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Culture / Podcast

Meet the Writers

Want to know more about the authors behind your favourite books? Tune in to discover the methods of – and inspiration behind – some of the world’s most exciting writers. Every Sunday, Georgina Godwin hosts an in-depth discussion with the person behind the prose.

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Sandip Roy at the 2025 Kolkata Literary Meet:

Sandip Roy’s writing career started when he pivoted from software engineering to broadcasting. Currently a columnist and podcaster, he’s been a longtime commentator on NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’, the most-listened-to radio programme in the US, and an editor with Pacific News Service and New America Media in San Francisco. After returning to India over the span of 10 years, Roy also sent more than 500 weekly dispatches from Kolkata for public radio station KALW in San Francisco. His debut novel, ‘Don’t Let Him Know’, won a Likho Award in India and was honour title for the Asian Pacific American Literature Award in the US. It was also longlisted for the DSC South Asia Prize and the Green Carnation Prize. Roy speaks to Georgina Godwin at the 2025 Kolkata Literary Meet and discusses his early days in the post-9/11 US media, his award-winning novel and the evolution of Indian literature.

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4829 Feb 2025
29 min

Sandip Roy at the 2025 Kolkata Literary Meet 

Sandip Roy’s writing career started when he pivoted from software engineering to broadcasting. Currently a columnist and podcaster, he’s been a longtime commentator on NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’, the most-listened-to radio programme in the US, and an editor with Pacific News Service and New America Media in San Francisco. After returning to India over the span of 10 years, Roy also sent more than 500 weekly dispatches from Kolkata for public radio station KALW in San Francisco. His debut novel, ‘Don’t Let Him Know’, won a Likho Award in India and was honour title for the Asian Pacific American Literature Award in the US. It was also longlisted for the DSC South Asia Prize and the Green Carnation Prize. Roy speaks to Georgina Godwin at the 2025 Kolkata Literary Meet and discusses his early days in the post-9/11 US media, his award-winning novel and the evolution of Indian literature.

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4812 Feb 2025
27 min

Angelo Tijssens: from the silver screen to the short novel  

Angelo Tijssens’ screenwriting credits include ‘Girl’ (2018), about a trans ballerina, and ‘Close’ (2022), an Oscar-nominated film that follows the friendship between a pair of 13-year-old boys. In Tijssens’ first foray into literary fiction, ‘The Edges’, an unnamed narrator returns to his hometown to settle his mother’s affairs following her death. While there he finds comfort in the arms of a former lover. It’s a tale of young love and deep emotion sharply contrasted with an abusive childhood and an adulthood lived on the edges. Told in searing prose that grips with the tender assuredness of a seasoned stylist, ‘The Edges’ is no ordinary debut. Tijssens speaks with Georgina Godwin about his career and the catharsis of writing literary fiction.

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48026 Jan 2025
27 min

Maggie Mackellar: the healing power of nature 

For Maggie Mackellar, writing was never in her plans. She initially wanted to be a vet or mountain climber before eventually settling into a career as an academic. Mackellar’s love for writing came while studying a PhD in history at the University of Sydney. Now, as a writer and historian living on the east coast of Tasmania, Maggie writes the much-loved newsletter The Sit Spot and is the author of five books, including ‘Graft’, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and longlisted for the Stella Prize in 2024. Joining Georgina Godwin during Adelaide Writer’s Week 2024, she speaks about her upbringing, motherhood and her career so far.

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47919 Jan 2025
32 min

Caryl Phillips’s snapshot of the Windrush Generation 

 Booker Prize shortlisted writer Caryl Phillips is one of contemporary literature’s master stylists. His latest novel, ‘Another Man in the Street’, chronicles a West Indian man’s journey to England as part of the Windrush Generation and his struggles therein. As we follow this engrossing emigre from Saint Kitts to London with dreams of becoming a journalist, Phillips paints a gritty landscape of 1960s Notting Hill and a vivid portrait of exile, resistance and belonging. He speaks to Georgina Godwin on his upbringing in Leeds, his connections to Saint Kitts and his thoughts on the treatment of the Windrush Generation.

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47812 Jan 2025
30 min

Charles Hecker: Russia’s zero-sum game 

Charles Hecker’s 40-year career has seen him travelling and reporting from both the Soviet Union and Russia. He has worked as a journalist and a geopolitical risk consultant, and has lived in Miami, Moscow and now London. His new book, ‘Zero Sum: The Arc of International Business in Russia’, charts the rollercoaster story of Western capitalists and their misadventures in post-communist Russia. He sits down with Georgina Godwin to share details of his upbringing, reading at the University of Pennsylvania and his foray into geopolitics.

