Hi podcast listeners tonight I'm really pleased and really excited to bring you Angela Merkel,

the Chancellor of Germany, the person who has perhaps defended freedom and democracy and

tolerance more than any other Western Democratic leader for the last 15 years.

She's been at the helm of Germany and de facto ruler of Europe.

So this is a really, really interesting interview and it's her first ever with a US TV network.

And then we have the great filmmaker Ron Howard. He has so many credits to his name, Apollo 13 has done cocoon a beautiful mind I mean on

and on and on and now he's tackling the great opera singer Luciano Pavarotti it's a

documentary and he is making Pavarotti really human and really known to a whole new

audience.

It's a great film.

And then we go from Ritchie Cunningham, as Ron Howard was in Happy Days, to Stacy Cunningham,

who is the first female president of the New York Stock Exchange.

Enjoy the show. Welcome to the program everyone. I'm Christina Wancour in London.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been called the de facto leader of Europe

where voters this weekend especially millennials

turned out in record numbers to push the Green Party to great success. The

far right did not surge and the centrist traditional parties including Mrs Merkel's did not

fare that well either though they appear to have dodged a major bullet.

Chancellor Merkel has spent her career trying to keep the center alive, but the big question is how long can that center continue to hold?

She's coming to the United States to deliver the commencement address at Harvard on Thursday, where

she'll talk about her extraordinary personal story, her ascent to the top, and

her remarkable staying power. I had the rare chance to talk to this fierce and female champion of democracy

...