In November, California will choose a new governor to replace Gavin Newsom, pitting Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra, a former US Secretary of Health and Human Services, US Congressman and state attorney general, against an unlikely Republican rival: Steve Hilton. Hilton was born in the UK and became a US citizen only five years ago. He had a career in center-right British politics, working as an adviser for former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron. In 2012, Hilton moved to California...
Jun 26, 2026•39 min
It’s 10 years since the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. It was an enormous decision, one that has contributed to the churn of British prime ministers since, a phenomenon that has continued this week with the resignation of Keir Starmer. What effect has Brexit had on UK politics and the British economy over the last decade? This bonus episode of The Mishal Husain Show is an opportunity to reflect and look ahead. Earlier this month, Alastair Campbell, Co-Host of The Rest Is Polit...
Jun 23, 2026•35 min
Meredith Whittaker has spent years arguing that privacy is a prerequisite for a free society. As the president of the nonprofit foundation behind the encrypted messaging app Signal, she now finds herself defending that principle in the face of mounting pressure from governments and tech companies alike. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Whittaker says she believes business models that rely on data collection, the rise of artificial intelligence assistants and even well-meaning efforts to ...
Jun 19, 2026•45 min
For decades, Gary Lineker anchored live sporting events for the BBC. Now he’s a podcaster and media boss. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, he talks about his new Netflix show and hopes for an England World Cup win. Lineker co-founded Goalhanger Productions, the UK’s fastest growing private company. Throughout the World Cup, his podcast “The Rest Is Football” will be streamed on Netflix. He talks about the politics around the tournament and FIFA boss Gianni Infantino’s relationship with U...
Jun 12, 2026•39 min
Peter Piot first encountered the Ebola virus in a laboratory in Antwerp in 1976. At the time, the pathogen was largely unknown. Now, almost 50 years later, a new outbreak is spreading through parts of Central Africa, triggering travel restrictions and quarantines across the globe. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Piot, one of the world's leading authorities on the disease, discusses why Ebola, while deadly, is not easily spread. The Belgian scientist also explains the challenge of contro...
Jun 05, 2026•38 min
Ada Ferrer won the Pulitzer Prize in 2022 for her acclaimed book, Cuba: An American History , which examined the island’s relationship with the US. Her latest work, Keeper of My Kin , tells her family story: a mother who fled the island nation carrying an infant daughter, while leaving a brother behind. Now, as Donald Trump increases pressure on Cubans and their leaders, cutting off oil while obtaining an indictment of Raul Castro for the 1996 shootdown of a small plane, Ferrer tells Mishal Husa...
May 29, 2026•42 min
David Dimbleby was for decades the face of election programs on the BBC. He anchored coverage of 10 UK general elections, as well as the 1975 and 2016 referendums on European membership, the funeral of Princess Diana and a host of other royal and state occasions. He’s seen prime ministers come and go, from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair and many more since. With Prime Minister Keir Starmer facing a potential leadership challenge, Dimbleby is uniquely placed to understand the characters and conf...
May 22, 2026•41 min
Beyond this week’s talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, there’s an epic tale that has been unfolding for decades. It’s a battle to be the world’s number one power and a much bigger story than the latest meeting of these two men. Kishore Mahbubani is a former Singaporean diplomat who served as president of the United Nations Security Council. For two decades, he has argued that the West fundamentally misunderstands the rise of China and its challenge to Americ...
May 15, 2026•35 min
For a brief moment in 2017, Anthony Scaramucci became a unit of time. His 11-day stint as White House communications director was so short-lived that it entered the political lexicon. Almost a decade on, he has proven more durable than the joke. The Trump loyalist-turned-critic, Wall Street financier and podcast host remains a well-known figure in American political culture. Scaramucci is still holding forth on the US president he once backed, as well as bets that have shaped his own career, inc...
May 08, 2026•48 min
For more than 30 years, the Indian-born writer Amitav Ghosh has built a global following with novels that draw on deep historical research. But his latest offering, Ghost-Eye, is more esoteric. The plot moves back and forth between India and the US, using past lives to explore the ties between the personal and the political. The plot centers on a psychiatrist treating a 3-year-old who shocks her family by insisting she remembers a past life in a fishing community. In this conversation with Misha...
