Afleveringen
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From the White House situation room, to shaping the Obama administration's national security communication - few people have had a closer view of the forces shaping modern America than Ben Rhodes.
As Barack Obama's speechwriter and Deputy National Security Adviser, Rhodes helped craft some of the defining messages of the Obama era and played a central role in major foreign policy decisions, including the Iran nuclear deal. Now, in his new book All We Say, he argues that speeches reveal the enduring battle over American identity, who belongs, who holds power, and what kind of country America wants to be.
In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy talks to Ben about why Donald Trump succeeded where others failed, whether speeches still matter in the age of social media, the backlash to Barack Obama, the rise of populism, and the lessons history offers for today's political turmoil.
They also discuss Gaza, Israel, Iran, the future of the Democratic Party, and whether politics has lost the ability to tell a compelling story about where society is heading next.
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At a time when Britain feels increasingly fragmented, playwright and screenwriter James Graham believes the country faces a deeper crisis than politics alone can explain.
From the collapse of community spaces and growing loneliness to the impact of AI, social media and declining trust in institutions, Graham argues that Britain is losing the social bonds that once held it together. But he also believes there's a way back.
In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to the writer behind Sherwood, Dear England and Brexit: The Uncivil War about national identity, class, culture, storytelling and why Gareth Southgate may offer a model for rebuilding social cohesion. They discuss the future of the arts, the rise of populism, whether politics has lost the ability to tell a compelling story, and what happens when a society stops creating shared experiences.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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What does it mean to choose peace after unimaginable loss? In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon, peace activists and co-authors of "The Future Is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land".Abu Sarah is a Palestinian whose brother died after being tortured in an Israeli prison. Inon is an Israeli whose parents were killed in the 7 October attacks. Instead of turning further towards hatred, they have built an unlikely friendship rooted in empathy, forgiveness and a shared determination to imagine a different future. Together, they reflect on grief, revenge, political failure and why they believe peace is not naïve, but necessary.
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In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Kimberlé Crenshaw, one of the most influential thinkers on race who coined the term intersectionality. Crenshaw has spent decades challenging how we understand inequality — and why it persists today.Crenshaw’s new memoir, Backtalker, is a blunt origin story of the lived experiences that shaped her work - from childhood moments of exclusion to confronting discrimination at Harvard, and the early instincts that led her to question power.The conversation explores the growing backlash against her ideas, from political attacks on critical race theory to efforts to erase or distort the language of inequality. Crenshaw argues that this is not just a cultural debate, but a fight over history, truth and democracy itself.Her solution is as simple as it is risky: talk back.
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Artificial intelligence is often sold as inevitable — a force that will transform our lives for the better. But Karen Hao believes that story is too simple, and too convenient.
An author and journalist, she has spent years investigating the people behind the AI boom. In her book Empire of AI, she argues that the technology is not just being built — it’s being shaped by a small group of companies driven by competition and a desire for dominance.
In this episode, Krishnan delves into whether she is now an activist as she continues to challenge the idea that AI’s future is already written. So, who really decides how AI develops — and is it too late to change course?
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Naz Shah first came to public attention through her campaign to free her mother, who was imprisoned after killing an abusive partner - a case that raised difficult questions about domestic violence, justice and the way the system treats women who fight back.
Before entering politics, her early life was marked by poverty, abuse and coercion. She was sent to Pakistan as a child, forced into marriage as a teenager, and later returned to the UK to care for her younger siblings while her mother served a long prison sentence.
She has since written extensively about her experiences in her memoir Honoured, and built a political career rooted in her formative years. Since 2015, she has been the Labour MP for Bradford West, advocating on issues including violence against women, poverty and inequality.
In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Naz Shah about honour, shame and the silence that surrounds abuse, the structural inequalities that shape life chances, and why she believes education is the key to changing the world.
This episode includes conversation around abuse, sexual exploitation and suicide.
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Artificial intelligence is evolving faster than ever - and the debate over AI safety, regulation, and control is intensifying.
In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Jack Clark, co-founder and Head of Policy at Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI systems. A former journalist turned AI insider, Clark has been at the centre of some of the biggest debates shaping the future of this technology - from safety and regulation to the race between innovation and control.
They discuss Clark’s journey from reporting on AI to building it, his decision to leave OpenAI over concerns about safety, and the growing fear that powerful systems are outpacing our ability to manage them. From warning governments at the UN to grappling with the risks as a father, Clark reflects on the tension at the heart of his work: what does it mean to build something you believe could be dangerous?
