WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.379 OK, I want you to close your eyes for a second. 00:00:01.500 --> 00:00:04.139 Just imagine you're sitting in a sterile, fluorescent 00:00:04.139 --> 00:00:07.639 lit examination room. It's California, maybe 00:00:07.639 --> 00:00:10.539 somewhere around Mountain View or San Jose. The 00:00:10.539 --> 00:00:15.199 year is, let's say, 2003, maybe early 2004. OK, 00:00:15.259 --> 00:00:17.059 I'm there. You're there because you have this 00:00:17.059 --> 00:00:19.300 persistent cough or, you know, maybe you need 00:00:19.300 --> 00:00:21.600 a referral for a cardiologist. You're waiting, 00:00:21.739 --> 00:00:24.039 flipping through an old magazine, and then the 00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:26.859 door opens. And in walks the doctor. In walks 00:00:26.859 --> 00:00:28.820 your doctor. He's an internal medicine specialist. 00:00:29.239 --> 00:00:31.879 He's polite, incredibly sharp, soft -spoken. 00:00:31.899 --> 00:00:34.039 He listens to your breathing, checks your charts, 00:00:34.119 --> 00:00:36.020 writes a prescription, and sends you on your 00:00:36.020 --> 00:00:38.659 way. Right. Totally normal checkup. Totally normal. 00:00:38.780 --> 00:00:41.640 And you have absolutely no idea that the man 00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:43.799 who just checked your blood pressure is, at that 00:00:43.799 --> 00:00:46.479 very moment, the most famous novelist in America. 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:49.140 It really does sound like an urban legend, doesn't 00:00:49.140 --> 00:00:51.560 it? The secret life of the genius next door. 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:54.600 But in this case, it's... It's completely true. 00:00:54.700 --> 00:00:58.079 It's a fact. You're describing the life of Khaled 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:01.899 Hosseini. And it highlights this incredible duality 00:01:01.899 --> 00:01:05.969 that I think. defines his entire existence. Yes. 00:01:06.170 --> 00:01:08.790 On one hand, you've got the physician trained 00:01:08.790 --> 00:01:13.370 in the absolute rigors of Western science, diagnostics, 00:01:13.370 --> 00:01:15.870 biology. And on the other, you have this storyteller 00:01:15.870 --> 00:01:18.549 who is diagnosing the soul of a nation that had 00:01:18.549 --> 00:01:20.629 been completely shattered. Exactly. We're talking 00:01:20.629 --> 00:01:23.510 about the man who wrote The Kite Runner. But 00:01:23.510 --> 00:01:25.790 if we just label him the author, we're missing 00:01:25.790 --> 00:01:28.390 like 90 % of the story. How easily? Before he 00:01:28.390 --> 00:01:30.609 was this literary giant, he was Dr. Hosseini. 00:01:30.730 --> 00:01:33.269 And before that, he was a refugee teenager. just 00:01:33.269 --> 00:01:35.090 trying to learn English in high school. And before 00:01:35.090 --> 00:01:37.689 that, he was a kid flying kites in a version 00:01:37.689 --> 00:01:39.670 of Kabul that, well, it simply doesn't exist 00:01:39.670 --> 00:01:42.969 anymore. And that trajectory from the Paris Central 00:01:42.969 --> 00:01:46.269 Asia to refugee status to, you know, the Ivy 00:01:46.269 --> 00:01:48.269 League of medical residencies and finally to 00:01:48.269 --> 00:01:51.000 the bestseller list. That's what we need to deconstruct 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.359 today. Right. This isn't just a biography of 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:55.980 a celebrity. It's a case study in how history 00:01:55.980 --> 00:01:59.019 collides with individual destiny. Hosseini is 00:01:59.019 --> 00:02:00.780 a bridge figure. He didn't just write books. 00:02:01.019 --> 00:02:04.780 He bridged this huge psychological gap between 00:02:04.780 --> 00:02:08.060 the pre -Soviet Afghanistan of the 1970s and 00:02:08.060 --> 00:02:10.919 the post -911 consciousness of the West. And 00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:14.080 that is our mission for this deep dive. We're 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:17.120 going to unpack how a boy from a privileged diplomatic 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:20.319 family in Kabul ends up treating patients in 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:22.840 Northern California and then pivots to become 00:02:22.840 --> 00:02:25.180 one of the most influential voices of the 21st 00:02:25.180 --> 00:02:27.400 century. And we have a massive stack of sources 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:30.930 here to do it. biographies, interviews, humanitarian 00:02:30.930 --> 00:02:33.889 records, literary analysis, all of it. We do. 00:02:34.069 --> 00:02:36.530 And through all that data, we're going to hunt 00:02:36.530 --> 00:02:38.889 for the specific themes that drive him. We have 00:02:38.889 --> 00:02:40.909 to talk about survivor's guilt, which is this 00:02:40.909 --> 00:02:44.710 this massive churning engine in his work. It's 00:02:44.710 --> 00:02:46.889 everything. We need to dissect the tension between 00:02:46.889 --> 00:02:49.879 duty. specifically the duty of being a doctor 00:02:49.879 --> 00:02:52.360 and the passion for art. And we need to look 00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:54.599 at how he portrays his homeland. Right. Because 00:02:54.599 --> 00:02:57.419 he refuses to paint Afghanistan as just this 00:02:57.419 --> 00:03:00.719 monolith of tragedy. Instead, he insists on showing 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:04.099 it as a complex, evolving human place. So let's 00:03:04.099 --> 00:03:05.979 get into it. Let's rewind the clock all the way 00:03:05.979 --> 00:03:09.400 back. We're going to March 4th, 1965. Khalid 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:12.259 Hosseini is born in Kabul, Afghanistan. And right 00:03:12.259 --> 00:03:13.919 off the bat, I think we need to do some image 00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:16.219 correction. Because when you say Kabul, I know 00:03:16.219 --> 00:03:18.099 what pops into those people's heads. Oh, yeah. 00:03:18.379 --> 00:03:23.120 Rubble, tanks, gray skies, conflict. But Hosseini's 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:25.960 Kabul, it was a totally different vibe. Completely 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:27.879 different. If you look at archival footage or 00:03:27.879 --> 00:03:30.800 read his own descriptions of the Wazir Akbar 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:33.680 Khan neighborhood where he grew up, it just challenges 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:35.840 every modern stereotype. That was the upper crust 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:38.120 district, right? Absolutely. The diplomatic quarter. 00:03:38.659 --> 00:03:41.379 Hosseini was the eldest of five children. His 00:03:41.379 --> 00:03:44.460 father, Nasser, wasn't just some government worker. 00:03:44.659 --> 00:03:46.560 He was a diplomat for the Ministry of Foreign 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:49.479 Affairs. His mother was a Persian language teacher. 00:03:49.740 --> 00:03:52.240 At a girls' high school. At a girl's high school. 00:03:52.620 --> 00:03:54.219 Let's just pause on that for a second. Yeah, 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:56.900 that's a huge detail. His mother was a high school 00:03:56.900 --> 00:04:00.979 teacher in Kabul in the 1960s and 70s. It's a 00:04:00.979 --> 00:04:03.759 crucial detail that he brings up often. He's 00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:06.159 on record saying he grew up in a growing, thriving, 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:09.520 cosmopolitan city. Cosmopolitan. He specifically 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:12.759 mentions that during his entire childhood, he 00:04:12.759 --> 00:04:15.919 never once recalls his sister Raya suffering 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:18.670 discrimination for being female. Women were in 00:04:18.670 --> 00:04:20.529 the workforce. They were in universities. They 00:04:20.529 --> 00:04:22.730 walked the streets without male chaperones in 00:04:22.730 --> 00:04:26.379 many areas. It was a time of... Relative openness 00:04:26.379 --> 00:04:29.660 and cultural exchange. He calls it cosmopolitan. 00:04:29.660 --> 00:04:32.860 That is such a specific and important word choice. 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:35.899 It implies a connection to the wider world, a 00:04:35.899 --> 00:04:38.740 sophistication. It really pushes back against 00:04:38.740 --> 00:04:40.939 this idea that the country was always isolated 00:04:40.939 --> 00:04:44.040 or, you know, medieval. Exactly. It was a hub 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:46.199 on the hippie trail, remember? Westerners were 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:48.100 traveling through all the time. There was music, 00:04:48.220 --> 00:04:51.300 art, poetry. And for a kid like Khalid, it was, 00:04:51.300 --> 00:04:53.279 well, it was pretty idyllic. And of course, we 00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:54.959 can't talk about his childhood without... talking 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:58.180 about the kites the kites it's impossible to 00:04:58.180 --> 00:05:00.160 separate the man from the kite flying it really 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:02.459 is he talks about flying kites with his cousins 00:05:02.459 --> 00:05:04.439 in Kabul during the winter months and for anyone 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:07.139 who's read his debut novel you know this isn't 00:05:07.139 --> 00:05:10.259 just some cute I like to play with toys anecdote 00:05:10.259 --> 00:05:14.819 no this is the DNA of his entire literary career 00:05:14.819 --> 00:05:18.540 it really is in Afghan culture at the time Kite 00:05:18.540 --> 00:05:21.139 fighting Gudipar and Bazi, it wasn't just a path, 00:05:21.180 --> 00:05:23.000 it was an obsession. It was serious business. 00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:25.680 Very serious. It was competitive. It was visceral. 00:05:25.860 --> 00:05:29.680 The strings, the tar were coated in crushed glass 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:32.600 to cut the opponent's line. It represents a kind 00:05:32.600 --> 00:05:35.040 of freedom and ferocity that existed in that 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:37.920 pre -war era. Wow. And Hosseini uses it later 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:40.639 as a perfect metaphor for the fragility of happiness. 00:05:40.779 --> 00:05:42.720 One minute you're soaring, the next your line 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:44.879 is cut. There's another layer to his identity 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:47.500 that I found fascinating in the notes. He describes... 00:05:48.829 --> 00:05:52.329 Can we unpack his ethnic background a bit? Because 00:05:52.329 --> 00:05:55.230 in Afghanistan, ethnicity is a major social driver. 00:05:55.389 --> 00:05:58.009 It's central to the social fabric. Hosseini is 00:05:58.009 --> 00:06:00.110 part Pashtun on his mother's side, specifically 00:06:00.110 --> 00:06:02.629 from the Mohammedzai tribe, which is a historically 00:06:02.629 --> 00:06:04.889 powerful, almost aristocratic lineage. Right. 00:06:05.009 --> 00:06:07.750 But he's also part Tajik. Okay. In a country 00:06:07.750 --> 00:06:10.009 where those ethnic divisions between Pashtuns, 00:06:10.029 --> 00:06:12.370 Tajiks, Hazars, Uzbeks have often been exploited 00:06:12.370 --> 00:06:15.490 for political conflict, Hosseini physically embodies 00:06:15.490 --> 00:06:18.399 a union of these groups. Which gives him a unique 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:21.660 vantage point. He isn't stuck in one tribal narrative. 