Best of Today

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Recent episodes (10)

• Winterson reads Blake

  Wed, 28 Dec 11

  Duration:
  2 mins
  
  Available:
  7 days remaining

  In the second instalment of Tracey Emin's celebration of voices she loves to hear on the radio, author Jeanette Winterson reads William Blake's The Divine Image

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• Serota: UK 'a much more visual culture'

  Wed, 28 Dec 11

  Duration:
  8 mins
  
  Available:
  7 days remaining

  Tracey Emin believes the visual arts have a key role to play in our country's economic growth. Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate galleries and Gregor Muir, executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) examine just how much potential there is for the visual arts to contribute to the growth of the economy. This is an extended version of the broadcast item.

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• Blumenthal: Hospitals need 'food for health and mind'

  Wed, 28 Dec 11

  Duration:
  8 mins
  
  Available:
  7 days remaining

  Our guest editor today Tracey Emin thinks the quality of food served to patients in many hospitals is a real cause for concern and was keen to hear from the chef and restaurateur Heston Blumenthal, who has been involved in a project seeking to make hospital food more palatable. The Today programme's Sarah Montague spoke to him about it. This is an extended version of the broadcast item.

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• 'You can take the girl out of Margate...'

  Wed, 28 Dec 11

  Duration:
  12 mins
  
  Available:
  7 days remaining

  Our guest editor Tracey Emin spent most of her childhood in Margate on the Kent coast. She has returned to it again and again, both in her art and in person and most recently she's been a staunch supporter of the town's new Turner Contemporary gallery, creating a neon "I never stopped loving you" sign for the gallery in homage to her hometown. Tracey believes that the Turner Contemporary has and will play a significant role in Margate's economic regeneration and has been dismayed at what she sees as the town's "unbelievable" decline of the past 20 years, something Margate shares with other traditional seaside resorts. She went to find out how do people in Margate today feel about their town.

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• Business news with Lesley Curwen

  Wed, 28 Dec 11

  Duration:
  12 mins
  
  Available:
  7 days remaining

  John Philpott, chief economic advisor at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development on a report they've published suggesting unemployment will rise to 8.8% in 2012. And Baroness Margaret Ford, chair of the Olympic Park Legacy Company talks about the financial legacy of the Olympics.

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• Mo Ibrahim's vision of Africa

  Tue, 27 Dec 11

  Duration:
  13 mins
  
  Available:
  6 days remaining

  Dr Mo Ibrahim has tried to use his programme to present a different picture of Africa. He sits down with Evan Davis to talk about why chose to focus on that. This is an extended version of the broadcast item.

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• 'NHS charges market rates for IVF'

  Tue, 27 Dec 11

  Duration:
  7 mins
  
  Available:
  6 days remaining

  A professor of fertility studies at Imperial College London has told the Independent newspaper of the "scandalous exploitation" of people trying for an IVF baby. Professor Robert Winston explains why he thinks the market is driven by greed on the part of the clinics and desperation on the part of the would-be parents. And Professor Alison Murdoch, head of Newcastle Fertility Centre, gives her reaction.

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• 'We have built a positive country' in Cape Verde

  Tue, 27 Dec 11

  Duration:
  14 mins
  
  Available:
  6 days remaining

  This year the Mo Ibrahim Foundation awarded its Prize for Achievement in African Leadership to Pedro Pires, the former president of Cape Verde. In December 2007 Cape Verde graduated from Least Developed Country status to Middle Income Country. The Today programme's Evan Davis travelled to Cape Verde to find out what is behind this small republic's success.

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• Business news with Lesley Curwen

  Tue, 27 Dec 11

  Duration:
  12 mins
  
  Available:
  6 days remaining

  Hurley Duddy of Emerging Capital Partnerships talks about his company's investment in Mo Ibrahim's telecoms company CELTEL in Africa. And Pippa Malmgren, former advisor to President George W Bush, former Chancellor Alistair Darling and Richard Lambert , former head of the CBI discuss whether the economic crisis of 2011 has been as bad as that in 2008.

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• Can science bring sporting success?

  Mon, 26 Dec 11

  Duration:
  9 mins
  
  Available:
  5 days remaining

  In the 1980s, Lord Coe's father Peter coached him to two Olympic gold medals with a novel scientific approach to training and fitness. More recently football managers like Arsene Wenger at Arsenal and Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho have introduced scientific techniques, changes to footballers' diets and new training regimes at their clubs. Sebastian Coe invited Jose Mourinho onto the programme to talk about his ideas.

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