“It's what we call a new world disorder: 60 wars, 120 million people - refugees and displaced, 300 million people hungry, plus another 45 million according to the World Food Program as a result of the constrictions in the Strait of Hormuz. That's a disordered world. And people can inveigh against international institutions as much as they like, but the problem we're facing is not that there's too strong an international system - it's too weak.” Caitríona Perry speaks to David Miliband, President...
Jun 04, 2026•26 min
Amol Rajan speaks to tech billionaire Reid Hoffman, about why he thinks artificial intelligence could transform the future of work. Reid Hoffman is best known for co-founding LinkedIn, the largest professional networking platform in the world, and revolutionising the world of work. He wants to do it again with a rapid adoption of AI in the workplace in a way he says is safe and ethical. As one of the world’s richest men he also gives his thoughts on tech billionaires and his former relationship ...
Jun 02, 2026•23 min
“Historically, as a region, we’ve been extracted at two levels. If you look at the AI value chain, a lot of our youth, some who have studied computer science, are left at data labelling roles at the bottom of the value chain, where the least value is created. In a different way, a lot of our data is being extracted for free to train those systems. We want to make sure we don’t go into similar models that we had during colonisation.” Leanna Byrne speaks to Kate Kallot, founder of the Kenyan artif...
May 31, 2026•23 min
“I was born in Coleraine, then I moved to Wales and then I moved to Ireland. It's very complicated and I feel there's a strange sense if you grow up somewhere different from where you were born. That's just true of everyone. If your accent doesn't match your name - as in my case - I think you walk alongside all your life a kind of ghost-self in that there's always a sense of ‘who would I have been if we'd stayed?’” Katie Razzall speaks to acclaimed writer Maggie O’Farrell. The 54-year-old has be...
May 28, 2026•23 min
“I feel numb. It feels unreal to me, having been in Sudan all my life. I have never imagined that it will turn into a war field, it looks like a nightmare. At first that it is just days or months or even a year, but it went on and it kept escalating. Even our homes are no longer habitable. One of my sons went back to have a look and he said you wouldn't even find a spoon for your tea.” James Copnall speaks to Aisha Musa, one of the civilian figures who helped lead Sudan after the overthrow of Om...
May 26, 2026•23 min
“This is a calling. It's bigger than anything in your life as an individual. If you found the thing that you were put on this planet to do, and a lot of people are put on this planet and they don't know, it's such a gift to find it.” Nick Grimshaw and Annie Macmanus speak to global music icon Chaka Khan about her life and career. Born Yvette Marie Stevens in the US city of Chicago in 1953, her big break came at the age of 20 when her band Rufus signed its first record deal. With her powerful voc...
May 24, 2026•26 min
“Most of Africa is rural, and although urbanisation is taking root now, the systems that deliver financial services to women are still eluding them.” Leanna Byrne speaks to microfinance pioneer Dr Jennifer Riria about her life, career, and personal mission to improve the lives of women in some of Africa’s poorest communities. Having started life in a poor, rural village in Kenya, Dr Riria worked her way up to develop and run one of the biggest microfinance institutions for women in Africa. Micro...
May 21, 2026•24 min
“This is a war. We will treat it as a war, and first thing that we want is the war to end. We want peace. We want a better life for our people, especially for our youth.” Caitriona Perry speaks to Ecuador President Daniel Noboa about his hard-line military crackdown on violent criminal gangs, which has involved measures that human rights groups warn could pose a risk to civil liberties. President Noboa, who is one of the world’s youngest leaders, has warned about the levels of crime faced in Ecu...
May 19, 2026•23 min
BBC journalist Megha Mohan speaks to Sierra Leone’s first lady, Fatima Bio, about escaping child marriage at the age of 13, rebuilding her life as a refugee in London, and her rise to become one of the country’s most outspoken public figures. Since becoming first lady, Bio has transformed the role in Sierra Leone, campaigning publicly on issues including child marriage, sexual violence and period poverty. To supporters, she is a refreshing voice in politics, who speaks up for women and girls, wh...
May 17, 2026•23 min
James Menendez speaks to Leopoldo Lopez, once the most prominent face of Venezuela’s opposition, he is now living in exile in Spain. He spent more than a decade attempting to unseat Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian government and was imprisoned for over three years, accused of inciting the 2014 anti-government protests. Following the capture and arrest of Maduro by US forces in January, the country has entered a new and uncertain phase, with Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez now acting as interim lea...
