The Business of Fashion Podcast: “Riz Ahmed on the Radical Power of Storytelling”

Date: December 12, 2025
Host: Imran Ahmed, Business of Fashion
Guest: Riz Ahmed (Oscar and Emmy-winning actor, producer, and musician)

Episode Overview

This episode features Riz Ahmed delivering a keynote at BoF Voices, exploring the radical roots and enduring urgency of storytelling—through the lens of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Ahmed’s own experiences. Challenging familiar readings of the iconic “To be or not to be” speech, Ahmed argues for reclaiming the political potency of stories, especially in divided, tumultuous times. He calls on storytellers to embrace their power to foster human unity, urging courage in the face of societal pressures and personal fears.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Reframing the “To be or not to be” Speech

• Popular Misinterpretation:
  • Ahmed jokes about audience familiarity with Hamlet, then critiques how the famous speech is typically seen as "about suicide" or passive despair.
  • “Most people think it’s about suicide. Usually what happens is the play stops. Dude comes out, he’s holding a skull... it's performed as though it’s about suicide. This introverted, meditative moment of depression. It's understood to be that... but that ain't what it's about.” (04:28)
• Radical Origins:
  • Riz contends the speech is about resistance and moral reckoning: “To be or not to be is about resistance. The most famous lines ever written by a human being have been defanged and de radicalized. It’s about fighting back against oppression.” (12:15)

2. Universal Resonance and Personal Belonging

• Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a Shared Heritage:
  • Ahmed describes initially feeling alienated from Shakespeare, likening it to an inaccessible emblem of "Britishness".
  • Through a formative teacher, Mr. Roseblade ("White Jewish guy from Wolverhampton, spoke fluent Punjabi" [07:23]), Ahmed discovers deep personal and cultural connections in Hamlet’s themes: family dilemmas, obligation, and the experience of being an outsider.
  • Noting similarities between Hamlet and the Bhagavad Gita, Riz asserts: “Hamlet sounds a lot like the foundational Hindu text, the Bhagavad Gita... I was like, this belongs to all of us. This belongs to me.” (09:32)
  • He highlights longstanding global influences in storytelling, debunking notions of cultural boundaries.

3. Modern Adaptation as Purpose

• Ahmed’s Own Hamlet:
  • Shares his decades-long commitment to creating an inclusive Hamlet film (“the first non-white Hamlet in the history of cinema performed in Shakespeare’s verse” [10:29]).
  • Envisions that this representation may offer young outsiders belonging: “I really hope there’s a kid... that feels like they don’t belong... it might change how they see themselves in relation to the culture in the way that Mr. Roseblade did for me.” (10:45)

4. Timeless Urgency of Story in Contemporary Context

• Hamlet Mirrors Modern Grief and Injustice:
  • Ahmed relates Hamlet’s existential crisis and sense of complicity to today’s overwhelming global crises: “Hamlet is about somebody who is grieving the illusion that the world is a fair place. That’s how I feel right now. I think that’s how millions of us feel.” (11:21)
  • “He feels powerless in the face of this increasingly shameless injustice... and most of all... he realizes he is complicit in all the injustice. Let’s face it, we’re all part of the problem.” (11:35)

5. The True Radical Power of Storytelling

• “Story is this profound… most powerful technology we've ever invented.” (14:10)
• Stories, Ahmed insists, aren’t mere entertainment but vehicles for empathy and oneness—capable of dissolving social barriers:
  • “Underneath the differences that seem to separate us, we are the same... That’s the spiritual truth at the heart of Sufism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, all world faiths… Difference on the surface, unity below.” (14:20)
  • Storytelling is not just a profession or pastime; it is the mechanism for cultivating unity in times of division.

6. Fear, Loss, and Artistic Courage

• Paralysis and Letting Go:
  • Ahmed confronts the fears that discourage resistance—loss of status, livelihood, security—and reframes mortality as liberation.
  • Echoes Hamlet’s final reckoning:
    • “Hamlet says when he finally gets his shit together and realizes the power of surrender… If it be now, it’s not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now... The readiness is all.” (15:26)
  • “My uplifting conclusion is, we’re all going to die. So just like, you know, don’t fucking switch. Honestly, the things that we are afraid of, things that we stand to lose, were never really ours. We will lose them. But what we stand to gain when we step into our purpose is something so profound and something that is truly what we are here to do.” (15:55)

7. Call to Action for Storytellers

• Ahmed concludes by urging fellow storytellers to work together, rediscover story’s radical purpose, and “insist on our oneness in a time when people might try and divide us.” (16:46)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On de-radicalizing Hamlet:

  • “The most famous lines ever written by a human being have been defanged and de radicalized. It’s about fighting back against oppression.” (Riz Ahmed, 12:15)

• Cultural Belonging in Shakespeare:

  • “Hamlet is about bickering over who gets to run the family business. It doesn’t get more Asian than that.” (Riz Ahmed, 08:38)
  • “I was like, this is the most brown shit I have ever read in my life. I totally belong in this. This totally belongs to me.” (Riz Ahmed, 09:16)

• On the radical mechanic of storytelling:

  • “Story is this profound, most powerful technology we’ve ever invented. It’s a body swap technology, kind of like that Tom Hanks movie Big.” (Riz Ahmed, 14:10)
  • “Underneath the differences that seem to separate us, we are the same.” (Riz Ahmed, 14:20)

• On overcoming fear to live purposefully:

  • “These things that you’re scared of losing, you’re going to lose them, dude. You’re going to lose them. They were never really yours. That's what this play has to teach us... The readiness is all.” (Riz Ahmed, 15:26)

• Parting invitation to storytellers:

  • “What does it mean to rediscover our radical purpose as storytellers, insisting on our oneness in a time when people might try and divide us?” (Riz Ahmed, 16:46)

Key Timestamps

• 04:00 — Riz Ahmed contextualizes Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” and mainstream misreadings.
• 07:23 — Introduction of Mr. Roseblade, Ahmed’s influential teacher.
• 09:32 — Connections between Hamlet, the Bhagavad Gita, and cross-cultural storytelling.
• 10:29 — Ahmed discusses his film adaptation featuring the first non-white Hamlet.
• 11:21 – 12:30 — Modern resonance of Hamlet’s disillusionment and complicity with injustice.
• 12:15 — Reframing “To be or not to be” as a call for resistance.
• 14:10 – 14:30 — Story as “body swap technology”; empathy and unity.
• 15:26 — Quoting Hamlet on readiness for loss and change.
• 16:46 — Ahmed’s concluding call for storytellers to pursue unity.

Final Thoughts

Riz Ahmed’s rousing talk is more than a literary analysis or artistic memoir—it’s a strategic and deeply personal plea for radical empathy, authenticity, and creative courage. He urges storytellers to move beyond surface narratives and embrace their foundational power: reminding the world of its shared humanity, and resisting forces that seek to divide. In an age of crisis and anxiety, Ahmed argues, storytelling remains one of the most urgent, radical acts we can perform.