The Interview

Stevie Wonder was born in 1950 in the industrial city of Saginaw, Michigan, USA. Even from a young age, he displayed a great love of music - first with a church choir, and then teaching himself how to play a range of instruments, including the harmonica, piano and drums, all before the age of 10. He was just 11 years old when he was discovered and signed by the legendary Motown record label - and the rest is history.

Across a career that’s spanned seven decades, he has sold over 100 million records worldwide, won numerous awards - including multiple Grammys, a Golden Globe and even an Oscar, and received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom too.

Over the years, Stevie has also used his platform to campaign on social issues close to his heart. He’s long-advocated for greater rights for disabled people around the world, and he successfully spearheaded a movement to create a national holiday in the US to recognise the birthday of the civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was also a vocal critic of apartheid in South Africa and called for the release of Nelson Mandela.

In this wide-ranging interview, Stevie discusses his journey to stardom, where he gets his creative spark, and speaking out against injustice.

Thank you to the Sidetracked team for their help in making this programme.

Presenter: Annie Macmanus

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(Image: Stevie Wonder Credit: Savion Washington/Getty Images)

‘I'm very confident that someday soon we're going to have government as good as our people again’

Paddy O’Connell speaks to former US Vice President Mike Pence about President Trump’s second term in office.

When the insurgent billionaire shocked the world by defeating Hillary Clinton, Pence found himself at the centre of an administration beset by multiple controversies from the very beginning, including having to navigate impeachment proceedings against his boss.

The pair, however, weren’t always aligned in their worldviews, and the relationship became increasingly frayed behind closed doors. Formal ties were severed when Pence resisted efforts by Trump to overturn his election defeat to Joe Biden in 2020.

After leaving the post of Vice-President, Pence remained active in politics in the years that followed, eventually running for the Republican nomination for the 2024 Presidential election. This was, of course, won by his old boss - but Pence refused to endorse him the second time around.

Despite the turbulent four years in office, he remains proud of what he and Trump achieved in that time. However, he can now speak more freely about his former boss, who is back in the White House for a second term.

His experience at the very top of American politics also gives him unique insight into events both at home and abroad. In this wide-ranging interview, he discusses many pressing issues including vaccine scepticism, global tariffs and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Thank you to the Newsnight team for their help in making this programme.

Presenter: Paddy O’Connell

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

(Image: Mike Pence. Credit: John Lamparski/Getty Images)

John Wilson speaks to British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason about his obsession with music, adjusting to fame and how he’s faced racist abuse.

While still a student, he performed to an audience of more than one billion people at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, instantly becoming one of the most recognisable classical performers in the world.

Now, still just 26 years old, he explains the unique joy of performing with his family. Kanneh-Mason is one of seven siblings, all are talented musicians and regularly play together.

Of Antiguan decent, he was the first black person to win BBC Young Musician of the Year. He’s also used his profile to join calls for dropping ‘Rule, Britannia!’ from the Last Night of the Proms, explaining how difficult it is for someone whose ancestors were enslaved to hear imperial songs sung with such determination.

Thank you to the This Cultural Life team for helping to make this programme.

Presenter: John Wilson

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(Image: Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Photo by Ian West - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Paddy O’Connell speaks to Professor Francis Fukuyama about the threats to liberal democracies around the world.

He is best-known for his 1992 book ‘The End of History and the Last Man’. He argued that the end of the Cold War, marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, represented the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution, and the universalisation of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.

But three decades on, Western liberal democracy appears to be struggling to adapt to the many challenges of the 21st century. Amid geopolitical instability, its future does not appear as universal as Fukuyama once proposed, even in the US.

Presenter: Paddy O’Connell

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(Image: Professor Francis Fukuyama. Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)

Rahul Tandon speaks to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s former president and first woman to be elected to lead an African country.

Thank you to the Business Daily team for their help in making this programme.

Presenter: Rahul Tandon

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(Image: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

John Wilson speaks to Pete Townshend, songwriter and guitarist of British rock band The Who about the band’s farewell tour of the US.

Through his powerful stage presence and pioneering use of technology, Townshend transformed The Who from a hobby wedding band to one of the biggest and loudest outfits of the 1960s and 1970s.

His artistic approach created tension with singer Roger Daltrey, the band’s only other surviving member. Sixty years after first coming together, the pair completed their farewell tour of Italy earlier this year and are currently saying goodbye to America.

Townshend says he is proud of his influence, even if his rock and roll generation put his parents out of work, who were both musicians in more traditional wartime dance bands. He also reveals the inspiration behind his infamous smashing of guitars may have just been one big misunderstanding.

Presenter: John Wilson

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(Image: Pete Townshend. Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Desert Trip)

Music has the power to unite

Mark Savage speaks to Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel about his life and career.

With a unique ability to communicate joy and his passion for music to mass audiences, Dudamel has become a rare pop culture icon from the world of classical music - affording him mainstream appeal. He’s currently in London, performing concerts alongside the band Coldplay.

In this interview, he talks about El Sistema - Venezuela’s unique programme which has helped train thousands of musicians, the highlights of his time as musical director of the LA Philharmonic, and taking over the helm of the New York Philharmonic.

Thank you to the Culture team for their help in making this programme.

Presenter: Mark Savage

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(Image: Conductor Gustavo Dudamel performs onstage during weekend 2, day 2 of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images for Coachella)

Algorithms don’t drive the truth

Amol Rajan speaks to Eliot Higgins, founder of the open-source investigative organisation Bellingcat, as the world grapples with the growing threat posed by misinformation and conspiracy theories being deliberately spread online.

The organisation uses open-source research methods, which involve analysing publicly-available data that can be accessed and used without any special permissions or restrictions.

It has investigated a variety of subjects of public interest, including the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine to police violence in Colombia and the illegal wildlife trade in the UAE.

Higgins argues that the need for organisations like Bellingcat has never been more important, as conspiracy theories flood the internet and some people avoid mainstream news outlets altogether. He believes this is partly down to a lack of trust in institutions, which is subsequently leading to a crisis in democracies all over the world.

Thank you to the Radical with Amol Rajan team for their help in making this programme.

Presenter: Amol Rajan

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(Image: Eliot Higgins. Photo by Pierre Crom/Getty Images)

Coffee is a big responsibility

Julia Caesar speaks to Giuseppe Lavazza, chairman of coffee giant Lavazza, about the multiple challenges facing the industry today.

However, the industry itself is facing major challenges, including an increase in the cost of raw materials due to changing weather patterns, growing concerns over geopolitical instability impacting shipping routes, and economic uncertainty due to tariffs.

The coffee market, which was valued at approximately $495.5 billion in 2023, is a far cry from when Lavazza coffee was first established nearly a century ago in Turin, Italy.

Presenter: Julia Caesar

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(Image: Giuseppe Lavazza. Credit: Jaimi Joy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Captain Jim Lovell, commander of the doomed Apollo 13 space mission to the Moon. Jim, who died this month at the age of 97, tells how he helped guide his stricken craft safely back to Earth after it suffered a near catastrophic explosion in an interview first broadcast in April 2020 on the BBC series 13 Minutes to the Moon. He talks to Kevin Fong about the doomed Nasa mission, from the shocking moment of the explosion to the enormous relief of splashdown. Lovell shares the story of the lunar landmark he named in honour of his wife. And he reflects on survival, the global impact of Apollo 13, and what it meant to finally come back to Earth.

(Image: Jim Lovell, Credit: Nasa)