This event was part of Conversations at the Kiln, a new event series at Kiln Theatre programmed by Intelligence Squared. For more events with speakers from the worlds of literature, art, poetry and politics, click here.

Sam McAlister is the woman who secured the now infamous Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew, when he claimed to Emily Maitlis that he was in a Pizza Express in Woking on the night Virginia Giuffre alleges he slept with her. This was the broadcast which set public opinion alight, and from which many have supposed the royal family will never quite recover.

McAlister was the first person in her family to go to university, and is a trained barrister, a single mother and a master of persuasion. In her former BBC colleagues’ words, she was the ‘booker extraordinaire’, responsible for many of Newsnight’s exclusives over the past decade, including Julian Assange, Sheryl Sandberg, Justin Trudeau, Bill Clinton, Elon Musk and Stormy Daniels.

In February 2025, McAlister joined us on stage to discuss the behind the scenes drama of the Prince Andrew interview, the making of the film adaption Scoop, the EMMY-nominated Netflix film starring Billie Piper and Gillian Anderson, and the challenges of navigating truth, power, celebrity and accountability in today’s media landscape.