Yalda Hakim, Richard Engel on NBC News' 'The World' podcast, Sky

NBC News and Comcast's Sky News Join Forces to Launch The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakima new weekly podcast on global affairs that will “combine eyewitness accounts from the front lines of the world's most dangerous areas with in-depth analysis and conversations with some of the most prominent and influential figures on the world stage.”

The new show will leverage the news expertise, reach and big names of leading US and UK news brands that have been under the Comcast umbrella since its 2018 acquisition of media, entertainment, telecoms and technology giant, European media and technology giant Sky.

Engel is the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News, while Hakim is the lead global news anchor for Sky News. New episodes will be available every Wednesday from October 9, wherever you listen to your podcasts.

“Well known to news audiences for their fearless coverage of global hot spots, they have known each other as friendly competitors throughout their award-winning careers,” Sky and NBC said in a statement. “Now under one roof at sister news organizations, they will come together each week to offer audiences a thoughtful look at our world’s most complex issues, while providing listeners with the full story, about the people who shape global events.”

Their goal: to offer listeners “a front-row seat to the most pressing issues of our time.”

Hakim said she was “thrilled to be collaborating with my friend Richard Engel, one of the most talented foreign correspondents of our time, on an exciting new project to help make sense of our world.” She added: “This is a time of intensifying conflict and polarization. At times, it feels like the very idea of ​​truth is fading, especially as technology makes it harder to distinguish what is real from what is fake, and as distrust grows between and within societies. So I hope this podcast can serve as a kind of port in the storm.”

Engel said the podcast launch comes at a crucial time. “We’re in the midst of covering conflicts that have ripple effects around the world. I can’t think of a better person to explore these complex events and dig into some of the most important questions with than Yalda Hakim,” he said. “She’s an incredible reporter, thoughtful, hardworking and curious. Together, we’ll be talking to fascinating people about interesting and important topics that have made us witnesses to history.”

The inspiration for the podcast comes from two key experiences of the hosts, Sky and NBC News said. In 2007, Engel was invited to the White House for a private one-on-one meeting with President George W. Bush to discuss Iraq and Middle East politics. “It was Richard’s ability to be in the thick of the fighting and at the same time provide a quick, accurate and wide-ranging analysis of what was happening that interested the president,” they said.

Meanwhile, in 2021, immediately before the fall of Kabul, Hakim received a call from the Taliban on air. “In a world exclusive, the spokesperson assured Hakim that no one in the city would be harmed by their troops when they entered the city,” according to news organizations. “It was an episode that highlighted Yalda as one of the most influential and respected journalists in the industry, and the show will draw on her extensive list of contacts to provide the most knowledgeable and high-profile guests.”

NBC News and Sky News are targeting a global audience with new podcast. “We are proud to partner with Sky News to bring together these world-class journalists in a program available to audiences around the world,” said David Verdi, executive vice president, global newsgathering at NBC News.

“These sensitive times require more insight and analysis, and that’s exactly the journalism that Yalda Hakim and Richard Engel can provide,” added David Rhodes, executive chairman of Sky News Group. “For more than five years, Sky News and NBC News have been under the same corporate umbrella. Yalda and Richard’s collaboration will demonstrate the global capabilities of this partnership: bringing the full story, first, to audiences around the world.”

The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim podcast.

Courtesy of Sky News

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