BBC's daily business show, from toy-industry founders to Anthropic's Pentagon standoff.
Business Daily turns global money stories into clear, reported explanations. Episodes move from a toy founder’s first savings to food prices, wrestling deals, industrial reinvention, internet shutdowns and the village-level cost of clean energy.
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Business Daily is a daily business and economics programme from the BBC World Service, produced primarily in interview format with occasional on-location, narrative-style reporting. A recurring segment, Meet the Founders, profiles entrepreneurs and traces how individual companies were built, as in episodes on Isaac Larian's MGA Entertainment and Bobby Healy's drone-delivery company Manna. Other episodes take a single business story — Anthropic's public conflict with the Pentagon over AI safety guardrails, China's lowest growth target since 1991, or a proposed offshore wind farm in Jersey — and unpack it through interviews with executives, government officials, academics, and affected workers such as fishermen or displaced employees. The show is hosted by a rotating group of BBC presenters, including Rahul Tandon, Leanna Byrne, Tyler Dunn, and Will Bain, rather than a single fixed host. Guests are typically company founders, CEOs, economists, and subject-matter academics rather than celebrities or repeat personalities. Topics span entrepreneurship, technology and AI policy, corporate strategy, energy and environment, and macroeconomics and trade, often connecting a single company or region to a broader global trend. Episodes are relatively short, around 17 to 22 minutes, consistent with a daily news-magazine format rather than long-form conversation. The tone is journalistic and explanatory, incorporating multiple sourced voices rather than a single unchallenged narrative. Listeners get both individual founder narratives and broader analysis of the economic forces shaping a given industry or region. The show suits listeners who want a global, non-US-centric view of business news delivered in a compact daily format.
Made for: Listeners who want a compact daily briefing on global business, entrepreneurship, and economic policy, including professionals tracking AI, energy, and international trade developments.
What sets it apart: Draws on BBC World Service's global reporting network to cover founder stories and economic policy across regions — Jersey, Mauritius, China, Iran, Ireland — rather than a US-centric business-news lens.
The daily drama of money and work from the BBC.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It turns corporate strategy and economic policy into clear questions about risk, work, investment and who absorbs the consequences.
Business Daily follows money into decisions with visible consequences, moving between reported explainers and direct founder conversations. Its presenters connect corporate strategy to regulation, employment and public policy without losing sight of the people carrying the risk.
Drone code, AI power struggles and island wind gambles give your business brain a passport.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical founder profile on Isaac Larian, built around thrift, risk, and learning from failure.
Isaac Larian's founder story is strongest when it stays close to the mechanics of getting started. Rahul Tandon traces the MGA Entertainment founder from childhood upheaval in Iran to California, where he worked through college, quit an early engineering job after being asked to…
A clear look at Headspace's push to scale mental health support through employers, insurers and AI.
Business Daily treats Headspace less as a meditation app than as a case study in how mental health is being packaged, paid for and scaled. Leanna Byrne frames burnout, stress and anxiety as an economic problem, then gives Headspace CEO Tom Pickett room to argue that therapy…
Anthropic's safety-first pitch collides with the political risk of becoming a near-$400 billion AI infrastructure power.
Business Daily treats Anthropic as more than another high-flying AI lab: it is presented as infrastructure for a widening layer of AI tools, with a safety-first identity that has helped sell the company to investors and enterprise users.
A clear look at offshore wind as energy security, export potential, and political risk for island economies.
Offshore wind is framed here as a balance sheet question for islands: can a windy stretch of sea help places such as Jersey cut imported energy costs, improve supply security, and possibly earn export revenue?
A grounded founder profile on drone delivery, regulation, failure, and the stamina behind a long-odds business.
Business Daily profiles Bobby Healy as a founder drawn to hard problems: a self-taught coder trying to build a drone delivery company in an industry where regulation moves slowly and permission matters as much as engineering.
A grounded Business Daily look at China's slowdown, from job-market strain to state-backed sectors and the search for stability.
China's new economic reality catches an economy trying to trade speed for stability. Rahul Tandon frames the slowdown through policy signals from Beijing, a harsher jobs market for young workers, and the view from Shanghai businesses still looking for niches that can scale.
Demetri Kofinas interviews specialists on geopolitics, energy markets, AI, and finance at length.
