Podcast Summary: The Daily – ‘The Interview’: Arundhati Roy Knows Where America Is Headed

Date: August 30, 2025
Host: Lulu Garcia-Navarro (The New York Times)
Guest: Arundhati Roy

Episode Overview

This episode features acclaimed Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy in a deeply personal and political conversation around her new memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me. Host Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Roy discuss the enduring scars and complex legacy of her mother, Mary Roy; grapple with generational trauma and feminism; and expand the conversation to Roy’s decades of activism, literary risk, and her analysis of intensifying authoritarianism in India and parallels in American politics under Donald Trump.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Complexity of Motherhood, Legacy, and Writing

[00:34–14:36]

• Roy’s Memoir as Self and Biography: Roy reflects on her memoir as equal parts self-excavation and portrait of her remarkable, difficult mother.
• Struggling with How Much to Reveal: “It wasn’t so much of a struggle, because I think what was incredible about her was that there was a part of her which hammered me, but then it also created me...Can I put down this unresolvable character?” (Roy, 03:16)
• Mary Roy’s Pioneering Legacy:
  • Mary Roy, a member of Kerala’s elite Syrian Christian community, defied strict social norms by divorcing, establishing an independent school, and famously challenging India’s inheritance laws for women, winning a landmark Supreme Court case.
• Personal Trauma and Admiration: Roy shares harrowing yet nuanced stories. Physical and emotional abuse was mixed with awe at her mother's public acts for justice and women’s rights.
  • “I could see that her anger...was somehow connected to what she herself was going through. So one half of me was taking the hits and the other half of me was taking notes.” (Roy, 07:29)
• Turning Pain into Art: Roy links the traumatic, contradictory childhood to the formation of her writer’s perspective: “Maybe it also made me the writer that I am, you know.” (Roy, 10:55)

2. Gender, Power, and Family Dynamics

[14:36–18:30]

• Feminism vs. Personal Cruelty:
  • The episode explores the complicated impact Mary Roy’s feminism had at home, especially towards Arundhati’s brother. Mary’s sometimes hostile approach toward her son led Arundhati to question what genuine feminism means.
  • “Feminism doesn’t have only to do with women's rights...It has to do with a way of looking at the world...It doesn’t mean disrespecting a lovely man.” (Roy, 15:16)
• Sibling Perspectives: Roy and her brother’s divergent reactions to their mother’s legacy highlight trauma’s subjective nature.
  • “[My brother] said, ‘I can’t understand why you feel so much about her.’ Because I said I can’t hate her because there is so much of her in me, I'd have to hate myself.” (Roy, 16:55)

3. The Writer’s Burden and Social Conscience

[18:30–21:29]

• Success, Scars, and the Unseen Victims:
  • Roy explains her emotional inability to feel triumph about personal success in a country fueled by injustices.
  • "When you get applauded and rewarded...someone you love and someone quiet has had been beaten. And to me, that expands far beyond my brother and me. It expands into the country that I live in now… that I might be a writer with whatever is conventionally known as success. But the things I write about and the people that I write about are being beaten.” (Roy, 18:30)
• Seeking Insecurity:
  • “Those of us who've been very unsafe as children...if you have security, you blow it up.” (Roy, 19:51)
• Role of the Writer in Repressive Times:
  • Roy stresses the necessity for writers to innovate, insist on their art’s autonomy, and resist being flattened into propaganda.
  • “You have to change it up, you have to experiment...Your work is a thing in and of itself and a way of positing another vision of the world.” (Roy, 21:53)

4. Fame, Motherhood, and Unresolved Feelings

[23:07–27:01]

• Mary Roy’s Mixed Emotions:
  • Mary was proud of Arundhati’s achievements but also seemed threatened and ambivalent.
  • “Perhaps she also had as unresolved feelings about me as I did for her. Because once she called me up to say...I felt as though she had slapped me.” (Roy, 23:45)
• Self-Protection Amid Success:
  • Roy often limited how much time she could spend caring for her mother to avoid emotional collapse.
  • “That involved calibrating how many days I could be there before I was absolutely corroded… But at the same time, somehow I had that ability to detach myself and sit on the ceiling fan and think, God, this is quite funny, the whole thing, isn’t it?” (Roy, 25:09)

5. Censorship, Authoritarianism, and India–America Parallels

[28:18–40:00]

