Sir Sadiq Khan, Mayor Of London

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from Evglyss. After an initial dosing phase, about 4 in 10 people taking Evglyss achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks. And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.

0:22Sadiq Khan:EBCLIS, Librikizumab, LBKZ, a 250 milligram per two milliliter injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema. Also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. EBCLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to EBCLIS. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems.

0:50Sadiq Khan:You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with EpGliss. Before starting EpGliss, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Searching for real relief? Ask your doctor about EpGliss and visit epgliss.lily.com or call 1-800-LILY-RX or 1-800-545-5979. You're listening to a podcast, so you're doing something else too, like maybe scrolling home listings on Redfin, saving places you like without thinking you'll get them, because that's what house hunting has become. But Redfin isn't built for endless browsing. It's built to help you find and own a home. Redfin agents close twice as many deals as other agents, which means when you find a place you love, you've got a real shot at getting it.

1:31Redfin helps turn saved listings into real addresses. Get started at redfin.com. Own the dream. Ruthie's Table 4, presented by Sky.

1:43Sadiq Khan:There are some people across the globe who are nativists, who believe in sort of populist politics, who believe there's a clash of civilizations who are always talking down great cities like London. Why? Because we're the antithesis of what they stand for. We've shown diversity as a strength, not a weakness. It makes us richer, not poorer. It makes us stronger, not weaker. We can't take it for granted. And that's where food comes in. You know, the fact that you could be somebody who may have suspicions about foreigners, but loves their food. Yeah. That'll open your eyes. Oh, it does. And so you need to go to holiday.

2:14Sadiq Khan:You've got it here. And so you start talking to the chef or the restaurant who's from a different background, which you then realize we've got much more in common that unites you. The joy of being the mayor is forget no two days are the same, no two hours are the same. Because I meet all sorts of people. I could meet a cleaner or a bus driver or a great chef or a business person, a small business, a big business. And that's the rhythm of a great city. And we're always evolving.

2:41At a dinner in our home in 2016, Mayor Sadiq Khan threw three lemons across the room just missing a pre-Columbian sculpture and the frame of a beloved painting. But before you gasp, it was done for good reason. He was leaving the next morning for New York and had been given the honor of throwing the first pitch at a Mets baseball game. Josh Berger, though an L.A. Dodgers fan, volunteered to give him a lesson there and then, Mr. Mayor, this really needs to go well. For Sadiq Khan, the third and longest governing mayor in London's history, much has gone well. For me, one of his many great achievements as mayor has been ensuring that every child in London has a free school lunch.

3:27I'm incredibly moved that he's taken the time to join us here. We'll share stories about the food of his family, of how the diversity of London's restaurants reflects the diversity of our city, making it a better and stronger place for all of us. Sadiq is a man I respect as a mayor and deeply love as a friend.

3:50Sadiq Khan:Ruthie, it's a pleasure to be on. Thanks for having me on. I should just end the story you began with just to reassure your listeners. Let's go back to throwing lemons in my living room. To be fair, Richard, who we love and adore and miss, encouraged this behaviour. Richard was always like, what's more important in life? You know, friends with Richard and you all? Or a work of art? Well, the story goes on because Josh taught me how to throw a lemon. I go to Chicago before. So we'd be in Toronto. We go to Chicago, go to New York. And I see Rahm there. Rahm's the mayor of Chicago at the time, Rahm Emanuel.

