Rushdie was onstage at a literary event in 2022 when he was attacked by a man in the audience: "Dying in the company of strangers — that was what was going through my mind." His new book is Knife. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the TED Radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is.
The history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is fresh air.
I'm Terry Gross.
I'm grateful to say that Salman Rushdie is my guest because I love his new memoir and because im grateful that hes alive.
Even the doctors didnt think hed survive after he was stabbed over and over two years ago.
The attack was shocking.
It had been 33 and a half years since Irans Ayatollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa, a religious ruling calling for Rushdie's death.
To the ayatollah, it was a righteous way to punish Rushdie for having written the 1988 novel the satanic verses, which to the ayatollah was blasphemous in its treatment of Islam and the prophet Muhammad.
Rushdie grew up in India in a secular muslim family.
He has never been religious.
At the time of the fatwa, Rushdie had been living in London for a long time.
The fatwa was an invitation to would be assassins.
Faced with this threat, Rushdie was surrounded by security and stayed out of public view for years.
Eventually, Rushdie reclaimed his life.
So why, all these years later, was he attacked?
And why by a 24 year old man who wasnt even born when the fatwa was issued?