Your everyday guide to economics and why you should care

Image of Economics with Subtitles

A new four-part OU/BBC series, Economics with Subtitles, starts on Radio 4 on Saturday (4 August) lunchtime.

It is being presented by economics podcaster Ayeisha Thomas-Smith and stand-up comedian (with an economics degree) Steve Bugeja who will translate the economic jargon that fills our media and politicians’ mouths into words you can understand and use.

There are stories of sex (and inflation), drugs (and GDP) and rock and roll (and a 90-year-old economist) in the show! It is going out at 12:04 with repeats on Sunday (5 August) at 21:02 and Wednesday (8 August) at 15:02.

Dr Peter Bloom from The Open University Business School was one of three academic consultants who worked on the series, together with OU colleagues Dr Alan Shipman and Dr Rajiv Prabhakar.

You can find out more about the series via the OpenLearn website.

Upcoming Events

Jul 16

Guest lecture: Fraud, Data and Emerging Risks

Thursday, July 16, 2026 - 14:00 to 15:30

Online on MS Teams

This guest lecture with Mike Haley, CEO of Cifas, will provide an overview of the types of fraud currently causing the greatest harm to society and examine how advances in AI are likely to affect fraud cases in the future.

Sep 2

Caring Feminisms Across Borders Conference

Wednesday, September 2, 2026 - 09:00 to Friday, September 4, 2026 - 17:00

University of Donja Gorica, Oktoih 1, Podgorica 81000, Montenegro

This academic conference hopes to draw feminist scholars, activists and communities together to consider what caring feminism across borders might mean now and for the future.

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