4:20Sadiq Khan:Rahm Emanuel. And I tell Rahm I'm going to throw the first pitch at a Mets game. And he said, forgive my language, so apologies in advance. Are you fucking mad, Sadiq? And I said, what do you mean, Rahm? He goes, there's no upside. Because they hate mayors. And so you'll get booed going on. you'll get the pitch wrong because you won't go into the catcher's hand and you'll be a laughing stock and now I'm really nervous anyway the next day is the Mets game go to the Mets game and I walk into the pitch and they announced the mayor of London is here huge screams and huge cheers I'm thinking yes yes they love London and then a trick one of your dinner guests taught me was hug the catcher because the catcher the catcher can make you look very good or make it look very bad so I hugged the catcher I threw wasn't a lemon it was a baseball I did the poses Josh told me as they're doing the movies and the catcher caught it and the crowd cheered but it gets even better tell me I stayed for the game and I sat behind the net and during the game there's we're doing awful just an awful and a New Yorker shouted out you're so crap we should get the mayor of London to pitch oh story and it all began in your son Richard's home that is a great story have you played baseball since then or is that the height of your career another first pitch at San Francisco game but no I mean I'm a cricket man not a baseball man I said to Daniel Lurie we were just talking about another very exciting mayor of San Francisco and I was saying And, you know, if you'd asked me, what, maybe six years ago, what's important in a city?

5:59The education, the theaters, the opera, the museums. But when COVID happened and restaurants closed, I think we all miss them. Do you think? Restaurants are part of a city?

6:11Sadiq Khan:I think COVID was obviously awful. But I think it reminded us what matters and what's important. As human beings, we love socializing. Yeah. Just think, go back to the biblical times about the importance of breaking bread together. the conversation the place where you teach we have arguments and discourse and debate and what COVID reminded us of is how much we missed each other the spontaneous meeting yeah but also the vibe you get when you go even to the office or to a place to eat the noise the ambience that sort of 30 second conversation with a waiter or with a chef or with somebody in the table next door to you but also the food one of the joys of whether it's London or you mentioned San Francisco another great city is the diversity of foods in terms of price in terms of where the ingredients come from in terms of the type of cooking we have of course here at the river cafe which is great italian food but the joy of london is you can get you know palestinian food you can get israeli food you can get indian food you can get ethiopian food eritrean food afghani food you can get spanish food and i could go on and so we missed that and that's the joy by the way great cities the restaurants, the diversity of restaurants.

7:21It tells you the story. Going to a market when you arrive in a city tells you a story. How they sell their food, how they grow it, how you can buy it.

7:31Sadiq Khan:And the smells. I have the privilege now that I'm the mayor. I get to visit kitchens. I've just been to the River Cafe kitchen and I love when I go to restaurants, the smells. The different smells and fragrances that kitchens have. I grew up in a household where my mum cooked lots of Pakistani food and there's different smells with the spices yeah the onions frying and some people love it some don't I love it I love the smell of food whatever food it is that you know whether it's you know a pizza being baked whether it's onion being fried whether it's the smell of fresh coffee and that can evoke memories yeah which which can take you back to your childhood or to a holiday or to a wedding yeah it's like a piece of music you know you can I could sometimes listen to music and know what I was wearing the first time I heard it being played yeah whatever but i think you know when you look at memories and that's what we try and do here look at memories and your life through the lens of food you know people open up and people remember it's a great level isn't it and it's a level because we all yeah so let's start with your family your grandparents were from india the origin of my family is originally from india yeah so india uh pre-british empire days was a huge country uh different religions you know hindus Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists Zoroastrians, Christians and I could go on.

8:49Sadiq Khan:Different ethnicities coming from Afghanistan, from Persia from Saudi Arabia, from you know, Roman Europe and so forth and my family going back many generations is Muslim Where in India were they from? So originally my both maternal and paternal grandparents are from a place called Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh it's a province in India which is predominantly Muslim lots of Hindus lots of Sikhs they grew up with neighbors who are different religions very diverse community and in 1947 as the British were leaving India they decided to partition India and very crudely what they did was an area where there was a majority Hindu became India and an area that was majority Muslim became what's now called Pakistan think of a rectangle the east of the rectangle had majority Muslims that became East Pakistan yeah the middle had majority Hindus and some Sikhs that became India the West had majority Muslims that became West Pakistan so ridiculous yet West Pakistan what are one extreme India in the middle and then East Pakistan on the other extreme so if you're a Muslim you had to go through and spot on so if you're if you're a Muslim in say majority Hindu area or a Sikh area you have to travel to West pakistan to get to or east pakistan to get to safety uh because unfortunately this maxim you may have heard divide and rule it created friction and tension between hindus and muslims and sikhs and so literally three million indians muslims sikhs hindus died doing this because i'm walking this way as a hit as a muslim you're walking this way as a hindu which dive in a fisticuffs and turns to three million three million died so my family migrated from what was majority in a hindu India migrated in the middle from the middle to West Pakistan with a place called Karachi which is a former capital and so that would have been in 1947 1947 1948 yeah and so my grandparents are migrants from India to Pakistan my parents are migrants from Pakistan to London my dad works in the Pakistani Air Force and he was sent first to Australia and apologies to my Australian friends it's not my fault he didn't like australia oh no australia listeners this is uh grandfather's opinion not ours and so my dad went to australia didn't like it went to a place called wagwa i think i did like in australia went back to pakistan uh left the air force and uh came to london right and uh he's with and he came in he came in did he come with his wife by himself originally yeah in the 60s okay my mom had three kids so my mom was looking after the three kids my old three siblings in Pakistan.

