The Interview

“When I was writing it I didn’t think it would touch such a universal chord, you know, because it seemed to me so weird, my childhood and my mother and my life, it was, but of course, everybody has something. And a lot of people I meet have said this to me and that it helped them see their parents as human beings and not just parents.”
Ishadrita Lahiri speaks to acclaimed author and activist, Arundhati Roy. One of India’s most celebrated writers and outspoken political voices Roy rose to international fame in 1997 with her Booker Prize-winning debut novel The God of Small Things. Since then she has become as well known for political activism as for her fiction, challenging those in power and using her writing to engage with questions of inequality, nationalism and human rights.
In her latest book, Mother Mary Comes to Me, Roy reflects on her complex relationship with her mother and the ways it shaped her life and work. We explore her literary journey, political convictions and what’s shaped her writing.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Indian youth campaigner Abhijeet Dipke, UNICEF chief Catherine Russell and author Maggie O’Farrell. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Ishadrita Lahiri
Producer: Asmita Nandy
Editor: Farhana Haider
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Arundhati Roy. Credit: Getty)

“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, people know them. I will go to the communities and find them. I will take control. And I will not do it from Abuja.”

Madina Maishanu speaks to Peter Obi, one of Nigeria’s leading opposition politicians, now with the Nigeria Democratic Congress, and a former governor of Anambra State.

He came third in the 2023 presidential election, attracting significant support from young Nigerians fed up with unemployment and police brutality who demanded political change.

But Obi has never accepted the outcome, insisting he won and that the official results were manipulated, although Nigeria's courts rejected his challenge.

Now he's hoping to become president in 2027, promising to address some of Nigeria's biggest problems, including widespread insecurity and government corruption.

The Interview brings you the best interviews coming from the BBC, including episodes with the head of the World Meteorological Organisation, Celeste Saulo and the former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard.

You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Madina Maishanu
Producer: Osman Iqbal
Editor: Farhana Haider and Damon Rose
(Image: Peter Obi. Credit: Reuters)

“We don't have to have a fight, and we don't have to land in China, go to Beijing and win the war. All we have to do is prevent them to getting their objective of landing in Taiwan and conquering. It's not going to be easy, but we've been preparing for this for 77 years.”
Sumi Somaskanda speaks to Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan’s representative to the US.
The island, which lies roughly 100 miles off the coast of mainland China and is facing growing uncertainty both at home and abroad.
As geopolitical tensions rise around the world, there’s increasing focus on the intentions of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Beijing considers Taiwan part of China and has long-pursued what it calls reunification with the island.
Mr. Yui Tah-ray has held the his current post since December 2023, having previously served as Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister. His role is central to maintaining one of Taipei’s most important international relationships: with the United States.
Washington does not officially recognise Taiwan as an independent state - and only 12 countries around the world do. But the US remains Taiwan’s most important international backer, providing critical defence and security support.
With President Trump back in the White House for a second term, questions remain over how Washington’s longstanding commitment to Taiwan will evolve and what that could mean for the island as tensions with Beijin continue.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with McKinsey China’s Joe Ngai, journalist Maggie Haberman, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Sumi Somaskanda
Producer: Abby Godard
Editor: Farhana Haider
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Alexander Tah-ray Yui. Credit: Getty)

“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 those to punish you. They can use them to persecute you. They can use them to shut you up.”

Megha Mohan speaks to Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, which runs the encrypted messaging app Signal.

Its end-to-end encyption means only the people in a conversation can read their messages. The protections are so strong that even Signal itself can’t see the contents.
That privacy can be vital for journalists living under authoritarian governments, dissidents and other vulnerable people, but it can also allow scammers, child abusers and criminals to communicate beyond Signal’s view.
Governments are demanding greater access to encrypted communications, but Whittaker says Signal would rather leave a country than weaken its protections.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including conversations with former Sudanese leader Aisha Musa, Ukrainian drone commander Robert Brovdi; plus many others

You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Megha Mohan
Producer: Osman Iqbal
Editor: Farhana Haider
(Image: Meredith Whittaker. Credit: Reuters)

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