The Interview
The Interview is a BBC World Service podcast featuring conversations with influential people from around the world, including leaders in business, politics, finance, sport, and culture. Each episode is approximately 20 minutes long and provides insight and analysis on major global issues. The podcast brings together the best interviews conducted by BBC journalists with the people shaping our world.
Episodes
Cate Blanchett, actor: Art reminds us of our humanity
“There's a toxic narrative around displacement which has been politicised and part of the fund is to re-humanise and make the connection because those people who have the great fortune to be housed, to be in nations that are free of conflict at the moment, we're being asked to be displaced from our humanity. And so art, the foundation of art is to allow people to make pathways of connection to rem
Archbishop Paul Gallagher: Diplomacy means talking to all sides
“Diplomacy is about talking to lots of people with whom you don't agree. And that's what diplomats do. And I think we would do that... The Vatican has always had very little difficulty, perhaps too little difficulty, in dealing with all sorts of political actors, all sorts regimes, all sorts of political systems.”Julie Etchingham speaks to Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Re
Arundhati Roy, author and activist: Writing is universal
“When I was writing it I didn’t think it would touch such a universal chord, you know, because it seemed to me so weird, my childhood and my mother and my life, it was, but of course, everybody has something. And a lot of people I meet have said this to me and that it helped them see their parents as human beings and not just parents.”Ishadrita Lahiri speaks to acclaimed author and activist, Arund
Peter Obi, Nigerian presidential candidate: The last election was rigged
“Nigeria can fight insecurity, head on. It only requires it for the commander-in-chief to be determined that this will end. Those criminals live with us. In our communities, people know them. I will go to the communities and find them. I will take control. And I will not do it from Abuja.”
Madina Maishanu speaks to Peter Obi, one of Nigeria’s leading opposition politicians, now with the Nigeria
Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan’s representative to US: We’re prepared for China to invade
“We don't have to have a fight, and we don't have to land in China, go to Beijing and win the war. All we have to do is prevent them to getting their objective of landing in Taiwan and conquering. It's not going to be easy, but we've been preparing for this for 77 years.”Sumi Somaskanda speaks to Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan’s representative to the US.The island, which lies roughly 100 miles off
Meredith Whittaker, Signal president: Privacy is a human right
“Private communication is a fundamental human right for a reason, because when those with power over you have access to your intimate thoughts and your communication, they use those to punish you. They can use them to persecute you. They can use them to shut you up.”
Megha Mohan speaks to Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, which runs the encrypted messaging app Signal.
It
Jerry Brown, former California governor: America then and now
BBC special correspondent James Naughtie speaks to former Governor of California, Jerry Brown.He was first elected governor in 1974, succeeding Ronald Reagan, and went on to serve two eight-year terms in office, separated by nearly three decades.Over the course of his public life, he met every US president from John F. Kennedy to Donald Trump.Now retired on the California land where his ancestors
Shami Chakrabarti, human rights lawyer: Healthy democracies need a free media
“There aren't enough lawyers and judges on the planet if journalists are silent, because abuses of power just don't come to light, in my experience, without this relationship between a free media, fair courts, fair trials, robust judges, investigators, the police and so on. Without journalists there'd be no human rights protection and the rule of law.”Anna Holligan speaks to human rights lawyer an
Olara Otunnu, diplomat: UN cannot be diplomatic ivory tower
“I do not want the United Nations of New York, Geneva or Vienna to be an ivory tower, a diplomatic ivory tower. I want to see the UN not of power and privilege, but the UN of service and impact. That is the UN I want see.”James Copnall speaks to Olara Otunnu, Ugandan diplomat, lawyer and former Foreign Minister. He has spent decades working at the highest levels of international diplomacy. He has
Kai Bird, Author: Roy Cohn, the man who shaped Trump?
