HeyJaredThe New Society | culture from the New Statesman
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…
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 10
- Latest publication
- Sep 11, 2026
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- Jul 4, 2026
Latest episodes
Salman Rushdie: "I feel a line of connection with 9/11" (opens the original)
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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
RF Kuang is back with her most personal story yet (opens the original)
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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 (opens the original)
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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 (opens the original)
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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 (opens the original)
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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.
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