The Interview

Audrey Tang speaks to BBC Technology editor, Zoe Kleinman about technology, democracy and community. Named one of TIME’s “100 Most Influential People in AI”, Audrey Tang was instrumental in shaping Taiwan’s acclaimed COVID-19 response and in safeguarding the 2024 elections from foreign cyber interference. A child prodigy, born with a life threatening heart condition, reading, philosophy and the in...

‘I do not see France as a country that must be closed. But I believe we must control immigration.’ Nick Robinson speaks to National Rally leader Jordan Bardella about his vision for France. The 30-year-old is currently leading the polls to become the country’s next President in 2027. He’s on a media tour to woo businesses, and to persuade the world his party is now mainstream, despite its history...

BBC presenter Kylie Pentelow speaks to Dame Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s former Prime Minister about the importance of empathetic leadership in the time of populism and strongman politics. In 2017 Ardern became the youngest Prime Minister in the world at the time, and only the second ever to have a baby whilst in office. She was praised for her humane approach and leadership through crises such a...

Lucy Hockings speaks to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado about the fight for democracy in the South American country. She’s been in hiding since last year’s presidential election in Venezuela, when incumbent Nicolás Maduro declared victory in a contest that was widely dismissed on the international stage as rigged, sparking widespread protests. Around 2,000 people were arrested in...

‘We are pushing very hard to end this and preserve the future of Sudan’ Waihiga Mwaura speaks to Dr. Badr Abdelatty, Egypt’s Foreign Minister, during the G20 summit that took place at the end of November in South Africa. Dr. Abdelatty took up the post last year, following a long diplomatic career across Europe, North America and Asia. He’s tasked with representing Egypt and the government of Presi...

Katie Razzall, the BBC’s culture and media editor, speaks to American singer-songwriter Patti Smith during her UK tour marking the 50th anniversary of her ground-breaking debut album Horses. Best-known for her hit Because the Night, she shares the story behind the song, co-written with Bruce Springsteen, and reflects about being at the vanguard of a new wave of artists in the 1970s. Patti also ope...

Zoe Kleinman, the BBC’s Technology editor, speaks to Canva CEO Melanie Perkins about the current tech and AI revolution that is transforming the internet and the world. Perkins, who is still only in her late-30s, is well-known for her entrepreneurial drive, having quit university at just 19 years old to launch her first venture. Unlike many of today’s Silicon Valley-based big tech companies, Canva...

“This is giving parents another weapon in their arsenal for their lives and for the happiness and mental wellbeing of their children.” Katy Watson speaks to Australia’s Communication Minister Anika Wells about the world’s first social media ban for children under 16. Under the new law, social media companies will face fines of up to about US $32 million if they fail to take steps to ensure that un...

Nick Robinson speaks to Shabana Mahmood, British Home Secretary, about her far-reaching proposals to shake up the UK immigration system, designed to make asylum seekers think twice before attempting to enter the country illegally. She also shares her own experience of racism as the daughter of Pakistani immigrants, and her belief that ensuring secure borders is the best way to combat this. Under h...

Marianna Spring, the BBC’s social media investigations correspondent, speaks to Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa, co-founder of the independent Filipino news outlet Rappler. With over 40 years in journalism, Maria describes today’s information landscape as a war zone, where online attacks, including doxxing, misogynistic hashtags, and manipulated images don’t just stay online. They...

Amol Rajan speaks to Sir Nick Clegg - former deputy Prime Minister of the UK and, more recently, former President of Global Affairs at Meta - about big tech, AI and the future of social media. Sir Nick first appeared on the world stage back in 2010, when he became the UK’s deputy prime minister after his Liberal Democrats party went into a coalition government with David Cameron’s Conservatives. A...

‘When it comes to women's lives, things have progressed, maybe not always in a linear way.’ Devina Gupta speaks to author and columnist Twinkle Khanna about the lives of women in 21st century India. Khanna’s column in the Times of India, Mrs Funnybones, captures the contradictions of being a modern Indian woman — one day praying to a cow, the next filing a tax return. It was turned into a book in...

