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Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein Files, and the scandal that won’t go away Nov 14, 2025

Show notes

**This episode contains themes of sexual abuse and grooming**

Calls to release all the Epstein files are growing, after Wednesday’s bombshell release of over 20,000 pages of documents related to the sex trafficking scandal. The private messages released by the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have increased scrutiny on what President Trump may have known about Epstein’s behaviour. The White House has told the BBC the documents ‘prove literally nothing’.

The furore continues to intensify, but there is one woman who has all the answers: Epstein’s long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell. So who is the disgraced British socialite and what is her role in the scandal?

Today we talk to the BBC’s New York correspondent Nada Tawfik, who has covered the case for over a decade.

Producers: Sam Chantarasak and Aron Keller

Executive producer and senior news editor: China Collins

Mix: Travis Evans

Photo: Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein. US Department of Justice/PA Wire

The hostage negotiator’s guide to making deals with Putin’s Russia Nov 13, 2025

Show notes

Donald Trump has spent this year trying to negotiate a deal to end the war in Ukraine. So far, Vladimir Putin doesn’t seem interested in the US’s proposals.

One man who has successfully negotiated with Russia – and with many of America’s adversaries – is Roger Carstens, former Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. From 2020 to 2025 he worked to free dozens of US citizens taken hostage and wrongfully detained around the world, including in Russia. Securing their release often required complex deals that took years to put together.

What does it take to successfully negotiate with Putin’s Russia?

Producer: Lucy Pawle

Executive producer: James Shield

Senior news editor: China Collins

Mix: Travis Evans

Photo: Roger Carstens. Credit: BBC

Why is Trump threatening to sue the BBC? Nov 12, 2025

Show notes

The BBC has this week been rocked by a series of controversies, leading its Director General and Head of News to resign, and President Donald Trump threatening to sue the corporation over an edit it made to his January 6th, 2021 speech in one of its programmes, which the BBC admits was misleading.

How did the management of the world’s most trusted news broadcaster reach crisis point, and what does this tell us about today’s media landscape?

BBC culture and media editor Katie Razzall explains.

Producers: Viv Jones, Xandra Ellin and Hannah Moore

Executive producer: James Shield

Sound engineer: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

This podcast was edited on 12 November 2025. We removed a reference to Donald Trump “threatening to remove BBC journalists’ access to his press conferences". This statement should have been attributed to a reported briefing by a senior White House official.

(Photo: BBC headquarters in London. Credit: Andy Rain/EPA/Shutterstock)

Is social media dead? Nov 11, 2025

Show notes

For much of the 21st century, our social lives have been shaped, at least in part, on the internet. But in an age of influencers, generative AI, complex algorithms, and politically entangled technocrats, some users say social media is growing less, well, social. So, is social media dead? Or is it just becoming something else? We speak with New Yorker staff writer Kyle Chayka about what happened to social networks, and what their transformation suggests about the future of media.

Producers: Xandra Ellin and Aron Keller

Executive Producer: James Shield

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior News Editor: China Collins

Photo: Social media apps on a phone.Yui Mok/PA

Why Trump is threatening to go 'guns a-blazing' into Nigeria Nov 10, 2025

Show notes

President Donald Trump has warned that he will target Nigeria if the government there "continues to allow the killing of Christians". For months, campaigners and politicians in Washington have been alleging that Islamist militants were systematically targeting Christians in Nigeria. But how true are the claims that there is a persecution – or even a genocide – of Christians in the West African country? And how does Nicki Minaj come to thank him for his intervention?

We speak to the BBC’s global religion correspondent, Lebo Diseko. Producers: Xandra Ellin and Cat Farnsworth

Executive producer: Annie Brown

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins (Photo: People walk along a street flanked by St. Joseph Catholic Church and Kano Road Central Mosque in Kaduna, Nigeria, 4 November, 2025. Credit: Marvellous Durowaiye/Reuters)

Viktor Orban’s dilemma: Trump’s favour or Russian oil Nov 07, 2025

Show notes

The man Donald Trump has called a "great leader", and who has long provoked admiration in MAGA circles, suddenly finds himself in an unusual position – at odds with the US president on an issue of critical importance.

Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, is visiting the White House on Friday to try to resolve a dispute over Russian oil and gas. Orban wants to keep buying it, but Trump wants countries to wean themselves off Russian energy and help put the brakes on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Will Trump choose to keep an old friend close, or put pressure on Putin? We speak to Nick Thorpe, the BBC’s correspondent in Budapest, who has covered Orban since the 1980s.

Producer: Viv Jones

Executive producer: James Shield

Senior news editor: China Collins

Mix: Travis Evans

Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Suzanne Plunkett, Reuters.

A tale of two cities: London’s lesson for New York’s first Muslim mayor Nov 06, 2025

Show notes

Even before Zohran Mamdani was elected as New York’s first Muslim mayor, his critics frequently cited London as a sort of cautionary tale, suggesting that New York under Mamdani could go “the way of London.” That’s because London already has a liberal, Muslim mayor - Sadiq Khan. But is that where the similarities end?

We talk to Tim Donovan, a former BBC reporter who covered London politics for decades. And we ask Mr Khan himself what it’s like to be a local politician with an international profile - especially when your most persistent critic, is a tenacious man called Donald Trump? Producers: Xandra Ellin, Valerio Esposito and Cat Farnsworth

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins Image: New York City mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, waves to his supporters after winning the 2025 New York City Mayoral race. Jeenah Moon / Reuters

What’s behind Trump’s rift with Colombia? Nov 05, 2025

Show notes

For years, Colombia has been one of the United States’ closest allies in the region – a key partner in the war on drugs. But now this relationship is coming under strain amidst a personal feud between President Trump, and Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro.

In today’s episode, we speak to BBC Mundo’s William Marquez to examine the history of the US-Colombia alliance, and what might be at stake if it falls apart.

Producer: Aron Keller

Executive producer: James Shield

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Credit: Reuters/Luisa Gonzalez

The Supreme Court battle over Trump’s tariffs Nov 04, 2025

Show notes

The Trump administration faces a Supreme Court challenge on Wednesday over its use of tariffs, an economic policy that has upended global trade.

This case, which has been described by the President in epic terms, questions the legality of Trump’s signature economic policy - and poses one of the biggest existential threats to his second term so far.

In today’s episode, we speak to small business owners across the US, and to BBC business reporter Natalie Sherman, who will be at the Supreme Court this week.

Producers: Hannah Moore and Valerio Esposito

Executive producer: James Shield

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Image: US President Trump unveils new tariffs on so-called Liberation Day. Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

What if Russia wins? Nov 03, 2025

Show notes

Discussion of nuclear weapons has returned both to our news cycle and to the cultural conversation.

Last week, President Donald Trump said that the US would resume testing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, several recent films and books imagine a near future scenario where a nuclear attack is threatened or carried out.

Tristan talks to Carlo Masala, professor of international relations at the Bundeswehr University Munich and author of If Russia Wins. His book imagines a scenario where Russia attacks a Nato country to see whether the alliance will respond, risking a nuclear confrontation. Masala believes Russia is already engaged in ‘hybrid warfare’ with Europe, and he wrote his book as a warning to the west.

Producers: Viv Jones, Aron Keller, Xandra Ellin and Valerio Esposito

Executive producer: James Shield

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Image: A photo published by Swedish armed forces that it says shows a Russian mig-31 fighter jet that took part in the violation of Estonian airspace. Swedish Armed Forces/ Reuters.

Credits:

The War Game (1965) / Dir: Peter Watkins / BBC

Dr Strangelove (1964) / Dir: Stanley Kubrick / Columbia Pictures

A House of Dynamite (2025) / Dir: Kathryn Bigelow / Netflix

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