Our Podcast
Stories Seldom Told
A podcast by Tharoor Associates founder, Smita Tharoor
Over nine seasons, Stories Seldom Told has featured numerous fascinating guests, including actress Vidya Balan, composer Nitin Sawhney, historian William Dalrymple, writer Eliza Griswold, and poet Anthony Anaxagorou.
Tharoor Associates founder and podcast host, Smita Tharoor, writes:
“When I arrived in London from India in the 1980s, I carried a strong sense of identity and a belief in the world's inclusiveness. It was through sharing stories that I recognised how fortunate I was to have had a non-judgmental, liberal, all-embracing upbringing. I was spared some of the Unconscious Biases that often shape our perspectives.
Our personal narratives, shaped by our experiences, influence how we make judgments and form opinions. While many of these judgments are benign, occasionally, snap conclusions can lead to negative outcomes for others or ourselves. A single experience can result in a lifelong belief, or obstacle.
Knowledge is power, and through learning and reflection, we can drive positive change within ourselves. Since founding Tharoor Associates in 2009, I have had the privilege of hearing remarkable stories from around the world, shared in the context of understanding Conscious Inclusion. Despite cultural differences, these stories reveal that we all share similar experiences.
Through this podcast, I’ve had the honour of speaking with people globally in countries that I know well and countries I have never visited. Mexico, Russia, Afghanistan, Trinidad, New Zealand are just some of the places. They share their stories and the impact these experiences have had on their life’s narrative, providing valuable lessons for us all.
To affect real change, we must first examine ourselves and move beyond possible damaging patterns of behaviour. The assumptions we make are internal. To change any relationship, we need to explore our stories and ourselves.”
All episodes from Season 8 and Season 9 are available below. Visit Spotify or Apple Podcasts for our full back catalogue.
Season 9 (2023-2024)
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"Now the simple question is very clear, Smita. Just for my audience to really rethink about this. From criminalisation to decriminalisation to re-criminalisation. How do you accept why your society is so rigid in deciding your identity? Lakhs of people have been killed, have been assassinated. Even in the United States of America or different parts of the world, people who are black, lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex people are being killed."
Akkai Padmashali is a social and political activist, and the founder of Ondede, an organization dedicated to advocating for intersex, transgender, and sexuality minorities. She has also authored a memoir titled A Small Step in a Long Journey.
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"I also think that if you're positive, more people are likely to help you when you need help.
Because they think, Oh, I'm having somebody who's benefiting from this, you know? Oh, yes. They don't want to come and see an old lady. She sits in her chair and wounds all the time."Annette Smith (née Julien) was born in December 1927 on the small Caribbean island of Grenada into a privileged family. She received her education in Trinidad before returning to Grenada, where she completed a year of nursing. At just 18, Annette embarked on her first trip abroad, traveling alone to England.
In 1946, following the end of World War II, Annette became the only Black nurse at the Guildford Royal Surrey Hospital. She later married a Londoner and had three children before resuming her career as a community nurse. Annette has a wide range of interests, including poetry, singing, the arts, and sports, and she continues to be an active and positive member of her community.
In her 50s, Annette was diagnosed with Bell's palsy, a condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face, resulting in a temporary droop. Despite this, her positive attitude towards life remains unaffected.
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"I went back to Calcutta and I found a little magazine where they had published an issue on the Bengal famine. And in that issue, there were 16 interviews of people who were witnesses of the family, who were still alive, they had their photographs, and testimony. And these people are in their 90s, one person was 112 years old. And I just could not believe that these people were alive to tell the stories. These are just ordinary people who were farmers in the countryside. What happened when the rice disappeared, what they did, how they sold their house and home, fled for their lives, many of them went into the jungles in the Sunderbans, with the tigers.
When I read those stories, I really did not want to read them. Because in a way that was shocking to me, but in another way, there were stories I wish did not exist, because the fact that they existed, meant that there were tens, hundreds, thousands of people who were out there who had stories to tell, who had simply not been asked, and one of the people who had not asked them was me."
Kushanava Choudhury is the author of Epic City: The World on the Streets of Calcutta (Bloomsbury, 2017). With a background in academia and journalism, he has worked in both India and the US. Most recently, he served as the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. Over the past decade, Choudhury has spent considerable time living in India. He is currently working on a book that delves into his experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic in New Delhi and the profound impact it had on him.
