Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy

“I don't think you can expect someone to change their life by putting them in a room and locking the door.” Michael Balogun might not believe that prison “helps” people to turn their life around, but it was undoubtedly his experience serving time that led him to where he is today - a star of the West End, currently appearing in a version of the Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre.  But there’s...

“On the television, they were saying we were thieves, that we were raised with no morals”. Growing up Black in 1970s Britain, writer Gary Younge didn’t feel fully accepted - he didn’t even feel British. “Someone would go, “it’s cold today isn’t it, I bet it’s not like this where you come from,” and you’d be like, "I come from just down the road mate!” His latest book, Dispatches from the Diaspora,...

How can the government attract the country’s best minds to work for them? How do we know when a private sector contract is a good one? And what can we learn from NASA about business and efficiency?  Mariana Mazzucato is a professor of Economics at the University College London and an advisor to many governments. In her latest book, ‘The Big Con’, she looks at the relationship between the consultin...

“We're the only species who have worked out to blow up everything and kill everyone”. In his latest book, The Earth Transformed, Peter Frankopan takes on the entirety of the history of planet earth, and looks at how our lives have been shaped by environmental changes since the dawn of our planet, 4.5 billion years ago, until the present day. He tackles the transformation of the earth, teasing apar...

He’s the frontman of one of the most iconic bands of the 80s.  Four decades on, Simon Le Bon says that New Wave  legends Duran Duran are still going strong, making new music and announcing that they’re going on tour again.  In today’s episode of Ways to Change the World, Simon Le Bon sits down with Krishnan Guru-Murthy to discuss why the band doesn't make political statements, the state of the mus...

Sebastian Payne is an author and the Director of centre-right think tank Onward, where he explores the bigger problems and challenges facing Britain today.  He recently left his post as Whitehall Editor of the Financial Times, where he spent years navigating the corridors of Parliament, detangling the latest scandals and finding out what politics really means for people up and down the country. Hi...

“I’m a nomadic person, I don’t want to stay in one place”. When Baaba writes his music, he takes inspiration from the places he visits. “When I started travelling, I came to London, I bought cassettes, I appreciated different people. And when I got a chance to meet them, we sat down and wrote songs”. But no matter how much Baaba has travelled, and to where, he always brings his music “back home to...

“I was thinking about all my friends who launched a podcast and I thought, “if I had a podcast. I'd just talk to people about death. That's a terrible idea”.” When Cariad Lloyd’s father died of cancer when she was 15, she was angry, “for, probably, 10 years”. But later in life, she found herself wanting to share her experience of grief, and started the award-winning podcast Griefcast.  Cariad has...

“I didn't write this book to be hugely sellable, hugely commercial - I wrote it because it’s a story that I felt needed to be told.” Jyoti Patel’s debut novel, ‘The Things That We Lost’ is the story of a British Gujarati mother and son discovering how they fit into the world and learning how to balance the Gujarati and British sides of their identities.  The book earnt Jyoti the Merky Books New Wr...

Frances O’Grady stepped down as the General Secretary of British Trades Union Congress at the end of 2022. She was the first woman to hold the post in TUC’s 154-year history.   She is now a Labour peer in the House of Lords where she is committed to abolishing the unelected chamber.   She joins Krishnan to talk about the history of the trade union movement, why she thinks workers are going on stri...

Rick Rubin is the legendary music producer who founded Def Jam records, one of the most important hip hop labels of the 80s.    He has won nine Grammy awards and worked with some of the biggest artists of our time, to name but a few: Jay Z, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Strokes, Adele, Run DMZ and Slayer.   He joins Krishnan to talk about his incredible career, as well as the launch of his new b...

ChatbotGPT is a new artificial intelligence programme designed to simulate human conversation and tackle complex questions. It's made by Open AI foundation, a tech-startup co-founded by Elon Musk, and it draws on text taken from a variety of sources on the internet and its creators say it has learned how to answer academic questions, and even sometimes admits when it's wrong. We've done an intervi...

Nouriel Roubini is an economist, a professor in New York, a global economic consultant and an author who, amongst many distinguishing things, was one of those who foresaw the 2008 credit crunch and financial crisis.  His latest work is called ‘Megathreats’, and it details 10 trends that make it more likely than not that we are heading for a global economic crash of stagnant growth, debt crises and...

