Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy

How did the porn industry help shape the internet we use today? From Pornhub and OnlyFans to social media, the influence of online pornography extends far beyond what we might imagine. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Financial Times investigative journalist Patricia Nilsson, author of Guilty Pleasure: The Pornification of the Internet, the Economy, and E...

In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by bestselling author Ann Patchett to discuss her novel, Whistler and the personal inspiration behind it, which she calls the “most romantic” book she has written. A story which explores memory, and chance reunions. Beyond her acclaimed fiction, Patchett is one of the world's most passionate advocates for independent b...

Known as the Godfather of heavy metal, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi changed the way the guitar could sound.  After a factory accident cost him the tips of two fingers, he was told he would never play again. Instead, he built his own prosthetic fingertips, adapted his guitar and developed a darker, heavier sound that would define a new genre.  In this episode of Ways to Change the World , Kri...

Navi Pillay is a renowned human rights lawyer and the recipient of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. Her most recent fight for justice was as Chair of a UN Commission which concluded Israel committed acts of genocide in Gaza. Pillay’s career emerged out of a struggle against apartheid in South Africa where she was born. She became the first woman to establish a law firm defending apartheid activists and...

Simon Armitage believes poetry changes the world not by telling us what to think, but through persuasion, wonder and the possibilities of language. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, the Poet Laureate joins Krishnan Guru-Murthy to discuss his new version of Gilgamesh , a story of friendship, power, loss and immortality that has survived for thousands of years. He reflects on discovering...

Donald Trump called her a “nasty woman”. In private, he called her “the killer”. Now Chrystia Freeland says the lesson for America’s allies is simple: do not capitulate. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to the former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister about standing up to Trump, why she believes Ukraine must defeat Putin, and the growing threat to liberal democr...

Anthony Scaramucci is a Wall Street banker, podcaster and former White House communications director who spent just 11 days working for Donald Trump before being fired. Once a Trump supporter, he has since become one of his most vocal critics, and it would seem that the feeling is mutual, with Trump calling him an "unstable 'nut job'" who showed "gross incompetence" dur...

Alexei Sayle has spent a lifetime mixing comedy with politics, protest and an instinctive suspicion of authority. Raised in a communist household in Liverpool, he became one of the defining figures of alternative comedy before building a career as a writer, actor and political activist. His latest book, How I’ve Tried to Change the World by Walking Down the Middle of the Street Shouting, looks bac...

Salman Rushdie is one of the world’s most celebrated writers. But for more than three decades, his life has also been bound up with arguments about freedom of expression, religious extremism and the threat of violence. In 2022, that violence caught up with him when he was attacked on stage and nearly killed. His wife, the poet and visual artist Rachel Eliza Griffiths, began filming his recovery, c...

Johnny Marr is one of the most influential guitarists of his generation. As a founding member of The Smiths, his distinctive playing helped create some of the most enduring songs in British music. He joins Krishnan Guru-Murthy, surrounded by the guitars that have soundtracked more than four decades of his life, including the legendary Gibson ES 355 1960, the Gibson Les Paul Standard 1984, and the...

Why are so many men feeling angry, lost and without purpose, and what role do algorithms, AI and the collapse of traditional institutions have in this? Jon Ronson has spent decades investigating the strange corners of modern life. His new book, The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unraveling Men , begins with his son being lured to a mysterious castle in the US and expands into an investigation of...

More than three decades after publishing The End of History and the Last Man, political scientist Francis Fukuyama is looking back on the ideas that made him famous, and asking whether democracy can still withstand the forces reshaping the world. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy talks to Fukuyama about Donald Trump, the rise of populism, why young men are driving p...

Restaurant critic and writer Jay Rayner says restaurants are much more than a set of tables and chairs. In an age of rising costs, social media trends and pressure on the hospitality industry, he argues that restaurants remain vital spaces for creativity, community and human connection. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, he tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy why he would ban tipping. How restaur...

Historical novelist Robert Harris writes about the Roman Empire - and says the parallels of disillusionment with modern day politics are ‘impossible’ to ignore.   In this episode of Ways to Change the World, he tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy that Donald Trump’s vanity projects and strong man tactics remind him of Emperor Augustus, how the pressure to appease the masses is ‘crushing politicians into a...

We talk more openly about mental health than ever. So why is alcohol so often left out of the conversation? Millie Gooch believes Britain's relationship with drinking is overdue for a rethink. After struggling with binge drinking and anxiety herself, she founded Sober Girl Society and has become one of the leading voices calling for a more honest conversation about alcohol, addiction and wellbeing...

Former Silicon Valley insider Dex Hunter-Torricke spent years advising some of the most influential figures in tech, from Google and Facebook to SpaceX. Now, the founder of The Center for Tomorrow, he is sounding the alarm about the future being built by the industry he once helped champion. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Dex Hunter-Torricke about why h...

Artificial intelligence is transforming the workplace. Employers are rethinking how they hire, train and retain staff, while workers face growing uncertainty about which skills will matter in the future. As technology accelerates, long-established assumptions about education, careers and social mobility are being challenged. Euan Blair believes Britain needs a radical rethink. As founder and chief...

Democracy is under pressure. Human rights are increasingly contested. And around the world, authoritarian leaders are gaining ground. In this episode of Ways to Change the World , Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Binaifer Nowrojee, president of the Open Society Foundations, one of the world's most influential human rights organisations. From documenting sexual violence during the Rwandan genocid...

In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to the social psychologist whose work helped ignite a global rethink of childhood in the smartphone age. Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, argues that social media has fundamentally reshaped the lives of young people – driving rising rates of anxiety and depression, fragmenting attention spans and replacing re...

We're closer to nuclear catastrophe than at any point since the Cold War. That's the warning from theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli. Drawing on his new book “85 Seconds to Midnight”, Rovelli argues that fear, not strength, is driving a dangerous new global arms race. He explains why he believes humanity has forgotten the lessons of Hiroshima, why today's rearmament risks repeating th...

From the White House situation room, to shaping the Obama administration's national security communication - few people have had a closer view of the forces shaping modern America than Ben Rhodes. As Barack Obama's speechwriter and Deputy National Security Adviser, Rhodes helped craft some of the defining messages of the Obama era and played a central role in major foreign policy decisions...

At a time when Britain feels increasingly fragmented, playwright and screenwriter James Graham believes the country faces a deeper crisis than politics alone can explain. From the collapse of community spaces and growing loneliness to the impact of AI, social media and declining trust in institutions, Graham argues that Britain is losing the social bonds that once held it together. But he also bel...

What does it mean to choose peace after unimaginable loss? In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon, peace activists and co-authors of "The Future Is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land".Abu Sarah is a Palestinian whose brother died after being tortured in an Israeli prison. Inon is an Israeli whose parents were kil...

In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Kimberlé Crenshaw, one of the most influential thinkers on race who coined the term intersectionality. Crenshaw has spent decades challenging how we understand inequality — and why it persists today. Crenshaw’s new memoir, Backtalker, is a blunt origin story of the lived experiences that shaped her work - from childhood mo...

Artificial intelligence is often sold as inevitable — a force that will transform our lives for the better. But Karen Hao believes that story is too simple, and too convenient. An author and journalist, she has spent years investigating the people behind the AI boom. In her book Empire of AI, she argues that the technology is not just being built — it’s being shaped by a small group of companies d...