The Media Show: Building the Uncanny empire episode artwork

EPISODE · Apr 23, 2026 · 22 MIN

The Media Show: Building the Uncanny empire

from The Explanation · host BBC World Service

Uncanny, the BBC podcast about paranormal stories, has grown way beyond radio. There's a live theatre tour, a fan convention, it’s on YouTube and now a new series called Uncanny Cold Cases. Danny Robbins, the creator of Uncanny, talks about where the idea came from and why he thinks audiences keep coming back.QVC has filed for debt restructuring in the US, as it tries to shrink a debt pile of around $6.6bn. The shopping channel, once a giant of tele-shopping, is up against a new generation of buyers who would rather scroll than sit on the sofa with the remote. TikTok Shop alone has around 30 million users in the UK and is now the fourth biggest beauty retailer in the country. Katie Linsell, UK retail reporter at Bloomberg News, lays out what's gone wrong in the US. Rob Locke, presenter on ITV's Shop on TV, talks about what it's really like to sell live in the middle of the night. Hungary has a new Prime Minister. Péter Magyar's win has ended Viktor Orbán's 16 years in power, and he's promised big changes to the media. That includes rewriting Orbán-era media laws, pausing public broadcasting until it can be proven impartial, and shaking up the way the state hands out advertising money. Amrit Singh, Professor of Practice at NYU School of Law, and Iván Nagy, Hungarian political journalist and fellow at the Columbia Journalism Review, discuss what it's been like to work as a journalist in Hungary.Presenter: Katie Razzall and Ros Atkins Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Content Producer: Lucy Wai Researcher: Ruth Waites Technical Coordinator: Chris Brown

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Apr 23, 2026

Embed this episode

NOW PLAYING

The Media Show: Building the Uncanny empire

0:00 22:59

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

No similar podcasts found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of The Explanation?

This episode is 22 minutes long.

When was this The Explanation episode published?

This episode was published on April 23, 2026.

Can I download this The Explanation episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!