Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy

Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, is calling on Unilever to “free” the ice cream brand after years of clashes over its social mission and stance on issues like Gaza. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Ben tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy why he believes business has become the strongest force in society - and why it must care about more than profit. Unilever maintains that it’s worki...

David Shrigley is one of Britain’s most original and celebrated contemporary artists. Known for his deadpan drawings, iconic sculptures and ambitious installations, David Shrigley’s work blends absurd humour with sharp observations on everyday life.  On this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy joins David at his latest show, Exhibition of Old Rope, in central London to discus...

Founding member of Pussy Riot and one of the most high-profile political activists in Russia imprisoned by Vladimir Putin's government - in this Ways to Change the World Podcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Masha Alyokhina. She became internationally known after the group's protest performance in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2012, which led to her arrest and two years...

Lynsey Addario is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American photojournalist who has spent two decades covering conflicts and humanitarian crises across the globe. Travelling to the frontlines of some of the world’s most dangerous countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Ukraine. She has a string of alarming personal stories to go with it. She has been detained by the Libyan army, forced to go thr...

Jimmy Wales is the co-founder of Wikipedia - the free digital encyclopedia that just about everyone in the Western world goes to if they need to quickly know anything. It has been going for almost 25 years, determinedly democratic, non-profit and user-run, but increasingly under attack by right-wing influencers, Republican politicians and Elon Musk for being biased and with an overly-progressive i...

Munya Chawawa wants to make you laugh, but not at the expense of someone else. Through his sharp satire and viral sketches, his comedy explores the line between humour and harm, showing how you can illuminate difficult truths without tearing people down. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Munya joins Krishnan Guru-Murthy to talk about comedy, kindness, and the power of perspective. He re...

Husam Zomlot was born in a refugee camp in Gaza and has since become one of the most prominent Palestinian voices on the world stage. In 2017, Zomlot was appointed envoy to the United States, until the Trump administration shut down the PLO mission in Washington. The following year he became Head of the Palestinian Mission in London, a role that has now been elevated to Ambassador after the UK’s f...

Sir Tim Berners-Lee launched the worldwide web on Christmas day 1990; an invention which has undeniably and profoundly changed the world. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Sir Tim spoke with Krishnan Guru-Murthy about why addictive algorithms should be made illegal, the potential for artificial intelligence to outsmart humans, and how the internet has been both a powerful force for good...

Sir Ian McEwan is one of Britain’s most acclaimed novelists, a Booker prize winner with a career spanning five decades with work that often explores morality, memory, and the intersections of private lives with public events.  Sir Ian has long been associated with contemporaries like Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, and Salman Rushdie, who together reshaped the British novel from the 1980s onward.  In...

Philippa Perry has spent years helping people understand their inner lives, but she believes that something fundamental has shifted in the way we connect. Lockdown, she says, left many young people struggling with social confidence, while the dominance of phones and texting has created “fantasy relationships” that don’t prepare us for the realities of face-to-face communication. In this episode of...

Mona Chalabi is a Pulitzer Prize-winning data journalist, illustrator, writer, and commentator who gained international recognition for her distinctive illustrations which distil complex issues into art that is deeply relatable and easily understood. In this episode of Ways To Change The World, she tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy what people should know about data journalism in a world where we are con...

After a summer of Britpop revival provoked by the Oasis concerts, nineties legends Suede are about to take over the Southbank Centre in London for a series of events. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Suede frontman Brett Anderson speaks to Krishnan Guru-Murthy ahead of the release of their tenth album ‘Antidepressants' and explains how his writing continues to evolve to the times and h...

Ella Al-Shamahi grew up as a Muslim creationist, part of a ‘tribe’ that believes that humankind was created whole by a higher power. At university, she enrolled in courses that studied evolution, specifically to prove her professors wrong - but the plan backfired when she became fascinated by evolutionary biology and came to the conclusion that Darwin was, in fact, right all along. Now an accompli...

