How to Be Uncertain
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 13 December 2018
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
These are uncertain times. The British Prime Minister Theresa May has survived a vote of confidence in her leadership, but the future of her Brexit deal remains unknown. In the US, Donald Trump faces a hostile Congress and multiple legal threats to his presidency. Meanwhile the IPCC says the entire planet must urgently address the existential challenge of climate change, yet the path forward remains littered with obstacles.
What is the best way to weather all this uncertainty? In a programme first aired in 2016, Manuela Saragosa gets advice from David Tuckett, professor and director of the Centre for the Study of Decision-Making Uncertainty at University College London. Plus, David Spiegelhalter, Winton professor for the Public Understanding of Risk in the Statistical Laboratory, at the University of Cambridge, explains the difference between risk and uncertainty.
Lt Col Steven Gventer of the US Army tells us how soldiers are trained to deal with uncertainty in war. And, Will Borrell, founder and owner of Vestal Vodka and the owner of the Ladies & Gents bar in London, recalls how his customers reacted on the evening after the UK voted to leave the European Union.
(Picture: British Prime Minister Theresa May at the opening day of the G20 Summit in Argentina; Credit: Amilcar Orfali/Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:07.1 | I'm Manuela Saragossa. |
| 0:08.8 | Coming up, how do you prepare for the unexpected, for chaos even? |
| 0:14.1 | Well, I mean, there's still a strong element of uncertainty. |
| 0:17.5 | Households look through Brexit-related uncertainties initially. |
| 0:20.4 | You know, there's too much uncertainty. I don't know if I want to do this. |
| 0:23.0 | The outcome is very uncertain, so we do not know what kind of Brexit to prepare for. |
| 0:36.7 | It's been two years since the UK voted to leave the European Union. In that time, business |
| 0:42.1 | has tried to navigate some chaotic political developments. So we thought it might be useful to |
| 0:48.2 | resurrect an addition of our program that aired back in 2016, all about how to be uncertain |
| 0:53.9 | and why uncertainty makes us so uncomfortable. |
| 0:58.0 | If you're worried or anxious about the future, we hope this helps. |
| 1:04.8 | That produces 12 bottles of gin. |
| 1:09.4 | Meet Will Borrell. He manages a bar called The Ladies and Jents in North London, one of two he owns. |
| 1:15.9 | And in the run-up to Britain's vote to stay or leave the European Union, it wasn't business as usual. |
| 1:22.4 | Both of our venues, prior to Brexit, just went incredibly quiet. It was definitely a marked difference on the year |
| 1:31.0 | previously. I don't think anybody linked it to the vote because it felt like such a foregone |
| 1:39.1 | conclusion that we were going to remain in Europe. That's a very London view. |
| 1:45.8 | Again, it's a very London view, |
| 1:49.4 | but it would be utter madness to create uncertainty, |
| 1:53.1 | and that uncertainty for business would just be bad for everybody. |
| 1:57.0 | Then, on the morning after the Brexit vote, June the 24th, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.