The Interview
by BBC World Service
Latest episode
David Robinson, former OpenAI leader: Why I quit over safety
David Robinson, former OpenAI leader: Why I quit over safety
About this podcast
Conversations with people shaping our world, from all around the globe. Listen to The Interview for the best conversations from the BBC, the world's most trusted international news provider.
We hear from titans of business, politics, finance, sport and culture. Global leaders, decision-makers and cultural icons. Politicians, activists and CEOs.
Each interview is around 20-minutes, packed full of insight and analysis, covering some of the biggest issues of our time.
How does it work? Well, at the BBC, our journalists interview amazing people every single day. And on The Interview, we bring them to you.
It’s your one-stop-shop to the best conversations coming out of the BBC, with the people shaping our world, from all over the world.
Get in touch with us on [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 1,988 episodes
- David Robinson, former OpenAI leader: Why I quit over safety · 22 min“It's a cultural thing. There's an aspect of this that's a Silicon Valley belief that what's invented in California has a special status. I implored colleagues to bring people in…
- U2, rock band: Dysfunction pushes us · 23 min“Dysfunction is a challenge but a strength as well, because it's made us have to find unique ways to utilise our instruments and work together. So it's sort of been a guiding…
- Tessa Clarke, Olio CEO: Environmental impact of food waste is devastating · 26 min“The environmental impacts of food waste are absolutely devastating. If it were a country, food waste would be the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after the USA…
- Klaus Thymann, scientist: Indonesia’s ‘eternal glaciers’ are vanishing · 21 min“I can't pronounce the local language, but if it's kind of translated into English, it becomes ‘the eternal glaciers’. And to have something on a mountain that has that cultural…
- Brad Smith, Microsoft President: Washing machines are better-regulated than AI · 24 minRight now, your washing machine is subject to more safety rules than AI. Every carton of milk that you see in the grocery store is subject to safety rules and inspection. Or…
- Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor: There’s a vacuum in Israeli media · 23 minRebecca Kesby speaks to Israeli film-makers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. Abraham and Szor gained international attention last year with their self-distributed film, No Other…
- Navanetham ‘Navi' Pillay, 2026 Nobel Peace Prize winner · 23 min“When we suffered under apartheid, those were immoral laws, they institutionalised racism. Where could we go for relief? And I yearned for a better system of law based on…
- Cate Blanchett, actor: Art reminds us of our humanity · 23 min“There's a toxic narrative around displacement which has been politicised and part of the fund is to re-humanise and make the connection because those people who have the great…
- Archbishop Paul Gallagher: Diplomacy means talking to all sides · 23 min“Diplomacy is about talking to lots of people with whom you don't agree. And that's what diplomats do. And I think we would do that... The Vatican has always had very little…
- Arundhati Roy, author and activist: Writing is universal · 23 min“When I was writing it I didn’t think it would touch such a universal chord, you know, because it seemed to me so weird, my childhood and my mother and my life, it was, but of…
- Peter Obi, Nigerian presidential candidate: The last election was rigged · 23 min“Nigeria can fight insecurity, head on. It only requires it for the commander-in-chief to be determined that this will end. Those criminals live with us. In our communities…
- Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan’s representative to US: We’re prepared for China to invade · 23 min“We don't have to have a fight, and we don't have to land in China, go to Beijing and win the war. All we have to do is prevent them to getting their objective of landing in…
- Meredith Whittaker, Signal president: Privacy is a human right · 23 min“Private communication is a fundamental human right for a reason, because when those with power over you have access to your intimate thoughts and your communication, they use…
- Jerry Brown, former California governor: America then and now · 23 minBBC special correspondent James Naughtie speaks to former Governor of California, Jerry Brown. He was first elected governor in 1974, succeeding Ronald Reagan, and went on to…
- Shami Chakrabarti, human rights lawyer: Healthy democracies need a free media · 25 min“There aren't enough lawyers and judges on the planet if journalists are silent, because abuses of power just don't come to light, in my experience, without this relationship…
- Olara Otunnu, diplomat: UN cannot be diplomatic ivory tower · 23 min“I do not want the United Nations of New York, Geneva or Vienna to be an ivory tower, a diplomatic ivory tower. I want to see the UN not of power and privilege, but the UN of…
- Kai Bird, Author: Roy Cohn, the man who shaped Trump? · 23 min“He had no guardrails. He had no rules. He told Donald Trump, you know, when criticised, attack, attack, attack, deny, deny deny, always go on the offensive, never apologise. And…
- Abhijeet Dipke, youth campaigner: There’s an underlying frustration in India · 24 min“I think there’s been this underlying frustration among the youth of India for a very long time. If we look at the unemployment data, India currently has the highest unemployment…
- Estelle Brachlianoff, Veolia CEO: We need to rethink waste · 27 minJustin Rowlatt speaks to Estelle Brachlianoff, chief executive of environmental firm Veolia. The corporation’s origins can be traced all the way back to 19th Century France, when…
- Roelf Meyer, South African Ambassador: Trump has been misled · 23 minIone Wells speaks to Roelf Meyer, South Africa’s new ambassador to the United States. In the 1990s, Meyer was one of the leading negotiators in the talks that helped bring…
- Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother: King Charles told me the world would forget her · 23 min“I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said. I've only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life. I was hyper alert to what…
- Fally Ipupa, musician: Speak out on DRC suffering · 23 min“Not just African musician. Everybody, even journalist, even president, even football player, even promoter. We need to do it for those people who suffer, who don’t have food or…
- Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the ICRC: The rules of war are being ignored · 27 min‘I compare the erosion of international humanitarian law with bankruptcy it happens gradually at first and then all of a sudden instantly. This is what is happening with the…