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"I suddenly felt that I don't belong, till then I felt that I was a part of this group. And at that moment, for me, it was like, no, I don't belong. I don't feel that I would want after the two got over to continue. You know, my friendship, you know, because very often people say that it's important to have discourse, have discussed with people. And then if you really think that I've spent my lifetime doing that, and at some point, you're exhausted in constantly trying to validate your identity. And now I'm at a point of life where I am like, it's your shortcoming. And it's not my job in life. It's not my duty, to spend my time energy effort to constantly educate people, about learning to respect someone else."
Onir, born Anirban Dhar in Samchi, Bhutan, is an acclaimed Indian filmmaker, producer, screenwriter, and editor. Growing up, he spent much of his childhood immersed in cinema. Onir received a scholarship to study film editing at SFB/TTC in Berlin but later returned to India, where he built a diverse career as an editor, scriptwriter, art director, music album producer, and song/music video director.
In 1992, Onir directed and produced his first documentary, Falling Hero, about painter Bijon Chaudhary. He is best known for his film My Brother... Nikhil, which stars Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla, and Purab Kohli. This groundbreaking film, based on the life of Dominic D'Souza, was one of the first mainstream Hindi movies to address AIDS and same-sex relationships.
Onir won the Indian National Film Award for Best Film in Hindi for the anthology I AM in 2011. This film, one of the first and largest crowd-funded and crowd-sourced projects in India, tackles issues like single motherhood, child sexual abuse, displacement, and LGBTQI rights.
He has received several accolades, including the Likho Award (Trailblazer Award), the Diversity Award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne in 2019, and the Engendered Spirit of Independent Cinema Award at the Engendered Human Rights Film Festival in Delhi in 2020.
In June 2022, Onir completed shooting PINE CONE, a queer love story written by Ashwini Malik and Onir himself. The film, currently in post-production, is loosely based on Onir’s memoir I Am Onir and I Am Gay, co-written with his sister Irene Dhar Malik and published by Penguin Viking.
In August 2023, PINE CONE received the "Rainbow Warrior Award" and the "Rainbow Stories Award" at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, given by the Minister of Equality, Australia. It also received an Honorary Mention for Best Feature at the International South Asian Film Festival in Canada and premiered at The KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival in June 2023.
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"What would you do if you had a ring of invisibility?
And the children will say, 'Well, I would rob a bank. I would go into a shop and steal chocolate. I would take my favorite packet of crisps. I would go in and steal money out of my mommy's purse. I would do all this, and I do not moralize with the federal budget.'
Yep, I will turn and write it up on the board. And then I say, 'Well, what should you do?'"
Kevin Mc Arevey is the Principal of Holy Cross Boys’ School in the Ardoyne area of Northern Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has been teaching in the Ardoyne area for 26 years, with the last 10 years as Principal.
Kevin has authored a book titled Think Think Respond (slow thinking) and TTR (fast thinking), which is available for purchase at the school for £20. It’s a comprehensive book, with all proceeds going to Holy Cross Boys’ School. Kevin is also the main protagonist in the documentary film Young Plato, which explores themes of hope, peace, and reconciliation. You can stream Young Plato by renting or purchasing it on Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play.
The Troubles, also known as the Northern Ireland conflict, was a violent sectarian conflict from about 1968 to 1998 in Northern Ireland. It was primarily between Protestant unionists (loyalists), who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, and Roman Catholic nationalists (republicans), who wanted Northern Ireland to join the Republic of Ireland. The conflict resulted in approximately 3,600 deaths and over 30,000 injuries. A peaceful solution was reached in 1998, leading to a power-sharing arrangement in the Northern Ireland Assembly, involving both the United Kingdom and Irish governments.
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"People around me, including my family, they believe that one day, a miracle will happen to me and that will treat & cure my disability. But I don't want that right now. I have accepted myself through my disability. I really care for empowerment; I want to be empowered and I want other people with disabilities also be empowered."
Nematullah Ahangosh, 28, is from Afghanistan. He completed his schooling in Kabul and from 2014 to 2018 worked as a young member with a group of peace activists in the city. He then went to Chennai, India, to pursue a Bachelor of Social Work at the Madras School of Social Work, where he was awarded the Budding Social Worker Award and the Best Library User Award in 2021. Following this, he completed a one-year diploma course in leadership and social entrepreneurship in Trivandrum, Kerala.
