The Rest is Politics’ Katty Kay: ‘Women’s progress in work is going into reverse’

Fittingly for someone currently fronting a podcast that promises to “explore how confidence shapes the way we live, work and make choices”, Katty Kay isn’t short of self-belief. “Confidence is something that you can actually take control of immediately, and individually,” says the British-Swiss journalist from her well-appointed living room in Washington DC, her base for three decades now. “Yes, some of it is in your DNA, but a lot of it is what you, personally, choose to do with it.” Kay has done plenty with hers. After a lengthy career with the BBC, she decided, in 2021, to seek pastures new. A risk, some might argue, given that at the time she was 56 years old in a profession that tends to favour youth, but Kay was determined. She landed a job at Ozy Media, but after the American broadcasting company was accused of fraud, she hastily quit, suddenly finding herself unemployed and questioning her decisions. She returned to the BBC intermittently but was looking for more permanent gigs. It wasn’t long before she found one: hosting a podcast, as all broadcasters these days must. Hers, The Rest is Politics: US, is made by Goalhanger, the Gary Lineker co-owned podcast empire that also produces The Rest Is History and The Rest is Entertainment. She got the job back in 2024 because she wanted it, and went for it. “I remember reading one of the Goalhanger founders saying that they’d really like to get into America, but that it was a very competitive market. So I contacted them, and said, ‘Listen, I think I can help you.’” As Donald Trump’s former director of communications, Anthony Scaramucci seemed the perfect choice to present ‘The Rest is Politics: US’ alongside Kay (Photo: Garry Jones) And The Rest Is Politics: US was born, Kay co-hosting with Anthony Scaramucci, previously Trump’s short-lived director of communications. An unusual choice, one might think, given that the podcast would prove unambiguously critical of the US President, but as with so many people who had worked with Donald Trump, Scaramucci had subsequently seen both the light and the error of his earlier judgements. “So,” Kay says, “I famously asked Michael Lewis first, who is a good friend, but he was too busy. Anthony will never let me forget that he wasn’t my first choice! But I was thinking, actually, you know what would be great? Somebody who is a Republican who knows the Trump world. I liked the idea of a crossover because I wanted to reach British audiences and also American audiences and so I thought that together we would be fun. I texted Anthony and told him I had a proposition; what did he think? He said yes immediately. As soon as we did the pilot, we knew that it was going to work.” It did. The Rest Is Politics: US proved an instant hit. And so when Kay came to Goalhanger with an idea for another podcast idea earlier this year, they were hardly going to say no. In Doing It Anyway, her new series, Kay speaks to psychologists alongside various health and fitness entrepreneurs to dig deep into the subject of confidence: how it’s built, and how we can wield it. She explores the confidence gap that exists between men and women and the unhelpful role self-doubt plays. If there is a more on-brand podcast for 2026, then we haven’t heard it yet. Steven Bartlett must be furious. “Over the years, I’ve written several books on the issues of women, and confidence, and leadership, and power – and looking at what’s holding women back in the workplace,” she says. “I wanted to bring that expertise, alongside all the research out there, to find out why women are falling back in the workplace. Trump and American politics are constantly exciting to cover, says Kay “Because,” she stresses, “women’s progress in work is stalling. It’s going into reverse. You’ve got a decline in the number of women in the C-suite, and the number of women on boards. I’ve felt it here in America, ever since Trump came into office again, and I think people are starting to feel it in Europe, too. It might be a backlash against the MeToo movement or a backlash against the idea of diversity, but the fact is that for the first time in 20 years we are seeing a decline in the number of women in senior positions. Why? How can we get more women to the top, particularly younger women just starting out? How do you overcome hurdles when you are afraid of doing things, when you don’t want to take a risk?” Risk, she argues, is the motivating force. We should all learn to harness it. “We have to be prepared to take more risks, and we have to be prepared to fail. Yes, it can be scary, but everybody fails. I’ve failed, my mother has failed, my father, my boss, my husband, you. The question is: how do we then handle that failure? What can you do to become a better team player, a better leader, a happier person?” Kay, 61, was born in Oxfordshire, but had a nomadic childhood. Her father was a diplomat, and they moved frequently for his work. “I spent most of my childhood in the Middle East. I went to six schools in five years, in three countries, and learned two languages between the ages of 10 and 16.” After studying at Oxford, she went into banking before a friend suggested she try broadcast journalism. She began working for the BBC in 1990 as a roving reporter, but really came to public recognition during Trump’s first presidential run. By 2016, people were tuning in to BBC News the way they might once have tuned in to Netflix, keen for the latest instalments in this most eye-popping of gaudy soap operas. Kay was clearly in clover, one of those broadcasters who couldn’t help but communicate the sheer levels of enthusiasm she felt while reporting. Kay’s news podcast ‘Doing It Anyway’ looks at how confidence is built and explores the confidence gap between men and women “Oh, but how could I not?” she laughs. “Trump is super-exciting to cover, but also quite exhausting. On BBC World News America each night, 10 minutes before we’d start, me and Christian [Fraser, co-host] would have to rip up our running order and start all over again, just because Trump had done something new.” Kay had never expected America to be her permanent base. “But the last 30 years of American politics has been so consequential for the rest of the world, so colourful and extraordinary, that I couldn’t leave.” She lives in Washington with her second husband, former BBC correspondent Tom Carver, and has four children, two from each marriage, aged between 20 and 32. Friends often wonder how she can still live there, given its current situation. “I’ve seen anti-American sentiment before, during the Iraq war,” she explains, “so you get used to putting on your analyst hat. It’s really very interesting here. I do worry about the divisions, yes, but when I travel around, I still love it, and the people are as warm and generous and thoughtful as they always were. You know, they say that if you want to hate America, read the newspapers; if you want to love America, travel through the country.” In Doing It Anyway, Kay remains almost preternaturally optimistic about everything life can throw at us, divisive politics included. Podcasts like these – essentially self-help tomes replete with the life-affirming fist pumps and sunny can-do optimism of wealthy business types – tread the fine line between genuine empowerment and cheesy parody, but Kay’s engagement with her subject never once flags. She’s a persuasive advocate. I ask whether she ever feels anger that women are having to have the same conversation they have always had, that so little progress seems to have been made along the way. She thinks for a moment before answering. “I’m dismayed, certainly, but I’m not surprised. I think that this is a talent profitability issue, not a woke issue. Warren Buffett said that of course you want to promote women in the workplace, because why would you want to play with only half a deck of cards? Why wouldn’t you want to do everything you can to get the most out of that talent that you had?” Her question is not rhetorical. She wants answers. ‘Doing It Anyway With Katty Kay’ is available on YouTube and podcast platforms