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
Dec 16, 2022 • 23min
Wes Streeting: Is Britain ready for a new government?
British nurses are striking, and the health service is in trouble. Stephen Sackur speaks to Wes Streeting, a rising star of the UK's Labour party and their shadow health secretary. Does Labour have a credible plan to fix public services and save the UK from a winter of economic discontent?
Dec 14, 2022 • 24min
Oleksandra Matviichuk and Yan Rachinsky: Fighting for civil rights
Stephen Sackur is in Oslo to talk to two of the three joint winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Oleksandra Matviichuk is the head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. Yan Rachinsky is chairman of the human rights group Memorial in Russia. The third winner, pro-democracy activist Ales Bialiatski, is a political prisoner in Belarus. What can civil society activism achieve in the face of authoritarian aggression?Image: Yan Rachinsky (L) and Oleksandra Matviichuk (R) (Credit: NTB/Haakon Mosvold Larsen via Reuters)
Dec 7, 2022 • 24min
David Friedberg: Can tech fix our biggest challenges?
In a special edition from San Francisco, Stephen Sackur speaks to billionaire tech investor David Friedberg. He’s convinced science and technology can fix the world’s biggest challenges – climate, sustainable food, and energy production. But will we use our knowledge wisely?
Dec 6, 2022 • 24min
Daniel Ellsberg: Does the US military have too much power?
In an exclusive interview from California, Stephen Sackur speaks to Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower who exposed US government lies about Vietnam. He helped hasten President Nixon’s downfall and he’s warned Americans about the dangers of unchecked military power ever since. But are they listening?
Dec 2, 2022 • 24min
London Breed: What does San Francisco reveal about the US?
Stephen Sackur is in the US to speak to San Francisco’s mayor London Breed, a rising star of the Democratic Party. Her city is one of contrasts - vast tech wealth alongside rampant crime, drug use and homelessness. It symbolises America’s urban dysfunction. Can the mayor fix it?
Nov 30, 2022 • 24min
Rachel Clarke: Talking honestly about the end of life
Stephen Sackur speaks to the palliative care doctor and author Rachel Clarke. She has written thought-provoking, moving accounts of what it's like to be a junior doctor, and how it felt to confront the Covid pandemic. But perhaps her most powerful book focuses on a subject that many doctors, and the public, find it difficult to discuss: Death. In Dear Life, she weaves together the personal story of a daughter facing the terminal cancer illness of her beloved father with that of a doctor who made a deliberate choice to focus her care on the dying. In the process of dying, which will of course be the fate of every one of us, Rachel Clarke finds life lessons which we would all do well to learn. She asks us to consider a tough question: can dying be life affirming?
Nov 28, 2022 • 23min
Barbara Chase-Riboud: Monuments and controversy
Zeinab Badawi speaks to American artist and writer Barbara Chase-Riboud at the Serpentine Galleries in London. Over a career spanning seven decades, Chase-Riboud has explored public memory and commemorative forms, as well as shone a light on historical perspectives that have been overlooked or neglected. Her work raises fascinating questions about how society deals with public monuments of controversial figures from the past.
Nov 25, 2022 • 24min
Getachew Reda: Have Tigray's rebels surrendered?
One of the most costly conflicts of the 21st century may be over. Representatives of the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan rebels signed a peace agreement earlier this month. After two years of war, and perhaps half a million civilian deaths, Tigrayan forces are to give up their weapons; the Ethiopian army will take control of Tigray; and aid should begin to reach millions of desperate people. Stephen Sackur speaks to Getachew Reda, who signed the deal on behalf of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Was this in effect the TPLF’s surrender?
Nov 23, 2022 • 24min
Chelsea Manning: Does transparency justify leaking state secrets?
Stephen Sackur interviews former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who leaked a trove of military secrets and spent seven years behind bars. Did her actions undermine American security?
Nov 21, 2022 • 24min
Salome Zourabichvili: How much does Georgia have to fear from Russia?
The war in Ukraine has triggered fears that Vladimir Putin may set his sights on other former Soviet republics. Zeinab Badawi speaks to Salome Zourabichvili, the President of Georgia, whose country shares a long border with Russia. How worried is she?
