{"podcast":{"title":"Firing Line with Margaret Hoover","slug":"firing-line-with-margaret-hoover-3927052","podcast_index_feed_id":3927052,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/59ca458c/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://www.pbs.org/wnet/firing-line/","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/14964283/14964283-1623421354314-dc63e15d430e3.jpg","author":"Firing Line With Margaret Hoover","episode_count":217,"summary":"Author, feminist, gay rights activist and political commentator Margaret Hoover leads a rigorous exchange of ideas with America’s political and cultural newsmakers. In the spirit of William F. Buckley Jr.’s iconic “Firing Line,” Hoover engages with thought leaders on the pivotal issues moving the nation forward. New podcast episodes drop weekly, and sometimes more, featuring bonus content you won’t hear on TV.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-05T10:18:37.407750+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/firing-line-with-margaret-hoover-3927052"},"episode":{"title":"Salman Rushdie’s second act: 'My interest now is to lead the life that is mine to lead'","slug":"salman-rushdie-s-second-act-my-interest-now-is-to-lead-the-life-that-is-mine-to-lead","published_at":"2026-09-05T00:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/firing-line-with-margaret-hoover-3927052/salman-rushdie-s-second-act-my-interest-now-is-to-lead-the-life-that-is-mine-to-lead","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/firing-line-with-margaret-hoover-3927052","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/firing-line/episodes/Salman-Rushdies-second-act-My-interest-now-is-to-lead-the-life-that-is-mine-to-lead-e3obnca","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/59ca458c/podcast/play/125213514/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-8-4%2F5e5d8135-5d71-a61f-4b33-61a6a7568edd.mp3","summary":"Author Salman Rushdie reflects on the “second act” he nearly didn’t get: surviving the 2022 attempt on his life, reclaiming his life and returning to fiction. He discusses the new documentary "Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie," how the attack changed his writing and his relationship to mortality, and why his creative process has become more improvisational with age. Rushdie also reflects on Jorge Luis Borges, blindness and finding “another way of seeing”; Iran’s decades-old fatwa against him; Palestinian statehood; and the rise of Hindu nationalism in Narendra Modi’s India. Twenty-five years after 9/11, he considers the persistence of religious extremism, the fight for free speech in America and what he ultimately hopes will define his legacy: not the controversies or attacks, but the books he leaves behind. Support for Firing Line with Margaret Hoover is provided by Robert Granieri, Vanessa and Henry Cornell, The Margaret and Daniel Loeb Foundation, The Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation, The Meadowlark Foundation, The Philip I Kent Foundation, Anne & Edward Lamont, and Jared Stone.","meta_description":"Author Salman Rushdie reflects on the “second act” he nearly didn’t get: surviving the 2022 attempt on his life, reclaiming his life and returning to fict…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2559,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/firing-line-with-margaret-hoover-3927052/episodes/salman-rushdie-s-second-act-my-interest-now-is-to-lead-the-life-that-is-mine-to-lead/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/firing-line-with-margaret-hoover-3927052/salman-rushdie-s-second-act-my-interest-now-is-to-lead-the-life-that-is-mine-to-lead.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}