The Eddie Mair Interview

Artificial intelligence is already a big part of our lives, whether or not we are aware of it, and it will only become more significant.

But could it ever help us with our most tender human emotions, like when we are grieving?

Eugenia Kuyda is a tech entrepreneur and when her friend Roman Mazurenko died suddenly, Eugenia used machine conversation to bring him back to life.

She told Eddie Mair about the app she created to do this cal...

On New Year's Eve four young men were stabbed to death in separate incidents around London. It brought the total number of fatal knife attacks in the Capital to 80 in 2017.

Many of these incidents are due to gang rivalries.

Jermaine Lawlor was a member of a gang in East London. He was first arrested at the age of 11, but tells Eddie Mair that seeing "friends being murdered, made me think about my life".

Now 26, he's a youth worker an...

What would you like to happen if you become very ill or severely incapacitated? What can you do now to make sure your wishes, whatever they are will be respected should that time come?

Professor Jenny Kitzinger is from the Coma and Disorders of Consciousness Research Centre, Cardiff University which researches how best to ensure that incapacitated patients have their last wishes respected.

Jenny's sister Polly had a car crash in 2009...

Sebastian Balfour, a historian and Emeritus Professor of Contemporary Spanish Studies at the London School of Economics, was PM’s trusted guide to events in Catalonia before, during and after the disputed independence referendum.

In an extended interview, Professor Balfour talks to Eddie Mair not about his day job, but about his fascinating life including being rescued as a little boy from a Japanese internment camp and living in Am...

Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is an increasingly popular destination for international sun-worshippers and shoppers.

Recently when Dubai has been in the news, it has not been for bargains or top tanning tips.

This week a young British expat, Asa Hutchinson, was said to be facing jail in Dubai after witnessing a fight.

There were more headlines about Jamie Harron, a 27-year-old Scot who was sentenced to three months in jail in Dub...

The treatment of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has led to worldwide condemnation, with the US threatening sanctions.

Bangladesh, which has taken in hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas who’ve fled their homeland, has now signed a deal to return them to Myanmar.

Nijam Uddin Mohammed is a Rohingya Muslim. He spent 18 years in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, but now lives in Bradford.

He tells Eddie Mair about fleeing Myanmar when he was a ...

The magazine Gay Times has sacked its new editor over comments he made on social media in the past.

Josh Rivers was appointed last month. The first non white editor in Gay Times history.

But an investigation by Buzzfeed News found several tweets posted by Josh Rivers between 2010 and 2015 which it said would shock many people.

Although he tweeted a statement which described his messages as "horrible", "hateful" and "abhorrent" and exp...

As we approach Armistice Day, followed by Remembrance Sunday, we talk to an American army veteran who is the host of a new podcast "Battle Scars", in which he interviews people who have been in war zones.

Born in Vietnam, Thom Tran moved to the US as an infant. He enlisted in the United States Army at 18 years old, before he had finished high school. He spent eight years in the army including 12 months in Iraq.

These days he is a mu...

Steve Hewlett chronicled his experience with oesophageal cancer weekly on PM in 2016.

Steve believed that by using his journalistic skills to investigate and understand his own cancer, he would be doing some good for himself and perhaps for people listening to PM.

He was right on both counts.

Lisa Griffith wrote to the programme about her husband Paul. After hearing about the symptoms on PM, Paul went to the doctor and was diagnosed ...

The film producer Harvey Weinstein has been accused of a string of sexual assaults after the New York Times reported previously undisclosed allegations against him stretching over nearly three decades. He has "unequivocally denied" any allegations of non-consensual sex. Alison Owen is a film producer who has worked on a number of films with Mr Weinstein. Her credits as a producer include Elizabeth, Shaun of the Dead and Tulip Fev...

Most people would probably not want to see what the firefighters who attended Grenfell Tower fire saw, or do what they did. All of the firefighters who were there received counselling after their shift had finished. Some are still having treatment, including the woman who is the London Fire Brigade Commissioner, Dany Cotton.

Clifford Thompson is a journalist at the BBC but his boyhood dream was to be a firefighter: a dream he realis...

For a handful of people in the world, remembering things is not a problem.

They have a condition called HSAM or Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, which means they can remember everything that has happened to them, often in great detail.

Very little is known about why some people have it, but Rebecca Sharrock from Australia is one of those helping researchers learn more about her condition.

(Photo: An illustration of the brain....

Abortion in the United States continues to spark fierce debate and cause division, ever since the Supreme Court made it legal in 1973 following the Roe v Wade case.

Individual states still have a lot of power to influence the availability of abortions and in almost every state there are campaigns and protests for and against.

In our two-part podcast we hear from people on either side of the debate.

For part one we heard from Dr Willie...

Abortion in the United States continues to spark fierce debate and cause division, ever since the Supreme Court made it legal in 1973 following the Roe v Wade case.

Individual states still have a lot of power to influence the availability of abortions and in almost every state there are campaigns and protests for and against.

In our two-part podcast we hear from people on either side of the debate.

For part one we speak to Dr Willie P...

For 16 years, David Drew and Neil Carmichael have campaigned against each other to be MP for Stroud.

The constituency in Gloucestershire is known as a bell-weather because it often goes the same way as the national result.

In 1997 David won for Labour, and Tony Blair moved into No.10. The next general election in 2001 saw Neil enter the race but David held on, as did the Labour government. The same happened in 2005. Then in 2010 Ne...

For six months on PM, we heard from Steve Hewlett every Monday as he chronicled his experience of oesophageal cancer. In his very first conversation, last September, he introduced us to the "cold cap".

Many listeners told us they also experienced the "cold cap", but they're not available in every part of the UK.

"Cold caps" or "scalp cooling" can prevent or lessen hair loss which occurs during chemotherapy.

Claire McQuillan is havin...

This week in our podcast, Eddie Mair speaks to Henry Hendron.

He was very much a rising star, a barrister in London with some high profile clients and media coverage to go with it. He represented the Conservative MP Nigel Evans when he was cleared of rape in 2014. Some people thought Henry Hendron himself had a bright political future.

But things changed for him in 2015 when his 18-year-old boyfriend Miguel Jimenez died after taking ...