Shows / The Interview
The Interview
Conversations with people shaping our world, from all around the globe. Listen to The Interview for the best conversations from the BBC, the world's most trusted international news provider. We hear from titans of business, politics, finance, sport and culture. Global leaders, decision-makers and cultural icons. Politicians, activists and CEOs. Each interview is around 20-minutes, packed full of insight and analysis, covering some of the biggest issues of our time. How does it work? Well, at…
Episodes
- The Interview
Hermann Hauser: Is Europe failing to create tech champions?
The tech sector is fast becoming a battleground where the world’s greatest economic powers, the US and China, are competing for power and influence. Where is…
- The Interview
Christopher Ruddy: Is the media amplifying division in America?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Christopher Ruddy, CEO of the conservative Newsmax media group and close personal friend of Donald Trump. His network has tried to…
- The Interview
Bernardine Evaristo: Is British culture changing?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Bernardine Evaristo, the Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other. In any society, the voices that are listened to, and the…
- The Interview
David Beasley of the World Food Programme: Is the world set for new famines?
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the World Food Programme, the UN agency dedicated to feeding the hungry and fending off mass starvation. This…
- The Interview
Owase Jeelani: Making life and death decisions
Stephen Sackur speaks to the paediatric neurosurgeon Owase Jeelani. Brain surgery carries with it an awesome burden of responsibility. And within neurosurgery…
- The Interview
Ishaq Dar: Pakistan's power struggle
Imran Khan won power in Pakistan two years ago with a promise to root out corruption and take on the country’s vested interests. So how's it going? Rising food…
- The Interview
Anthony Gardner: How will Joe Biden handle foreign policy?
With Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the presidential election running out of road, attention is increasingly focused on President Elect Biden’s vision of…
- The Interview
Gedion Timothewos: Is Ethiopia sliding into civil war?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ethiopia’s Attorney General, Gedion Timothewos. Ethiopia’s federal armed forces have launched the final phase of their assault on…
- The Interview
Jeremy Hunt: Britain's battle with Covid-19
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll in Europe and one of the steepest declines in economic output. Opinion polls suggest Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s…
- The Interview
David Nabarro: How can countries minimise Covid damage?
This is a bittersweet moment in the global fight against the Covid pandemic. Joy that at least two vaccine trials have produced extremely promising results is…
- The Interview
Pawel Jablonski: Why is Poland blocking the EU's budget?
The EU is facing an internal political crisis. Two members, Poland and Hungary, are blocking the passage of a new budget and a post-Covid recovery package…
- The Interview
Judit Varga: How far is Hungary prepared to go in its defiance of the EU?
The EU has long threatened to punish the populist nationalist government in Hungary for a failure to uphold core EU values. So far the threats have been empty…
- The Interview
Arancha Gonzalez: How much influence does the EU have?
In the midst of of a pandemic which has inflicted severe damage on the European economy, it is tempting to see the US election victory of Joe Biden as a boost…
- The Interview
HR McMaster: Trump and the transition
Donald Trump hasn’t yet accepted it, but he’ll be out of the White House in January next year. Gone but not forgotten. His legacy can be seen in a divided body…
- The Interview
Jack Kingston: What is next for Trump?
Donald Trump can't and won't bring himself to concede that he lost the Presidential election. Amid the talk of legal challenges in a slew of states the…
- The Interview
Leopoldo Lopez: An opposition leader in exile
The socialist government of Venezuela presides over an economy in meltdown and a population desperate for change. Yet the country's opposition has failed to…
The InterviewJacob Bleacher: Putting astronauts back on the moon
Scientists have discovered water on the sunlit surface of the Moon for the first time. Does it matter? Well, maybe it does. The Moon is back in vogue in terms…
- The Interview
Perez Hilton: The 2000s' gossip-in-chief
Gossip, scurrilous rumour, a fascination with the flaws of the rich and famous: these human foibles are as old as the hills, but the age of the internet has…
- The Interview
Jim Clyburn: Can Biden win?
