The New Society | culture from the New Statesman — Podcast

Salman Rushdie: "I feel a line of connection with 9/11" 11.09.2026 31λ

Terror has sought Salman Rushdie out time and time again for the past 40 years, ever since the controversial publication of his novel The Satanic Verses and the furious response to it from much of the Muslim world.He believed that his life of extreme measures and isolation was a closed chapter in 1998, after Iran stepped back from the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini. But four summers ago, in a quiet lake town in New York, death came knocking again. Rushdie was about to give a public lecture when a man ran on stage and attacked him with a knife.He first revisited this attempt on his life in his 2024 book Knife. Now, with his wife, the poet and visual artist Rachel Eliza Griffiths, and director Alex Gibney, Rushdie has retold this life-changing moment through film. He spoke with Tanjil Rashid on the eve of the 25th anniversary of  9/11, with which he feels a “line of connection” - between the attack on himself and the attack on his adopted home in New York, and reflected on what it means to live in this age of terror. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

RF Kuang is back with her most personal story yet 05.09.2026 55λ

Historical fantasy, campus satire, industry exposé; five books in, and no one's quite worked out what a "RF Kuang novel" is supposed to look like. That's rather the point.This September she publishes her sixth: Taipei Story, a semi-autobiographical account of a summer spent learning Mandarin in Taiwan - her most personal book yet.She joins Tanjil Rashid in this episode of the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Simon Sebag Montefiore on Israel, Gaza and a Middle East in crisis 03.09.2026 54λ

From the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the current escalation of the war between Israel, Palestine and their neighbouring countries, the Middle East has been besieged by almost constant conflict.Is it history? Politics? Resources? Or religion driving these tensions?Tanjil Rashid is joined by historian and author Simon Sebag Montefiore, whose new book The Cauldron tells the story of the making of the modern Middle East. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is how Ukrainian artists are fighting back 22.08.2026 32λ

Charlotte Higgins has spent most of her career interviewing and critiquing artists, authors and poets as the Guardian's chief culture writer. It was unlikely that her work would ever take her to a warzone. But following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she found herself drawn to this country under siege. She wanted to ask, what happens to art under war? And could Ukrainian culture not just survive, but flourish? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why we must unite working class communities across racial divides 08.08.2026 42λ

In the summer of 2024, riots tore through British towns, and since then old questions have continued to resurface about who belongs in the country. Taj Ali has spent years digging into a history that’s rarely told in full: the long tradition of South Asian political activism in Britain. His debut book, Come What May, We’re Here to Stay, traces that tradition and asks what it means for Britain now. Taj Ali joins Tanjil Rashid. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Britain is losing its libraries and its cultural memory 01.08.2026 35λ

Every year, more libraries across Britain close their doors. As councils have their funding slashed, these are often the first spaces to go. What do we lose when we stop reading and collecting? What is a library to a community, beyond its books? Tanjil Rashid is joined by the University of Oxford's Bodley's Librarian, Richard Ovenden. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why is sex political? 25.07.2026 54λ

To hear more conversations like this search "The Exchange" wherever you get your podcasts.When Amia Srinivasan published The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century in 2021, it sparked widespread debate about the politics of desire, consent, and sexual justice.In this episode of The Exchange, the Oxford academic joins Tanjil Rashid to discuss how philosophy can illuminate some of the most contentious questions in contemporary culture: from incels and pornography to whether our desires are shaped by society.Find more from Amia Srinivasan here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can we separate great art from bad artists? 18.07.2026 32λ

Throughout history, art, and artists, have caused moral outrage.For a long time we had the liberal notion that we could separate great art from bad artists, but we do seem to live in a time of heightened moralisation around works of art and their creators. Why is that?Tanjil Rashid is joined by Daisy Dixon, who has written the book Depraved: The Story of Dangerous Art. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Odyssey mania is upon us 11.07.2026 1ώ 5λ

Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of Homer’s epic poem is one of the most anticipated films in recent cinema history.But what is it about this story, first told maybe 3000 years ago, that so fascinates us?Who really wrote it and why does it represent, with Homer’s other great work The Iliad, the foundation of western literature?Tanjil Rashid is joined by The Odyssey’s latest translator, classical scholar and literary critic Daniel Mendelsohn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Was the American revolution really American? 04.07.2026 35λ

Hot dogs, fireworks, old glory, it’s the 4th July. This year marks the 250th anniversary of the USA’s Declaration of Independence. What led up to these crucial events in 1776? Was the revolution truly American? And what does this anniversary represent today? Tanjil Rashid is joined by Sarah Pearsall, historian and author of Freedom Round the Globe: How the World Made the American Revolution. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"I thought Jimmy Carter was black" | Tayari Jones interview 26.06.2026 32λ

Tayari Jones is one of America's most celebrated novelists, twice chosen by Oprah, shortlisted for prizes on both sides of the Atlantic, and read by presidents.Her newest book was meant to be a tale of gentrification in the American South, she found herself an entirely different story. Kin follows two motherless girls coming of age in 1950s Louisiana, the Jim Crow South.It's a novel about female friendship, class, race, and motherhood.Jones discusses her latest book, about growing up "bourgeois and segregated" in Atlanta as the daughter of civil rights activists, and what it's like to watch America try to turn the clock back on progress as it approaches its 250th birthday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will Hockney be remembered as one of the greats? 20.06.2026 42λ

