Rethink

Is the UK destined to be an economy that only provides services and no longer makes things? Whether you agree with that statement or not, it's a narrative that's stuck with the UK for decades. There are now far fewer large homegrown manufacturing firms than there were 60 years ago, which contribute far less as a percentage of national income. In the 1960s, a third of the UK workforce was employed in manufacturing, but now that's down to less than 10 percent. But not all of those workers in the 1960s were on the production line; many were in-house cleaners, cooks, drivers and even barbers. Those roles were contracted out decades ago, and are now counted as service jobs. So there's always been a blurring between these two parts of the economy, and now, increasingly, companies are finding ways to hold on to customers by adding value, such as car mechanics offering a free courtesy vehicle, or a laser printer company telling you when the ink is running low in your machine. This called servitization, and because of advanced data analysis, manufacturers are now even able to provide an outcome, rather than just a product. It's the difference between selling jet engines and instead providing guaranteed thrust for airliners. Or the difference between selling a gas boiler and instead guaranteeing a warm home when a customer needs it.It's a business strategy that has risks, but it can make a customer's life easier. It can lead to higher profits, less waste and greater productivity. But despite its benefits, the value of servitization to the UK economy isn't being measured. So is it time to rethink the relationship between manufacturing and services? Presenter: Ben Ansell Producers: Ravi Naik and Tom Gillett Editor: Damon RoseContributors: Tim Minshall, the Dr. John C. Taylor Professor of Innovation and Head of the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge. Diane Coyle, Professor of Public Policy at the Bennett School of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. Tim Baines, Professor of operations strategy at the Aston Business School in Birmingham, and head of the Advanced Services Group. Matt Skipworth, Vice President of Services Globally and Digital Solutions at Genie. Andy Neely, Professor of Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge.

Elon Musk’s Space X is planning for a satellite constellation 1 million strong. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is planning for two constellations of tens of thousands of satellites; and Chinese companies are thought to be planning to launch thousands more. Other commercial companies are beginning to think about the advantages of working in space - manufacturers, energy companies- all are planning to put more objects and more metal into space.So is low Earth orbit - at around 2000 kilometres or less from the ground about to become dangerously congested?This picture is further complicated by the presence of objects that we cannot control and never intended to have circling around the planet. Space debris - bits of old rockets that have been jettisoned, old satellites that no longer function, fragments of metal- even a glove that was lost during a space walk. What happens if some of this space junk hits one of the thousands of satellites orbiting the earth? Could this set off a terrifying chain reaction that could hinder future space missions and make satellite communication vastly more difficult? Could our ability to track the weather, climate change, use satellite navigation and even access the internet be set back decades?Do we also as a species need to start thinking about the implications for all that metallic pollution we are sending into space? Should we be thinking of space in the same way we think about our oceans and rainforests? Is space the next environmental frontier?Presenter: Professor Ben Ansell Producer: Tom Gillett Sound mix: Neil Churchill Editor: Damon Rose Contributors: Dr Samantha Lawler - Associate Professor of Astronomy, University of Regina John Crassidis - Moog Professor of Innovation, University at Buffalo Joanne Wheeler MBE - Managing Partner at Alden Legal Andrew Faiola – Commercial Director, Astroscale Ben Nowack – CEO and Co-Founder, Reflect OrbitalMaterial from: Space X ‘Gravity’ – Heyday Films/ Esperanto Filmoj/ Warner Bros. Pictures – Director Alfonso Cuarón CNN

21st Century wars aren't turning out quite as planned. Russia expected to defeat Ukraine within days of the start of its "special military operation" in February 2022, but the conflict has now dragged on longer than the First World War, with more than an estimated 1 million Russian soldiers killed or wounded in battle. In the Middle East, when operation Epic Fury began in February 2026, Donald Trump stated that the US and Israel would topple the Iranian regime within six weeks. Months later, the regime in Tehran has withstood the huge bombing campaign, and there's no current end in sight to the conflict. Both Ukraine and Iran have been able to resist a much bigger, better-armed enemy, using unconventional means. So has this changed the shape of modern war? And is that modern war heading in our direction? Senior figures with NATO, and even our previous Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, have warned that we should prepare for Russia attacking our allies by the end of the decade. So what can we learn from current conflicts to adapt UK military strategy and tactics for the future? Presenter: Ben Ansell Producer: Ravi Naik Editor:' Damon RoseContributors: Dr Florence Gaub, Director of the Research Division at the NATO Defence College in Rome. Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute. Stacie Pettyjohn, Director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security. Professor Anthony King, director of the Strategy and Security Institute at the University of Exeter.

In June, the US technology firm Anthropic blocked access to its most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos, because the White House wanted to stop foreign nationals from accessing them, citing security concerns. These actions highlighted the heavy reliance many countries and industries have on american-owned technology, and raised fears the US government could activate a political or literal "kill-switch", shutting down essential services and infrastructure. In the weeks following this incident, Open AI, Anthropic and Meta all admitted that AI models they were testing had also gone rogue, hacking into other systems without being asked to. So is it time for a Tech-xit - a move away from the technology provided by Silicon Valley? The UK, the EU and other middling powers around the world are now seeking digital sovereignty as an active policy goal. But in this interconnected world dominated by US and Chinese big tech, is it possible to take back control? Presenter: Ben Ansell Producer: Ravi Naik Editor: Damon RoseContributors: Anu Bradford, Professor at Columbia Law School, and author of Digital Empires and the Brussels Effect Tera Allas, honorary Professor at the Productivity Institute at the Alliance Manchester Business School Alex Krasodomski, director of the digital society programme at Chatham House. Yang Li, co-founder of Cosine, the startup behind Lumen Sovereign AI

The United Nations estimates that nearly half of mankind will live in cities by 2050. And as those cities have grown, the number of people living in slums has also increased. The UN estimates that 1.2 billion people reside in so-called “informal settlements”, mostly in low and middle income countries. But what if you could build brand-new cities, offering economic opportunity for migrants? What if those cities were built by attracting foreign investment and entrepreneurs, and importing "better" laws, making it easier to operate a business and generate wealth? That's the idea behind Charter Cities, the brainchild of the Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Romer. He was inspired by the massive growth of Hong Kong and Shenzhen in China. Both cities raised living standards in just two generations, by adopting market-led reforms. He described it as a global win-win situation. So are these new cities potential utopias of opportunity and innovation? Or are they budding dystopias, where democracy means nothing, and the poor toil at the whim of the ultra-rich?Presenter: Ben Ansell Producer: Ravi Naik Editor: Justine Lang Contributors: Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, journalist and author of "The Hidden Globe: how wealth hacks the world". Tom W Bell, law professor and consultant on alternative governance, special economic zones, and open-source law. Dr Mark Lutter, founder and executive chairman of the Charter Cities Institute. Dr Sam Wetherell, Senior Lecturer in the History of Britain and the World at the University of York, and expert in Urban History.