Follow the Money: Is a university degree worth the investment?

The number of students going to university globally has more than doubled in the last 20 years. 269 million students around the world are enrolled in higher education, if those students were a country, it would be the 5th most populous in the world. At the same time youth unemployment is growing and there’s a slowing of that graduate premium - the extra money you'll earn because of your degree - so is it still worth it? Presenter: Hannah Mullane Producer: Matt Lines(Image Credit: Graduates from abroad fling their graduation caps into the air during a graduation send-off party following the second commencement ceremony of the 2025 academic year at Seokdang Museum of Dong-a University in the southeastern port city of Busan, South Korea, 20 August 2026.Credit: EPA/Shutterstock)

There's a general fear that artificial intelligence could make huge swathes of workers redundant, but are those fears unjustified? Rob Young asks what history can tell us about big technological leaps and how they changed the world of work at the time. And how much of the rate of change comes down to customer preference - would you rather deal with a bot or a person? Presented and produced by Rob Young.(Photo: A square computer chip, with its circuitry illuminated in pink and white light and has the text Powered by AI on it as a logo is seen during the opening day of the IFA trade fair in Berlin, Germany, 4 September 2026. Credit:EPA/Shutterstock)

There has been a lot of talk about rising bond yields, from Japan to the UK and the US, and alongside this government debt is growing all around the world. That all plays into a feeling that many people have that life is about to get more expensive and that in many places interest rates are set to rise.Rahul Tandon is joined by David Kuo, co-founder of The Smart Investor in Singapore and German business journalist Ellen Frauenknecht.(Photo: Passersby stand before a stock market indicator board in Tokyo, Japan, 2 September, 2026. Tokyo stocks plunged as Japanese government bond yields rose to its highest level in 30 years and escalating attacks between the United States and Iran. Credit: Franck Robichon/EPA/Shutterstock)Presenter: Rahul Tandon Producer: Matt Lines

We dig into the finances behind "the beautiful game" after English football's Premier League just spent £3.57bn ($4.7bn) billion on new players. What is behind football's richest competition and is its success sustainable?(Photo: Stamford Bridge, London, England, 30 August, 2026. Chelsea's Cole Palmer celebrates scoring their fourth goal with Morgan Rogers. Credit: David Klein/Reuters)Presenters: Will Bain and Rahul Tandon Producer: Rebecca Smyllie

Allison Ellsworth, founder of ​Poppi soft drinks, started the beverage business as a kitchen experiment, with a Soda Stream and apple cider vinegar. She speaks to Leanna Byrne about pitching for funding on TV programme Shark Tank while nine months pregnant, relaunching during Covid lockdowns and becoming the number one soda on Amazon in the US and her $1.95 billion exit with PepsiCo.Presenter: Leanna ByrneProducer: Niamh McDermott and Victoriya HollandYou can email the team: [email protected](Photo credit: Allison Ellsworth)

Think of an electric vehicle, and you'll probably imagine a Tesla. But China is the world's biggest EV exporter, despite being largely shut out of the US market. How has the country seemingly come from nowhere to dominate the world of electric mobility and how can its Evs be made so cheap? Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producer: Josh Martin(Photo: A man looks inside the Changan Deepal S05 REEV during a press conference for the unveiling of the Chinese model at the WesBank Festival of Motoring in Johannesburg, South Africa, August 27, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Nqobile Dludla)

Emily Wither reports from Istanbul finding out why that 'Made in Turkey' label in so much of our clothing could disappear as the industry faces competition from countries like Egypt, Turkey battles huge inflation and hundreds of factories go bankrupt leaving tens of thousands out of work (Photo: A worker in a Turkish garment factory in Istanbul works at a table. Credit: Emily Wither/Supplied)

This week on Taking Stock, Rahul Tandon is joined by journalist Nga Pham in Hanoi, Vietnam, and economist Justin Wolfers in Michigan, USA, to unpack Nvidia’s soaring quarterly results and what they signal about the global race in artificial intelligence.They also discuss Meta’s settlement agreement and the wider regulatory pressures facing tech giants, as well as fresh sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States. Presenter: Rahul Tandon Producer: Rebecca Smyllie(Photo credit: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during a doorstep after attending the AI Ecosystem Reception in Tokyo, Japan, July 16, 2026. REUTERS/Manami Yamada/File Photo)

For years, China’s property boom helped drive the country’s extraordinary economic growth. At the centre of it was Evergrande, which grew from a regional developer into a sprawling corporate empire, and one of the world’s most indebted companies.Then the debts caught up with it. Evergrande’s collapse exposed the vulnerabilities of China’s property model, helping push the wider housing market into crisis and weighing on the country’s economy.Now its founder, Hui Ka-yan, has been sentenced to life in prison for crimes including bribery and illegal use of funds.Will Bain and Rahul Tandon are joined by Jennifer Pak in Beijing to explore how Evergrande became so big, what went wrong, how its collapse exposed the problems in China’s property model, and what it means for the wider global economy.(Photo: China Evergrande Group then-Chairman, Hui Ka Yan, attends a news conference on the property developer's annual results in Hong Kong, China 28 March, 2017. He has short black hair with a side parting and wears a white shirt with a red patterned tie and a black suit jacket. In the background is a city skyline of skyscrapers, reflected in blue water. Credit: Bobby Yip/Reuters)You can email the team: [email protected]: Will Bain, Rahul Tandon and Jennifer Pak Producer: David Cann

Sophia Amoruso, founded clothing company Nasty Gal after a successful stint of eBay upselling. It grew into a company worth hundreds of millions and allowed its founder to claim the title of original "girl boss" but eventually filed for bankruptcy. In the space of a few years, she had swapped shoplifting items to sell on Amazon and eBay for clinking champagne flutes in the South of France, schmoozing investors and having her book turned into a Netflix series and dealing with unhappy employees. Did swift success stifle what Nasty Gal could have become?Presenter: Leanna Byrne Producer: Niamh McDermott, Barbara George, Aleeza Siddiq and Victoriya Holland(Photo credit: Sophie Amoruso)You can email the team: [email protected]