“Gen Z are spending less hours in person with each other per year than their same age group two decades ago… They experienced the pandemic during those years of the late teens, early 20s, those years when you're sort of experimenting with how you show up in person with another person, how you flirt, how you think about intimacy, you know, so. They absolutely want love, they're struggling to find ways to find it and struggling to have the confidence to put themselves out there.”

Sean Farrington speaks to Jackie Jantos, CEO of popular mobile dating app Hinge, about finding romance in today’s rapidly-changing digital world.

Launched back in 2013, US-based Hinge has steadily grown to become one of the world’s biggest mobile dating apps. As of 2025, there were 30 million users on the platform looking for romance all over the world - up from half a million just ten years before.

Hinge encouragingly bills itself as the ‘app to be deleted’, and unlike many competitor apps, its focus is on creating real interactions - for example, encouraging users to like photos or prompts - rather than quickly swiping left or right.

In a crowded industry worth billions of dollars, the app, owned by the American dating giant Match Group, has a difficult balancing act to maintain. It has to innovate to attract new users and make a profit, while also ensuring their users find romance and so don’t have to keep using the app.

Thank you to the Big Boss Interview team for their help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with music icon Chaka Khan, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark, and entrepreneur Emma Grede. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Sean Farrington Producers: Jeevan Nerwan and Ben Cooper Editor: Damon Rose

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Jackie Jantos. Credit: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty)

“It had grown to be quite an expensive event. Our members wanted to host the games, and because of the size and the scale of the event that was not possible.”

Mani Djazmi speaks to Katie Sadleir, CEO of the Commonwealth Games about how hosting the event had become unaffordable for many Commonwealth countries. This summer’s games were to be held in Victoria, Australia, but they withdrew due to expanding costs.

Speaking ahead of the Games which now take place in Glasgow, Scotland from the end of July, she talks about the new strategy she launched to make them more sustainable. Despite having fewer sports now, she says the event is still important.

Sadleir started her sporting career in artistic swimming, competing in major events such as the 1984 LA Olympics, and the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games soon after. You’ll hear about her journey from the water to the boardroom, and then to head of the Commonwealth Games. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with legendary musician Paul McCartney, AI entrepreneur Kate Kallot, and acclaimed writer Maggie O’Farrell. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Mani Djazmi Producers: Cordelia Hemming and Farhana Haider Editor: Damon Rose

(Image: Katie Sadleir. Credit: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

Waihiga Mwaura speaks to former US Secretary of State John Kerry about why he thinks governments are retreating from efforts to deal with climate change.

He spoke to the BBC during this year’s Our Ocean Conference, an international forum which Kerry launched in 2014 to help protect the world’s oceans.

He was the first US special presidential envoy for climate from 2021 to 2024, and since then has continued his work in climate solutions.

With other world events in mind, Kerry helped negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran as President Barack Obama's secretary of state and we get his take on the current US-Iran conflict and subsequent peace plan. Thank you to the Focus on Africa team for its help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with one of Africa’s youngest billionaires Mohammed Dewji, former Sudanese leader Aisha Musa and Sierra Leone’s First Lady Fatima Bio. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Waihiga Mwaura Producer: Cordelia Hemming Editor: Damon Rose

(Image: John Kerry smiles and wears a black jacket, white shirt and bow tie. Credit: Reuters)

Katya Adler speaks to Michel Barnier who served as the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, on the 10th anniversary of the highly consequential referendum.

On 23 June 2016, the British public went to the polls to decide its future with the European Union. An unusually high number of people voted, and by 52% to 48%, the decision was to leave the bloc.

Barnier, then a European Commissioner who had served as a minister in a number of French governments, represented the EU at negotiations to help agree the terms of the UK’s departure and future relationship.

It was a long, hard process, with the UK seeing three different prime ministers from 10 Downing Street before formally leaving the Union in January 2020.

Monsieur Barnier reflects on the UK’s decision and how both European and international politics have changed since. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with European Investment Bank President Nadia Calviño, and Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kyiv. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Katya Adler Producer: Ben Cooper and Kathy Long Editor: Damon Rose

Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Michel Barnier. Credit: PA.)