Salman Rushdie on political violence, free speech and BBC "cowardice"
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Salman Rushdie has spent half of his life under the threat of death, but it is only in his latest novel - The Eleventh Hour - that he has devoted a whole book to the themes of mortality. It is his first return to fiction since an attempt on his life on 2022.
This Friday, Rushdie joins Lewis and Jon in the studio to discuss his new book, political violence, and the "cowardice" of the BBC.
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.3 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:12.7 | People to whom bad things happen often remember for a lifetime exactly what happened to them. |
| 0:20.1 | I mean, things that happen to me, which I now, |
| 0:23.0 | kind of tend to discount, happened when I was 13 or 14 years old, |
| 0:29.0 | but I remembered them very vividly. |
| 0:31.1 | So memory is not as easily lost as Mr. Farage seems to think. |
| 0:38.6 | So you remember the racism you received as a school board? |
| 0:40.6 | Yes, I do. |
| 0:41.5 | I remember as if it happened yesterday. |
| 0:43.2 | That is the voice of Sir Salman Rushdie, one of our most distinguished and prestigious authors, |
| 0:49.6 | expressing some doubt on the excuse that Nigel Farage has put forward this week against those who have |
| 0:56.4 | accused him of racism in his school days as all being very long ago and easy to forget. |
| 1:03.0 | On today's newsagents, we talk extensively to Sir Salman about death. His new book is a meditation |
| 1:09.5 | on the end of life, |
| 1:11.1 | but also how vibrant he is on so many issues about free speech, |
| 1:16.7 | on authoritarianism, on the state of the BBC, and a lot more besides. |
| 1:22.3 | Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:28.3 | The Newsagents. |
| 1:30.3 | Dr. Sam and Rushdie, welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:33.3 | It's a great pleasure to have you in the studio with us. |
| 1:36.3 | So thank you. |
... |
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