In the Balance

What are the political and economic factors to watch in 2020? Will the trade wars continue, will Brexit get done and who will be the next US president? Ed Butler is joined by economists Professor Meredith Crowley, Reader in International Economics, University of Cambridge; Guntram Wolff, Director of Bruegel, an economic think tank and Professor Raghuram Rajan of Chicago Booth School of Business to discuss how the events of 2019 will influence the coming year and give us their forecasts for trends to look out for in 2020. (Image: 2020 US election badges; image credit: Getty Images)

What is best practice for employers dealing with mental health problems at work? The World Health Organisation estimates that depression and anxiety cost the global economy about one trillion dollars a year in lost productivity. About half of all workers suffer from poor mental health but few of us talk to our employers about it. So how can an employer support someone going through a crisis, and does the workplace have a role in breaking down the stigma around mental health? Manuela Saragosa tries to answer some of these questions with guests, Professor Sally Maitlis of Saïd Business School, University of Oxford; Mary Daniels entrepreneur, author and coach; and Nicky Young, managing director at MullenLowe salt. (Image: Graphic image of man with head on desk; Image credit: Getty Images)

Are mandatory quotas desirable or necessary to ensure more diversity in our company boardrooms? The Netherlands has just passed a law obliging listed companies to have 30% of their non-executive boards made up of women and California has till the end of the year to ensure at least one woman is on the board of its public companies. But that law is being challenged, and quotas elsewhere have had mixed success. So why bother? Manuela Saragosa and guests Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe, founder and president of WISER Policy, attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation Anastasia Boden, Tamara Box, managing partner at Reed Smith and founding member of the 30% Club and former EU digital commissioner Neelie Kroes discuss the pros and cons of mandatory quotas for female equality in the corporate world. (Image: three business women: Image credit: Getty Images)

Can we trust the political adverts in our news feeds? Who is sending them, why are we being targeted and are they even true? This week we're looking at the thorny issue of political advertising on social media. Is regulation needed to ensure fair and trustworthy election campaigns or would restrictions endanger free speech and limit voter choice? Ed Butler is joined by Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC technology correspondent, data rights lawyer Ravi Naik, Lisa-Maria Neudert, doctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute and Michael Duncan partner and digital media lead at Cavalry, an issue management firm in Washington DC. (Image: Man looking at phone on a bus. Image credit: Getty Images)

Divestment has become a rallying call by environmental campaigners in the fight against climate change. It's when environmentally aware investors put pressure on their fund managers, employers and governments to move money away from polluting industries. An estimated $11 trillion have been divested from fossil fuel stocks since the 2015 Paris climate summit, but has that divestment made a difference? With emissions continuing to soar, wouldn't it be better just to tax energy companies more? Others argue that investors should put money into innvovative technologies that help solve climate change. Justin Rowlatt discusses these issues and more with guests Mark Lewis, Global Head of Sustainability, BNP Paribas Asset Management, Ahmed Mokgopo, Campaigner, 350.org and Gayle Peterson, Associate Fellow, Said Business School, Oxford. (Image: Climate change protest bannners. Image credit: Getty Images)

At a time when we’re living longer, healthier lives should we do away with the notion of retirement and just keep on working? Are the skills of older people adequate, and are they even wanted in a youth-obsessed society? Ed Butler will be discussing the financial drivers behind working longer, the social benefits of being actively employed and the choices that governments, employers and individuals need to make to prepare for older age. Our guests this week are Samuel Engblom, Policy director at The Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees from Stockholm, Margaret Heffernan, executive coach and author in London and Steve Vernon, author and Research Scholar at the Stanford Center on Longevity, California. Plus, we take a visit to The Common Room, a new concept in intergenerational thinking. (Image: Older woman selling flower bouquet. Image credit: Getty)

The EU has a new parliament, new leadership, but the same old problems; Brexit, political populism and an economic slowdown. How will it stand up to the test? This week’s In the Balance comes from the 'Kilkenomics' festival of economics and comedy in Ireland, in front of a live audience of festival-goers. Rory Cellan- Jones is joined by a panel of top Irish, European and American economists in Cleere's pub in Kilkenny, along with comedian Colm O’Regan who is reflecting on how small countries cope as part of a big bloc like the EU. Guests: Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Brussels correspondent for the New York Times, David McWilliams academic and economist and co-founder of Kilkenomics, Bill Black, lawyer, author and associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. And In the Balance regular contributor, comedian Colm O'Regan. (Image: John Cleere pub exterior, Kilkenny. Image credit: BBC)

