Podcasts by HARDtalk
In-depth, hard-hitting interviews with newsworthy personalities.
Further podcasts by BBC World Service
Podcast on the topic Regierung
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Sandra Day O'Connor: The first female US Supreme Court judge from 2023-12-11T00:57
The framers of the American Constitution harboured few illusions about human nature, and that’s why they invested so much significance in the US Supreme Court, the ultimate check on executive an...
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Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza: What Rwandans think of the UK migrant transfer deal from 2023-12-08T00:01
Stephen Sackur speaks to Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza. The UK government, which has signed a controversial migrant transfer deal with Rwanda, paints President Paul Kagame ...
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Fatih Birol: Is the global energy transition veering off course? from 2023-12-04T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol. As oil and gas-rich UAE hosts the latest climate change summit, is it time to admit the much-vaunted global ene...
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Jasem Albudaiwi: Could the Gulf states be destabilised by the conflict in Gaza? from 2023-12-01T15:14
Stephen Sackur speaks to the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Jasem Albudaiwi. The Israel-Hamas war has sent shockwaves through a region that’s been ‘normalising’ relations with...
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Philippe Lazzarini: Could Gaza become unliveable? from 2023-11-30T14:47
Stephen Sackur speaks to Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the UN’s refugee agency for Palestinians. He is just back from Gaza where the temporary truce gave him a chance to assess the scale of...
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Simcha Rothman: Is violence in Israel's best interests? from 2023-11-28T18:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to far-right Israeli politician Simcha Rothman, whose Religious Zionism party is in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ruling coalition. He and his party colleagues seem ready for ...
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Cardinal Peter Turkson: Is the Catholic Church at a crossroads? from 2023-11-27T09:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Cardinal Peter Turkson, a Vatican insider widely seen as a possible contender to be Africa’s first pope. The number of observant Catholics is down in the west, rising fa...
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Jonna Mendez: Does the world still need spies? from 2023-11-24T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to former US spy Jonna Mendez, who was the CIA’s chief of disguise running Cold War operations in Moscow, Havana and beyond.
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Michel Roux: Is the business of fine food turning sour? from 2023-11-22T08:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to the master chef and restaurateur Michel Roux. After 56 years of fine food and Michelin stars, his family restaurant Le Gavroche is closing its doors. He was a torch bear...
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Chris Coons: Is team Biden in trouble? from 2023-11-17T14:00
Stephen Sackur is in Washington DC to speak to one of President Biden’s closest allies in the US Congress, Democrat Senator Chris Coons. The president’s staunch support for Israel is dividing hi...
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Mark Alford: Do US Republicans have a winning formula? from 2023-11-17T09:00
Stephen Sackur is in Washington DC to speak to Republican Congressman Mark Alford, one of Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters on Capitol Hill. With a presidential election less than a year away...
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Mervyn King: Global growth and inflation from 2023-11-13T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Mervyn King, former governor of the Bank of England. The international economic outlook is troubled, with geopolitical tensions and climate change heightening uncertaint...
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Fiona Hill: Are overseas wars exposing US weaknesses? from 2023-11-10T09:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Fiona Hill, formerly a Russia expert inside the White House, now an influential analyst of US foreign policy. Joe Biden says US backing for Ukraine and Israel is a vital...
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Mustafa Barghouti: What next for the Palestinian people? from 2023-11-07T12:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian doctor and co-founder of the Palestinian National Initiative. When this terrible round of violence does eventually end, what then for th...
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Carlo Rovelli: Life, the universe and white holes from 2023-11-06T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Carlo Rovelli, one of the world's best known physicists. How much do his remarkable ideas matter outside the scientific community?
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Abdallah Bou Habib: Could Lebanon get dragged into war with Israel by Hezbollah? from 2023-10-31T17:24
Stephen Sackur speaks to Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib. The terrible cost of the conflict between Hamas and Israel could go much higher if a second front opens on Israel’s northe...
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Sir Lindsay Hoyle: Can the Speaker ensure parliament better serves the people? from 2023-10-30T00:22
Stephen Sackur speaks to Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who has one of the most important and toughest jobs in UK politics as Speaker of the House of Commons. Public trust in politicians, never high, has hi...
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Jakov Milatović: President of Montenegro from 2023-10-27T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to the president of Montenegro Jakov Milatovic. His small nation sits in a tense, troubled Balkan neighbourhood which the rest of Europe cannot afford to ignore. The presid...
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Lubaina Himid: Race, culture and modern Britain from 2023-10-25T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to the Turner Prize winning British artist Lubaina Himid. Her work has always put black people and their stories front and centre. Four decades ago she was seen as a radica...
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Aiden Aslin: Captured, tortured and swapped by Russia from 2023-10-21T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Aiden Aslin, the British man who joined the Ukrainian army and was captured, tortured and sentenced to death by Putin’s forces. He got out in a prisoner swap, traumatise...
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Adam Smith: How does the US navigate its multiple interests? from 2023-10-20T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to US Democratic Party congressman Adam Smith. The Biden mission to the Middle East at a time of war and spiralling regional tension was always a gamble. How does the US na...
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Husam Zomlot: Is Gaza on the brink of a humanitarian crisis? from 2023-10-18T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK Husam Zomlot. Hamas surely knew its murderous attack on Israel would provoke an overwhelming military response. The jihadis...
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Olha Stefanishyna: How solid is the West’s support for Kyiv? from 2023-10-13T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. Just how solid is the West’s support for Kyiv? And what happens to Ukraine...
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Ehud Barak: Where will the Middle East conflict end? from 2023-10-12T12:13
Stephen Sackur speaks to Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Hamas’s murderous attack on Israel from Gaza killed more than 1,200 people and has prompted an Israeli response which has alre...
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Danny Danon: A new Middle East war from 2023-10-10T14:10
Stephen Sackur speaks to long-standing Israeli politician Danny Danon. He is a member of the Knesset for the ruling Likud party and sits on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Hamas’s mur...
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Lord Deben: Is short-term politics undermining climate action? from 2023-10-05T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Conservative politician and former UK environment minister Lord Deben. After Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement of a major shift in green policies, is political s...
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Paolo Gentiloni: Are divisions costing the EU on the global stage? from 2023-10-04T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Paolo Gentiloni, the European Union's economy commissioner. He’s at the centre of efforts to turn the bloc into an economic superpower capable of rivalling the US and Ch...
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Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar: Can he steer Pakistan through political turmoil? from 2023-10-02T08:00
Zeinab Badawi speaks to Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar. Can he steer the country through its current political turmoil until postponed elections are held?
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Martin Griffiths: Is the UN system failing those in greatest need? from 2023-09-28T12:01
Stephen Sackur speaks to Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. From the Ukraine war to Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Myanmar and Ethiopia, is the UN system failing those ...
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Kaja Kallas: Is Russia a threat to Estonia? from 2023-09-26T12:00
Stephen Sackur is in Tallinn for an exclusive interview with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. This small Baltic state knows all about subjugation to Moscow and is a steadfast supporter of Uk...
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Shaharzad Akbar: How should the world respond to Afghanistan's crisis? from 2023-09-22T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to exiled Afghan human rights campaigner Shaharzad Akbar. She is focused on the fight to end what she calls the Taliban’s gender apartheid. Given the scale of poverty and r...
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Caroline Lucas: Parliamentary politics or direct action? from 2023-09-18T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Green Party of England and Wales politician Caroline Lucas. She’s the party’s only Westminster MP, but she’s decided to quit. Is that because putting the planet first is...
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Yuval Noah Harari: Are humans losing the ability to trust and co-operate? from 2023-09-17T23:55
Stephen Sackur speaks to the acclaimed Israeli historian and author Yuval Noah Harari. Having given us an explanation of the success of humankind in his book Sapiens, he’s now in darker territor...
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Vladimir Milov: Could Putin outlast his enemies? from 2023-09-15T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to former Russian deputy energy minister Vladimir Milov, who once served Vladimir Putin. Now he’s a die-hard opponent of Russia’s premier, living in exile and trying to ral...
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Mustafa Suleyman: How can AI be safely developed? from 2023-09-13T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Mustafa Suleyman, a British pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence and a leading voice in a debate which matters to all of us. How can we take advantage of the ...
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Tobias Billström: Controversy in Sweden from 2023-09-07T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Sweden’s foreign minister Tobias Billström. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine pushed Sweden to seek Nato membership but right now the country is also grappling with a wave of ...
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Lindsey Graham: Does Trump's comeback spell trouble for America? from 2023-09-05T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a loyal backer of Donald Trump as he bids to win back the White House. Does his comeback spell trouble for America?
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Nancy Pelosi: American power abroad from 2023-09-03T23:00
With a Trump versus Biden presidential re-run looking likely, how close is the United States to political meltdown? Stephen Sackur speaks to Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to be spe...
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Nureldin Satti: The war in Sudan from 2023-09-01T07:06
Zeinab Badawi speaks to Sudan's former ambassador to Washington Nureldin Satti. The conflict that broke out in April between two rival generals in Sudan has been escalating with civilians bearin...
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Peter Boehringer: Is the AfD a threat to German stability? from 2023-08-30T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Peter Boehringer, Vice Chairman of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Deutschland party. They are anti-immigrant, anti-EU, anti-military aid for Ukraine, and are runnin...
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Feargal Sharkey: Britain's dirty water problem from 2023-08-27T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to the former punk rock star turned environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey. He is leading the campaign to clean up Britain’s waterways with fishermen and conservationists...
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Dominic Lee: Is China scaring investors away from Hong Kong? from 2023-08-23T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the Hong Kong lawmaker Dominic Lee. He is a staunch defender of the Beijing-inspired national security crackdown, which has all but eliminated Hong Kong’s pro-democracy ...
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Jasvinder Sanghera: Abuse and the Church of England from 2023-08-20T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Jasvinder Sanghera, who as a child escaped a forced marriage and has been a lifelong advocate for survivors of abuse. She was hired by the Church of England to help them...
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Sam Rainsy: Has Cambodia's opposition been outfoxed? from 2023-08-18T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to exiled Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy. He has tried and failed to engineer the downfall of the country's ruler, Hun Sen, for decades. Now Hun Sen’s son is taking...
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Lucy Prebble: How are writers facing the future? from 2023-08-15T23:59
Stephen Sackur speaks to the leading British playwright and screenwriter Lucy Prebble. Her credits include Enron and The Effect in the theatre, and Succession and I Hate Suzie on television. In ...
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John Cooper Clarke - where does his word magic come from? from 2023-08-14T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to the pioneering performance poet John Cooper Clarke. He was once dubbed the bard of punk and all his life he’s used words, rhythm and rhyme to find humour and truth in th...
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Lord Goldsmith: Is a green backlash reshaping politics? from 2023-08-11T07:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to the UK’s former environment minister Lord Goldsmith. He resigned from Rishi Sunak’s government, accusing the prime minister of being uninterested in the environment. Sin...
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Nathan Law: Has China eradicated dissent in Hong Kong? from 2023-08-09T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Nathan Law, the exiled Hong Kong democracy activist who’s now a wanted man with a million-dollar bounty on his head from the territory’s Beijing-backed authorities. Has ...
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Andriy Khlyvnyuk: What is war doing to Ukraine’s culture? from 2023-08-07T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ukrainian rockstar Andriy Khlyvnyuk. After the all-out Russian invasion, he swapped his guitar for a gun. When he does sing now, it’s always for his country’s cause. Wha...
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Imran Khan: Is Pakistan heading for political chaos? from 2023-08-04T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to the former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan. He was ousted from power last year but thinks he can stage a comeback in elections scheduled for the autumn. Is Pakist...
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Kwame Kwei-Armah: Are audiences prepared to engage? from 2023-08-02T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Kwame Kwei-Armah, artistic director of the Young Vic theatre in London. His work poses questions about race, identity, equality and justice. In an era of political polar...
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Isabella Tree: Is rewilding a pathway to a healthier planet? from 2023-07-30T23:34
Stephen Sackur is at the Knepp Estate in the south of England to speak to conservationist Isabella Tree. Her estate is a world-renowned example of rewilding but is she building a pathway to a he...
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Agnes Callamard: Is Amnesty facing a credibility crisis? from 2023-07-26T07:30
Holding governments to account for their abuses of human rights is hard. It requires focused forensic investigation, impartiality and no little courage. For six decades, Amnesty International ha...
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Lewis Pugh: Pushing the limits of the human body from 2023-07-23T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to the master of extreme swimming Lewis Pugh. From the North Pole to Antarctica, his death-defying swims are designed to focus attention on the damaging impact of climate c...
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Gabriel Boric: Can the new left bring change to Chile? from 2023-07-21T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric. Still just 37, he was elected amid excited talk of a new brand of progressive left politics in Latin America - but his ratings hav...
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Mikhail Zygar: Is Putin in a vulnerable position? from 2023-07-19T08:00
Zeinab Badawi speaks to dissident Russian journalist and writer Mikhail Zygar, who has rare insights into the inner workings of the Kremlin. After the challenge to Vladimir Putin’s power and an...
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Tomás Saraceno: What does 'being human' mean? from 2023-07-17T07:30
Stephen Sackur interviews one of the world’s most innovative contemporary artists, Tomás Saraceno. His work involves spiders, balloons, dust and air. At its heart is a challenge to us all: Are w...
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Laurence Boone: Can France's government deal with social divisions? from 2023-07-14T08:00
Does France’s government have a clear strategy to deal with the deep social and economic divisions that led to the worst outbreak of violence and rioting for years, following the killing of a Fr...
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María Corina Machado: The existential fight for Venezuela from 2023-07-12T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Venezuelan opposition politician Maria Corina Machado, currently seen as the most likely challenger to socialist authoritarian president Nicolas Maduro in elections due ...
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Ann Leslie: What does it mean to be a foreign correspondent? from 2023-07-07T07:30
Another chance to hear Stephen Sackur’s 2008 interview with the acclaimed writer and journalist Dame Ann Leslie, who has passed away at the age of 82. She is widely acclaimed as one of the great...
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Peter Boghossian: Has academia been corrupted by ‘woke’ ideology? from 2023-07-04T23:54
Stephen Sackur speaks to controversial philosopher Peter Boghossian, who spoofed a host of US academic journals to expose what he claims is the corruption of academia by politically fashionable ...
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Jennifer Morgan: Is the rich world doing enough to combat climate change? from 2023-07-03T03:29
Zeinab Badawi speaks to Jennifer Morgan, Germany's special envoy on international climate action. How is she trying to build partnerships to reduce greenhouse gas emissions amid accusations that...
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Anielle Franco: Can Brazil tackle racial inequality? from 2023-06-30T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Anielle Franco, Brazil’s minister of racial equality. She was appointed by President Lula de Silva to tackle entrenched race inequality in everything from policing to sc...
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Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover: Can the Anglican church hold together? from 2023-06-27T23:02
Stephen Sackur speaks to the Church of England’s first black woman bishop, Rose Hudson-Wilkin. Her home patch, Dover, is at the centre of the political and moral debate about migration; her chur...
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Patrick Verkooijen: Is climate change inevitable? from 2023-06-26T07:06
Stephen Sackur interviews Patrick Verkooijen, the CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation. Back in 2015, world leaders pledged to speed up cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in a bid to stop our pl...
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Dmytro Kuleba: Will Ukraine get the help it needs? from 2023-06-23T01:08
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in London for a Ukraine Economic Recovery Conference. Will Ukraine get the help it needs?
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Shashi Tharoor: Is India on the right path? from 2023-06-21T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the Indian opposition politician and writer Shashi Tharoor. On the face of it, India’s a rising superpower, the world’s most populous nation, with a growing economy and ...
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Daniel Ellsberg: The dangers of military might from 2023-06-19T07:06
Another chance to listen to Stephen Sackur's 2022 interview with the Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who has died aged 92. He exposed US government lies about Vietnam, and helped ...
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Andy Burnham: Can power in the UK be decentralised? from 2023-06-14T07:30
Stephen Sackur is in Manchester to talk to the city’s mayor, Andy Burnham. Six years after he quit the UK parliament with the hope of seeing power decentralised and the north of England revitali...
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Peter Singer: Is the animal rights movement unstoppable? from 2023-06-09T05:00
Philosopher Peter Singer has spent decades arguing for animal rights; his arguments have persuaded millions to give up meat. Has the movement he inspired become unstoppable?
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Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro): Satire in South Africa from 2023-06-06T23:00
Stephen Sackur is in Cape Town to speak to political cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro). Can satire work in a country still recovering from the prolonged trauma of apartheid?
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Abdullah Mohtadi: What do Iran's Kurds want? from 2023-06-04T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Abdullah Mohtadi, the leader of the Iranian Kurdish political movement Komala. From his exile in Iraq, he’s one of many voices calling for freedom and democracy in Iran....
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Ama Ata Aidoo: Celebrating women in Africa from 2023-06-02T09:26
The acclaimed Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo has died aged 81. A former education minister for a brief period in Ghana, she arguably did more than any other writer to depict and celebrate the con...
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Julius Malema: What would he do with power? from 2023-06-02T08:15
The African National Congress has dominated South African politics for the last 29 years, but the party of Nelson Mandela is in trouble. A power crisis is doing new damage to an economy already ...
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Roxane Gay: An unflinching memoir from 2023-06-02T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to American writer, academic and cultural commentator Roxane Gay. Her unflinching, extraordinary memoir Hunger deals with her experience of rape and obesity. How scary is t...
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Martin Amis: The 2013 interview from 2023-05-31T07:30
Coming up after the news from the BBC World Service, it’s HARDtalk with me Stephen Sackur. The influential British author Martin Amis has died at his home in Florida aged 73. Stephen Sackur int...
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John Steenhuisen: Is he a credible alternative to the ANC? from 2023-05-29T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to John Steenhuisen, the leader of South Africa’s biggest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance. He thinks South Africans are ready to throw out the ANC thanks to their...
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Fikile Mbalula: Will the ANC pay the price of failure? from 2023-05-24T08:00
The ANC has ruled in South Africa since the racist apartheid system was overthrown. But right now the country is in a big mess, with a protracted energy crisis, unemployment, inequality and syst...
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Sir Isaac Julien: The lasting impact of art from 2023-05-19T08:00
Zeinab Badawi speaks to the British artist and filmmaker Sir Isaac Julien, whose forty year career is steeped in powerful cultural and political messages. What is more important to him: Art or a...
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Jane Horrocks: The pathway to empowerment from 2023-05-17T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to the actor Jane Horrocks, whose extraordinary range has seen her star in musicals, comedies and gritty dramas. In a capricious, sometimes cruel industry, she embraced wri...
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Hartmut Dorgerloh: Where do colonial treasures belong? from 2023-05-11T23:00
The Humboldt Forum is one of Germany’s great cultural institutions, housing a collection of thousands of works of non-European art. Germany, like many former imperial powers, is now asking itsel...
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Wavel Ramkalawan: Are the Seychelles becoming paradise lost? from 2023-05-10T08:00
Stephen Sackur talks to Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan. His tiny nation is a tourist magnet, but there are huge challenges: climate change, a shocking rate of heroin addiction and a polit...
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Karin Kneissl: Vienna’s ties to Moscow and the impact of Austrian neutrality from 2023-05-08T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to Austria’s former foreign minister, Karin Kneissl. Her ties to Moscow are close - Vladimir Putin attended her wedding, she sat on the board of a Russian energy company, a...
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Penpa Tsering: Preserving Tibet's identity from 2023-05-05T08:00
It is more than 60 years since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet and set up a government-in-exile, hopeful of one day going back. Since then, China has banned any mention of the spiritual leader in his ...
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Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann: Has war in Ukraine led to a rethink in Germany? from 2023-05-03T07:30
Stephen Sackur is in Berlin to talk to the influential chair of the German parliament's defence committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann. Has Russia’s invasion of Ukraine really led to a fundame...
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Niels Annen: Germany's new foreign policy from 2023-04-27T23:00
Stephen Sackur is in Berlin for a special interview with Niels Annen, Germany’s State Secretary for Economic Co-operation. For decades Germany built its economic power on Russian energy and trad...
