The stories we tell, with Elif Shafak
Life and Art from FT Weekend
Forhecz Topher
4.6 • 601 Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2022
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we bring you one of the most popular episodes from our archive: a conversation with Elif Shafak, the most widely read woman novelist in Turkey. She and Lilah discuss national identity, the generational pain of conflict, and writing in countries that don't have freedom of speech. This conversation feels especially poignant today, as the war in Ukraine becomes even more devastating. This episode also features columnist Enuma Okoro on loving our cities, and economist Tim Harford on feeling less pressure to get everything done.
We’ll be back with a new episode, on the cultural side of the war in Ukraine, next week.
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We love hearing from you. Email us at [email protected]. We’re on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.
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Special offers for FT Weekend listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial are here: http://ft.com/weekendpodcast
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Links from the episode:
––Key coverage of the war in Ukraine is free to read: https://www.ft.com/freetoread. You can also keep up with FT coverage by following @financialtimes on Instagram and Twitter.
—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
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The first US FT Weekend Festival is on Saturday, May 7 in Washington, DC. To attend virtually or in person, buy tickets at http://ft.weekendfestival.com – use the discount code FTFriends2022 for 10% off.
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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 | Hi, FT Weekend listeners. This is Lila. This week we're bringing you one of our most popular |
| 0:05.3 | episodes from our back catalog with my colleagues Enuma Okoro and Tim Harford and with the Turkish |
| 0:10.9 | writer and activist Elif Shafak. We chose it because Elif and I have a conversation that feels |
| 0:16.7 | especially poignant right now as the war in Ukraine takes on an ever more gruesome shape. |
| 0:22.5 | It's about war and national identity and accumulated grief. |
| 0:27.5 | We also talk about how cultural stories get constructed and passed down through history |
| 0:32.1 | and what we do with those stories now, which parts of those stories we let ourselves see and which parts we don't. |
| 0:39.5 | We'll be back with a new episode next week. We are working on a segment on Ukraine and Russia |
| 0:44.4 | that will help you make sense of the cultural side of this war. In the meantime, stay well and |
| 0:50.2 | stay safe. |
| 0:54.2 | Hello and welcome to our third episode of the FT Weekend podcast. |
| 0:59.7 | This episode is really close to my heart. |
| 1:02.3 | I'm excited to introduce you to two FT columnists that I love. |
| 1:05.4 | They both always have something surprising and thoughtful to say. |
| 1:08.7 | And also one of my favorite novelists. |
| 1:11.8 | You only have so many heroes, and the writer Elif Shafak is one of mine. |
| 1:15.6 | In cultures where there is no freedom of speech, maybe words do matter even more. |
| 1:20.5 | Maybe stories matter even more. |
| 1:22.4 | I honestly think the novel is one of our last remaining democratic spaces. |
| 1:27.7 | And I always find my way back. |
| 1:29.8 | It's almost like that relationship that you, you swear, I swear this is the end. |
| 1:36.1 | We're broken up for good. |
... |
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