Amanda Knox became internationally known following the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher in Pereugia, Italy, and the years of legal proceedings and media scrutiny that followed. Knox was found guilty of Meredith’s murder in 2009 but was ultimately acquitted in 2015. She has since written and spoken extensively about her experience, and has advocated for others who may have been falsely imprisoned. Her latest documentary, Mouth of the Wolf, sees her return to Perugia, where she spent four years in ...
Apr 24, 2026•46 min
Heston Blumenthal is one of the world’s most innovative chefs, known for transforming the way we think about food, flavour and the dining experience. From his self-taught beginnings to building one of the most celebrated restaurants in the world, his career has been defined by curiosity, experimentation and a refusal to follow convention. But beyond the kitchen, Blumenthal has also been navigating deeply personal mental health challenges that almost led him to death at one point. In 2023, Heston...
Mar 20, 2026•47 min
My guest this week is Eric Schlosser, the investigative journalist and author whose work has fundamentally changed how we think about what we eat. Fast Food Nation was a landmark book that exposed the abuse of animals and the exploitation of workers at the heart of America's food industry. Now, 25 years after it was first published, Schlosser says he is astonished that not only has the industry failed to improve, in many ways it has gotten worse. And yet, despite this, he still believes change i...
Mar 13, 2026•41 min
Warning: moderate strong language Ece Temelkaran is an award-winning journalist and novelist who has spent years warning that the collapse of democracy rarely announces itself with a bang. Instead, it happens gradually - institution is weaken, truth is eroded and what once felt unthinkable becomes normal. Ece knows this first hand. After being fired from her newspaper in Turkey amid mounting political pressure, she watched her country slide towards what she says is authoritarianism, a story she ...
Mar 06, 2026•39 min
Katharine Viner has spent the past decade running one of the most influential news organisations in the world, steering it through profound industry change, digital upheaval and intense political pressure. She became the first woman to lead The Guardian in its 205-year history. Under her editorship the paper has transformed its funding model, expanded globally, and fought to preserve the idea of independent public interest journalism at a time when trust in the media is under sustained strain. O...
Feb 27, 2026•42 min
“It's really a deep irony that this guy who has really never set foot in a normal American street was mistaken as a man of the people”, writer George Saunders says of the US President, Donald Trump. His work has long centred on the very people who live with the consequences of decisions made far above them, ordinary and fallible individuals navigating increasingly hostile conditions. In a world marked by political lies, climate denial and the erosion of shared reality, Saunders’ fiction interrog...
Feb 20, 2026•42 min
Clara Mattei is an economist who wants us to rethink the idea that capitalism is simply the natural order of things. She is an author and professor of economics whose work explores how economic ideas become tools of power, shaping policy while masking the political decisions beneath. Her new book, Escape from Capitalism, argues that many of the problems that we see as inevitable - poverty, unemployment, inflation - are built into the system and shored up by models and theories designed to convin...
Feb 13, 2026•38 min
For decades veteran Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani has challenged what he sees as Western complacency, warned of the irreversible rise of Asia, and argued that the global order must adapt to a world no longer dominated by Europe and the United States. And now it appears Western leaders have caught up with him as a new world order is declared in the wake of the “rupture”, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called it, of President Trump’s second term. Born into poverty in Singapore, he...
Feb 05, 2026•36 min
Mehdi Hasan is a prominent broadcast journalist in America who’s forthright anti-Trump and pro-Palestinian opinions have thrust him to the fore of many of the big issues facing the country today. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Zeteo, previously hosting The Mehdi Hasan Show on MSNBC, and his work straddles the line between conventional journalism and advocacy-driven argument. In this episode of Ways to Change the World he tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy why he believes American democracy is ...
Jan 26, 2026•47 min
Nick Lowles has spent three decades fighting racism and extremism and in 2004 founded the advocacy group Hope Not Hate which became instrumental in defeating the far-right British National Party. Under his leadership, Hope Not Hate has become a leading voice in the UK against hate groups and far-right extremism, while Nick himself has become the target of countless threats. His new book, How to defeat the far right: lessons from Hope Not Hate, tells the story of how intolerance and hate have gro...
