Fresh Air Weekend: Best Of – Writers Rachel Eliza Griffiths & Quiara Alegría Hudes

Date: January 24, 2026
Host(s): Terry Gross, Tonya Mosley
Guests: Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Quiara Alegría Hudes
Additional Segment: Justin Chang reviews Sound of Falling

Episode Overview

This episode of Fresh Air features deeply personal and emotionally resonant interviews with two acclaimed writers: Rachel Eliza Griffiths, discussing her new memoir The Flower Bearers—which chronicles a period marked by both love and tragedy—and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes, whose debut novel The White Hot explores generational trauma, motherhood, and difficult choices. The episode also includes a review by film critic Justin Chang of the German film Sound of Falling.

Interview: Rachel Eliza Griffiths on “The Flower Bearers”

Main Themes

• Navigating simultaneous joy and grief on her wedding day
• Living with dissociative identity disorder (DID) in the aftermath of traumatic loss
• Surviving the aftermath of her husband Salman Rushdie’s near-fatal stabbing
• The enduring impact of trauma and care in a marriage

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Wedding Day: A Collision of Joy and Tragedy

• Griffiths recounts how her wedding to Salman Rushdie—a peak of happiness—was marred by the sudden, mysterious absence and death of her best friend, Aisha.
• Her family tried to shelter her from the news until after the ceremony, but the ensuing realization triggered significant psychological distress.

“I started to notice that there just seemed to be a shadow on things...the minute I got back to the hotel…I suddenly was able to see messages...that’s how I learned about what had happened.”
—Rachel Eliza Griffiths (05:00)

2. Living with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

• Griffiths describes DID as a protective mechanism born from childhood trauma and explains that, while highly functional, she experiences blackouts and memory gaps during traumatic events.
• She details her “alters,” versions of herself at different ages and with different traits, using them as creative and protective companions.

“It’s a part of my mind and my body that attempts to protect and cope...I’ve befriended it...so that I don’t feel like I’m out of control.”
—Rachel Eliza Griffiths (07:46)

3. The Agreement with Salman Rushdie

• Griffiths and Rushdie decided that the traumatic events of their wedding day belonged in her memoir, not his, emphasizing that her bond with Aisha was a deeply personal dimension beyond Rushdie’s scope.

“He was very clear that…this was my story to tell as far as what happened on the wedding day.”
—Rachel Eliza Griffiths (11:47)

4. The Stabbing of Salman Rushdie

• Griffiths discusses the shock of learning about the attack: she believed, as did Rushdie, that the threat of the fatwa was past.
• Her immediate response to the crisis: attempting to stay strong, rushing to Rushdie’s side, and stepping into a caretaker role she had not anticipated.

“Nothing in our day-to-day life…seemed to suggest any kind of imminent threat…There was no anticipation, there was no weariness, there was no…shadow hanging over our lives.”
—Rachel Eliza Griffiths (14:03)

5. Crisis Response and the Caregiver’s Burden

• Griffiths explains how a physical fall down the stairs became a “clarifying” moment that snapped her into focus during a chaotic, traumatic day.
• In the aftermath, she balanced being Rushdie’s “rock” with her own private anguish, hypervigilance, and the physical toll of stress.

“I think falling down the stairs was one of the best things that could have happened to me…That’s the last time you fall down. You cannot risk your safety…You have to go forward and get through this day.”
—Rachel Eliza Griffiths (18:47)

“I didn’t cry in the hospital room because I didn’t think it would be helpful...I was in survivor mode.”
—Rachel Eliza Griffiths (20:44)

6. The Impact of Trauma on Love and Marriage

• Despite the violence, Griffiths never questioned the strength of her love for Rushdie but acknowledges the challenges of living with physical consequences and the mutual trauma they share.

“I never question the love...The knife didn’t take away the mind inside of my husband…We really try to support each other.”
—Rachel Eliza Griffiths (22:38)

Notable Quotes

• “I truly thought it was a past chapter of his life. I truly did.” (14:03)
• “There’s a kind of indescribable bridge and bond we have, having survived such an experience, that has reinforced the most wondrous and beautiful…spaces of this marriage.” (24:42)

Timestamps

• Wedding day trauma: 04:30–06:10
• DID explanation: 06:22–10:09
• Rushdie’s memoir & shared decisions: 11:01–13:17
• Stabbing incident & aftermath: 16:36–20:44
• The caregiver’s internal world: 20:44–22:38
• Reflection on love and trauma: 22:38–24:42

Film Review: Justin Chang on Sound of Falling

Main Themes

• Sound of Falling as an atmospheric, time-bending film exploring generations of women on a German farmstead
• The haunting qualities of both setting and narrative
• Shared experiences of oppression, abuse, and resilience across time

Key Insights

• The film’s nonlinear structure reflects both the psychic trauma and the interconnectedness of the women’s lives.
• The film addresses recurring patriarchal violence and the longing for escape.

