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The Class of 2008

The Class of 2008

What happened to those who graduated straight into the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression?

Kim Gittleson is one of them, and she goes in search of three others who - like her - found their career prospects straight out of university blighted by a disaster not of their making. Are they angry? Or did they actually learn some useful life lessons unique to their generation?

And how long a shadow has the grim milestone in financial history cast over their financial wellbeing and their ability to have families? Professor of sociology Kenneth Johnson of the University of New Hampshire and Lowell Ricketts of the St Louis Federal Reserve provide some of the answers.

(Picture: Students at a George Washington University graduation ceremonies in 2008. Credit: The Washington Post/Getty Images)

Remembering Lehman

Remembering Lehman

10 years after the failure of Lehman Brothers triggered global financial meltdown, Ed Butler hears from those who were in the middle of the maelstrom.

Lynn Gray was employed within the commercial property division in New York, while Scott Freidheim was Lehman's chief administrative officer and on the bank's executive committee. Plus the mess at the London Clearing House is retold by two employees who had to resolve some 70,000 outstanding trades that Lehman still had open as it went under.

(Picture: An employee of Lehman Brothers carries a box out of the company's headquarters building on September 15, 2008 in New York City; Credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Vaping: A New Addiction?

Vaping: A New Addiction?

Is the multi-billion dollar e-cigarettes industry doing more harm than good? Manuela Saragosa hears from Jack Waxman of the Students Against Nicotine campaign, who is worried about a new generation of vaping addicts in the US. Health campaigner Robin Koval explains why one brand in particular - Juul - has teenagers hooked. We hear from Dan Thompson, Juul's managing director in the UK. And is regulation about to catch up with the vaping business? Owen Bennett, global tobacco analyst at Jefferies, tells us.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Photo: Vaper in an e-cigarette store in California, Credit: Getty Images)

Looking Back at Lehmans

Looking Back at Lehmans

Ed Butler talks to historian Adam Tooze about the legacy of the global financial crisis, which peaked with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. Adam Tooze is a professor at Columbia University in New York and the author of a new book Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World. He argues that the reverberations of 2008 are still defining much of our political and economic life, from the rise of Donald Trump in the US to youth unemployment and economic policy in Europe.

(Photo: Lehman Brothers sign being carried to an auction in London in 2010, Credit: Getty Images)

Why Do So Few Women Work in India?

Why Do So Few Women Work in India?

India has been developing rapidly over the past few decades. But in one way, it can still be very traditional. Women are often expected to stay at home after marriage. And that means only a quarter of Indian women are in paid work, according to the World Bank. So what's behind it? The BBC's Vivienne Nunis hears from Ajit Ranade, chief economist of Aditya Birla Group, and Radhika Kumari, founder of the Pink City Rickshaw Company, a team of female rickshaw drivers overcoming cultural barriers to break into a male-dominated field.

(Picture: Pink City Rickshaw driver Pushpa in Jaipur, India. Credit: BBC)

Handmade By Hipsters

Handmade By Hipsters

A compelling back story is now de rigueur when it comes to selling us things, especially in the food industry; whether it's a bar of chocolate or a cup of coffee, provenance is everything. We take a trip round London's trendy Shoreditch area with man about town and marketing expert, Peter York who explains why being 'handmade by hipsters' can justify sky high prices. Down in the depths of the British Library, Polly Russell tells us how the idea of the backstory came about. We take a leisurely stroll across town to London Bridge where Tom Sellers takes time out from service at his restaurant, Story, to wax lyrical about his culinary pièce de résistance - an edible candle. Steve Sutton, a Colombian in New York insists that sourcing beans from dangerous 'red zones' is vital to his coffee business, Devoción. And what do you do if you have a product to sell but no story to tell? Simon Manchipp from Shoreditch design agency SomeOne is here to help.