- David Vigneault, ex-intelligence chief: Democracies are being destabilised · 23 min“This is one of the exact aspect of hybrid warfare of Russia… They are targeting us specifically to create dissensions, to create and to prop up artificially some voices in our…
- Amir Khan Muttaqi, Afghan FM: Not everything is banned for women · 23 minLyse Doucet, the BBC’s chief international correspondent, meets Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi as the Taliban seeks greater international recognition. The…
- Sophia Amoruso, Nasty Gal founder: I was out of my league · 23 min“I had hired a CEO for the last two years. The company was at a place where revenue had plateaued. I wasn’t someone who could look at a spreadsheet 50 tabs wide and tell my CFO…
- Vadym Skibitsky, Ukrainian intelligence: We are fighting for survival · 23 min“We don’t have another way for surviving, because we are an independent state, it's our territory, it's our land, it’s our culture, it’s our history, and we must fight to prevent…
- Rene Haas, Arm CEO: AI demand won’t slow · 24 min“Let's go back to the timeframe with the internet building out. We didn’t have an issue that the internet 20 years later is not a valuable utility… If you don't have access to a…
- Leah Solivan, TaskRabbit founder: How the gig economy falls short · 23 min“People just wanted to own the way they worked, but with that comes these institutional structures that have been built around the history of work that doesn’t allow for benefits…
- Daron Acemoglu, Economist: Liberal democracy is in crisis · 23 minBBC Newsnight presenter Paddy O’Connell speaks to Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu about why he thinks liberal democracy is in crisis, and how artificial intelligence…
- Michelle Bachelet, UN Chief candidate: Time for a woman to lead · 23 min“For 80 years, we only have men [lead the UN] and I think it is not about women because she is a woman … The idea is a woman because she has the experience, the leadership, the…
- Kristina Wilfore: Male anxieties being weaponised · 24 min“It's a distortion of real pressures. When I'm analysing trends around men…they are wanting to lean into what being a man means. In many cases strength, loyalty, protection…
- Joe Ngai, McKinsey: Domestic rivalry drives Chinese firms · 23 min“More Chinese companies are put out of business by other Chinese companies. Chinese companies are not put out of business because of Western companies, so this whole competition…
- María Fernanda Espinosa, UN secretary general candidate: The UN risks becoming irrelevant · 23 min“Sometimes we confuse activity with impact. And here I think the way we measure results should be different. How many lives has the UN saved? How many people has the UN helped to…
- Mopreme Shakur on Tupac: The sensitive man behind the music · 23 min“I think Pac was actually traumatised by the poverty. You know, poverty can be very, very traumatic. Having no lights, having no food from time to time, having no clothes while…
- Hunter Biden: Father’s pardon not good for country · 23 min“Was it good for our Constitution? Was it good for the American people? Was it good for my dad's legacy? No, on all counts. It was not. All I know is that I'm grateful that he…
- Celeste Saulo, WMO: Extreme weather is the new normal · 24 min“[This weather] is a new norm, and we need to make sure that we are prepared to deal with that…these extreme wildfires put more responsibility onto improving our forecasting…
- Dmitry Muratov, journalist: Putin can’t claim victory in Ukraine · 23 min"There are repressions, political repressions, against freedom of speech, against elections, against the rights of citizens to hold mass events. To such an extent that we don't…
- Yemi Alade, singer: I wanted to be a mega superstar · 23 min“I just knew that I wanted to be a mega superstar and I didn't know how…I feel like Africa chose me before I even chose Africa, and I feel music chose me before I chose music.”…
- Sonam Wangchuk, Indian activist: Hunger strike for education reform · 23 min“This movement was by young people who had hardly anything to lose. We had no fear and that's what spread across the country and today people are raising their voices. This time…
- Carlos Acosta, dancer: Ballet is for everyone · 24 min“It's very important that we expose this work early on, so that people from different cultures see ballet as a way of a career. But in the 1990s or 2000s, it was pretty much…
- Srinivasan Muralidhar: The trauma of Palestinian children · 25 min‘When it comes to humanitarian crisis, we should not allow children's future to be subject to geopolitics. We can't say that there are politically compulsions as a result of…
- Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana’s Foreign Minister: Slavery scars our collective conscience · 25 min“The time has come for the international community to be honest, not to be hypocritical, not be selective, not engage in erasure, but to admit that the gravest crime against…
- Sumant Sinha: Green tech to triumph over drilling · 23 minLeanna Byrne speaks to Sumant Sinha, the founder of ReNew, one of India's largest renewable energy companies about why he thinks green and clean energy will win out. Sinha began…
- Gayton McKenzie, South African minister: Immigration unrest · 23 min“This is a legitimate concern of South Africans, where there’s illegal foreigners, people with no paperwork. No country in the world allows that to happen. Why should we? Our…
- Rohan Kanawade, film director: My parents accepted my sexuality · 23 min‘Their love was so innocent, so sweet, so organic and we just wanted them to end up together because even they knew that some of the queer films always end in tragedy and they…
- Rafael Grossi, IAEA: Nuclear back on the table? · 23 min“Due to geopolitical divides, countries are having second thoughts about non-proliferation or their non-proliferation obligations, in the sense that many countries were relying…
- Amy Wallace, writer: We all need to speak up · 23 min“We all need to be speaking up about it. Not just the survivors. And we put so much burden on the people who've actually suffered the most, the most vulnerable among us.” Naga…
- Maggie Haberman, US journalist: Trump tests limits · 23 min“One of the things that’s fascinating about him simply as a historical study is the recognition that shamelessness is a superpower, and he refuses to be shamed in almost any…
- Christopher Nolan, director: We need to take risks · 24 min“The biggest risk in motion pictures is to not take a risk. You have to be putting it out there and offering people something new, and that's what will get them out of their…