00:06:21.819 --> 00:06:24.259 He has a foot in both of the major ethnic power 00:06:24.259 --> 00:06:26.899 centers. Precisely. It allows him a broader, 00:06:26.939 --> 00:06:29.839 more empathetic perspective on the cultural tapestry 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:33.860 of the country. But this stability, this kite 00:06:33.860 --> 00:06:37.500 -flying, cosmopolitan, privileged life was about 00:06:37.500 --> 00:06:39.680 to become very nomadic. Right, because his father 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:42.160 was a diplomat. The family didn't stay put in 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:44.800 Wazir Akbar Khan forever. No, the diplomatic 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:47.970 life is a mobile life. So in 1970, they moved 00:06:47.970 --> 00:06:50.610 to Tehran, Iran. Okay. Then they come back to 00:06:50.610 --> 00:06:54.509 Kabul in 73. Then the big move happens in 1976. 00:06:54.970 --> 00:06:58.110 Hosseini is 11 years old. His dad gets a prestigious 00:06:58.110 --> 00:07:00.589 post in Paris, France. And that move to Paris 00:07:00.589 --> 00:07:03.410 is the pivot point. It's the sliding doors moment 00:07:03.410 --> 00:07:05.670 of his entire life. At the time, they probably 00:07:05.670 --> 00:07:07.389 just viewed it as a great adventure, living in 00:07:07.389 --> 00:07:09.410 Europe, learning French, experiencing the West. 00:07:09.569 --> 00:07:11.509 Of course. But in hindsight, it was the moment 00:07:11.509 --> 00:07:14.240 the door closed behind them for good. While they 00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:16.259 were living in Paris, history finally caught 00:07:16.259 --> 00:07:18.620 up with Afghanistan. This is the scary part of 00:07:18.620 --> 00:07:21.420 the story. If they hadn't been in Paris, if that 00:07:21.420 --> 00:07:23.480 assignment had been delayed by just two years, 00:07:23.699 --> 00:07:26.220 or if they had stayed in Kabul, Hosseini's life 00:07:26.220 --> 00:07:28.160 would have looked radically different. Radically. 00:07:28.379 --> 00:07:30.579 He likely would have been conscripted into the 00:07:30.579 --> 00:07:33.800 army later or worse. Because while they're enjoying 00:07:33.800 --> 00:07:36.480 baguettes in Paris, the Saar revolution happens 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:40.540 in April 1978. It was a seismic shift. The People's 00:07:40.540 --> 00:07:43.660 Democratic Party of Afghanistan, the PDPA, seized 00:07:43.660 --> 00:07:46.939 power in a violent coup. They were a Marxist 00:07:46.939 --> 00:07:49.920 -Leninist group, and they immediately began purging 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:52.620 the old elite. Which would include a family like 00:07:52.620 --> 00:07:55.519 the Hosseinis. Oh, absolutely. Diplomats associated 00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:58.439 with the previous government, upper class. Returning 00:07:58.439 --> 00:08:01.180 to Kabul was no longer just difficult. It was... 00:08:01.389 --> 00:08:03.250 Potentially a death sentence. And then it just 00:08:03.250 --> 00:08:06.850 spirals. 1980 rolls around and the Soviet Union 00:08:06.850 --> 00:08:09.910 invades to prop up that failing government. The 00:08:09.910 --> 00:08:13.129 Soviet -Afghan war begins. So now the door isn't 00:08:13.129 --> 00:08:16.050 just closed. It's bolted and welded shut. They 00:08:16.050 --> 00:08:17.990 can't go back. There's no going back. So they 00:08:17.990 --> 00:08:19.870 do what thousands of others were forced to do. 00:08:19.949 --> 00:08:23.050 They see political asylum. And the United States 00:08:23.050 --> 00:08:25.629 accepts them. They land in San Jose, California. 00:08:26.110 --> 00:08:28.230 Yeah. Okay, I really want to sit with this image 00:08:28.230 --> 00:08:31.439 for a minute. You are 15 years old. You spent 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:33.100 the last few years in Paris, one of the most 00:08:33.100 --> 00:08:35.360 beautiful cities on Earth. Before that, you were 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:38.379 basically Afghan royalty. Right. And suddenly, 00:08:38.460 --> 00:08:43.059 you are dropped into San Jose in 1980. Hosseini 00:08:43.059 --> 00:08:47.159 spoke zero English. None. He describes it as 00:08:47.159 --> 00:08:49.820 a massive culture shock and very alienating. 00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:52.879 And that word alienating is doing a lot of heavy 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:55.399 lifting there. We have to understand the loss 00:08:55.399 --> 00:08:58.440 of status. Totally. In Kabul, his father was 00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:00.980 a respected diplomat. In San Jose, they were 00:09:00.980 --> 00:09:02.860 living on welfare for a time while they got on 00:09:02.860 --> 00:09:05.700 their feet. His father was driving an instructor's 00:09:05.700 --> 00:09:08.240 car, doing menial jobs just to get by. And for 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:10.539 Khaled, going to an American high school without 00:09:10.539 --> 00:09:13.200 the language, without the cultural codes, it 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:15.120 must have been a brutal experience. You go from 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:17.820 being someone to being the weird foreign kid 00:09:17.820 --> 00:09:20.120 in the corner. It's the classic fish out of water 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:23.000 story, but with this incredibly heavy backdrop 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.620 of trauma. And I think that contrast is something 00:09:25.620 --> 00:09:28.139 we need to unpack. He goes from a world where 00:09:28.139 --> 00:09:30.820 he saw no discrimination against his sister to 00:09:30.820 --> 00:09:33.159 a world where he is the outsider looking in. 00:09:33.379 --> 00:09:35.840 And you have to remember, he's observing this 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:39.000 new American World Mall's high school football 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.059 pop music while carrying the knowledge of what's 00:09:42.059 --> 00:09:43.970 happening back home. Even though they were safe 00:09:43.970 --> 00:09:46.309 in California, the family wasn't disconnected 00:09:46.309 --> 00:09:48.730 from the horror. No, they heard the stories. 