(Image: Confident Barista, Credit: Getty)

The Business of Conspiracy Theories

The Business of Conspiracy Theories

Sites offering wild theories, and unsupported claims, are increasingly the stuff of modern online discourse. But what's the business model that's fuelling their rise? Alex Jones, the prominent radio host, is pretty much America's best known conspiracy theorist. As well as warning of a deep state conspiracy against the President, he's also claimed that the government is controlling the weather, that demons are taking over America, and that school mass shootings including the 2012 attack on the Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 small children dead, was in fact a hoax involving child actors. Such comments, offensive to many in the US, have recently seen his shows removed from Facebook and YouTube and suspended on Twitter, saying he's violating their rules around community reporting. Apple and Spotify have also taken down his podcasts. We hear from James Bridle, the author of a book called New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future, on why conspiracy theories are flourishing in the internet age, and from Filipo Menczer, Professor of Informatics and Computer Science at Indiana University, and Charlie Warzel, a news reporter at BuzzFeed, who has been looking at how these sites can now raise tens of millions of dollars, largely by selling medications to followers. Plus Professor Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist and fake news expert at Miami University in Florida who says that conspiracy theories have now themselves become part of the mainstream.

(Credit: Stevanovicigor, Getty Images)

The Trouble with Tourists

The Trouble with Tourists

Should cities be worried about 'overtourism'? We hear from disgruntled locals in Rome, Edinburgh and Amsterdam. The BBC's Douglas Fraser reports on the dilemmas facing Scottish tourism in the face of rising numbers and Amsterdam novelist Joost de Vries describes the impact of tourists on his home city. Can anything be done? Yes, says Xavier Font, professor of sustainability marketing at the University of Surrey.

(Photo: A group of tourists in Barcelona, Credit: Getty Images)

Has Mining Cleaned Up its Act?

Has Mining Cleaned Up its Act?

Mining in the developing world still sparks violent protests - so what has the industry learned?

Grace Livingstone reports from the Tintaya copper mine in Peru, owned by mining giant Glencore, where local people are angry over the pollution of waterways, and two protesters have been shot. Why do these things still happen? Vishala Sri-Pathma speaks to Henry Hall of mining consultants Critical Resource.

Plus, meet "Dr Copper" - the copper market's reputation as a bellwether for the global economy. But why is the market price falling at a time when the world continues to boom? We ask Charlie Durant of commodities analysts CRU Group.

(Picture: Miners take a break at the Cabeza de Negro copper mine in Peru; Credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Stars, Shirts and Sponsors

Stars, Shirts and Sponsors

How are elite football clubs able to raise so much money from sponsors and merchandise to spend on the top players?

Juventus just paid 100 million euros to buy Cristiano Ronaldo, a player who at 33 years old has only 2-3 years of his peak playing left. Ed Butler asks football finance expert Rob Wilson of Sheffield Hallam University to explain how they get the numbers to add up.

Plus Doug Bierton of retailer Classic Football Shirts talks about the fan nostalgia over vintage sponsors, and Nathan Brew, commercial manager at the Llanelli Scarlets explains why the Welsh rugby club decided to make room on their kit for more than 20 sponsors.

(Picture: Juventus new signing Cristiano Ronaldo poses with club shirt; Credit: Valerio Pennicino - Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images)

India's Tea Crisis

India's Tea Crisis

There's trouble brewing in India's tea industry. Tea production is one of India's biggest industries. But it's struggling in the face of increased competition from Africa. Rahul Tandon reports from the tea estates of Assam, where tea pickers demand higher wages, but producers worry about rising costs and falling global prices for tea.

(Photo: Tea pickers in Assam, India, Credit: Getty Images)

What's Up with Whatsapp?

What's Up with Whatsapp?

The developing world's favourite chat app is accused of spreading malicious rumours. In India the rumours led to the lynching of people falsely accused of child abduction, while in Uganda the government has introduced a controversial tax on social media platforms to stop alleged political gossip.

Ed Butler visits Kampala where he discovers how popular the app is, both for socialising and for business. Meanwhile Rahul Tandon reports from Kolkata on the unnervingly fast spread of the app across India. Plus Samantha Bradshaw of the Oxford Internet Institute explains what makes Whatsapp particularly well suited for lower income countries.

(Picture: Ugandan woman with painted nails using a cell phone; Credit: Godong/UIG via Getty Images)

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