Cambridge’s youngest Black professor Jason Arday on Autism, racism, and learning to read at 18
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Release Date: 09/22/2023
Brianna Ghey’s mother on dangers of the internet and banning social media for under-16s
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Esther Ghey is the mother of Brianna Ghey, the 16-year-old transgender girl who was stabbed to death in a park in Cheshire, England in 2023. In the wake of her daughter’s brutal murder, Esther has been campaigning to ensure that Brianna’s legacy is an improvement in the mental health of children and teenagers, something she believes can be achieved by limiting their access to harmful online content from an early age, as well as with teaching mindfulness in schools. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, she tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy why protecting young people online is not only the...
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Economist Torsten Bell MP explains how to fix Britain
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Economist-turned-Labour MP Torsten Bell knows all too well that things have not been going great for Britain - but is optimistic that a different future is possible. The UK’s economy has been making the headlines for all the wrong reasons in the last few years: wages are flatlining, taxes are on the rise, and public services are on the brink of collapse. The younger generation can’t afford to buy a home, the old aren’t receiving the social care they need and an increasing number of people are reliant on food banks. So what’s at the root of all these problems - and crucially, how do you...
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Nate Silver on Trump-Harris election, Elon Musk and AI
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
American political forecaster Nate Silver explains who will win the US election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, why he thinks Elon Musk’s comments during the riots in the UK were acceptable, and how AI will change the world. Silver is the founder of the influential polling and politics website FiveThirtyEight, but now writes on his website Silver Bulletin. He’s just published a new book called ‘On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything’ where he argues that “professional risk takers” such as low-stakes poker players, crypto kings, venture-capital billionaires and...
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US Presidential candidate Cornel West on Israel Hamas war, greedy ruling class and Biden vs Trump
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
US Presidential candidate Dr Cornel West is a philosopher and prominent advocate for social and racial justice. He’s taught at some of the top universities in the US including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, but has one major plan if he becomes President: to “dismantle the American empire”. The 71-year-old activist, who campaigned for Biden in 2020, has recently been vocal against both the Democratic and Republican’s party’s stance on Gaza, which he calls “morally bankrupt”. Though he faces very long odds in winning the race, he says he wants to appeal to a group of...
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Economist Joseph Stiglitz on Pro-Palestine campus protests, Trump and rethinking freedom
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph Stiglitz is one of the most influential economists in the world, having advised multiple Democratic Presidents of the US and the World Bank, where he worked as Chief Economist and senior Vice President. His latest book, called “,” argues that the economic right’s concept of “freedom” doesn’t take into account the necessary trade-offs, that one person’s freedom often comes at the expense of another’s. And that “free” - unregulated - markets, far from promoting growth and enterprise, in fact lessen economic opportunities for majorities and syphon...
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Comedian Bassem Youssef on the Israel-Gaza war, the Arab Spring, and why we can’t change the world
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Bassem Youssef thinks that he’s come on the wrong podcast. “People in power don't really care about any of our suggestions to change the world”, he tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy, “because if our ways to change the world affect their interests, they will stop you.” And he knows what he’s talking about, having fled his home country of Egypt after his TV comedy became no longer acceptable to the authorities there. Bassem started his career as a heart surgeon, then moved to political comedy in response to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, taking on the ruling elite in his country. His...
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Playwright of Jodie Comer's Broadway hit, Suzie Miller, on sexual assault and getting justice
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
When lawyer turned playwright Suzie Miller created a one-woman show starring Jodie Comer for the West End and Broadway called ‘Prima Facie’, she wouldn’t have dreamt that her play would fuel real change in the legal system’s approach to sexual assault cases. The play has won multiple awards, has inspired efforts to change UK laws, and has also been turned into a book of the same title. In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Suzie Miller tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy why rape victims are failed by the legal system, how trauma is misunderstood in the court room,...
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Poet Nikki Giovanni on white supremacy, the Capitol attack, and teaching the Virginia Tech shooter
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Nikki Giovanni has spent more than five decades in the public eye, as an activist, poet and innovator. Born on the "wrong side of the tracks" in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the era of segregation, Giovanni came of age during the Black power and civil rights movements in 1960s in America. She came under the spotlight again in 2007, when the university she had been teaching at, Virginia Tech, was the victim of a mass shooting, carried out by one of her former students. The poem she wrote to commemorate the 32 victims, “We are Virginia Tech”, touched many people across the world. In this...
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Armistead Maupin on trans rights and growing up gay in a homophobic household
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Author Armistead Maupin is a pioneer - writing about AIDS and HIV for a mass audience and daring to include gay, lesbian, trans and queer lives when few others were. His ‘Tales of the City’ series, which started as a newspaper column in 1974, became worldwide best-selling novels and a Netflix series. It chronicles the lives of queer people in San Francisco and pokes fun at morality and social norms, touching millions of readers and viewers over 50 years. The beloved saga is now back for its 10th and final instalment, Mona of the Manor. Now in his late 70s and living in...
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Author Kiley Reid on Black artists, handling criticism and social media
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
“I don’t write fiction to preach my politics,” says Kiley Reid - an American author whose debut novel “Such a Fun Age” was longlisted for the 2020 Booker prize. The book gained recognition for its themes on race, privilege, and social dynamics in modern America. Fast forward to 2024, and Reid’s second novel, “Come and Get It” delves even further into the heart of societal complexities. It’s based in a US campus and centred around money and wealth - who has it and who wants it - and the impact it has, on even the most personal of relationships. In this episode of Ways to...
info_outline"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 PE 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.
Produced by Silvia Maresca and Shaheen Sattar