Since 2017, Nemat has been writing poems in English, focusing on the daily lives of refugees, women, and overall life in Afghanistan. He is also studying for an MA in Conflict, Security, and Development at the University of Sussex. Besides his academic pursuits, Nemat is a skilled swimmer and coach. He is the founder of Stretch More, a mobile empowerment parkour initiative designed to help people with disabilities survive natural and man-made disasters. Parkour is an athletic discipline in which practitioners aim to move from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible.
Nemat’s first poetry book, The Color of Peace, will be published by Haley’s Publishing, a company based in Massachusetts, USA. His ambition is to bring about change in the future leadership of Afghanistan, particularly in the social sector.
"Of Women and Courage", By Nematullah Ahangosh
that night when curtains were dancing
in the presence of moonlight
nobody was watching
frogs and dogs outside
creating a poetic jingle
and anarchic music
'woof, woof' 'ribbit, ribbit'
'woof, woof' 'ribbit, ribbit'
'woof, ribbit, ribbit', woof'
this moment!
this small happy moment
did not last, was taken away! -
“I have worked in Haiti over a 30 year period, going back and forth. And the reason that I went to Haiti in the first place is that I had covered a war for two years in Africa, in Zimbabwe, and I've worked throughout Africa. And I love that continent so much when I'm there. I feel that I belong there in a way that I can't really explain, except when I'm standing on the African soil. I feel this silent roar, come up through my body. And I know that sounds weird, a silent roar, but I just love that continent, because I belong there. And I feel that very deeply.”
Maggie Steber is an internationally renowned documentary photographer, educator, and photo editor. Her work has been featured in major magazines, newspapers, and book anthologies, as well as national and international exhibitions. Over her illustrious career, she has worked in 72 countries, specializing in telling the stories of underrepresented people, and her photographs have been showcased in 70 exhibitions across 35 countries.
Steber is best known for her photo essays in National Geographic Magazine and her humanistic documentation of Haiti. She published Dancing on Fire: Photographs from Haiti with Aperture. Her nine-year project documenting her mother’s melancholic voyage through memory loss was made into a multimedia presentation by MediaStorm and won a Webby Award.
Throughout her career, Maggie has held several prestigious positions, including picture editor for the Associated Press, contract photographer for Newsweek, and Director of Photography at The Miami Herald. She is also a member of VII Photo Agency.
Maggie has received numerous awards, including being a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Guggenheim Foundation fellow, and a recipient of a Medal of Honor for her contributions to journalism.
To see some of Maggie’s moving photographs, visit her website. Maggie currently resides in Miami, Florida, USA.
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"At 28, my marriage broke. So those days, to say that you're divorced was very difficult. At this point. My son was about ten, my daughter was about nine. They were young and I thank God that my mother and my sister was there to give me support and help me and you know, be there for me because I had to keep going for training. But to lift my head high and walk in Agra, the place where I was in was difficult."
In 1979, a 23-year-old mother of two from a small town made a spontaneous decision at an Army party to join a skydiving course in Agra, unknowingly making history. Rachel Thomas became the first Indian woman to compete in a skydiving competition for India in 1987. She ended her remarkable career in 2002 by skydiving from 7,000 ft over the North Pole, becoming the first Indian woman to do so. Throughout her career, Rachel completed 650 jumps in 18 countries.
Rachel has received numerous accolades, including the National Adventure Sports Award, and she is also a TEDx speaker. In 2005, the Government of India honored her with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award in India.
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"One of the things that always struck me is it takes a village to raise a child. Right? And that's how we grew up. We had a whole neighbourhood bringing us up, we could stroll into anybody's house and be fed by some aunty or the other. Right, and the parents didn't worry. Now to the elderly, it takes a community to transition the elder into death. It takes a community you need the support expanded. You need, you know, you need all the support of not just family in your old age. I think it needs a community. I think it needs the community of elderly who can empathize, who know exactly what you're going through and it's not the younger who can empathize, it's the same age."
When Shubha Priya was in her teens, she heard Maurice Chevalier singing "Oh, I'm Glad That I'm Not Young Anymore!" in the movie Gigi. Struck by the conviction in his voice, she wondered how growing old could ever be joyful. Fast forward to her 60s, Shubha moved with her mother to what most people referred to as an "old age home." The stark reality of aging was evident all around her, a daily reminder of Shakespeare's vision: sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. After her mother's passing in 2021, Shubha chose to stay on at the old age home.
Between her teenage years and her time at the old age home, Shubha served as a Creative Director in leading advertising agencies around the world. She is now fulfilling her long-lost dreams of being an author and musician. She wrote, illustrated, and designed a book of satirical verses for adults called Whimsical Brew.