“He had no guardrails. He had no rules. He told Donald Trump, you know, when criticised, attack, attack, attack, deny, deny deny, always go on the offensive, never apologise. And Trump, when he met Roy Cohn, he began mimicing how he talked.”BBC Newsnight presenter Paddy O’Connell, speaks to author Kai Bird about Roy Cohn, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and mentor.
Cohn rose to prominence as Senato
Abhijeet Dipke, youth campaigner: There’s an underlying frustration in India
“I think there’s been this underlying frustration among the youth of India for a very long time. If we look at the unemployment data, India currently has the highest unemployment rate in the last 40 years, and even when it comes to education, every year there’s not been one single government examination where the paper isn’t leaked, or the paper or the exam isn’t cancelled. So people are really fr
Estelle Brachlianoff, Veolia CEO: We need to rethink waste
Justin Rowlatt speaks to Estelle Brachlianoff, chief executive of environmental firm Veolia. The corporation’s origins can be traced all the way back to 19th Century France, when it was established as a water company during the country’s industrial revolution.More than a century-and-a-half later, it’s grown to become one of the world’s leading operators of environmental services, working across fi
Roelf Meyer, South African Ambassador: Trump has been misled
Ione Wells speaks to Roelf Meyer, South Africa’s new ambassador to the United States. In the 1990s, Meyer was one of the leading negotiators in the talks that helped bring apartheid to an end.Now he takes up his new post amid a serious rupture in relations with the US President Trump has cut aid, expelled the previous South African ambassador and offered refugee status to white Afrikaners he says
Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother: King Charles told me the world would forget her
“I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said. I've only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life. I was hyper alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words that he said, and I promise that to you now. Genuinely, that is what he said.”
Laura Kuenssberg speaks to Earl Spencer, brother of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Diana was o
Fally Ipupa, musician: Speak out on DRC suffering
“Not just African musician. Everybody, even journalist, even president, even football player, even promoter. We need to do it for those people who suffer, who don’t have food or security. We need everybody to denounce it. Speak louder, talk more loudly about the situation. Not just for Congo, but all Africa.”Jewel Kiriungi speaks to Congolese musician Fally Ipupa, one of Africa’s biggest music sta
Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the ICRC: The rules of war are being ignored
‘I compare the erosion of international humanitarian law with bankruptcy it happens gradually at first and then all of a sudden instantly. This is what is happening with the Geneva Conventions at the moment. You look away, you look away, you look away, you increase your tolerance level until all of a sudden you realize we've crossed the line. We've crossed the red line, and we've done so collectiv
David Vigneault, ex-intelligence chief: Democracies are being destabilised
“This is one of the exact aspect of hybrid warfare of Russia… They are targeting us specifically to create dissensions, to create and to prop up artificially some voices in our societies that otherwise would be quite marginal and create dissensions. So they want to attack us and make sure that our democracies are more fragile, because the more fragile we are, the less we're able to counter their a
Amir Khan Muttaqi, Afghan FM: Not everything is banned for women
Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s chief international correspondent, meets Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi as the Taliban seeks greater international recognition. The Taliban returned to power five years ago but Russia is still the only country to have formally recognised their rule.
Afghanistan is pushing for stronger diplomatic relations, but their treatment of women and girls remains o
Sophia Amoruso, Nasty Gal founder: I was out of my league
“I had hired a CEO for the last two years. The company was at a place where revenue had plateaued. I wasn’t someone who could look at a spreadsheet 50 tabs wide and tell my CFO what to do. I was definitely out of my league and I didn’t like that job, and a lot of different things happened before we ended up filing for bankruptcy.”