11:41Sadiq Khan:And so my dad comes there by himself. He can't get a well-paid job as an engineer. So his qualifications are wasted a bit. He can get a job as a bus driver because London Transport are looking for bus drivers, London Underground looking for train operators. And so he got a job as a bus driver. And so he had the security now of an income. And so he called my mum over and my two oldest brothers, Shadzai, then Farad, my sister, called them over and laid roots down here in this country. And I was born here in 1970. I've got four older siblings, three older brothers, three younger brothers. So there's eight of us kids.

12:21Sadiq Khan:Yeah, yeah. And it was a great childhood. I mean, I've got nothing but four. I mean, it was clearly tough. But that's an amazing just stopping there. Your parents left their parents. Your grandparents didn't come. No, they'd already made a journey from India to Pakistan. Yeah, so they were there. And migrants generally, I mean, migrating is not easy. You know this from your personal history. You admire the people who had the energy and the values to do that. Migrant parents are happy in Karachi. They've already moved from India to Karachi. They'll move again. My dad moves here. What he did was fascinating was he raised his family here, but he would always send money back to Pakistan.

13:00Yeah, yeah, yeah.

13:01Sadiq Khan:Remind his back. Even now my mom sends money back to Pakistan. It's just a thing you do, right? That's what you do. My family, in a very different way, my grandparents came at the beginning of this. They were part of the Ellis Island, you know, migration from Budapest, from Hungary, from Kiev. And they, again, the men came first by boat, you know, if you imagine that journey. My grandmother, one of my grandmothers, they had seven children. She was a seamstress. My other one was a seamstress. My other grandmother was a kind of union organizer, apparently. She got jobs making ties, and she was very political.

13:42Is that where you get your politics from, is it? Probably, yeah. And she was a great cook. She used to bring her rolling pin wherever she went. She didn't trust any of her daughter-in-laws to make a strudel. But I just think what this shows is a parallel of two families, people who leave their families, come to a new country, and work and take care of their kids. and how much do we celebrate these people who have that?

14:06Sadiq Khan:You know this from your family history, but actually anybody who's taken a conscious decision to leave home, travel thousands of miles, is not going to go and sit on their bum. They're going to work hard. They've got to work ethic. If you want a job done, ask an immigrant. That's a great line in Hamilton. But that's the story of America and actually of London. I mean, London over the last 2 ,000 years, it was originally called Londinium during the Roman times. It's grown and evolved and it's now, in my view, the greatest in the world because of successive generations of migrants what's fascinating about london it goes back to your rolling pin story my mom's got a rolling pin she makes chapati roti with her right she doesn't trust either her sons or a daughter or a daughter to make roti she makes it herself um but evokes memory from evokes memory from a mom of being back home the food yeah because she was incredibly homesick i mean even now she misses uh pakistan but it's but food brings it back the food brings it back and she could cook it here and she could make it and she could yeah we should smother too i've got i've got really fond memories when i was living at home as a child during the month of ramadan uh you have a meal a meal just before dawn and you fast all day and then you have a meal at dusk and my mum had been fasting all day she'd get up before dawn to prep you know half the job in cooking is prep right dawn breakfast was around three o 'clock she must have got up at 1 30.

