Two months ago, I applied for a PhD position in astrophysics at Denmark Technical University. Two days ago, I heard back from the hiring PI with an invitation for an interview later this month. Here is what the interview format looks like, directly quoted from the email:

• Introduction from the committee's side (overview of the committee, format, and expectations)
• Presentation of the Master’s Project 
• Discussion about the Master’s Project (questions and clarifications)
• Committee’s Questions (research-related, motivation, and future plans)
• Applicant’s Questions

The concern I have is where I am coming from. I earned my master's as a non-thesis master's because I was previously enrolled in a US PhD program. During my fifth semester, I needed to do an oral candidacy exam (passed) and a research proposal report and presentation (failed). The reasons for failure were cited to be insufficient progress and concerns with my expertise about the research topic. After an honest conversation with my advisor, I realized that my heart was not into my research topic nor did I have a strong intrinsic motivation and strong curiosity for it. I would have to find another PhD elsewhere to pursue what I truly wanted as a research topic, since no one in the department there worked in a related area to my desired research subfield. We made a compromise that I would stay in the program until the end of the sixth semester so I could redo the presentation (not to continue the program, but to get presentation practice) and to publish a paper.

Things did not go as planned: I developed severe paralyzing anxiety, a medical issue with my leg, my advisor's hand off high expectations style did not help, and I was completely isolated as her first and only student. After securing an internship in my desired field of research for the summer, my mental health declining, and not believing I could make substantial progress with the project in two months time, I made the difficult decision to give up on a paper and withdrew from the program mid semester, still obtaining my non-thesis master's.

I now head into this interview with unique challenges that I cannot relate to anyone with. Here are where my concerns lie:

• How do I highlight my main research contributions and results of my project from my previous program (now reframed as my Master's Project) for this interview, even though my project was never anywhere close to publication? Sure, I have 'results', but they are preliminary results and were obviously a work in progress.
• My transcript shows the withdrawals during my sixth semester. How do I approach explaining this and even my withdrawal from the US PhD program? I do not want to broadcast and emphasis these details, but at the same time I feel it would be harmful if I skirted around the truth.
• Related to the previous bullet, should I mention that I do not officially have a thesis? Or would it be better if I frame my project from the previous program as a 'makeshift' thesis project?