Leanna Byrne speaks to Sophia Amoruso, founder of online fashion
Vadym Skibitsky, Ukrainian intelligence: We are fighting for survival
“We don’t have another way for surviving, because we are an independent state, it's our territory, it's our land, it’s our culture, it’s our history, and we must fight to prevent the full occupation by the Russian Federation our territory.”Dan Johnson speaks to Vadym Skibitsky, deputy chief of the GUR, Ukraine’s military intelligence service, about the ongoing war with Russia.Formed shortly after
Rene Haas, Arm CEO: AI demand won’t slow
“Let's go back to the timeframe with the internet building out. We didn’t have an issue that the internet 20 years later is not a valuable utility… If you don't have access to a smartphone, try to get into a sporting event or a concert - it’s not going to happen. That's the internet at its backbone. So artificial intelligence will be the same. It's going to be table stakes for everything that we d
Leah Solivan, TaskRabbit founder: How the gig economy falls short
“People just wanted to own the way they worked, but with that comes these institutional structures that have been built around the history of work that doesn’t allow for benefits programs or paid time off, or insurance. So there were all these things I knew that weighed on me. It wasn’t a perfect system.”
The BBC’s Sarah Rogers speaks to Leah Solivan, founder and former chief executive of TaskRa
Daron Acemoglu, Economist: Liberal democracy is in crisis
BBC Newsnight presenter Paddy O’Connell speaks to Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu about why he thinks liberal democracy is in crisis, and how artificial intelligence could make it worse.Daron argues that liberal democracy worked because people were given a say in how they were governed and then benefited from their country’s economy as it prospered. But western governments have made m
Michelle Bachelet, UN Chief candidate: Time for a woman to lead
“For 80 years, we only have men [lead the UN] and I think it is not about women because she is a woman … The idea is a woman because she has the experience, the leadership, the capacity, the knowledge, the ability to do things that need to be done…So I hope that that will be something that members could understand that it will be fantastic. But, to be honest, I'm not sure that every country is rea
Kristina Wilfore: Male anxieties being weaponised
“It's a distortion of real pressures. When I'm analysing trends around men…they are wanting to lean into what being a man means. In many cases strength, loyalty, protection. Those are not bad values. Those are being exploited, weaponised, and redirected in order to either sell a product or sell an idea.”
Marianna Spring and Matt Shea speak to Kristina Wilfore, Director at Reset Tech, about their
Joe Ngai, McKinsey: Domestic rivalry drives Chinese firms
“More Chinese companies are put out of business by other Chinese companies. Chinese companies are not put out of business because of Western companies, so this whole competition is not, from a Chinese guy's mind, like a US-China competition. It’s more ‘how do I survive this gym?’ because it's damn hard to keep staying alive at home. That in turn makes you very competitive in the rest of the world.
María Fernanda Espinosa, UN secretary general candidate: The UN risks becoming irrelevant
“Sometimes we confuse activity with impact. And here I think the way we measure results should be different. How many lives has the UN saved? How many people has the UN helped to live out of poverty? How many people have we prevented from conflict? How many people were we able to support?”
The BBC’s Anne Soy speaks to María Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuador’s former foreign minister and a candidate to
Mopreme Shakur on Tupac: The sensitive man behind the music
“I think Pac was actually traumatised by the poverty. You know, poverty can be very, very traumatic. Having no lights, having no food from time to time, having no clothes while you’re going to school, and bumming clothes. Them stories, it was real. That really happened to Pac. Pac was sensitive, so he felt things deeply.”
The BBC’s Shaimaa Khalil speaks to Mopreme Shakur, step-brother of iconic
Hunter Biden: Father’s pardon not good for country
“Was it good for our Constitution? Was it good for the American people? Was it good for my dad's legacy? No, on all counts. It was not. All I know is that I'm grateful that he did it for me.”
