The Interview

“There is a vacuum that was opened by the mainstream Israeli media that has largely ignored or justified what the military has done in Gaza, and that created a kind of vacuum to which investigative journalists could step in and ask these questions. Sometimes all it took was asking the questions. Some of the people that we spoke to said that they felt they were never asked these questions before.”Rebecca Kesby speaks to Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.Abraham and Szor gained international attention last year with their self-distributed film, No Other Land, made in collaboration with two Palestinian filmmakers. The film, which won the 2025 Academy Award for best documentary feature, recorded the forced displacement of Palestinian families from their homes in the occupied West Bank.The pair’s latest critically-acclaimed documentary, Naza, investigates civilian casualties from Israel's ongoing military operations in Gaza.Naza is the word used by Israeli forces to describe collateral damage. The film includes the testimonies of 24 unidentified Israeli military and intelligence officers, and they explain how artificial intelligence was used to identify possible targets in Gaza during the war which was triggered by the deadly Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023.Its premiere at the Venice international film festival saw the documentary win the special jury prize and also receive a record-breaking 25-minute standing ovation.However, the film has angered many people back home, including Israel's culture minister, who's called for Abraham and Szor to be stripped of their citizenship over what he called "treason against the state".Thank you to the Newshour team for their help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric, UN commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar, and actor Cate Blanchett. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Rebecca Kesby Producer: Pandita Lorenz Editor: Damon RoseGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media. (Image: Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham Credit: Marilla Sicilia/Archivio Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

“There's a toxic narrative around displacement which has been politicised and part of the fund is to re-humanise and make the connection because those people who have the great fortune to be housed, to be in nations that are free of conflict at the moment, we're being asked to be displaced from our humanity. And so art, the foundation of art is to allow people to make pathways of connection to remind us that we have more in common with people who are displaced than we realise.”Katie Razzall speaks to double Oscar-winning actor Cate Blanchett.The 57-year-old Australian, best-known for her roles in Hollywood blockbusters such as Elizabeth, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, has long used her public profile to champion humanitarian causes around the world.A decade ago, Blanchett was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency. Two years later, she addressed the UN Security Council drawing attention to Rohingya refugees fleeing violence and persecution in Myanmar.Last year, Blanchett helped launch the Displacement Film Fund, an initiative supporting filmmakers who have experienced displacement, as well as films exploring the lives of those forced to flee their homes.Five filmmakers were awarded grants through the fund, each telling individual stories of displacement from places including Ukraine, Somalia and Iran. One of the filmmakers, Hasan Kattan, joined Blanchett for this interview to talk about his experience of fleeing Syria.Thank you to the Newsnight team for their help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with human rights lawyer Shami Chakrabarti, Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu, and dancer Carlos Acosta. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Katie Razzall Producers: Rhoda Buchanan, Roxanne Panthaki and Ben Cooper Editor: Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Cate Blanchett. Credit: Getty)

“When I was writing it I didn’t think it would touch such a universal chord, you know, because it seemed to me so weird, my childhood and my mother and my life, it was, but of course, everybody has something. And a lot of people I meet have said this to me and that it helped them see their parents as human beings and not just parents.”Ishadrita Lahiri speaks to acclaimed author and activist, Arundhati Roy. One of India’s most celebrated writers and outspoken political voices Roy rose to international fame in 1997 with her Booker Prize-winning debut novel The God of Small Things. Since then she has become as well known for political activism as for her fiction, challenging those in power and using her writing to engage with questions of inequality, nationalism and human rights. In her latest book, Mother Mary Comes to Me, Roy reflects on her complex relationship with her mother and the ways it shaped her life and work. We explore her literary journey, political convictions and what’s shaped her writing. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Indian youth campaigner Abhijeet Dipke, UNICEF chief Catherine Russell and author Maggie O’Farrell. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Ishadrita Lahiri Producer: Asmita Nandy Editor: Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Arundhati Roy. Credit: Getty)