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Baaba Maal: Can the Sahel overcome its challenges? from 2023-04-26T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to the acclaimed Senegalese musician Baaba Maal. His records and musical collaborations have won him millions of fans worldwide, and he’s intent on helping his native Sahel...
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John Cooper Clarke: Punk and poetry from 2023-04-24T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the pioneering performance poet John Cooper Clarke. From his early days as the bard of punk to a decade lost to heroin and then the worldwide success of his poem I Wanna...
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Vladimir Kara-Murza: Defying Putin from 2023-04-21T07:06
Earlier this week, Russian political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison in Russia for charges linked to his criticism of the war in Ukraine. He was found guilty of ...
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Péter Szijjártó: Is Hungary alienating the EU and Nato? from 2023-04-19T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister. Budapest is an outlier in both the EU and Nato, unwilling to arm Ukraine, eager to maintain close ties with Moscow, and dism...
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Christo Grozev: Investigating Russia from 2023-04-16T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Christo Grozev, Bellingcat's lead Russia investigator. His work has exposed crimes and embarrassed the Kremlin. What motivates this digital detective?
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Danny Danon: Is Netanyahu jeopardising Israel’s future? from 2023-04-13T23:12
Stephen Sackur speaks to Israeli MP and former UN ambassador Danny Danon. Amid political turmoil at home, a deteriorating security situation and stinging criticism from Israel’s allies overseas ...
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Ben Ferencz: The last Nuremberg trials prosecutor from 2023-04-11T23:00
Ben Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg Nazi trials, has died aged 103. He also helped liberate the death camps of Europe when he was serving in the US military. In 2017, Z...
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Richard Neal: How Northern Ireland affects US-UK relations from 2023-04-09T23:01
As President Biden visits Belfast and Dublin to mark 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement, Stephen Sackur speaks to Congressman Richard Neal, an influential voice when it comes to US policy on ...
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Geoffrey Robertson: The case for international justice from 2023-04-03T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the renowned lawyer and author Geoffrey Robertson KC, who has long experience as an international human rights defender and a war crimes trial judge. Is the fact that Pr...
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David Beasley: Can the world afford to feed its most vulnerable? from 2023-03-31T07:30
Sarah Montague speaks to David Beasley, the outgoing head of the World Food Programme. During his tenure, the agency’s budget has more than doubled but the number of those close to famine is gro...
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Bogdan Aurescu: How is Romania handling the pressure from the war on Ukraine? from 2023-03-29T08:00
The fallout from Putin’s war on Ukraine is having a big impact on Romania, from the refugee crisis to fears of conflict spreading to neighbouring Moldova. How is Romania handling the pressure? S...
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Petr Pavel: Can Ukraine still count on Europe's support? from 2023-03-27T08:00
Stephen Sackur is in Prague for an exclusive interview with the newly elected president of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel. What does the election of this former NATO General tell us about the re...
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Evgeny Popov: Are cracks appearing at the Kremlin? from 2023-03-22T00:29
Stephen Sackur speaks to Russian MP and pro-Kremlin TV host Evgeny Popov. The Ukraine invasion is beset with problems and Putin faces war crimes charges. Are cracks appearing?
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James Daunt: Is the books industry a place where creativity and diversity truly thrive? from 2023-03-20T08:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to the hugely successful bookseller James Daunt. From Waterstones to Barnes & Noble he has fought off ebooks and online retail to revive bricks and mortar bookstores. B...
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Mustafa Barghouti: Can Palestinians improve their situation? from 2023-03-17T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Palestinian politician, physician and civil rights activist Mustafa Barghouti. The seemingly endless Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be on the brink of getting a lot ...
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Sergei Pugachev: Inside Putin's rise from 2023-03-13T00:36
Stephen Sackur is in Nice to speak to the former Russian oligarch and billionaire businessman Sergei Pugachev. He was once dubbed Putin’s banker, a close confidant who helped Putin reach the top...
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Simcha Rothman: Is Israel plunging into chaos? from 2023-03-10T08:23
Stephen Sackur speaks to Israeli politician Simcha Rothman, a key architect of the Netanyahu government’s controversial legal reforms aimed at radically overhauling the country’s judicial system...
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Notis Mitarachi: Has Greece's government lost the confidence of the people? from 2023-03-08T08:30
The devastating train crash in Greece which killed 57 people generated a wave of grief and anger. Many Greeks see the disaster as symptomatic of a failing state, characterised by a lack of inves...
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Félix Maradiaga: Standing up to Nicaragua's president from 2023-03-03T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Félix Maradiaga, the former opposition leader and presidential candidate imprisoned by Nicaragua’s veteran autocrat Daniel Ortega. Maradiaga was recently released, depor...
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Tikhon Dzyadko: Is there an audience for independent news in Russia? from 2023-03-01T09:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Tikhon Dzyadko, editor-in-chief of Russia’s independent TV news channel Dozhd (or TV Rain). Closed down in Moscow, now they are broadcasting online from Latvia, using Yo...
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Ece Temelkuran: Is Erdogan's control of Turkey under threat? from 2023-02-24T09:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ece Temelkuran, a prominent exiled Turkish writer and critic of President Erdogan. Erdogan has dominated Turkey for two decades but after the terrible earthquakes, with ...
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Olesya Khromeychuk: Conflict and identity from 2023-02-22T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the British-Ukrainian historian and author Olesya Khromeychuk. She's written a book and a play about her brother Volodya, a soldier killed defending Ukraine in the Donba...
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Stefanie Green: The ethics of assisted dying from 2023-02-20T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Dr Stefanie Green, a leading advocate for Canada’s liberal assisted dying laws, who has herself overseen more than 300 deaths by euthanasia. Is Canada at ease with its r...
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Waris Dirie: The fight against FGM from 2023-02-17T09:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Waris Dirie, the Somali born model, writer and activist. She was raised in poverty, and later became the muse of big fashion houses in New York and beyond. She chose cam...
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Mick Lynch: Strife, strikes and workers' rights from 2023-02-15T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Mick Lynch, leader of Britain’s biggest rail union the RMT. His members are striking for inflation proofed pay and job protection. It is a test case in a new era of work...
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Kenneth Roth: Is the fight for human rights being lost? from 2023-02-13T00:01
Stephen Sackur speaks to Kenneth Roth, who spent three decades leading the campaign group Human Rights Watch. Why is the fight for human rights being lost in so many places?
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Kira Rudik: Can Ukraine win this war? from 2023-02-09T09:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian MP and leader of the opposition party Golos. As the first anniversary of Putin’s invasion looms, does Ukraine have the external support and the i...
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Pervez Musharraf: Power in Pakistan from 2023-02-08T08:30
Pervez Musharraf, the former Pakistani army chief who masterminded a coup in 1999 and ruled the country for nine years, has died in Dubai aged 79 after a long illness. Stephen Sackur spoke to Ge...
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Zsuzsanna Szelényi: How strong is Viktor Orbán's grip on Hungary? from 2023-02-06T09:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Zsuzsanna Szelényi, a former ally, and now prominent opponent, of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Has Orbán found a political formula, illiberal democracy, for wh...
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Sergey Karaganov: Is Putin placing bets he cannot win? from 2023-02-03T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the Russian foreign policy strategist and sometime Kremlin adviser Sergey Karaganov. Russia is widely expected to launch a major new offensive in Ukraine very soon, but ...
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Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah: How should international aid work? from 2023-02-01T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the boss of Oxfam Great Britain, Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah. He took over after Oxfam was hit by scandal with staff abusing their positions and power in Haiti. He promis...
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Robert Malley: What next for US policy on Iran? from 2023-01-30T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Robert Malley, US special envoy for Iran. He’s an experienced diplomat facing a looming crisis. The attempt to revive a deal to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions appears to ...
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Leopoldo Lopez: Has Venezuela’s opposition been outmanoeuvred? from 2023-01-27T08:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to Leopoldo Lopez, a key leader of Venezuela’s opposition. Once a political prisoner, now in exile in Spain, his efforts to topple the socialist regime led by Nicolas Madur...
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Dmytro Kuleba: Is the West's hesitation undermining Ukraine? from 2023-01-25T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba. The war with Russia has hit a winter stalemate, but what will spring bring? From battle tanks to air defences, Ukraine wants m...
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Ruben Vardanyan: Nagorno-Karabakh and Putin from 2023-01-23T09:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ruben Vardanyan, state minister of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, run by ethnic Armenians but surrounded by Azerbaijan and the subject of years of conflict. T...
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Celso Amorim: Is Brazil becoming ungovernable? from 2023-01-20T07:06
Brazilian President Lula must figure out whether another assault on government institutions is likely, and hold those responsible to account. All of that while he faces a mountain of economic, s...
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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Is global free trade possible? from 2023-01-18T00:32
Stephen Sackur is in Geneva to speak to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization. Her job is to maximise free and fair trade across the world. How is that possible i...
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Jagath Weerasinghe: Sri Lanka's bloody past from 2023-01-16T09:00
Zeinab Badawi is in Sri Lanka to talk to one of the country’s most influential artists and archaeologists, Jagath Weerasinghe. What does his art tell us about Sri Lanka’s bloody and difficult pa...
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Marilyn Stafford: A life in pictures from 2023-01-13T08:06
What makes a great photograph? In 2019, Stephen Sackur spoke to one of the pioneers of photojournalism, Marilyn Stafford. She was born in the United States but moved to Paris in the 1950s, where...
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Boris Bondarev: Speaking out against Putin from 2023-01-11T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to the former Russian diplomat Boris Bondarev, who quit his post and launched a scathing attack on the Putin regime after the invasion of Ukraine. Why haven’t more Moscow i...
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Waheed Arian: Migration in the Western world from 2023-01-09T09:00
War and extreme poverty drive millions of people from their homes every year. Some of them try to reach the rich Western world, where such inward migration routinely prompts fear and draconian c...
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Fawad Chaudhry: Is Pakistan heading for economic meltdown? from 2023-01-06T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s former information minister and a senior figure in Imran Khan’s opposition PTI party. Pakistan is dealing with rampant inflation, an energy cr...
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Evgenia Kara-Murza: Has Putin neutralised his Russian opponents? from 2023-01-04T08:34
Stephen Sackur speaks to the Russian opposition activist Evgenia Kara-Murza, whose husband Vladimir, a prominent opponent of Vladimir Putin, is in prison in Russia having survived two apparent p...
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Hardtalk in 2022 from 2022-12-23T00:01
Passion, pain, tension, denial. This past year we’ve seen it all. Stephen Sackur presents excerpts from some of our most powerful interviews concerning matters of war and peace, human rights (in...
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Ericka Huggins: Do the Black Panthers have lessons for Black Lives Matter? from 2022-12-19T08:30
Stephen Sackur is in in Oakland, California, to speak to Ericka Huggins, an original member of the 1960s Black Panther Party. She experienced violence, imprisonment and vilification in the contr...
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Wes Streeting: Is Britain ready for a new government? from 2022-12-16T00:00
British nurses are striking, and the health service is in trouble. Stephen Sackur speaks to Wes Streeting, a rising star of the UK's Labour party and their shadow health secretary. Does Labour h...
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Oleksandra Matviichuk and Yan Rachinsky: Fighting for civil rights from 2022-12-14T08:06
Stephen Sackur is in Oslo to talk to two of the three joint winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Oleksandra Matviichuk is the head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. Yan Rachinsk...
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Allen Ault: The most premeditated murder from 2022-12-09T09:00
Another chance to hear Stephen Sackur’s 2014 interview with Allen Ault. As the former Commissioner of Corrections in the US state of Georgia, Ault was responsible for state-sanctioned executions...
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David Friedberg: Can tech fix our biggest challenges? from 2022-12-07T11:59
In a special edition from San Francisco, Stephen Sackur speaks to billionaire tech investor David Friedberg. He’s convinced science and technology can fix the world’s biggest challenges – climat...
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Daniel Ellsberg: Does the US military have too much power? from 2022-12-06T16:18
In an exclusive interview from California, Stephen Sackur speaks to Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower who exposed US government lies about Vietnam. He helped hasten President Ni...
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London Breed: What does San Francisco reveal about the US? from 2022-12-02T09:00
Stephen Sackur is in the US to speak to San Francisco’s mayor London Breed, a rising star of the Democratic Party. Her city is one of contrasts - vast tech wealth alongside rampant crime, drug u...
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Rachel Clarke: Talking honestly about the end of life from 2022-11-30T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the palliative care doctor and author Rachel Clarke. She has written thought-provoking, moving accounts of what it's like to be a junior doctor, and how it felt to confr...
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Barbara Chase-Riboud: Monuments and controversy from 2022-11-28T00:00
Zeinab Badawi speaks to American artist and writer Barbara Chase-Riboud at the Serpentine Galleries in London. Over a career spanning seven decades, Chase-Riboud has explored public memory and c...
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Getachew Reda: Have Tigray's rebels surrendered? from 2022-11-25T09:00
One of the most costly conflicts of the 21st century may be over. Representatives of the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan rebels signed a peace agreement earlier this month. After two years of ...
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Chelsea Manning: Does transparency justify leaking state secrets? from 2022-11-23T00:01
Stephen Sackur interviews former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who leaked a trove of military secrets and spent seven years behind bars. Did her actions undermine American security?
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Salome Zourabichvili: How much does Georgia have to fear from Russia? from 2022-11-21T00:01
The war in Ukraine has triggered fears that Vladimir Putin may set his sights on other former Soviet republics. Zeinab Badawi speaks to Salome Zourabichvili, the President of Georgia, whose coun...
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Ronald Lamola: Does the ANC have answers for South Africa's problems? from 2022-11-18T00:00
Next month, the ruling ANC in South Africa holds its five-yearly national conference. President Cyril Ramaphosa is seeking re-election as leader of the party, which would him in position to cont...
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Mark Wolf: Does the world need a new anti-corruption court? from 2022-11-16T08:30
Global leaders often come together to work for what they hope is the greater good, such as tackling climate change, conflict and the economic crisis. But does the world need a new body to put le...
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David Dimbleby: Are journalistic values under threat? from 2022-11-11T00:01
Where do you get your news from, and do you trust it to be true? For many of us, the answers to these questions are changing. Social media is an increasingly dominant source of information; long...
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Gerard Lyons: Is Britain's economy up to scratch? from 2022-11-09T00:00
The UK economy is in a hole. Inflation is high, interest rates are rising, public debt is soaring and, according to the Bank of England, Britons face two years of recession. Stephen Sackur speak...
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Sauli Niinistö: Finland's new strategic direction from 2022-11-07T08:06
Stephen Sackur is in Helsinki for an exclusive interview with Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö. After decades of pragmatic coexistence with Moscow, Finland has made a big strategic decision: t...
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Ben Hodges: Is Ukrainian victory inevitable? from 2022-11-04T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to General Ben Hodges, former commander of the US army in Europe. He claims a Ukrainian victory in the war with Russia is inevitable, maybe within months. But given Putin’s...
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Rafael Grossi: Is nuclear power ever risk-free? from 2022-11-02T00:01
Stephen Sackur speaks to Rafael Grossi, director general of the world’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. He’s been to Ukraine and has visited Putin in his continuing eff...
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Dimitar Kovačevski: Can North Macedonia finally join the EU? from 2022-10-31T00:00
In an exclusive interview, Stephen Sackur is in Skopje to speak to North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski. His nation emerged out of the former Yugoslavia and is now in the queue fo...
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Matthew Collins: Taking on the far right from 2022-10-26T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the writer and anti-racism campaigner Matthew Collins. In his youth he was himself a far-right thug, but he changed sides and became an informer. Now he’s a leading acti...
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Audrey Tang: Can Taiwan forge its own path? from 2022-10-24T07:30
Zeinab Badawi is in Taiwan to speak to Audrey Tang, the country's digital minister. The Taipei government says it stands for democracy in the face of increasing belligerence from China, which cl...
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Jan Lipavský: Will energy crisis break Europe's stand against Moscow? from 2022-10-20T23:01
Stephen Sackur speaks to Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, an ardent supporter of Ukraine in a country facing an energy and economic crisis this winter. Vladimir Putin thinks Russia’s energy...
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German Galushchenko: How vulnerable is Ukraine? from 2022-10-19T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko. His country’s energy and power infrastructure is being targeted by Russian rockets and kamikaze drones. As Putin doubles ...
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Dr Anthony Fauci: What did the US get wrong about Covid? from 2022-10-13T23:02
Stephen Sackur speaks to Dr Anthony Fauci, soon to retire as President Biden’s chief medical adviser. Under Trump, then Biden, Dr Fauci was at the forefront of America’s Covid response, which co...
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Amin Salam: Is Lebanon heading for meltdown? from 2022-10-12T08:00
Lebanon is experiencing one of the most disastrous economic collapses of the last 100 years. The national economy is less than half the size it was just three years ago, while people are holding...
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Maggie Haberman: Donald Trump and journalistic responsibility from 2022-10-07T08:00
Zeinab Badawi speaks to the award winning American journalist Maggie Haberman. She has published a book that chronicles the rise and fall of Donald Trump, and her revelations are creating sensat...
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Boris Grebenshchikov: Culture and protest in Russia from 2022-10-05T07:30
Zeinab Badawi speaks to Russian rock musician Boris Grebenshchikov, who last played in Russia the day before Putin invaded Ukraine. Now living in exile in London, BG (as he is known to his fans)...
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Masih Alinejad: A revolution for Iranian women? from 2022-09-29T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to exiled Iranian women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad. The death in police custody of a young woman arrested for showing strands of her hair sparked protests across Iran...
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Evgeny Popov: Russia's mobilisation from 2022-09-27T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Russian MP, Putin loyalist and influential state media commentator Evgeny Popov. Amid military reverses, mass mobilisation, and signs of internal dissent in Russia, is P...
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Reverend Richard Coles: Living with grief from 2022-09-26T08:00
For most of us, death and grief remain a private affair. An irreversible, life-altering shock when we lose someone close, for which there is no guide or preparation. Stephen Sackur interviews Re...
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Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze: Can Putin’s threats undermine support for Ukraine? from 2022-09-23T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to the Ukrainian MP, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, who currently chairs the Ukrainian parliament’s EU Integration Committee. Kyiv’s battlefield gains have prompted Vladimir P...
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Maria Pevchikh: Where does Russia's anti-Putin movement go from here? from 2022-09-12T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to Maria Pevchikh, investigations chief for Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, which is now outlawed in Russia. With Vladimir Putin putting a tighter squeeze on R...
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Vadym Prystaiko: Can Ukraine count on its allies? from 2022-09-09T21:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine's former foreign minister, who now serves as the country's ambassador to the UK. With the war in Russia becoming protracted and attritional, and...
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Enrico Letta: Is Italy set to choose a far-right government? from 2022-09-07T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Enrico Letta, leader of Italy’s centre-left Democratic Party. With a momentous General Election looming, can Italians be persuaded against embracing a coalition of the f...
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Lindsey Graham: Trump and the midterms from 2022-09-04T23:00
In a special edition of HARDtalk from the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy, Stephen Sackur speaks to long-time Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham. He is perhaps the most forceful and voluble defender...
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Tova Friedman: Learning from history from 2022-09-02T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Tova Friedman, one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz. Never has it felt more important to remember the lessons of one of history’s greatest crimes, the Nazi genocid...
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Gwen Adshead: Getting inside the minds of murderers from 2022-08-30T23:00
Zeinab Badawi speaks to Dr Gwen Adshead, a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist who has spent more than three decades trying to treat some of the UK’s most violent offenders. Why does she u...
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Pinchas Goldschmidt: Is the Ukraine war deepening Jewish anxiety? from 2022-08-29T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to Pinchas Goldschmidt, who was chief rabbi of Moscow until he fled Russia after the Ukraine invasion and left his post. His fate has exposed the scale of wider Jewish flig...