BBC Newsnight presenter Paddy O’Connell speaks to Hunter Biden, son of former president Joe Biden, about his father’s controversial decision to give him a presidential pardon at the end of his one term in o
Celeste Saulo, WMO: Extreme weather is the new normal
“[This weather] is a new norm, and we need to make sure that we are prepared to deal with that…these extreme wildfires put more responsibility onto improving our forecasting tools to support the brigades, to support communities.”Victoria Gill speaks to Professor Celeste Saulo, head of the World Meteorological Organisation, about the extreme weather events making headlines in recent months. She say
Dmitry Muratov, journalist: Putin can’t claim victory in Ukraine
"There are repressions, political repressions, against freedom of speech, against elections, against the rights of citizens to hold mass events. To such an extent that we don't know what the real public mood is.”The BBC’s Russia editor Steve Rosenberg meets Dmitry Muratov one of Russia’s most prominent independent journalists.For more than 30 years, he has been one of Russia’s staunchest defenders
Yemi Alade, singer: I wanted to be a mega superstar
“I just knew that I wanted to be a mega superstar and I didn't know how…I feel like Africa chose me before I even chose Africa, and I feel music chose me before I chose music.”Nkechi Ogbonna speaks to Nigerian singer and songwriter Yemi Alade about becoming one of Africa's biggest music stars and a trailblazer who has helped take Afrobeats to the world.Alade has collaborated with artists including
Sonam Wangchuk, Indian activist: Hunger strike for education reform
“This movement was by young people who had hardly anything to lose. We had no fear and that's what spread across the country and today people are raising their voices. This time it stopped at the education ministry, but if this continues, I think the younger generation may not stop at just education.”
Rajini Vaidyanathan speaks to Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk, whose 26-day hunger strike made h
Carlos Acosta, dancer: Ballet is for everyone
“It's very important that we expose this work early on, so that people from different cultures see ballet as a way of a career. But in the 1990s or 2000s, it was pretty much closed, we didn't have - even in school - a lot of black ballet dancers from which to choose from. But now, obviously, things have moved on. Now, diversity is at the top of every director's agenda… it's great that we’ve seen a
Srinivasan Muralidhar: The trauma of Palestinian children
‘When it comes to humanitarian crisis, we should not allow children's future to be subject to geopolitics. We can't say that there are politically compulsions as a result of which we are allowing children to die of starvation. We can't say there are political compulsions because of which we are allowing children to die of want of medical aid. So the request before the Security Council was this. Ca
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana’s Foreign Minister: Slavery scars our collective conscience
“The time has come for the international community to be honest, not to be hypocritical, not be selective, not engage in erasure, but to admit that the gravest crime against humanity took place and it took place on this continent. And that the time to repair what was broken, what undermines our collective humanity, what is a scar on our collective conscience, the time and the only way to repair th
Sumant Sinha: Green tech to triumph over drilling
Leanna Byrne speaks to Sumant Sinha, the founder of ReNew, one of India's largest renewable energy companies about why he thinks green and clean energy will win out.Sinha began his career in finance, working in New York and London, before walking away from the corporate world to make a bet on renewable energy. He founded his company in India, which is one of the world’s most polluted countries. It
Gayton McKenzie, South African minister: Immigration unrest
“This is a legitimate concern of South Africans, where there’s illegal foreigners, people with no paperwork. No country in the world allows that to happen. Why should we? Our message is very simple. We say, South Africa is open for our brothers on the continent, but come here legitimately. Come here like a civilised human being that wants to come and contribute towards our country.”Waihiga Mwaura
Rohan Kanawade, film director: My parents accepted my sexuality
‘Their love was so innocent, so sweet, so organic and we just wanted them to end up together because even they knew that some of the queer films always end in tragedy and they were worried that something like that's going to happen but that didn't happen and so people were really happy with it.’
Nikki Bedi speaks to Rohan Kanawade, the acclaimed director whose debut feature Cactus Pears or Sabar
Rafael Grossi, IAEA: Nuclear back on the table?