“We don't have to have a fight, and we don't have to land in China, go to Beijing and win the war. All we have to do is prevent them to getting their objective of landing in Taiwan and conquering. It's not going to be easy, but we've been preparing for this for 77 years.”Sumi Somaskanda speaks to Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan’s representative to the US.The island, which lies roughly 100 miles off the coast of mainland China and is facing growing uncertainty both at home and abroad.As geopolitical tensions rise around the world, there’s increasing focus on the intentions of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Beijing considers Taiwan part of China and has long-pursued what it calls reunification with the island.Mr. Yui Tah-ray has held the his current post since December 2023, having previously served as Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister. His role is central to maintaining one of Taipei’s most important international relationships: with the United States.Washington does not officially recognise Taiwan as an independent state - and only 12 countries around the world do. But the US remains Taiwan’s most important international backer, providing critical defence and security support.With President Trump back in the White House for a second term, questions remain over how Washington’s longstanding commitment to Taiwan will evolve and what that could mean for the island as tensions with Beijin continue. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with McKinsey China’s Joe Ngai, journalist Maggie Haberman, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Sumi Somaskanda Producer: Abby Godard Editor: Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Alexander Tah-ray Yui. Credit: Getty)

BBC special correspondent James Naughtie speaks to former Governor of California, Jerry Brown.He was first elected governor in 1974, succeeding Ronald Reagan, and went on to serve two eight-year terms in office, separated by nearly three decades.Over the course of his public life, he met every US president from John F. Kennedy to Donald Trump.Now retired on the California land where his ancestors settled in the nineteenth century, Brown reflects on a political career spanning five decades.He discusses the growing influence of technology and AI, the spiritual beliefs that shaped how he governed, and the profound changes he has witnessed in American politics since he first entered public life.The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, including episodes with Hunter Biden, the journalist Maggie Haberman, and former US Secretary of State John Kerry. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.Presenter: Jim Naughtie Producers: Cordelia Hemming, Ben Cooper and Osman Iqbal Editor: Damon Rose and Farhana Haider(Image: Jerry Brown. Credit: Getty)

“I do not want the United Nations of New York, Geneva or Vienna to be an ivory tower, a diplomatic ivory tower. I want to see the UN not of power and privilege, but the UN of service and impact. That is the UN I want see.”James Copnall speaks to Olara Otunnu, Ugandan diplomat, lawyer and former Foreign Minister. He has spent decades working at the highest levels of international diplomacy. He has also served as a United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.Now Uganda has formally nominated him for UN Secretary-General, putting him among seven candidates in the running to succeed Antonio Guterres. It is a position widely regarded as the world’s top diplomatic job.Olara Otunnu talks about how he intends to bridge the gap between international politics and the needs of local people around the world. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, South Africa’s Ambassador to the US Roelf Meyer and the author Maggie O’ Farrell. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: James Copnall Producer: Sharon Hemans Editor: Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Olara Otunnu. Credit: Getty)

“I think there’s been this underlying frustration among the youth of India for a very long time. If we look at the unemployment data, India currently has the highest unemployment rate in the last 40 years, and even when it comes to education, every year there’s not been one single government examination where the paper isn’t leaked, or the paper or the exam isn’t cancelled. So people are really frustrated with unemployment, and with the education ministry in India, which isn’t accountable at all.”Yogita Limaye speaks to youth campaigner Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the satirical Cockroach Janta Party.Dipke rose to prominence in India earlier this year after criticising the country’s Chief Justice, who had compared unemployed young people and social-media activists to cockroaches.Dipke was studying in the US when he posted "What if all cockroaches come together?" on the social media platform ‘X’ in response.He thought little of the post at the time. But it quickly went viral, snowballing into a youth protest movement that has shaken India’s political establishment and thrust Dipke himself into the spotlight. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with fellow activist Sonam Wangchuk, writer Twinkle Khanna, and film director Rohan Kanawada. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Yogita Limaye Producer: Ben Cooper Editor: Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Abhijeet Dipke. Credit: Reuters)

