Bilge Yesil on Turkey’s narrowing media landscape
April 15, 2025
Turkey Book Talk #242 – Bilge Yesil, professor of media culture at the College of Staten Island (CUNY) and author of “Talking Back to the West: How Turkey Uses Counter-Hegemony to Reshape the Global Communication Order” (University of Illinois Press), returns to the podcast.
The conversation addresses Turkey’s narrowing media landscape and internet crackdown amid political turbulence, protests and mounting pressure on critics.
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Turkey Book Talk #241 – Berk Esen, political scientist at Istanbul’s Sabanci University, on whether Ekrem Imamoglu’s arrest heralds Turkey’s shift from competitive authoritarianism to autocracy.
The conversation addresses the dynamics driving the intensifying crackdown, the international context for this escalation, and the critical choices facing the country’s embattled opposition.
Download the episode or listen below:
Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
Listen to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / PlayerFM / Listen Notes
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter / BlueSky
Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Claudia Liebelt on cosmetic surgery and perceptions of beauty in Turkey
February 18, 2025
Turkey Book Talk #238 – Claudia Liebelt, professor of social and cultural anthropology at the Free University of Berlin, on “Istanbul Appearances: Beauty and the Making of Middle-Class Femininities in Urban Turkey” (Syracuse University Press).
Hair transplants, dental implants, botox, nose jobs, lip fillers, eye lifts… Turkey has become almost synonymous with the booming cosmetic sector among international “health tourists” in recent years.
Liebelt’s book is based on extensive research in beauty salons and cosmetic surgery centres across Istanbul, speaking to customers, workers and surgeons to explain the sector’s extraordinary growth among locals and foreigners.
Download the episode or listen below:
Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
Listen to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / PlayerFM / Listen Notes
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Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Turkey Book Talk #237 – Brett Wilson, associate professor of history and public policy at Central European University, on his translation of Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu‘s 1922 novel “Nur Baba” (Routledge).
The book’s account of a debauched Bektashi Sufi lodge caused a sensation at the time, raising eyebrows with its scandalous depiction of an immoral, even degenerate religious community in turn-of-the-century Istanbul.
Download the episode or listen below:
Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
Listen to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / PlayerFM / Listen Notes
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Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Jennifer Hattam on Istanbul’s shifting cultural landscape
November 19, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #232 – Jennifer Hattam reflects on a decade-and-a-half of reporting on Turkey’s environmental, political and cultural agenda, as well as wrenching changes in journalism and staying afloat amid Istanbul’s relentless urban upheaval.
Download the episode or listen below:
Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
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Subscribe to Jennifer’s Substack “Istanbul etc.“
Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Turkey Book Talk #223 – Ozge Samanci, artist and associate professor at Northwestern University, on her new graphic novel “Evil Eyes Sea” (Uncivilized Books).
The semi-autobiographical story is a murder mystery centred on a group of students at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul in the 1990s. It follows up from her highly successful graphic novel “Dare to Disappoint”.
Download the episode or listen below:
Read a transcript of the interview on Substack.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / PlayerFM / Listen Notes
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Substack or Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.
Turkey Book Talk #222 – Sami Kent on “The Endless Country: A Personal Journey Through Turkey’s First Hundred Years” (Picador).
The book paints a portrait of Turkey by combining accounts of key events from previous decades with Sami’s personal reflections on growing up learning about his paternal homeland from afar, before coming to work in the country as a journalist.
Download the episode or listen below:
Read a transcript of the interview on Substack.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / PlayerFM / Listen Notes
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Become a member on Substack or Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.
Turkey Book Talk #216 – Seda Demiralp, professor of political science at Istanbul’s Işık University and non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, on what the recent surprise local election results mean for Turkish politics.
The conversation takes in what the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) did right, what Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) did wrong, the emerging challenge to the AKP posed by the hardline Islamist Yeniden Refah Party, the performance of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, and the impact of Turkey’s economic woes.
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Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.
Turkey Book Talk #215 – Andrew Finkel on his novel “The Adventure of the Second Wife: The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and the Ottoman Sultan” (Even Keel Press).
Andrew is a veteran journalist based in Turkey for decades. His debut novel is a sprawling, playful narrative exploring the mystery of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II’s obsession with Sherlock Holmes stories.
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Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.
Turkey Book Talk #212 – Alexander Christie-Miller on “To The City: Life and Death Along the Ancient Walls of Istanbul” (William Collins).
Alexander worked for many years as the Times of London’s Turkey correspondent. His book is a sophisticated meditation on contemporary life and politics in the country. It combines historical, political and environmental ruminations with vivid portraits of people living in the neighbourhoods around Istanbul’s historic city walls.
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Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.
Timur Hammond on religion and change in Istanbul
January 16, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #210 – Timur Hammond, Assistant Professor of Geography and the Environment at Syracuse University, on “Placing Islam: Geographies of Connection in Twentieth-Century Istanbul” (University of California Press).
The book is a sociological and historical study tracing the changing character of Istanbul’s Eyüpsultan district, its industrial and commercial history, and its role in the emergence of political Islam in Turkey.
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Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to related content upon publication of each episode.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.
Turkey Book Talk #208 – Berk Esen, associate professor of political science and international relations at Istanbul’s Sabanci University, on the troubled future of Turkey’s democracy and the challenges facing its opposition parties heading into 2024.
Berk is a prolific commentator and sophisticated scholar of Turkish politics, recently co-authoring “Turkey’s New Regime: Competitive Authoritarianism” (Iletisim) along with Hakan Yavuzyilmaz and Sebnem Gumuscu.
Download the episode or listen below:
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Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.
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