Show overview
Turkey Book Talk has been publishing since 2016, and across the 10 years since has built a catalogue of 262 episodes. That works out to roughly 160 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a fortnightly cadence.
Episodes typically run thirty-five to sixty minutes — most land between 31 min and 40 min — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language News show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 1 weeks ago, with 19 episodes already out so far this year. Published by William Armstrong.
From the publisher
Conversations with journalists, academics and writers on Turkey and its region. New episode every two weeks.
Latest Episodes
View all 262 episodesDimitar Bechev on Turkey, Russia, China and the 'scramble for Europe'
Marc Sinan Winrow on Turkey and the liberal international order
Benjamin Fortna on change and continuity in Ottoman and Turkish history
Işılay Gürsu on archaeology and public perceptions in Turkey
Onur İnal on the rise of late Ottoman İzmir
Sinem Adar on Turkey's role in a fracturing Western alliance
Hannah Lucinda Smith on Turkey, Russia and Europe's hinterlands
Doruk Erhan on the limits of Turkey's shift to autocracy
Jennifer Hattam on writing the Lonely Planet guide to Turkey
Brett Wilson on the myth and reality of modern Turkey's religious reforms
Suzy Hansen on Turkey and an Istanbul neighborhood in the age of Erdoğan
Faisal Devji on the crisis of 'global Islam' in Turkey and elsewhere
Ep 243Ryan Gingeras on organised crime in Turkey's modern history
Ryan Gingeras, author of “Mafia: A Global History” (Simon & Schuster) and “Heroin, Organized Crime, and the Making of Modern Turkey” (Oxford University Press), on the influence of criminal organisations in Turkey's political and economic life over the decades. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode.
Ep 242Mustafa Aksakal on World War I and the end of the Ottoman Empire
Mustafa Aksakal, associate professor of history at Georgetown University, on “The War that Made the Middle East: World War I and the End of the Ottoman Empire” (Princeton University Press) Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode.
Ep 241Michelle Lynn Kahn on Turkish migration to Germany
Michelle Lynn Kahn on “Foreign in Two Homelands: Racism, Return Migration and Turkish-German History” (Cambridge University Press). Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode.
Ep 240Murat Yıldız on the Ottoman world of sports, modernisation and minorities
Murat Yıldız, associate professor of history at Skidmore College, on “The Ottoman World of Sports: Refashioning Bodies, Men, and Communities in Late Imperial Istanbul” (University of Texas Press) Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode.
Ep 239Berin Gür on the conquest of Istanbul in the Islamist-nationalist imagination
Berin Gür on “The Conquest of Istanbul and the Manipulation of Architecture: The Islamist-Nationalist Rhetoric of Conquest and Melancholy” (Routledge). The book explores how the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul is remembered in Turkey's mainstream official narrative and how architecture contributes to this. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode.
Ep 238Adnan Khan on the human toll of Turkey's importing of Europe's waste
Journalist Adnan Khan on the spectacular growth of Turkey's plastic waste imports and the role of migrant labour in the sector. His work paints a grim portrait of how the EU-Turkey migration deal and China's banning of plastic waste imports have helped the industry flourish in Turkey - with deadly human consequences. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode.
Ep 237Burcu Karahan on sexual freedom and women in late Ottoman fiction
Burcu Karahan on her translation of “One Thousand and One Kisses: The Most Joyous and Flirtatious Stories” (Translation Attached). The book brings together 65 stories blending humour and eroticism, published anonymously in 1923-24. The stories are a fascinating time capsule of a vanished age, but much remains unknown about who was behind them. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode.
Ep 236Mehmet Gurses on the transformation of Turkey's Kurdish issue
Mehmet Gurses on his article “Turkey's Kurdish Conflict Transformed”, published in the Current History journal. The conversation places the PKK's emergence and transformations in a historical context over the past five decades, also weighing up shifts that may be triggered by its current dialogue process with Ankara. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode.