Suketu Mehta is the New York-based author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found which won the Kiriyama Prize and the Hutch Crossword Award, and was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, the Lettre Ulysses Prize, the BBC4 Samuel Johnson Prize, and the Guardian First Book Award. Mehta’s work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Granta, Harper’s Magazine, Time, and Newsweek, and has been featured on NPR’s “Fresh Air” and “All Things Considered.” Mehta is an Associate Professor of Journalism at New York University. He has written original screenplays for films, including “New York, I Love You.” Mehta was born in Calcutta and raised in Bombay and New York. He is a graduate of New York University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. CONSOLIDATED FROM SUKETUMEHTA.COM
In Episode 10, Hans and Molly interview Suketu Mehta — a famed author and journalist specializing in works on the subject of immigration. In this episode, he discusses his career trajectory and his work, including his awarded book Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. He then dives into his vast knowledge on immigration, exploring historical examples of problems caused by artificial borders, and describing current events that are likely to cause problematic mass migration in the future. This leads into a conversation about the concept of “othering” — what it is, why we do it, and how we can stop it.
Show Links
Below are links to all the items we discussed during our conversation with Suketu.
Other Resources
Revisionist History podcast
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
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