Ayad Allawi: What if the US pulls out of Iraq?
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 conflict may well be Iraq, as Soleimani was assassinated in Baghdad. Iraq is now under intense pressure to pick sides. Stephen Sackur interviews Ayad Allawi, who was the country’s vice-president twice. Does the current crisis spell disaster for Iraq?
8 Jan 202023min
Malcolm Gladwell: Should we trust strangers?
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 make about trust and truth. But how far can we trust Malcolm Gladwell?
6 Jan 202024min
Andrew Mitchell MP: What will Boris Johnson do next?
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 Parliamentary approval guaranteed. Not since Margaret Thatcher has a Tory leader had such an opportunity to remake Britain. Hardtalk speaks to Conservative MP and former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell. Boris Johnson has been handed immense power - what will he do with it?(Photo: Conservative MP and former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell)
20 Dec 201923min
Staffan de Mistura: Can the international community still stop wars?
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 can decide by looking at the scale of suffering in Syria, the renewed unrest across the Middle East and the imminent American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Stephen Sackur interviews Staffan de Mistura, who has been a UN envoy in all of those places over the last decade. Is it time to acknowledge the irrelevance of the international peacemakers?Photo: Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura Credit: AFP via Getty Images
18 Dec 201924min
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 Dec 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 Dec 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 Dec 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 Dec 201923min
