The Interview

“When you've been really nihilistic in your life when you're younger, and then you feel you've been given a second chance.”
Emma Barnett speaks to artist Dame Tracey Emin about her life and career.
Emin rose to fame in 1990s as a disruptor of the art world, with her works, such as the sculpture ‘My Bed’, gaining widespread media attention. Having been at the forefront of the modern art scene for over three decades, a solo exhibition has now opened at the Tate Modern in London showcasing 40 years of her work.
She’s well-known for channelling her life experiences into her artwork. Following a troubled childhood, in which she was a victim of sexual abuse, Emin battled alcohol addiction throughout her adult life. However, she gave up alcohol after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of bladder cancer in 2020 - which is now in remission.
Emin views the experience as a ‘second life’, and believes the lifestyle change has been for the better.
Thank you to the Ready to Talk with Emma Barnett team for their help in making this programme.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, free speech campaigner Maria Ressa, and Olympic cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins. 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: Emma Barnett
Producers: Ben Cooper, Mark Ward and Clare Williamson
Editor: Justine Lang and Damon Rose
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Tracey Emin posing beside her artwork during a preview of her upcoming show, Tracey Emin: A Second Life at The Tate Modern in London. Credit: ADRIAN DENNIS / AFP via Getty Images)

“We need to get back to something where freedom of navigation and peaceful navigation is restored, and that will depend on some kind of deal between the two sides in that war.”

Jonathan Josephs speaks to Vincent Clerc, CEO of Maersk the world’s second largest shipping company.

The conflict between Iran, Israel and the United States has led to the closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz. It’s one of the world’s most important shipping routes which before this war, carried about a fifth of global oil supplies. Cargo ships there are being targeted, and seafarers have been killed.

The disruption is halting the transport of vital cargo containers and pushing up energy prices. Countries in the Gulf region like Saudi Arabia, rely heavily on energy exports, and, Asia, where much of it is sold, will be hit hard. Food and fertiliser supplies are also being affected.

It's not just the Strait of Hormuz that's being disrupted. Security threats mean shipping is also avoiding the Red Sea route through the Suez Canal, which because of the sheer volume of cargo traffic, is arguably more important to global trade.

Vincent Clerc says the cost of war will have to be passed on, leading to higher prices for consumers around the world.

Thank you to Jonathan Josephs for his help in making this programme.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Jamie Dimon Chief Executiveof JP Morgan Chase and 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: Jonathan Josephs
Producer: Clare Williamson
Editor: Damon Rose

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Vincent Clerc Credit: BBC)

“People are too gloomy about AI, particularly in the developing world it is seen as a threat, that people are going to be using AI systems, rather than offshoring jobs and the like. That's true, but you could use AI yourself and develop solutions to the challenges you have in your community, in your country, and create unprecedented wealth.”

BBC presenter Ed Butler speaks to Karim Beguir, co-founder and boss of InstaDeep, Africa’s biggest AI firm.

InstaDeep’s technology played a key role during the pandemic, tracking new disease variants to support the development of targeted vaccines. And while he acknowledges artificial intelligence does need control and direction, he believes it has the potential to bring enormous benefit to the developing world.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and political economist Professor Helen Thompson. 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: Ed Butler
Producer: Hannah Mullane, Niamh McDermott, Lucy Sheppard
Editors: Justine Lang and Damon Rose

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Karim Beguir Credit: JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP via Getty Images)

“The destruction of USAID is not only one of the cruellest acts that I've seen in my career, but of course also one of the dumbest.”
Caitriona Perry speaks to Samantha Power, the former American ambassador to the United Nations. She went on to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development until January 2025 when Donald Trump came to power. President Trump later closed USAID down.
She is scathing about his decision, describing it as a “soft power suicide” which will lead to the avoidable deaths of millions of people around the world. Ambassador Power also warns of gridlock in the United Nations, thanks to the use of veto powers by permanent members of the Security Council.
Thank you to Caitriona Perry and Abby Godard for their help in making this programme.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Nigel Casey, the UK ambassador to Russia, and the Colombian President Gustavo Petro. 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: Caitriona Perry
Producers: Abby Godard and Lucy Sheppard
Editors: Damon Rose and Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Samantha Power Credit: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“One of the things that was going to combat gender inequality in our world was that sense of progress and then to see in the research that actually the younger generation is more conservative on these questions than people my age, that deeply troubled me.”
Lucy Hockings speaks to Julia Gillard former Australian PM and chair at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, King’s College London about new research on equality.
Having worked her way to the top in the male dominated world of Australian politics, Julia knows about sexism and misogyny. She famously called it out in a speech against opposition leader Tony Abbott in 2012 and has always been a proponent of equality for women. But 14 years on and research from the organisation she now leads finds that more and more young men want a traditional wife that obeys her husband and that’s not too independent*. So what has gone wrong?
Lucy and Julia unpick the research and analyse the factors behind this backsliding, and they also discuss Julia’s time as Australia’s first ever female head of government.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky and former New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. 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: Lucy Hockings
Producer: Clare Williamson
Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
*31% of Gen Z men (born between 1997 and 2012) agree that a wife should always obey her husband and one third (33%) say a husband should have the final word on important decisions, according to a new global study of 23,000 people in 29-countries conducted by Ipsos UK and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s Business School, King’s College London.
(Image: Julia Gillard Credit: Vicki Couchman for King’s College London)