Shubha hopes to keep dementia at bay by learning to play the piano!
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"When I joined the Army, at the age of 20, I was serving in Northern Ireland, leading a platoon of soldiers. I then went to university, a very different experience. And then I started writing. I had a very traditional upbringing. I went to boarding school public school, my father was a church warden in a very traditional British family. So, when I joined the Army, of course, my mindset would have been, were the good guys.
You know, in Northern Ireland, it was the time of the Troubles. We were there, and essentially, stopping Catholics from attacking Protestants and vice versa. And the sense of, I'm part of an organization that is here primarily, to benefit people. And my whole upbringing, you know, you mentioned empire and communism sucks, like, I guess up to that point, my whole education had been, you know, England, Britain, a good place. We've done good around the world."
Robert Newcome is best known for his novel The Name Beneath the Stone. His diverse career includes roles as a British Army officer, a retail manager, and a management consultant specializing in leadership training. During the lockdown, he began posting a 500-word story every Saturday, a practice that led him to pursue writing full-time. Many of his novels are set against the backdrop of war.
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"The good thing of the gift was I got a lot of time alone. I literally built a world inside me. I could imagine things and, I suppose while it was undiagnosed ADHD back then, it was always somebody who had 1000 windows open in this house of life. So, imagine you have all the windows of the house open. And there is a lot of wind coming in, sunlight coming in, this is a house, my house is life. And my head was like that. So, I grew my own beliefs, I started to have deeper self-awareness and reflection. I was always that child who was far more aware and cognizant of internal chatter than perhaps other people."
Sindhu Wadhwa describes herself as a "glorious mess," a back-bencher mum, and a cheerleader wife. She proudly wears her ADHD diagnosis like a crown on good days but sometimes feels like a reluctant adult. Recently, she has embraced the role of a cat lady. With 19 years of experience as a clinical psychologist and practicing psychotherapist, Sindhu currently leads the therapy team at MindSmith India, a premium brain health platform. She also serves as a mental health expert on the advisory panel for TRIOMPH (Transplant Recipients of India and Organ Failure Patients - a Movement to Provide Hope), a national support group for organ donation. Sindhu enjoys writing and speaking on women's mental health.
Season 8 (2023)
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“And hence, I am giving you a compliment that in spite of your grey hair, you look amazing. That you must have looked so much better when you were younger. And that’s another unconscious bias that we automatically assume that youth is prettier. And I have to agree that youth is beautiful anyway, but to think that you looked better then is what I’m getting to…”
Seema Anand is a mythologist, a storyteller with a focus on women’s narratives and a specialty in the erotic literature of ancient India.
Seema believes that the narrative of the Kama Sutra was deliberately silenced. This was the first text to give women a platform of equality. It was a brave book that tried to change the position of women in society.
Her seminal work ‘The Arts of Seduction’, is a commentary on the metaphors and lost narratives of the Kama Sutra is an effort to reclaim the book for its intended purpose.
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“So, when you get embedded in a network, what happens is your freedom to think wider than what the interests of the network represents is compromised. What happens is that your faithfulness to a tradition becomes unfortunately, unfaithfulness to your own personal integrity. Because there are very many questions with which you’re struggling in your life. And no system in the world, no religious institution or structure in the world can accommodate those questions, much less answer them.”
Professor Valson Thampu is a former teacher and academic administrator in higher education, as well as a theologian and freelance contributor to the national print media. He was a member of the Delhi Minorities Commission (2000-2004) and the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (2004-2007). He was nominated twice to the National Integration Council (2004-2014) under the category, ‘distinguished citizens of India’. He now lives in retirement in Kerala, South India, actively addressing issues pertaining to religious reform. His recent book titled Beyond Religion: Imaging a New Humanity is the manifesto of his reformist agenda.
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“And I started to analyse where these tics were coming from, you know, tics in Italian – and I can’t speak Italian. So I spoke to one of the guys who I work with, and he said, is it possible that when I was young, everything that I’ve heard all the words that I’ve absorbed, actually remain inside my head? I never forget them, but maybe lost the ability to recall them. But everything is there as a memory and Tourette Syndrome, the vocal tics, has an ability to access those in a rapid sort of speed.”
Paul Stevenson is a lived experience ambassador at Genius Within and a public speaker. Genius Within is a social enterprise established in the UK to help neurodivergent people unlock their talents, whilst acknowledging and celebrating that this diversity forms part of the rich tapestry of human experience.
