The Interview

“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)

“I have never made a movie I didn't believe was necessary for me or for someone in the world, whether to entertain or to connect at a spiritual level or something. It's been only done for the art.”
John Wilson speaks to Oscar-winning Mexican director, screenwriter, and producer, Guillermo del Toro about his life and career.
Born in Guadalajara in 1964, his life suddenly changed at the age of five after his father, then a motorcycle racer, won the lottery. While his parents travelled the world with the winnings, del Toro was raised at home by his Catholic great aunt, a deeply religious figure who exposed him to concepts including purgatory and sin.
Fascinated and frightened in equal measure, it piqued his interest in the supernatural, leading him to seek out books and films on the genre. And when his father presented him with a video camera a few years later, the two interests combined and set the young del Toro on a path to becoming an Oscar winner renowned for making films that mix fantasy, horror, and Gothic romance, to create modern fairy tales.
Thank you to the This Cultural Life 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 education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, and artificial intelligence pioneer Mustafa Suleyman. 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: John Wilson
Producers: Ben Cooper and Edwina Pitman
Editor: Damon Rose
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Guillermo del Toro. Credit: Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images for Santa Barbara International Film Festival)

“Africa is flowing with resources from oil, diamonds, critical minerals. But at times we find that in our cities, at the bus stations, there's no toilets with running water in a continent which is rich with possibilities. So it's how that intentionality, that political will, to put resources to what matters most.”
Daniel Dadzie speaks to Dr Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN deputy director for women, about the need for Africa to focus on the priorities of its people, such as water and sanitation.
The interview took place at the African Union summit in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia, where the theme was: “Ensuring sustainable water availability and safe sanitation systems.” It’s part of Agenda 2063 - the organisation’s 50-year strategic framework. But Gumbonzvanda says these things can’t wait fifty years, and that they need to be a priority for African leaders now.
In her role as deputy lead for UN Women, she is also increasingly concerned by the stories she’s been hearing from the women of Sudan, where the civil war continues to rage. She says that regional bodies and the UN are not doing enough to protect the war-torn country’s women and children.
The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Taiwan’s cyber ambassador Audrey Tang, author Sir Salman Rushdie, and South African health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. 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: Daniel Dadzie
Producers: Albert Kirui, Brian Khisa, and Clare Williamson
Editor: Damon Rose
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Dr Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda Credit: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for The Ford Foundation)

“We stand and fight for survival. We are an independent state. We will definitely not lose this war”
Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s International Editor, speaks to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview marking the fourth anniversary of the Ukraine war.
Official figures put the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed at 55,000 since the full-scale Russian invasion began, but that is believed to be an underestimate, with many more missing. The number of Russian soldiers killed is believed to be much higher. The civilian death toll in Ukraine stands at more then 14,000.
Repeated attempts at a peace deal have failed.
In the face of ongoing Russian aggression, President Zelensky remains defiant. Russia has started the Third World War, he says, and must not be allowed to win.
Thank you to Imogen Anderson and Jeremy Bowen 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 Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz and 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: Jeremy Bowen
Producers: Imogen Anderson and 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: Volodymyr Zelensky Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Laura Kuenssberg speaks to former British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and former head of the British Armed Forces, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, about the war in Ukraine.
Johnson was in Downing Street four years ago, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. As one of the driving forces behind the West’s initial response, he has been critical of the slowness of allies in providing support to President Zelensky, which Johnson says has cost lives.
The two men believe the conflict could have been prevented altogether if Western allies had paid more attention to Putin's increasing aggression and annexation of Crimea in 2014.

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 Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, Iranian author Azar Nafisi, and the President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. 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: Laura Kuenssberg
Producers: Paul Twinn and Ben Cooper
Editors: Diana Martin and Damon Rose
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Boris Johnson and Sir Tony Radakin. Credit: Jeff Overs)