“The movie jumps around in time convulsively...the disorientation isn’t off-putting. It’s thrilling. Watching this film is like getting lost in a labyrinth and gradually feeling your way out.”
—Justin Chang (25:51)

“Patriarchal oppression and sexual abuse are depressing constants.”
—Justin Chang (28:25)

• The recurring motif of the Anna von Hausswolff song “Stranger” provides a hypnotic musical bridge.
• The title’s mystery unifies the theme of sensory perception—seeing and hearing what is overlooked.

Notable Quote

“...it shows the kind of deep human curiosity and exhilarating formal mastery that makes me excited to see what [the director] does next.”
—Justin Chang (31:34)

Timestamp

• Full review: 25:51–31:34

Interview: Quiara Alegría Hudes on “The White Hot”

Main Themes

• The complexity of maternal abandonment and reframing cultural narratives of motherhood
• Generational stories, migration, and identity in Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican community
• The intersection of music, narrative structure, and collaborative creativity

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Writing the “Unthinkable”: A Mother Leaving Her Child

• Hudes discusses the difficulty of sympathetically writing April, a mother who abandons her daughter, and challenges the double standards in how society judges mothers versus fathers.

“She didn't leave her child. She stayed with her child...She’s the one that made the decision to stay. And I wonder if even me writing the story of her leaving and not the story of her staying did her a slight disservice.”
—Quiara Alegría Hudes (35:10)

2. Literary Double Standards and the Influence of “Siddhartha”

• April’s story consciously parallels and contrasts with the male privilege of spiritual “questing” and self-discovery as in Siddhartha.

“I remember feeling...even in high school, feeling like a lady wouldn’t get to do that. Just, dudes get to go on the road, hit the road, be the pilgrim, make their progress.”
—Quiara Alegría Hudes (39:11)

3. The Power of Generational Storytelling and Place

• The novel, like Hudes' previous works, is rooted in her multi-generational Puerto Rican American experience.
• Hudes reflects on growing up with second-hand stories from Puerto Rico, and how leaving Philadelphia was necessary to gain the perspective needed to write about home.

“They were holy, holy, holy...So these were real stories that to me, felt like fables or imagined lands. And I think I had to leave Philadelphia to write my community stories...”
—Quiara Alegría Hudes (40:42)

4. Music as Narrative DNA

• Although trained as a composer, Hudes sees storytelling and sentence structure as musical, lending rhythm and resonance to her plays and prose.

“My instrument is now words...I love music. I love the cadence of words. And it’s just sentences are the funnest place to play in service of a larger story.”
—Quiara Alegría Hudes (42:36)

5. Collaboration with Lin Manuel Miranda

• Hudes shares the joyful, ego-free creative relationship with Miranda, where work happens with childlike play and mutual trust.

“It’s really about just being like...hey, you wanna come over and play? That's it.”
—Quiara Alegría Hudes (43:42)

• They maintain momentum by embracing imperfection and “letting things breathe,” working on various scenes or songs in cycles instead of fixating on problems.

6. Personal Resonance in Her Work

• The character Nina in In the Heights draws from Hudes’ experience as the first in her family to attend college, and the disconnect with her parents’ generation.

“That was a shock to me. And it was a shock I couldn’t totally convey to them. They didn’t totally have experience with that.”
—Quiara Alegría Hudes (49:22)

Notable Quotes

• “Freedom is a brutal assignment with many punishments. Conformity’s punishments can be even harsher, though they’re often less visible...” —Read by Hudes from her novel (37:03)
• “Writing is not problem-solving...that’s why things need to breathe.” (47:51)

Timestamps

• Motherhood, judgment, and April’s character: 34:51–36:33
• Siddhartha, quests, and double standards: 38:34–40:20
• Musical structure in storytelling: 42:26–43:18
• Collaboration with Lin Manuel Miranda: 43:18–47:25
• Real-life inspiration for Nina: 49:16–50:18

Memorable Moments

• Rachel Eliza Griffiths describing her dissociation as both trauma and survival (“It's very hard for me even to look at photographs or anything from my wedding day and feel connected to it...” —07:43)
• Justin Chang’s evocative review, emphasizing the “ghostly atmosphere” and non-linear narrative of Sound of Falling
• Hudes’ heartfelt reading from her novel, which both sympathizes with and critiques her protagonist’s abandonment

Episode Flow in Timestamps

• [02:51] Rachel Eliza Griffiths interview with Terry Gross
• [25:51] Justin Chang’s Sound of Falling film review
• [33:07] Quiara Alegría Hudes interview with Tonya Mosley

Tone & Style

The episode’s tone is intimate, searching, and deeply reflective, marked by the candor of both authors as they revisit pain and growth, and by the insightful questions of the hosts. Quotations retain the distinctive voices—Griffiths, poetic and searching; Hudes, self-examining, musical, humorous.

Summary Takeaway

This “Best Of” Fresh Air episode offers bold explorations of loss, resilience, and reconciling with self as both Griffiths and Hudes illuminate the hidden stories that shape their lives and art. Listeners are left with a resonant sense of the cost and necessity of storytelling—how it both wounds and heals, holds memory, and creates space for new kinds of hope.