FT Weekend: The stories we tell, with Elif Shafak
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 September 2021
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Introducing our new FT Weekend podcast. New episodes every Saturday. We will soon stop publishing FT Weekend on this feed, so you if want to keep listening, subscribe now before you forget! Search FT Weekend in your podcast app of choice.
In this episode, Life & Arts columnist Enuma Okoro explores what our cities tell us about ourselves. Then Lilah speaks with Elif Shafak—the most widely read woman novelist in Turkey—about writing in countries without freedom of speech, and her new book, The Island of Missing Trees. Plus: our prolific Undercover Economist Tim Harford makes a case for letting go of your to-do list.
You can subscribe to the FT Weekend podcast by searching for 'FT Weekend' wherever you listen. We're on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap. Email us at ftweekendpodcast@ft.com.
Links from the episode:
—Enuma Okoro’s love letter to New York City: https://www.ft.com/content/e2507d84-9a12-4755-a9c7-41c9ea116947
—Lilah’s piece about visiting Armenia: https://www.ft.com/content/2e2f38b0-e7a1-11e8-8a85-04b8afea6ea3
—Review of Elif Shafak’s novel, The Island of Missing Trees: https://www.ft.com/content/1a064a06-bd19-43c7-8237-38931853d0e2
—Tim Harford on to-do lists: https://www.ft.com/content/06ffe40d-fdcc-4be8-b536-810cedce7ed1
—Oliver Burkeman on how not to waste your life (paywall): https://www.ft.com/content/dd0d477b-c1f7-4d74-af68-c1ef1692566c
Sound design and mixing is by Breen Turner, with original music by Metaphor Music.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The FT Weekend podcast, supported by Ledger, the secure way to buy, exchange and grow your |
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| 0:22.0 | Hi, briefing listeners, Mark here. Today and for the next few weeks, we'll be dropping our new podcast, FT weekend, into this feed every Saturday. |
| 0:29.8 | It's a show that brings the best of our award-winning weekend journalism into audio form, with everything from culture and food and the arts to nuanced questions and big ideas. |
| 0:39.3 | We hope you like it. You can subscribe in your podcast app of choice by searching for F.T. Weekend. |
| 0:49.6 | Hello and welcome to our third episode of the F.T FT Weekend podcast. First, I want to thank you. We have received really warm feedback and I'm just thrilled the show is resonating. So please stay in touch with ideas with feedback. There are details for how to reach us in the show notes and at the end of the |
| 1:11.7 | episode. This episode is really close to my heart. I'm excited to introduce you to two FD columnists |
| 1:18.3 | that I love. They both always have something surprising and thoughtful to say. And also one of my |
| 1:23.7 | favorite novelists. You only have so many heroes. And the writer, Elif Shafak, is one of mine. |
| 1:29.2 | In cultures where there is no freedom of speech, maybe words do matter even more. |
| 1:34.1 | Maybe stories matter even more. |
| 1:36.1 | I honestly think the novel is one of our last remaining democratic spaces. |
| 1:41.4 | And I always find my way back. |
| 1:43.3 | It's almost like that relationship that you |
| 1:46.6 | you swear, I swear this is the end. |
| 1:49.8 | We're broken up for good. |
| 1:53.3 | People say life's not a rehearsal, |
| 1:55.5 | but life's not a performance either. |
| 1:58.0 | Like who am I supposed to show evidence |
| 2:00.3 | of how I've spent my life? No one cares. It's just me. |
| 2:06.2 | On this episode, I speak with the Turkish-British-British writer, Aleph Shafak, about identity and the stories we inherit. |
... |
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