Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy

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Samuel Kasumu, Former Special Advisor to Boris Johnson, on culture wars in government and being a Tory Dec 15, 2023

Show notes

From 2019 to 2021, Samuel Kasumu was the most senior Black advisor in Downing Street, and was widely referred to as Boris Johnson’s racism advisor, working alongside the former Prime Minister during the first half of the Covid pandemic.

Kasumu left Downing Street in April 2021, amid the fallout from a UK government report that dismissed institutional racism. It wasn’t until after leaving his position, he says, that he realised how much of an ‘outsider’ he was, as a Black, working-class man who did not go to Oxbridge.

In this week’s episode of Ways To Change the World, he talks to Krishnan Guru-Murthy about the reasons why he first joined the Tory party aged 19, the role of special advisors in No 10 and why culture wars inside Downing Street made the downfall of Boris Johnson ‘inevitable’.

Produced by Silvia Maresca.

Keith Allen on becoming an actor and why he would legalise drugs Dec 08, 2023

Show notes

Keith Allen has been many things. The father of popstar Lily and Game of Thrones actor Alfie Allen, he was also a TV presenter, theatre actor, the man behind two hit football anthems (the Fat Les ditty “Vindaloo” and New Order’s “World in Motion”, both of which he co-wrote) and a handful of small roles in cult movies (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, 24 Hour Party People).

Growing up, he was a troublemaker; he’d spent time in Borstal, was thrown out of drama school, even sent to prison.

Now in his 70s, as he prepares to star in a new musical called Rehab, he looks back on the moments that have made up his rollercoaster life and career with Krishnan Guru-Murthy, on this week’s episode of Ways to Change the World.

Produced by Silvia Maresca.

Song credits:

'Vindaloo' / Fat Les

'World in Motion' / New Order

Billy Porter on being a queer Black man in the music industry, the actors' strike and Trump's America Dec 01, 2023

Show notes

Billy Porter started singing in church when he was about five years old, and growing up saw performance as a lifeline out of the trauma and rejection he experienced as a Black gay man.

The multi-hyphenate star won a Grammy and a few Tonys since his breakout role on Broadway with 2013's Kinky Boots, and was the first openly gay Black man to win a lead acting Emmy for his role in the drama series Pose in 2019. Now Porter is returning to mainstream music with his fifth studio album, Black Mona Lisa, which he hopes will continue to craft an empowering legacy for the queer youth of colour.

Today on Ways to Change the World, he tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy about the challenges he faced due to homophobia in the music industry in the '90s, the harsh reality of being an actor in the golden age of streaming and what success means to him.

Produced by Silvia Maresca.

Astronaut Tim Peake on Elon Musk's SpaceX and the future of space exploration Nov 23, 2023

Show notes

Being an astronaut is a job like no other. Of the estimated 100 billion people who have ever lived, only 628 people in human history have left Earth.

Tim Peake is one of them. A former test pilot who served in the British Army Air Corps, he was the first British astronaut to ever walk in space, and completed his six-month Principia mission to the International Space Station with the European Space Agency when he landed back on Earth in June 2016.

Today on Ways to Change the World, he tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy about his journey to becoming an astronaut, his time on the ISS and the crucial role of Elon Musk and SpaceX in future space missions.

Produced by Silvia Maresca.

Caster Semenya on gender fairness in athletics and what being a woman means to her Nov 17, 2023

Show notes

Caster Semenya has never doubted that she was a woman. It wasn’t until her athletics career started to take off that the now two-time Olympic Games gold medallist and a three-time World Athletics Championships gold medallist faced any questions over her gender. Called a ‘threat to the sport’ and ‘not woman enough’, she has become the most visible DSD (difference in sex development) athlete today, and found herself at the centre of the debate around the newly drawn line between gender and sport.

In this episode of Ways to Change the World, she tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy about her experiences as an athlete with a difference in sex development, her tumultuous journey to the top of the athletics world, and what being a woman means to her.