Some of the world’s top thinkers on artificial intelligence discuss the threats intelligent machines might pose to humans. With Turkey claiming it may be able to launch autonomous killer drones in the near future, is it time we all thought a bit harder about how we want this cutting edge technology to be deployed? Ed Butler and guests discuss artificial intelligence, from military hardware, to online advertising and insurance. Ed is joined by Dame Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science at Southampton University and Co-chair of the UK Government's review on Artificial Intelligence; Helen Toner, Director of Strategy at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University. And Jaan Tallinn, one of the founders of the technology firm Skype and now co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University. (Picture: Robotic Androids Taking Charge Of Running A Futuristic City. Credit: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

India has a poor record when it comes to the balance between the sexes. Gender bias begins early in conservative families where girls may be denied education and forced into household work. Playing sport is one way of challenging these gender stereotypes. But it's a struggle. From social discrimination to equal pay, sportswomen say they have to fight prejudice at every step. It starts with questions on their choice of sport and the way they dress, and moves on to why they want to step out of the house to compete in a game for men. Devina Gupta's guests have answered these questions by demonstrating their prowess in their chosen sports. Devina is joined by Hetal Dave, India's first and only professional female sumo wrestler, known to her fans as Sumo Didi; Aishwarya Pissay, champion off-road racer; and Diskit Angmo, ice hockey player from Ladakh. They discuss with her how sportswomen can level the playing field and achieve professional equality with men. This week's programme is produced in conjunction with the BBC's Work Life India.

Across the globe an estimated forty million people are victims of modern day slavery, either in forced labour or forced marriages. Devina Gupta and her guests in Delhi discuss what can be done to end this. In India alone around 18 million people live in modern slavery, according to the Global Slavery Index - although that statistic is questioned by the Indian government. Joining Devina to explore the reality of this hidden world are Riya Singh, a young female activist who works to end oppression in India's unique caste system; Manoj Bhatt, country director, GoodWeave, an organisation that tries to spread awareness about slave labour in the global supply chain; and Colin Gonsalves, a senior advocate in India's top court, whose organisation rescues forced labour. In the Balance is produced this week in conjunction with the Work Life India team.

What's the best strategy for starting a business from nothing? What if you have to start over - either in a new country or because of a business failure or setback in life? We hear from a Syrian refugee who started her cheese making business from the ground up and from South Africa we are joined by the managing director of an organisation advising small scale entrepreneurs who are doing business in tough conditions. Also in the programme, Ed Butler is joined by a venture capital funder who invests in tech start-ups and we'll hear from the leader of Britain's top foundation for boosting entrepreneurship, who says it takes a special type of person to start up a business from scratch. Contributors: Razan Alsous, founder of Yorkshire Dama Cheese Neeta Patel, CEO at the Centre for Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneur-Mentor at London Business School Wybrand Ganzevoort, managing director at Collective Value Creation George Davies, partner at Hambro Perks (Picture; A rocket taking off. Credit: Getty Creative)

How many of us think we are being watched at work? The indications are that workplace surveillance is on the rise. Everything from closed circuit television cameras, key-stroke logging to wearable devices can be used by employers to keep an eye on us as employees and to track our actions and behaviour at work. The use of “people analytics" to shape the workforce is a big and growing area of business. Increasing amounts of data collected on workers is being used to make predictions about our behaviour in the workplace. But is this bad for workers and what is being done with the information collected about employees? Join Ed Butler and guests to find out more about how we are all being watched and measured at work - and what's being done with the information. Contributors: Dr Phoebe Moore, Associate Professor, Political Economy & Technology, University of Leicester School of Business; Guest Research Fellow, WZB Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society Dr Ben Waber, CEO and co-founder of Humanyze Ekkehard Ernst, Chief Macro-economic policies and jobs, International Labour Organization (Picture: woman at work being watched through a computer screen. Credit: Getty Images)

Thanks to technology, these days it’s possible to work almost anywhere. You can log on from your kitchen table, in a trendy café or even on the beach. So what’s the point of the noisy, crowded office? Perhaps it’s time we ditched the daily commute and found better places, and better ways, to get the job done. Manuela Saragosa has been discussing, with her three guests, just what kind of spaces we’ll be working in in future, and whether the office has some redeeming features after all. Contributors: Kay Sargent, director of workplace at architectural firm HOK Iwo Szapar, founder and chief executive of Remotehow, which helps firms support staff working away from the office Stephen Wood, a specialist in workplace psychology and professor of management at the University of Leicester (Picture:Office worker. Getty Images.)

