For almost 40 years, Richard Moore was a career spy in Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service. Only his closest friends and family knew what he did for a living. When he was appointed chief of the agency in 2020, that changed: The name of the person in the top role is the only one made public.

In his first broadcast interview since leaving his post in September 2025, Moore talks to Mishal Husain about managing China, the psychology of Vladimir Putin and why spies shouldn’t expect recognition.

03:00 - “I certainly haven’t left the world in a better place than I found it”

05:02 - China as an “opportunity and a threat”

07:20 - UK’s China spy scandal

09:44 China should “get their embassy” in London

10:22 - Getting the “tap on the shoulder” at Oxford University

14:16 - Telling your children you’re a spy

16:28 - What is spycraft really like?

22:00 - Intelligence work post 9/11

28:15 - “Putin has no intention of doing a deal”

33:46 - Strikes on Venezuela

40:00 - Life on the outside

Watch this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you tell the history of a whole country through its women? And what can it tell us about the world today? These are the questions Russian-American journalist Julia Ioffe set out to answer in her new book, Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy.

Having reported from, and on, Russia for publications including The New Yorker and Foreign Policy for more than a decade, Ioffe says she has repeatedly been asked to explain the actions and motivations of one man: Vladimir Putin.

Motherland is, she says, partly a response to Putin, through her desire to show that Russia is much more than one person, let alone one man.

In this conversation Ioffe talks to Mishal about reclaiming Russia’s women, about Donald Trump’s hollowing out of American institutions and why Putinism will endure. (Note: This podcast contains a discussion of sexual violence that some listeners may find distressing.)

02:30 - “I was born in a country that no longer exists”
03:55 - The anti-feminist at Lenin’s side during the Revolution
06:55 - Reluctancy to write about Russian women
12:55 - What a “horrible boyfriend” Vladimir Putin was
16:50 - Return to Russia, oligarch hunters and ‘trad wives’
22:13 - Alexei Navalny, “the last shred of hope”
29:20 - Can Russia sustain the war in Ukraine?
32:32 - Trump’s assault on US institutions, faster than Putin
34:30 - American authoritarianism, risk of “one party state”

Watch this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three weeks after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado finds herself supporting US intervention in her native country. Mishal speaks to Maria Corina on recent US boat strikes, Nicolas Maduro’s fate and the need for strength to secure peace.

03:24 - "I had to go into hiding"

03:51 - Impact of the Nobel Peace Prize

05:38 - US Military build up

10:21 - Prospect of US ground strikes

13:10 - Is Machado speaking to the Trump Administration?

16:00 - Prospect of regime change

18:50 - Venezuela after Maduro

23:04 - Machado's economic vision

26:04 - What is the Venezuelan opposition planning next?

28:23 - "We are ready to take our government"

34:22 - Why Machado thinks this time is different

Watch this podcast https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS

You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.