Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable

experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC

makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

Thank you for listening to this edition of Analysis, the podcast that looks at the

ideas behind the news. In this episode, presenter Neil Max asks if the great Victorian

engineer Isambar Kingdom Brunel could deal with Britain's current

infrastructure challenges.

I'm standing next to Ismbar Kingdom Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge in my home city of Bristol.

Below me the River Avon which leads to another of his engineering marvels the

SS Great Britain and beyond that Temple Mead station the start of his revered

Great Western Railway. But today's infrastructure

tells a different story to his masterful Victorian engineering.

Today, Mr Speaker, the cabinet has given high speed rail the green signal.

The sources have told the BBC that the government will ditch the eastern leg of HS2 between Birmingham and Leeds.

Back home to the high-speed rail saga, the first stretch of the railway linking

Birmingham to London was already over budget by nearly a billion pounds.

Brunel would turn in his grave.

...