"There is a public health disaster. There is an education disaster. It all can be traced to the same cause, which is the change technology has made in our kids' childhood."

Amol Rajan speaks to the American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.

In 2024 his book The Anxious Generation sparked a fierce debate about the impact of social media and technology on young people. Haidt believes it's behind the soaring number of mental health problems but social media companies claim this oversimplifies a deeply complex issue.

Now he says we are at a tipping point in our relationship with technology, with countries moving towards much greater regulation of social media use for children.

Thank you to the Radical team for its 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 Microsoft AI boss Mustafa Suleyman and Annika Wells, the minister in charge of Australia's social media ban for under-16s. 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: Amol Rajan

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Jonathan Haidt Credit: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)

Aleem Maqbool speaks to Dame Sarah Mulally, shortly before being confirmed as Archbishop of Canterbury. She's the first woman ever to lead the Church of England.

(Image: Dame Sarah Mullally Credit: Ray Tang/Getty Images)

'What the regime does to women is even if they don't kill us, when you stop a woman from being herself, stop her from speaking the way she wants to or stop her from connecting, it’s a kind of murder. And so we're fighting for our existence. We're fighting our survival.’

Svetlana Reiter speaks to the Iranian-American writer, Azar Nafisi, about the current instability in the country of her birth as Iranians continue to seek regime change in Tehran.

Born in Tehran in 1956, the story of her life has been greatly shaped by the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979, when Nafisi taught English literature at the University of Tehran. She was expelled from the University for not wearing a hijab, and eventually left for the US less than two decades later.

Nafisi is best-known for her New York Times bestseller, Reading Lolita in Tehran, in which she wrote about her experiences under the Islamic regime. The book focuses on a short period before she left Iran in 1997, when she would gather a group of young women at her house one morning every week to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature.

Thank you to the BBC Russian Service for their help in making this programme.

Presenter: Svetlana Reiter

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Azar Nafisi Credit: Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Even though we say we want to be self-sufficient, we don't think global solidarity must be dropped. Because if it gets dropped, the world will be in trouble.”

Mayeni Jones the BBC’s Africa correspondent speaks to Dr Aaron Motsoaledi South Africa’s health minister a year on since the US announced foreign aid cuts. At the time he called the USAID freeze a wake up call for Africa.

Dr Motsoaledi, has been at the centre of South Africa’s public health response for more than a decade. A medical doctor by training, he first took on the health portfolio in 2009, overseeing the world’s largest HIV treatment programme.

In this conversation he explains how the country is filling the aid gap and where progress stands in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Presenter: Mayeni Jones

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Dr Aaron Motsoaledi Credit: PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images)

“Most Venezuelans are thinking about the future: Will things improve? Will deep changes come? Will we reunite as a people with our history, dreams, and hopes?”

BBC correspondent Norberto Paredes speaks to Henrique Capriles, a Venezuelan opposition leader, about his vision for a new Venezuela.

In the aftermath of President Maduro’s capture by the United States, Henrique Capriles is one of the key political voices emerging - an alternative to the high-profile Maria Corina Machado, Nobel-prize winner and vocal supporter of Trump’s intervention.

Now it is time for Venezuela’s opposition to unite, he says, and bring democracy to the country.

Henrique Capriles narrowly lost out on the presidency in both 2012 and 2013, before being banned from standing for public office for many years. In 2025, he was elected to the National Assembly.

Thank you to the BBC Mundo team for its help in making this programme.

Presenter: Norberto Paredes

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Henrique Capriles Credit: REUTERS/Marco Bello)

Katy Watson speaks to Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner about the country’s social media ban for under 16s: “To keep kids away until they're ready, I think that is the monumental circuit breaker move that we need to move to,” she says.

Brought up in Seattle, North America Julie has spent her career in the technology sector working for Microsoft, Twitter and Adobe in public policy and safety before moving into government.

No stranger to controversy and abuse, she’s now the public face of Australia’s landmark social media ban for children under 16 which came into force in December.

