Hardtalk

HARDtalk speaks to professor Mark Post, who says his 'in vitro burger' could be the answer to our unsustainable appetite for meat and help ease the burden on the environment. There's clearly a need for more meat, the World Health Organisation estimates annual global production will have to double by 2050, so will meat grown from stem cells in a science lab ever make it to our dinner plates?

HardTalk’s Allan Little speaks to leading international human rights lawyer Payam Akhavan, who made his name trying to bring to justice those responsible for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. He believes that the international community has a duty to challenge human rights abuses wherever they occur. But is true justice ever really possible – or is it compromised by the political constraints and realities of the day?

HARDtalk speaks to Mzwandile Masina, the interim president of the ANC Youth League. South Africa is holding general elections next year and for the first time, a whole new generation will cast their vote. The 'born free generation' has no direct memory of the struggle against apartheid - and they've grown up with the powerful African National Congress as their country's government, rather than as its liberators. In a South Africa still struggling to overcome inequality, corruption and youth unemployment, have they still got anything to offer to the younger generation?

Allan Little talks to Egypt's new foreign minister, Nabil Fahmy, part of the interim government which supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi regard as illegitimate.

Sarah Montague speaks to Sir John Tavener, one of Britain's most celebrated composers, on location in Dorset, England. He says his music is for God - even referring to it as a form of Divine Dictation. Forty years ago, his work was sometimes dismissed as bland, populist, new age. But over time he has defied the critics: the Protecting Veil was one of the biggest selling classical albums ever, and his Song for Athene was played at the funeral of Princess Diana. Ill for much of his life, he nearly died from a heart attack six years ago. Since then he says everything has changed - his music, his outlook on life, and his faith. So what happened, and how did he change?

In a special edition of Hardtalk on the Road, Stephen Sackur travels to Alaska for the second part in his series from America's vast and wild northern territory. Within a generation, the Arctic ocean may be ice free during the summer, and this region is warming faster than any other on earth.

Hardtalk is on the road in Alaska. Stephen Sackur reports on a bitter dispute between the fishing and mining industries. The issue has divided opinion in the US’s largest state and prompted warnings that one of the last great wild fisheries in the world is at risk.

Opera is one of the least watched art forms in the world, and possibly the most expensive. HARDtalk speaks to opera superstar, Thomas Hampson. He tells Sarah Montague the way to get people to love opera is to get them to understand it, and then it has the power to transform. If he is right, could one of the most elite and expensive art forms have worldwide appeal?

Nigeria's oil industry is in crisis. Production is concentrated in Rivers State, where the Governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi is invovled in a highly public dispute with the President. Is Governor Amaechi championing his state against the failures of federal government, or is he stirring up trouble with his eye on a bigger prize - the Vice-Presidency in 2015? Rotimi Amaechi talks to Shaun Ley on Hardtalk.

For HARDtalk, Zeinab Badawi speaks to Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari. He said he wanted to rehabilitate Iraq’s image after the fall of Saddam Hussein. But now sectarian violence in Iraq is arguably worse than ever before and is overlapping with sectarianism in neighbouring Syria. How can Hoshyar Zebari, himself an Iraqi Kurd, hope to have any coherent foreign policy, when his own country is in danger of slipping into civil war?

HARDtalk speaks to Paul Kenny, the leader of one of the UK's biggest trade unions. Britain's Labour Party was created by the unions and it still gets most of its money from them. But Labour’s leader. Ed Miliband, now wants to loosen those ties. What would that mean for the Labour Party, the unions and working class representation in Britain?

Sarah Montague speaks to Edi Rama, who will become Albania's Prime Minister in September. A modern artist, he won international plaudits for transforming the capital Tirana when he was its mayor - not least by painting its grey buildings in bright colours. He's now promised a renaissance for the whole country. According to Transparency International, Albania is currently the single most corrupt country in Europe. So can he succeed where previous politicians have failed?

Gavin Esler talks to the Conservative MP David Davis on Hardtalk about the massive collection of data by the US National Security Agency and Britain’s GCHQ revealed by the American whistle-blower, Edward Snowden. Are we living in a Surveillance state?

Gavin Esler talks to Chinese businesswoman Zhang Xin on Hardtalk. One of only 24 self-made female billionaires in the world Zhang Xin's started work as a teenager in a sweat shop in China. By her 20s she worked for Goldman Sachs in New York. Disillusioned with Wall Street she returned to China to make her fortune in property development. But what kind of China? A country heading for economic problems -- or possibly an emerging democracy as well as an emerging superpower?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Turkish writer Mustafa Akyol and Egyptian political activist Dina Wahba. A year ago the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's creed looked like a winning political formula; not so now. The Islamists have been removed from power by the army and millions of Egyptians see that as a cause for celebration. Meanwhile Turkey's moderate Islamist rulers have faced unprecedented mass protests, and in Tunisia political Islam is on the defensive. Is political Islam failing, if so why?