The Mishal Husain Show

For more than 30 years, the Indian-born writer Amitav Ghosh has built a global following with novels that draw on deep historical research.
But his latest offering, Ghost-Eye, is more esoteric. The plot moves back and forth between India and the US, using past lives to explore the ties between the personal and the political.
The plot centers on a psychiatrist treating a 3-year-old who shocks her family by insisting she remembers a past life in a fishing community.
In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Ghosh explains why he’s finding it harder to write nowadays, how the memories of his childhood came flooding back during the Covid pandemic, why he sees capitalism as an obstacle to protecting the environment and thinks India has lost its way diplomatically.
Read this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

03:37 - “She had a near-death experience”
05:37 - Reincarnated past lives
08:05 - “The world has lost all its wonder”
08:28 - Growing up in Kolkata
10:56 - Kolkata and New York are the “opposite ends of the telescope”
11:44 - “I really learned to think against the grain”
12:13 - Creating a “bubble of tranquility” to write
12:32 - Writing from “within the crisis”
14:45 - India has lost its way diplomatically
16:25 - Watching Zohran Mamdani grow up
19:12 - India and China
23:11 - Writing a story to be read in 100 years
27:31 - Writing books by hand
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We’re now eight weeks on from the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, a conflict that’s been watched with increasing alarm by Wendy Sherman, architect of the 2015 nuclear deal between the US and Iran and a former deputy secretary of state.

Having spent years across the table from Iranian officials, she sees a far more volatile landscape today. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, she shares how her concerns go beyond the Middle East and explains how China and Russia are beneficiaries of the war.

Read this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview
03:13 - Iran’s “culture of resistance”
05:00 - “The regime now is more hardline”
05:33 - Iran won’t make concessions “easily”
09:38 - Control of the Strait of Hormuz
10:36 - “They have not bombed away all of Iran’s knowledge”
14:35 - Negotiating with Iran
17:13 - Negotiations aren’t about trust
23:47 - What might a US deal with Iran look like?
25:14 - Iran will want the US “out of the Middle East”
29:10 - China is “stronger”
32:50 Trump’s visit to China
41:19 - “I have found myself angrier”

Contact The Mishal Husain Show [email protected]

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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A new and radical take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet is out in US cinemas. The force behind it is actor, writer, producer and musician Riz Ahmed. He says the 400-year-old story has never felt more current.

Ahmed, Oscar-nominated for Sound of Metal and star of the Oscar-winning live-action short The Long Goodbye, has a new series on Prime Video called Bait. It’s a black comedy about an actor on the cusp of a life-changing role as James Bond.
In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Ahmed talks about creativity and politics, discusses his upcoming movie with Tom Cruise and how becoming a father affected his acting.

Read this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

02:32 - Hamlet “never goes out of fashion"
03:39 - “The old order is falling apart”
05:00 - “Is it the world that’s gone crazy or is it me?”
07:50 - The dream of playing Hamlet
09:51 - To be, or not to be is “misunderstood”
13:40 - “It's authentic. I'm not acting”
17:00 - Bait “it’s a very personal show”
17:24 - Why Barbara Broccoli said yes to using Bond
21:43 - Looking for acceptance
22:34 - “Culture works in cycles”
25:04 - Acting was an extension of real life
28:20 - “I don’t like being pinned down”
28:42 - SNL UK
30:01 - Working with Tom Cruise
32:21 - “My weekends are really simple”
Contact The Mishal Husain Show [email protected]
Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After almost six weeks of war, how did Pakistan manage to get the US and Iran to talk?

Amid a still-fragile situation in the Middle East, that question sits at the heart of this conversation with Maleeha Lodhi. She has served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, as well as to the UK and United Nations.

For her, the Islamabad talks mark a moment of wider significance, as the middle powers demonstrate their capacity to influence geopolitics.

Read this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

02:55 - Pakistan as a peacebroker
05:00 - Field Marshal Asim Munir and President Trump
07:49 - Pakistan and Iran
10:00 - Economic pain in Pakistan
13:40 - Israel and Lebanon
14:45 - “I'd like to be optimistic”
19:30 - US miscalculations
22:00 - “US dominance is fading”
23:00 Middle powers can “shape geopolitics”
23:53 - Is China a winner?
29:00 - Trump’s Board of Peace
29:50 - “Common ground can be found”
Contact The Mishal Husain Show [email protected]
Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lionel Shriver has often tackled complex or contentious issues in her fiction. From school shootings in We Need to Talk About Kevin to economic collapse in The Mandibles.
Her new novel, A Better Life, is the story of a family home taken over by outsiders. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Shriver discusses the sociological concerns behind the story, which she says is a metaphor for the increase in undocumented US immigration during the Biden administration.
Shriver is a regular columnist for The Spectator, a conservative UK magazine. The link between the writing styles in that publication and her novel also feature in this episode.
In the written version of this conversation, you’ll find more information on how Mishal Husain researched and prepared for this interview, including her own notes, data, historical context and further quotes from Lionel Shriver. www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview
02:27 - Inspiration for A Better Life
03:39 - Extended adolescence
06:32 - A metaphor for America
10:21 - Shriver’s political journey
12:42 - Declining populations
17:02 - ICE tactics
20:34 - From North Carolina to Northern Ireland
22:57 - Rebelling against church
24:30 - Transgender debate
30:07 - Why Shriver left the UK
32:26 - Muslim immigration
35:32 - Novels versus columns
40:12 - Writing for shorter attention spans
41:30 - Shriver’s recovery from illness
Contact The Mishal Husain Show [email protected]
Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.