Andrew Marr and the New Statesman's art critic Michael Prodger join Tanjil Rashid to discuss the life and legacy of David Hockney, who passed away last week.A Bradford boy who became one of the most famous artists in the world. A gay man who made desire visible decades before it was safe to do so. A painter who took on the iPhone and the iPad and bent new technology to the oldest of artistic impulses. What do the pools, hedgerows and iPad drawings add up to? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Does travel actually broaden the mind? 13.06.2026 43λ

“The traveller sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.”Andrea Wulf joins us to discuss her new book The Traveller, about George Forster - the forgotten naturalist who sailed with Captain James Cook at seventeen and came back convinced of something radical: that all human beings are equal. We ask why that idea was so scandalous in the Enlightenment, why Forster has been largely written out of history, and whether travel really does broaden the mind - or whether, as G.K. Chesterton suggested, it might do the opposite. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This house believes that Britain’s best days are behind it 06.06.2026 1ώ 10λ

There is in Britain today a widespread mood of public despair, a deep premonition of imminent national decline. According to Ipsos, just over half of Britons feel worse off since Keir Starmer was elected. Going further back, 60% feel the country has gone backwards since 2022.Are Britain's best days really behind it?Pratinav Anil, Rachel Clarke, Tanjil Rashid, John Kampfner, Gary Stevenson, and Polly Toynbee debate the issue.This debate was chaired by Anoosh Chakelian and recorded at the Cambridge Literary Festival.Find out more here: cambridgeliteraryfestival.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can architecture be democratic? 30.05.2026 38λ

What is the relationship between politics and the built environment? between the spaces inhabited by the public and the policies that govern them? From parliaments to monuments… from open squares to closed off palaces… there clearly is a connection, but how that manifests itself remains deeply contested. Tanjil Rashid is joined by Jan Werner-Muller, a German philosopher and historian, whose latest book, Street, Palace, Square: The Architecture of Democratic Spaces investigates this relationship between place, people and politics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katja Hoyer: How fascism takes hold of a city 23.05.2026 50λ

Political instability, democratic decline, the rise of populist movements - politicians and headlines today are quick to diagnose things as modern day Weimar. But what was Weimar actually like, and how did a city associated with culture and intellectual life become bound up with the rise of Nazism?Historian Katja Hoyer joins us to discuss her new book on Weimar, the process of fascism taking hold at a local level, her previous book Beyond the Wall, and what today’s politics, including the rise of Alternative for Germany, may and may not have in common with the past. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Munya Chawawa: Trump's presidency is based on WWE 16.05.2026 22λ

Donald Trump’s political style has often been compared to reality TV - but what if the better comparison is professional wrestling?Satirist Munya Chawawa joins Luke O’Reilly to discuss his new documentary, Wrestling With Trump, which explores the connections between WWE spectacle and modern American politics.Wrestling with Trump is available to stream now on 4. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

William Boyd on spy fiction and the British psyche 09.05.2026 36λ

What makes someone a good spy? And does the fiction writer, in many senses a professional liar, share the traits of a double agent?Novelist and screenwriter William Boyd first explored the theme of espionage in his 2002 novel Any Human Heart and went on to pen a James Bond continuation novel called Solo.His latest trilogy (Gabriel's Moon, The Predicament and Cold Sunset) explores what happens when a travel writer becomes entangled in Cold War Espionage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Baldwin would be a leading progressive voice today 02.05.2026 30λ

For decades, James Baldwin has stood as one of the most piercing moral voices of the 20th century, But Baldwin himself has remained, in his own words, elusive.A new biography by Nicholas Boggs - Baldwin: A Love Story - sets out to change that.Drawing on newly uncovered archives and decades of research, Boggs reframes Baldwin’s life through an intimate and sometimes unsettling lens: love. Luke O'Reilly sits down with Nicholas Boggs to discuss Baldwin’s loves and contradictions, the relationship between intimacy and politics, and why Baldwin’s insistence that “love is the only reality” might matter more now than ever. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Gatiss: What it's like to play Hitler 25.04.2026 28λ

The Resistible rise of Arturo Ui, Bertolt Brecht's darkly comic allegory of authoritarianism is a play that straddles past and present. Written in 1941, it was conceived as a warning; a grotesque gangster-inflected retelling of the rise of Adolf Hitler. It holds out the warning that such a rise is not, in fact, inevitable – it can be resisted.In a new production, Mark Gatiss steps into the role of Arturo Ui, a character who is at once absurd, ridiculous, sinister, and terrifying. It's a part that delicately walks the tightrope between satire and menace.So how does a play rooted in 20th century politics land in Britain today? What does it mean to stage breath in an era saturated with political performance and media spectacle? And can satire still function as a warning rather than just a mirror?Tanjil Rashid speaks with Mark Gatiss in this fascinating and wide-ranging interview.Mark Gatiss is speaking at the Stratford Literary Festival on Sunday 10 May. Book tickets: https://www.stratfordliteraryfestival.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.