They advise governments on policy and provide consultancy to businesses, driving systemic change that allows all employees to thrive. They provide in-work support in the form of coaching, training and assessments. They also support neurodiverse/neurodivergent thinkers who are not in the workplace, who might be studying, unemployed or in the criminal justice system.
As Paul says of himself “I have Tourette Syndrome- it doesn’t have me! I’m not broken and don’t need fixing.”
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“And so our heroes as youth were not doctors and lawyers, or engineers, or politicians. They were quite literally like mobsters, and mafia types. Because those were individuals in our neighbourhood who had any kind of social standing influence and access to capital. They also knew how to make money, and they often provided opportunities, both financially and socially, for everyone in the neighbourhood. And so those are my early heroes. And often how they’re portrayed in the media, you know the common conception, as he’s kind of like ruthless, cold hearted. Lacking a moral compass kind of characters, who just have it on neighbourhoods and manipulate people and destroy society.”
Jodi Anderson Jr. is the CEO and Co-founder of Rézme, an EdTech platform that facilitates economic and social mobility through specialized recruiting, professional development, and personalized learning for justice-impacted citizens. After serving ten years in juvenile and adult prisons, Jodi earned his BA in Political Science and an MA in Education from Stanford University.
His non-profit PipeDreamers helps to coordinate diversion programming in the Bay Area while bringing coding and design courses to youth incarcerated in juvenile facilities across Northern California. As an alumnus of Cornell University’s Prison Education Program, he continues to be an advocate for criminal justice reform and access to higher education.
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“Sometimes beautiful people are less likely to be heard. One study has suggested that highly attractive people are at a disadvantage in the hiring process when the decision makers are the same sex for example, but highly attractive people of the same sex were judged as less talented than average looking people.”
Dr. Oshrit Birvadker is a foreign and defense policy expert, with expertise in the area of India and the Persian Gulf.Oshrit is a regular columnist in Haaretz, a writer of the “Miss India” Column in the leading business news website in Israel-“The Marker”.
Oshrit is the first Bene Israeli Indian Jewish person who has appeared on Israeli news channels as a commentator for India’s affairs, written pioneering articles for top newspapers in Israel and continues to break new ground with her social and cultural enterprises. She considers herself a bridge between the ancient civilisations, the Indian and the Jewish ones.
For many years Oshrit has helped connect the members of the Indian diaspora, especially the younger generation, to Indian culture by organising open dialogue in various forums, conferences, and activities to preserve Indian Jewish culture. Oshrit is currently focused on a social project operating in the periphery of Israel and helping to empower Indian women in their fifties. She is the Founder of the Social Project “Mantra”.
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“I just had a lot of questions about the culture of noise we live in. And I was a bit fed up with people just constantly having opinions which to me was something jarring. The way people were jumping on the bandwagons to offer their opinion on absolutely everything and it’s all black and white. I felt like all this noise, you almost can’t hear yourself think, which is why the idea of silence came about.”
Ayisha Malik is author of the Sofia Khan novels, This Green and Pleasant Land and The Movement. She was winner of the Diversity Book Awards 2020, and teaches creative writing for the academies, Faber and Curtis Brown. Ayisha lives in London.
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“I have always loved my faith, and I have wanted to fully embrace who I am. So wearing a headscarf, praying, being Muslim is just, it’s literally a core part of who I am and I want to be able to write about anything I want to with passion, authenticity & honesty. I also want to be able to communicate with people, I don’t want to create a barrier between me and anybody else. Even though my physical appearance might create certain barriers, but I work really hard to remove them.”
Remona Aly is a journalist and broadcaster in the UK with a passion for faith, lifestyle and identity. She writes for The Guardian, is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought and has been a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Something Understood,a half hour programme which explores a theme across different faiths and traditions through music, prose and poetry. She is also a podcast host for various platforms.
Remona is Director of Communications for Exploring Islam Foundation which specialises in PR campaigns and creative resources to better understand Islam. For example, one of her campaigns highlighted untold stories of solidarity between Muslims and Jews, with a focus on the Albanian Muslims who sheltered Jews from the Nazis in World War II.
Remona is the former Deputy Editor of emel, a vibrant and glossy British Muslim lifestyle magazine which was the first of its kind to launch nationwide in the UK.
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“My dream was to become a teacher and I would play ‘school’ every single day. And I could go places in my mind. I was in foster care and I was not having the best situation with my life. I began to dream and I would play school every day and it would take me away from foster care. It would take me away from the abuse. It would take me away from the neglect. It would take me away from the feelings of wishing that I was dead and so playing school was my safe place. And so I realised that I could go anywhere if I just dream.”
