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Salman Rushdie on Free Speech, India and How He's Making the Most of Life - The Mishal Husain Show
Dec 4, 2025 The Mishal Husain Show
Salman Rushdie was nearly killed when he was stabbed 15 times on stage in upstate New York in 2022. His injuries were so severe that he lost an eye. It was an attack that came decades after he was first subjected to death threats over his novel, The Satanic Verses.
Once he had recovered, he found he was unable to write fiction. However, after publishing an account of what happened to him, the stories returned, with five brought together in his latest book, The Eleventh Hour.
In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Rushdie talks about free speech, the family connection they both share and the places he’s called home, from India to Britain and the US.
00:00 Introduction from Mishal Husain
01:20 “Don’t waste your time”
03:48 Writing as a form of optimism
05:00 Starting out as a writer
06:35 Meeting E.M. Forster as a teenager
09:15 “You write the story to find out what story you’re writing”
11:25 Writing Midnight’s Children
13:00 The family connection between Salman Rushdie and Mishal Husain
15:00 The women in the family
16:55 Getting together as a family
19:00 Returning to India to write about childhood
23:00 Reclaiming India
25:00 India today and Prime Minister Modi
26:54 “If you’re paying attention you see things coming”
27:15 The family reacts to Midnight’s Children
29:20 A farewell to India?
32:00 Before and after the fatwa
33:28 Defending free speech
35:16 Banning books in the US
39:35 Zohran Mamdani’s campaign
44:20 The next novel
46:00 “I’m a bit clumsier”
Salman Rushdie was nearly killed when he was stabbed 15 times on stage in upstate New York in 2022. His injuries were so severe that he lost an eye. It was an attack that came decades after he was first subjected to death threats over his novel, The Satanic Verses.
Once he had recovered, he found he was unable to write fiction. However, after publishing an account of what happened to him, the stories returned, with five brought together in his latest book, The Eleventh Hour.
In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Rushdie talks about free speech, the family connection they both share and the places he’s called home, from India to Britain and the US.
00:00 Introduction from Mishal Husain
01:20 “Don’t waste your time”
03:48 Writing as a form of optimism
05:00 Starting out as a writer
06:35 Meeting E.M. Forster as a teenager
09:15 “You write the story to find out what story you’re writing”
11:25 Writing Midnight’s Children
13:00 The family connection between Salman Rushdie and Mishal Husain
15:00 The women in the family
16:55 Getting together as a family
19:00 Returning to India to write about childhood
23:00 Reclaiming India
25:00 India today and Prime Minister Modi
26:54 “If you’re paying attention you see things coming”
27:15 The family reacts to Midnight’s Children
29:20 A farewell to India?
32:00 Before and after the fatwa
33:28 Defending free speech
35:16 Banning books in the US
39:35 Zohran Mamdani’s campaign
44:20 The next novel
46:00 “I’m a bit clumsier”