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Prue Leith may be best known as a judge on The Great British Bake Off, but her influence reaches far beyond television. She founded a leading cookery school, built a Michelin-starred restaurant, spent decades shaping national policy on food education and public health, and has written extensively on ageing. This year she also served as a judge for The British Book Awards.
In this episode of Ways to Change the World, she speaks to Krishnan Guru-Murthy, reflecting on her latest new book ‘Being Old… and Learning to Love It!’ and talks frankly about growing older, staying relevant, finding happiness, and why she believes ageing can be liberating. Prue also discusses childhood nutrition, school food, her campaigns with Jamie Oliver, weight-loss injections, why she refuses to exercise, and the realities of caring for a parent with dementia.
This conversation includes discussion around suicide.
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Amanda Knox became internationally known following the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher in Pereugia, Italy, and the years of legal proceedings and media scrutiny that followed. Knox was found guilty of Meredith’s murder in 2009 but was ultimately acquitted in 2015.
She has since written and spoken extensively about her experience, and has advocated for others who may have been falsely imprisoned. Her latest documentary, Mouth of the Wolf, sees her return to Perugia, where she spent four years in prison - and confront Giuliano Mignini, the prosecutor who sent her to prison more than 15 years ago.
In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Knox about accountability in the justice system, the importance of admitting when institutions get it wrong, and the lasting stigma that follows even after innocence is proven. -
Heston Blumenthal is one of the world’s most innovative chefs, known for transforming the way we think about food, flavour and the dining experience. From his self-taught beginnings to building one of the most celebrated restaurants in the world, his career has been defined by curiosity, experimentation and a refusal to follow convention. But beyond the kitchen, Blumenthal has also been navigating deeply personal mental health challenges that almost led him to death at one point.
In 2023, Heston was sectioned after his wife called medical professionals following a severe manic episode and bipolar diagnosis.
On this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Heston Blumenthal about his approach to mindful and sustainable eating, living with ADHD and bipolar disorder, and why he is determined to challenge stigma.
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My guest this week is Eric Schlosser, the investigative journalist and author whose work has fundamentally changed how we think about what we eat. Fast Food Nation was a landmark book that exposed the abuse of animals and the exploitation of workers at the heart of America's food industry.
Now, 25 years after it was first published, Schlosser says he is astonished that not only has the industry failed to improve, in many ways it has gotten worse. And yet, despite this, he still believes change is possible.
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Warning: moderate strong language
Ece Temelkaran is an award-winning journalist and novelist who has spent years warning that the collapse of democracy rarely announces itself with a bang. Instead, it happens gradually - institution is weaken, truth is eroded and what once felt unthinkable becomes normal.
Ece knows this first hand. After being fired from her newspaper in Turkey amid mounting political pressure, she watched her country slide towards what she says is authoritarianism, a story she believes is no longer uniquely Turkish but part of a wider global pattern. In her writing, she argues that the real danger isn't just strong men or populist leaders, but how easily societies adapt to them. Her latest book, Nation of Strangers, explores belonging and exile. But beneath it lies the same urgent question that has defined much of her work. How do democracies fail? And can they still be saved?
On this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Ece about democratic backsliding, the moral crisis she believes sits at the heart of modern politics, the experience of exile, and why rebuilding democracy may require not just political change, but a deeper transformation in how we see ourselves and each other.
This interview was recorded on 13 February 2026.
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Katharine Viner has spent the past decade running one of the most influential news organisations in the world, steering it through profound industry change, digital upheaval and intense political pressure. She became the first woman to lead The Guardian in its 205-year history. Under her editorship the paper has transformed its funding model, expanded globally, and fought to preserve the idea of independent public interest journalism at a time when trust in the media is under sustained strain.
On this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Katharine about defending liberal values in a polarised age, navigating internal editorial battles during turbulent political moments, and why The Guardian sees itself as a global mainstream newsroom.
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“It's really a deep irony that this guy who has really never set foot in a normal American street was mistaken as a man of the people”, writer George Saunders says of the US President, Donald Trump. His work has long centred on the very people who live with the consequences of decisions made far above them, ordinary and fallible individuals navigating increasingly hostile conditions.
In a world marked by political lies, climate denial and the erosion of shared reality, Saunders’ fiction interrogates moral ambiguity, human weakness and the forces that draw individuals toward destructive choices.