According to the polls Joe Biden is strong favourite to be the next President of the United States. But the party’s leaders bear deep scars from 2016. Donald…
- The Interview
Dominique Schnapper on secularism in France after Samuel Paty's killing
The beheading of a teacher by an 18-year-old outside Paris struck a particularly jarring blow to the French psyche. Samuel Paty was murdered for teaching his…
- The Interview
Peter Frankopan: Can history offer us any lessons on the coronavirus pandemic?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Peter Frankopan, historian and author of the bestselling book The Silk Roads. There’s plentiful evidence that the coronavirus pandemic…
- The Interview
Jack Kingston: Can Trump win?
In a few days time Americans will give their verdict on President Donald Trump. Do they want four more years of Trump in the White House, or will they opt for…
- The Interview
Jim O'Neill: Is this a time for governments to be bold?
In every crisis there is opportunity. It is a mantra beloved by business schools and political strategists, but should it offer us comfort as Covid-19…
- The Interview
Rob Schenck: Can Trump still count on the religious right?
We cannot know the contents of Donald Trump’s soul, but its fair to say his personal behaviour doesn't point to deeply held Christian belief. And yet the…
- The Interview
Volodymyr Zelensky: How is Ukraine's president faring?
When Ukrainians overwhelmingly voted to make a comedian president, Europeans wondered what the punchline would be. In an exclusive interview, Stephen Sackur…
- The Interview
Narendra Taneja: How well has India handled the coronavirus crisis?
Stephen Sackur speaks to the national spokesman for India's ruling BJP Narendra Taneja. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dominance of Indian politics is…
- The Interview
Joe Henrich: Is Western society 'weird'?
The debate between nature and nurture is as old as the hills - is genetics or cultural conditioning the key to understanding human evolution? We speak to…
- The Interview
James Rebanks: Sustainable food in a growing world
In a special edition of the programme, HARDtalk is in the area known as the Lake District in north-west England. The landscape is beautiful, but is not wild…
- The Interview
Leroy Logan: How hard is it to root out discrimination in the police?
The sense of systemic racial injustice in policing that has fuelled the Black Lives Matter movement is shared far beyond the shores of the United States. In…
- The Interview
Paolo Gentiloni: Can Europe's economy recover?
The economic fallout of Covid-19 has been tough, and with new waves of the virus appearing, restrictions on economic activity are being reimposed in many…
- The Interview
Yusef Salaam: How to reform the US criminal justice system
Yusef Salaam was just 16 when he and four other black and Latino teenagers were wrongly convicted of the rape and assault of a woman jogging in New York’s…
- The Interview
Leonid Volkov: What next for Russia's opposition?
As soon as he emerged from his coma Alexey Navalny, the Russian opposition leader apparently poisoned by novichok nerve agent, expressed his determination to…
- The Interview
Thomas Chatterton Williams: Race, identity and power
Not just in the United States, but across the world the Black Lives Matter movement has prompted debate about race, identity and power. It is a campaign…
- The Interview
Rafael Grossi: Is the world's nuclear watchdog being undermined?
What is the point of the world’s nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency? Its task is to ensure that countries intent on developing nuclear…
- The Interview
Douglas Ross: Can the new Scottish Conservative leader preserve the UK?
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces momentous challenges. The coronavirus pandemic, an economic slump and a looming moment of truth for Britain’s relations…
- The Interview
Gitanas Nausėda: Will people power take Belarus in a new direction?
Will Moscow’s will prevail in Belarus, or will people power take the country in a new direction? Stephen Sackur speaks to Gitanas Nausėda, the president of…
- The Interview
Frank Luntz: Can Donald Trump win?
With just two months until the US presidential election, the polls show the incumbent Donald Trump trailing Democrat Joe Biden by a significant margin. This is…
- The Interview
Laura Kövesi: Can the EU's 'corruption buster' deliver?
The EU is thought to have lost more than €10 billion to fraud over the last two decades, and yet its anti-fraud and anti-corruption agencies have long lacked…
- The Interview
UN Secretary General António Guterres: Is multilateralism dead?