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Olga Rudenko: Is there room for government critique in Ukraine's fight for survival? from 2022-08-25T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Olga Rudenko, chief editor of the Kyiv Independent - set up by Ukrainian journalists to hold their government to account. Is there room for independent journalism when U...
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Sir Peter Blake: What keeps his creativity alive? from 2022-08-22T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to the artist Sir Peter Blake, whose work came to define the freshness and optimism of the 1960s. Now aged 90, he is still painting. What keeps his creativity alive?
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Krišjānis Kariņš: Is Latvia still vulnerable? from 2022-08-18T23:00
Stephen Sackur is in Riga to speak to the Prime Minister of Latvia, Krišjānis Kariņš. Latvia is now an established member of the EU and NATO, but Putin’s Ukraine invasion has revived fears of Ru...
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George Monbiot: Surrounded by fear from 2022-08-17T08:00
Humans face a series of interlinked existential challenges. How do we feed a global population heading towards ten billion? Can it be done without degrading ecosystems and exacerbating climate c...
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Shon Faye: The transgender issue from 2022-08-15T08:00
According to research in the US and the UK, roughly one in 100 may be transgender. But the fact that the debate about transgender rights has become a political battleground isn’t driven so much ...
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Amrullah Saleh: Is resistance in Afghanistan viable? from 2022-08-12T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to the former First Vice President of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh, now a leader of the resistance dedicated to overthrowing the Taliban. A year after the Islamists returned ...
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Albert Woodfox: Freedom after a life inside from 2022-08-10T07:06
There are some human experiences which most of us find it very hard to get our heads around. In 2019, Stephen Sackur spoke to Albert Woodfox, who experienced the unimaginable torment of more tha...
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Gregory Doran: Why does Shakespeare still captivate us? from 2022-08-05T08:00
Stephen Sackur is in Stratford-upon-Avon, interviewing Gregory Doran, artistic director emeritus of the Royal Shakespeare Company. More than 400 years after his death, Shakespeare’s words and st...
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The Singh Twins: Mixing art and politics from 2022-08-03T07:06
Zeinab Badawi is at the Firstsite gallery in Colchester to speak to acclaimed contemporary British artists the Singh Twins. Their work combines Eastern and Western traditions with sharp politica...
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James Lovelock: The future of life on Earth from 2022-08-01T07:06
In an interview recorded in 2021, Stephen Sackur speaks to one of the past century's most influential environmentalists, James Lovelock. He introduced us to the Gaia hypothesis – the idea that o...
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Julius Malema: Is South Africa on the brink of chaos? from 2022-07-29T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to South Africa’s controversial populist politician Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters. Allegations of political corruption, power cuts and mass unemplo...
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Fatih Birol: Could short-term panic derail the clean energy transition? from 2022-07-27T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, and an influential advocate of the global transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. Has that gree...
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Sharan Burrow: Do workers have faith in collective action? from 2022-07-22T08:00
Stephen Sackur interviews the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, Sharan Burrow. There are signs of deepening worker discontent around the world; inflation is outst...
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Omah Lay: Is there a universal message in his music? from 2022-07-17T23:00
Sarah Montague speaks to Afrobeats musician Omah Lay. With its roots in the social activist Afrobeat music pioneered by Fela Kuti, is there a universal message in the music of this young Nigeria...
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Meaza Ashenafi: What are the prospects for peace in Ethiopia? from 2022-07-15T07:30
The conflict in Ethiopia between the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front and government forces is one of many challenges to the country’s stability. Now, there is a glimmer of hope, with both sid...
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Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda: Does Christianity in Iraq have a future? from 2022-07-13T07:30
Twenty-five years ago, almost one and a half million Christians lived in Iraq. Now there are around a quarter of a million, and after years of war and communal violence many of them have been di...
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Nury Turkel: Will the world stand up for China's Uyghurs? from 2022-07-07T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Nury Turkel, a prominent Uyghur activist in exile and chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. He is a key leader in the effort to pressure China t...
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Ibram X. Kendi: America's unhealed racial wounds from 2022-07-06T11:47
The fractures in American society are widening, over guns, abortion, education and more. But the deepest, most traumatic fracture is surely over race. The US is post-slavery, post-segregation, b...
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Steve Thompson: Rugby's traumatic legacy from 2022-07-05T23:00
Steve Thompson is a World Cup-winning England rugby player whose brain has been irreparably damaged by years of collisions. His wife Steph helps him deal with a life blighted by early-onset deme...
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Lord Patten: Were promises to Hong Kong broken? from 2022-06-30T23:00
When the UK handed Hong Kong back to China 25 years ago, the last words of the departing British Governor to the people of the territory were: “Now Hong Kong people are to run Hong Kong. That is...
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K. Shanmugam: Will Singapore have to choose between the US and China? from 2022-06-28T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to K. Shanmugam, Singapore’s minister of home affairs. Economically open, socially conservative and highly politically controlled, Singapore has thrived in the era of globa...
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Henry Huiyao Wang: Is China exposing its vulnerabilities? from 2022-06-24T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to China thinktank founder and sometime government adviser Henry Huiyao Wang. From its strategic partnership with Putin’s Russia, to its draconian and economically damaging...
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João Vale de Almeida: Have UK-EU relations become toxic? from 2022-06-21T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to João Vale de Almeida, the EU’s Ambassador to the UK, who is at the sharp end of the bitter fight between Boris Johnson’s government and Brussels over Northern Ireland. I...
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Semyon Bychkov: Artists speaking out against Putin from 2022-06-19T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to one of the world’s great conductors, Semyon Bychkov. Born in the Soviet Union, exiled from Russia, and a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, does he fear t...
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Olha Stefanishyna: Will Kyiv get the support it needs? from 2022-06-16T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to one of Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Ministers, Olha Stefanishyna. The country faces a moment of truth: Russian firepower on the frontline is beginning to tell, as the EU conte...
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Nicu Popescu: How can Moldova protect itself? from 2022-06-14T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Nicu Popescu, Moldova’s foreign minister and deputy Prime Minister. Poor, beset with corruption and strategically vulnerable, Moldova has reasons to fear that Russia’s i...
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Josef Aschbacher: Is Europe losing the space race? from 2022-06-13T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the head of the European Space Agency, Josef Aschbacher. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine put an end to space cooperation with Moscow, leaving key projects in disarray. Has ...
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Vassily Nebenzia: Is Putin's plan failing? from 2022-06-09T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia. More than 100 days into its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is locked in attrition, costly fighting in the Donbas, enduring ...
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Fawzia Koofi: Do Afghans still have hope? from 2022-06-07T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Fawzia Koofi, one of Afghanistan’s most prominent women politicians, who has been in exile since the Taliban returned to power last year. Faced with economic collapse an...
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Dr Njoki Ngumi – Artist and film-maker from 2022-06-05T23:00
Zeinab Badawi is in Nairobi to talk to one of Kenya’s most ground-breaking cultural figures Dr Njoki Ngumi. She abandoned a promising career in medicine to help set up an arts collective and bel...
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Iván Fischer, Conductor and Composer from 2022-06-02T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to the world-renowned Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer. He’s one of the most innovative, idiosyncratic maestros in the world of classical music. In the current climate, how...
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Serhii Plokhy: How Putin weaponises history from 2022-06-01T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to internationally renowned Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy, who specialises in the complex histories of Ukraine, Russia and the Soviet Union. Vladimir Putin has tried to w...
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Danica Roem: America's culture wars from 2022-05-29T23:00
Stephen Sackur is in Washington DC to speak to America’s first transgender state lawmaker, Danica Roem. She overcame long odds to win a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. Now she’s a power...
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Luis Lacalle Pou: Why is Uruguay moving to the right? from 2022-05-26T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle Pou. He’s a conservative advocate of free market economics and tougher crackdowns on crime. Why is Uruguay going right when so much of L...
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Jens Stoltenberg: Is Nato being undermined by internal divisions? from 2022-05-24T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. He claims the West’s military alliance has been steadfast in support of Ukraine since Russian President Putin’s invasion. But in...
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Iván Duque: Has Colombia's president failed? from 2022-05-22T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to the President of Colombia, Iván Duque. His term is coming to an end with the country’s biggest problems unresolved: mass poverty, inequality and alarming levels of viole...
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Franklin Graham: An era of moral decline? from 2022-05-20T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to evangelist Franklin Graham, who has followed in his father Billy’s footsteps and become one of the biggest Christian preachers in America. In the intensifying culture wa...
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Stella Moris: Will Julian Assange be extradited to the US? from 2022-05-17T17:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to lawyer Stella Moris, wife of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and mother of two of his children. The British government is about to decide whether to extradite him to th...
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Inger Ashing: Is the war in Ukraine overshadowing other crises? from 2022-05-16T07:30
Zeinab Badawi speaks to Inger Ashing, CEO of the charity Save the Children International. What is her organisation doing in Ukraine, and is the war with Russia taking the focus off other global ...
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Victoria Spartz: Does her party share her commitment to defeating Putin? from 2022-05-13T14:13
Stephen Sackur is in Washington to speak to the Ukrainian born Republican Congresswoman Victoria Spartz. She is an ardent advocate of US support for Kyiv in the war with Russia. Does her party a...
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Senator Mark Warner: Are we facing a new Cold War? from 2022-05-11T07:06
Stephen Sackur is in Washington DC to speak to the Chairman of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, senior Democrat Senator Mark Warner. America is sending weapons and money to Ukraine to confr...
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Jim Green: Has Nasa lost its way? from 2022-05-08T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Jim Green who has just retired as chief scientist of Nasa. He was involved with extraordinary missions to Mars, Jupiter and Mercury but he also saw Nasa funding slashed ...
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Zoltán Kovács: Whose side is Hungary really on? from 2022-05-05T23:00
Hungary is at odds with fellow Nato and EU members thanks to its close ties to Russia and suspicion of Ukraine’s president Zelensky. Stephen Sackur speaks to Zoltán Kovács, Hungary’s Secretary o...
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Bill Browder: Sanctioning Russia from 2022-05-04T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Bill Browder, the American investor who made a fortune in post-Soviet Russia before falling foul of Vladimir Putin. Browder has long campaigned for Russia’s economic iso...
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Eduard Heger, Prime Minister of Slovakia from 2022-05-01T23:00
Stephen Sackur is in Bratislava for an exclusive interview with Slovakia's Prime Minister Eduard Heger. Slovakia is hosting tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and is shipping arms to Ukrain...
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Frances O'Grady: How can workers defend their interests? from 2022-04-28T23:00
As rising inflation eats into wages, and machine learning and the gig economy transform the world of work, how do workers defend their interests? Stephen Sackur speaks to Frances O’Grady, Genera...
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Slava Vakarchuk: A rock star on the frontline from 2022-04-26T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Slava Vakarchuk, a Ukrainian rock star who has exchanged stadium gigs for a military uniform and morale-boosting visits to the frontline. As Ukraine fights for its survi...
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Mikhail Khodorkovsky: Making an enemy of Putin from 2022-04-22T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the the former Russian oligarch turned Putin foe, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He was once the boss of energy company Yukos and Russia’s richest oligarch. After falling out wit...
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Kylie Moore-Gilbert: 804 days in an Iranian jail from 2022-04-19T23:00
Iran’s rocky relations with the West have cost a host of individuals their freedom. The Islamic republic has imprisoned citizens from the US, Britain and a number of other countries for spying. ...
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Omid Djalili: Can jokes be funny without being mean? from 2022-04-17T23:00
Comedy challenges taste and convention, and it can arouse strong reactions, as we saw at this year’s Oscars when a joke earned Chris Rock a slap in the face from Will Smith. Stephen Sackur speak...
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Dr Njoki Ngumi: Can art change Kenya? from 2022-04-14T23:00
Zeinab Badawi is in Nairobi to talk to one of Kenya’s most ground-breaking cultural figures, Dr Njoki Ngumi. She abandoned a promising career in medicine to help set up an arts collective, and b...
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Sergei Guriev: Is Moscow outmanoeuvring the West's sanctions? from 2022-04-12T23:00
What will it take to end the war Vladimir Putin has initiated in Ukraine? In military terms, Russia now seems intent on a grim campaign of attrition in the east and south - a strategy which is a...
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Tsai Ming-yen: Could Putin’s strategy be a template for China to follow? from 2022-04-10T23:00
While the West says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine must fail, China holds back. Stephen Sackur speaks to a top diplomat from Taiwan, Taipei’s representative to the EU, Tsai Ming-yen. Could Putin’s...
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Nikita Mazepin: Sanctions on Russia 'are cancel culture' from 2022-04-07T23:00
Stephen Sackur interviews former Russian F1 driver Nikita Mazepin, who was fired from his F1 team after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He and his billionaire oligarch father now face EU and UK san...
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Dmytro Kuleba: Is diplomacy at a dead end? from 2022-04-05T23:01
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba. Horrifying evidence of atrocities has emerged from towns around Kyiv recently vacated by Russian troops. Ukraine calls it Putin...
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Claude Joseph: Can Haiti be saved? from 2022-04-03T23:00
Haiti is one of the world’s most broken nations, and internal fractures are tearing the country apart. Last summer, the president was assassinated, and the perpetrators still haven’t been brough...
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Maria Butina: What is Russia achieving in Ukraine? from 2022-03-31T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Maria Butina, a pro-Putin member of Russia’s state Duma. Where does Vladimir Putin’s self-styled 'special military operation' in Ukraine go from here? He expected Kyiv t...
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Mairead McGuinness: How far will the EU go to support Kyiv? from 2022-03-29T23:00
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine united the EU in shock and outrage. But four weeks into the war, with Ukrainian cities besieged and civilians suffering unimaginable horrors, cracks are alre...
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Ilya Ponomarev: A former Russian MP on fighting Putin from 2022-03-25T08:06
Gabriel Gatehouse speaks to Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of the Russian parliament who is fighting in Ukraine – against Russia. Ponomarev has long said he wants to bring down Vladimir Putin, ...
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Francis Fukuyama: The end of the end of history? from 2022-03-23T08:06
Sarah Montague speaks to the renowned US political scientist Francis Fukuyama. Thirty years ago, the Soviet Union collapsed and communist governments fell across Eastern Europe. Liberal democrac...
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Tobias Ellwood: How should the West stand up to Putin? from 2022-03-16T00:00
Russia has launched its most deadly attack on western Ukraine so far, striking a military base just 15 kilometres from the Polish border. This is being seen as a warning to Nato that, in supplyi...
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Jonas Gahr Støre: Easing Europe off Russian energy from 2022-03-11T12:48
Europe's dependence on Russian energy sits uneasily with Putin’s war in Ukraine. Moscow is financing its invasion through revenues from such exports. One EU leader has said Russian oil and gas is b...
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Svetlana Tikhanovskaya: Is the fate of Belarus tied to the fate of Ukraine? from 2022-03-11T00:00
With the world focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it’s easy to overlook one other key element of Vladimir Putin’s Greater Russia strategy: Moscow’s ever tighter grip on Ukraine’s northern nei...
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Michael Carpenter: Is this a new age of conflict? from 2022-03-09T00:00
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine represents the biggest seismic shock to European security since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The US, NATO allies and the EU are now arming the Ukrainian go...
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Arseniy Yatsenyuk: Former Ukrainian PM from 2022-03-07T17:05
Stephen Sackur speaks to former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Russia’s invasion hasn’t delivered Moscow a quick decisive victory, but it is taking a terrible toll on Ukraine. How real...
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Andrey Kurkov: Putin's attack on Ukraine's identity from 2022-03-02T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov. He was born in Russia, writes in Russian and now fears for his life at the hands of Russian troops. What does his personal story tell us a...
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David Miliband: President of the International Rescue Committee from 2022-03-01T20:08
Stephen Sackur speaks to David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee and former British foreign secretary. Hour by hour Vladimir Putin intensifies the scale and violence of the ...
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Iván Fischer: The power and joy of music from 2022-02-28T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the renowned Hungarian conductor and composer Iván Fischer. Much of the world is transitioning from locking down to living with Covid-19. And that means cultural life is re...
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Leonid Volkov: How strong is Putin's grip on Russia? from 2022-02-25T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Leonid Volkov, a prominent figure in Russia’s anti-Putin opposition. Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine represents a gamble by the Kremlin - projecting regional supremac...
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Ingrid Betancourt: Can Colombia defeat corruption? from 2022-02-21T00:00
Colombians will elect a new President this year, and amid a crowded field, one candidate has reason to view the coming campaign with mixed emotion. Ingrid Betancourt was running for president 20 ye...
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Jamie Raskin, Democrat Congressman, House Committe to Investigative January 6th Attack from 2022-02-18T00:00
Early last year American democracy came under attack from within. Supporters of defeated President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol and provoked deadly violence. Stephen Sackur speaks to the Dem...
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Yuri Vitrenko: Russia, Ukraine and Europe's energy from 2022-02-16T08:30
Russia and Ukraine have powerful ties of geography, history and energy. And when it comes to the geopolitics of the current crisis energy is a key factor. Ukraine has long profited from being the m...
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Kiril Petkov: Is Bulgaria ready to stand up to Russia? from 2022-02-14T00:00
Vladimir Putin knows how to probe for weakness in the West. With his troops building up on the Ukrainian border, Russia’s president is testing the unity of NATO. In particular, he is putting pressu...
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Michael McCaul: Is Biden up to facing off with Putin? from 2022-02-11T00:00
Republican Congressman Michael McCaul accuses President Biden of failing to stand up to the challenge of Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. After four years of Donald Trump, are Republicans credible when t...
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George Takei, Actor from 2022-02-09T00:00
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 r...
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Marine Le Pen: France's future president? from 2022-02-07T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the longtime leader of France's far right, Marine Le Pen. She's hoping to win the French presidency for her party, National Rally, in elections this spring. But the far rig...
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Gabrielius Landsbergis: Tension in Eastern Europe from 2022-02-04T00:00
Russian forces continue to gather close to Ukraine’s eastern and northern borders, and still the world waits to see what Vladimir Putin’s end game is. If the goal is to wring security concessions o...
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Bassem Youssef: Do we expect too much from satire? from 2022-02-02T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to comedian and writer Bassem Youssef. He made his name and won an audience of tens of millions with a satirical comedy show during Egypt’s popular uprising more than a decade...
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Isabel Allende: What does South America's future hold? from 2022-01-31T00:00
The decisive victory by Gabriel Boric, the left-wing candidate, in Chile’s recent elections has reset the button on the country’s political path. He defeated the right-wing presidential contender i...
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Mariana Mazzucato: The space race and our economic futures from 2022-01-28T08:30
What is the galvanising force behind transformational economic change? Capitalism encourages us to look to the raw power of markets as the driver of innovation. But is that really true? Stephen Sac...
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Dominic Lee: China's Hong Kong takeover from 2022-01-26T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Hong Kong Legislative Councillor Dominic Lee Tsz-king, a high profile defender of Beijing’s increasingly tight grip on the territory. With China’s increasing crackdown in t...
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Mohammad Marandi: Iran's nuclear negotiations from 2022-01-24T00:00
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to the adviser to Iran’s negotiators in Vienna, Mohammad Marandi. Time is running out for negotiators trying to break the impasse between the United States and Iran...
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Damian Collins: Can Boris Johnson be trusted? from 2022-01-21T00:00
Stephen Sackur interviews British Conservative MP Damian Collins, who has been working on online regulation. After the stream of revelations about lockdown socialising in Downing Street, he and his...
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Oleksii Reznikov: An invasion of Ukraine? from 2022-01-19T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov. With more than 100,000 Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s border, a Russian military offensive may be imminent. If war comes, w...
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Kathleen Stock: The debate about sex, gender and equality from 2022-01-17T08:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to philosopher and author Kathleen Stock whose views on the immutability of biological sex and the limitations of gender self-identity have made her a hate figure for some tra...
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Baroness Helena Kennedy QC: Fighting for equality in British law from 2022-01-14T08:30
Women are still fighting for equality all over the world. Even in long established democracies like the UK plenty of evidence suggests that from the workplace to the law courts there is a long way ...