George Takei is an actor, activist and author, best known for his role of Lieutenant Sulu in Star Trek.    Imprisoned as a child in the United States for being of Japanese origin, he campaigns for gay and immigrant rights. He brings his award-winning broadway musical ‘Allegiance’ to London, which is inspired by his own memories of growing up in a Japanese internment camp.  George joins Krishnan to...

Rosie Holt has become famous on Twitter, where she  reinvented herself via satirical videos; A conversative MP and right-wing activist who many mistake for being real.    In this episode Rosie joins Krishnan to discuss life as a social media sensation, women in media and why we should laugh at things that make us angry.    Produced by: Imahn Robertson

Clint Dyer is an actor, writer and director who has turned his pain into power. That power has resulted in numerous ‘firsts’, the first Black British artist to have performed, written and directed a full-scale production at the National Theatre and the first Black man to direct a Shakespeare tragedy at a major British venue. In this episode, Clint joins Krishnan to discuss theatrical traditions, h...

Julian Lennon is a singer-songwriter, who rose to fame for the Beatles song Hey Jude, which was written after his parents John and Cynthia Lennon separated. In this episode, Julian joins Krishnan to speak about his seventh album Jude, emotion in songwriting, dealing with depression and the importance of relearning his old material. While Julian has received platinum success for his music, he has a...

Rob Delaney is a comedian, actor and writer, best known for co-creating the British sitcom Catastrophe, which won him a Bafta for comedy writing.     But during the height of his success, he learnt that his son, Henry, was dying of a brain tumour. He’s written a book about it in which he grapples with the fragility of life, the mysteries of death, and the question of purpose for those left behind....

Orhan Pamuk is a renowned Turkish Nobel Prize winning author. He is one of Turkey’s most acclaimed writers and has been openly critical of laws which curtail freedom of expression, particularly those which make it illegal to criticise Turkish President Recep Erdogan. He joins Krishnan to talk about his new book, ‘Nights of Plague’, why he believes pandemics fuel authoritarianism and how he became...

Marina Hyde is a columnist at the Guardian, where she’s worked for over 20 years. She is one of the most admired journalists in the UK and known for her witty analysis of politics and the chaotic times we live in.  She joins to talk about her new book ‘What Just Happened?!’,  an amalgamation of the columns she writes for the Guardian. It spans post-referendum politics in Britain, from David Camero...

Gaia Vince is a science and environment journalist and author.  She has written extensively about the impact human life has had on our planet.  In this episode, Gaia joins Krishnan to talk about her new book, Nomad Century, in which she takes a look at how migration could be the solution to the climate crisis. Produced by : Joe Lord-Jones

Tova Friedman was one of the youngest survivors of the Auschwitz death camp. Her family came from Poland, went through various concentration camps, and ended up in Auschwitz. But remarkably, both her, her mother and father survived. She has written an extraordinary memoir called The Daughter of Auschwitz, together with the journalist Malcolm Brabant.  Tova joins Krishnan with her grandson Aron, wh...

Edward Enninful is the editor of British Vogue and European editorial director of Condé Nast. Krishnan talks to him about what it’s like to be a refugee in the UK, having moved to London from Ghana at a young age.  They also discuss Enninful’s new book, ‘A Visible Man’, what he thinks of Liz Truss and how he’s changed Vogue to be representative of all women.  Producer: Freya Pickford 

Dave Stewart is a musician, who rose to fame after forming the iconic British pop duo, Eurythmics, alongside Annie Lennox.  Krishnan talks to him about his latest solo album, Ebony McQueen, which has drawn heavily on the blues he heard growing up in Sunderland, as he tells the story of his life through the songs. Ebony McQueen is a 26 track epic, which will also become a film, featuring a fictiona...

Deborah Meaden is a successful businesswoman, entrepreneur and star of the TV show Dragons’ Den. She talks to Krishnan about her worries about the British economy, how Dragons’ den has transformed the world of business and why she has been talking about protecting the environment for decades. Producer: Rachel Evans