Greta Thunberg is to swap leading the global fight against the climate crisis for the more stressful experience of directing a group of high-profile BBC presenters, after being announced as one of this year’s guest editors for Radio 4’s Today programme.

The environmental activist will take control of an episode of the BBC’s flagship radio news programme at the end of this year, speaking to leading figures in the fight against global heating and hearing from indigenous, frontline activists. Thunberg, who led school strikes around the world, has also commissioned reports from the Antarctic and Zambia, as well as a Mishal Husain interview with the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney.

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The 16-year-old, currently sailing across the Atlantic ocean to attend the UN Climate Action Summit in Madrid, had only just been born when the Today programme began the tradition of appointing public figures to guest edit programmes in the quiet news days between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve.

This year’s line-up also includes Lady Hale, the president of the supreme court, who is due to retire as the UK’s top judge when she turns 75 in January. She will give listeners a tour of her North Yorkshire hometown and the supreme court, while challenging the audience to “explore the issue of coercive control”.

Hale, a former law lecturer who has campaigned for greater diversity in the judiciary, hit the headlines in September when she delivered the supreme court ruling that Boris Johnson’s government had illegally suspended parliament. She has since been immortalised in a children’s book charting her journey from Richmond to the top levels of the legal profession.

The Turner prize-winning artist Grayson Perry will work with the Today team to examine “stereotypes and conventional thinking” during his episode, while another guest editor spot will go to the rapper and spoken word artist George the Poet, who will report from Uganda and explore issues around identity.

The final guest editor slot will go to Charles Moore, the former editor of the Daily Telegraph, who will focus on freedom of expression in modern society. Moore, who wrote the authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher and founded The Rectory Society for fans of clergy dwellings, has previously criticised the BBC over its perceived anti-Brexit bias.