00:09:48.769 --> 00:09:51.049 The sources mentioned this specifically. They 00:09:51.049 --> 00:09:53.429 would get news from friends and family who were 00:09:53.429 --> 00:09:55.590 still in the region or who had fled to Pakistan. 00:09:55.789 --> 00:09:57.850 And this wasn't just, you know, political unrest. 00:09:57.990 --> 00:10:02.129 This was nightmare fuel. Mass executions. People 00:10:02.129 --> 00:10:03.809 being rounded up in the middle of the night. 00:10:03.990 --> 00:10:05.950 Hosseini has spoken about hearing that childhood 00:10:05.950 --> 00:10:09.049 friends, people he flew kites with, were imprisoned 00:10:09.049 --> 00:10:12.659 or just disappeared. There's one specific detail 00:10:12.659 --> 00:10:14.600 in the research that really stuck with me. It's 00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:17.679 about his wife's uncle. Yes, this is such a tragic 00:10:17.679 --> 00:10:20.960 story. His wife's uncle was a famous singer and 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:24.159 composer in Kabul, a prominent cultural figure, 00:10:24.299 --> 00:10:26.820 someone who brought joy to people. And he disappeared, 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:30.340 just gone. To this day, they don't know exactly 00:10:30.340 --> 00:10:33.440 what happened to him or where his body is. That 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:36.080 is the kind of ghost you live with. Can you imagine? 00:10:36.179 --> 00:10:38.639 You're sitting in a classroom in San Jose, trying 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:40.980 to figure out what a prom is, and in the back 00:10:40.980 --> 00:10:44.279 of your mind, you know your relative, the famous 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:47.179 musician, vanished off the face of the earth. 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:49.940 That is the seed. That's the seed of the survivor's 00:10:49.940 --> 00:10:52.159 guilt we mentioned earlier. The realization that 00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:54.919 safety is largely a matter of geography and timing. 00:10:55.320 --> 00:10:58.759 Why him? Why was he in Paris when the tanks rolled 00:10:58.759 --> 00:11:01.379 in? Why is he safe in California while his peers 00:11:01.379 --> 00:11:04.120 are fighting or dying? That question. That question 00:11:04.120 --> 00:11:06.100 haunts his psyche and eventually becomes the 00:11:06.100 --> 00:11:08.299 ink for his novels. But before he could address 00:11:08.299 --> 00:11:11.059 that guilt through writing, he had to survive 00:11:11.059 --> 00:11:13.679 in America. And for an immigrant family that 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:16.940 has lost everything, status, wealth, home, what's 00:11:16.940 --> 00:11:20.159 the most reliable ladder backup? Education. Strict, 00:11:20.179 --> 00:11:23.259 high -level, undeniable education. And a respectable 00:11:23.259 --> 00:11:25.940 career. Which brings us to what Hosseini calls 00:11:25.940 --> 00:11:28.820 the arranged marriage. This is such a perfect 00:11:28.820 --> 00:11:31.240 metaphor for his journey into medicine. It really 00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:33.860 is. So let's look at the timeline. He graduates 00:11:33.860 --> 00:11:35.519 from Independence High School in San Jose in 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:38.039 1984. Then he goes to Santa Clara University, 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:41.600 grinds out a degree in biology by 88. Then it's 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:43.960 off to med school at UCSD. He graduates in 93. 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:47.100 Then a really prestigious residency in internal 00:11:47.100 --> 00:11:50.460 medicine at Cedars -Sinai until 96 or 97. I mean, 00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:54.049 that is a solid. Decade plus grind of high pressure, 00:11:54.190 --> 00:11:57.629 peak performance. It's the quintessential immigrant 00:11:57.629 --> 00:12:00.590 success story. It absolutely is. But Hosseini 00:12:00.590 --> 00:12:03.750 explicitly likened his medical career to an arranged 00:12:03.750 --> 00:12:05.990 marriage. Meaning he did it out of duty, not 00:12:05.990 --> 00:12:08.629 love. Exactly. Think about what an arranged marriage 00:12:08.629 --> 00:12:10.970 is in a traditional context. It's a union based 00:12:10.970 --> 00:12:13.690 on family expectation, on securing a future, 00:12:13.889 --> 00:12:16.210 on stability and honor. It's not necessarily 00:12:16.210 --> 00:12:18.750 based on romantic passion. Not at all. And Hosseini 00:12:18.750 --> 00:12:20.590 viewed medicine the same way. It was an honorable 00:12:20.590 --> 00:12:23.179 path. It was a way to justify the sacrifices 00:12:23.179 --> 00:12:25.740 his parents made to get them to America. It was 00:12:25.740 --> 00:12:28.159 a way to say, look, we made it. We're valuable 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:31.159 here. But he stuck with it. He didn't just dabble. 00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:34.620 He practiced medicine for over 10 years. And 00:12:34.620 --> 00:12:37.279 here's the kicker. He was still a practicing 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:40.480 doctor when The Kite Runner was published. That's 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:42.940 the part that blows my mind. He was. In fact, 00:12:42.940 --> 00:12:45.259 he continued to see patients for up to a year 00:12:45.259 --> 00:12:47.600 and a half after the book became a global phenomenon. 