“Due to geopolitical divides, countries are having second thoughts about non-proliferation or their non-proliferation obligations, in the sense that many countries were relying or are still relying on nuclear umbrellas which they might feel are not so protective as they used to be in the past… Without wishing to exaggerate things, there is a perception that the nuclear factor is back on the table
Amy Wallace, writer: We all need to speak up
“We all need to be speaking up about it. Not just the survivors. And we put so much burden on the people who've actually suffered the most, the most vulnerable among us.”Naga Munchetty speaks to Amy Wallace, co-author of Virginia Giuffre’s memoir Nobody's Girl. Giuffre accused the then Prince Andrew, and late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, of sexual abuse. The former prince, now Andrew Mountbatten-
Maggie Haberman, US journalist: Trump tests limits
“One of the things that’s fascinating about him simply as a historical study is the recognition that shamelessness is a superpower, and he refuses to be shamed in almost any action that he takes. He also realised that he doesn’t have to abide by the US system, which is primarily norms and not laws. He is testing them in a way they have never been tested before.”
Paddy O’Connell speaks to Maggie
Christopher Nolan, director: We need to take risks
“The biggest risk in motion pictures is to not take a risk. You have to be putting it out there and offering people something new, and that's what will get them out of their houses.”Katie Razzall speaks to Oscar-winning filmmaker Christopher Nolan. The 55-year-old, whose directing credits include Inception, Interstellar and Oppenheimer, is widely considered one of the 21st century’s most influenti
Jim Continenza, Kodak CEO: Reinventing a brand
“We were losing about $160 million a year. We burned through our cash and we had to make some changes. I don’t mean a financial restructuring. I mean transformation of the business. It’s a skill and an art. I asked, ‘What does Kodak do today?’ and I couldn’t get an answer. And I thought we had to get our identity back. What are our skills? What do we do?”Leanna Byrne speaks to Jim Continenza, chie
Patrick Tiernan: War risk is being rewritten
“As there is more drone warfare, more artificial intelligence in the decision making, we’re going to have to completely reimagine how we cover [war]”Business presenter Felicity Hannah speaks to Patrick Tiernan, who runs the 337-year-old insurance marketplace, Lloyds of London. He says that autonomous weapons and AI-driven decision-making could change how conflict risk is calculated and insured, be
Jacob Zuma’s daughters: Polygamy is a subject we lived
“It's a subject that I know I've lived, I've seen up close…That includes watching my father. That includes the relationships that I saw him have.”
Presenter Anne Soy speaks to Gugu Zuma-Ncube and Thuli Zuma, executive producers of The Polygamist, one of Netflix’s biggest new dramas which takes on the topic of polygamy - the practice of having more than one spouse at the same time.
They are als
Steve Hilton: Brit running for California governor
“I'm a proud American. I became a citizen in 2021. I feel at home here both in America and actually, in a way I actually have never felt before. I feel like this is where I'm meant to be, and I couldn't be more honoured that people now are putting their faith in me to turn the state around.”Nick Robinson speaks to Steve Hilton, the British-born Republican candidate for governor of California in No
Victor Glover, astronaut: We went into sci-fi
“The last thing to come into view was this blue glow, and we could see craters and the surface of the Moon. But the Sun is on the other side, so what was lighting the Moon? It was ‘Earthshine’, the light of the Earth reflecting off the near side of the Moon. I don’t think our brains are evolved to understand what we were seeing. I called Houston and said, ‘I think we’ve just gone into sci-fi.’”Pad
Jackie Jantos, Hinge CEO: Gen Z struggle to connect
Sean Farrington speaks to Jackie Jantos, CEO of popular mobile dating app Hinge, about finding romance in today’s rapidly-changing digital world.Launched back in 2013, US-based Hinge has steadily grown to become one of the world’s biggest mobile dating apps. As of 2025, there were 30 million users on the platform looking for romance all over the world - up from half a million just 10 years before.