Jan 02, 2026•50 min
Rebecca Kuang is the bestselling novelist whose books explore some of the most fraught debates of our time, interrogating racism in publishing, cultural appropriation, tokenism and diversity politics. Her novel Yellowface in particular struck a nerve, highlighting the pressures and hypocrisies of the modern literary world, from social media mobbing and cancel culture to the uncomfortable questions about who gets to tell which stories. On this episode of Ways to Change the World, she speaks to Kr...
Dec 26, 2025•42 min
Chris McCausland is perhaps now best known as the first blind contestant on Strictly Come Dancing and the show's 2024 champion. His famous waltz with dancer Diane Buswell even won a Bafta as the most memorable moment in TV. He first started losing sight as a young boy due to a genetic condition, and was fully blind in his early twenties. But he has never let disability define him. In his latest autobiography, Keep Laughing, Chris details the journey of a boy from Liverpool who goes on to win the...
Dec 19, 2025•43 min
Sanna Marin became Finland’s prime minister at just 34 - the youngest serving national leader at the time. She was raised by her mother and her mother’s female partner in modest circumstances, and was the first in her family to complete high school and attend university. Since her rise to power, Marin has become known for her outspoken commitment to climate action, social justice and democratic values. In her memoir Hope in Action, Marin shares a journey marked by resilience and hope, as well as...
Dec 12, 2025•32 min
Cory Doctorow has spent decades helping to shape the way we think about the modern internet. He is a campaigner against monopolies, surveillance and digital rights. His new book Enshitification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It analyses how the internet giants have captured us and become not quite as good as we had thought they were. On this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Cory about the broken systems we are living in and what we can ...
Dec 05, 2025•41 min
Jan Ravens is one of the UK’s most celebrated impressionists and comedians. She first discovered comedy at Cambridge University’s Footlights society, where she made history as the first female president. Now she is best known for her work on the hit BBC show Dead Ringers, where her impressions of figures like Theresa May, Liz Truss, Margaret Thatcher and others have become iconic. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Jan about the meaning of satire and the ...
Nov 28, 2025•37 min
Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, is calling on Unilever to “free” the ice cream brand after years of clashes over its social mission and stance on issues like Gaza. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Ben tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy why he believes business has become the strongest force in society - and why it must care about more than profit. Unilever maintains that it’s working to create “a fairer, more socially inclusive world”.
Nov 21, 2025•36 min
David Shrigley is one of Britain’s most original and celebrated contemporary artists. Known for his deadpan drawings, iconic sculptures and ambitious installations, David Shrigley’s work blends absurd humour with sharp observations on everyday life. On this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy joins David at his latest show, Exhibition of Old Rope, in central London to discuss art, politics and Donald Trump.
Nov 14, 2025•51 min
Founding member of Pussy Riot and one of the most high-profile political activists in Russia imprisoned by Vladimir Putin's government - in this Ways to Change the World Podcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Masha Alyokhina. She became internationally known after the group's protest performance in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2012, which led to her arrest and two years in prison. Since her release, Masha has continued to challenge Putin's regime and fight for freedom of expressi...
Nov 07, 2025•30 min
Lynsey Addario is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American photojournalist who has spent two decades covering conflicts and humanitarian crises across the globe. Travelling to the frontlines of some of the world’s most dangerous countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Ukraine. She has a string of alarming personal stories to go with it. She has been detained by the Libyan army, forced to go through an X-ray scanner three times by Israeli forces who knew she was pregnant at the time. She once ...
Oct 31, 2025•33 min
Jimmy Wales is the co-founder of Wikipedia - the free digital encyclopedia that just about everyone in the Western world goes to if they need to quickly know anything. It has been going for almost 25 years, determinedly democratic, non-profit and user-run, but increasingly under attack by right-wing influencers, Republican politicians and Elon Musk for being biased and with an overly-progressive ideology. And now AI models like ChatGPT are parking their tanks firmly on Wikipedia's lawn, claiming...