15:22Sadiq Khan:so she's you know getting the flour ready making getting the the the rorties ready and i'd wake up with the smell by hand and also when i was growing up everything was fresh i mean this idea of even you can you can cheat now if you're making a curry and get plum tomatoes in a tin no no they're fresh tomatoes you chop them up you stew them for a while um and so i'd wake up with a smell of what's called paratha a version of chapatis but with potatoes in the middle of it she'd make fresh paratha i could smell the omelette had been made and we'd go downstairs and she'd been up an hour and a half before us we don't have pre-dawn breakfast she would have a pre-dawn breakfast we'd go to school or whatever we come back up and have a nap so we're starving hungry my mom would be cooking while she's fasting you know fast breaking meal which were fresh samosa fresh bakora you know silence curries rice there's two things you learn to do when you're raised in the Khan family one is eat fast oh yeah if you want seconds and two is to talk quickly so if you want to be heard or if you want to eat you talk fast and eat quickly so when I when I'm speaking to particularly foreign dignitaries or um you know I I've got to tell myself to slow down because when I'm excited like I'm talking to you I go back to my fast pace

16:57iVeam is built for losing weight and moving forward. iVeam is built for feeling your best and seeing results. iVeam is a medical weight loss program built for you. Their approach is individualized, virtual, integrated medicine. 99.2 % of patients who completed the iVeam weight loss protocol achieved meaningful change, dropping an average of 45 pounds. Iveem, built for your wellness journey. Iveem, built for real life. When you sign up right now, you can get a one-month free trial. Start your personalized plan in minutes by visiting iveemhealth.com. That's I-V-I-M health.com. Subscription required, medication labs and supplements not included.

17:40Results based on patients who completed the full IVIM protocol over 68 weeks. Individual, results vary. Not all patients are eligible. Prescription medications may carry risks and should be used only as directed by your provider. I think the value of actually sitting around a table at the end of a day, even if it's for a short time and having a discussion about life, we say how important you think the table is, you know.

18:09Sadiq Khan:Well, I've started that in our family. So because there were so many of us at home, we very rarely got a chance to eat together around the table. We'd spend lots of time together because we'd be in and out. Brothers in and out. I'm in and out. And we'd just go straight from the pot to the plate. My wife grew up where her family would eat around the table. And when we got married, you know, we realized the importance of eating together because you're so busy working. You need that time to download and to talk. And when our kids were young, we agreed at an early age we would eat together. And it's so important because it can be a place, it can be a classroom, it can be a place where you share good stories.

18:43Sadiq Khan:Or if you had a bad day, something bad that's happened in the day, it's a place you can decompress, it's a place you can laugh, and you can invite others to the table as well. But also you can get convenience food in London. It's so good now. And one of the things that we're talking about is the recipe I've chosen, which is so fast. How about if we read that recipe, the ingrini with fresh and dried oregano, what made you choose this? There's a number of reasons why. Firstly, it's very quick. and when you're time poor often you can sometimes sacrifice quality because you think you don't have the time but this is a good example of a combination of stuff that's easy fresh and it's quick and it's quick and listen can I just say to those listening if I can do it anyone can do it and I can do this good okay do you want to read we will have the mayor of London Siddi Khan is going to read the recipe for linguine with fresh and dried oregano and it serves any way you want it serves serve six um it's uh the ingredients are very simple you need 50 grams of fresh oregano very finely chopped 25 grams of dried oregano leaves crumbled 12 red tomatoes um quartered and seeded 12 yellow tomatoes i think the cherry tomatoes yeah quartered and seeded 100 milliliters of extra virgin olive oil, one tablespoon of red wine vinegar, and 250 grams of linguine, and basically three ingredients.