Katie Sadleir, Commonwealth Games: They are still relevant
“It had grown to be quite an expensive event. Our members wanted to host the games, and because of the size and the scale of the event that was not possible.”Mani Djazmi speaks to Katie Sadleir, CEO of the Commonwealth Games about how hosting the event had become unaffordable for many Commonwealth countries. This summer’s games were to be held in Victoria, Australia, but they withdrew due to expan
John Kerry: Countries failing to deal with climate change
Waihiga Mwaura speaks to former US Secretary of State John Kerry about why he thinks governments are retreating from efforts to deal with climate change. He spoke to the BBC during this year’s Our Ocean Conference, an international forum which Kerry launched in 2014 to help protect the world’s oceans.He was the first US special presidential envoy for climate from 2021 to 2024, and since then has c
Michel Barnier, chief EU Brexit negotiator: We need to be together in a fragile world
Katya Adler speaks to Michel Barnier who served as the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, on the 10th anniversary of the highly consequential referendum.On 23 June 2016, the British public went to the polls to decide its future with the European Union. An unusually high number of people voted, and by 52% to 48%, the decision was to leave the bloc.Barnier, then a European Commissioner who had served as
Patricia Cornwell, novelist: Imagination saved me
Jamie Coomarasamy speaks to Patricia Cornwell, one of the world’s best-selling crime writers, whose books have sold more than 120 million copies worldwide.
She reflects on a childhood marked by trauma, instability and family mental illness, and the lasting impact those experiences have had on her life.
Her imagination became a refuge during difficult years, shaping the stories and characters s
Catherine Russell, Unicef: War is the worst thing for children
Nada Tawfik speaks to Catherine Russell, executive director of Unicef, the United Nations agency responsible for protecting and supporting children.Before taking up the role in 2022, she spent decades in government and diplomacy, including as assistant to President Joe Biden as well as serving in senior roles at the US State Department focused on global women’s issues and international developmen
Jack Clark, Anthropic co-founder: put brakes on AI
“Right now, it’s like the AI industry has a gas pedal, but it doesn’t have a brake pedal in the car. And what we’re saying is we want to build that brake pedal so we in the world have an option. In the future, you might say: ‘Let’s get all of the benefits we can for, say, biology and medical research, and let’s take a pause on AI research, where we can absorb the societal changes.’”
Faisal Islam
Gebran Bassil, Lebanese politician: Hezbollah should disarm
“The state of Lebanon needs to have an exclusivity of arms. And definitely, Hezbollah needs to be disarmed… Disarming a group or a community is not possible by force, it's possible by conviction. You put pressure, but you cannot eliminate a whole society, a whole community. We need to have an exclusivity of arms in the hand of the state, an exclusivity of decision through a political process, pres
Dr Tedros, WHO: Viruses are invisible enemy
“There is more spending in defence and less spending in global health or in public health or health security, which makes us vulnerable...Because the invisible enemy could be more impactful. Imagine, have you ever seen a war in recent memory that killed 20 million people? Why can't we come to our senses?”Justin Webb speaks to Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Orga
Paul McCartney, musician: I often think about the past
Mark Savage speaks to musician Paul McCartney. Born in Liverpool, England, during the Second World War, he found fame as a member of the legendary British band The Beatles in the 1960s, widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in music history.McCartney shared primary singing and songwriting duties with bandmate John Lennon, and along with George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the four-piece
Mohammed Dewji, billionaire: I want to give back
“I do want to make money, but I want to make money in the right way, ethically. But more importantly, I want use this money to be able to give back.”Charles Gitonga speaks to entrepreneur and businessman Mohammed Dewji about becoming one of Africa’s youngest billionaires and how he wants to use his wealth.Mohammed Dewji is a Tanzanian businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist who has primarily
Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon: Reconciliation over revenge
‘We are transforming feelings of revenge into reconciliation. We are transforming despair into hope, trauma into healing. So the future is peace is also like a manual, like a guide, not just for a shared journey across the holy land, but a guide for human conscience.’Rajan Datar speaks to Palestinian and Israeli authors and peace activists Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon.Maoz Inon‘s parents were kill
David Miliband, International Rescue Committee President: It’s a new world disorder
“It's what we call a new world disorder: 60 wars, 120 million people - refugees and displaced, 300 million people hungry, plus another 45 million according to the World Food Program as a result of the constrictions in the Strait of Hormuz. That's a disordered world. And people can inveigh against international institutions as much as they like, but the problem we're facing is not that there's too
Reid Hoffman, tech billionaire: AI job revolution
Amol Rajan speaks to tech billionaire Reid Hoffman, about why he thinks artificial intelligence could transform the future of work.Reid Hoffman is best known for co-founding LinkedIn, the largest professional networking platform in the world, and revolutionising the world of work. He wants to do it again with a rapid adoption of AI in the workplace in a way he says is safe and ethical. As one of t
Kate Kallot, AI founder: A global digital divide?
