Oct 12, 2026 · 31 min · 14 segments
Politicians and commentators keep telling us we’re living through unprecedented times. But how unusual is the world we’re living in, really? John Simpson has spent 60 years reporting for the BBC…
John SimpsonGuest
Asma KhalidHost
Well, John, here we are in this current moment, and the US is engaged in another foreign war in the Middle East, uh, in Iran.
And, you know, as, as much as I was saying people talk about unprecedented times, uh, for many younger Americans, this actually doesn't feel that unprecedented.
They don't remember, in fact, a moment, uh, of their adult life in which Americans were not actively involved in, in bombing a country in the Middle East.
I mean, what, what I think is so striking is, you know, we've been having this conversation about how people speak of us living in these unprecedented times, and yet when I see the war in Iran, and I, and I'm not the only one, I think a number of Americans feel like they see echoes of a very familiar pattern, actually, of, of the way the world works from the United States' perspective.
It doesn't feel actually all that surprising or unusual in some ways, and it makes me wonder if indeed we are living through truly unprecedented times.
Well, I mean, if we're talking about unprecedented, in a sense, somehow or another you kind of wake up in the morning, uh, or at least I do, and, and wonder if i- it isn't quite unprecedented, if, if we haven't just spun back a, a, a, a few decades when you read about what people, politicians say, for instance, about Russia and its intentions.
In those days we used to call it the Soviet Union, and we were worried about the possibility it might stage some kind of attacks on Western territories.
Now we worry whether it's gonna stage attacks on territories which it used to be in control of and which are now pro-Western.
Uh, things have shifted, but in some ways, uh, they've shifted back to the patterns of once upon a time.
I mean, we used to regard China as a, a, a dangerous kind of enemy, particularly when Hong Kong was still British.
We're seeing the same kind of broad outlines that we'd seen, you know, for the first decades of my career.
Well, John, here we are in this current moment, and the US is engaged in another foreign war in the Middle East, uh, in Iran.
And, you know, as, as much as I was saying people talk about unprecedented times, uh, for many younger Americans, this actually doesn't feel that unprecedented.
They don't remember, in fact, a moment, uh, of their adult life in which Americans were not actively involved in, in bombing a country in the Middle East.
I mean, what, what I think is so striking is, you know, we've been having this conversation about how people speak of us living in these unprecedented times, and yet when I see the war in Iran, and I, and I'm not the only one, I think a number of Americans feel like they see echoes of a very familiar pattern, actually, of, of the way the world works from the United States' perspective.
It doesn't feel actually all that surprising or unusual in some ways, and it makes me wonder if indeed we are living through truly unprecedented times.
Well, I mean, if we're talking about unprecedented, in a sense, somehow or another you kind of wake up in the morning, uh, or at least I do, and, and wonder if i- it isn't quite unprecedented, if, if we haven't just spun back a, a, a, a few decades when you read about what people, politicians say, for instance, about Russia and its intentions.
In those days we used to call it the Soviet Union, and we were worried about the possibility it might stage some kind of attacks on Western territories.
Now we worry whether it's gonna stage attacks on territories which it used to be in control of and which are now pro-Western.
Uh, things have shifted, but in some ways, uh, they've shifted back to the patterns of once upon a time.
I mean, we used to regard China as a, a, a dangerous kind of enemy, particularly when Hong Kong was still British.
We're seeing the same kind of broad outlines that we'd seen, you know, for the first decades of my career.
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