20:09Sadiq Khan:It's just so easy to do, very affordable, and it goes a long way. You mix the fresh and dried oregano together. I can do that. I can do that. It's very easy. Combine the tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil, the red wine vinegar, and sea salt and black pepper. And then here's the trick. You put it aside for it to marinate. And that's the trick that I think people don't realize, letting things soak in the ingredients so it's marinated on the side and then you cook the linguine in a generous amount of boiled salt water drain and return to the pan when i do my pasta i put a tiny bit of oil in the water so it doesn't stick to the sides um so i'm not sure if um you approve fruity i totally approve um and that way it just comes up nice and easy you toss with the oregano mixture and the marinated tomatoes until it's very hot and you serve right away and from From start to finish, that takes around 15 minutes, I reckon.

21:00Yeah, it's very fast. It's great. And it's cheap. Yeah, yeah. And it's easy and it's fresh. I'm really pleased you chose that recipe.

21:06Sadiq Khan:And actually, tomatoes, I mean, you probably know, Ruthie, but tomatoes is the base for nearly all Indian food. Is it? No, I don't know that. So most curries are actually, the starting point is very similar, which is you fry onions. Yeah. You have your spices on the side. once the once the onions are browned you put tomatoes in you can cheat now and use the tinned plum tomatoes or you can do what you've done here you put the tomatoes in and that becomes the sauce yeah so the tomato and the onions is basically the source the foundation is the foundation of so you can you can then add your spices then you can decide whether your chicken or lamb or fish or whatever you're going to do but that's your base and so most courage you will have will have that as the base and in most restaurants that's how they'll start and then when you order from the restaurant they'll then add whatever but the base has been made already the sauce is made already but like your pasta dishes sauce is already made so if you have that in the fridge if you keep that you can then diversify so my mother-in-law makes a lot of the base and just puts in the fridge and we'll bring it out different days and so it means it she'll use one day just make all the basic stuff and then every other day add to it to mix it up so you may be having chicken one day yeah lamb another day but the base is the same when you were growing up so you had that you had your mother cooking you these wonderful meals you had ramadan which i find so interesting about the culture of you know not eating and then eating and the feast i've experienced it in morocco um when you when you go to the souks and there's nothing and then the way everyone you have the call to prayer and people start eating at the big feast well that's the joy of london the joy of one of the reasons why i love this city and i genuinely think it is the greatest in the world is you've got all the great religions big religions small religions here in london so you can you don't need to go to morocco or doha to experience ramadan you got in london or you know a jewish fast or a christian fast or a hindu fast yeah and one of the things that i've sought to do as mayor is to celebrate the different religions so we have hanukkah in the square trevada square yeah we have you know obviously the christmas tree we have easter commemorated we have eid in the square for muslims divali in the square for hindus fesaki in the square pride yeah so the other is that everyone should have a sense of belonging but more importantly people who aren't from the lgbtq plus community or aren't muslim or aren't hindu can also experience the joys of different uh cultures because what we want to give people is a sense of belonging they if you feel you belong exactly right the new york times did a really interesting piece a long time ago where they asked 10 people how they would define their identity so would I say number one on the chef number one I'm a mother number one I'm you know an American and it was interesting that some people did do it by their profession some did it by their sexuality what I find with my grandchildren here is that they identified not as a British citizen but as a London I just want to tell you This is why I'm with his podcast.

24:11What they do is they say I'm a Londoner now. It's even like I'm a North Londoner. Yeah, very good. Or I am from Hackney. Yeah. Or I'm from South London. You know, do you find that all new? The North Londoners are very confused now. We've got 400 villages here.