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:50.480 That is just wild to me. Can you imagine? You 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:52.679 walk in for your 10 a .m. appointment and your 00:12:52.679 --> 00:12:55.440 doctor is the guy who just hit number one on 00:12:55.440 --> 00:12:58.139 the New York Times bestseller list. Right. You're 00:12:58.139 --> 00:13:00.440 asking him about your cholesterol and he's probably 00:13:00.440 --> 00:13:03.100 thinking about. plot structures or his upcoming 00:13:03.100 --> 00:13:05.440 book tour dates. It speaks to his discipline, 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:07.379 doesn't it? He didn't just drop the arranged 00:13:07.379 --> 00:13:10.299 marriage the moment he found a mistress, so to 00:13:10.299 --> 00:13:13.100 speak, in writing. Not at all. He honored the 00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:15.460 commitment until the writing career was undeniably 00:13:15.460 --> 00:13:18.220 viable. He woke up at 4 a .m. to write before 00:13:18.220 --> 00:13:21.679 his hospital shifts. That is sheer grit. So let's 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:23.200 talk about that mistress. Let's talk about the 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:25.679 writing. 2003, The Kite Runner. The debut that 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:28.720 changed everything. It's the story of Amir. A 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:31.559 young boy in Kabul struggling for his father's 00:13:31.559 --> 00:13:34.399 approval, dealing with a horrific childhood trauma 00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:37.100 involving his friend Hassan. And eventually fleeing 00:13:37.100 --> 00:13:39.879 to Fremont, California. The parallels to Hosseini's 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:42.419 own life are undeniable, though we have to stress 00:13:42.419 --> 00:13:45.480 the plot itself is fiction. Absolutely fiction. 00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:48.960 But the setting mirrors his trajectory Kabul 00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:52.159 to the Bay Area. The timeline mirrors his timeline. 00:13:52.340 --> 00:13:54.600 The fall of the monarchy, the Soviet invasion, 00:13:54.899 --> 00:13:57.730 the rise of the Taliban. But the emotional core, 00:13:57.870 --> 00:14:00.690 that guilt we talked about, that feels intensely 00:14:00.690 --> 00:14:04.490 real. It feels like he cut a vein and just bled 00:14:04.490 --> 00:14:07.110 onto the page. It's deeply personal. Hosseini 00:14:07.110 --> 00:14:09.649 didn't return to Afghanistan until 2003, when 00:14:09.649 --> 00:14:11.850 he was 38 years old. The same year the book came 00:14:11.850 --> 00:14:14.370 out. The exact same year. Just like the protagonist, 00:14:14.529 --> 00:14:16.909 Amir, Hosseini carried the burden of having left. 00:14:17.190 --> 00:14:19.429 He watched from afar as his home was destroyed. 00:14:19.629 --> 00:14:22.029 He felt that by escaping, he had somehow betrayed 00:14:22.029 --> 00:14:24.029 the place that made him. And he channeled all 00:14:24.029 --> 00:14:26.029 of that into Amir. And honestly, Amir is not 00:14:26.029 --> 00:14:28.370 always a likable character. Not at all. He's 00:14:28.370 --> 00:14:31.129 cowardly at times. He betrays his best friend 00:14:31.129 --> 00:14:34.049 to save his own skin. He stands by and watches 00:14:34.049 --> 00:14:36.309 terrible things happen. Which is exactly what 00:14:36.309 --> 00:14:39.269 makes the book so powerful. It isn't a hero's 00:14:39.269 --> 00:14:41.590 journey in the traditional Western sense. It's 00:14:41.590 --> 00:14:43.509 a journey of atonement. That's a great way to 00:14:43.509 --> 00:14:45.909 put it. It explores the horror stories the family 00:14:45.909 --> 00:14:48.049 heard in California, the executions, the fear. 00:14:48.190 --> 00:14:51.190 But it grounds them in this very intimate friendship 00:14:51.190 --> 00:14:54.450 between two boys. And it asks the ultimate question. 00:14:54.889 --> 00:14:58.279 Is it ever too late to be good again? And clearly 00:14:58.279 --> 00:15:00.860 that question struck a nerve. I mean, the commercial 00:15:00.860 --> 00:15:03.860 impact of this book was just, it was insane. 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:06.000 We're talking about a debut novel from an unknown 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.820 author about a country that most Americans only 00:15:08.820 --> 00:15:11.539 knew from war news. Insane is the right word. 00:15:11.620 --> 00:15:14.159 It's been 101 weeks on the New York Times bestseller 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:17.080 list. 101 weeks. That's basically two years of 00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:18.980 dominance. And it spent three of those weeks 00:15:18.980 --> 00:15:21.100 at number one. It was the best -selling novel 00:15:21.100 --> 00:15:24.000 of 2005 in the U .S. It became a book club staple. 00:15:24.139 --> 00:15:26.759 It was absolutely everywhere. And then, naturally, 00:15:26.980 --> 00:15:29.120 Hollywood comes calling. The film adaptation 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:33.360 hits in December 2007. A film which, fun fact, 00:15:33.580 --> 00:15:36.460 features Hosseini himself. No way. He's actually 00:15:36.460 --> 00:15:38.460 in the movie. I totally missed that. He has a 00:15:38.460 --> 00:15:41.179 small cameo. Towards the end of the film, there's 00:15:41.179 --> 00:15:43.600 a scene where the adult Amir buys a kite to fly 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:46.159 with a child. The bystander he buys the kite 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:48.720 from. That's him. That is Khaled Hosseini. That's 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:51.759 profound, actually. The creator handing the symbol 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:55.259 of his creation to his creation. It's very meta. 00:15:55.419 --> 00:15:57.500 It's a nice little touch. Yeah. But while the 00:15:57.500 --> 00:16:00.100 Kite Runner was dominating the charts, Hosseini 00:16:00.100 --> 00:16:02.870 wasn't done. He had more to say, and he wanted 00:16:02.870 --> 00:16:04.610 to broaden the scope, because let's be honest, 00:16:05.149 --> 00:16:07.330 The Kite Runner is a very male story. It is. 00:16:07.350 --> 00:16:09.470 It's all fathers and sons. It's brothers in a 00:16:09.470 --> 00:16:12.309 spiritual sense. It's about masculinity and cowardice 00:16:12.309 --> 00:16:15.370 and honor. So his next move was to flip the script 00:16:15.370 --> 00:16:18.230 entirely. And he did, with A Thousand Splendid 00:16:18.230 --> 00:16:21.470 Sons, released in 2007. This book focuses completely 00:16:21.470 --> 00:16:24.529 on women, on Miriam and Layla. And this was a 00:16:24.529 --> 00:16:26.830 critical shift. He moved from that father -son 00:16:26.830 --> 00:16:29.720 dynamic. to the female experience in Afghanistan. 