“Historically, as a region, we’ve been extracted at two levels. If you look at the AI value chain, a lot of our youth, some who have studied computer science, are left at data labelling roles at the bottom of the value chain, where the least value is created. In a different way, a lot of our data is being extracted for free to train those systems. We want to make sure we don’t go into similar mode
Maggie O’Farrell, writer: Identity is complicated
“I was born in Coleraine, then I moved to Wales and then I moved to Ireland. It's very complicated and I feel there's a strange sense if you grow up somewhere different from where you were born. That's just true of everyone. If your accent doesn't match your name - as in my case - I think you walk alongside all your life a kind of ghost-self in that there's always a sense of ‘who would I have been
Aisha Musa, former leader: Can Sudan rebuild?
“I feel numb. It feels unreal to me, having been in Sudan all my life. I have never imagined that it will turn into a war field, it looks like a nightmare. At first that it is just days or months or even a year, but it went on and it kept escalating. Even our homes are no longer habitable. One of my sons went back to have a look and he said you wouldn't even find a spoon for your tea.”
James Cop
Chaka Khan, singer: Music is a calling
“This is a calling. It's bigger than anything in your life as an individual. If you found the thing that you were put on this planet to do, and a lot of people are put on this planet and they don't know, it's such a gift to find it.”Nick Grimshaw and Annie Macmanus speak to global music icon Chaka Khan about her life and career.Born Yvette Marie Stevens in the US city of Chicago in 1953, her big b
Jennifer Riria, banking chief: Financial system still excludes women
“Most of Africa is rural, and although urbanisation is taking root now, the systems that deliver financial services to women are still eluding them.”
Leanna Byrne speaks to microfinance pioneer Dr Jennifer Riria about her life, career, and personal mission to improve the lives of women in some of Africa’s poorest communities.
Having started life in a poor, rural village in Kenya, Dr Riria wor
Daniel Noboa, Ecuador President: A war on gangs
“This is a war. We will treat it as a war, and first thing that we want is the war to end. We want peace. We want a better life for our people, especially for our youth.”Caitriona Perry speaks to Ecuador President Daniel Noboa about his hard-line military crackdown on violent criminal gangs, which has involved measures that human rights groups warn could pose a risk to civil liberties.President No
Fatima Bio, Sierra Leone First Lady: Speaking up
BBC journalist Megha Mohan speaks to Sierra Leone’s first lady, Fatima Bio, about escaping child marriage at the age of 13, rebuilding her life as a refugee in London, and her rise to become one of the country’s most outspoken public figures.
Since becoming first lady, Bio has transformed the role in Sierra Leone, campaigning publicly on issues including child marriage, sexual violence and perio
Leopoldo Lopez, Venezuelan opposition leader: I am not bitter
James Menendez speaks to Leopoldo Lopez, once the most prominent face of Venezuela’s opposition, he is now living in exile in Spain.
He spent more than a decade attempting to unseat Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian government and was imprisoned for over three years, accused of inciting the 2014 anti-government protests.