The annual UN General Assembly gets underway this month in New York and this year it will be like no previous one. The coronavirus pandemic means the summit…
- The Interview
Alfre Woodard: The artist and the activist
Alfre Woodard has had a distinguished acting career, spanning five decades, with roles ranging from Winnie Mandela to a part in hit TV series Desperate…
- The Interview
Sam Harris: A place for conversation in an angry world
Thanks to the internet and the mobile phone our ability to communicate, inform and persuade has never been greater. So why is public debate getting ever more…
- The Interview
Natalia Pasternak: Brazil's battle between science and politics
The global Covid-19 pandemic has put a fierce spotlight on the relationship between scientists and policy makers. Leaders across the world have responded to…
- The Interview
Natalia Kaliada: Where do Belarus activists go from here?
His people have turned against him in the streets but Belarus's dictator Alexander Lukashenko is still in power and his security forces are still following his…
- The Interview
Katie Hill: When a politician's nude photos are leaked
Zeinab Badawi speaks to the American politician Katie Hill. She was a star of the US mid-term elections in 2018, but barely a year after winning a…
- The Interview
Kishore Mahbubani: Has Covid-19 weakened the West?
Increasing tensions between the US and China have plunged relations to the lowest level for decades. This comes at a time when the world is facing its worst…
- The Interview
Abdalla Hamdok: Exclusive interview with Sudan's Prime Minister
It is exactly a year since a historic power-sharing agreement was signed between the military and civilians in Sudan, after the fall of President Omar…
- The Interview
Wu'er Kaixi: China's crackdown on Uighur dissent
China goes to extraordinary lengths to monitor and mould the lives of its citizens. The most extreme example can be seen in Xinjiang, home to more than 10…
- The Interview
Nikol Pashinyan: Peace for Armenia and Azerbaijan?
One of the worlds most strategically sensitive conflict zones heated up dramatically last month when Armenian and Azerbaijani forces engaged in fighting which…
- The Interview
Raoul Nehme: Can Lebanon be saved from collapse?
After the unimaginable horror of the mega blast which devastated Beirut the people of Lebanon are now forced to live with a zombie government - dead in all but…
- The Interview
Chris Packham: 'Finding the good in the bad' of Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has inflicted huge economic damage, but it has also offered the natural world a little bit of respite – room to breathe. What will come…
- The Interview
Vanessa Neumann: Did Venezuela's opposition miss their chance?
Eighteen months ago, Venezuela seemed to be on the brink of political upheaval. The leader of the National Assembly declared himself president, and 50…
- The Interview
Sir Jeremy Farrar: 'I do believe there will be a vaccine' in 2020 and 2021
Amid the talk of spikes and second waves one thing is clear – people predicting an early end to the coronavirus pandemic are indulging in wishful thinking. Can…
- The Interview
Leader of Ireland's Sinn Fein party Mary Lou McDonald
Last February the talk in Ireland was of a political earthquake. The nationalist party Sinn Féin won the most votes in the general election and promised to…
- The Interview
Angus Deaton: The cost of the 'deaths of despair'
How do we judge the health of our economic systems? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to the Nobel Prize winning economist Sir Angus Deaton who believes it’s…
- The Interview
Gloria Allred: Epstein victim lawyer
HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi speaks to the veteran lawyer Gloria Allred. She is among the most famous attorneys in the US and her firm handles more women's rights…
- The Interview
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: 'No-one will be safe until everyone is safe'
If Covid-19 spreads across Africa, it could be a catastrophe. Its health systems are already under strain and could buckle under more pressure. Lockdowns have…
- The Interview
Adam Goodes: How racism drove him from Australian Rules football
Nowhere has the symbolic power of the Black Lives Matter movement been more evident than in the sports arena. All too often racism undermines the notion of a…
- The Interview
Husam Zomlot: How could Palestine respond to annexation?
It’s not clear when, or even if, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to deliver on his promise to annex a large chunk of the occupied West…
- The Interview
Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Nathan Law
The international outcry prompted by Beijing’s imposition of a new national security law in Hong Kong has been long and loud – but will it make any difference?…
- The Interview
Jane Goodall: A life with chimpanzees
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to the world-famous conservation activist Jane Goodall. She has made a unique contribution to humankind’s understanding of our…