Now countries around the world are considering similar bans as cases of online addiction, self harm and abuse are reportedly on the rise.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations and Taiwan’s cyber ambassador Audrey Tang. 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: Katy Watson

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Julie Inman Grant Credit: Reuters)

'It's hard to be the only woman, I feel lonely sometimes because I’d like to have another woman colleague to talk to.’

The BBC’s Chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet speaks to Hind Kabawat, Syria’s Minister for Social Affairs and Labour. and the only female minister in the transitional government.

She was born in India and grew up across the Middle East and Europe. Her life has been shaped by movement, exile and conflict. She studied economics in Damascus, law in Beirut, and later continued her education in the United States.

During Syria’s war, she worked abroad on diplomacy and legal reform, advising on negotiations and pushing for greater representation of women in public life. After the fall of the Assad regime and the creation of a transitional authority, she returned home to take up public office.

In this conversation, she talks about power, responsibility, and what leadership means in a country still reckoning with more than a decade of conflict.

Thank you to the Global Women 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 the Colombian president Gustavo Petro, the Palestinian-American human rights lawyer Noura Erekat and Mexican actor Diego Calva. 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: Lyse Doucet

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Hind Kabavat Credit: Beyza Comert/Getty Images)

‘We're fighting to survive in our home town, in our country, and at the same time we're fighting for our future, for our independence’

Nick Robinson speaks to Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kyiv, about Ukraine’s war with Russia as it approaches its fourth year.

Born behind the Iron Curtain in 1971, he’s arguably best-known as a former heavyweight boxing world champion who made his name in the ring during the 1990s and 2000s.

Having hung up his gloves following a series of injuries, when his native Ukraine endured political upheaval through the Orange Revolution, Vitali’s attentions turned to the political arena. Following a short stint in the Ukrainian Parliament, where he aligned with pro-Europeans, Vitali was elected mayor of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in 2014 after heavily campaigning against corruption.

But his greatest challenge in politics, and indeed even greater than becoming a world champion boxer, came when Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Thank you to the Political Thinking with Nick Robinson team for their help in making this programme.

Presenter: Nick Robinson

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Vitali Klitschko Credit: Sergei GAPON / AFP via Getty Images)

“Regardless of whether it's Trump or anybody else in the White House, we should expect something quite significant to be going on in terms of the United States’ relationship with the rest of the world.”

Amol Rajan speaks to Helen Thompson, professor of political economy at Cambridge University, about a new era of global power play.

In this conversation, she traces the roots of the re-birth of US expansionism back to the 19th century, and America’s early presidents. She also explains how the dynamics of geopolitics are tied to the control of resources, in particular oil.

Professor Thompson is an expert on the history of globalisation who has taught at Britain’s Cambridge University for more than 30 years. Her current research looks at the geopolitics of energy, and the long history of this century’s global disruptions.

Thank you to the Radical team for its help in making this programme.

Presenter: Amol Rajan

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Helen Thompson Credit: Anna Budd/BBC)

‘All they have seen is a 40-year rule that has resulted in high unemployment rates, poor services, and an increased violation of human rights. This young population is yearning to see a different president, a different kind of Uganda.’

Catherine Byaruhanga speaks to human rights lawyer and activist Nicholas Opiyo about Ugandan politics, the rule of law, and the impact of 40 years of one leader on the nation.

He’s taken on multiple cases of national significance, including successfully overturning the country’s anti-LGBTQ legislation back in 2014 - although this has since been re-instated, and represented a former rebel commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Opiyo has also represented Ugandan opposition politician Bobi Wine, who, despite previously being arrested and charged with treason in 2018, challenged the 81-year-old incumbent President Yoweri Museveni in January’s disputed elections.

These elections were watched from afar by Opiyo, who was recently forced to flee his home country for his own safety, but still continues his human rights work.

Presenter: Catherine Byaruhanga

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Nicholas Opiyo. Credit: Reuters)