ECE TEMELKURAN: How to save ourselves from fascism

About this episode

Ece Temelkuran discusses the global rise of fascism and how to navigate the challenges of authoritarianism through the lens of exile and belonging.

Ece Temelkuran (fascism expert, political exile, journalist) first began reporting on the global slide into fascism as a journalist witnessing it happen in her home country, Turkey. In 2016, she was forced into exile and went on to write the bestselling book  How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps From Democracy to Authoritarianism  that warned the rest of the world just how close it was to the same perilous descent.  In her new book, Nation of Strangers, Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century , Ece  argues we are entering “an age of survival” and that we are all about to become exiles of sorts, “unhomed” from our sense of belonging to the world as authoritarianism rips us from our sense of collective meaning as humans. Pivoting her focus to how we can best move through this moment, she says we need to turn to those who’ve already been exiled (the immigrants, the refugees, the victims of fascism) to learn how to rebuild our “what comes next”. This is a fascinating thesis and Ece, who lives nomadically between Berlin and Greece, gives us a very raw and vulnerable take on it. About Ece Ece Temelkuran is an award-winning Turkish novelist, political…

People in this episode

Host: Sarah Wilson

Guest: Ece Temelkuran

Topics covered

• fascism
• exile
• authoritarianism
• immigration
• collective meaning
• survival

Keywords

• fascism
• exile
• Turkey
• authoritarianism
• immigrants
• collective meaning
• survival

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps From Democracy to Authoritarianism, Nation of Strangers, Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century

Places: Turkey, Berlin, Greece

More episodes of Wild with Sarah Wilson

• FRANCIS WELLER: “Grief will wake us up”…so how do we do good grief again? · June 2, 2026 · 1h 2m
• RUTH BEN-GHIAT: How do we create a values-led politic from this mess? · May 26, 2026 · 59 min
• ZAK STEIN: How do we raise kids in a metacrisis? · May 19, 2026 · 1h 11m
• MICHAEL MUTHUKRISHNA: Can we cooperate our way out of this? (Warning: a tricky episode!) · May 12, 2026 · 1h 16m
• SHELDON SOLOMON: Can we gamify all the denial around us and save humanity?* · April 28, 2026 · 1h 9m
• AUDREY TANG: Can we wrangle AI off the techno-fascists (and make it a force for good)? · April 21, 2026 · 1h 3m