify family access to Child Trust Funds for disabled young people, and a number of MPs contributed to the debate, including Danny Kruger and Ed Davy. The audio record is provided by Parliament Live, and is an unabridged recording of proceedings, without additional comment. Listeners may notice an adjournment for voting in the House of Commons.

Adam Cox is joined by Gemma Bourne from Big Society Capital to discuss why the government should reallocate a larger proportion of its existing spend to further scale initiatives that tackle the UK's homelessness and temporary accommodation crisis. With new research showing that these house funds are already having a major impact, it could help us combat homelessness. https://bigsocietycapital.com/

The full unabridged UK Budget speech as delivered by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in the House of Commons on Wednesday 6th March 2024, without additional comment.

Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University explains why he so enjoyed new Argentine President Javier Milei lecturing the great and good of the World Economic Forum about libertarian and Austrian economics, attacking corporatism and socialism. He feels Milei could be the most consequential politician economically-speaking for many years. He also looks at falling EV car sales, lamenting the way in which politicians set goals for achieving their hobbyhorses irrespective of scientific progress and consumer demand. And he is fascinated by a meeting between journalist John Humphreys and members of Gen Z, which showed them to be different to the popular perception.

Unabridged and without comment from Share Radio, here's the King's Christmas message as broadcast on 25th December '23.

Neil Shah of Edison Group feels that the bond market has now normalised whch could help the equity market, where many companies have stabilised after a tough year, although he points out that the US market looks peaky. He admires the outstanding quarter year results from Gregg's. The business appears to be in the sweet spot where value is important to customers with a healthy balance sheet and a great management team. It pays a yield but there is still plenty of growth left, although the rating clearly anticipates this.

Steve Caplin takes Simon Rose through a cornucopia of techie Christmas gift ideas. Among his favourites are the crowdfunded Linka Lasso bike lock and the Hover X1 self-flying camera. There's an app to help with the office Secret Santa and a distillery to brew your own booze. You can get a magnetic wrapping tripod, a great phone case with a built-in stand, teflon mats for flaky BBQ food, an underseat suitcase for flights, magnetic bookmarks, a folding charger plug and even an electrified Land Rover Defender to use as a shore tender with your superyacht.

On Wednesday 22nd November '23 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt delivered his Autumn Statement to the House of Commons, focused on restoring UK economic growth. This is his full, unabridged speech as delivered, without commentary.

Welcome to a special episode of The Financial Outlook: the investment section of the Managing My Money course. What's the difference between saving and investment? It's all in the risk. We talk about shares, bonds and funds, and which perform best over the long term. The Managing My Money course has 16 sections in total, and is presented by Glen Goodman and Annie Weston. You can enjoy the whole course, produced in association with the Open University via Share Radio's home page. Here's the link to the slides for this episode: https://www.shareradio.co.uk/help-guides/managing-my-money/supporting-slides/mmm-week-5-episode-10-supporting-slides/

“The [Child Trust Fund] scheme has been closed to new entrants for over 12 years. In this time HMRC has been focusing resources on evaluating and improving existing schemes. We will continue to keep the need to evaluate old schemes under review.” So said Andrew Griffith MP, Economic Secretary to HM Treasury in reply to a parliamentary question from John Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. But this is not an 'old scheme' — there is currently over £1.7 billion sitting in mature accounts belonging to over 900,000 mainly low-income young adults throughout the UK who don't know anything about their good fortune! Their Child Trust Fund harvest is seeing too little action at present: but it's not too late to get it sorted, and the current focus from the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee will certainly help.
Background music: 'Hopeful Freedom' by Asher Fulero

UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt sets out his Budget for growth. This is the unabridged recording, direct from the House of Commons on 15th March 2023.

The huge take-up of ChatGPT over recent weeks has brought the challenge of Artificial Intelligence into sharp relief. As the Chief Executive of its creator, OpenAI, said in one of his blogs, 'Artificial Intelligence will bring unimaginable wealth but, unless something changes, most of us will get none of it. We need a radical solution'. Conventional wisdom sees Universal Basic Income as the way through this dilemma, but this will only bring us more state intermediation and human subservience. We can put forward a better solution, by enabling all to share in the wealth that technology brings and to play their part in its future governance.
Background music: 'Digital Solitude' by Silent Partner

Jonathan Davis, editor of the Investment Trusts Handbook, tells Simon Rose what makes investment trusts special and why investors should consider their merits. He explains the differences to other types of funds, including the premium and discount. He discusses the yields on alternative assets (including renewable energy and even music royalties) and how trusts can continue paying dividends even in bad years. The handbook, from Harriman House, is available in hardbook or free as an ebook (https://tinyurl.com/mt69fc24).

