University Challenge host Amol Rajan has revealed he may relocate his family to India as part of broader life reassessment coinciding with his September departure from Radio 4’s Today programme, citing England’s declining dynamism compared to his birthplace’s “exciting and energetic” atmosphere.
The Calcutta-born broadcaster expressed profound concern about whether England remains “the best place for my four kids to grow up” during an appearance on Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast, acknowledging “big, big problems” facing what he described as “my country.”
Mr Rajan, 42, characterised modern England as no longer representing a location “where history is being made”—contrasting sharply with the 1960s-70s era’s “extraordinary cultural effusion” and “demographic dividend of the baby boomer years.”
“I can’t tell you how much I love my country, by which I mean England, but I’m very worried about it,” the former Independent editor stated, though he emphasised England remains “a wonderful country, a peaceful country” with “actually quite low crime.”
India’s 1.4 billion population adding “1million people to the workforce every single month” represents the type of historical momentum Mr Rajan believes Britain currently lacks, with the subcontinent appearing “extraordinarily exciting and energetic in a way that Britain, at the moment, doesn’t always feel.”
The broadcaster—who married academic Charlotte Faircloth in 2013—plans exposing his four children to Indian civilisation once his youngest surpasses age two and long-haul flights become “a bit less perilous,” allowing them to “fall in love with the civilisation that’s in their blood” before deciding their future residence independently.
Mr Rajan’s Today programme departure follows falling listener numbers declining to 5.4 million by October—down 363,000 from 2024’s third quarter—with the presenter revealing he typically broadcast the 6am-9am weekday bulletin “having not really been to bed” due to young family demands.
The presenter disclosed consuming “four or five hundred” painkillers recently including two codeine tablets 25 minutes before interviewing an Israel Defence Forces member about Gaza operations, describing the situation as “sub-optimal.”
“I want to get away from that and I want to be fit and healthy and I want to sleep,” Mr Rajan explained, characterising himself as “rather down on the practice of journalism, if not the idea” despite having “been paid really well.”
He plans “jump[ing] into the great digital Narnia of the creator economy” by establishing his own company, joking he had “made a habit of joining industries 20 years late” throughout his career spanning continental Europe, Silicon Valley, America’s East Coast, Singapore and Poland.