00:16:30.100 --> 00:16:32.279 And this is a much harder story to tell in some 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:35.779 ways and perhaps a more necessary one. Why do 00:16:35.779 --> 00:16:38.279 you say that? Because the oppression faced by 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:40.519 women under the Taliban and during the civil 00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:44.779 war was specific. It was brutal and it was systemic. 00:16:45.100 --> 00:16:47.639 And it hadn't really been given that kind of 00:16:47.639 --> 00:16:50.840 mainstream novelistic treatment before. So the 00:16:50.840 --> 00:16:53.860 plot follows these two women from different generations 00:16:53.860 --> 00:16:56.340 whose lives get tangled up because they end up 00:16:56.340 --> 00:16:59.000 married to the same abusive man. Right. A situation 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:01.259 that reflects the cultural and legal realities 00:17:01.259 --> 00:17:04.059 of the time. Yeah. The novel covers about 30 00:17:04.059 --> 00:17:06.559 years from the Soviet occupation through the 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:09.559 infighting of the Mujahideen to Taliban control 00:17:09.559 --> 00:17:12.380 and then the post -Taliban rebuilding. It's an 00:17:12.380 --> 00:17:15.279 epic. It is an epic in the truest sense. And 00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:17.700 it proved he wasn't a one -hit wonder. Because 00:17:17.700 --> 00:17:19.319 sometimes you get that lightning in a bottle 00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:21.930 and the second book just flops. But... 1 ,000 00:17:21.930 --> 00:17:24.730 Splendid Sons spent 103 weeks on the charts. 00:17:24.789 --> 00:17:26.390 That's actually longer than The Kite Runner. 00:17:26.569 --> 00:17:28.829 And it spent 15 weeks at number one. 15 weeks 00:17:28.829 --> 00:17:30.869 at number one? That's dominance. That's like 00:17:30.869 --> 00:17:33.569 Harry Potter territory. It solidified his place 00:17:33.569 --> 00:17:36.730 as a literary giant. Scott Rudin and Columbia 00:17:36.730 --> 00:17:39.150 Pictures bought the rights immediately. He had 00:17:39.150 --> 00:17:41.289 successfully told the other half of the Afghan 00:17:41.289 --> 00:17:43.569 story. He showed that the tragedy of Afghanistan 00:17:43.569 --> 00:17:45.849 wasn't just men fighting in the mountains. It 00:17:45.849 --> 00:17:48.609 was women enduring quietly in their homes. So 00:17:48.609 --> 00:17:51.250 then we fast forward to 2013. And the mountains 00:17:51.250 --> 00:17:53.609 echoed. This is where he gets even more ambitious 00:17:53.609 --> 00:17:55.730 with structure. It's not just one protagonist 00:17:55.730 --> 00:17:58.930 or a duo. It's a multi -generational family story. 00:17:59.250 --> 00:18:01.890 It revolves around siblings, but it just branches 00:18:01.890 --> 00:18:04.390 out like a tree. He has said in interviews that 00:18:04.390 --> 00:18:06.970 he is forever drawn to family as a recurring 00:18:06.970 --> 00:18:09.650 central theme. That seems to be the through line 00:18:09.650 --> 00:18:12.930 of all his work. Yes. If Kite Runner was fathers 00:18:12.930 --> 00:18:16.380 and sons. and Sons was Women and Wives, and The 00:18:16.380 --> 00:18:19.119 Mountains Echoed is about siblings. The core 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:23.259 emotions he's exploring here are loving, wounding, 00:18:23.259 --> 00:18:26.200 betraying, honoring, and sacrificing. It deals 00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:28.559 with how choices made by one generation just 00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:30.680 ripple down to the next. It's messy, like real 00:18:30.680 --> 00:18:32.980 families are. It doesn't have the clean, linear 00:18:32.980 --> 00:18:35.700 redemption arc of Kite Runner. Exactly. And it 00:18:35.700 --> 00:18:38.279 was another major success. 33 weeks on the charts. 00:18:38.380 --> 00:18:40.819 It showed a maturing writer who was willing to 00:18:40.819 --> 00:18:43.299 take risks with narrative form. He was pushing 00:18:43.299 --> 00:18:45.460 himself. And then he does something a bit different 00:18:45.460 --> 00:18:48.759 in 2018. Sea Prayer. This was a departure in 00:18:48.759 --> 00:18:51.160 formats, an illustrated short story. And the 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:53.900 inspiration for it was... heartbreakingly specific 00:18:53.900 --> 00:18:57.700 this was about the Syrian refugee crisis specifically 00:18:57.700 --> 00:19:00.319 the death of Alan Kurdi do you remember that 00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:03.660 image Oh God the three -year -old boy the photo 00:19:03.660 --> 00:19:05.940 of him washed up on the beach in Turkey that 00:19:05.940 --> 00:19:08.539 image It broke the world's heart for a moment. 