24:25Sadiq Khan:Yeah, spot on. I think we have multiple identities. Yeah, of course. You can be a proud Londoner and you can be proudly Muslim and proudly British and a father and so forth. That's the joy of identity. spot or occupation what I've noticed about great cities is and the same applies to New York I think New York is the most closest to London in terms of without a doubt by the diversity I think New York is the second greatest city in the world just because it's a global city the different types of businesses there are there the cultures the ethnic backgrounds, the attitudes the values and what's interesting about your grandchildren's experiences that's that's very typical now people are incredibly proud of being a Londoner particularly post-Brexit before their English or before their British or before their Scottish or whatever whatever and we've got to we've got to cherish that because there are some people across the globe who are nativists who believe in sort of populist politics who you know believe there's a clash of civilizations who are always talking down great cities like London why because we're the antithesis of what they stand for we've shown diversity is a strength not a weakness that makes us richer not poorer it makes us stronger not weaker we can't take it for granted and that's where food comes in you know the fact that you could be somebody who may have suspicions about foreigners but loves their food yeah that'll open your eyes and so you didn't go to holiday you got it here and so you start talking to the chef or the restaurant is from a different background which you then realize we've got much more in common that unites you then divide you but the joy of being the mayor is forget no two days of the same no two hours of the same something all sorts of people I could meet a cleaner or a bus driver or a great chef or a business person small business a big business and that's the rhythm of this great city and we're always evolving everyone has a story to tell and a story to bring I would say that you know that if you look at your River Cafe today you'll see a hundred people eating there and they all look happy and eating but you always say you never know you know they might have been fired that morning or they mother might be sick or their daughter might have graduated with honors or there's always a such a something that brings people together and talking and we have I mean the phrase that the sociological phrase is social hubs so in the olden days a social hub is a place we meet it'd be the pub or it could be the village post office that's what it was for me there you go and so because of the pace of society because of you know atomization we're all busy fragmentation the nuclear family there are fewer social hubs um they just are there there are fewer pubs there are few post offices have closed down you know people are now on the internet and that's why food and restaurants is so important there are social hubs it could be that your dining table at home is your hub for your family three generations coming together it could be a restaurant meal with friends and we've got to we've got to recognize that actually we've got to make an effort and the joy of of when i was growing up was we'd find comfort in my mom's kitchen we could go back just to the trajectory from university where you were um studying law i believe and then being away from the domestic life of home being on your own yeah i think a lot of us i mean me included our palate is dictated by the food we have at home right and so i was used to food with spices but also we never we never ate out we couldn't afford to know i mean there's firstly there weren't great restaurants that when i was growing up in the 70s and 80s that were affordable but secondly we just didn't i mean people in my state i was raised in municipal house and we just didn't eat out it was just not the thing you do if you were lucky you had fish and chips on a friday you know so you'd buy fish and chips you bring it home that was there my older sister going to university I remember when she came home one weekend she brought home at Tara Musalata we'd never had terrible so that's before it just blew our minds or the first time we tasted hummus and so I'm tasting hummus and Tara Musalata and pasta for the first time as an undergraduate sure or you know my sister bringing stuff home and so they're so exciting because I'm trying new things um and i can't explain the excitement when you try a new thing it's just it's just mind-blowing like yeah you know even now my daughters i mean i'm a working class boy who's now a middle class man but my kids are middle class kids so their horizons are much wider than mine so they will introduce me to foods i'm discovering now age 55 because of the joys of having kids who have different life experiences and so even now i'm tasting stuff for the first time whether it's pierogies or whether it's a sort of dumpling but university opened my eyes a bit because of my friends and their backgrounds and their food types but working as a lawyer because frankly speaking your wallet means and the clients i mean you can eat nicer foods right because you just can so going to nicer restaurants you know the first time i went to uh you must have jay shiki the fish of course oh my god i mean i love fish yeah blew my mind I mean who knew right and so you know examples like you go the first time you go to a nice restaurant you think it's like is and things you're working so you gotta be careful I'll tell you two stories which is so because at home with so with the when you eat Pakistani food eat with your hands mm-hmm and see you obviously the rice with a spoon but the chapati hands and so my mom and dad you know weren't raised to use a knife and fork with you know so I grew up and we also have this custom which is you try and eat with your right hand so if you're eating you try and eat with the right hand so even now I have a fork in my right hand rather than the left hand because I wasn't taught how to use a knife and fork until I was and so and that's that and so so it's a soft skill about about how you eat which some kids haven't got and so one of the reasons why you know i'm passionate about free school meals it's a leveler everyone's eating together breaking bread together but you're learning things you let you try new foods which actually is a life skill you shouldn't be embarrassed about and that's the joy of food it opens up new horizons Yeah.

