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What We Do Now: Choices for a Troubled World with Ece Temelkuran

Why we must choose fear over comfort and political activism over social media outrage

One of the most acute and perceptive analysts of the furtive growth of fascism’ – Philip Pullman 

Many of us felt it before but 2020 was the year it became undeniable: the status quo is not working. Political discontent is widespread – and for good reason. The pandemic has exposed the fragility of our economies. Wildfires in Australia and California gave us a glimpse into the future if we do not confront the climate crisis. And in January rioters, including white supremacists, took over the very seat of representative government in the US.

So what can we do now to change course? In May 2021 award-winning political commentator Ece Temelkuran came to Intelligence Squared to lay out a new political manifesto for the post-pandemic world. Drawing from her new book Together: 10 Choices for a Better Now, she explained why we must choose fear over comfort and political activism over social media outrage. And she will encourage us to embrace the radical idea that humanity can come together to solve its collective problems. 


Speakers

Speaker

Ece Temelkuran

Turkish novelist and political commentator


One of Turkey’s best-known novelists and political commentators. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, New Statesman, Der Spiegel and more. She won the PEN Translate Award for her novel Women Who Blow On Knots and is the author of How To Lose A Country: The Seven Steps From Democracy to Dictatorship. Her new book Together: 10 Choices for a Better Now is published in May 2021.  

 

 

Chair

Matthew Taylor

Chief Executive of the RSA and soon-to-be Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation


Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and soon-to-be Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation. Former head of the Number 10 Policy Unit under Prime Minister Tony Blair.

 

 

Speakers subject to change.