May 14, 2026•23 min
“Russians collected all Kenyans and did everything for them to go to the front line, to go to the death zone.” Waihiga Mwaura speaks to Yurii Tokar the Ukraine ambassador to Kenya. The Ukrainian claims Russia deliberately deployed many conscripted Kenyans to the front line of the Russia-Ukraine war shortly before the Kenyan foreign minister arrived in Moscow with the intention of stopping recruitment of his countrymen. The Russian embassy in Kenya did not immediately respond to the BBC's request...
May 12, 2026•23 min
“It’s outrageous because these nuclear plant facilities were certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency as purely peaceful facilities. The inspectors, they spent, there, a lot of time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Iran is the most verifiable country, thousands of inspections. The agency knows everything about what is going on.” BBC journalist Farnaz Ghazizadeh speaks to Mikhail Ivanovich Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, about the collap...
May 10, 2026•22 min
“During the recent conflict [in Iran], there was a pause, not a full stop or halt of the functions. Once the airspace opened up again, we reprioritized the delivery of those life-saving kits to the member states, and we came back on track… We still find hope in the communication between the different member states, between the different partners to secure some of these supplies, or keep supply chains alive.” Daniel Dadzie speaks to Hanan Balkhy, the World Health Organisation’s Regional Director ...
May 07, 2026•23 min
“There's this idea that you [can] sail your way to success or have some overnight success or kind of come upon success relatively easily. And that has just never, ever been.” Amol Rajan speaks to entrepreneur and businesswoman Emma Grede about the trade-offs we have to make to get to where we want to be in life. Emma Grede is co-founder of the clothing brand Skims, which she created with her husband Jens and Kim Kardashian. From ordinary beginnings in East London to the forefront of global consu...
May 05, 2026•23 min
‘The power of AI is that it's able to capture everything, it’s able to try to interpret everyone objectively. Human beings are imperfect in terms of their capability to listen and understand. Everyone unconsciously, when they listen, they don't hear everything.’ Zoe Kleinman speaks to Sam Liang chief executive and co-founder of artificial intelligence transcription start-up Otter.ai Sam Liang was born in China and moved to the US in 1991. He received a PhD from Stanford University before joining...
May 03, 2026•23 min
“When we only had reconnaissance drones, we learned fast. We began attaching warheads to the drones. Grenades, then homemade munitions that we produced ourselves. We would locate the enemy with the drone and drop them on him. Then FPV drones entered our lives. An FPV drone is a one-way, disposable drone. That was when the way of war began to change” In a rare interview, Sarah Rainsford speaks to Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s drone forces, about the rapid evolution of drone warfare and ho...
Apr 30, 2026•23 min
“I saw the damage, the loss. The buildings being destroyed, the infrastructure being completely damaged in that area. And it was sad and heartbreaking.” Waihiga Mwaura speaks to SungAh Lee, from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) about the war in Sudan which has entered its fourth year and has led to one of the worst humanitarian crisis and biggest displacements of people. SungAh Lee recently travelled to Sudan to assess the situation on the ground. She tells us how it felt to re...
Apr 28, 2026•23 min
“If you play piano, bass guitar, saxophone, I don’t care - I'll play with you all night. That's how I did it. And I tell all my grandkids - get an event, get a few of your schoolmates together. They're practising and playing by themselves. Get with people!” Regan Morris speaks to musician Ringo Starr about his career. Born in Liverpool, England, during the Second World War in 1940, Ringo, real-name Richard Starkey, found fame as the drummer of the legendary British band The Beatles - widely rega...
Apr 26, 2026•23 min
“One thing I have learned from my childhood til now is that when you fall, you get up, dust yourself off, and do it over and over again. I’ve had a lot of up and downs in my business life in America. I’ve had many failures and people only talk about successes, but failures in my mind are the foundation of success.” Rahul Tandon speaks to Iranian-American entrepreneur Isaac Larian. The 72-year-old billionaire is the founder and chief executive of US-based MGA Entertainment, one of the world’s lar...
Apr 24, 2026•23 min
“We were able to improve the health of the gorillas and people together. What we do is we improve the health and the livelihoods of the local communities. Because as long as people are poor, they're going to keep entering the forest to poach and collect firewood and they're going to end up making the gorillas sick, or picking up diseases from wildlife in the forest.” Myra Anubi speaks to Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, a Ugandan wildlife vet and founder of Conservation Through Public Health, about th...