31:04Iveam is built for losing weight and moving forward. Iveam is built for feeling your best and seeing results. Iveam is a medical weight loss program built for you. Their approach is individualized, virtual, integrative medicine. 99.2 % of patients who completed the Iveam weight loss protocol achieved meaningful change, dropping an average of 45 pounds. Iveem, built for your wellness journey. Iveem, built for real life. When you sign up right now, you can get a one-month free trial. Start your personalized plan in minutes by visiting iveemhealth.com. That's I-V-I-M health dot com. Subscription required, medication labs and supplements not included.

31:46results based on patients who completed the full IVIM protocol over 68 weeks. Individual results vary. Not all patients are eligible. Prescription medications may carry risks and should be used only as directed by your provider. What we haven't talked about, and I would like to talk to you about, is poverty in food. So I can talk about New York City, where we know that the South Bronx doesn't have any grocery stores. It doesn't have vegetable markets. And we know that your initiatives with school super zones has been something really important. So should we just have some talk? I think it would be a shame.

32:26Yeah, thanks, Ruthie.

32:27Sadiq Khan:So look, let me be quite candid. Look, I do believe we are the greatest city in the world. We've got challenges, though. And one of the biggest challenges is inequality. In London, there are what I call food deserts. What do I mean by that? There are parts of London where you can buy fresh fruit and produce within a two-minute walk of your home. Some parts of London where there is nothing available within 15, 20 minutes of your home. So it's hardly surprising. If you're somebody on a low income, you'll choose to feed your kids, I'm not criticizing you, six pieces of chicken and chips for 99p. which leads all sorts of challenges in terms of obesity in terms of lack of productivity in terms of life expectancy and so forth so I'm somebody who benefited from means tested free school meals because my parents both were more working didn't earn enough I would at school have to queue up to get a token and there's so people would be labeled as poor because they're in that queue and I was obviously one of those kids but the benefit of being in that queue was I'd get a free school meal at lunchtime which was a life-changing for my parents because one less expense and then I was eating a decent meal hot meal at lunch time and I could be more productive in the afternoon and by the way in the morning we would receive a better milk as well all the kids would receive a better milk because kids are more productive when they've eaten when I became mayor I have this vivid memory of being grateful for receiving a free school meal but being embarrassed and shameful for the stigma having to queue up to receive my free token and so I'm determined to do something about this in terms of making our city more equal but but also alleviate in the stress parents are feeling during a cost of living crisis doing two jobs not make it not make it ends meet I spoke to parents who are skipping meals themselves so the kids can eat yeah I spoke to parents who feel so guilty that the packed lunch they're giving to their child is not nutritional but they've got no choice because they're busy they're time poor they're poor and so forth so I set out my team as a little is it possible to provide a free school meal to every child that goes to primary school can we consider having water only schools so there's no fizzy drinks inside the schools have water fountains across London again can we have these food zones where these areas where parents are encouraged to walk or cycle to school rather than driving to school so the kids get into exercise walk to school it means you're starting to get exercise not and so we've got this now across London so we've got these great zones super zones around schools we've got school streets where cars are allowed time more kids are walking and cycling we've cleaned up the air in London so you know it means that you're less likely to get asthma suffer from dementia or cancer or heart disease but also really importantly we've introduced universal free school meals and two of your progences Jamie and Hugh big big fans of this and they've been really supportive in terms of this what does it mean what it means is if you're a parent and have just one child in a primary school you're saving every year 500 pounds per child so if you've got three kids think about the money you save secondly you're not stressed now about your packed lunch or you're not stressed about giving your child the money for the free school meals and here's a really exciting thing 55 % of kids are trying new foods isn't that exciting so they're trying food for the first time but we've also done some research that shows kids are behaving better their attention is better they're more productive teachers were bringing in leftover food from their fridge to feed the kids they're not worried about that now schools are having arguments with parents about school debt that's not happening anymore so the kids are doing better and you've heard this word hangry all right if you're hungry you tend to be angry well kids are different right they're gonna be they're gonna be productive they're gonna be hungry they're gonna be concentrating the classroom will be you know less less well in terms of productivity but my my unhappiness is actually if you think about it kids have got to go to school they're gonna choice they're gonna go school right yet they're not given a free nutritious meal until now if you go to a hospital as a patient you're given a meal because you're an inpatient why am I giving our kids you should just freeze free meals and by the way you can we've shown with with the linguine recipe you can provide a nutritional meal that's quite cheap actually, right?