May 01, 2026•34 min
We’re now eight weeks on from the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, a conflict that’s been watched with increasing alarm by Wendy Sherman, architect of the 2015 nuclear deal between the US and Iran and a former deputy secretary of state. Having spent years across the table from Iranian officials, she sees a far more volatile landscape today. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, she shares how her concerns go beyond the Middle East and explains how China and Russia are beneficiaries of th...
Apr 24, 2026•44 min
A new and radical take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet is out in US cinemas. The force behind it is actor, writer, producer and musician Riz Ahmed. He says the 400-year-old story has never felt more current. Ahmed, Oscar-nominated for Sound of Metal and star of the Oscar-winning live-action short The Long Goodbye , has a new series on Prime Video called Bait . It’s a black comedy about an actor on the cusp of a life-changing role as James Bond. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Ahmed talks about ...
Apr 17, 2026•39 min
After almost six weeks of war, how did Pakistan manage to get the US and Iran to talk? Amid a still-fragile situation in the Middle East, that question sits at the heart of this conversation with Maleeha Lodhi. She has served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, as well as to the UK and United Nations. For her, the Islamabad talks mark a moment of wider significance, as the middle powers demonstrate their capacity to influence geopolitics. Read this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg ...
Apr 09, 2026•32 min
Lionel Shriver has often tackled complex or contentious issues in her fiction. From school shootings in We Need to Talk About Kevin to economic collapse in The Mandibles. Her new novel, A Better Life , is the story of a family home taken over by outsiders. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Shriver discusses the sociological concerns behind the story, which she says is a metaphor for the increase in undocumented US immigration during the Biden administration. Shriver is a regular columnist...
Apr 02, 2026•45 min
With attention fixed on the potential developments between the US and Iran, could the Israeli government be forced to end the war earlier than it might like? The last few weeks have seen daily air strikes by Israel on Iran, and retaliatory attacks that have killed and injured Israelis. The wider picture is of two and a half years of constant conflict, particularly in Gaza. In this conversation, Mishal Husain speaks to Shira Efron, who has been a Middle East analyst for the last 20 years and is n...
Mar 27, 2026•41 min
US Representative Ro Khanna of California helped force Donald Trump to release the Epstein files. Now he wants to end the war with Iran. Earlier this month, the Democratic Congressman joined forces with Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Republican, on a War Powers resolution seeking to halt the military action, though it ultimately failed in the GOP-controlled House. Speaking to Mishal Husain almost three weeks after the US and Israel began coordinated attacks on Iran, Khanna says he b...
Mar 20, 2026•37 min
Despite the intensity of the US-Israel bombing campaign, Iran’s regime, now under a new supreme leader, hasn’t given President Donald Trump the “unconditional surrender” he’s seeking. Mishal Husain speaks with Vali Nasr, a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and a preeminent scholar on the Islamic Republic. His life has been shaped by the story of Iran over the last 50 years, starting when his family fled amid the 1979 revolution. His life’s work has ...
Mar 13, 2026•42 min
Within 24 hours of the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, a host of other countries were drawn into the latest conflict in the Middle East. Iran retaliated by targeting sites in Israel and across the Gulf, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as Iraq, Oman and Jordan. Israel, meanwhile, has carried out air strikes on Lebanon and sent in ground troops as it seeks to dismantle Iranian ally Hezbollah. For this conversation, Mishal Husain has turned to an expert on the br...
Mar 06, 2026•38 min
When President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, one of his first acts was to sign an executive order withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization. The administration's rupture with the WHO began in Trump’s first term, when relations deteriorated as the Covid-19 pandemic set in. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reveals he remains in close contact with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr....
Feb 27, 2026•42 min
“KPop Demon Hunters” is the brainchild of Korean-Canadian animator Maggie Kang. It’s Netflix’s biggest-ever film and follows Rumi, Mira and Zoey, members of the girl band Huntrix, as they battle to save the world from dark forces. As you’ll hear, Kang grew up loving Korean pop music long before it was globally cool and forged a Hollywood career on films including “The Lego Ninjago Movie” and “Kung Fu Panda 3.” In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Kang explains how she had always hoped a stor...