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Sathnam Sanghera: Confronting Britain's history from 2022-01-12T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to author and journalist Sathnam Sanghera, whose bestselling book Empireland takes a critical look at Britain’s imperial past. Confronting truth means challenging cultural nor...
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Bryan Stevenson: Will equality ever be more than a dream in the US? from 2022-01-10T08:30
Black and white Americans have always had vastly different experiences within their country’s justice system. You see it in so many different data sets, from police violence to incarceration and se...
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Nureldin Satti: Sudan's coup from 2022-01-07T00:01
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Sudanese diplomat Nureldin Satti. It’s surely hard for the people of Sudan to be optimistic about their country’s prospects in 2022. The new year began with the ...
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Laurence Tribe: Is the US system of government in peril? from 2022-01-05T02:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Laurence Tribe, Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard University. It’s a year since pro-Trump protesters stormed the US Capitol and unleashed a spasm of violence which...
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Neil deGrasse Tyson: Trust in science from 2021-12-20T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of National History in New York. He is one of America’s most popular scien...
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Ernesto Araújo: Has Brazil failed to protect its people? from 2021-12-17T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Brazil’s former Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo who was an arch critic of global efforts to contain Covid, calling them communistic. Brazil’s government now stands accused ...
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Ernesto Araújo: Has Brazil failed to protect its people? from 2021-12-17T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Brazil’s former Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo who was an arch critic of global efforts to contain Covid, calling them communistic. Brazil’s government now stands accused ...
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Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov: Fighting for a free press from 2021-12-15T08:06
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 Ress...
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John Kerry: US Special Envoy for Climate from 2021-12-10T08:06
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 d...
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Moeed Yusuf: What will a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan mean for Pakistan? from 2021-12-08T00:00
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 ...
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Paul Auster: Is New York still the heartbeat of America? from 2021-12-06T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to one of New York City's most famous writers, Paul Auster, whose novels and screenplays have done much to capture the New York state of mind. The city prides itself on being ...
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Ken Buck: Big tech and Republican politics from 2021-12-01T00:00
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 w...
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Nicolai Tangen: Can Norway move on from fossil fuels? from 2021-11-29T00:00
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 t...
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Nicolai Tangen: Can Norway move on from fossil fuels? from 2021-11-29T00:00
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 t...
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Rana Ayyub: Abuse, intimidation and legal threats from 2021-11-26T00:00
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, intimid...
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Péter Márki-Zay: Can Viktor Orban be beaten at the ballot box? from 2021-11-24T00:00
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 e...
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Ryan Girdusky: Race and education in America from 2021-11-22T00:00
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...
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George Takei: Growing up in an internment camp from 2021-11-17T00:00
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 r...
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Ritchie Torres: Is America ready to embrace progressive politics? from 2021-11-15T00:00
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 po...
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Pawel Jablonski: Could Poland exit the EU? from 2021-11-12T00:00
Poland is the biggest rebel in the European family, and matters are coming to a head over its latest disputes with the EU. Brussels accuses the centre-right government in Warsaw of a blatant disreg...
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Patrice Evra: The flaws in football from 2021-11-10T08:30
Football's global appeal can’t disguise the problems facing the game. Some fans say the sport is being ruined by financial greed, and racism is still to be rooted out. Stephen Sackur speaks to the ...
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Mike Leigh: Art and the cinema from 2021-11-08T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Mike Leigh, the acclaimed writer and director of films such as Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky and Mr Turner. For five decades, he has told stories about belie...
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Prime Minister Albin Kurti: Is he a source of instability in the Balkans? from 2021-11-05T00:00
Kosovo has enjoyed independent statehood for 13 years but almost half the world does not recognise it. Stephen Sackur speaks to Prime Minister Albin Kurti who has had a turbulent career. He has bee...
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Fiona Hill: What did Trump mean for America and the world? from 2021-11-03T00:00
The Trump Presidency challenged many public officials to make a choice: obey directives from the White House against their better judgment, or take a stand and face the wrath of the pro-Trump movem...
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Fatih Birol: Can greenhouse gas emissions be eliminated? from 2021-11-01T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency. He believes greenhouse gas emissions can effectively be eliminated within a generation. But is he ignor...
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Bruno Le Maire: Is France looking for a new economic direction? from 2021-10-28T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to French finance minister Bruno Le Maire. France is in recovery mode after the damaging impact of Covid but is struggling to deliver on long promised economic reform. With a ...
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Ariel Dorfman: Ghosts of the past from 2021-10-26T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to the acclaimed novelist and playwright Ariel Dorfman. His life has been shaped by political upheaval and exile. He fled Chile after General Pinochet seized power in 1973 and...
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David Baddiel, Comedian and writer from 2021-10-24T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to writer and comedian David Baddiel, who has a gift for finding the funny in some of the darkest corners of the human psyche. Now he is taking on our often toxic online cultu...
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Andrew Forrest: Mega-polluter turned climate revolutionary from 2021-10-21T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Andrew Forrest, an Australian billionaire mining magnate who is using a chunk of his fortune to push a green, hydrogen-based energy solution. In the run up to the Glasgow c...
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Henry Marsh: A doctor arguing for assisted dying from 2021-10-19T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to brain surgeon Henry Marsh whose book “Do No Harm” became a bestseller. Now he is confronting his own advanced cancer, and lobbying for the legislation of assisted dying for...
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Philippe Sands: Is international justice working? from 2021-10-18T07:06
When the first Nuremberg trial of Nazi war criminals came to an end, the ground-breaking international tribunal handed down 12 death sentences. Seventy-five years on, is the world any better at del...
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Adela Raz, Afghanistan's Ambassador to the US from 2021-10-15T10:59
Stephen Sackur speaks to Adela Raz, still officially Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the United States, though the Taliban disowns her and the Americans ignore her. In the face of a looming humanitaria...
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Sergei Ryabkov: Russia and energy security from 2021-10-13T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Moscow is set to be a major beneficiary of the extraordinary spike in fossil fuel energy prices - does that mean Moscow wil...
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Richard Deverell: The battle to save the planet from 2021-10-11T07:06
Do we understand the urgency of the global biodiversity and climate change crisis? Stephen Sackur speaks to the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, Richard Deverell. Kew Gardens in London...
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Richard Thaler: Is a nudge enough to change our behaviour? from 2021-10-07T23:00
From Covid to climate change, governments around the world face challenges which demand modifications of human behaviour. When it comes to getting people to do things differently, what works best: ...
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Ben Ferencz, prosecutor at the Nuremberg Nazi Trials from 2021-10-05T23:00
Seventy-five years after the Nuremberg Military Tribunals convicted some of the most senior Nazis of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the last surviving prosecutor from the trials, Ben Feren...
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Michel Barnier on Brexit fallout from 2021-10-01T07:30
The crisis over a lack of supplies in the UK triggered by a shortage of truck drivers has reignited the debate about the consequences of Brexit. This comes on top of concerns about the impact on tr...
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Rafael Grossi - Nuclear fallout from 2021-09-28T23:00
Zeinab Badawi speaks to Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, amid concern about renewed tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme. Tehran insists that it is only ...
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Nitin Sawhney, Musician and Composer from 2021-09-26T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to renowned British Indian musician and composer Nitin Sawhney. From a childhood disfigured by racism to the embrace of the UK’s cultural elite, what are the common threads in...
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Roger Deakins: How is technology changing cinema? from 2021-09-23T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to one of the world's most celebrated cinematographers, Roger Deakins. He has won Oscars for his work on 1917 and Blade Runner 2049, and also shaped the look of modern classic...
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Bryan Hughes: Abortion in Texas from 2021-09-21T23:00
Republicans in Texas have managed to ban abortion in almost all cases in their state. Anyone performing, aiding or abetting the termination of a pregnancy after roughly six weeks can be sued in cou...
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Carlos Fernando Chamorro: Exiled from Nicaragua from 2021-09-19T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Nicaraguan journalist and former revolutionary Carlos Fernando Chamorro. He is currently in exile as President Daniel Ortega intensifies his crackdown on dissent. Why has t...
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Carlos Fernando Chamorro: Exiled from Nicaragua from 2021-09-19T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Nicaraguan journalist and former revolutionary Carlos Fernando Chamorro. He is currently in exile as President Daniel Ortega intensifies his crackdown on dissent. Why has t...
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Naomi Campbell, supermodel and businesswoman from 2021-09-16T23:00
In an exclusive interview for the BBC’s 100 Women season, Zeinab Badawi speaks to supermodel Naomi Campbell. (Photo: Naomi Campbell smiles at Zeinab Badawi)
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Robin Hanbury-Tenison: An explorer protecting indigenous lands from 2021-09-14T23:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to one of the world’s great modern-day explorers, Robin Hanbury-Tenison. He has committed himself to the protection of indigenous people and their lands, but have his efforts ...
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Former interrogator for the CIA, James Mitchell from 2021-09-12T23:00
American psychologist James Mitchell helped devise the CIA’s enhanced interrogation programme after the 9/11 attacks. He personally interrogated some of the top terrorist suspects using the program...
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Rudy Giuliani: Reflecting on 9/11 from 2021-09-09T23:00
It’s 20 years since the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center were reduced to dust and ash. This week, the US is again immersed in memories of the attack and what came after. In 2011, on the...
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Rudy Giuliani: Reflecting on 9/11 from 2021-09-09T23:00
It’s 20 years since the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center were reduced to dust and ash. This week, the US is again immersed in memories of the attack and what came after. In 2011, on the...
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Nadia Calviño: Is Europe too fragmented to shape the 21st Century? from 2021-09-08T07:30
The covid pandemic and emerging superpower rivalries have presented the EU with troubling questions. Stephen Sackur speaks to Spain's Deputy Prime Minister and Economy minister Nadia Calviño. Is Eu...
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Lindsey Graham: What is the Republican vision for America? from 2021-09-06T07:29
After the US-led withdrawal from Afghanistan, how does America see itself and its place in the world? Stephen Sackur is at the Ambrosetti Forum in northern Italy to speak to one of the Republican P...
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Omar Zakhilwal: What ideology will prevail in Afghanistan? from 2021-09-01T05:00
Will pragmatism or zealotry prevail in Afghanistan, as the Taliban grapple with the reality of ruling a broken country? Stephen Sackur speaks to former finance minister Omar Zakhilwal, who has been...
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Maggi Hambling: An evolving creative vision from 2021-08-30T06:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to the artist Maggi Hambling. Her works have won international acclaim, but some have also stirred controversy, including a sculpture unveiled in London last year for 18th cen...
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Andrei Kelin: Russia, Afghanistan and the UK from 2021-08-26T23:00
The chaotic evacuation operation still underway at Kabul airport has put a harsh spotlight on two decades of US and NATO military commitment in Afghanistan. It looks and feels like a strategic defe...
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Paula Kahumbu: Saving Africa's wild spaces from 2021-08-25T08:19
Stephen Sackur speaks to Paula Kahumbu, CEO for WildlifeDirect, Kenya. Her campaign to protect elephants and other endangered species asks Kenyans to prioritise protection of the country’s wild spa...
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Gedion Timothewos: Ethiopia's civil war from 2021-08-22T23:00
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Ethiopia’s Attorney General Gedion Timothewos. The conflict between government forces and Tigrayan rebels has cost thousands of lives and revived the spectre of ...
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Kamila Sidiqi: What future do Afghanistan's women face? from 2021-08-20T06:00
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Kamila Sidiqi, a leading Afghan women's rights campaigner, entrepreneur and government adviser under President Ghani. She escaped from Kabul as the Taliban took ...
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Tobias Ellwood: Britain's Afghanistan exit from 2021-08-17T23:00
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to British Conservative MP and former soldier Tobias Ellwood. Two decades after they were expelled from Kabul the hard-line Islamists are back. US and British troop...
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Aly Raisman: Are gold medals put above athletes' wellbeing? from 2021-08-16T07:30
The athletic excellence seen at the Tokyo Olympics will live long in the memory, but so will the moment the brilliant US gymnast Simone Biles chose not to compete to safeguard her mental and physic...
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Getachew Reda: What is the endgame for Tigray's rebels? from 2021-08-13T09:43
The humanitarian suffering in northern Ethiopia is appalling, as conflict continues on multiple fronts. Tigrayan rebel forces have won a string of victories over the Ethiopian military, and Ethiopi...
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Daryl Davis: Reaching out to the KKK from 2021-08-11T08:16
Stephen Sackur speaks to Daryl Davis, a black musician who has spent four decades trying to talk to America’s most diehard racists, the Ku Klux Klan. He claims to have forged friendships with white...
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Hamid Mir: Is Pakistan a safe place for journalists? from 2021-08-09T06:00
In the last year, there have been a string of attacks on reporters in Pakistan. The perpetrators remain unknown and unpunished. The government insists Pakistan is a bastion of media freedom. Hamid ...
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Sir Andrew Pollard: The war on Covid-19 from 2021-08-06T01:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and a key figure in the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Science has offered up tools to be...
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RoseAnne Archibald: Uncovering Canada's dark past from 2021-08-04T01:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to RoseAnne Archibald, newly elected National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Canada. The truth about the deaths of thousands of indigenous children in schools infamou...
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Sir Hilary Beckles: Reparations for slavery from 2021-08-02T01:06
Zeinab Badawi speaks to the eminent historian professor Sir Hilary Beckles in Barbados. Over three centuries, Africans were transported to the Caribbean to toil on sugar and cotton plantations - a ...
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Lazarus Chakwera: President of Malawi from 2021-07-30T01:06
Sarah Montague speaks to the President of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera. The preacher turned politician won power last year pledging to create a million jobs and “clear the rubble” of corruption. But a ...
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Péter Szijjártó: Is Hungary undermining European values? from 2021-07-28T01:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó. On a range of issues from press freedom to LGBT rights, Hungary routinely ignores the collective interpretation of EU values. Po...
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Hamdullah Mohib: Can the Afghan government hold out against the Taliban? from 2021-07-26T07:30
Since the United States pulled its troops out of Afghanistan at the beginning of July, the Taliban have continued to retake vast swathes of the country. Reports have emerged that they are once agai...
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Fikile Mbalula: Is South Africa's government being confronted with its own failure? from 2021-07-23T02:34
South Africa is facing its deepest political crisis of the post-apartheid era. Days of violence and looting saw more than 200 people killed and thousands arrested. Stephen Sackur speaks to Fikile M...
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Laurent Lamothe: Can anything be done to end Haiti's suffering? from 2021-07-21T07:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to former Haitian Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe. Pity the eleven million people of Haiti; it is hard to think of a nation more comprehensively shattered by many decades of m...
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Michael Holding: Can sport win its fight against racism? from 2021-07-19T06:00
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Michael Holding, the former West Indies cricket great who is now a prominent voice confronting racism. In England, there’s a fierce debate about how best to root...
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Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho: Can courage overcome injustice? from 2021-07-16T07:00
Measured by the number of murders Mexico is the most dangerous country in the world to be a journalist. Eight were killed last year; and countless more suffered threats, intimidation and violence. ...
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Jess Phillips: What happened to progressive politics? from 2021-07-14T01:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to one of the leading figures in the British Labour party, Jess Phillips MP. She’s a tireless campaigner against domestic violence and has won plaudits for her direct, from-th...
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Writer Lionel Shriver from 2021-07-07T06:00
In our culture of 24/7 news and trending social media reactions, it sometimes takes a novelist’s eye to chart the deeper, current events swirling beneath society’s surface. Lionel Shriver is a Brit...
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Christian Happi: Can Africa become a world leader in vaccine development? from 2021-07-05T07:25
Zeinab Badawi speaks to Professor Christian Happi whose ground-breaking research is helping tackle diseases that kill thousands every year. He gave up a career at Harvard University in the US and ...
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Victor Gao: 100 years of the Chinese Communist Party from 2021-06-30T07:00
As the Chinese Communist Party marks its 100th anniversary, Stephen Sackur speaks to veteran party loyalist Victor Gao, vice president of the Centre for China and Globalization in Beijing. The part...
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Zainab Ahmed: Can Nigeria avert financial meltdown? from 2021-06-25T12:50
Africa is going through its first recession in more than a quarter of a century because of the global downturn caused by the Covid pandemic. The economic crisis is being keenly felt in Nigeria, the...
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Rawdah Mohamed: Fashion and Muslim women from 2021-06-23T11:15
Somali-born fashion editor Rawdah Mohamed has taken up a senior role at the soon-to-be launched Vogue Scandinavia. After moving to Norway as a child, she became a model, and in April created a soci...
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REM lead singer Michael Stipe from 2021-06-21T06:00
Michael Stipe was the lead singer of one of the most influential bands of the last four decades, REM. He was the figurehead of indie rock, enigmatic, serious, political. Now he’s a visual artist, s...
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Johan Lundgren, EasyJet CEO: Can his business model survive Covid and climate change? from 2021-06-17T23:00
No industry has been hit harder by the global pandemic than aviation. Cross-border travel is either banned or constrained by tests and quarantines across much of the world. And, in a time full of u...
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Jens Stoltenberg: Is the old alliance ready to tackle new threats? from 2021-06-16T07:06
President Biden says the US is determined to lead NATO's response to evolving geographical and technological threats. But there have been marked disagreements between alliance members on relations ...
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Ben Rhodes: President Biden's foreign policy challenges from 2021-06-11T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama, Ben Rhodes. He has written a new book, After the Fall, reflecting on his time in the White House, the legacy of ...
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Michael Rosen: Surviving Covid-19 from 2021-06-07T07:00
Last March, the author and educator Michael Rosen was placed into an induced coma after contracting Covid-19. He has now released a dark, sad and uplifting memoir about his experience, but how did ...
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Tom Kerridge: Has the pandemic changed the way we eat? from 2021-06-03T23:00
How long will it take the hospitality business to recover from the pandemic, and is there a new recognition of the link between our food and our health? Stephen Sackur speaks to British chef Tom Ke...
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John Nkengasong: Can Africa meet its vaccination targets? from 2021-06-01T23:00
Africa appears to have been relatively spared in the pandemic so far, but plans to have at least 30% of the continent's populations vaccinated by the end of 2021 seem far away. Hardtalk speaks to J...
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Doug Gurr: Advocating for planet Earth from 2021-05-31T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the new director of London’s world-renowned Natural History Museum, Doug Gurr. They still love their ancient fossils here, but the real focus now is on the fragile future o...
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Fawad Chaudhry: Is Imran Khan reneging on his promises to Pakistan? from 2021-05-27T15:54
Who holds the reins of power in Pakistan? Prime Minister Imran Khan leads a government elected in 2018; if Pakistan is a genuine democracy, then that’s where power resides. But many government crit...
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Tito Mboweni: How much has Covid damaged South Africa? from 2021-05-26T07:00
South Africa is wrestling with a continued health and economic crisis courtesy of Covid-19, but the country’s ruling ANC party is also distracted by internal divisions over corruption. Stephen Sack...
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Ben Hodges: Is America's global power waning? from 2021-05-24T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to retired US general Ben Hodges, former Commander of the US Army in Europe. The 20th century was in many ways shaped by America’s unrivalled power; two decades into the new c...
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Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s Ambassador to the EU from 2021-05-21T02:00
Russia’s relations with the West have been poor for some time but now they have reached a new level of hostility. Since the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, new sanctions h...
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Husam Zomlot: Palestine's balance of power from 2021-05-19T06:00
The latest round of conflict between Israel and militant groups in Gaza has left the Palestinian Authority looking sidelined and powerless. Is this a permanent shift in the Palestinian power dynami...
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Kaja Kallas: Do Nato and the EU have Estonia's back? from 2021-05-17T03:29
When hostility between Russia and the West, is high the Baltic states get nervous. Will membership of the EU and Nato protect Estonia from the possibility of Russian aggression? Hardtalk speaks to ...
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Tzipi Hotovely: Israel's ambassador to the UK from 2021-05-13T23:00
The escalating violence between Israel and the militant Islamic groups in Gaza has the potential to inflict terrible bloodshed, but will it change any of the underlying realities in this seemingly ...
