A tech review of 2021

A tech review of 2021

Author: BBC World Service December 29, 2021 Duration: 49:16

We look back on some of the stories we covered in 2021 – from age appropriate design to protect children, through internet shutdowns, a remote air traffic control tower and a WhatsApp school in Zimbabwe to a virtual reality opera.

The podcast has even more stories: comparing Mars locations to Earth locations, a smart phone test to detect malaria, how technology can help prep for a date at home if you’re blind and controlling our devices with a muscle in our ear! Available on BBC Sounds.

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Angelica Mari, Bill Thompson and Ghislaine Boddington.

Image: Man using mobile phone Credit: Chaiwat Chaythawin/EyeEm/Getty Images

Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz


Every week, the team at Digital Planet from the BBC World Service takes you beyond the headlines to explore how technology is reshaping lives, cultures, and economies across the globe. This isn't just a rundown of gadget releases or corporate earnings; it's a grounded conversation about the real-world impact of our digital choices. You'll hear from engineers in Nairobi, policymakers in Brussels, and coders in São Paulo, offering a genuinely international perspective that challenges the usual Silicon Valley narrative. Each episode digs into the human stories behind the innovations, examining both the promise and the peril of our connected age. We tackle questions about ethics, accessibility, and the unintended consequences of progress, making sense of complex issues with clear, thoughtful reporting. Tune in for a nuanced and curious exploration of our technological moment, where the focus is always on the people designing, using, and living with these tools every day. This podcast provides the context you need to understand not just what's new, but what it actually means.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Digital Planet
Podcast Episodes
What happens when the Bitcoin miners leave? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:57
In the summer of 2021 Kazakhstan was the second biggest producer of Bitcoin in the world, but what has happened since the crypto currency crash? Tech reporter Peter Guest is on the show to tell us about his trip to the c…
Self-driving cars could be a massive source of global carbon emissions [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:41
MIT researchers have concluded in a new study that computers that power self-driving cars could generate as many greenhouse gas emissions as the total of the world’s data centres do today. We’ve reported many times on th…
Getting online in Ukraine’s blackouts [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:46
One of our listeners in Ukraine contacted us to tell us how he stays online during power outages following bombing in Ukraine. Volodymyr Bielikov is on the show to explain the issues he’s regularly facing with internet c…
Agritech Special Edition [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:38
This week and to start the New Year we take a look at the use of technology in agriculture around the world. Agriculture as an industry is keen to clean up its act on emissions, so what could be better than an electric t…
The Tech of 2022 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:10
We’re looking back on the technology year that was 2022. We go firstly to Ukraine to look at the booming tech industry before the war and discuss how that is doing now. Also how the cybersecurity declaration signed in Af…
Eight million SIMs blocked in Ghana [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:42
More than 8 million unregistered SIM cards have been blocked in Ghana. The Ministry of Communications and Digitisation set a final deadline for mobile phone users to link their SIM card to their identification cards and…
Shopee in Thailand – is it safe? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:12
One of the biggest platforms in South East Asia, which is as popular as Google, YouTube and Facebook, has stopped bank transfer payments. Users have reported money missing from their accounts – the transactions should ha…
Predicting cyclones with mobiles [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:17
Due to climate change cyclones are increasing in frequency and intensity. Data available to study these weather phenomena though is quite scare, so a new project at Imperial College in London, hopes to harness the comput…
Robots that can assemble almost anything. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:56
Researchers at MIT have made significant steps toward creating robots that could practically and economically assemble nearly anything, including things much larger than themselves, from vehicles to buildings to larger r…
Twitter – what next? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:14
What is happening with Twitter and what can we expect? Bill Thompson give us his assessment while Angelica Mari discusses the how the new direction of the platform Pix payments two years on PIX payments have revolutionis…