The Interview
BBC World Service
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 the BBC, our journalists interview amazing people every single day. And on The Interview, we bring them to you.
It’s your one-stop-shop to the best conversations coming out of the BBC, with the people shaping our world, from all over the world.
Get in touch with us on emailTheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
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 the BBC, our journalists interview amazing people every single day. And on The Interview, we bring them to you.
It’s your one-stop-shop to the best conversations coming out of the BBC, with the people shaping our world, from all over the world.
Get in touch with us on emailTheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jul 12, 2012 • 23min
Paul Kagame - President of Rwanda
Is Rwanda's president Paul Kagame in serious danger of losing the international community's goodwill?He has been accused of autocratic behaviour and of being unrealistic about the prospects for an economic transformation of Rwanda, a country still haunted by the ghosts of genocide.Perhaps most damagingly, a recent UN report claimed that the Rwandan government is breaking UN sanctions by backing rebels in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.Zeinab Badawi talks to President Paul Kagame: can he reclaim his reputation as a bold and visionary leader or is he destined to go down as another African strongman who failed to live up to expectations?(Image: Rwandan President Paul Kagame in 2010. Credit: AP Photo / Adam Scotti)
Jul 11, 2012 • 23min
Karel De Gucht - European Commissioner for Trade
Stephen Sackur talks to a member of the Brussels political elite, the EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht. His job is to promote Europe's trade agenda around the world - but who is listening when the EU itself is staring over an economic abyss?Europe's politicians resemble the cast of a third rate disaster movie... trapped in a Eurozone crisis from which there is no obvious means of escape. Can the continent's leaders stay calm or will rising panic consume them?(Image: Karel de Gucht giving a press conference in February 2012 Credit: AFP / Getty Images)
Jul 9, 2012 • 23min
Femi Kuti - Musician and Activist
Zeinab Badawi talks to the musician and political activist Femi Kuti, son of the late, legendary afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. As Africa's most populous nation and one of its biggest oil producers, Nigeria is a giant on the African stage. But in terms of prosperity it has never fulfilled the expectations of its people.Femi Kuti is a constant thorn in the side of the Nigerian authorities and uses his songs to criticise government and speak up on behalf of the poor and dispossessed. But with fantastic rates of growth in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, is Femi Kuti being overly pessimistic about Nigeria's prospects?(Image: Femi Kuti performs on the stage in 2008. Credit: Stephane de Sakutin / AFP / Getty Images)
Jul 6, 2012 • 23min
Ghazi Hamad – Hamas Deputy Foreign Minister
The election of a Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi as president of Egypt will have an impact not only on Egypt but also elsewhere in the Middle East. Nowhere more so perhaps than in Gaza. There, Hamas, which is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, has ruled for five years. Zeinab Badawi speaks to Ghazi Hamad, deputy foreign minister for Hamas in Gaza. At loggerheads with the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank and viewed by Israel as a terrorist organisation, will the new dynamics of power in Egypt better serve the cause of peace and reconciliation in the Middle East or merely exacerbate the tensions?
Jul 3, 2012 • 23min
Professor Niall Ferguson - Historian
The British Government has promised action to deal with the scandal at Barclays. The bank has been fined for trying to fix the interest rate at which banks lend to each other - London Interbank Offered Rate - or Libor. Yet again it's the lack of regulation that is being blamed for a financial problem. Sarah Montague talks to Professor Niall Ferguson who argues that the world is responding in the wrong way to the global financial crisis. He thinks the economic chaos which began in 2007 was caused by too much regulation, not too little.(Image: Professor Niall Ferguson)
Jul 1, 2012 • 23min
Lynton Crosby - Political Strategist
Electoral politics is a blood sport and some of the toughest fighters in the game are the campaign strategists who hone and sell their candidates' message.Lynton Crosby is widely regarded as a master in the dark arts of political campaigning. He ran winning election campaigns in his native Australia for former prime minister John Howard. In the UK, he twice helped Boris Johnson win the London Mayor's office. Opponents on the left have accused him of using grubby, divisive methods to further a conservative agenda. Is bare-knuckle politics good for democracy?(Image: Lynton Crosby)
Jun 29, 2012 • 23min
Helle Thorning-Schmidt - Denmark's Prime Minister
Stephen Sackur is in the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, which for the past six tumultuous months has held the presidency of the European Union. In that time, the number of Eurozone countries seeking an emergency financial bailout has risen to five. On the eve of yet another crisis summit, EU leaders face decisions that could make, or break the common currency. Stephen Sackur talks to Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark's prime minister. Is the dream of a common European future from Scandinavia to the Aegean well and truly over?(Image: Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt giving a press conference. Credit: Georges Gobet / AFP / Getty Images)
Jun 26, 2012 • 23min
Gehad El-Haddad - Senior Political Advisor, Freedom and Justice Party
Stephen Sackur talks to Gehad El-Haddad, an adviser to the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.Mohamed Morsi has made history by becoming Egypt's first freely-elected president, but how much power has he won? The image of tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters savouring victory in Tahrir Square can't disguise the fact that Egypt is still governed by a military clique. With Parliament dissolved, no new constitution written and the generals ringfencing their powers, has Egypt's revolution run out of road?(Image: Gehad El-Haddad)
Jun 24, 2012 • 23min
Dr. Steve Peters - Psychiatrist working in elite sport
Dr. Steve Peters is a psychiatrist renowned for his work in mental coaching for elite athletes, including the British Olympic cycling team. He discusses the profound impact of mental conditioning on peak performance, emphasizing the essential link between psychology and athletics. Peters introduces a three-part brain model to explain how mindset influences success under pressure. He also addresses the challenges elite athletes face, advocating for a balanced approach to mental health while navigating the ethics of competition in the pursuit of victory.
Jun 22, 2012 • 23min
Beeban Kidron - Film Director
The 2012 Cannes Film Festival was criticised when all 22 films in the competition were directed by men. But Hollywood is not much better - a recent study found that less than 10 per cent of its directors were women.So why are there so few women film-makers? Sarah Montague puts that question to Beeban Kidron, one of the few women to have made the big time. She is perhaps best-known for directing the second Bridget Jones movie, The Edge of Reason. But most of her other films concern far more radical material: a documentary about the anti-nuclear women protesters at Greenham Common, a TV adaptation of the lesbian novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Her latest documentary is about India's sacred prostitutes. Is it women and the choices they make that interests her most?(Image: Beeban Kidron in 2005. Credit: Ian West / PA Wire)
