Bill Bryson: US author demystifying the British
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 Bryson, whose wry take on Britain and the British has generated two best-selling books. From the mysteries of afternoon tea to the power of the human brain, what has Bill Bryson learned from his gentle search for understanding?Photo: Bill Bryson at the Cheltenham Literary Festival Credit: Getty Images
16 Des 201923min
Aryana Sayeed: Afghanistan’s biggest pop star
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 using her own potent weapons: her voice, her songs and a spirit of defiance. She is Afghanistan’s biggest pop star, and has braved death threats to campaign for women’s rights and artistic freedom. Is this a fight she can win?
13 Des 201923min
Eliot Higgins: Searching for facts in a 'post-truth' world
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 scoops. Bellingcat has exposed the depth of Russian military involvement in the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine; it revealed the identities of two key Russian suspects in the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal; most recently, it has provided damning detail about the suspected assassin of a Chechen rebel in Berlin. Has Bellingcat reinvented journalism for our "fake news" age?
11 Des 201923min
Megan Phelps-Roper: Leaving 'America's most obnoxious hate group'
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 America". From the age of 5, Megan Phelps-Roper had stood on the picket lines, and carried those hate-filled signs. But as an adult firing off tweets to her online critics, Megan began to doubt. Shaun Ley speaks to Megan Phelps-Roper in London. Can Megan really still regard those who abused her mind, teaching her to hate and to pray for more deaths, as Mum and Dad?
9 Des 201923min
Daniel Jones: The man who unveiled the CIA’s darkest secrets
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 ‘enhanced interrogation’, a euphemism for torture. Stephen Sackur interviews Daniel Jones, who led a six year investigation into the CIA’s darkest secrets. Now his story has been turned into a movie; but did America cease to care, long ago?
6 Des 201923min
Behrouz Boochani: Six years as a marooned migrant
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 and Micronesia. Stephen Sackur interviews one of them. Behrouz Boochani is an Iranian Kurd who has written about his extraordinary six-year experience as a marooned migrant. He’s now a prize-winning author, but is his long-term fate any clearer?
4 Des 201923min
Stephen Sackur is on the road in Zimbabwe
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 economic crisis, endemic corruption and widespread poverty, which leaves Zimbabweans extremely vulnerable in the face of prolonged drought. Crops have failed, hydro power is down and taps have run dry. Can Zimbabwe adapt to looming environmental crisis?
2 Des 201923min
Wendell Pierce: A tale of two Americas
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 brought him international attention. Now he’s on stage in London as the protagonist in Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. But it was Hurricane Katrina that defined him, when he rolled up his own sleeves when his childhood home was smashed. After his city’s darkest hour, when help failed to come, did Wendell Pierce fall out of love with America?
29 Nov 201924min