Apr 22, 2026•23 min
“I don't necessarily want it to be the most giant album of all time and be selling out stadiums. I want something that lasts and that feels timeless and thoughtful.” Mark Savage speaks to Mercury Prize-winning singer-songwriter Arlo Parks about her life and music career. Born in London, the half Nigerian, quarter Chadian and quarter French artist, real name Anaïs Marinho, has enjoyed great success in her music career since her debut album was released in 2021. Having broken onto the music scene ...
Apr 19, 2026•23 min
Victoria Derbyshire speaks to survivors of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting a trial for sex trafficking. The interview took place in Washington DC, two weeks before Melania Trump, US First Lady, gave an unexpected press conference at the White House where she called for congressional hearings for the Epstein survivors. Millions of documents, emails and photographs are now in the public domain and show Epstein’s connections to high prof...
Apr 16, 2026•23 min
“It was three submarines. We tracked them 24/7 for over a month to make sure that we are able to say to Putin, we see what you’re doing, we’re watching you. It means that if there is ever any damage to our cables or our pipelines, we know we can hold Putin to account. We know he can’t deny it.” Adam Fleming speaks to John Healey, the UK Defence Secretary, after he revealed Russian submarines have been carrying out covert operations over the UK’s deep-sea cables and pipelines, critical to energy ...
Apr 14, 2026•22 min
“The fact that we are now the world's largest funder of the World Health Organisation should be a major embarrassment to every country on this planet.” Sam Fenwick speaks to Mark Suzman, CEO of Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropic organisation, about why he thinks cuts to global aid spending is costing lives. He says the Foundation has overtaken world governments to become the largest financial backer of the WHO. Last year, the United States scaled back parts of its overseas aid b...
Apr 12, 2026•23 min
Amol Rajan speaks to Simukai Chigudu, associate professor of African Politics at Oxford University about the legacy of empire and how to reckon with the past. A member of the first generation born after the end of colonial rule in Zimbabwe, Simukai Chigudu came to the UK as a teenager and later became one of the founding members of a campaign to try to get the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes moved from Oriel College in Oxford. Now an associate professor of African politics at the University o...
Apr 09, 2026•23 min
“These companies don't really care what governments do. Their priority is their shareholders, their own existence and the next quarter of growth. There is the possibility that governments can regulate them, but they just don't. They don't regulate them properly. The most they get are multi-billion dollar fines, which sounds like a lot, but actually in the grand scheme of things it's pocket change. It is a parking ticket for these companies.” Misha Glenny speaks to technology writer Parmy Olson a...
Apr 07, 2026•23 min
“I think there's nothing off limits [with comedy] because it's subconscious, it's examining things. I find it quite interesting. And Monty Python was particularly good at not allowing ourselves to be censored, although people tried with ‘The Life Of Brian’... But that’s what made it a hit.” John Wilson speaks to English comedian, writer, musician and actor Eric Idle about his life and career. He’s best-known for being a founding member of the comedy troupe Monty Python, writing and performing ac...
Apr 05, 2026•12 min
“I hope humanity will stop for a moment when four humans are on the far side of the moon and be reminded that we can do a better job as humans of just lifting each other up. Not destroying, but creating together.” Rebecca Morelle and Tim Peake speak to Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen ahead of the launch of Artemis II. Hansen is one of four crew members of NASA’s latest mission into Space. Launching from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, Artemis II will be heading to the Moon and will circle it b...
Apr 02, 2026•23 min
Winnie Byanyima, head of UNAids. has devoted her life to advancing human rights and equality, first in her home country Uganda, and then on the global stage: “We live in a complex world, a challenging world. I am somebody who fights for social justice and gender equality, and I continue to do so. It's maybe a tough environment, but I do not change my position. I don't alter it at all.” Part of the pro-democracy movement in Uganda, she is now a critic of the country’s leadership and what she beli...
Mar 31, 2026•23 min
“I don't think they failed. I think that more work needs to be done. Nigerian security agencies are working around the clock to ensure that this does not happen again. We don't want to see people being attacked, we don't to see people denied sleep as a result of the activities of these criminals and religious extremists.” Victoria Uwonkunda speaks to Mohammed Idris, Nigeria’s Information Minister, about renewed concerns over security following a wave of deadly suicide bombings in the country’s n...
Mar 29, 2026•23 min