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Harry Theoharis: What is in store for European summer holidays? from 2021-05-11T23:00
We have reached the point in the Covid pandemic where the impacts of the virus are varying wildly. Here in the UK, infection rates have been contained and a rapid vaccine roll out is having its eff...
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Fawzia Koofi: The future for women in Afghanistan from 2021-05-10T08:00
Zeinab Badawi interviews Fawzia Koofi, the first woman to lead a political party in Afghanistan, and is part of an Afghan delegation in talks with the Taliban. Yet she is one of their fiercest crit...
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Mohammed Alyahya: Does Saudi Arabia still have America's support? from 2021-05-07T08:02
Month by month, US President Joe Biden is shifting away from Trump-era foreign policy positions. But how dramatic will the pivot be? In the Middle East, there are signs of a changed approach to the...
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Mohamedou Ould Slahi: What is the Guantanamo legacy? from 2021-05-05T04:00
Stephen Sackur interviews Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian citizen who was once identified as a high value al-Qaeda terrorist, serving 14 years in America’s Guantanamo Bay prison. He was eventua...
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Artists Gilbert Prousch&George Passmore from 2021-05-03T06:00
Gilbert Prousch and George Passmore first met as art students in London in the late 1960s and ever since then they've been together as a couple and as an artistic duo. From the beginning they’re ow...
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Dmytro Kuleba: Has the Russian threat to Ukraine receded? from 2021-04-28T07:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba. A few days ago, the Ukrainian Government was pleading for international help to confront the threat of a Russian milit...
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Sir Peter Westmacott: Are we at peak geopolitical risk? from 2021-04-26T08:00
Russian troops are massing on Ukraine’s border, while China and the US are locked in Cold War-style hostility. Cyberwarfare makes states, systems and individuals feel newly vulnerable. Stephen Sack...
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Navalny aide Vladimir Ashurkov: Is Putin about to eliminate his most dangerous opponent? from 2021-04-23T07:30
The imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny describes himself as a walking skeleton. He’s refusing food in protest at his medical treatment, and thousands of Russians joined protests to...
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Michael Mann: The new climate war? from 2021-04-20T23:00
President Biden is promising hundreds of billions of dollars to speed up the decarbonisation of the US economy – the White House wants cooperation with China to make good on the Paris agreement on ...
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Silvia Foti: When truth trumps family loyalty from 2021-04-16T07:45
Stephen Sackur interviews Silvia Foti, an American writer whose grandfather was a Lithuanian man hailed as heroic patriot who paid with his life resisting the Soviets. But according to his granddau...
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Serj Tankian: System of a Down frontman on activism and music from 2021-04-14T01:13
Serj Tankian is the frontman of world-renowned rock band System of a Down, but is also an arch advocate for his family’s homeland, Armenia. His passionate views on genocide, war and corrupt governa...
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Tsitsi Dangarembga: Are better days coming for Zimbabwe? from 2021-04-12T08:00
Zeinab Badawi interviews playwright, novelist and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga, one of Zimbabwe’s most influential and acclaimed cultural figures. Arrested for her political activism, she says her ...
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Amrullah Saleh: Is the Afghan peace process running out of road? from 2021-04-09T07:30
If Afghanistan is to find a way out of seemingly never-ending war the next few weeks will be critically important. The Biden Administration is pressing the Afghan Government and the Taliban to acce...
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Ken Rogoff: Does Bidenomics make sense? from 2021-04-06T23:00
The Covid pandemic looks like a watershed moment in global economics. Big Government is back as the failsafe engine of economic growth, as the usual fears such as soaring debt and rising inflation ...
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Barbara Amiel: What do the super-rich owe the rest of the world? from 2021-04-05T08:00
The proportion of wealth owned by a super-rich elite continues to grow in societies around the world. The glaring disparity between the 'have-mosts' and the 'have-nothings' has fuelled a wave of po...
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Sir Vartan Melkonian: From Beirut street child to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 2021-04-02T02:38
Sir Vartan Melkonian began his life as an Armenian refugee in Lebanon, spending his early years in an orphanage outside Beirut, followed by living rough on the streets for many years. He is now a r...
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Erika Lust: Can porn be feminist? from 2021-03-30T23:00
Porn is one of the biggest drivers of internet traffic and a generator of vast amounts of money, but also an industry in a state of flux. The biggest online porn platforms have been accused of prof...
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Marina Abramović: A remarkable career pushed to the limits from 2021-03-29T08:00
Much of the art we love is presented via a medium - be it a canvas, a recording or celluloid. Stephen Sackur interviews Marina Abramović, an artist whose primary resource is her own body. In the co...
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Jean-Claude Juncker: Is Covid an unprecedented test of EU cohesion? from 2021-03-26T03:00
The Covid-19 pandemic has presented the European Union with an unprecedented test of its cohesion and competence. Right now, the scorecard looks decidedly mixed, with many member states facing a th...
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Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee: Is the concept of ‘one country, two systems’ dead? from 2021-03-24T02:06
It seems the Biden Administration is putting greater emphasis on human rights issues in its already fraught relationship with China. Will that prompt Beijing to think twice about the crackdown on p...
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Baroness Minouche Shafik: What do we owe each other? from 2021-03-22T09:00
The idea of a social contract between the individual and the state is a staple of political philosophy. But what happens when that contract is threatened by forces beyond the control of any governm...
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Stephen King: Are you afraid of the dark? from 2021-03-19T02:06
Millions of readers all over the world are drawn to fiction that explores our fears. Horror sells and no-one does it better or more prolifically than Stephen King. He’s written more than 60 books, ...
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Vjosa Osmani: Acting President of Kosovo from 2021-03-17T08:06
The legacy of conflict and hate left behind after the collapse of Yugoslavia is not easily overcome. They know that in Kosovo, which declared independent statehood a dozen years ago but has yet to ...
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Adar Poonawalla: How to vaccinate the world from 2021-03-15T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of the biggest vaccine producer in the world, Serum Institute of India. He went all-in on a production deal with Astrazeneca, and for many of us, t...
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Dr Sasa: Does Myanmar have a democratic future? from 2021-03-12T07:00
Dr Sasa has a remarkable life story, which has taken him from a remote mountain village in western Myanmar to a place in the international media spotlight as a key spokesman for the political movem...
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Jewher Ilham: Fears for her Uighur family in China from 2021-03-10T07:00
A combination of personal testimony, leaked documents and satellite imagery points to a systematic policy of repression of the Muslim Uighur population of Xinjiang province in China. Jewher Ilham, ...
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Evan McMullin: What next for anti-Trump Republicans? from 2021-03-08T07:00
Despite losing the presidency and both Houses of Congress, Donald Trump still seems to have a chokehold on the Republican party. So what will Republican anti-Trumpers do next: continue the fight fr...
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Khin Zaw Win: Protests in Myanmar from 2021-03-05T00:00
Mass protests against military rule across Myanmar have been met with increasing force, and the death toll is rising. Stephen Sackur interviews Khin Zaw Win, a prominent political prisoner under th...
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Valdis Dombrovskis: Is the EU ready to aggressively defend its interests? from 2021-03-03T02:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President with responsibility for the economy and trade, Valdis Dombrovskis. Protectionism and nationalism are on the rise in globa...
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Harvey Goldsmith: Can live music survive Covid? from 2021-03-01T00:00
Stephen Sackur interviews one of the UK’s top live music promoters, Harvey Goldsmith. One of the many costsof the Covid pandemic means that, in much of the world, we can’t gather to enjoy the arts ...
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Dr Seth Berkley: How to ensure the whole world gets a Covid vaccine from 2021-02-26T02:27
Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that a vast gulf is opening up between Covid vaccination rates in the richest countries and the poorest. But still the numbers are shocking. While the UK has given 2...
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Elizabeth Neumann: The battle for the soul of the US Republican Party from 2021-02-24T09:00
How far does the Republican party need to go to reinvent itself following Donald Trumps defeat in the November Presidential election? Elizabeth Neumann, a former counter terror official in the Trum...
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Timothy Snyder: Lessons from history from 2021-02-22T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Timothy Snyder, renowned American historian of totalitarianism and the Holocaust, about the Trump presidency. Professor Snyder believes the former US president and his move...
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Douglas Stuart: Stories of tender souls in tough places from 2021-02-19T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the Booker prize-winning author Douglas Stuart. His novel, Shuggie Bain, centres on a boy growing up amid poverty, addiction and intolerance in Glasgow. There are deep para...
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Yogendra Yadav: Are farmers' protests a defining moment for India? from 2021-02-17T07:00
Thousands of Indian farmers are keeping up their long-running protest against farm law reform. Stephen Sackur interviews Yogendra Yadav, leader of the Swaraj Party and prominent backer of the farme...
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Kirill Dmitriev: Russia's Sputnik V a vaccine for humankind? from 2021-02-15T06:00
Right now the world is seeing two sides of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The one he wants you to see is the scientifically advanced nation offering the world an effective Covid vaccine known as Sputnik ...
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Clément Beaune: Is Covid-19 exposing weaknesses in the EU? from 2021-02-12T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to France’s Europe Minister, Clément Beaune. The European Union faces a huge Covid challenge. The vaccine rollout has been slow, internal free movement is a concern, and tensi...
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Laurie Santos: Can we learn how to be happy? from 2021-02-10T02:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to American psychologist Professor Laurie Santos, whose work at Yale University on the science of happiness has won her an audience of millions thanks to her podcast and free ...
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Evan Medeiros: How should Biden approach China? from 2021-02-08T07:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Evan Medeiros, who was President Obama’s top adviser on China policy. Under Donald Trump, US-China relations soured dramatically. A potentially dangerous era of competition...
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Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: Has Belarus’s revolution stalled? from 2021-02-05T05:00
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya says she won last year’s presidential election in Belarus, and she is still intent on toppling Europe’s last de-facto dictator, Alexander Lukashenko. After months of protes...
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Dr Soumya Swaminathan: Is vaccine inequity undermining the fight against Covid? from 2021-02-03T02:06
The roll out of Covid-19 vaccines has boosted hopes the virus can be tamed. But it will have to be worldwide effort if it is to be effective, and right now the signs aren’t good. While tens of mill...
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Madawi Al-Rasheed: Can the Saudi Crown Prince's authority really be challenged? from 2021-02-01T02:06
President Biden has reportedly paused arms sales to Saudi Arabia as his administration reviews relations with its long-time strategic ally. But is there any prospect of external or internal pressur...
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Thomas Byrne: Ireland's twin challenge from 2021-01-30T09:00
The new year sees Ireland facing the twin challenges of Covid and post-Brexit economics. How is the country coping? And is Dublin’s strategic vision of Northern Ireland’s future changing? Stephen S...
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Leonid Volkov: Protests on the streets of Russia from 2021-01-29T00:00
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is the most resilient opponent Vladimir Putin has ever faced. Navalny survived assassination by Novichok, returned to Russia and is now in a prison cell. St...
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Yuli Edelstein: Israel's Covid-19 vaccination programme leads the world from 2021-01-27T09:00
Israel is leading the world in the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine. More than a million Israelis have had their second dose, the prime minister claims the vast majority of adults will have been im...
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Lina Khan: Can big tech companies be tamed by US antitrust laws? from 2021-01-21T18:51
Can and should anything be done to halt the inexorable rise of the global technology giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook? Over the past decade we’ve seen these tech titans come to dominate d...
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Kenneth Chan: Is democracy lost in Hong Kong? from 2021-01-20T00:00
The Chinese government began this year by intensifying its crackdown on the pro-democracy opposition in Hong Kong. Amid mass arrests, the surveillance of the media and academia is there any safe sp...
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Tamara Rojo: Ballet in a pandemic from 2021-01-18T00:00
Some of the things the Covid pandemic has taken away are easier to quantify than others. The death toll and the job losses make headlines, but the closed arts venues, the lack of shared creative ex...
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Alan Dershowitz: Trump's second impeachment from 2021-01-15T00:00
Donald Trump has secured a unique place in the history books as the first president in American history to be impeached twice. What that means in practical terms isn't clear. There’ll be no Trump t...
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Virologist Barry Schoub: South Africa's covid situation 'is bleak' from 2021-01-13T07:00
South Africa is now grappling with a highly transmissible new strain of Covid-19 that is causing international concern. Stephen Sackur interviews Professor Barry Schoub, virologist and Chair of the...
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Alan Rusbridger: Fact v fiction from 2021-01-11T00:00
Stephen Sackur interviews Alan Rusbridger, former editor of The Guardian and now a member of Facebook’s Oversight Board. The Covid-19 pandemic is a test of global public health systems, but it als...
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Admiral James Stavridis: The aftermath of the capitol riot from 2021-01-08T00:00
The Trump inspired insurrection on Capitol Hill failed. But the wounds to America’s body politic are now raw and deep. The President remains Commander in Chief with his finger on the nuclear button...
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Neil Ferguson: Did the UK get its Covid strategy wrong? from 2021-01-06T00:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to British epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson, whose early modelling of Covid-19 made him an influential advocate of the lockdown strategy. The UK is back in lockdown and ...
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Hermann Hauser: Is Europe failing to create tech champions? from 2020-12-21T00:00
The tech sector is fast becoming a battleground where the world’s greatest economic powers, the US and China, are competing for power and influence. Where is Europe in this race to shape the digita...
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Christopher Ruddy: Is the media amplifying division in America? from 2020-12-16T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Christopher Ruddy, CEO of the conservative Newsmax media group and close personal friend of Donald Trump. His network has tried to outfox Fox News by being Trumpier than Tr...
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Bernardine Evaristo: Is British culture changing? from 2020-12-14T09:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Bernardine Evaristo, the Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other. In any society, the voices that are listened to, and the stories that are shared, say much about...
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David Beasley of the World Food Programme: Is the world set for new famines? from 2020-12-11T06:00
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the World Food Programme, the UN agency dedicated to feeding the hungry and fending off mass starvation. This week the award was handed to the body...
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Owase Jeelani: Making life and death decisions from 2020-12-07T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the paediatric neurosurgeon Owase Jeelani. Brain surgery carries with it an awesome burden of responsibility. And within neurosurgery there are particular challenges that t...
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Ishaq Dar: Pakistan's power struggle from 2020-12-02T06:00
Imran Khan won power in Pakistan two years ago with a promise to root out corruption and take on the country’s vested interests. So how's it going? Rising food prices and the Covid pandemic have le...
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Anthony Gardner: How will Joe Biden handle foreign policy? from 2020-11-30T00:00
With Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the presidential election running out of road, attention is increasingly focused on President Elect Biden’s vision of America’s role in the world. Will he re...
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Gedion Timothewos: Is Ethiopia sliding into civil war? from 2020-11-27T08:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ethiopia’s Attorney General, Gedion Timothewos. Ethiopia’s federal armed forces have launched the final phase of their assault on Tigrayan rebels in the north of the countr...
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Jeremy Hunt: Britain's battle with Covid-19 from 2020-11-25T00:00
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll in Europe and one of the steepest declines in economic output. Opinion polls suggest Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s claims of a world-beating governmental...
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David Nabarro: How can countries minimise Covid damage? from 2020-11-23T06:00
This is a bittersweet moment in the global fight against the Covid pandemic. Joy that at least two vaccine trials have produced extremely promising results is tempered by the continued spread of th...
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Pawel Jablonski: Why is Poland blocking the EU's budget? from 2020-11-20T06:00
The EU is facing an internal political crisis. Two members, Poland and Hungary, are blocking the passage of a new budget and a post-Covid recovery package, claiming it includes unacceptable conditi...
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Judit Varga: How far is Hungary prepared to go in its defiance of the EU? from 2020-11-18T08:30
The EU has long threatened to punish the populist nationalist government in Hungary for a failure to uphold core EU values. So far the threats have been empty, but now there’s a concerted effort to...
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Arancha Gonzalez: How much influence does the EU have? from 2020-11-16T05:05
In the midst of of a pandemic which has inflicted severe damage on the European economy, it is tempting to see the US election victory of Joe Biden as a boost for the EU. After all, Donald Trump se...
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HR McMaster: Trump and the transition from 2020-11-13T06:00
Donald Trump hasn’t yet accepted it, but he’ll be out of the White House in January next year. Gone but not forgotten. His legacy can be seen in a divided body politic, strained international allia...
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Jack Kingston: What is next for Trump? from 2020-11-11T00:00
Donald Trump can't and won't bring himself to concede that he lost the Presidential election. Amid the talk of legal challenges in a slew of states the Republican party is under strain - most senio...
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Leopoldo Lopez: An opposition leader in exile from 2020-11-09T00:30
The socialist government of Venezuela presides over an economy in meltdown and a population desperate for change. Yet the country's opposition has failed to build a movement capable of bringing dow...
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Jacob Bleacher: Putting astronauts back on the moon from 2020-11-04T04:45
Scientists have discovered water on the sunlit surface of the Moon for the first time. Does it matter? Well, maybe it does. The Moon is back in vogue in terms of space exploration – the US says it ...
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Perez Hilton: The 2000s' gossip-in-chief from 2020-11-02T00:00
Gossip, scurrilous rumour, a fascination with the flaws of the rich and famous: these human foibles are as old as the hills, but the age of the internet has amplified their power. Perez Hilton, rea...
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Jim Clyburn: Can Biden win? from 2020-10-30T00:00
According to the polls Joe Biden is strong favourite to be the next President of the United States. But the party’s leaders bear deep scars from 2016. Donald Trump overcame the odds and beat Hillar...
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Dominique Schnapper on secularism in France after Samuel Paty's killing from 2020-10-28T07:00
The beheading of a teacher by an 18-year-old outside Paris struck a particularly jarring blow to the French psyche. Samuel Paty was murdered for teaching his students, including young Muslims, abou...
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Peter Frankopan: Can history offer us any lessons on the coronavirus pandemic? from 2020-10-23T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to Peter Frankopan, historian and author of the bestselling book The Silk Roads. There’s plentiful evidence that the coronavirus pandemic has inflicted more serious damage on ...
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Jack Kingston: Can Trump win? from 2020-10-20T23:00
In a few days time Americans will give their verdict on President Donald Trump. Do they want four more years of Trump in the White House, or will they opt for the other septuagenarian Joe Biden - w...
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Jim O'Neill: Is this a time for governments to be bold? from 2020-10-16T06:00
In every crisis there is opportunity. It is a mantra beloved by business schools and political strategists, but should it offer us comfort as Covid-19 continues to ravage the global economy? Stephe...
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Rob Schenck: Can Trump still count on the religious right? from 2020-10-14T12:16
We cannot know the contents of Donald Trump’s soul, but its fair to say his personal behaviour doesn't point to deeply held Christian belief. And yet the evangelical Christian right is a key pillar...
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Volodymyr Zelensky: How is Ukraine's president faring? from 2020-10-12T03:30
When Ukrainians overwhelmingly voted to make a comedian president, Europeans wondered what the punchline would be. In an exclusive interview, Stephen Sackur speaks to Volodymyr Zelensky, the comic ...
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Narendra Taneja: How well has India handled the coronavirus crisis? from 2020-10-09T07:06
Stephen Sackur speaks to the national spokesman for India's ruling BJP Narendra Taneja. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dominance of Indian politics is unquestioned but his ability to deliver compet...
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Joe Henrich: Is Western society 'weird'? from 2020-10-06T23:00
The debate between nature and nurture is as old as the hills - is genetics or cultural conditioning the key to understanding human evolution? We speak to Joseph Henrich, a Harvard professor whose ...
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James Rebanks: Sustainable food in a growing world from 2020-10-04T23:00
In a special edition of the programme, HARDtalk is in the area known as the Lake District in north-west England. The landscape is beautiful, but is not wild. The fields have been shaped by generati...
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Leroy Logan: How hard is it to root out discrimination in the police? from 2020-10-02T05:40
The sense of systemic racial injustice in policing that has fuelled the Black Lives Matter movement is shared far beyond the shores of the United States. In Britain, it is two decades since a top l...