Anthony Swann became the first sitting teacher ever to be appointed to the State Board of Education by the Governor of Virginia, USA in 2021. Anthony has been in education for 16 years as a classroom teacher and instructional coach. He has had the privilege of teaching every elementary grade except kindergarten. Anthony is currently the assistant principal of Monterey Elementary in Roanoke, VA. In 2018, Anthony began a program entitled “Guys with Ties” to teach boys the importance of honesty, integrity, and character inside and outside of the classroom.
In 2021, Anthony was elected by his peers to be the Teacher of the Year in two different schools. If those accolades were not enough, Anthony then became the 2021 Virginia State Teacher of the Year.
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“I think somewhere everyone is constantly putting up a show and the world expects you to constantly put up a show. And now with social media, and all these platforms, I wouldn’t be surprised that people are confused about the reel and the real, as time is passing. So I think this judgement about one’s intelligence really comes out of show and it’s like you’re sitting in a meeting or you’re with friends, you need to have something to say, if you don’t have anything to say, if you decide to be quiet, ‘this person is not smart enough.'”
Charmi Chheda is a filmmaker, writer, theatre Director in Bhutan. Charmi moved to Bhutan 10 years ago from India and now sees Bhutan as her home. Charmi has made two feature films, Ganganam Girl and Bulwa and is currently working with Samuh, Bhutan’s first OTT platform as a Creative Director.
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“I have a very strong centre. And it was destabilised by Oxford [University], but it wasn’t destroyed. And that kind of self-belief has saved me. I don’t think I’m better than anybody else, or I’m a superwoman or any of that. But I do know that I can do some of the stuff I do and I’m good at it. And that the bastards will not beat me, that really drives me.”
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown was exiled from her birthplace, Uganda, in 1972. Yasmin is a journalist, broadcaster, author and part time professor of journalism. She writes for the I newspaper and Sunday Times magazine and has written for the Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, New York Times, Time Magazine and other publications She has won several awards including the Orwell prize for political writing and in 2017, National Press Awards columnist of the year prize. She was specially commended for this award again in 2018. She is a national and international public speaker, a consultant on diversity and inclusion and trustee of various arts organisations. She is also the co-founder of the charity British Muslims for Secular Democracy. Their new report ‘The Inner Lives of Troubled Young Muslims’ was published in November 2020. Her recent books include Refusing the Veil, Exotic England about England’s infatuation with the east, In Defence of Political Correctness and Ladies Who Punch. She has twice been voted the 10th most influential Asian in Britain. She has eight Honours degrees and sits on the boards of arts organisations. She is also a keen cook and theatre buff.
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“I think affinity bias is the one where I feel that is the key. The deal breaker is that if you can meet someone, and you can see something in them, that reflect you. Be it a principle, a belief, a way that you would like to be seen. I think that’s the one that draws you in. Some people are very naturally charismatic, which means it’s not learned. It’s not trained. But I also think there’s an element of how does that charisma impact and affect us in different ways?”
Anthony Anaxagorou is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist, publisher and poetry educator.
Anthony is the winner of the 2023 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje prize for his most recent poetry collection “Heritage Aesthetics” published by Granta.
The chair of judges, journalist Samira Ahmed, said Anthony’s poetry “is beautiful, but does not sugar coat. The arsenic of historical imperial arrogance permeates the Britain he explores in his writing. And the joy of this collection comes from his strength, knowledge, maturity, but also from deeply felt love.”
His poetry has been published in POETRY, The Poetry Review, Poetry London, New Statesman, Granta, and elsewhere. His work has also appeared on BBC Newsnight, BBC Radio 4, ITV, Vice UK, Channel 4 and Sky Arts.
His second collection After the Formalities published with Penned in the Margins is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the 2019 T.S Eliot Prize along with the 2021 Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections. It was also a Telegraph and Guardian poetry book of the year.
In 2022 he founded Propel Magazine, an online literary journal featuring the work of poets yet to publish a first collection. Anthony is artistic director of Out-Spoken, a monthly poetry and music night held at London’s Southbank Centre, and publisher of Out-Spoken Press.
This is what one reviewer says of Anthony and his work ‘One of the most politically engaged poets of our time, Anthony holds the busy intersectionality of history, politics and ideology in poems that remain fresh and open.
Visit Spotify or Apple Podcasts for our full back catalogue.