It’s the last episode of Answers (but don’t worry, we’re just moving to Motley Fool Money every Tuesday). We’ll reminisce on our biggest lessons learned over the last seven years and answer your questions, some financial, some festive.

The Talk by the WealthiHer Network, every month on Share Radio: this month we are here to talk about the secrets of some of UK leading female businesses leaders and their journeys within launching their businesses. Tamara Gillan is joined by Charlotte Bobroff, the executive director at J.P. Morgan who has been incremental with working with female founders from female high-powered businesses. She recently curated an event surrounding female high-powered businesses and she will be discussing her findings. Also, we have the pleasure of Daina Speddings, who is an investor at BGF and will share her perspective on the investment journey.

Scrooge has made the deal of his life with Chinese investors and must now quickly return to London on Christmas Eve to close the deal. On the flight back, during a fitful sleep, Scrooge confronts his past and present and learns the future consequences of his miserly life to find the true meaning of Christmas. Proscenium Online Theatre is super excited to be bringing you a whole new season of audio dramas in 2022. Starting off with 'The Girl in the Yellow Dress', a dark romance by South African playwright Craig Higginson, and 'Plunder', an original Hong Kong based thriller by American playwright Alan Olejniczak. In the meantime - sit back, close your eyes and enjoy the Proscenium Online Theatre’s production of 'A Christmas Carol'.

https://www.prosceniumonlinetheatre.com

Join the Sustain:Social panel session on December '21, considering the outlook for investors in the wake of the COP26 in Glasgow. The panel comprises of - Chair: Rodney Hobson Panel: Gervais Williams (Premier Miton Group); Jamie Broderick (Impact Investing Institute); Mohan Gundu (Sustainable Funds Group); Mike Appleby (Liontrust Sustainable Investment team); Gavin Oldham (The Share Foundation / Share Radio).

Food banks are providing a vital role to help people this winter, and the Trussell Trust supports more than 1,200 throughout the United Kingdom. In this special episode of The Bigger Picture, their Chief Executive Emma Revie briefs supporters about their progress, and their plans for the future. If you would like to support the extraordinary work undertaken by this charity, please visit https://trusselltrust.org

If you missed Chancellor Rishi Sunak delivering his speech on 27 October, here's your chance to hear it. Plus, read our commentary on Monday 1 November for Share Radio's perspective, including our assessment of the contrast with the mid-70s, when public borrowing last hit stratospheric levels.

Imagine a world in which everyone has a stake in the great tech firms that serve them each day, and where dividends are gradually replacing wages to provide regular income for everyone, as work becomes scarcer as a result of automation? Imagine a world where every young person not only has a small inheritance with which to start their adult life, but also the opportunity to build its value by learning life skills? Simon Rose is taking a well-earned break this week, so we’re taking the opportunity to bring you a talk given Gavin Oldham in August to the leading City of London think-tank Z/Yen.

Click link for slides for presentation

On 31 August '21 The Share Foundation hosted a virtual event for young people in Wales, to help them find money that the government put away in a Child Trust Fund for when they reached 18. All young people born in the UK from 1st September 2002 should have one of these accounts, but huge numbers don't know anything about them! With Welsh-speaking help from Jac, this audio podcast of the virtual event tells you all about your good fortune, and invites you to register at https://findCTF.sharefound.org so that Sharefound can help link you with your money. Please share! And if you want to join a virtual event yourself, please visit https://www.sharefound.org/ctf-virtual-events and register for your choice of date: they're taking place each fortnight.

Every child in the UK born between 1 Sept 2002 and 2 Jan 2011 has a Child Trust Fund (CTF). But one child in six has lost contact with the money. Gavin Oldham, Chairman of The Share Foundation – which runs the Junior ISA & Child Trust Fund schemes for children in care for the Department for Education - is trying to re-connect them. He talks through the CTF, how to track an account down, and what a child can and can’t do with the money.

In a new partnership with publishers Harriman House, Share Radio has produced its first audiobook 'Superinvestors', written by Matthew Partridge and read by some of Share Radio's best known presenters. 'Superinvestors' lays bare the investing secrets of legendary investors - from early 20th-century figures such as Benjamin Graham and John Maynard Keynes, through to more modern names such as Anthony Bolton and Warren Buffett.

How you can help young people in care prepare for adult life by supporting The Share Foundation’s ‘Stepladder of Achievement’ programme.

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Share Radio has put together a list of our ‘Top 5 Money Saving Apps’ to help our listeners make the most of their money.  All the apps featured here are free to download on either Apple or Android devices. Read more...