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Paolo Gentiloni: Can Europe's economy recover? from 2020-09-30T07:00
The economic fallout of Covid-19 has been tough, and with new waves of the virus appearing, restrictions on economic activity are being reimposed in many countries. Zeinab Badawi speaks to Paolo Ge...
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Yusef Salaam: How to reform the US criminal justice system from 2020-09-28T07:32
Yusef Salaam was just 16 when he and four other black and Latino teenagers were wrongly convicted of the rape and assault of a woman jogging in New York’s Central Park. Even before their trial the...
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Leonid Volkov: What next for Russia's opposition? from 2020-09-23T07:06
As soon as he emerged from his coma Alexey Navalny, the Russian opposition leader apparently poisoned by novichok nerve agent, expressed his determination to return to Moscow. But what future is th...
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Thomas Chatterton Williams: Race, identity and power from 2020-09-18T04:00
Not just in the United States, but across the world the Black Lives Matter movement has prompted debate about race, identity and power. It is a campaign predicated on ideas about what it means to b...
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Rafael Grossi: Is the world's nuclear watchdog being undermined? from 2020-09-16T04:00
What is the point of the world’s nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency? Its task is to ensure that countries intent on developing nuclear power don’t use their programmes as cover...
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Douglas Ross: Can the new Scottish Conservative leader preserve the UK? from 2020-09-13T23:00
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces momentous challenges. The coronavirus pandemic, an economic slump and a looming moment of truth for Britain’s relations with the EU. In the midst of this turbu...
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Gitanas Nausėda: Will people power take Belarus in a new direction? from 2020-09-11T03:00
Will Moscow’s will prevail in Belarus, or will people power take the country in a new direction? Stephen Sackur speaks to Gitanas Nausėda, the president of neighbouring Lithuania. The daily street ...
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Frank Luntz: Can Donald Trump win? from 2020-09-08T23:30
With just two months until the US presidential election, the polls show the incumbent Donald Trump trailing Democrat Joe Biden by a significant margin. This is an extraordinary election year marked...
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Laura Kövesi: Can the EU's 'corruption buster' deliver? from 2020-09-06T23:00
The EU is thought to have lost more than €10 billion to fraud over the last two decades, and yet its anti-fraud and anti-corruption agencies have long lacked the teeth to root out the problem. Coul...
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UN Secretary General António Guterres: Is multilateralism dead? from 2020-09-03T23:30
The annual UN General Assembly gets underway this month in New York and this year it will be like no previous one. The coronavirus pandemic means the summit will be held virtually. The medical, soc...
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Alfre Woodard: The artist and the activist from 2020-09-02T11:03
Alfre Woodard has had a distinguished acting career, spanning five decades, with roles ranging from Winnie Mandela to a part in hit TV series Desperate Housewives. She grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, d...
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Sam Harris: A place for conversation in an angry world from 2020-08-30T23:00
Thanks to the internet and the mobile phone our ability to communicate, inform and persuade has never been greater. So why is public debate getting ever more polarising and toxic? Stephen Sackur s...
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Natalia Pasternak: Brazil's battle between science and politics from 2020-08-27T23:00
The global Covid-19 pandemic has put a fierce spotlight on the relationship between scientists and policy makers. Leaders across the world have responded to the science with everything from respect...
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Natalia Kaliada: Where do Belarus activists go from here? from 2020-08-26T07:00
His people have turned against him in the streets but Belarus's dictator Alexander Lukashenko is still in power and his security forces are still following his orders. So where do the anti-Lukashen...
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Katie Hill: When a politician's nude photos are leaked from 2020-08-23T23:00
Zeinab Badawi speaks to the American politician Katie Hill. She was a star of the US mid-term elections in 2018, but barely a year after winning a Congressional seat, she resigned, after reports of...
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Kishore Mahbubani: Has Covid-19 weakened the West? from 2020-08-21T11:58
Increasing tensions between the US and China have plunged relations to the lowest level for decades. This comes at a time when the world is facing its worst recession in living memory due to the co...
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Abdalla Hamdok: Exclusive interview with Sudan's Prime Minister from 2020-08-19T07:00
It is exactly a year since a historic power-sharing agreement was signed between the military and civilians in Sudan, after the fall of President Omar al-Bashir. In an exclusive interview, Zeinab B...
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Wu'er Kaixi: China's crackdown on Uighur dissent from 2020-08-16T23:00
China goes to extraordinary lengths to monitor and mould the lives of its citizens. The most extreme example can be seen in Xinjiang, home to more than 10 million muslim Uighur people; but the prin...
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Nikol Pashinyan: Peace for Armenia and Azerbaijan? from 2020-08-13T23:30
One of the worlds most strategically sensitive conflict zones heated up dramatically last month when Armenian and Azerbaijani forces engaged in fighting which cost 17 lives. It is the latest twist ...
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Raoul Nehme: Can Lebanon be saved from collapse? from 2020-08-12T03:30
After the unimaginable horror of the mega blast which devastated Beirut the people of Lebanon are now forced to live with a zombie government - dead in all but name, not yet replaced. Stephen Sacku...
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Chris Packham: 'Finding the good in the bad' of Covid-19 from 2020-08-10T07:00
The Covid-19 pandemic has inflicted huge economic damage, but it has also offered the natural world a little bit of respite – room to breathe. What will come next? Will it be a return to the old wa...
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Vanessa Neumann: Did Venezuela's opposition miss their chance? from 2020-08-07T07:00
Eighteen months ago, Venezuela seemed to be on the brink of political upheaval. The leader of the National Assembly declared himself president, and 50 countries offered him official recognition. Bu...
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Sir Jeremy Farrar: 'I do believe there will be a vaccine' in 2020 and 2021 from 2020-08-05T07:00
Amid the talk of spikes and second waves one thing is clear – people predicting an early end to the coronavirus pandemic are indulging in wishful thinking. Can we find a way of living with Covid-19...
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Leader of Ireland's Sinn Fein party Mary Lou McDonald from 2020-07-31T07:00
Last February the talk in Ireland was of a political earthquake. The nationalist party Sinn Féin won the most votes in the general election and promised to smash the status quo. Well, so much for t...
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Angus Deaton: The cost of the 'deaths of despair' from 2020-07-29T07:00
How do we judge the health of our economic systems? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to the Nobel Prize winning economist Sir Angus Deaton who believes it’s about much more than the headline number...
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Gloria Allred: Epstein victim lawyer from 2020-07-23T23:00
HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi speaks to the veteran lawyer Gloria Allred. She is among the most famous attorneys in the US and her firm handles more women's rights cases than any other in America. For m...
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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: 'No-one will be safe until everyone is safe' from 2020-07-22T07:00
If Covid-19 spreads across Africa, it could be a catastrophe. Its health systems are already under strain and could buckle under more pressure. Lockdowns have badly affected local economies and pus...
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Adam Goodes: How racism drove him from Australian Rules football from 2020-07-20T07:00
Nowhere has the symbolic power of the Black Lives Matter movement been more evident than in the sports arena. All too often racism undermines the notion of a level playing field. HARDtalk’s Stephen...
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Husam Zomlot: How could Palestine respond to annexation? from 2020-07-16T23:00
It’s not clear when, or even if, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to deliver on his promise to annex a large chunk of the occupied West Bank. It’s even less clear what the Palest...
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Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Nathan Law from 2020-07-15T07:00
The international outcry prompted by Beijing’s imposition of a new national security law in Hong Kong has been long and loud – but will it make any difference? Inside the territory protests have be...
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Jane Goodall: A life with chimpanzees from 2020-07-12T23:00
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to the world-famous conservation activist Jane Goodall. She has made a unique contribution to humankind’s understanding of our closest living animal relatives, the ...
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Ronny Tong: Has China killed Hong Kong's special status? from 2020-07-06T12:35
Residents of Hong Kong are living with a new reality - a draconian national security law made in China and imposed on the territory with no meaningful consultation. Pro-democracy activists call it ...
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Nadya Tolokonnikova: Pussy Riot&Russian protest from 2020-07-02T23:00
Vladimir Putin can now seek to extend his rule in Russia to 2036 thanks to a constitutional referendum, stage managed by the Kremlin. Is there any prospect of an opposition movement ever challengin...
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Kathy Sullivan: Exploring space and the Mariana Trench from 2020-07-01T07:00
The human impulse to explore new frontiers has taken us into space and to the deepest, most remote corners of our own planet. HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to one woman who has done both. Kathy ...
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Armando Iannucci: Is this a bad time to be funny? from 2020-06-29T07:00
It’s the job of the professional satirist to find the funny and expose the absurd in humanity’s most serious endeavours. But are there times when satire just doesn’t work, and is now one of them? S...
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Maria Ressa: Is the press under attack in the Philippines? from 2020-06-25T23:30
No world leader better epitomises the strong man style of political leadership than President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines. One hallmark of his rule? A visceral dislike of scrutiny from the i...
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André Leon Talley: Race, fashion and Vogue from 2020-06-24T07:00
Since George Floyd died in Minneapolis with a white police officer’s knee on his neck, new conversations about racism and discrimination have begun all over the world. It’s not just about policing,...
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Chile Eboe-Osuji: Can the International Criminal Court achieve its goals? from 2020-06-22T07:00
President Trump has just widened the scope of US sanctions placed on top officials of the International Criminal Court describing the court as an extraordinary threat to the United States. Stephen ...
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Jim McGovern: Can Biden unite the left? from 2020-06-19T01:00
President Donald Trump is in trouble. Coronavirus has plunged the US economy into recession, the killing of George Floyd has inflamed racial tensions and the president’s poll ratings have slumped. ...
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Arancha Gonzalez: Why isn't the world working together? from 2020-06-17T12:09
Covid-19 has presented governments across the world with a common threat, but the response has been far from united and collaborative. Has the pandemic further weakened the multilateral institution...
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Epidemiologist Ian Lipkin: Are we getting the pandemic response right? from 2020-06-15T15:37
All of us fervently want to believe the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is over. Governments around the world are easing lockdowns and focusing on economic recovery. But Covid-19 hasn’t gone away...
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Simon Cheng: 'We need to fight for democracy in Hong Kong and China' from 2020-06-12T07:00
One year ago, pro-democracy street protests began in Hong Kong. At the time, Simon Cheng was an employee of the British consulate in Hong Kong. Last August, he was arrested in mainland China and, h...
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Mary Frances Berry: A new era in civil rights? from 2020-06-09T15:13
Will the waves of protest and anger that have swept through US cities since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis make a lasting difference to race relations? African Americans must surely be ...
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James Graham: How much do we care about protecting our culture? from 2020-06-08T07:00
The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a devastating blow to the performing arts. No one knows when audiences will again be able to pack into a theatre to see a show. So what happens to the writers, pe...
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Rutger Bregman: Are humans essentially good? from 2020-06-05T01:30
In times of crisis we learn plenty about who we really are – and so it is that the global coronavirus pandemic is revealing truths about humankind – and how we balance self and collective interest....
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Mário Centeno: Can the Euro survive Covid? from 2020-06-03T01:30
Europe has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic – now that most countries have controlled the spread of infection and begun to ease their lockdown, does the EU have a coherent strategy for rec...
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National General Secretary of India's BJP, Ram Madhav from 2020-06-01T07:00
In some countries the coronavirus pandemic appears to have enhanced national unity and solidarity, in others it’s exposed deep fault lines. In India the crisis has hit the poorest migrant workers d...
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Raghuram Rajan: Should economies pile up debt to cope with Covid-19? from 2020-05-29T01:30
The Covid-19 pandemic has plunged the world economy into a deep recession. How long will it last and what kind of recovery can we expect? That in part depends on what governments do now. Should the...
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Rocco Forte: Can hotels recover? from 2020-05-27T17:05
No sector of the global economy has been harder hit by Covid-19 than the travel and hospitality industry. Millions of workers dependent on travel and tourism have been laid off around the world. St...
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French Minister for Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire: EU faces 'gravest crisis' from 2020-05-22T07:00
When faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Union struggled to respond with collective action. The countries first and worst affected, Italy and Spain, complained of a lack of solidarity. I...
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Anders Tegnell: Is Sweden the best model for coronavirus response? from 2020-05-18T07:00
Much of the world responded to the Covid-19 pandemic with a lockdown strategy. Now there's much focus on finding a sustainable post-lockdown strategy that doesn’t prompt a second wave of infection....
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David Miliband: President, International Rescue Committee from 2020-05-15T07:00
It may be a global pandemic but Covid-19 has hardly united the world around a collective response. We have seen world leaders focus on national self-interest rather than international collaboration...
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Luiz Henrique Mandetta: Brazil's sacked Health Minister speaks out from 2020-05-11T01:30
While some countries are claiming success in their effort to curb Covid-19, Brazil is increasingly looking like an outlier. The rate of new infections is still increasing, the death toll is mountin...
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US Democrat Senate Candidate Jaime Harrison: Joe Biden 'bringing calm to the storm we're in' from 2020-05-08T06:00
The Covid-19 death toll in the US has gone beyond 70,000 and scientists now expect it to go far beyond 100,000 within the next month. At the same time President Trump is doubling down on his calls ...
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Dutch MEP Sophie in't Veld: 'Decline of the EU is possible but it's in our own hands' from 2020-05-04T06:00
The coronavirus pandemic has presented Europe with a massive challenge – and so far the EU’s response has been found wanting in several key respects. As the death toll has mounted and the economic ...
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Liu Xiaoming: Is China a victim of Covid-19 or the source of the problem? from 2020-05-01T01:35
As the global effort to control Covid-19 continues so arguments about culpability for the spread of the pandemic intensify. At the centre of the story is China, where the outbreak began. Did the Ch...
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Jens Stoltenberg: Has Nato risen to the challenge of Covid-19? from 2020-04-29T11:12
The coronavirus pandemic is a multi-layered global crisis. It starts with public health, but it reaches deep into the world economy and the global security system too. Could Covid-19 fears be used ...
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Yuval Noah Harari: Covid-19 - a new regime of surveillance? from 2020-04-27T01:30
The coronavirus pandemic has presented humanity with an almighty shock. Here we are, with our evermore interconnected, technologically-advanced societies, living in lockdown and fearful for our hea...
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Brian Cox: From poverty to Succession from 2020-04-26T18:19
Brian Cox, star of the global hit HBO drama Succession, is currently in New York, the US city worst affected by the virus. His long career has taken in everything from King Lear to the ruthless, me...
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David Nabarro: Is the WHO failing its greatest test? from 2020-04-24T13:45
With nation states across the world struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic, there’s an urgent need for an internationally coordinated response. That’s where the UN agency the World Health O...
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Zoltan Kovacs: Is the EU facing its first de facto dictatorship? from 2020-04-24T01:30
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted governments around the world to take emergency measures. Liberties have been restricted in the name of safeguarding public health, but no European nation has g...
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Ola Källenius: Surviving coronavirus's economic shock from 2020-03-27T00:00
Every day, the havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic on public health and on the global economy worsens. Economic activity beyond the barest of essentials has been frozen in much of the world. ...
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Antonio Guterres: How should the UN fight Covid-19? from 2020-03-26T12:55
Zainab Bedawi talks to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, who has described the Covid-19 crisis as "a threat to the whole of humanity". How can the UN help countries fig...
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Margaret Heffernan: Is it time to embrace uncertainty? from 2020-03-23T04:06
The worldwide spread of coronavirus and its significant negative impact on the global economy represents a powerful illustration of the perils of forecasting. Countries in lockdown, financial marke...
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Laurence Boone: Is enough being done to prevent a recession? from 2020-03-20T04:00
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Laurence Boone, chief economist at the global economic forum, the OECD. Leaders around the world have adopted the language of war to capture the scale of the thr...
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Eoin Ó Broin: Will Sinn Fein be part of Ireland's government? from 2020-03-18T04:00
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Sinn Fein’s Eoin Ó Broin. Coronavirus is first and foremost a global health crisis. But its impacts go so much further. The economic damage is deep and worldwide...
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Mufaddal Hamadeh: Is the world indifferent to Syria's sufffering? from 2020-03-16T04:00
Idlib, Syria’s sole remaining rebel province is on the verge of the biggest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century". So says the UN’s top official responsible for emergency relief. Almost a millio...
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Ian Goldin: Will Covid-19 cause a new recession? from 2020-03-13T05:08
The Covid-19 crisis is not only a threat to people's health and wellbeing, it is already having severe financial consequences, which many fear will result in a crisis of the kind we saw over a deca...
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Congressman Anthony Brown: Is Joe Biden really the best the Democrats can do? from 2020-03-11T04:30
The US political landscape has shifted dramatically in the last few weeks. The Democratic Party’s search for the best candidate to beat Donald Trump in November now seems likely to end with the nom...
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William Kentridge: The unnaturalness of apartheid from 2020-03-09T04:30
Zeinab Badawi is in Johannesburg, interviewing William Kentridge. He is considered one of the world’s greatest living artists. He is versatile, hard-hitting and his talent spans many different genr...
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Gabriel Attal: Has the magic worn off France's Emmanuel Macron? from 2020-03-06T04:06
President Emmanuel Macron’s bold promise to break the political mould in France has collided with reality. His reform plans, from tax to pensions, have stirred a backlash against what protesters ca...
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David Tait: Speaking out about sexual abuse from 2020-03-04T04:30
David Tait appeared to have a perfect life: all the trappings of a successful and highly lucrative career in the City of London, a wife and young family at home. But on the inside, he was in turmoi...
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Mmusi Maimane: Can his new party become a force in South Africa? from 2020-03-02T04:30
Hardtalk is in Cape Town to speak to Mmusi Maimane, who stood down last October as leader of the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance. In his first major interview to an international bro...
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Professor David Heymann: The fight against coronavirus from 2020-02-28T04:00
"Get ready" is the message from health experts fighting COVID-19, the coronavirus. At least 80,000 people are already infected in more than 40 countries, and that number is expected to rise. Is the...
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Dr Yasser Abu Jamei: Mental health in Gaza from 2020-02-26T10:59
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Dr Yasser Abu Jamei, director of Gaza’s biggest mental health program. The past few days have seen rising tension in Gaza – Islamist militants fired rockets into...
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Alan Dershowitz: Are the rich above the law? from 2020-02-24T04:06
In the United States all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law, but having money and power helps if you need legal difficulties to disappear. HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to lawyer Alan Der...
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Tarana Burke: What difference has #MeToo made? from 2020-02-21T04:30
Tarana Burke first coined the phrase MeToo, long before the Harvey Weinstein case. She continues to reach out to marginalised women and girls. What difference has the MeToo movement made to the big...
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Halima Aden: Challenging supermodel stereotypes from 2020-02-19T04:30
The designer catwalk and the glossy magazine cover are powerful cultural signifiers. Top models who occupy those spaces are deemed to have a look that attracts and sells. But how diverse is that lo...
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Agnes Callamard: Investigating the Khashoggi and Soleimani killings from 2020-02-17T04:30
There are international laws and norms designed to prohibit states from bumping off their enemies, internal or external. But look around the world, and its clear those laws are being violated, ofte...
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Paul Krugman: Nobel Prize-winning economist warns of threat to America’s economic future from 2020-02-14T04:30
Remember the time when political discourse was founded on those quaint concepts - facts, evidence, and expertise? Now it seems partisanship infects every corner of the realm of ideas, according to ...
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Len McCluskey: What's the future of the UK Labour Party? from 2020-02-12T08:24
Like many of Europe’s long-established parties of the left, the UK Labour Party is in big trouble. In last December’s election, Labour wasn’t just beaten, it was humiliated, losing its grip on work...
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John Kani: Art and activism from 2020-02-10T04:06
For a generation of black South African artists who came of age in the apartheid era, art and activism were intertwined; the liberation struggle was their life force. Now, a quarter of a century af...
