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Latest episodes

Sally Rooney is a writer, not a terrorist

October 24, 2026 · 19 min

In this week’s magazine, we published an open letter, signed by over 150 leading authors, artists and public figures, titled “Sally Rooney is a writer, not a terrorist”. https://www.newstatesman.com/cover-story/2026/10/…
Carlo Rovelli: Can we know how it feels to be someone else?

October 17, 2026 · 51 min

Carlo Rovelli is a physicist. But he’s also so much more than that. Perennially on lists of the world’s top thinkers, Rovelli likes to think and think hard, about the big questions, where physics meets philosophy and art and literature…
Steven Pinker: Common knowledge can start revolutions

October 10, 2026 · 52 min

You know what you know, and I know what I know, but only when we know what the other knows do we have common knowledge. That’s the crux of cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker’s latest work, focusing on the shift from private to public…
How to write when everything’s in flux

October 3, 2026 · 40 min

Every story, they say, needs a beginning, a middle and an end; every story needs a setting. What if that isn’t true? Can you write when everything is in flux, when you are unmoored from places, and when the time is out of joint? Tanjil…
Katherine Rundell: In today's world, wonder is political

September 26, 2026 · 51 min

"We live in a world that deserves unicorns," says Katherine Rundell. If you haven't come across Rundell's work yet, you will soon. She's written over a dozen books, including an award-winning biography of John Donne and the children's…

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James Marriott: what happens when we stop reading?

September 19, 2026 · 38 min

A third of British adults who used to read for pleasure don't anymore. And according to the OECD, literacy itself, not just the habit of it, is declining or stagnating across most of the developed world. In a new book, The New Dark Ages…
Salman Rushdie: "I feel a line of connection with 9/11"

September 11, 2026 · 32 min

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…
RF Kuang is back with her most personal story yet

September 5, 2026 · 55 min

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…
Simon Sebag Montefiore on Israel, Gaza and a Middle East in crisis

September 3, 2026 · 55 min

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…
This is how Ukrainian artists are fighting back

August 22, 2026 · 33 min

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…
Why we must unite working class communities across racial divides

August 8, 2026 · 42 min

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…
Britain is losing its libraries and its cultural memory

August 1, 2026 · 36 min

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…

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About the show

Your weekly review of culture, life and society from the New Statesman, hosted by Tanjil Rashid. Featuring interviews with literary and artistic greats, reviews of the latest cultural moments, and in-depth discussion to help you understand how culture shapes society – and our place in it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.