Ken Burns has been telling stories about America for almost 50 years. The lauded documentary filmmaker has a new series on PBS, The American Revolution, which charts the period before and after 1776. It will air internationally ahead of the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence.

Mishal Husain asked Burns to join the show to mark Thanksgiving, looking at today’s America through the lens of its past and the characters who made history.

02:15 - The complexity of the American Revolution

04:00 - The underdog story

07:15 - The global significance of the American Revolution

13:43 - Mishal Husain’s connection to Lexington Green

16:15 - Why Ken Burns became a filmmaker

17:55 - “My mother’s gift in a funny way was dying”

19:20 - The Ken Burns Effect

20:15 - Hollywood actors as first person narrators

21:25 - Directing Josh Brolin as George Washington

22:00 - Why Tom Hanks didn’t want to be the voice of George Washington

23:00 - Filming reenactments

24:50 - The American Revolution is not over

29:10 Working for PBS, American Public Broadcasting

32:20 What is Ken Burns grateful for on Thanksgiving?

Watch this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

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Stanford University Professor Fei-Fei Li has been at the forefront of artificial intelligence research for 25 years, which is why she’s been called the “godmother of AI.”

In this conversation she tells Mishal Husain how she arrived in the US as a teenager after her parents decided to emigrate from China. She also talks about the high school teacher who inspired her and a deep love of physics, leading her to ask what she calls “audacious” questions.

These days, amid her excitement about AI and its potential, she also is focused on what humans must do to build safeguards, and has a message for parents, too.

02:50 - AI is a “civilizational technology”
04:15 - “Technology is a double-edged sword”
05:45 - Being a tech CEO and an academic
06:45 - Falling in love with physics
08:00 - What is intelligence?
08:40 - Finding my first North Star
09:45 - Fei-Fei Li’s two key breakthroughs
14:52 - Moving from China to the US at 15
15:48 - Running the family shop taught me resilience
17:30 - “I wasn’t curious about nightclubs”
18:20 - My inspirational teacher
22:20 - “China is a powerhouse in AI”
23:00 - Creating 3D worlds with AI
27:20 - AI and the jobs market
28:40 - Are humans going to be replaced?
31:00 - “The machine overlord”
32:45 - What should parents tell their children?
34:40 - The AI bubble
36:00 - Powering the big data centres AI needs
37:20 - “I’m not a tech utopian or a dystopian”
38:00 - “My one worry is our teachers”
39:20 - “I’m conscious of my responsibility”
41:28 - Fei-Fei Li believes in timeless human values
42:00 - “My favourite book these days is Harry Potter”

Watch this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For almost 40 years, Richard Moore was a career spy in Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service. Only his closest friends and family knew what he did for a living. When he was appointed chief of the agency in 2020, that changed: The name of the person in the top role is the only one made public.

In his first broadcast interview since leaving his post in September 2025, Moore talks to Mishal Husain about managing China, the psychology of Vladimir Putin and why spies shouldn’t expect recognition.

03:00 - “I certainly haven’t left the world in a better place than I found it”

05:02 - China as an “opportunity and a threat”

07:20 - UK’s China spy scandal

09:44 China should “get their embassy” in London

10:22 - Getting the “tap on the shoulder” at Oxford University

14:16 - Telling your children you’re a spy

16:28 - What is spycraft really like?

22:00 - Intelligence work post 9/11

28:15 - “Putin has no intention of doing a deal”

33:46 - Strikes on Venezuela

40:00 - Life on the outside

Watch this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you tell the history of a whole country through its women? And what can it tell us about the world today? These are the questions Russian-American journalist Julia Ioffe set out to answer in her new book, Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy.

Having reported from, and on, Russia for publications including The New Yorker and Foreign Policy for more than a decade, Ioffe says she has repeatedly been asked to explain the actions and motivations of one man: Vladimir Putin.

Motherland is, she says, partly a response to Putin, through her desire to show that Russia is much more than one person, let alone one man.

In this conversation Ioffe talks to Mishal about reclaiming Russia’s women, about Donald Trump’s hollowing out of American institutions and why Putinism will endure. (Note: This podcast contains a discussion of sexual violence that some listeners may find distressing.)

02:30 - “I was born in a country that no longer exists”
03:55 - The anti-feminist at Lenin’s side during the Revolution
06:55 - Reluctancy to write about Russian women
12:55 - What a “horrible boyfriend” Vladimir Putin was
16:50 - Return to Russia, oligarch hunters and ‘trad wives’
22:13 - Alexei Navalny, “the last shred of hope”
29:20 - Can Russia sustain the war in Ukraine?
32:32 - Trump’s assault on US institutions, faster than Putin
34:30 - American authoritarianism, risk of “one party state”

Watch this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three weeks after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado finds herself supporting US intervention in her native country. Mishal speaks to Maria Corina on recent US boat strikes, Nicolas Maduro’s fate and the need for strength to secure peace.

03:24 - "I had to go into hiding"

03:51 - Impact of the Nobel Peace Prize

05:38 - US Military build up

10:21 - Prospect of US ground strikes

13:10 - Is Machado speaking to the Trump Administration?

16:00 - Prospect of regime change

18:50 - Venezuela after Maduro

23:04 - Machado's economic vision

26:04 - What is the Venezuelan opposition planning next?

28:23 - "We are ready to take our government"

34:22 - Why Machado thinks this time is different

Watch this podcast https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After successfully pushing for Brexit, political disruptor Nigel Farage announced his retirement. Last year, he returned to frontline politics as the leader of Reform UK, an insurgent party that’s never held national power but is now polling ahead of Labour and the Conservatives. Mishal speaks with Farage about dismantling consensus politics, Britain’s future relationship with the European Union and what he thinks Donald Trump is getting right.

4:02 - “We’ve not had enough change”
7:10 - Working in the City of London in the 1980s
11:46 Alignment with the European Union
13:33 “Everything in life’s about risk”
16:24 “Make Britain Great Again”
21:00 The Bank of England
25:19 “Putin is a very bad dude”
30:15 Immigration and ICE raids
35:12 Economic plans
46:14 Reading to prepare for government

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney talks to Mishal Husain about trade battles, Vladimir Putin's miscalculations and what he's learned from Donald Trump.

3:41 - Mark Carney's parents and his path to power
4:58 - What does he miss about his old life?
6:34 - Did President Trump help him get elected?
14:05 - "I've learned lots of things from President Trump"
16:42 - Ukraine and NATO
22:18 - Putin's miscalculations
22:49 - Next steps on a Palestinian state
25:00 - The climate crisis, where is the old Mark Carney?
35:10 - What does a prime minister's weekend look like?

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Mishal Husain Show. In a world of confusion, let Mishal guide you through some of the most complex stories of our times, through questions, curiosity and decades of journalistic experience.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.