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Ian Blackford: Does the SNP have a winning strategy? from 2020-02-07T04:06
Ian Blackford is the Scottish Nationalist MP for a vast tract of north-west Scotland, and the leader of the SNP’s 48-strong band of Westminster MPs. He is a prominent champion of the cause of Scott...
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Ai Weiwei: Huawei, Hong Kong and being an artist in exile from 2020-02-05T09:00
China's rise to economic superpower status has not brought with it an opening up of politics or culture. Far from it. The Communist Party has intensified its efforts to suppress dissent of all kind...
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Lauri Love: The realities of cyber security from 2020-02-03T04:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to the accused computer hacker Lauri Love. For nations, corporations and all of us as individuals, the age of the internet has heightened vulnerability. Information and data -...
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Jean-Claude Juncker: What's next for the EU and Britain? from 2020-01-31T04:06
Britain is at an historic fork in the road - taking the UK in a new direction, and maybe Europe too. Many on both sides didn't think it would come to this, even after Britain's Brexit vote in 2016....
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Patrick Suckling: Is Australia becoming a climate pariah? from 2020-01-29T04:30
Since September 2019, bush fires in Australia have consumed 10 million hectares of land – an area almost the size of England. People have died, homes have been destroyed. The annual season of fires...
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Mindu Hornick: Don't let Auschwitz memories erode from 2020-01-27T09:00
It’s 75 years since allied troops entered the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. The very word Auschwitz still stirs a unique level of horror. It was the place where Hitler’s genocide of European Jewry ...
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Don Bacon: Will Republicans regret their loyalty to Trump? from 2020-01-24T04:06
Perhaps it’s misleading to describe the unfolding events in the US Senate as the ‘impeachment trial’ of Donald Trump. After all, this is a process which may well avoid witness testimony, exclude ke...
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Alexander Blackman: How should crimes on the battlefield be handled? from 2020-01-22T08:00
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to take steps to protect military personnel from what he describes as vexatious legal claims. It’s a controversial stance as armed conflicts, from North...
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Tony Garnett: Making TV with a radical purpose from 2020-01-20T04:06
The British film and TV producer Tony Garnett died last week, aged 83. In 2016 Stephen Sackur spoke to him about his life and pioneering work which began in the 1960s. The subject matter he tackled...
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Seth Freedman: Spying for Harvey Weinstein from 2020-01-17T04:06
Who polices the shadowy world of private intelligence? HARDtalk’s Sarah Montague speaks to Seth Freedman, who was an investigator for Black Cube, and gathered information for its client, the disgra...
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Douglas Silliman: What is Donald Trump's strategy in Iraq? from 2020-01-15T03:00
Though the fear of imminent war has receded, the Middle East has been profoundly destabilised by the American assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. The unfolding US-Iran conflict will ...
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Sir Antony Gormley: Britain's most successful sculptor from 2020-01-13T09:00
Stephen Sackur is at the workshop of Britain’s most successful sculptor, Sir Antony Gormley. His monumental pieces, put in prominent positions in outdoor spaces, have become some of the world’s mos...
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Vali Nasr: Have strategic realities in the Middle East changed? from 2020-01-10T04:06
Who’s gained and who’s lost after the killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Vali Nasr, US foreign policy scholar and former adviser to the US State Depar...
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Ayad Allawi: What if the US pulls out of Iraq? from 2020-01-08T09:00
America’s targeted killing of Iran’s top general, Qasem Soleimani, has spread new fears of war across the Middle East. The key protagonists are in Washington and Tehran, but the main stage for the ...
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Malcolm Gladwell: Should we trust strangers? from 2020-01-06T04:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to Malcolm Gladwell, the Canadian author who has been described as America’s most famous intellectual. His latest book, Talking to Strangers, challenges the assumptions we mak...
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Andrew Mitchell MP: What will Boris Johnson do next? from 2019-12-20T02:34
The scale of the Conservative Party triumph in last week's UK election promises to have seismic consequences. Boris Johnson can get Brexit done on terms and a timetable of his choosing, with Parlia...
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Staffan de Mistura: Can the international community still stop wars? from 2019-12-18T09:00
At the end of the second decade of the 21st century, does anyone still believe in the ability of the so-called ‘international community’ to stop wars, disarm dictators and protect civilians? One ca...
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Bill Bryson: US author demystifying the British from 2019-12-16T03:00
Sometimes it takes an outsider armed with just a sharp eye and curiosity to get us to see ourselves as we really are. That would explain the enduring popularity of the American-born writer Bill Bry...
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Aryana Sayeed: Afghanistan’s biggest pop star from 2019-12-13T02:24
The fight for Afghanistan's future has been joined far beyond the frontlines between Government forces and the Taliban. Stephen Sackur interviews Aryana Sayeed, who is engaged in the struggle by us...
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Eliot Higgins: Searching for facts in a 'post-truth' world from 2019-12-11T04:06
Can complex truths be revealed using digital fragments from the worldwide web? Eliot Higgins is the founder of the investigative website Bellingcat, which in recent years has broken a series of sco...
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Megan Phelps-Roper: Leaving 'America's most obnoxious hate group' from 2019-12-09T09:00
Holding placards outside the funerals of dead soldiers, celebrating the death of children after school massacres: Westboro Baptist Church has been called the "most obnoxious and rabid hate group in...
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Daniel Jones: The man who unveiled the CIA’s darkest secrets from 2019-12-06T09:00
Eighteen years since the 9/11 attack on the United States, and the impact still reverberates even as memories fade. The US Government responded by adopting a counter-terror strategy embracing ‘enha...
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Behrouz Boochani: Six years as a marooned migrant from 2019-12-04T09:00
In 2013, the Australian Government adopted a draconian anti-immigration policy, which involved sending all sea-borne would-be asylum seekers to de-facto detention camps in remote Papua New Guinea a...
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Stephen Sackur is on the road in Zimbabwe from 2019-12-02T04:06
In a special edition of HARDtalk, Stephen Sackur is on the road in Zimbabwe to witness the effects of change in Southern Africa’s climate. Zimbabwe in the post-Mugabe era is wrestling with an econo...
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Wendell Pierce: A tale of two Americas from 2019-11-29T09:00
The American TV series The Wire, which methodically dissected America’s war with drugs, was an eye-opener for many. Shaun Ley interviews Wendell Pierce, whose role as Detective Bunk Moreland brough...
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Liu Xiaoming: How will China respond to unrest in Hong Kong? from 2019-11-27T04:06
Is Chinese leader Xi Jinping facing the most serious challenge of his presidency? The significance of the political unrest in Hong Kong stretches far beyond the borders of its territory. If Beijing...
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Mangaliso Ndlovu: Can Zimbabwe avert environmental disaster? from 2019-11-25T04:06
Zimbabwe is wrestling with economic crisis, endemic corruption and prolonged drought. Crops have failed, hydro-power is down, taps have run dry. Also at risk is the country's wildlife population – ...
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Christopher Ruddy: How much trouble is Donald Trump in? from 2019-11-22T04:06
Will the impeachment proceedings on Capitol Hill derail Donald Trump's presidency? Christopher Ruddy is CEO of Newsmax and a close personal friend of the US president. He has accused Democrats of p...
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Author and explorer - Sir Ranulph Fiennes from 2019-11-18T09:00
Stephen Sackur interviews Sir Ranulph Fiennes. He is an extremist of a very special kind - nothing to do with his political views - but recognition of a lifetime spent embracing physical challenges...
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Investigative journalist - Ronan Farrow from 2019-11-15T04:06
How did a Hollywood insider break the story that took the shine off Tinseltown? HARDtalk's Sarah Montague interviews journalist Ronan Farrow, who won a Pulitzer prize for his investigation of Harve...
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Minister for Islamic Affairs in Malaysia -Mujahid Yusof Rawa from 2019-11-13T09:00
Malaysia has one of Asia’s most vibrant economies - the result of decades of stability and economic growth. It is also a multi-ethnic, multi-religious federation - but the majority ethnic Muslim M...
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Film director - Ken Loach from 2019-11-11T04:06
Can cinema change society? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to film director Ken Loach, one of the most lauded and durable directors in the UK film industry. He’s made 27 films and he’s won the big...
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Esther Duflo - Nobel Prize-winning economist from 2019-11-08T03:00
Shaun Ley speaks to the Nobel Prize winning economist Esther Duflo. The experimental trails she ran with two colleagues in Africa and India produced some surprising results. Among their findings: f...
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Hong Kong’s Secretary for Housing and Transport , 2012 – 2017 - Anthony Cheung from 2019-11-06T09:00
Last weekend in Hong Kong, metro stations were torched, the Chinese state news agency was attacked, police fired water cannon and tear gas, and 200 people were arrested. That is Hong Kong’s new nor...
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Richard Haass - President, Council on Foreign Relations from 2019-11-04T04:06
Donald Trump wants Americans to bask in the afterglow of the killing of the world’s most wanted terrorist, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. But many are focused on the daily developments of the impeachment in...
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Campaigner and businesswoman Gina Miller from 2019-11-01T03:30
Perhaps inevitably, Britain’s unresolved Brexit agony has led to a general election. The current Parliament could not find a path out of the morass, so the people must now elect a new one. Brexit h...
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Casey Legler: What does it take to emerge from darkness? from 2019-10-30T09:00
Imagine having an extraordinary sporting talent, but finding yourself traumatised by the realities of elite-level competition. Imagine being defined by your gender and physicality in ways that crus...
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Former spy - Willie Carlin from 2019-10-28T04:06
What was it like to be a spy during the Troubles in Northern Ireland? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to former MI5 agent Willie Carlin. He became an undercover spy within Sinn Féin, the political...
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Zohrab Mnatsakanyan - Minister of Foreign Affairs, Armenia from 2019-10-25T02:06
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Armenia’s foreign minister. Armenia is a small state with outsize strategic significance in a Caucasus region beset with tension and hostili...
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Alfred Bosch from 2019-10-23T02:06
Last week the whole of Europe heard a howl of rage coming from Catalonia. Since Spain’s highest court sentenced nine pro-independence politicians to a collective one hundred years in prison there h...
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Sally Lane and John Letts, parents of Jack Letts from 2019-10-21T02:06
What will become - what should become - of Jack Letts? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to his parents, Sally Lane and John Letts. Alongside the humanitarian fall-out from Turkey’s invasion of nort...
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Minister of Foreign Affairs, Turkey - Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu from 2019-10-18T04:06
Is Turkey creating further instability in Syria? HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi talks exclusively to the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu in Ankara. Turkey has been condemned for its recent off...
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British intelligence whistleblower - Katharine Gun from 2019-10-16T08:00
What makes a whistleblower? What prompts someone to break ranks, maybe break the law, in order to expose a secret, often at great cost? Stephen Sackur interviews Katharine Gun. In 2003, she worked ...
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Professor of Computer Science at University of California, Berkeley - Stuart Russell from 2019-10-14T08:00
What is the most serious existential threat facing humanity? Artificial Intelligence, warned the physicist Stephen Hawking, could spell the end of the human race. Stephen Sackur interviews Stuart R...
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Financier and Brexit backer Stuart Wheeler from 2019-10-11T03:00
Brexit represents a political gamble played for the highest of stakes. If Britain leaves the EU without a deal there will be significant economic disruption, even the most ardent Brexiteers acknowl...
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Suede singer-songwriter Brett Anderson from 2019-10-09T03:00
Rock music inhabits a world of permanent revolution. Today’s biggest bands will most likely be tomorrow’s tired old has-beens. But just occasionally artists and groups find a way of reinventing the...
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Brazil's Environment Minister - Ricardo Salles from 2019-10-07T08:00
The number of forest fires burning in the Amazon rainforest may have dropped since the global alarm was raised in August, but Brazil’s Government is still feeling intense political heat. Stephen Sa...
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Actor and activist - Jameela Jamil from 2019-10-04T08:00
Zeinab Badawi interviews British actress, activist and model Jameela Jamil. After breaking into the US with the critically-acclaimed comedy series ‘The Good Place’, she’s been getting attention for...
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Daughter of former Chief Minister of Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti - Iltija Mufti from 2019-10-02T08:00
It has been two months since India revoked the special autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, and Delhi still has the territory in a form of lockdown. Political leaders are detained, troops are on...
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Lawyer - Kimberley Motley from 2019-09-30T02:06
What have almost two decades of American intervention in Afghanistan achieved? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Kimberley Motley - an American lawyer who went to Kabul in a training capacity and...
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Former White House Communications Director - Anthony Scaramucci from 2019-09-27T02:06
Is impeachment a trap for President Trump's opponents? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to Anthony Scaramucci, former Trump cheerleader, briefly his communications director and now an arch critic. ...
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President of Microsoft - Brad Smith from 2019-09-25T02:06
How do we ensure our astonishing technological advances are harnessed for good, not harm? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to the President of Microsoft, Brad Smith. Remember the time when the inte...
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Lebanon's Foreign Minister - Gebran Bassil from 2019-09-23T02:06
Why is Lebanon dogged by chaos? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to the country’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. Lebanese politics is a world of complex alliances, delicate inter-communal arrangem...
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South Africa's Minister of International Relations - Naledi Pandor from 2019-09-20T07:00
South Africa's Minister of International Relations Naledi Pandor talks about the recent spate of xenophobic attacks in South Africa. Twelve people were killed earlier this month when mobs attacked ...
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Chairman, United Liberation Movement for West Papua - Benny Wenda from 2019-09-18T02:06
Indonesia has the right kind of assets in terms of population, natural resources and strategic position to be a 21st century superpower; but there are clouds on the horizon. For five decades Jakart...
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Anson Chan - Chief Secretary of Hong Kong, 1993-2001 from 2019-09-16T08:00
Extraordinary events have become the norm in the last three months in Hong Kong. The territory has become a cockpit of political protest and sporadic violence as many thousands continue to demand d...
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Independent MP, UK - Heidi Allen from 2019-09-13T02:06
Is there any clarity and coherence to the opponents of Brexit? Stephen Sackur speaks to MP Heidi Allen, who quit the Conservative party earlier this year to co-found a new pro-remain centrist party...
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French MEP and former Europe Minister - Nathalie Loiseau from 2019-09-11T08:00
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has positioned himself as the country’s Brexit champion, but his pledge to take Britain out of the EU on October the 31st is in trouble. Parliament has passed a...
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Former UK Lord Chancellor - Lord Falconer from 2019-09-06T08:00
British politics is in full-on meltdown mode. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has lost a series of key votes on Brexit, AND his parliamentary majority. He’s now seeking a general election in mid-Octob...
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Sea Rescue Captain - Carola Rackete from 2019-09-04T15:30
The number of migrants making the sea crossing from North Africa to southern Europe has fallen dramatically in the last two years; tragically, the number of deaths hasn’t declined as fast. Humanita...
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IT entrepreneur and philanthropist - Dame Stephanie Shirley from 2019-09-02T08:00
Eighty years ago, hundreds of Jewish children were smuggled out of Nazi occupied Europe by train in a covert humanitarian mission which became known as the ‘kindertransport’. Stephen Sackur speaks ...
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Gabon's Minister of Forests and Environment - Lee White from 2019-08-28T08:00
Our planet is haemorrhaging natural resources at an alarming rate. Biodiversity is under threat as forests are felled, wild animals illegally hunted. Stephen Sackur speaks to Lee White, newly appoi...
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Mia Khalifa: Former adult actress from 2019-08-26T08:00
The human preoccupation with sex is nothing new – but the internet has made it so much easier to explore and exploit every shade of desire. The online porn industry makes billions of dollars in pro...
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Kang Kyung-wha – Foreign Minister, South Korea from 2019-08-23T02:08
Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed ‘deal maker extraordinaire’, is finding the Korean Peninsula tough going.
For all his claims of friendship with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, Py...
CEO of Philip Morris International - Andre Calantzopoulos from 2019-08-21T08:00
Tobacco giant Philip Morris International claims it wants a ‘smoke free world’ and the eventual phasing out of cigarettes, hailing its new smoke-free products as the future. But how plausible is th...
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Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo, Deputy Chairman of Sudan's Sovereign Council from 2019-08-19T02:30
Zeinab Badawi is at the Presidential Palace in Khartoum where a historic power-sharing agreement has been signed between the military and civilians. General Mohamed Hamdan “Hemeti” Dagolo signed th...
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Co-founder of Extinction Rebellion - Roger Hallam from 2019-08-16T08:00
Back in 2015, the nations of the world made a formal commitment to keep global warming below 2 degrees centigrade. So much for fine words; global greenhouse gas emissions are still rising. The data...
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Leader of Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement - Shah Faesal from 2019-08-15T16:00
When the Indian Government revoked the special autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, it knew outrage would follow; which is why Delhi has the Muslim majority Himalayan territory in a form of lock...
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Director of Antiracism Research and Policy Center US - Ibram Kendi from 2019-08-12T08:00
For many Americans, Donald Trump’s incendiary tweets aimed at immigrants show him to be a racist and white nationalist. But maybe we exaggerate the importance of Donald Trump’s contribution to Amer...
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Former Conservative Party leader- Iain Duncan Smith from 2019-08-09T08:16
The British Government’s Brexit strategy can be summed up in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s three-word phrase: ‘do or die’. As a deal between London and Brussels appears unlikely, what about the al...
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Chair of the Irish Senate Brexit Committee - Neale Richmond from 2019-08-07T08:00
Ireland is bracing itself for the scariest of Halloween nightmares. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to take the UK out of the EU on October the 31st, come what may. That may mean a no deal...
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Australian scientist - Tim Flannery from 2019-08-05T08:00
Meteorologists at the UN say the last four years were globally the hottest on record. Sean Ley talks to one of Australia's most eminent scientists who argues that current warming is 'unparalleled...
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Former British Foreign Secretary - Jack Straw from 2019-08-02T08:00
The world’s most pressing and potentially dangerous strategic confrontation is playing out in the narrow waterway between Iran and Arabia. The United states is leading efforts to isolate the Govern...
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Leader, Hong Kong Civic Party - Alvin Yeung from 2019-07-31T07:30
Hong Kong is in uproar. Each weekend for the last two months, thousands of people have taken to the streets. Alvin Yueng, who leads the Civic Party shares their fears.
(Photo: Alvin Yeung ...
Albert Woodfox: Life after solitary confinement from 2019-07-26T08:00
There are some human experiences which most of us find it very hard to get our heads around. Stephen Sackur speaks to Albert Woodfox, who experienced the unimaginable torment of more than four deca...
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Olafur Eliasson - Artist from 2019-07-24T08:00
How far can artists and their work change the world? Can artistic endeavour lead to concrete action to mitigate the impact of global warming, or is this fanciful? Zeinab Badawi is at the Tate Moder...
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Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India - Raghuram Rajan from 2019-07-22T03:30
Sarah Montague speaks to Raghuram Rajan, until 2016 the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He says “capitalism is under threat” and if world leaders want to save liberal democracies from a surg...
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Mayor of Istanbul - Ekrem Imamo?lu from 2019-07-19T10:00
Have voters in Istanbul dealt a serious blow to Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan? They’ve elected the opposition to the Mayor's office. A city of 16 million, it was the President's power ba...
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Foreign Minister of Iran - Javad Zarif from 2019-07-17T08:00
HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi is in New York, for a rare interview with the Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who is attending high level talks at the UN. Hostilities between Iran and the US are at ...
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Nobel Prize-winning economist - Sir Angus Deaton from 2019-07-15T18:46
Stephen Sackur interviews Sir Angus Deaton, a British-American economist and academic. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics (2015) for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare. He h...
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Prime Minister, Greece - Kyriakos Mitsotakis from 2019-07-12T02:06
Can a new government transform Greece's fortunes? HARDtalk's Zeinab Badawi speaks exclusively to the new Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens. After the centre-right New Democracy par...
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President of the UK Supreme Court - Lady Hale from 2019-07-10T08:00
Stephen Sackur speaks to Lady Hale, President of the UK Supreme Court. The British legal system has long enjoyed an international reputation for independence, integrity and efficiency. But senior j...