“The current state of the art AI technology is prone to some errors… you have to learn to use these tools for what they are good at, and not blindly trust everything they say.” Faisal Islam speaks to Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google and its holding company Alphabet, about artificial intelligence and its impact on how we live and work. He tells me that we are at an extraordinary moment in t...

‘So-called turmoil or shortcomings in my life? I turn them into power or energy’ Best known for playing the serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 thriller ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, Sir Anthony’s journey to Hollywood stardom started with humble beginnings. Born into a working class family in the Welsh steel town of Port Talbot in 1937, his parents first ran a bakery, and then later a pub....

BBC North America correspondent Nomia Iqbal speaks to Noura Erakat, Palestinian-American human rights attorney and professor at Rutgers University. As well as being a legal scholar she is also an outspoken advocate for justice in Palestine, she went on to become one of the first Palestinian women to address the United Nations Security in October this year where she spoke on the situation of women...

‘I believe so profoundly in the separation of church and state, and in the dangers of theocracy creeping into the corners of a democracy’ BBC Music Correspondent Mark Savage speaks to US singer-songwriter, producer and performer Brandi Carlile about the personal and political stories behind her songs. An LGBTQ icon, she sets out her fears about the threat to same-sex marriage in today’s United Sta...

Vitaly Shevchenko speaks to Maria Alyokhina, founding member of the Russian punk activist group Pussy Riot, about the power and the price of protest. Pussy Riot came to the world’s attention with its Punk Prayer, an angry anti-Putin anthem performed in a Moscow church. Maria Alyokhina spent two years incarcerated in a penal colony as a result. It was worth it, she says, to show the world what life...

James Coomarasamy speaks to acclaimed author Sir Salman Rushdie as he publishes his first work of fiction since surviving a near-fatal attack in 2022, by a man armed with a knife, who is now serving 25 years in prison. The Eleventh Hour, his new collection of novellas and short stories explores mortality, farewells and even the afterlife. They feature a rich cast of characters - a musical prodigy...

‘There's basically a total failure of governance. Nothing is working. There is very serious political instability that has actually manifested itself in violence all across the country.’ James Copnall speaks to senior South Sudanese politician Nhial Deng Nhial, about the political instability that’s threatening the future of the world’s youngest country. Nhial, who has served in numerous important...

''There were periods when I couldn’t see any hope or joy,'' says British cycling champion Sir Bradley Wiggins in a deeply personal interview with Anna Foster The first Briton to win the Tour de France, he collected five Olympic gold medals throughout his career. But his stellar reputation came under attack as he faced allegations of doping. What followed was a descent into drug addiction that was...

‘Fashion has to be more inclusive, it has to speak to people outside the normal demographic’ BBC presenter Amol Rajan speaks to Ghanaian-born Edward Enninful, who rose to the pinnacle of fashion in Britain as the editor-in-chief of British Vogue. Enninful has dedicated his career to making fashion representative and relevant to all, ignoring the accepted conventions on which type of models will ma...

‘A lot of the fantasy that I have read is unsatisfactory for me because it's not interested in psychology, it's not interested how people think or feel’ Katie Razzall speaks to renowned British author Sir Philip Pullman as he publishes his latest, and final book in the series, The Rose Field. He’s best-known for writing the award-winning ‘His Dark Materials’ - a series of novels beloved by childre...

‘We’re living in an era of a massive lowering of trust’ Shaun Ley speaks to Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, one of the most visited websites in the world. He talks about how to trust in a digital age, the pressures facing open‑knowledge platforms and his new book The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last, where he shares the lessons that transformed Wikipedia and co...

‘I am not done. I have lived my entire career a life of service and it's in my bones and there are many ways to serve. I have not decided yet what I will do in the future beyond what I'm doing right now.’ Laura Kuenssberg speaks to Kamala Harris about her turbulent 2024 presidential campaign where she ran against Donald Trump. She was thrust into the race just 107 days before the election, after t...

‘To isolate Israel or to punish Israel will be the most irresponsible and unacceptable step to boycott Israel, for example. I think it's a huge mistake, because what we need is a dialogue.’ Tim Franks speaks to Israeli author David Grossman about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as concerns grow over the increasingly fragile ceasefire. Grossman is one of Israel’s most prominent writers, and since publ...