Feb 20, 2026•41 min
The Feb. 19 arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the brother of King Charles, puts the British Royal Family into uncharted territory. The former Prince Andrew was detained on suspicion of misconduct in public office after further details emerged of his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. For this bonus episode, Mishal Husain speaks to Allegra Stratton, a contributing editor to Bloomberg who previously worked for Prime Minister Boris Johnson. She’s also joined by Harry Wils...
Feb 19, 2026•25 min
This winter has been exceptionally brutal in Ukraine. Already the coldest in more than a decade, it’s been made worse by Russian attacks on energy infrastructure that have left millions with no heating and intermittent power. As Russia’s war approaches its fourth anniversary, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is under intense pressure from Donald Trump to hold elections and accept a peace deal within months. But inside Ukraine and among its allies, there remains deep skepticism that Vladim...
Feb 13, 2026•37 min
In 2007 when he was UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband delivered an address to the Labour Party conference. He described a world with “fewer countries at war” and “more democracies than ever before.” Two decades later, with that vision further from view, Miliband is head of the New York-based International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s largest aid agencies. Its “Emergency Watchlist” cites 20 urgent crises, from Haiti to Sudan and the Middle East to Myanmar. The group finds itself increa...
Feb 06, 2026•42 min
The killing of two US citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis has made January a dark month for many across America. Both Alex Pretti and Renee Good were quickly labeled “domestic terrorists" by the Trump administration, which accused them of endangering the lives of law enforcement. Video evidence soon appeared to contradict government claims, but it’s still a label that filmmaker Laura Poitras says she finds chilling. Poitras has been producing and directing documentaries for more than 20 ye...
Jan 30, 2026•46 min
Rutger Bregman knows what appearing at Davos can do for your profile. His reputation was made when he went there in 2019 and attacked the rich. The clip went viral. A historian and author originally from the Netherlands, Bregman has been focused on elites ever since, most recently in his book Moral Ambition , and in a series of lectures on the BBC, after which he accused the organization of censoring his views on Donald Trump. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, we hear more about his world...
Jan 23, 2026•38 min
What is Donald Trump’s plan for Venezuela? Does he have one? Will he go beyond threats in supporting the uprising in Iran or invading Greenland? Jeanne Shaheen has been in the US Senate since 2009 and is now the most senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. Her position has given her access to information most lawmakers don’t have. She’s also known as someone prepared to work with Republicans. Indeed, she was one of the eight Democrats who joined the GOP to end last year’s government ...
Jan 16, 2026•33 min
US President Donald Trump’s tough talk about China and tariffs can be traced back in large part to economist Peter Navarro. A well-known China hawk, he has written books arguing Beijing poses a threat to the US economy and its national security. Navarro is a loyalist who has served as a key trade adviser in both Trump administrations. In between, he spent four months behind bars for refusing to comply with a Congressional subpoena tied to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. It is Navarro ...
Jan 09, 2026•35 min
Kara Swisher has followed the story of Silicon Valley for three decades, having started work as a tech journalist at a time when few people were interested in the beat. But through relationships she built with the likes of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and many others, she became a formidable voice, and eventually more of a commentator and critic. Swisher now hosts the podcasts Pivot and On with Kara Swisher . Following a year in which Silicon Valley titans lined up behind Donald Trump...
Jan 02, 2026•37 min
As the year draws to a close, we are bringing you one of Mishal Husain’s biggest conversations of the year, in full. In May 2025, Elon Musk joined Bloomberg's Qatar Economic Forum, in a rare media appearance. He remains as consequential a global figure today, as he was then, even if he is no longer working with Donald Trump. Within 10 days of this conversation, he had left DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, and soon after that he was publicly trading insults with the president. Musk ...
Dec 26, 2025•44 min
Lynsey Addario’s life work means taking great risks to tell other people’s stories. She is a Pulitzer Prize winning war photographer who has been abducted twice while documenting conflicts from Afghanistan to Ukraine and Sudan. There aren’t many women in her field. In a new National Geographic documentary called “Love+War,” currently streaming on Disney+, she lets us into that world, one she’s made her profession for three decades. Addario shows how she adjusts from a work environment of grave d...
Dec 19, 2025•44 min