Ione Wells speaks to Roelf Meyer, South Africa’s new ambassador to the United States. In the 1990s, Meyer was one of the leading negotiators in the talks that helped bring apartheid to an end.Now he takes up his new post amid a serious rupture in relations with the US President Trump has cut aid, expelled the previous South African ambassador and offered refugee status to white Afrikaners he says are fleeing persecution, claiming the community faces “genocide”.The South African government rejects that allegation. Meyer, himself an Afrikaner, explains why he believes Trump has been given the wrong picture and how his experience negotiating the end of apartheid could help repair relations with Washington.“The notion of a mass attack on the Afrikaner was misrepresented by those that might have conveyed the message. I mean, I’m an Afrikaner from South Africa myself. And I can say that I’ve never experienced something of that kind. We found it strange. So the source is misrepresented, unfortunately, something that just doesn’t exist,” says Meyer.(Photo: Roelf Meyer, South Africa’s ambassador to the US, wears a navy blazer with a white shirt and light blue tie. He has short white hair. Credit: Getty Images) The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Sundar Pichai and Julia Gillard. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Ione Wells Producer: Osman Iqbal Editor: Damon Rose

“Not just African musician. Everybody, even journalist, even president, even football player, even promoter. We need to do it for those people who suffer, who don’t have food or security. We need everybody to denounce it. Speak louder, talk more loudly about the situation. Not just for Congo, but all Africa.”Jewel Kiriungi speaks to Congolese musician Fally Ipupa, one of Africa’s biggest music stars.His music has taken brought Congolese rumba to audiences around the world, earning him the Democratic Republic of Congo’s highest honour, a knighthood in the National Order of the Leopard.Fally discusses what it means to represent Congolese identity internationally as conflict in the east of the country fuels one of the world’s worst displacement crises.He recognises that his global success gives him a platform to draw attention to what is happening at home, but he argues that speaking out about the suffering is a wider responsibility.The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with tech billionaire Reid Hoffman and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, head of the World Trade Organisation.You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.Presenter: Jewel Kiriungi Producer: Osman Iqbal Editor: Justin Lang and Farhana Haider(Image: Fally Ipupa. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock)

“This is one of the exact aspect of hybrid warfare of Russia… They are targeting us specifically to create dissensions, to create and to prop up artificially some voices in our societies that otherwise would be quite marginal and create dissensions. So they want to attack us and make sure that our democracies are more fragile, because the more fragile we are, the less we're able to counter their aggressive actions.”Evan Davis speaks to David Vigneault, Chief Intelligence Officer at Strider Technologies and former director of Canada’s intelligence services, about the geopolitical instabilities and technologies that are re-shaping the world order.Between 2017 and 2024, he was responsible for the operations of CSIS, the country’s foreign intelligence and security agency. This period presented a number of challenges for Vigneault and his organisation, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the rise of AI, and an unpredictable Trump presidency across the border.You’re going to hear his take on current tensions around the world, what keeps him up at night, and why he thinks cooperation is key.Thank you to the PM team for their help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Ukrainian intelligence chief Vadym Skibitsky, the World Health Organisation’s Hanan Balkhy, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Evan Davis Producers: Rosie Seed and Ben Cooper Editors: Justine Lang and Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: David Vigneault. Credit: Reuters)

“I had hired a CEO for the last two years. The company was at a place where revenue had plateaued. I wasn’t someone who could look at a spreadsheet 50 tabs wide and tell my CFO what to do. I was definitely out of my league and I didn’t like that job, and a lot of different things happened before we ended up filing for bankruptcy.” Leanna Byrne speaks to Sophia Amoruso, founder of online fashion retailer Nasty Gal. What began as a one-woman eBay shop selling vintage clothes became one of online fashion’s most recognisable brands. Within a few years, Nasty Gal was valued at $350 million, bringing expectations that it would grow like a technology company and become a billion-dollar business. Sophia reflects on feeling out of her depth running the company, criticism of its workplace culture and the decisions that led to bankruptcy. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Sundar Pichai and Julia Gillard. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Leanna Byrne Producer: Osman Iqbal Editor: Farhana Haider and Damon Rose(Image: Sophia Amoruso. Credit: Araya Doheny/Getty)