In this episode, we welcome Eugene Rogan, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of Oxford, Director of the Middle East Centre at St. Anthony's College, and a Fellow of the British Academy. Author of internationally bestselling books including The Arabs: A History, The Fall of the Ottomans, and most recently The Damascus Events, Rogan has spent over three decades recovering Ottoman and Arab perspectives long marginalised by European historiography. We discuss how Turkey and the Arab remember the Ottoman imperial past in divergent ways, whether the Empire's collapse was inevitable or a consequence of fateful choices, and what the Ottoman reconstruction of Damascus after the violence of 1860 might teach us about imagining political futures in the region today.

In this episode, the Takhayyul Project welcomes Adnan Khan, an acclaimed Canadian writer, editor, photographer, and visual storyteller. We discuss Adnan's recent work chronicling how the global trade in plastic waste has exploited some of the most vulnerable communities, such as refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Istanbul, and of the importance in bringing empathy and depth to similar stories that often go untold.

Date of episode recording: 2025-11-09
Language of episode: English
Presenters: Meryem Zișan Köker; Hazal Aydın.
Guests: Adnan Khan
Producer: Dr. Sertaç Sehlikoglu; Meryem Zișan Köker; Hazal Aydın; edited by Alexander Pymm

In this episode, we welcome acclaimed writer, psychologist, and intellectual Gündüz Vassaf, whose work spans 17 published books blending literature, philosophy, and psychology. Author of the bestselling "Prisoners of Ourselves: Totalitarianism in Everyday Life" and his more recent novel "The Painter's Rebellion," Vassaf explores with us what it means to imagine Turkey, to be ‘Turkish’ and to be part of a community in the context of some of the world’s greatest challenges, such as global warming, Artificial Intelligence and an increasingly polarised political landscape.

Transcription link:

https://www.takhayyulproject.com/takhayyul-podcast-youtube

Date of episode recording: 2025-05-19T00:00:00Z
Duration: 00:35:58
Language of episode: English
Presenter:Dr. Sertaç Sehlikoglu; Meryem Zișan Köker; Hazal Aydın
Guests: Gündüz Vassaf
Producer: Dr. Sertaç Sehlikoglu; Meryem Zișan Köker; Hazal Aydın. Edited by Alexander Pymm