Rahul Tandon introduces Business Daily's "Meet the Founders" with Isaac Larian, the Iranian-American founder of MGA Entertainment.
This episode explores how wrestling has evolved into a multi-billion dollar global entertainment industry, featuring insights from professional wrestler Trent Seven at a wrestling school in North London.
Business Daily examines how Kodak moved from controlling 90% of the US film market and roughly 85% of camera sales to bankruptcy in 2012.
This episode examines how the war in the Middle East is impacting Iran's faltering economy, including job losses, damage to businesses, and the high costs of rebuilding.
This episode explores the Dutch government's consideration of relocating an entire village to make way for clean energy infrastructure, examining the tension between global energy needs and local community rights.
Business Daily interviews Alexander Rinker, co-founder of Celonis, about turning the academic field of process mining into a company valued at around $13 billion.
This episode examines how the Gulf war and ceasefire affect global food prices through fuel and fertilizer costs.
Headspace CEO Tom Pickett, a former US Navy F-18 pilot and Top Gun graduate, discusses how the mental health app has evolved from a meditation tool into a full-service platform offering AI coaching, therapy and psychiatry to employers and health insurers.
Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot and valued at nearly $400 billion, refused a Pentagon ultimatum to remove safety guardrails from its AI systems, triggering a public confrontation with President Trump who called it 'radical left woke' and ordered government agencies to cut ties.
BBC Business Daily host Tyler Dunn reports from Jersey, where proposals for an offshore wind farm — with turbines as tall as the Eiffel Tower — could generate four times the investment return over 30–40 years.
Drone delivery starts with regulation.
This episode discusses a landmark legal verdict against social media companies and explores whether it signals a turning point for Big Tech regulation.
Exploring how deceased celebrities' estates continue to generate income through management of their work and legal rights.
A whistleblower recounts his experience exposing a 1.8 billion euro tax scam in London's financial industry.
This episode examines the effects of a year of Trump's tariffs on US businesses and consumers, exploring who ultimately bears the cost.
An interview with Korean-American entrepreneur Joo Roo, founder of Hero Cosmetics, discussing her journey to create acne solutions and change perceptions about skin blemishes.
This episode examines how the global energy crisis is affecting Asian economies and the measures governments are taking to protect consumers and businesses.
This episode discusses how LinkedIn ads can maximize return on ad spend for businesses.
This episode explores emerging Arctic shipping routes as potential shortcuts between Europe and Asia, examining the economic and geopolitical implications.
This episode examines Cuba's severe economic crisis, including energy blackouts and food shortages, and discusses the government's proposed reforms and the likelihood of their success.
Chika Madubuko shares her journey founding Grey Mate Care, a platform connecting elderly Nigerians with professional carers.
This episode explores historical energy crises and their impact on the global economy, featuring insights from a former BP executive on managing oil supply during the Gulf War.
This episode explores the challenges and costs of international calling, especially for Africans abroad, and the role of apps in reducing expenses.
This episode explores Germany's initiative to recruit young Indian workers for apprenticeships in trades like butchery to address labor shortages.
China has set its lowest economic growth target since 1991 — 4.5% to 5% — signalling a deliberate shift from rapid expansion to stability.
An interview with Kanika Tekriwal, founder of Jet Set Go, about her journey building India's largest private jet marketplace.
This episode explores how geopolitical conflicts, particularly in the Middle East, drive up oil prices and affect global economies.
This episode examines the global kidnapping-for-ransom industry, its growth, and the economic motivations behind it.
This episode examines the surge in class action lawsuits, questioning whether they benefit consumers or primarily enrich lawyers.
This episode of Business Daily marks the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, exploring its radical ideas and lasting impact on economics and global trade.
This episode features an interview with Tarek Haddad, who rebuilt his family's chocolate business in Canada after it was destroyed in the Syrian civil war, discussing resilience and the universal appeal of chocolate.
Business Daily presenter Hannah Mullane examines how GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are changing food, fitness and pharmaceutical businesses.
This episode features Shira Bennett discussing how she created Nightcap, a safety product from a DIY invention after a friend was drugged at a bar, which grew into a global business.
This episode explores how businesses and organizations use behavioral science and authority bias to influence consumer choices and decision-making.
This episode of Business Daily covers the Country Music Association awards show in Nashville, exploring the business and financial aspects of the event.