Oct 24, 2025•50 min
Munya Chawawa wants to make you laugh, but not at the expense of someone else. Through his sharp satire and viral sketches, his comedy explores the line between humour and harm, showing how you can illuminate difficult truths without tearing people down. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Munya joins Krishnan Guru-Murthy to talk about comedy, kindness, and the power of perspective. He reflects on growing up in Zimbabwe, navigating early experiences of bullying, and the challenge of fin...
Oct 17, 2025•47 min
Husam Zomlot was born in a refugee camp in Gaza and has since become one of the most prominent Palestinian voices on the world stage. In 2017, Zomlot was appointed envoy to the United States, until the Trump administration shut down the PLO mission in Washington. The following year he became Head of the Palestinian Mission in London, a role that has now been elevated to Ambassador after the UK’s formal recognition of the State of Palestine. He has been a leading voice for Gaza throughout the rec...
Sep 26, 2025•55 min
Sir Tim Berners-Lee launched the worldwide web on Christmas day 1990; an invention which has undeniably and profoundly changed the world. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Sir Tim spoke with Krishnan Guru-Murthy about why addictive algorithms should be made illegal, the potential for artificial intelligence to outsmart humans, and how the internet has been both a powerful force for good and a source of significant harm to the world.
Sep 19, 2025•38 min
Sir Ian McEwan is one of Britain’s most acclaimed novelists, a Booker prize winner with a career spanning five decades with work that often explores morality, memory, and the intersections of private lives with public events. Sir Ian has long been associated with contemporaries like Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, and Salman Rushdie, who together reshaped the British novel from the 1980s onward. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, he spoke to Krishnan Guru-Murthy about the great issues faci...
Sep 12, 2025•29 min
Philippa Perry has spent years helping people understand their inner lives, but she believes that something fundamental has shifted in the way we connect. Lockdown, she says, left many young people struggling with social confidence, while the dominance of phones and texting has created “fantasy relationships” that don’t prepare us for the realities of face-to-face communication. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Philippa joins Krishnan Guru-Murthy to discuss the hidden costs of social...
Sep 05, 2025•40 min
Mona Chalabi is a Pulitzer Prize-winning data journalist, illustrator, writer, and commentator who gained international recognition for her distinctive illustrations which distil complex issues into art that is deeply relatable and easily understood. In this episode of Ways To Change The World, she tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy what people should know about data journalism in a world where we are constantly bombarded by information. She also shares how reporting on Gaza has taken an emotional toll....
Aug 29, 2025•35 min
After a summer of Britpop revival provoked by the Oasis concerts, nineties legends Suede are about to take over the Southbank Centre in London for a series of events.In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Suede frontman Brett Anderson speaks to Krishnan Guru-Murthy ahead of the release of their tenth album ‘Antidepressants' and explains how his writing continues to evolve to the times and his age.
Aug 22, 2025•33 min
Ella Al-Shamahi grew up as a Muslim creationist, part of a ‘tribe’ that believes that humankind was created whole by a higher power. At university, she enrolled in courses that studied evolution, specifically to prove her professors wrong - but the plan backfired when she became fascinated by evolutionary biology and came to the conclusion that Darwin was, in fact, right all along. Now an accomplished paleoanthropologist, she explores the complex journey of human evolution and the origins of Hom...
Aug 15, 2025•44 min
Sami Tamimi is one of the brains behind the hugely successful and influential Ottolenghi restaurants, which he launched with his friend and long-time collaborator Yotam Ottolenghi. The pair co-wrote the bestselling cookbook Jerusalem - and more recently, Sami has written Falastin and Boustany, a powerful celebration of Palestinian food and culture. He says that in Palestine, “food is political”, and never more so than right now.
Aug 08, 2025•35 min
Morgan McMonagle is an Irish trauma and vascular surgeon who has been to the heart of some of the world’s most harrowing conflicts. Twice, he has traveled to Gaza, working in hospitals under constant bombardment since the conflict began.What he witnessed goes beyond medicine — it raises questions about humanity, the moral cost of war, and the toll it takes not just on the bereaved and wounded, but on those trying to save them as well.
Aug 01, 2025•37 min