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4775 Jan 2025
27 min

This year’s highlight: Zeinab Badawi 

“Education for girls is the family business,” says Sudanese-British broadcast journalist Zeinab Badawi. She tells us about her family and career, and what it’s like to interview the world’s most notable politicians on BBC’s ‘Hard Talk’. Badawi explains how her groundbreaking TV series, ‘The History of Africa’, for which she visited 34 African countries over seven years, led her to write her debut book ‘An African History of Africa’.

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47629 Dec 2024
31 min

The women behind Charleston Literary Festival 

We look back at the Charleston Literary Festival in South Carolina. Its roots lie in Charleston House in the UK, home of radical writers, artists and thinkers. Georgina Godwin speaks to executive director Sarah Moriarty and artistic director Diana Reich about the origin of the festival. Plus: development director Suzanne Pollak, co-founder of the Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits, shares her thoughts on the reading community in the US.

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47522 Dec 2024
36 min

Julie Taymor: the pride of writing for film and stage 

Julie Taymor is a tour de force when it comes to penning scripts for theatre, film and opera. Her 1997 stage adaptation of Disney’s ‘The Lion King’ secured 11 Tony Award nominations, including a win for best direction. It is now the third-longest-running show on Broadway of all time and is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Her 1999 directorial debut, ‘Titus’, earned her an Oscar nomination for best costume design, while her 2002 film, ‘Frida’, led to five nominations. Here she joins Georgina Godwin to speak about her stellar career, working with international theatre companies and her upbringing in 1960s America.  

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47415 Dec 2024
29 min

Lindsey Hilsum’s world in poems 

As Channel 4’s international editor, Lindsey Hilsum has seen war in six continents across more than two decades. As a witness to the catastrophic effects of conflict, Lindsey would carry works of poetry with her to try and make sense of the world. She speaks to Georgina Godwin about her book, ‘I Brought the War with Me”, which collates her favourite poems alongside memories of her own work, whether speaking to child soldiers in Uganda, soldiers in Ukraine or giving testimonies of the Rwandan genocide.

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4738 Dec 2024
28 min

Namita Gokhale 

Namita Gokhale is the author of 25 works of fiction and non-fiction. Her oeuvre spans various genres including novels, short stories, Himalayan studies, mythology, anthologies, books for young readers and a play. She speaks to Georgina Godwin about her childhood, illustrious career and being the recipient of many awards.

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4721 Dec 2024
37 min

2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2024: Richard Flanagan 

After winning the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, Richard Flanagan joins Georgina Godwin to discuss ‘Question 7’, his life and career, and his plans after winning the prize. Described by Peter Carey as maybe just being “the most significant work of Australian art in the last 100 years”, ‘Question 7’ is a love letter to his island home, his parents and the terrible past that delivered him to that place. 

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47124 Nov 2024
30 min

The musical adventures of Mike Batt 

Mike Batt is known for raising the popularity of one of the most well-known British novelty pop acts of the 1970s, The Wombles. Batt wrote and composed the theme song to the children’s TV series, which led to the rising popularity of ‘The Wombling Song’. Batt has also worked with artists such as Katie Melua and others on his Dramatico Label, and co-wrote 'The Phantom of The Opera’. He sits down with Georgina Godwin to discuss his memoir, ‘The Closest Thing to Crazy: My Life of Musical Adventures’.

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47017 Nov 2024
30 min

Yulia Mykytenko and her hope for Ukraine 

As the first female commander in the Ukrainian military, Yulia Mykytenko has seen the horrors of war. Yulia is both a squadron leader and a role model for women wanting to fight for their country on the frontlines and in the background. Telling Lara Marlowe of her entry into Ukraine’s forces, ‘How Good It Is I Have No Fear of Dying’ recounts her student days giving out flyers for an independent Ukraine up to her current military service in the face of Russia’s invasion. Yulia and Lara speak to Georgina Godwin about their collaborative writing process, the uses of poetry, hope for Ukraine’s future and Volodymyr Zelensky’s great plan to win the war.  

 

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46910 Nov 2024
33 min

Jan Gradvall’s ties with Abba 

As one of Sweden’s most prominent music journalists, Jan Gradvall has a close and fond relationship with his nation’s top musical export, Abba. In ‘The Book of Abba: Melancholy Undercover’, Gradvall explores the love, heartbreak and connections between each member of the pop group, from Eurovision to beyond. He sits down with Georgina Godwin to discuss his journalistic career, his former role as head of the Swedish Music Hall of Fame and the possibility of the pop group coming back again.

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4683 Nov 2024
29 min

Gabriel Gatehouse 

We look at conspiracy theories that have emerged through US politics with Gabriel Gatehouse, author of ‘The Coming Storm’. The podcaster and former international editor of the BBC’s ‘Newsnight’ joins Georgina Godwin to discuss his career so far, his thoughts about the two major presidential candidates and the underbelly of the internet, which is host to fringe forums such as 4chan and QAnon.

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