Great interview on the Israel conflict n Gaza. This is one of my favorite podcasts. It always interesting subjects and relevant topics. Thank you for your program and specially for your Interview with Ariel Dorfman. He is a fascinating writer, a human rights advocate and his life is just amazing. Mr. Dorfman was very inspiring in despite of his life experiences and his dystopian stories of his books. Since I come from Latin America and my father had similar experiences from those years. I am interested to read more of his books since many of his recurrent themes are still very relevant today.

Stephen Sackur conducts thorough, fair, probing, and revealing interviews with a very diverse set of guests. The level of research into each show is unparalleled. A true jewel in the BBC crown.

As a long time fan of the BBC and many of its media productions over the years, I found myself surprised and extremely disappointed in listening to Sarah Montague’s interview with Penpa Tsering of the Central Tibetan Administration. Far from being the balanced and perceptive inquiry that I have come to know BBC reporting for over the years, Montague’s interviewing was pushy and aggressive to the point of being plainly disrespectful. Simply not professional reportage. Most disturbingly, several of her questions questioned the validity of the ongoing cultural genocide in Tibet, which has been documented and reported on exhaustively for decades now. In doing so, Montague implicitly endorsed the oppressive, anti-Tibetan propaganda of the People’s Republic of China. For shame.

For the past year the quality and content of this podcast has significantly declined. It’s like every interview in the past year is about Ukraine. Although it is important there are other important issues going on around the world. More diversity of topics and less Ukraine will be nice!

Steven Sackur does an amazing job with his guests on Hard Talk. I can only imagine the amount of research which goes into his shows. Thank you for this great program!

I understand you can’t deal with everyone with the same severity but I was expecting hard talk to be hard all round. Steven is, in some cases, pushy and overbearing using a no holds barred method of interrogating those he interviews. Fair enough, it’s hard talk, right!? Not for the left wingers. He’s very tame and borderline respectful when inquisitive or at best mildly pushy but still avoiding known important points. Frost was a far more professional interviewer.

Fauci ate your lunch, then apologized, then respectfully described why your lunch was better in his belly than yours. I’ve been an avid fan of “hard talk” for years. This interview makes me think the series, “hard talk”, may need a new, more dynamic host. An old man asking pre-selected questions with no modification for what has been said… I mean. “Hard Talk” is worthwhile. This no longer is.

No holds barred! A+!!

My favourite is the Daryl Davis one.

Wish we were all as articulate as Stephen Sackur. Or wait! Then we wouldn’t have Hard Talk.

Always intriguing .love Steve.. he has solid research to back up.

This Pod is one of the best to put on during 20 minute-or-so car rides. It’s thought provoking, high quality, and Stephen always asks the ideal questions/rebuts. If more people listened to this program we’d have a more intelligent, measured and thoughtful public domain. The biggest guests, the toughest questions, that’s HARDtalk!

Generally the topics are interesting and relevant. Fabulous guests who make the podcast interesting. I applaud most of the guests who venture into these interviews fully knowing the extent of hard-left bias and constant interruptions. The show should be renamed “hard-left” instead of “hard-talk”. I still listen to it at times, with full awareness and with my filtering process, as the obvious bias and trying to win with a hard-left argument is prioritized over professional journalism.

Love listening to your show. Your interview with Christopher Ruddy he was the best one I’ve listened to yet.

The interviewer is so patently based it’s excruciating to listen to him “interview “ his guests.

the name of this show should be Hard to talk. why would you invite a guess if you don’t allow them to talk. Better run a monologue show. Audience would probably enjoy more.

Subjects and material generally interesting. That said, it’s irritating to keep pushing the predictable BBC socialist agenda. What happened to common courtesy at the BBC ? When asking a question, let them answer. It’s really annoying listening to two people talking over each other.

If you’re interested in hearing what guests have to say, this podcast is not for you. The reporter is brutal. Montague constantly interrupts her guests. She doesn’t seem to actually listen to what they are saying. She comes across as apathetic and self-important.

The Allawi interview was painful to listen to. The interviewer had an obvious agenda, and would not allow Allawi to answer the questions from his perspective. He kept trying to guide the responses. That isn’t journalism. Ask a question - allow him to answer - move on. No agendas. Just answers. Unsubscribing. Good luck.

Interview with Chris Ruddy. Me. Ruddy managed to give honest, even handed responses to an obviously hostile and biased interrogator. Won’t subscribe. Won’t listen to another episode

Podcast title describes it perfectly. Great interviews... especially Steven Sackur...no holds barred on the questioning. Very high profile guests...and questions that we would all like to ask of them. Amazing to me that many of these guests would accept an invitation if they knew anything about the show ahead of time!

You can’t get better than this on a podcast. Especially when Stephen Sackur says welcome to hard talk , and then you know that someone with a political or social perception is gonna be challenged at your pleasure.!

Excellent program of wide ranging global issues. In a 25 minute interview, Stephen Sackur gives you the panorama then goes to the heart of the issue, whoever the guest. Beware guests who try to evade Stephen’s well prepared, penetrating, unrelenting questions!

The program is a good addition to iTunes Podcast.

The interview was rambling as the interviewer was trying to corner and embarrass SRK by trying to pin the issues of Bollywood on him when he clearly is doing more than any one else in Bollywood for women’s issues in India. She should be thankful that SRK deigned to sit with her for the interview. The quality of hardtalk has been slipping of late in general.

The show is one of the finest coming from BBC, it amazes me what anyone would go before the interviewers & face up tough questions asked!

BBC Hardtalk is ny favourite devil's advocate style interview shows in which the interviewers force the best out of the interviewees to get you as much information possible.

After listening to the Pakistani foreign minister interview, the Hardtalk interviewer seems ill-informed and overwhelmingly biased. This affects the types of questions and the professionalism. At one point, the interviewer seems to be talking AT the interviewee. Sub-par of investigative intent of these interviews.

The NPR station plays his interviews but at 4:00 in the morning. It's great that I can now Download it and listen at any time. Love the interviews in Hardtalk.

Well researched questions and good debate. A wide variety of guests from the worlds of politics, business and the arts.

The interview with Gloria Steinem is one of the more fascinating interviews I've heard lately. Thanks for not only having her on, but asking some great questions.

Great program. Very good interviews.

I have been waiting for this program to feature in iTunes. What a blessing