Giving and receiving feedback is one of the hardest skills to get right in the modern workplace. We dig into the subject to find out the best, and worst, ways to hold frank discussions at work. Ed Butler is joined by three expert guests: Joseph Grenny runs a leadership consultancy, VitalSmarts, in Salt Lake City offering advice to business. He also chairs a not for profit organisation called The Other Side Academy, working with former prisoners or homeless people where feedback is instant and honest. Ed also hears from Craig Mawdsley, joint chief strategy officer at the advertising agency AMV and Erin Meyer, a professor of organisational behaviour at Insead business school in Paris. She's the author of The Culture Map, a book looking at the stark differences in national business cultures around the world. (Picture: woman in workplace. Credit: Getty Images)

As the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, Ed Butler asks whether people will soon be routinely working in outer space. A commercial space race is underway with companies preparing for the day when humans set up a lunar base and then move on to Mars. Ed hears from an expert from NASA, a promoter of commercial opportunities for space businesses and from a psychologist about what to expect from a working life in space. Contributors: Pedro Quinteiro, ISPA - University Institute, Lisbon, Portugal Therese Griebel, NASA, Deputy Associate Administrator for Programs, Space Technology Mission Directorate Barbara Ghinelli, Harwell Space Cluster (Picture: The HASSELL design for human habitation on Mars. Credit: Hassell Studio )

Where have all the good jobs gone? With the shift from manufacturing to service sector jobs in many industrialised countries, Audrey Tinline and guests look at whether some jobs are providing a better quality of work than others. Many people now expect to have a number of different jobs, or even careers, across their working lives - have we lost something in not having a job for life? Or have we gained new freedoms to re-invent ourselves? Contributors: Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice at London Business School Leda Glyptis, Chief of Staff at 11:FS Louise Carter-King, Mayor of Gillette, Wyoming Dave Proctor, Programme Leader in Trade Union Education, Ruskin College, Oxford Picture: Coal Mining In Gillette, Wyoming. (Credit: Getty Images 2004)

Prison labour is a feature of penal systems almost everywhere around the world and many private companies profit from it. But whose benefit is the work really for? Does it help the prisoners? Or is it just a way of reducing the huge costs that tax-payers pay each year to keep people behind bars? Join Ed Butler to hear from former prisoners and experts on prison work to find out more about the true cost of penal labour. Contributors: Chandra Bozelko, former prison inmate, writer and thought leader on issues related to criminal justice reform Nila Bala, criminal justice policy expert at R street, a nonprofit, public policy research organization promoting free markets and limited government Dr Jenna Pandeli, Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies, University of the West of England Lester Young, formerly incarcerated for a life sentence, now South Carolina organiser with JustLeadership USA, a campaign group aiming to cut the US correctional population in half by 2030. The governor and prisoners at Erlestoke Prison in Wiltshire, UK. Credit: Farming Today, BBC. Producer: Rebecca Rooney Picture: Prisoners at Oak Glen Conservation Camp leave the minimum security prison for work deployment under the authority of Cal Fire. September 2017 near Yucaipa, California. (Credit: DAVID MCNEW/AFP/Getty Images))

Should the big tech firms be broken up? Are companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google now so powerful and influential in the way they dominate our lives, our businesses, and certain specific markets, that they need to be cut down to size? Ed Butler is joined by a trio of expert guests to ask whether the USA and the EU need to change anti trust and competition laws in order to deal with the tech firms? Guests: Scott Hemphill, NYU law professor. He teaches a course called BigTech and Standard Oil. Peter Carstensen, Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. Rachel Coldicutt, CEO of Doteveryone, a London-based think tank fighting for a fairer Internet. (Picture credit: Gerry images)

India is in the middle of the world’s biggest election and the battle to reach the country's 900 million voters is on every screen. Political parties are spending big money on digital strategy and social media marketing. But is all the investment worth it? Is it reaching the voters it should and swaying political choices? Devina Gupta from the BBC's WorklifeIndia is joined by a popular actor turned politician, the public policy head of India’s own vernacular social network, and a digital marketer providing services to political parties and candidates. We ask whether digital campaigning is really a game changer? Presenter: Devina Gupta Contributors: Gul Panag, actor, politician and entrepreneur; Berges Malu, public policy head, ShareChat; Kapil Gupta, digital marketer and CEO, OMLogic (Picture: A supporter seen doing a Facebook live as a political party candidate speaks during her campaign rally ahead of elections at a village in Merta, India, on April 20, 2019. Credit: Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

In the Balance digs into the sometimes murky business of philanthropy. Giving away large sums of money has become a hot topic, as some of the world's most high profile donors and institutions have become mired in controversy.The most obvious example has been over donations to arts and culture organisation made by some members of the Sackler family. Some of the family wealth was founded on the US company Purdue Pharma, the maker of an opiod painkiller. But it's not just the Sackler riches that have come under attack - sponsorship of museums and art exhibitions by oil companies have also been criticised recently. Ed Butler and guests discuss the ethics of giving. How should donors decide where to put their money and how do museums and arts organisations decide which money they should accept? Image: Photographer Nan Goldin leads a demonstration at the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to protest the benefactor of the Sackler Art Museum (Credit: Erin Clark for the Boston Globe via Getty Images)