Sami Tamimi is one of the brains behind the hugely successful and influential Ottolenghi restaurants, which he launched with his friend and long-time collaborator Yotam Ottolenghi. The pair co-wrote the bestselling cookbook Jerusalem - and more recently, Sami has written Falastin and Boustany, a powerful celebration of Palestinian food and culture. He says that in Palestine, “food is political”, a...

Morgan McMonagle is an Irish trauma and vascular surgeon who has been to the heart of some of the world’s most harrowing conflicts. Twice, he has traveled to Gaza, working in hospitals under constant bombardment since the conflict began. What he witnessed goes beyond medicine — it raises questions about humanity, the moral cost of war, and the toll it takes not just on the bereaved and wounded, bu...

Michael Gove, now Lord Gove of Torry in the City of Aberdeen, was a cabinet minister under David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. He ran to be leader of the Conservatives twice, famously killed off Boris Johnson's first tilt at the top job but backed him on Brexit, spectacularly falling out with David Cameron in the process in a drama portrayed in sometimes excruciating det...

Jacinda Ardern is arguably the most globally famous and lauded New Zealand Prime Minister of modern times.  Her international profile began with her being the world's youngest head of government at thirty seven, who within months had a baby and took it all in her stride.  But it was her response to the horrific terrorist attack on mosques in Christchurch that gave her hero status amongst progr...

Whilst life expectancy is declining in the UK and America and other high-income countries, some tech billionaires have become obsessed with life longevity - but which factors really impact how long we live and when we die?  Public health expert Devi Sridhar speaks to Krishnan Guru-Murthy on Ways to Change the World about the launch of her new book 'How not to die (Too Soon). She explains how chang...

Once described as the 'comedian's comedian' Stewart Lee has been performing stand up since 1988. He is known for pushing boundaries with his intelligent, self-referential and often provocative style of comedy but in his new show 'Stewart Lee vs the Man Wulf' he questions his place on the comedy circuit in an era of increasing populism rhetoric and the popularity of, in his words “$60m Netflix come...

Newly appointed National Theatre Director Indhu Rubasingham becomes the first woman and person of colour to lead the theatre in it's 60 year history. She sat down with Krishnan Guru-Murthy to discuss art, diversity and censorship and taking on her 'dream job.'  Produced by Holly Snelling and Vik Patel.

Joanna Moncrieff is a British psychiatrist, author and researcher who is a prominent and controversial voice in the research of depression. Her 2002 study ‘The Serotonin Theory of Depression: A Systematic Umbrella Review of the Evidence’ concluded that there was no link between serotonin and depression, debunking the mainstream medical belief in antidepressants. Moncrieff, whose research has drawn...

Pia Sinha worked in prisons for 24 years before being appointed CEO of the charity Prison Reform Trust and she describes herself as a "ridiculously optimistic" person, who believes the prisons can be made to work properly. Sinha started her career in prison as a psychologist and went on to work in female, male prisons and institutions for young offenders. She was the governor at three prisons and...

Sustainability expert and professor Mike Berners-Lee argues that dishonesty in politics, business, and the media is one of the biggest barriers to tackling global crises like climate change, social inequality, and environmental destruction. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, he talks to Krishnan Guru-Murthy about the need for a cultural shift where honesty is valued, and where deceit in...

Entrepreneur, investor, and former Dragon’s Den star Sara Davies has spent 20 years building businesses and helping others do the same. She started her company, Crafter’s Companion, while still at university and turned it into a global brand. But as she tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy, success isn’t just about strategy - it’s about mindset. It’s a theme she explores in her latest book, The Six-Minute E...

Christo Grozev is a Bulgarian investigative journalist who has spent years tracking down Russian spies and is on Vladimir Putin’s wanted list. Grozev’s open-source journalism exposed spies linked to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018 and Alexei Navalny in 2020. Now he is at the centre of his own sinister Kremlin plot, as a Bulgarian spy-ring was sent by Moscow to target him and plan...