In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Saunders about the collapse of truth in public life, why satire no longer pierces political leaders who feel no shame, and whether storytelling can still help us understand one another in an age of polarisation.
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Clara Mattei is an economist who wants us to rethink the idea that capitalism is simply the natural order of things.
She is an author and professor of economics whose work explores how economic ideas become tools of power, shaping policy while masking the political decisions beneath.
Her new book, Escape from Capitalism, argues that many of the problems that we see as inevitable - poverty, unemployment, inflation - are built into the system and shored up by models and theories designed to convince us that there is no alternative.
On this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Mattei about whether there is an alternative to capitalism.
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For decades veteran Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani has challenged what he sees as Western complacency, warned of the irreversible rise of Asia, and argued that the global order must adapt to a world no longer dominated by Europe and the United States.
And now it appears Western leaders have caught up with him as a new world order is declared in the wake of the “rupture”, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called it, of President Trump’s second term.
Born into poverty in Singapore, he rose through the country’s foreign service to become its ambassador to the United Nations and then president of the UN security council.
He joined Krishnan Guru-Murthy on this episode of Ways to Change the World.
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Mehdi Hasan is a prominent broadcast journalist in America who’s forthright anti-Trump and pro-Palestinian opinions have thrust him to the fore of many of the big issues facing the country today.
He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Zeteo, previously hosting The Mehdi Hasan Show on MSNBC, and his work straddles the line between conventional journalism and advocacy-driven argument.
In this episode of Ways to Change the World he tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy why he believes American democracy is facing an “existential threat’, what he expects to happen next in Gaza and whether Labour can withstand the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
In the podcast, Mehdi makes accusations against several US companies.
Comcast rejects any suggestions it may have engaged in misconduct by donating to the new $400 million ballroom under construction at the Trump White House. Responding to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who asked the media and Internet company if there had been a quid pro quo, they said: “Comcast’s pledged donation included no specific limitations or conditions on how the proceeds were to be used or spent. Furthermore, Comcast made the donation with no expectations of receiving anything in return and the implication that the donation has anything to do with a potential transaction involving Warner Brothers Discovery is categorically false.”
When Paramount settled their lawsuit with President Trump they said the money was going to be allocated to Trump's future presidential library, not paid to him "directly or indirectly".
The company also noted the settlement does not include a statement of apology or regret.
Responding to reports in the Financial Times that a donor to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign had received the first barrels of oil obtained from Venezuela after America seized president Maduro, a White House spokesman said: “President Trump always does what is in the best interest of the American people, such as brokering this historic energy deal with Venezuela immediately following the arrest of narcoterrorist Nicolás Maduro. The media’s continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are a tired attempt to distract from the incredible work only this president is capable of achieving.”
The White House has also rejected accusations of corruption.
Israel denies accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
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Nick Lowles has spent three decades fighting racism and extremism and in 2004 founded the advocacy group Hope Not Hate which became instrumental in defeating the far-right British National Party.
Under his leadership, Hope Not Hate has become a leading voice in the UK against hate groups and far-right extremism, while Nick himself has become the target of countless threats.
His new book, How to defeat the far right: lessons from Hope Not Hate, tells the story of how intolerance and hate have grown in western societies and what can be done to counter them.
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Rebecca Kuang is the bestselling novelist whose books explore some of the most fraught debates of our time, interrogating racism in publishing, cultural appropriation, tokenism and diversity politics.
Her novel Yellowface in particular struck a nerve, highlighting the pressures and hypocrisies of the modern literary world, from social media mobbing and cancel culture to the uncomfortable questions about who gets to tell which stories.
On this episode of Ways to Change the World, she speaks to Krishnan Guru-Murthy why America’s higher education is broken and why AI is not a threat to literature.
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Chris McCausland is perhaps now best known as the first blind contestant on Strictly Come Dancing and the show's 2024 champion.
His famous waltz with dancer Diane Buswell even won a Bafta as the most memorable moment in TV.
He first started losing sight as a young boy due to a genetic condition, and was fully blind in his early twenties. But he has never let disability define him.
In his latest autobiography, Keep Laughing, Chris details the journey of a boy from Liverpool who goes on to win the hearts of the nation.
On this episode of Ways to Change the World, he talks to Krishnan Guru-Murthy about why it was important for him to take part in Strictly Come Dancing, the frustrations and identity challenges he faced as he grappled with losing sight, and how he continues to challenge perceptions.
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