37:06Sadiq Khan:So we've worked with great experts. Tom Carriage has been great. So we've got great experts, the Bosch team. So the meals we have at primary schools are so exciting. Kids are tasting pineapple for the first time in their desserts. They're tasting braised beef. They're tasting dumplings. They've got pies. And it's done in a way that is affordable, that is nutritional, and I'm incredibly proud. No, you should be. And it is, I think we kind of look at a culture. I look at a city, I look at a state as the way they feed their children, the way they feed their sick, the way they feed people in prison.

37:44You know, how do we take care of people? It's a sign of culture.

37:49Sadiq Khan:But the point you made, Erin, was so important, and I hate to go here, but it's a fact, it's an investment. Yeah. Because all the evidence shows it's good for business, right? There's been research done saying, actually, these kids now will grow up being more productive, they'll do better in their exams they'll do better when they're adults in their working and stuff so we're going to get this money back by the way so I don't want people to think this is a charity this is not a handout it's a helping hand we'll get this money back like you wouldn't imagine or dream if you've got a broken limb so let it lay broken but you try and fix it and make sure you're healthy and so forth and I think this is a really important investment because you know we do have a challenge ultra processed foods you know the wrong sorts of foods obesity and so forth and so by investing now I think we'll pay dividends in years to come and it goes to who we are as a city right of course it's who we are as a society I remember just to go back for one minute was then when Ken Livingston was you know the first mayor it was the first mayor wasn't it and I remember being as an American people say will he get on with the Labour Party will he get on with the party in power and for me growing up the mayor was not about getting along the governor was always like there was always like you know like a little bit of tension and you know fight between the governor and the mayor the mayor is standing up which is a good and a bad thing because you have to look at the whole picture and then the governor the president but i remember the idea is why are they so worried if the first mayor is going to argue with the political party the reason why is because for us the mayor is quite a new thing yeah so as you mentioned the french have had it for centuries the americans have had it for centuries and so i'm the as you said the third mayor so for us we're still we're still in our nappies yeah so we're probably now teenagers as we're 25 years old you know no longer teenagers and so it's new to us yeah and so we're used to party political system where you are a representative of the party and you're spot on your and what mayors should be is above party politics we are champions for our city we use the bully pulpit of city hall to speak for our city sometimes we work with the government wherever party is sometimes we will have arguments and challenges with the government and stuff and and we've learned to chillax about it a bit initially we didn't we weren't sure about this because you know the mayor should be the representative of you know the the respective party i think people now realize we're independent minded whether you're the mayor of greater manchester the mayor of you know london or elsewhere exciting well thank you so much for coming we are such a great you could go on for hours but i know that um you have a lot to do and i'm taking you away from your your job it's been Nice, what a great time.

40:26The question that we do end with is to say, if you have food for hunger, if you have food to alleviate hunger, if you have food to have fun with, to share, you also have food that gives you comfort. And I have a feeling I know what your answer is going to be, but if you needed Mayor Sadiq Khan to have food for comfort, is there a food that you would kind of reach for?

40:51Sadiq Khan:I'm afraid I'm a high carbs man. I mean, it's a really funny story. when I first became an MP in 2005, within the first 18 months, I put on two stuns. Because, yeah, you have breakfast meetings, you have lunch meetings. Yeah, of course, yeah. And then I was on the way home, you know, getting fast food on the way home and stuff. And so I've tried to be good about what I eat. But if I'm going to my mum's freshly fried samosas... I was going to say, I assumed it would be something about your mum that would give you the memory. It's a great memory. And the spices, it's not always good for you. You can have bacon.