One of the biggest issues being inherited by President-elect Biden is Afghanistan -- the site of America’s longest war. Just hours before the assault on the U.S. Capitol, Afghanistan’s president and first lady joined Christiane for an exclusive interview about the war, peace talks, coronavirus, and what relations with America will look like under President Biden.

Eddie Glaude Jr. is a prominent academic on the African American experience and has closely documented systemic racism in America. He joins the show to speak about the Georgia election and what it says about the country.

Today, Congress was tasked with certifying the result of the presidential election -- a process that should have been a mere formality. Instead, thousands of armed pro-Trump demonstrators breached the barriers protecting the U.S. Capitol, calling for a halt to the certification. Paul Rosenzweig, a former high level official at the Department of Homeland Security, joins Christiane to discuss.

Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock will make history as Georgia's first Black senator. In the state’s other senatorial race, Democrat Jon Ossoff is claiming victory against incumbent Senator David Purdue. To discuss this extraordinary political shift in the Peach State, Christiane speaks with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

According to the Los Angeles County Director of Public Health, people in LA County are dying of COVID-19 at the rate of one every ten minutes. The total number of cases has doubled in just over a month, and health workers are now being asked to ration oxygen. Registered nurse Nerissa Black from Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital tells Hari Sreenivasan what she's seeing from the front lines.

2020 brought a new focus to the structural racism that persists in America, with books such as "So You Want to Talk About Race" hitting the bestseller list in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Now, author Ijeoma Oluo has a new book for this time. In "Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America" she explores how society reinforces racial hierarchy regardless of merit.

With 20 million cases and more than 350,000 deaths, COVID-19 has ravaged America while also exposing many of the country’s deepest societal and structural failings. What went wrong – and what lies ahead? Veteran journalist Lawrence Wright has spent these months studying the destruction caused by the virus in America, as reported in his epic piece for The New Yorker titled “The Plague Year.”

It’s election day once again, but this time only in the state of Georgia. Voters headed back to the polls for another high-stakes vote in the midst of the pandemic. The outcome will determine control of the Senate. Christiane speaks with historian Anne Applebaum and journalist Fintan O’Toole about this and President Trump's repeated attempts to overturn the results of the presidential election.

Ten former defense secretaries have signed an unprecedented letter warning against calling in the armed forces over election disputes. One of the co-signers, former Republican senator William Cohen, joins Christiane to explain the urgency of this issue.

The COVID-19 vaccine rollout is struggling to get up to speed. The virus is surging in many countries around the world, and new variants are causing concern amongst scientists. Christiane speaks with virologist Peter Piot who currently acts as adviser to the President of the European Commission on pandemic response.

The Georgia senate runoff election on Tuesday will determine the balance of power in Congress -- and President-elect Biden’s capacity to get his legislative agenda through. How likely is it that the state’s two senate seats will flip blue?

Of the 20 million vaccinations promised before the new year, just over four million have been administered. Dr. Vivek Murthy is co-chair of President-elect Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board, and is set to step back into his former role of America’s surgeon general under the new administration. He speaks with Walter Isaacson about what is holding up the distribution and how to get it back on track.

As the COVID-19 numbers continue their rise in the U.S., the largest vaccine rollout in American history is now underway. Vice President Mike Pence received his vaccination publicly today, sending the clear message: “Safe and effective.” Noubar Afeyan, Moderna’s co-founder, speaks with Walter Isaacson about what the vaccine means for the nation and the world -- and some potential challenges.

Political prisoner Nasrin Sotoudeh is a world-renowned human rights lawyer who defends women, children, and those seeking freedom. Global outcry was raised last year when her husband told the world she'd been sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. Her fight for justice is the subject of a new documentary four years in the making. The creators join the show to discuss Sotoudeh's mission.

25 years ago, the Dayton Accords brought peace to Bosnia after a river of blood flowed through the Balkans. A crucial trigger for that negotiation was the 1995 massacre of an estimated 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, under the noses of UN peacekeeping troops who were sent to protect them. Now, a highly acclaimed new movie tells the story of a local translator who bore witness to it all.

Alenka Artnik's sport of choice is freedivingm where she's more than 100 meters below sea level, with no mask and no oxygen tank. Artnik is a four-time world champion who holds the women’s freediving record; last month she spent more than three and a half minutes underwater while holding her breath. She has since come up for air, and joins the show from France.

Derek Black was raised in a family dedicated to white supremacy. His father was founder of a notorious white nationalist website, and his godfather was the infamous David Duke. Black spread his own racist beliefs, and coined the term "white genocide," as host of a popular radio program. Black eventually renounced his views. He discusses all this with Michel Martin.

One country that has been held up as a model for effective handling of the pandemic has been South Korea, which detected its first positive case on the same day as the U.S. and won praise for its response. But South Korea is now grappling with an alarming rise in new infections. In an exclusive interview, Christiane speaks with the country’s foreign minister.

The chart-topping singer and Oscar-winning actress Cher has been ruling the entertainment world since the 1960s. Her latest role is that of animal rights activist. Last month, Cher helped relocate an elephant called Kavaan – known as the world’s loneliest elephant – from an Islamabad zoo to a Cambodian refuge. She sat down with Christiane in London to discuss the rescue effort and her career.

This year has seen a renewed assault on democracy and freedom in Hong Kong, as China continues to crack down on pro-democracy opposition. Ted Hui was a pro-democracy lawmaker in Hong Kong who made a daring escape last month. He is now in self-imposed exile in the UK, and faces a series of criminal charges back home that threaten to put him behind bars for life.