Acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie joins journalist Razia Iqbal to take us back in time and discuss three influential touchstones of his life: a silver ingot engraved with an unpartitioned map of India, Bob Dylan’s ‘Mr. Tambourine man’, and James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’, a slightly intimidating but powerful inspiration.
This episode was originally released in 2021 as part of Intelligence Squared’s touchstones series and produced by Head of Podcasts Farah Jassat
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Salman Rushdie: Touchstones with Razia Iqbal

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Andrew O’Hagan has written seven novels, three non-fiction books, a play and many standout journalism pieces on topics ranging from the origins of cryptocurrency to the story of the Grenfell Tower fire. The Booker Prize-nominated novelist's 2020 book Mayflies was adapted for television by the BBC. His latest is an expansive tale of London titled Caledonian Road, named after the thoroughfare that threads through the north of the city. Joining O'Hagan in conversation for this episode is the writer and reviewer Susie Mesure, whose work is often seen in The Sunday Times, The ipaper, Prospect, The Financial Times and more. 
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The Great London Novel, with Andrew O'Hagan

In her latest book, writer and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University, Kate Manne, turns her analytical lens towards prejudice and discrimination against larger bodied people, which she says is on the rise. In Unshrinking: How to Fight Fatphobia, Manne blends the political and the personal to explore what it would require to build a world that views and treats all people as equal, regardless of their body shape. Joining Manne in conversation for this episode is Sophie McBain, contributing editor at New Statesman magazine, who also writes about books and ideas for The Guardian and The Sunday Times. 
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The F Word: Re-evaluating Society's Approach to Body Image, with Kate Manne

Charan Ranganath is the Director of the Memory and Plasticity Program and a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of California at Davis. His new book, Why We Remember: The Science of Memory and How it Shapes Us, is a radical exploration of human engagement with memory, asking new questions about imagination, intention, attention and emotion. Joining Ranganath to discuss it is Alex Wilkins, reporter for New Scientist. 
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Unlocking the Power of Memory, with Charan Ranganath

Annie Jacobsen is an investigative journalist and author whose books probe the periphery of what we know about state warcraft and read like unputdownable thrillers. As a result, a her Pulitzer-nominated work can be found in both journalistic pieces and fiction including Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan tv show. Previous books have covered topics ranging from the CIA to Area 51 and the Second World War. Her latest book is Nuclear War, A Scenario, detailing how a nuclear conflict might unfold sourced from her deep-dive reporting. For this episode, she joins Josh Glancy, editor of the News Review at The Sunday Times, to talk about it.
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Going Nuclear: Could a Catastrophic Conflict Take Place? with Annie Jacobsen

Megan Nolan is an Irish journalist and author who has made a name for herself by cutting to the quick of the most uncomfortable facets of the human experience. She first appeared on Intelligence Squared to discuss her widely acclaimed debut, Acts of Desperation, back in 2022 and she returns now with her latest novel, Ordinary Human Failings, which follows a family and a tabloid journalist embroiled in a harrowing murder, which was recently selected for the Women’s Fiction Prize longlist. In this episode Nolan discusses her recent rise to fame, the nuances involved in depicting intergenerational trauma and her plans for future writing with fellow writer and critic Holly Williams, whose own latest novel is The Start of Something.
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Salman Rushdie: Touchstones with Razia Iqbal

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