00:19:08.740 --> 00:19:11.799 Husseini saw that and he wrote sea prayer. It's 00:19:11.799 --> 00:19:14.599 a letter from a father to his son as they wait 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:16.700 to cross the sea. This feels like a shift in 00:19:16.700 --> 00:19:19.380 his mission. He's not just the Afghan storyteller 00:19:19.380 --> 00:19:22.259 anymore. Correct. He is evolving into a voice 00:19:22.259 --> 00:19:25.299 for refugees globally. He isn't just talking 00:19:25.299 --> 00:19:27.599 about Kabul or the Taliban. He's talking about 00:19:27.599 --> 00:19:30.559 the universal, terrifying experience of displacement. 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:33.279 The act of putting your child in a flimsy boat 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:35.859 because the water is somehow safer than the land. 00:19:36.220 --> 00:19:39.119 which segues perfectly into his influences. Because 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:41.160 you don't become a writer like this in a vacuum. 00:19:41.319 --> 00:19:44.059 You are what you read. And Hosseini's reading 00:19:44.059 --> 00:19:46.900 list is, well, it's eclectic, to say the least. 00:19:47.099 --> 00:19:49.539 It is a fascinating mix of East and West. On 00:19:49.539 --> 00:19:51.339 one side, you have the Persian heavyweights. 00:19:51.500 --> 00:19:54.640 He grew up reading Rumi, Hafez, Omar Khayyam, 00:19:54.740 --> 00:19:57.640 Bodio. These are the titans of poetry. They are 00:19:57.640 --> 00:20:00.740 deeply embedded in the culture. Poetry in Afghanistan 00:20:00.740 --> 00:20:03.200 and Iran isn't just something you study in a 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:06.390 dusty classroom. It's something you live. People 00:20:06.390 --> 00:20:09.309 quote roomy and daily conversation. It shapes 00:20:09.309 --> 00:20:12.029 how you see the world. Mystical, emotional, metaphorical. 00:20:12.130 --> 00:20:14.849 Right. But then you look at his Western influences. 00:20:15.230 --> 00:20:17.410 It's a completely different bookshelf. Jack London. 00:20:17.789 --> 00:20:21.349 White Fang. A story about a wolf dog in the Yukon. 00:20:21.430 --> 00:20:24.390 And Alice in Wonderland. And this is my favorite. 00:20:24.650 --> 00:20:27.289 Mickey Spillane. Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer 00:20:27.289 --> 00:20:30.269 series. Hard -boiled American detective fiction. 00:20:31.170 --> 00:20:34.819 Gunfights. Dames. Punchy dialogue. I just love 00:20:34.819 --> 00:20:37.180 the image of a young Khalid in Kabul sitting 00:20:37.180 --> 00:20:40.099 in the Wazir Akbar Khan garden, reading Rumi 00:20:40.099 --> 00:20:42.059 in the morning and Mickey Spillane in the afternoon. 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:44.380 It explains so much about his style, doesn't 00:20:44.380 --> 00:20:46.740 it? He has the lyrical, emotional depth of the 00:20:46.740 --> 00:20:49.019 Persian poets, that ability to talk about the 00:20:49.019 --> 00:20:51.779 soul and longing. But he understands the pacing 00:20:51.779 --> 00:20:54.200 and the hook of Western commercial fiction. He 00:20:54.200 --> 00:20:55.960 knows how to keep you turning the page. Exactly. 00:20:56.420 --> 00:20:58.259 He learned plot mechanics from the Americans 00:20:58.259 --> 00:21:01.059 and soul from the Persians. And we can't forget 00:21:01.059 --> 00:21:06.589 the music. The Afghan Elvis. Ahmad Zahir. Hosseini 00:21:06.589 --> 00:21:08.529 has called him a seminal memory of his time in 00:21:08.529 --> 00:21:10.950 Afghanistan. Afghan Elvis is a strong nickname. 00:21:11.269 --> 00:21:14.990 And it fits. Zaheer is this huge cultural icon 00:21:14.990 --> 00:21:18.250 in the 60s and 70s who blended traditional Afghan 00:21:18.250 --> 00:21:21.390 music with Western pop and rock. So again, we 00:21:21.390 --> 00:21:23.589 see that theme of bridging worlds. It's a constant 00:21:23.589 --> 00:21:26.289 in his life. It is. Hosseini specifically cites 00:21:26.289 --> 00:21:29.990 songs like Madar and I, Padisha Kuban as key 00:21:29.990 --> 00:21:32.809 tracks for him. Listening to that music, he says, 00:21:32.950 --> 00:21:35.210 transports him straight back to the Cape Flying 00:21:35.210 --> 00:21:37.430 days. It seems like everything in his life is 00:21:37.430 --> 00:21:39.859 about that bridge. The music, the books, the 00:21:39.859 --> 00:21:41.779 lifestyle. And he has put that into practice 00:21:41.779 --> 00:21:43.900 with his advocacy work, too. He's not just writing 00:21:43.900 --> 00:21:46.619 checks. He's a goodwill envoy for the UNHCR. 00:21:46.759 --> 00:21:49.259 The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 00:21:49.460 --> 00:21:51.779 And he takes this role very, very seriously. 00:21:51.980 --> 00:21:54.160 He established the Khalid Hosseini Foundation. 00:21:54.519 --> 00:21:56.180 And that foundation has a very specific goal, 00:21:56.240 --> 00:21:58.720 right? It's not just general aid. No, the focus 00:21:58.720 --> 00:22:01.700 is on providing humanitarian aid and, crucially, 00:22:01.859 --> 00:22:04.460 building homes for refugees returning to Afghanistan. 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:07.200 This was directly inspired by a trip he took 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:10.380 in 2007 with the UNHCR. Oh, wow. He went back 00:22:10.380 --> 00:22:12.400 to Afghanistan, his first time seeing the north 00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:15.240 of the country, and he saw the situation on the 00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:17.740 ground. People were trying to return to a country 00:22:17.740 --> 00:22:19.500 that had been shattered. They were living in 00:22:19.500 --> 00:22:21.900 holes in the ground or under plastic sheets. 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:24.180 So he decided he needed to help provide actual 00:22:24.180 --> 00:22:26.380 shelter. Putting his money where his mouth is. 00:22:26.539 --> 00:22:28.839 He's rebuilding the place that he writes about. 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:31.579 Quite literally, brick by brick. And doing all 00:22:31.579 --> 00:22:33.420 that while living his life in Northern California. 