Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy

Misan Harriman went from picking up a camera for the first time aged 40, to becoming one of the most influential photographers of his generation. In 2020, his images of the Black Lives Matter protests went viral, capturing a historic moment of resistance and solidarity. He was also commissioned by Meghan Markle to take her second pregnancy announcement portrait and made history as the first Black...

Krishnan Guru-Murthy sits down with Jude Kelly, founder of the Women of the World (WOW) Foundation, to talk about the rise of traditional values in global politics, equitable education and the arts and whether the divine really is 'a bloke'. Kelly, a theatre director and former artistic director of the Southbank centre in London, reflects on her experiences challenging entrenched patriarchal value...

Why are the rich getting even wealthier while the middle and working classes continue to struggle? Former top trader Gary Stevenson - the star behind popular YouTube channel Gary’s Economics - breaks down how wealth inequality is driving down living standards for the middle and working classes on this episode of Ways to Change the World. He tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy how the rich grow their wealth...

Actor Brian Cox, famed for his role as the media magnate Logan Roy in the HBO series Succession, speaks about his fears for America with Donald Trump as president again, how greed has infected politics, and whether he thinks Keir Starmer could be a great leader. In this latest episode of Ways to Change the World, Cox also tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy about growing up in Scotland, his love of British...

It appears the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas has been brought back from the brink as Hamas now says they will now release Israeli hostages as planned on Saturday after Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump threatened the militant group.  But for award-winning author Omar El Akkad, the war in Gaza has already been a turning point for his relationship with the West - the part of the world th...

On this week’s episode of Ways to Change the World, Blur bassist Alex James speaks to Krishnan Guru-Murthy about Jeremy Clarkson, Oasis, band break ups, diets, and how he went from a rock and roll star “swinging from chandeliers” to a farmer with five kids.  Alex James’ new book Over The Rainbow tells the story of Blur’s reunion tour last year and the struggles of a middle aged man to fit in the j...

Comedian Omid Djalili talks to Krishnan Guru-Murthy about Syria, Israel, Gaza and the Iranian regime, and why the West should care about the Middle East. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Djalili says a combination of his Baha’i faith, his heritage and the encouragement of friends is what has kept him resilient in the face of setbacks, including being “cancelled” after the 9/11 attacks....

Tim Minchin has never been one for following the rules—or even having a dream. “I ran towards unpigeonholeability,” he tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy, reflecting on his career as a comedian, musician, and writer who refuses to fit into a single box. Best known for his sharp wit, powerful lyrics, and smash-hit musical Matilda, Minchin explains why he doesn’t see comedy as a vehicle for his worldview an...

Esther Ghey is the mother of Brianna Ghey, the 16-year-old transgender girl who was stabbed to death in a park in Cheshire, England in 2023. In the wake of her daughter’s brutal murder, Esther has been campaigning to ensure that Brianna’s legacy is an improvement in the mental health of children and teenagers, something she believes can be achieved by limiting their access to harmful online conten...

Economist-turned-Labour MP Torsten Bell knows all too well that things have not been going great for Britain - but is optimistic that a different future is possible. The UK’s economy has been making the headlines for all the wrong reasons in the last few years: wages are flatlining, taxes are on the rise, and public services are on the brink of collapse. The younger generation can’t afford to buy...

American political forecaster Nate Silver explains who will win the US election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, why he thinks Elon Musk’s comments during the riots in the UK were acceptable, and how AI will change the world.   Silver is the founder of the influential polling and politics website FiveThirtyEight, but now writes on his website Silver Bulletin. He’s just published a new book...

US Presidential candidate Dr Cornel West is a philosopher and prominent advocate for social and racial justice. He’s taught at some of the top universities in the US including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, but has one major plan if he becomes President: to “dismantle the American empire”.   The 71-year-old activist, who campaigned for Biden in 2020, has recently been vocal against both the Democra...

Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph Stiglitz is one of the most influential economists in the world, having advised multiple Democratic Presidents of the US and the World Bank, where he worked as Chief Economist and senior Vice President. His latest book, called “The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society,” argues that the economic right’s concept of “freedom” doesn’t take into account the necess...