Following the capture and arrest of Maduro by US forces in January, the coun
Yurii Tokar: Russia deployed Kenyans to death zone
“Russians collected all Kenyans and did everything for them to go to the front line, to go to the death zone.”Waihiga Mwaura speaks to Yurii Tokar the Ukraine ambassador to Kenya. The Ukrainian claims Russia deliberately deployed many conscripted Kenyans to the front line of the Russia-Ukraine war shortly before the Kenyan foreign minister arrived in Moscow with the intention of stopping recruitme
Mikhail Ulyanov: Rescuing Iran nuclear talks
“It’s outrageous because these nuclear plant facilities were certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency as purely peaceful facilities. The inspectors, they spent, there, a lot of time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Iran is the most verifiable country, thousands of inspections. The agency knows everything about what is going on.”
BBC journalist Farnaz Ghazizadeh speaks to Mikhail Ivanov
Hanan Balkhy, WHO chief for Sudan and Iran: work continues despite conflicts
“During the recent conflict [in Iran], there was a pause, not a full stop or halt of the functions. Once the airspace opened up again, we reprioritized the delivery of those life-saving kits to the member states, and we came back on track… We still find hope in the communication between the different member states, between the different partners to secure some of these supplies, or keep supply cha
Emma Grede, entrepreneur: Success needs trade-offs
“There's this idea that you [can] sail your way to success or have some overnight success or kind of come upon success relatively easily. And that has just never, ever been.”Amol Rajan speaks to entrepreneur and businesswoman Emma Grede about the trade-offs we have to make to get to where we want to be in life.Emma Grede is co-founder of the clothing brand Skims, which she created with her husband
Sam Liang, Otter.ai CEO: AI captures everything
‘The power of AI is that it's able to capture everything, it’s able to try to interpret everyone objectively. Human beings are imperfect in terms of their capability to listen and understand. Everyone unconsciously, when they listen, they don't hear everything.’
Zoe Kleinman speaks to Sam Liang chief executive and co-founder of artificial intelligence transcription start-up Otter.ai
Sam Lian
Robert Brovdi, Ukraine drone commander: Striking inside Russia
“When we only had reconnaissance drones, we learned fast. We began attaching warheads to the drones. Grenades, then homemade munitions that we produced ourselves. We would locate the enemy with the drone and drop them on him. Then FPV drones entered our lives. An FPV drone is a one-way, disposable drone. That was when the way of war began to change”
In a rare interview, Sarah Rainsford speaks to
SungAh Lee, International Organisation for Migration: Sudan needs us
“I saw the damage, the loss. The buildings being destroyed, the infrastructure being completely damaged in that area. And it was sad and heartbreaking.”Waihiga Mwaura speaks to SungAh Lee, from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) about the war in Sudan which has entered its fourth year and has led to one of the worst humanitarian crisis and biggest displacements of people. SungAh L
Ringo Starr, musician: I never play music alone
“If you play piano, bass guitar, saxophone, I don’t care - I'll play with you all night. That's how I did it. And I tell all my grandkids - get an event, get a few of your schoolmates together. They're practising and playing by themselves. Get with people!”Regan Morris speaks to musician Ringo Starr about his career.
Born in Liverpool, England, during the Second World War in 1940, Ringo, real-na
Isaac Larian, entrepreneur: Failure is the foundation for success
“One thing I have learned from my childhood til now is that when you fall, you get up, dust yourself off, and do it over and over again. I’ve had a lot of up and downs in my business life in America. I’ve had many failures and people only talk about successes, but failures in my mind are the foundation of success.”Rahul Tandon speaks to Iranian-American entrepreneur Isaac Larian.The 72-year-old bi
Dr Kalema-Zikusoka, wildlife vet: Saving gorillas
“We were able to improve the health of the gorillas and people together. What we do is we improve the health and the livelihoods of the local communities. Because as long as people are poor, they're going to keep entering the forest to poach and collect firewood and they're going to end up making the gorillas sick, or picking up diseases from wildlife in the forest.”
Myra Anubi speaks to Dr Glad
