Investor Masayoshi Son became notorious for making huge bets on technology companies. He once lost 96% of his fortune, but he’s still a billionaire thanks to successes like Yahoo! and Alibaba. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng tell the tale of the billionaire who founded the conglomerate SoftBank and was once, very briefly, the richest person in the world. As the child of Korean immigrants in Japan, Son’s childhood took in sharing a home with pigs, an obsession with the businessman who brought McDonald’s to Japan, and a move to study in the USA aged 16. The podcast that tells tales of titans of technology, Wall Street moguls, pop stars, sporting legends, CEOs and entrepreneurs also explain how Son overcame a diagnosis that meant he was once given just two years to live. Then Simon and Zing decide if Son is good, bad, or just another billionaire.
Global News Podcast - Trump to call Putin to stop Ukraine ‘bloodbath’
Donald Trump has said he will call Vladimir Putin on Monday to stop the Ukraine 'bloodbath'. Also: Reuniting Chile's stolen children with their birth parents, and the theft of a statue of Melania Trump.
Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: Climbing a mountain 64 times to inspire others
Listener Tania tells us how stories on The Happy Pod helped her fight for life after a near fatal mountain fall. Now she's determined to inspire others. Also: a park designed in a computer game becomes a reality; why happiness boosts vaccines; and the cheerleading businessmen.
Global News Podcast - Ukraine and Russia agree prisoner swap after direct talks
The first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in more than three years have ended without a ceasefire agreement. Also: a man who attacked the author Salman Rushdie is jailed for 25 years
CrowdScience - Is my yoghurt really alive?
Bulgaria is famous for its yoghurt, a fermented milk food full of ‘good’ bacteria that has kept hungry Bulgarians healthy for over 4000 years.
Inspired by that, and a question from a CrowdScience listener in California USA, Marnie Chesterton and Caroline Steel are immersing themselves in Bulgarian culture with a programme about Bulgarian cultures, recorded at the 2025 Sofia Science Festival.
So, are the ‘live’ cultures in fermented foods actually alive by the time you eat them, and how can you tell? If you can eat the mould in blue cheese, can you eat the mould on cheese that isn’t supposed to be mouldy? Is traditional food really better for you? And if you put a drop of vanilla into a litre of milk, how come it all tastes of vanilla?
Marnie and Caroline are joined by a chemist who was a member of Sofia University’s ‘Rapid Explosion Force’, a food technologist with a PhD in sponge cakes and a Professor of molecular biology who says that we contain so much bacteria that we’re only 10% human.
With questions on food from around the world and from the audience in Sofia, Marnie and Caroline will be digesting the answers, as well as some local delicacies.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton & Caroline Steel Producer: Emily Knight Series Producer: Ben Motley
Focus on Africa - Why is Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traoré ‘popular’
Burkina Faso's military ruler, 37 year old Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has skilfully built a persona of a pan-Africanist leader, determined to free his nation from what he sees as, 'the clutches of Western imperialism and neo-colonialism'. This message has resonated across Africa and beyond on social media. But what's fact and what's fiction?
Why has Ethiopia's government banned the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) from taking part in elections?
And Benin's bid to become Africa's cycling superpower.
Presenter: Audrey Brown Technical Producer: Jonathan Greer Producers: Yvette Twagiramariya, Patricia Whitehorne and Bella Hassan Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard
Global News Podcast - Trump leaves Middle East while strikes on Gaza intensify
Airstrikes in north Gaza kill nearly 100 Palestinians. Trump ends Mideast trip with business deals but no Israeli hostage breakthrough. Russia-Ukraine peace talks start in Turkey. Plus: Eurovision finalists confirmed
Unexpected Elements - Enduring it all
This month will see thousands of people take to streets around the world to test their feats of endurance. It’s marathon season. And this week, we’re looking at the science behind what keeps you running. We’ll learn about the psychological preparation that goes into undertaking mammoth challenges, like marathons and expeditions, and meet a scientist from the UK Space Agency who’s endured the Antarctic winter, and is now training to be an astronaut. We’ll find out just how genetic our ability to cope with endurance exercise is. How air pollution could be affecting your running times. And find out how evolution has gifted our animal friends with some unique ways of getting ahead. As well as all that, there’s the science of what makes something ugly. And an exciting innovation that could see us using cow dung to fuel our cars. All that and more in this week’s Unexpected Elements. Presenter: Alex Lathbridge, Chhavi Sachdev and Candice Bailey Producers: Robbie Wojciechowski with Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, Imaan Moin, and Minnie Harrop
Global News Podcast - US plays down prospects of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Ukraine breakthrough not likely until President Trump meets Vladimir Putin. Also: power cuts in Sudan after drone strikes on power stations.
Science In Action - Vaccinating rabies’ reservoir dogs
In 2015, the World Health Organisation set the goal of eradicating rabies deaths from dog-bites to “Zero by 2030”. A team at the University of Glasgow and colleagues in Tanzania have been assessing the efficacy of dog vaccination schemes for reducing the numbers of human infections over the last 20 years. As Prof Katie Hampson tells Science in Action, in rural areas especially, vaccinating dog populations does work, but you need to keep at it, and not leave patches untouched. It should be funded as a public health measure, rather than a veterinary issue.
Last weekend, the remains of a failed 1972 Soviet mission to Venus landed harmlessly somewhere back on earth. As the BBC’s Maddie Molloy explains, the fears were that the robust lander craft would survive re-entry into earth’s atmosphere as it was originally engineered to withstand the harsh pressures and chemistry of Venus.
How and why then would sketches be emerging of Chinese plans to launch a sample-return mission to Venus in the next decade? Science Journalist Andrew Jones describes some of the challenges they will face collecting droplets of the highly acidic atmosphere somewhere 60km above the surface and turning round to head back to earth.
Why? William Bains of Cardiff University is one of a growing number of scientists interested in exploring some of the more exotic possibilities for complex organic biology in the otherwise destructive sulphuric, hot, dense, low pH clouds they will find. Could a different sort of information-encoding molecular chemistry enable life, though not as we know it?
Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex Mansfield Production Coordinator: Jasmine Cerys George and Josie Hardy
Photo: A domestic dog receives a rabies vaccine during a mass vaccination in Bunda, Tanzania, October 8, 2012. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)