00:22:33.640 --> 00:22:35.720 Let's touch on his private life briefly before 00:22:35.720 --> 00:22:38.240 we wrap up. He resides in Northern California 00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:41.180 with his wife, Roya. They have two kids. And 00:22:41.180 --> 00:22:44.309 he describes himself as a secular Muslim. And 00:22:44.309 --> 00:22:46.890 despite living in the U .S. for over 40 years, 00:22:47.049 --> 00:22:50.349 he's fluent in both Persian and Pashto, maintaining 00:22:50.349 --> 00:22:52.670 that deep linguistic connection to his roots. 00:22:52.849 --> 00:22:55.109 And there was a significant family update recently 00:22:55.109 --> 00:22:58.269 in July 2022. Yes, he announced on social media 00:22:58.269 --> 00:23:00.769 that his 21 -year -old child had come out as 00:23:00.769 --> 00:23:02.990 transgender. Which is just a beautiful moment 00:23:02.990 --> 00:23:05.869 of modern parenting. And given his background, 00:23:05.930 --> 00:23:07.750 coming from a culture that can be very traditional 00:23:07.750 --> 00:23:10.869 and where such topics are often taboo, it was 00:23:10.869 --> 00:23:13.390 a really powerful statement of acceptance and 00:23:13.390 --> 00:23:15.769 love. It reflects the core values found in his 00:23:15.769 --> 00:23:18.779 books, I think. If you look at his work, the 00:23:18.779 --> 00:23:22.160 ultimate virtue is always loyalty to family and 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:25.440 the courage to be authentic. His public reaction 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:28.460 to his child's announcement was perfectly consistent 00:23:28.460 --> 00:23:30.859 with the moral universe he's built in his novels. 00:23:31.059 --> 00:23:33.259 That's a great point. Love transcends tradition. 00:23:33.660 --> 00:23:36.180 Exactly. So let's wrap this up. We've gone from 00:23:36.180 --> 00:23:39.180 the kite -flying days in Wazir Akbar Khan to 00:23:39.180 --> 00:23:42.240 the shock of exile in Paris and San Jose to the 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:44.900 arranged marriage of medicine and finally to 00:23:44.900 --> 00:23:47.740 literary suicide. It's a journey that is defined 00:23:47.740 --> 00:23:50.740 by the transformation of loss into art. I mean, 00:23:50.759 --> 00:23:53.119 think about what he lost. He lost his home. He 00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:55.440 lost his status. He lost his connection to his 00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:57.200 extended family. He lost his native language 00:23:57.200 --> 00:23:59.539 for a while. A huge amount of loss. But he used 00:23:59.539 --> 00:24:01.440 the English language, a language he didn't even 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:04.480 speak until he was 15, to rebuild that home on 00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:07.220 the page for the entire world to see. He took 00:24:07.220 --> 00:24:09.799 that survivor's guilt, that feeling of why did 00:24:09.799 --> 00:24:12.500 I get away when my uncle didn't, and he channeled 00:24:12.500 --> 00:24:15.140 it into stories that forced the world to look 00:24:15.140 --> 00:24:17.859 at Afghanistan as a place of humans, not just 00:24:17.859 --> 00:24:20.819 a place of war. He humanized a region that had 00:24:20.819 --> 00:24:23.680 been dehumanized by decades of conflict headlines. 00:24:24.220 --> 00:24:26.539 Before Hosseini, for most people in the West, 00:24:26.740 --> 00:24:30.019 Afghanistan was a map on CNN. Right. After Hosseini, 00:24:30.019 --> 00:24:31.779 it was a place where fathers loved their sons, 00:24:31.940 --> 00:24:34.720 where women had dreams, where children flew kites. 00:24:34.839 --> 00:24:36.980 He made us care about the boy running for the 00:24:36.980 --> 00:24:39.180 kite or the woman cooking in the kitchen rather 00:24:39.180 --> 00:24:41.279 than just the soldier with the gun. Here's a 00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:44.000 thought to leave you with. Hosseini called medicine 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:47.460 an arranged marriage. He was a good doctor. By 00:24:47.460 --> 00:24:50.319 all accounts, he was saving lives. But imagine 00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:52.759 if the kite runner had flopped. Imagine if it 00:24:52.759 --> 00:24:55.259 sold 500 copies and he just kept being doctor. 00:24:55.599 --> 00:24:57.619 He would have undoubtedly helped thousands of 00:24:57.619 --> 00:24:59.920 patients over a 30 -year career. He would have 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:02.180 been a success by any normal standard. He'd be 00:25:02.180 --> 00:25:04.259 a wealthy, respected physician in San Jose right 00:25:04.259 --> 00:25:06.819 now. But the world would have a completely different 00:25:06.819 --> 00:25:09.299 understanding of Afghan culture. We wouldn't 00:25:09.299 --> 00:25:11.920 have that bridge. It makes you wonder how many 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:14.640 other arranged marriages are out there right 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:16.799 now keeping brilliant stories from being told. 00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:19.480 That's a profound question. How many other voices 00:25:19.480 --> 00:25:22.059 are stuck in a career they chose for duty while 00:25:22.059 --> 00:25:24.480 their crew contribution to the world is just 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:27.400 waiting to be written? Sometimes you have to 00:25:27.400 --> 00:25:29.619 break the arrangement to find your true purpose. 00:25:29.960 --> 00:25:32.799 And in doing so, you might just heal more people 00:25:32.799 --> 00:25:34.839 than you ever could with a stethoscope. And on 00:25:34.839 --> 00:25:37.240 that note, we encourage you to look for the human 00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:40.140 story behind the next headline you read. There's 00:25:40.140 --> 00:25:41.859 always a kite runner somewhere in the background. 00:25:42.920 --> 00:25:44.700 Thanks for listening to this deep dive.