Daily: Author ELIF SHAFAK – “Empathy is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it becomes.”

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Government, Politics, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

British-Turkish novelist and academic Elif Shafak is an international feminist icon followed by legions of passionate readers. She tells Dorian Lynskey about her latest novel The Island of Missing Trees, a story of identity, belonging and love that takes place between Cyprus and London – and how she too finds comfort in two places, her home city of Istanbul and her adopted home in the UK. Listen for a fascinating exploration of the power of fictional escapism and what it means to a citizen of the world. • “Cyprus is a place where the wounds of division are still not healed.” • “Putting yourself in the shoes of another person is a humbling experience, even if just for a few hours.” • “Fiction was my way of belonging, of tasting a sense of freedom.” • “Emotionally I’m very attached to Turkey, but it’s a difficult place to exist when you need freedom to make fun of those in power.” • “I would like to see myself as a citizen of the world, of humanity. That doesn’t make me a citizen of nowhere.” Presented by Dorian Lynskey. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved
0:05.4	photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.
0:11.8	Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retrain. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?
0:13.0	I love to go to college.
0:14.0	It's good you can retrain and do something.
0:16.0	Yeah, yeah.
0:17.0	Let's talk about working, learning, saving and making the most of living longer.
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0:30.0	Pets brings so much joy.
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0:48.0	Essential for their overall well-being and a happy, healthy life. They give you plenty of smiles so
0:55.2	look after theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Hello and welcome to the bunker daily I'm Dorian Linsky. My guest today is a prolific and best-selling novelist whose 2019 novel
1:14.8	10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She's also
1:19.5	an essayist and academic who holds a PhD in political science. Born in Strasbourg and raised in Turkey,
1:24.6	she became a British citizen in 2016. Her latest novel, The Island and Missing Trees, is set in Britain and Cyprus.
1:30.5	Hello, Alif Shefak, thanks for joining me.
1:32.8	Thank you for having me.
1:34.0	So I just recently read your sort of short non-fiction book, How to Stay Sain in an Age of Division,
1:40.4	and the story of Cyprus is one of the few places in the world that's literally divided.
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