All Consuming

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Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Exploring our culture of consumption through products that have changed the world

Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala explore our culture of consumption through products that have changed the world -  asking how did we get here and what happens next?

Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala explore our culture of consumption through products that have changed the world. They unravel the mysteries of marketing and the formidable forces that drive purchasing habits. From toilet paper to funerals, perfume to package holidays they'll be combing the past to see how landmark innovations have shifted the course of history. And asking what happens next?

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All Consuming: Batteries

Batteries

BBC Radio 4 - All Consuming, Batteries

Amit and Charlotte expose some electrifying and shocking truths about batteries.

Amit and Charlotte investigate the history of batteries and in the process expose some electrifying and shocking truths about their impact on the environment.

Batteries are everywhere in modern society. They’re in our phones, laptops and cars, or inside the classics - like torches, portable radios, or TV remotes. They’re inside drones probing deep beneath the ocean or providing juice to the Mars rover. 

In an electrifying episode of All Consuming, Amit Katwala and Charlotte Williams explore the history of the energy storage devices that changed the world. 

We check in with the curator of contemporary Science at the Science Museum, Dr Sophie Wearing, to learn about the unlikely origin of the term “battery” and the  early uses of energy storage. We also we get up to speed with Electric Vehicle Batteries with the Faraday Institution’s chief scientist, Sir Peter Bruce. Battery recycler Sam Haig deconstructs lithium-ion battery recycling and, to get the bigger picture, we hear from pumped-storage hydro expert Alex Campbell.


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