Produced by Silvia Maresca

ActionAid CEO Halima Begum on siding with humanity in Israel-Gaza war and the West’s ‘moral responsibility’ to humanitarian aid Nov 10, 2023

Show notes

It is nearly two weeks since Israel launched its ground offensive into Gaza and more than a month since it began intensive air strikes against Hamas, following the brutal attacks in Israel in which more than 1,400 people were killed.

ActionAid is one of the many charities responding to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and its UK CEO Halima Begum is urging countries that finding a humanitarian solution is paramount, with thousands of civilians dead and the majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents having been displaced.

Today on Ways to Change the World, Halima Begum tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy about her journey from youth activism to NGO work, the West’s ‘moral responsibility’ to humanitarian aid and the need for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine war.

Produced by Silvia Maresca.

Carlo Rovelli on white holes, challenging different narratives and the need for a ‘reasonable compromise’ in the Israel-Palestine war Nov 03, 2023

Show notes

Carlo Rovelli has devoted large parts of his life to explaining to the general public what appears on the surface to be the unexplainable - and his bestselling science books saw him dubbed 'the poet of modern physics’.

But the quantum gravity researcher is as comfortable discussing his own work on black holes, as he is talking about recent politics such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, on the grounds that, like in scientific research, every issue has different facets and cooperation is key to finding a solution.

Today on Ways to Change the World, Carlo Rovelli tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy about his search for ‘white holes’ and how science can bridge different global narratives in the geopolitical arena.

Produced by Silvia Maresca

Mikaela Loach on fighting the climate crisis through social justice, the problem with net zero, and being a 'soft Black girl' Oct 20, 2023

Show notes

The climate crisis is the biggest single issue affecting us all - but for some, the impact will be, and already is, far greater than for others.

This is the principle of climate justice, that sees the causes and consequences of climate change as inextricably linked with social inequality - and that activist Mikaela Loach has made the focus of her work.

Today on Ways to Change the World, Mikaela Loach tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy why we need to reframe our understanding of the climate crisis in order to tackle its root causes, and why only through “active hope” and collective action can we radically transform our world for the better.

Produced by Silvia Maresca

Yanis Varoufakis on the death of capitalism, Starmer and the tyranny of big tech Sep 29, 2023

Show notes

The world is witnessing an epochal shift, according to Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis: from the now-dead capitalism, to “technofeudalism”.

In his latest book, the former Greek politician - who in 2015, at the height of the Greek debt crisis, was catapulted from academic obscurity to Minister of Finance - argues that insane sums of money that were supposed to re-float our economies in the wake of the financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic have ended up supercharging big tech's hold over every aspect of the economy. And capitalism's twin pillars - markets and profit - have been replaced with big tech's platforms and rents; while we, the “cloud serfs”, increase these companies’ power with every online click and scroll.

Today on Ways to Change the World, Yanis Varufakis tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy how the world is grappling with an entirely new economic system and therefore political power, and why Britain and the EU are “irrelevant” compared with the “fiefdoms” of US and Chinese tech firms.

Produced by Silvia Maresca

Cambridge’s youngest Black professor Jason Arday on Autism, racism, and learning to read at 18 Sep 22, 2023

Show notes

Since this interview was recorded, questions have been raised about aspects of Jason Arday’s public biography, with several claims made elsewhere contradicted by institutions, although the account of his childhood discussed here has not itself been independently disproved.

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‘You're categorised as not being particularly intelligent or able’ says Jason Arday, an autistic Sociologist who became Cambridge University's youngest black professor. Jason Arday was unable to speak until he was 11 and could not read or write until he was 18. As a P.E teacher in 2012, he wrote a list of goals he wanted to achieve. One of them was to be a professor at Oxford or Cambridge University. Today on Ways To Change The World, Jason Arday tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy about his journey with Autism, learning to read and write at the age of 18, and why racial profiling is limiting people’s ability to achieve their dreams.

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