• Book Banning and Prosecution:
  • Roy discusses the recent banning of her book Azadi in Kashmir and legal threats for her activism, declining to provide details to avoid exacerbating risk.
• Chilling Effects and Normalized Repression:
  • “This culture of fear is everywhere here…now people are arrested for things they say on Facebook, on Twitter, or what they don’t say...In the US it seems new to you, but we have been living with this and is increasingly becoming normalized” (Roy, 33:17)
• The Structure of Indian Social Injustice:
  • “India is a society that is built on a social hierarchy which is amongst the most cruel in the world…dehumanization of people has been institutionalized.” (Roy, 35:00)
• Authoritarian Playbooks:
  • Roy draws explicit parallels between India’s Hindu nationalism and American right-wing populism under Trump—demonetization, citizenship attacks, media consolidation, and manufactured uncertainty.
  • “You wonder, is there a playbook or is it just osmotic authoritarian behavior?...The mainstream media has completely compromised. It’s not just rolled over. It is actually an organ of the authoritarian state.” (Roy, 36:01)
• Why Ideas Threaten Power:
  • "They are terrified of people who...can communicate not just cerebrally, but emotionally...they know who is loved...who will not bow down.” (Roy, 38:52)

6. The Purpose of Art and Political Writing

[41:05–42:28]

• Political Essays as Crisis Response:
  • Roy’s nonfiction is often compelled by crisis, when “it just becomes harder to keep quiet than to write.”
  • “For me, it’s not about the product or how many books I write…I’m interested in living the life of a writer, which does not involve just sitting and writing. It involves a lot of living, a lot of listening, a lot of traveling, a lot of inhabiting worlds and worlds and worlds…” (Roy, 41:05)
• Expansive Relevance:
  • Roy emphasizes her memoir’s universality:
    • “I think, to me, it's important that people don't think this is just a book about a mother and a daughter...it's also about the village and the city and the state and the country and the world. And if it weren't that, it would not be as important to me.” (Roy, 27:23)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “One half of me was taking the hits and the other half of me was taking notes.” (Roy, 07:29)
• “Just because you’re a feminist doesn't make you a great person.” (Roy, 15:16)
• “When you get applauded and rewarded and everybody claps, and you know that Somebody you love and somebody quiet has had been beaten.” (Roy, 18:30)
• “Those of us who've been very unsafe as children, we seek out the unsafe...” (Roy, 19:51)
• “You have to change it up. You have to experiment...Your work is not just a reaction to what’s happening to you.” (Roy, 21:53)
• “In the US it seems new to you, but we have been living with this and is increasingly becoming normalized.” (Roy, 33:17)
• “The mainstream media has completely compromised. It's not just rolled over. It is actually an organ of the authoritarian state.” (Roy, 36:01)
• “They are terrified of people who they feel like can communicate not just cerebrally, but emotionally and otherwise with people.” (Roy, 38:52)
• “I’m interested in living the life of a writer, which does not involve just sitting and writing. It involves a lot of living, a lot of listening, a lot of traveling, a lot of inhabiting worlds and worlds and worlds…” (Roy, 41:05)
• “This is a book about two women who happen to be mother and daughter. But it's also about the village and the city and the state and the country and the world.” (Roy, 27:23)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:34–07:00: Context on Mary Roy’s legacy and Arundhati’s early life
• 07:00–14:36: Exploration of trauma, writing, and emotional intricacies of maternal relationships
• 14:36–18:30: Gender, sibling dynamics, and the personal cost of social transformation
• 18:30–21:29: Literary success, conscience, and empathy's burdens
• 21:29–27:01: Legal threats, writer's role in repression, complex maternal pride
• 28:18–33:17: Book ban, censorship, Roy's strategies for survival
• 33:17–35:46: Normalization of fear and injustice in India
• 36:01–40:00: Parallels between Indian and US authoritarianism, media, and the fear of ideas
• 41:05–42:28: Artistic autonomy, life as a writer, and universal relevance of Roy’s story

Tone and Language

True to Arundhati Roy’s own writing, the conversation oscillates between the poetic and the incisive, alternating vulnerability with unflinching social critique. Roy deploys metaphor, humor (“sit on the ceiling fan and think...this is quite funny”), and passionate candor as she moves from intimate memories to urgent warnings about political climates in India and the US.

Conclusion

This episode offers not only a vivid portrait of one of India’s most vital literary voices coming to terms with personal and political inheritance, but also an urgent warning about the erosion of democratic norms and artistic freedom. Roy’s insights carry global relevance, challenging both writers and listeners to consider the cost, and necessity, of telling inconvenient truths—on the page and in life.