Bassem Youssef thinks that he’s come on the wrong podcast. “People in power don't really care about any of our suggestions to change the world”, he tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy, “because if our ways to change the world affect their interests, they will stop you.” And he knows what he’s talking about, having fled his home country of Egypt after his TV comedy became no longer acceptable to the authori...

When lawyer turned playwright Suzie Miller created a one-woman show starring Jodie Comer for the West End and Broadway called ‘Prima Facie’, she wouldn’t have dreamt that her play would fuel real change in the legal system’s approach to sexual assault cases.   The play has won multiple awards, has inspired efforts to change UK laws, and has also been turned into a book of the same title.   In this...

Nikki Giovanni has spent more than five decades in the public eye, as an activist, poet and innovator. Born on the "wrong side of the tracks" in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the era of segregation, Giovanni came of age during the Black power and civil rights movements in 1960s in America. She came under the spotlight again in 2007, when the university she had been teaching at, Virginia Tech, was t...

Author Armistead Maupin is a pioneer - writing about AIDS and HIV for a mass audience and daring to include gay, lesbian, trans and queer lives when few others were.   His ‘Tales of the City’ series, which started as a newspaper column in 1974, became worldwide best-selling novels and a Netflix series. It chronicles the lives of queer people in San Francisco and pokes fun at morality and social no...

“I don’t write fiction to preach my politics,” says Kiley Reid - an American author whose debut novel “Such a Fun Age” was longlisted for the 2020 Booker prize. The book gained recognition for its themes on race, privilege, and social dynamics in modern America. Fast forward to 2024, and Reid’s second novel, “Come and Get It” delves even further into the heart of societal complexities. It’s based...

How do you measure a business’s success? For James Timpson, CEO of the Timpson’s Group, it comes down to two things: the satisfaction of its staff, and what it gives back to society. His employees only have to “put money in the till and look the part”; for the rest, they have complete authority to do whatever they think is right to offer a quality service to customers. This “upside-down” style of...

Bernie Sanders is the longest-serving independent senator in US congressional history and has brought income inequality, poverty and the “uber-capitalist” status quo into focus throughout his decades-long career. He nearly became the Democrats’ candidate for president, twice, and has recently been backing Joe Biden against Donald Trump, warning that Trump’s re-election could be the end of American...

Crystal Hefner was 21 when she first entered the infamous Playboy Mansion in October 2008. Within months, she ascended its hierarchy to become the top girlfriend of Hugh Hefner, who was 60 years her senior, and went on to marry him in 2012. But she quickly discovered the house was not the glittering sanctuary she had believed, nor Mr Hefner’s Playboy was the place of freedom, expression and empowe...

The past year has been a time of climate firsts, mainly for the wrong reasons. 2023 was the hottest year on record - with devastating wildfires, catastrophic flooding, ongoing loss of biodiversity and carbon emissions continuing to rise. But is there any hope for the possibility for a better future?   Well, there is in fact room for ‘cautious optimism’ says environmental scientist, Dr Hannah Ritch...

Ella Mills is the best-selling food writer and founder of Deliciously Ella, the food blog-turned-brand which she created in 2012 after a sudden debilitating illness led her to overhaul her diet and turn to plant-based foods as a way to get better. Since then, Mills has become a key player in bringing healthy food to the mainstream, with a brand whose 100 plant-based, additive-free products are now...

Despite being 76 years old, Arnold Schwarzenegger shows no signs of stopping.   The bodybuilding champion turned Hollywood star turned US politician, now in the ‘fourth act’ of his life, has reinvented himself into a motivator, and written a book, ‘Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life’, about guiding people to achieve a ‘happy, successful, useful life’, inspired by his singular American experience.   T...

From 2019 to 2021, Samuel Kasumu was the most senior Black advisor in Downing Street, and was widely referred to as Boris Johnson’s racism advisor, working alongside the former Prime Minister during the first half of the Covid pandemic. Kasumu left Downing Street in April 2021, amid the fallout from a UK government report that dismissed institutional racism. It wasn’t until after leaving his posit...