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Financial Times

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Have you ever wondered about the oldest recipes in history? They were discovered on four clay tablets from about 1,700 BCE at the time of the Assyrian Empire. Did you know that about 5 million Assyrians still live around the world today? This year, a cookbook was published that is the first modern collection of exclusively Assyrian cuisine, food that has a lot of overlap with those ancient tablets. It’s called The Oldest Kitchen in the World, and in it, Matay de Mayee records the recipes of his mother, Smuni Turan — recipes her ancestors have been passing down orally for centuries. Today, they join Lilah in the studio to talk about their kitchen.

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The Oldest Kitchen in the World is published in English, Dutch and German — in Dutch and German its title is Haniyé. You can find it in bookshops in the US, Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and online.

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Send us your predictions! Write to Lilah at lilahrap@ft.com or on Instagram @lilahrap. And — thank you.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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The oldest cuisine in the world

The FT’s books of the year special is out, and today, our literary editor Fred Studemann and outgoing deputy books editor Laura Battle join us one last time to talk about their top picks of 2024. This year has seen some huge releases from authors including Sally Rooney, Miranda July, Alexei Navalny, Al Pacino and Salman Rushdie. What trends did Fred and Laura notice this year? What books did they love? 

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As you know, the show is ending in early January – we’re still collecting your cultural questions. What’s rolling around in your head? How can we help? Email Lilah at lilahrap@ft.com or message her on Instagram @lilahrap.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– Books we mentioned: Orbital by Samantha Harvey; Patriot by Alexei Navalny; All Fours by Miranda July; Haunted Wood by Sam Leith; Rosarita by Anita Desai; There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak; Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World by David van Reybrouck; A Voyage Around the Queen by Craig Brown; Killing Time by Alan Bennett; Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman; The Wizard of the Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli; Hope by Pope Francis (2025); and Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2025)

– The FT Books of the Year are out now! Here is a roundup of the FT’s top columnists and editors’ book recommendations for 2024, including Fred’s top picks. Laura’s fiction picks are here.

– Food, drink and travel books are here. Music books here. Art and design books are here. Check out the full guide for more (paywall)

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Books books books! Our top picks from 2024

Elif Shafak’s new novel brings together four stories set in three different centuries: ancient Mesopotamia, 19th century London, a Yazidi village in 2014, and the present day. It connects them through the epic of Gilgamesh, and a single drop of fresh water. Making history come alive is one of Elif’s many talents, and today she shares her thoughts on how novels can fill in the gaps in authorised history. She also talks with Lilah about the importance of the unwritten word — and why she looks to oral traditions to make sense of the past.

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As you know, the show is ending in early January – we’re still collecting your cultural questions. What’s rolling around in your head? How can we help? Email Lilah at lilahrap@ft.com or message her on Instagram @lilahrap.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– Elif Shafak’s new novel There are Rivers in the Sky, is out now in the US and the UK

– Read the FT’s review of the book here: https://on.ft.com/4gC9cWd

– Lilah spoke with Elif about her previous novel The Island of Missing Trees and the stories we tell ourselves back in 2020. Listen to that interview here

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Novelist Elif Shafak: ‘Writers are the memory keepers’

Today we are bringing you a winter survival guide, full of deceptively small tips that will make winter unmeasurably better. How do we best appreciate these cold, dark months? How do we stay stimulated, but also reject the grind? Our FT Weekend Magazine’s resident “winter goddesses” Griselda Murray Brown and Cordelia Jenkins join Lilah armed with tons of delightful suggestions, from buying warm lightbulbs to reading your friends’ dusty old books. They also fight about electric vests. It’s a joy. We hope you love it.

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As you know, the show is ending in early January – we’re still collecting your cultural questions. What’s rolling around in your head? How can we help? Email Lilah at lilahrap@ft.com, or connect with her on Instagram @lilahrap. 

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– For our summer episode, search ‘How to have the perfect summer’ wherever you listen. Here it is on Spotify

– The FT Magazine’s advent special is full of tips for enjoying winter

– Lulu’s piece about watching 100 Christmas films is here: https://on.ft.com/3BBYrUR

– Cordelia mentioned “jealousy lists”: here’s the FT’s list of favourite non-FT articles published this year. Here’s Bloomberg’s (paywall). Cordelia is most jealous of this Guardian piece by Jonathan Nunn about Nicholas Saunders: “Hippy, capitalist, guru, grocer: the forgotten genius who changed British food” 

– Gris loved Laura Marling’s album Patterns in Repeat. She also mentioned the book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat by Katherine May. 

– Gris is on Instagram @griseldamurraybrown. Cordelia is on Bluesky @cordeliajenkins

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Music clip from Chrysalis Records

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The perfect winter survival guide

It’s a time-honored tradition: for the third year in a row, FT Weekend editor-at-large Matt Vella joins Lilah to reflect on this past year, and muse on the coming one. We’ve asked listeners to send their predictions and wishes for 2025, and today we’re talking through them! Will next year bring an end to meme culture? How do we step away from restaurant reservation wars? Will Lena Dunham make a comeback? Plus, Matt tells us why he is embracing chaos, and why we should all let go of the fear of being watched.

