

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 15, 2021 • 24min
Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov: Fighting for a free press
Stephen Sackur is in Oslo to interview the joint winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Both are independent journalists who have defied threats and repression to continue their work. Maria Ressa, founder of the Rappler news website in the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov, long time editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta in Moscow. Theirs is a fight for freedom of expression. But is it a fight they are losing?(Photo: Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov during the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony. Credit: Stian Lysberg Solum/NTB/Reuters)

Dec 10, 2021 • 24min
John Kerry: US Special Envoy for Climate
Can America lead an effective global response to the climate change emergency? At last month’s COP26 summit in Glasgow the chorus of concern from world leaders was deafening, but the really tough decisions on deeper emissions cuts to reduce global warming were put off until next year. Stephen Sackur speaks to the US Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry. His mission is to restore American leadership on the biggest existential challenge facing our planet. But is that mission impossible?(Photo: John Kerry in the Hardtalk studio)

Dec 8, 2021 • 23min
Moeed Yusuf: What will a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan mean for Pakistan?
Stephen Sackur speaks with Moeed Yusuf, National Security Adviser of Pakistan. The Taliban is back in power in neighbouring Afghanistan. US and Nato forces are gone. Pakistan sees opportunities in this new reality but are there grave dangers too?(Photo: Moeed Yusuf appears via videolink on Hardtalk)

Dec 1, 2021 • 23min
Ken Buck: Big tech and Republican politics
We speak to Republican congressman Ken Buck, a libertarian on issues of gun control and Covid, but a supporter of breaking up America’s big tech giants. Do America’s conservatives have a coherent worldview, and is Donald Trump still at the heart of it?

Nov 29, 2021 • 23min
Nicolai Tangen: Can Norway move on from fossil fuels?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Nicolai Tangen, head of Norway's $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the biggest in the world. Fossil fuels have given Norwegians vast wealth. Are they now ready to wean themselves off oil and gas?

Nov 26, 2021 • 23min
Rana Ayyub: Abuse, intimidation and legal threats
Stephen Sackur speaks to the Indian investigative journalist Rana Ayyub whose determination to dig deep into the past and present of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has prompted abuse, intimidation and legal action. What does her case say about the health of India’s democracy?(Photo: Rana Ayyub appears via videolink on Hardtalk)

Nov 24, 2021 • 23min
Péter Márki-Zay: Can Viktor Orban be beaten at the ballot box?
Next Spring, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the EU's most controversial leader, will seek a new mandate. His grip on power in Budapest is tight, covering the parliament, the media and the economy. His opponents at home and in Brussels call him an autocrat, but can he beaten at the ballot box? Stephen Sackur speaks to Péter Márki-Zay, who will lead a united opposition front into the election. He’s a small town mayor with big ambition, but is being the candidate who is not Orban enough?

Nov 22, 2021 • 23min
Ryan Girdusky: Race and education in America
Scratch beneath the surface of everyday American life and you find an increasingly polarised culture. Donald Trump is no longer in the White House, but the culture wars he inflamed are still raging. In a special edition of HARDtalk from New York, Stephen Sackur speaks to an influential conservative activist in the thick of the fight. Ryan Girdusky, the founder of the 1776 Project Political Action Committee, says America’s schoolchildren are being brainwashed about race and he’s out to stop it. What does it say about America that the classroom is now a political battleground?

Nov 17, 2021 • 23min
George Takei: Growing up in an internment camp
Stephen Sackur talks to George Takei, forever famous as Lieutenant Sulu in Star Trek. Interned as a child in the United States for being of Japanese origin, he now campaigns for gay and immigrant rights. Do the values of Star Trek still resonate?

Nov 15, 2021 • 23min
Ritchie Torres: Is America ready to embrace progressive politics?
Stephen Sackur is in the south Bronx, New York, to speak to Ritchie Torres, a rising star of the Democratic Party. He is the first gay black man elected to Congress, and a vocal champion for the poorest district in the country. Is America as a whole ready to embrace progressive politics?