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Former UK Prime Minister - Sir John Major from 2019-07-08T02:06
What kind of country will emerge from the Brexit mess? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Sir John Major, former British Prime Minister. Within weeks the UK's Conservative party will have a new le...
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US Republican Senator, Florida - Rick Scott from 2019-07-05T02:12
It's impossible to predict Donald Trump's policy-making and diplomacy. He seeks neither consistency, nor consensus - as is obvious in his approach to China, North Korea, Iran and other challenges a...
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Former East German sprinter - Ines Geipel from 2019-07-03T08:30
Doped for decades, East German athletes are still searching for truth and justice. When the infamous Berlin Wall was breached 30 years ago, the darkest secrets of the East German police state were ...
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Actor and activist - Michael Sheen from 2019-06-28T08:00
Sarah Montague speaks to actor and activist Michael Sheen. Known around the world for his film, television and theatre work, Michael Sheen made his name for his uncanny ability to portray other peo...
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Chairman of the UK Brexit Party - Richard Tice from 2019-06-26T08:00
Brexit - not just an event, now a whole political movement. At the end of May, with its leader Nigel Farage at the helm, the Brexit Party swept the board in the European Parliament elections, demea...
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US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cyber and Communications - Robert Strayer from 2019-06-24T02:00
How dangerous is the superpower rivalry in technology and information? Currently there’s much focus on the tensions between the US and China over the Chinese tech giant Huawei. Soon 5G networks wil...
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Senior adviser to President Obama (2009-2017) - Valerie Jarrett from 2019-06-19T04:00
How much responsibility should team Obama take for the course American politics has taken since they left centre-stage? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Valerie Jarrett, former advisor to Presid...
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Writer - Thomas Keneally from 2019-06-17T03:00
Is Australia still a country wrestling with its identity? HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi speaks to Australian writer Thomas Keneally. He's the author of more than 30 novels including Schindler’s Ark, whi...
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Cardiac surgeon - Samer Nashef from 2019-06-10T08:30
There is something special about the human heart. We live with, and by, its constant beat. We invest it with our deepest feelings. So naturally we reserve something like reverence for the surgeons ...
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Bas Eickhout, Dutch MEP, GreenLeft Party from 2019-06-07T05:50
Political power inside the European Union is no longer going to be easily stitched up between the two big blocks of centre left and centre right.
After last month’s European parliamentary elec...
US Democratic Party funder - Tom Steyer from 2019-06-05T01:16
As Donald Trump and family revel in the pomp and circumstance of a state visit to London, his staunchest political opponents continue to plot a pathway to impeachment. Stephen Sackur interviews Tom...
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Iyad El-Baghdadi, human rights activist from 2019-06-03T07:00
Hardtalk speaks to human rights activist Iyad El-Baghdadi. Six months after the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul three of Khashoggi’s friends and ass...
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Historian, geographer, anthropolgist and author Jared Diamond from 2019-05-31T07:00
Jared Diamond’s hugely successful books draw on biology, geography, anthropology and more. So what’s his conclusion about the long term viability of homo sapiens?
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Eric Wainaina, musician from 2019-05-29T07:00
In Kenya, hope and despair live side by side. There is economic growth, technological transformation and a youthful population hungry for opportunity. There is also grinding poverty, inequality and...
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Libyan author Hisham Matar from 2019-05-27T09:02
Stephen Sackur talks to renowned Libyan writer Hisham Matar. His writing has explored the impact of having a father ‘disappeared’ by the Gaddafi regime. How hard is it to move on?
Image: H...
Justice for the 21, 1974 Birmingham pub bombings - Julie Hambleton from 2019-05-24T02:37
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Julie Hambleton, founder of Justice for the 21. In November 1974 the IRA bombed two pubs in Birmingham and murdered twenty one people. More than forty four years...
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Hamas spokesman - Ghazi Hamad from 2019-05-22T03:00
The movement’s rhetoric is unbending, but do the Palestinian people long for new ideas? Stephen Sackur interviews Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for Hamas. The surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence in Ga...
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Former Olympic swimmer - Sharron Davies from 2019-05-20T02:06
How does the sporting notion of fairness cope with the complexities of gender identity? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to former champion British swimmer turned sports commentator Sharron Davies....
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Opposition leader of Russia's Yabloko Party - Grigory Yavlinsky from 2019-05-17T08:30
By the time Vladimir Putin’s current presidential term ends he will have dominated Russian politics for a quarter century and already there’s talk of manoeuvres to ensure his grip on power is maint...
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Tony Adams: How vulnerable are elite sport stars? from 2019-05-15T01:49
When we were kids many of us dreamed of being a professional footballer, a star of the world’s most popular game with adulation and riches on tap. For a tiny few the dream comes true, but then real...
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Chief executive, Stonewall - Ruth Hunt from 2019-05-13T02:06
Does the debate on trans rights pose a problem for the gay liberation movement? HARDtalk's Sarah Montague speaks to the CEO of Stonewall, Ruth Hunt. Stonewall was founded 30 years ago to campaign f...
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Venezuelan Opposition Ambassador to the UK - Vanessa Neumann from 2019-05-08T10:45
Confident that the socialist regime in Venezuela was in its death throes, the opposition led by Juan Guaido won the backing of elements within the armed forces and appeared to be spearheading a de ...
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UK Foreign Secretary - Jeremy Hunt from 2019-05-06T01:59
Britain’s top diplomat, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, is at the end of a five-nation tour of Africa aimed at persuading the continent and the wider world that post-Brexit Britain can and will play...
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Vice President, Centre for China and Globalization - Victor Gao from 2019-05-03T02:06
Is China becoming more authoritarian under President Xi JinPing? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Victor Gao, a well-connected think tank analyst in Beijing who once worked as an interpreter for...
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Former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York - Preet Bharara from 2019-05-01T04:30
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The Mueller Report is out and to noone’s surprise it hasn’t settled the bitter argumen...
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Afghan Presidential Special Peace Envoy - Mohammad Umer Daudzai from 2019-04-29T02:06
What will it take to bring peace to Afghanistan? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to President Ghani’s Peace Envoy Mohammad Umer Daudzai. Just days ago, hopes were high that a peace deal to end Afg...
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Chairman, Sudan’s Transitional Military Council - Lt General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan from 2019-04-26T09:34
Can Sudan make the transition to a democratic government? Zeinab Badawi speaks to the head of the military council running the country, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Events have moved at breath-t...
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Presidential candidate, DRC - Martin Fayulu from 2019-04-24T02:06
Can the Democratic Republic of Congo set itself on a path of peace and reconciliation? HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi speaks to opposition politician and presidential election candidate Martin Fayulu. La...
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Wole Soyinka, Nobel Literature laureate from 2019-04-22T07:54
Nobel Literature laureate and Nigerian professor Wole Soyinka is one of the giants of African and world literature, and a passionate advocate and campaigner for human rights. His country recently h...
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Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister, Germany - Olaf Scholz from 2019-04-19T02:06
Does Germany need to reboot its economic model? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur is in Berlin for an exclusive interview with Germany's Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. 30 years after uni...
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Chairman, Sudan Reform Now - Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani from 2019-04-17T02:06
How soon can Sudan become a democracy? HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi speaks to Sudanese politician Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani, a former ally of deposed president Omer El Bashir - now a member of the oppos...
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Writer - Edouard Louis from 2019-04-15T01:27
Every so often a writer emerges with a voice so original, distinctive and strong that it is heard far beyond the confines of the book buying public. HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Edouard Loui...
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Jason Rezaian, journalist imprisoned in Tehran, 2014 - 2016 from 2019-04-12T07:31
US-Iranian journalist Jason Rezaian was working for the Washington Post in Tehran when he was arrested in July 2014. He was accused of spying for the CIA, tried and convicted on vague charges. He w...
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Apollo 11 astronaut - Michael Collins from 2019-04-10T02:06
Fifty years on, what was the significance of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon? Stephen Sackur is in Florida to speak to one of the crew members of the Apollo 11 mission. This year marks the 50th a...
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Former US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns from 2019-04-08T02:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to former US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, who worked as a top ranking diplomat for three decades, serving five US presidents. The United States of America is still...
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Philippe Lamberts MEP from 2019-04-04T23:01
Stephen Sackur talks to the Belgian MEP and member of the European Parliament's Brexit steering group, Philippe Lamberts. Will Britain get another extension to leave the EU?
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Bernard Chan of the Hong Kong Executive Council from 2019-04-03T10:12
Zeinab Badawi is in Hong Kong to speak to Bernard Chan who sits on the territory’s Executive Council. There have been complaints by pro-democracy activists that Beijing is increasing its control of...
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Writer - Angie Thomas from 2019-04-03T02:06
Can literature help bridge America's racial divide? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Angie Thomas, a writer whose first novel, The Hate U Give, electrified America with its unflinching portrayal...
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Former Trump campaign adviser - George Papadopoulos from 2019-03-29T10:30
Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence that the President colluded with the Russians during the 2016 presidential election. Even though Mueller left open the question of obstruction of ju...
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Ken Clarke MP – Former Conservative Chancellor from 2019-03-27T08:30
MPs are currently trying to find a Brexit consensus in defiance of the wishes of Prime Minister May. How close to breaking point is Britain’s political system?
Image: Kenneth Clarke (Credi...
Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of Nato from 2019-03-25T08:59
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is 70 years old this year, but despite its achievements and longevity, celebrat...
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Interim President, World Bank - Kristalina Georgieva from 2019-03-20T15:06
Is the World Bank braced for turbulence ahead? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to the bank's interim President Kristalina Georgieva. For more than seven decades, the World Bank has been a pillar o...
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Former chief constable of Kent Police, UK - Michael Fuller from 2019-03-18T11:50
Is UK policing fit for purpose? Stephen Sackur speaks to Michael Fuller, former chief constable of Kent police, and the only black Briton to have run one of the country’s regional forces. There has...
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Deputy of Venezuela’s Voluntad Popular party - Juan Andres Mejia from 2019-03-15T03:06
Is there a way out of Venezuela’s protracted agony? Stephen Sackur speaks to Juan Andres Mejia, Deputy of Venezuela’s Voluntad Popular party. For millions of Venezuelans every day is a struggle for...
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Israeli author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen from 2019-03-13T03:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, a prize-winning Israeli novelist who brings a trained psychologist’s eye to compelling stories set in her home country. Hers is a world of moral ambig...
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British rapper Professor Green from 2019-03-11T03:30
Mental health is not easy to talk about, least of all for young men, so often brought up to regard emotional vulnerability as weakness. In a special edition of HARDtalk filmed in the BBC’s Radio Th...
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Prime Minister of Italy (2016 – 2018) - Paolo Gentiloni from 2019-03-08T02:48
Theresa May’s European parliamentary elections could be a defining moment in the struggle for the EU's future; a continent wide clash between the forces of liberalism and populism exists - perhaps ...
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Former British diplomat, and National Security Adviser - Lord Ricketts from 2019-03-06T09:30
As the political debate over Brexit grows ever more polarised in the UK exposing deep fractures within the political parties, questions are also being asked about the how the machinery of governmen...
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Russian journalist - Galina Timchenko from 2019-03-01T09:00
Is President Putin crushing press freedom in Russia? Since coming to power nearly 20 years ago, Vladimir Putin has been accused of gradually taking control of the media in Russia, and silencing th...
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Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade - Péter Szijjártó from 2019-02-27T03:06
Can Hungary's ruling party win Europe’s battle of ideas? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur is in Budapest to speak to the Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó. Hungary is led by a nationalist, populi...
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US-Lebanese comedian - Nemr Abou Nassar from 2019-02-25T03:06
Does comedy have the power to transcend borders, religions and politics and can it build bridges between different communities who may mistrust and misunderstand one another? HARDtalk’s Zeinab Bad...
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Photographer - Marilyn Stafford from 2019-02-20T03:06
What makes a great photograph? Stephen Sackur speaks to one of the great women pioneers of photo journalism, Marilyn Stafford. She was born in the United States but moved to Paris where she became ...
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Yemen's Foreign Minister - Khaled Alyemany from 2019-02-18T03:06
Is there any political or diplomatic initiative capable of saving Yemen? The current limited ceasefire in Yemen between the warring parties has barely alleviated the suffering of the country’s peop...
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Deputy President, Kenya - William Ruto from 2019-02-15T03:06
Is Kenya's ruling political partnership in danger of collapse? Kenya’s big ambitions to be the economic and infrastructure powerhouse of East Africa cannot be truly realised without political stabi...
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March for our Lives co-founder Cameron Kasky from 2019-02-13T04:30
Stephen Sackur is in Florida to speak to Cameron Kasky, who survived the Parkland School shooting in February 2018 and went on to co-found the March for our Lives movement. This organisation was co...
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Writer - Leila Slimani from 2019-02-11T04:06
What draws the novelist to such dark visions of femininity? Sarah Montague speaks to Leila Slimani, one of France’s most famous, and most controversial, authors. Her first book Adele, just publishe...
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Ireland's former Prime Minister - Bertie Ahern from 2019-02-08T12:04
Ireland's former Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, negotiated the Belfast Agreement which brought peace to Northern Ireland. Sarah Montague asks if Brexit is a threat to that peace.
Image: Ber...
Former Venezuelan Supreme Court Justice Christian Zerpa from 2019-02-06T04:30
Up until last month, Christian Zerpa was a Justice on Venezuela’s Supreme Court; now he is a high-profile defector from the Maduro regime. With two men claiming to be the country’s President and pr...
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Writer - Carl Hiaasen from 2019-02-04T04:06
Is Florida the state where the American dream turned sour? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur talks to the writer Carl Hiaasen whose hugely popular newspaper columns and darkly comic novels cast a jaundiced...
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Laura Boldrini MP, Former Speaker, Chamber of Deputies in Italy from 2019-02-01T11:42
Laura Boldrini is a centre-left Italian politician. Until last year she was the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the Italian Parliament’s lower chamber. She has received many online threats wish...
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Former Interior Minister, Afghanistan - Amrullah Saleh from 2019-01-30T04:09
Shaun Ley talk to former spy chief Amrullah Saleh, now a candidate for vice-president in Afghanistan. Seventeen years on after the American-led invasion, the US and the Taliban are at last talking ...
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Explorer and aviator Bertrand Piccard from 2019-01-28T10:48
What drives an exclusive band of human beings to push beyond the boundaries of existing knowledge and experience? Hardtalk talks to Bertrand Piccard, the renowned explorer and aviator; the first to...
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UK's Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell from 2019-01-25T10:23
In little more than two months from now, Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union. That beguilingly simple statement is at the heart of a political crisis which deepens by the day. The ruli...
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Malaysia's Minister for Youth and Sport - Syed Saddiq from 2019-01-23T10:00
Until last year, Malaysia hadn't experienced a real change of government in the sixty years since independence. Prime Minister Mahatir, sailing back into power in opposition colours, can remember w...
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Tanzanian Opposition MP - Tundu Lissu from 2019-01-21T10:30
Tanzania is one of Africa’s fastest growing nations economically and demographically. It’s also governed by one of the continent’s most controversial leaders, President John Magufuli. Tundu Lissu i...
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Economy and Finance Minister, France - Bruno Le Maire from 2019-01-18T03:44
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur is in Paris for an exclusive interview with the country’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. The political and economic mood in France has shifted dramatically in a few shor...
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Adviser to President Trump's 2020 campaign - Mica Mosbacher from 2019-01-16T10:00
If the normal political rules applied to Donald Trump he would be holed up in the white house in a state of deep despair. He’s at war with Democrats in Congress, the federal government machine is ...
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Jonathan Coe - Writer from 2019-01-14T08:09
Britain is in the grip of Brexit. To leave, or to remain in the European Union: that question has divided families, generations, and communities. Everyone seems to be shouting, no-one seems to be l...
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President, Conference of European Rabbis - Pinchas Goldschmidt from 2019-01-11T03:50
There is plenty of disturbing data pointing to a significant rise in overt anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States. What are the reasons and how should the Jewish community respond? How much...
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General Secretary, Unite Union, UK - Len McCluskey from 2019-01-09T03:22
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Len McCluskey, leader of Britain’s biggest trade union and biggest donor to the Labour party. Brexit is tearing at the fabric of British politics. Theresa May’s ...
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Dr William Frankland, Allergist and WW2 Prisoner of War from 2019-01-07T11:38
Dr William Frankland is a world renowned expert on allergies and one of the last remaining British survivors of the Japanese prisoner of war camps in World War Two. His is a death-defying, life-aff...
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Jack Reacher author Lee Child from 2018-12-19T04:30
Stephen Sackur speaks to the author Lee Child. Storytelling is one of the most basic human impulses. But few are the storytellers who can draw in millions of readers all over the world, fewer still...
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Gulnur Aybet, Senior Adviser to President of Turkey from 2018-12-17T08:09
Stephen Sackur speaks to Gulnur Aybet, senior adviser to President Erdogan of Turkey. The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul put Turkey at the heart of a st...
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Finance Minister of Pakistan - Asad Umar from 2018-12-14T08:33
It took former cricketer Imran Khan two decades of political slog to win power in Pakistan. It’s taken his critics just months to decide he’s out of his depth. They point to the country’s crippled ...
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Musician - Mark Knopfler from 2018-12-14T04:06
What drives musical creativity? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to songwriter Mark Knopfler. In the pantheon of rock ’n’ roll greats, a special place is reserved for guitar virtuosos – think Eric ...
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Nicaraguan Dissident Felix Maradiaga from 2018-12-10T04:30
President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua has been in power for the past 11 years, but this year he has faced popular protests and demands that he step down. His response has been repression and defianc...
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UK Astronomer Royal - Sir Martin Rees from 2018-12-07T03:27
How do we decide what's important? How do we balance the priorities of the here and now with the big picture challenges that will determine the future of human civilisation? HARDtalk speaks to Sir ...
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Pro-Brexit Conservative MP, Owen Paterson from 2018-12-05T09:36
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May is facing a mutiny inside her own Conservative Party, which threatens to scupper her Brexit deal and quite possibly her premiership too. If she loses the key pa...
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Brexit Steering Group, European Parliament - Danuta Hübner MEP from 2018-12-03T03:44
HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Danuta Hübner, an influential Polish MEP who sits on the Brexit Steering Group of the European Parliament. In just a few days time the UK parliament will make a ...
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Former UK Transport Minister Jo Johnson from 2018-11-30T04:30
On December 11th, two and a half years of posturing, politicking and poisonous disagreement come to a head: the UK Parliament will vote on whether to accept the Brexit deal Prime Minister Theresa M...
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Saudi exile - Abdullah Alaoudh from 2018-11-28T04:06
Can anyone or anything challenge Saudi authoritarianism? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Abdullah Alaoudh, a Saudi exile whose father is facing charges that carry a death sentence. President Tr...
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Israeli Education Minister and Leader of Jewish Home - Naftali Bennett from 2018-11-26T03:48
Israel’s seemingly indestructible Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dodged another political bullet. After the recent flare up of violence in Gaza, his defence minister quit and another key cab...
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Senior US District Judge - Mark L. Wolf from 2018-11-16T04:03
How do you stop prime ministers and presidents lining their own pockets with the country's wealth? US Judge Mark Wolf is lobbying for the creation of an international anti-corruption court. Judge W...
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Mohamed El-Erian - Chief Economic Adviser at Allianz from 2018-11-14T08:08
Mohamed El-Erian’s career has been at the top end of economic advice. Along with writing several best-selling books, he spent 15 years at the International Monetary Fund, headed the investment gian...
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Editor, The Washington Post - Martin Baron from 2018-11-12T03:31
In a special interview to start the BBC’s Beyond Fake News season, Stephen Sackur speaks to The Washington Post’s editor Martin Baron about the fractious relationship between the White House and th...
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Former Commander ISAF and US Forces, Afghanistan - General Stanley McChrystal from 2018-11-09T03:08
The US mid-term elections were a mixed picture for President Trump. Democrats took control of the House of Representatives and that will allow them to block the President’s legislative agenda. As a...
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