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As you know, the show is ending in early January – and you can still send in a cultural question through December. What’s rolling around in your head? How can we help? Email Lilah at lilahrap@ft.com, or connect with her on Instagram @lilahrap.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– You can flip through all of our listeners’ and colleagues’ predictions on Instagram, here

– You can read Lena Dunham on Sally Rooney in our 2024 Women of the Year round-up here: https://www.ft.com/womenof2024

– Lilah mentions this piece by Anne Helen Petersen on how we’re all posting less on social media, and this opinion piece by Michael Grunwald about the future of farming

– Matt mentions the rise of the noodle boys

– You can listen to last year’s predictions here, or by searching ‘Life and Art 2024 cultural predictions’

– Matt is on X @mattvella

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Music clip from Family Productions

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cultural predictions for 2025: the year we accept the chaos

This is it. Today we present you a massive special episode full of wisdom, which answers your final pressing questions. Listeners wrote in from around the world — from Perth to Virginia to Prague — asking about music, cooking, careers, home, fashion and how to live a good life. Lilah invites her colleagues and friends on to explore them. And now, all there is left to say is a big, loud, wholehearted, vigorous thank you.

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Please keep in touch – Lilah loves hearing from you and will still be posting about culture, food, art and more on Instagram @lilahrap. Email her at lilahrap@ft.com.

You can read Globetrotter at ft.com/globetrotter and follow along @ftglobetrotter on Instagram.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– Tim Harford’s podcast is called Cautionary Tales, and his column is The Undercover Economist. He references Adam Gopnik and Oliver Burkeman, and if you want to lead a better life by spending less time on the internet, he recommends Cal Newport's book Digital Minimalism.

– Here are the cookbooks Harriet Fitch Little and Lilah mentioned: Fuchsia Dunlop's The Food of Sichuan, Fadi Kattan's Bethlehem, Maria Bradford's Sweet Salone, and Pati Jinich's Treasures of the Mexican Table. Harriet is on Instagram at @hufffffle.

– Isabel Berwick’s Working It newsletter is here, and her book is called The Future-Proof Career.

– Eric Platt, at the time of recording, was wearing a heather gray turtleneck and navy corduroys from Officine Générale and black Prada combat boots. If you’re interested in corporate finance, he’s on X and Bluesky @EricGPlatt.

– Ludovic Hunter-Tilney mentions Gang Starr’s 1994 song “Mostly tha Voice”, A Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy's first album Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987), and Migos. One of his most listened to songs of 2024 was “Bande organisée”, by Marseille rap group 13'Organisé. Here’s another episode we love with Ludo, on Taylor Swift (Apple, Spotify).

– Enuma Okoro is an FT Weekend columnist. Here’s her most recent column, on new ways to think about the new year.

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art listeners are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Music credits: Jive Records, Chrysalis and EMI Records, Quality Control Music

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our final episode: thank you

A new culture podcast from the Financial Times in which we talk about film not finance, music not markets, and style not stocks. Featuring star guests and presented by John Sunyer and Griselda Murray Brown. First episode out on Thursday December 1.

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Introducing Everything Else

FT critics discuss our age of self-admiration and why it troubles us so much; 'bad boy' theatre director Ivo van Hove on how his punk origins still inspire his work; and what it's like to have lunch with the radical performance artist Marina Abramovic.

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Don't worry, you’re not a narcissist (probably)

The power - and politics - of prize-giving, from Dylan's Nobel to Beatty's Booker; Kate Tempest on what William Blake and Wu-Tang have in common; and a buffet with the man who jailed Iceland's bankers.

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Literary prizes as 'posh bingo'. Plus: writer/rapper Kate Tempest

Pankaj Mishra and Helen Lewis join us to discuss why everyone is so full of rage right now; Nigerian-American artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby on depicting her naked husband in her work; and what to look out for in the FT's interview with South African comedian and Daily Show host Trevor Noah

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Politics and culture in the age of anger

A new true crime series on Sky is getting rave reviews — and that’s big news in a genre riddled with criticism. It’s called The Body Next Door, and today we’re talking with its director, Gareth Johnson. After learning about an unidentified body found in a village in Wales, Gareth followed the story to reveal a decades-long family drama that spanned from the UK to New Zealand. Guest host Jo Ellison, editor of FT’s HTSI Magazine, discusses with Gareth how he approached the story and what he did to centre the victims’ stories.

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Register now for the FT Weekend Festival, and claim £24 off your pass using promo code FTPodcast at: ft.com/festival

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. We’re on X @lifeandartpod and on email at lifeandart@ft.com. We are grateful for reviews on Apple and Spotify. And please share this episode with your friends!

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): 

– The Body Next Door is out on Sky now

– Jo is on Instagram @jellison22

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How ‘The Body Next Door’ gets true crime storytelling right

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