This Authoritarian Life
This Authoritarian Life explores how people experience, adapt to, and resist authoritarian politics in their everyday lives.
Each month, anthropologists Kristóf Szombati and Erdem Evren speak with guests from around the world to understand what authoritarianism looks like up close — and how it can be contested.
Group winner of the 2025 New Directions Award of the American Anthropological Association, TAL combines ethnographic insight with accessible storytelling to reveal the textures of life under authoritarian stress.
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Podcasting since 2024 • 12 episodes
This Authoritarian Life
Latest Episodes
Hungary Before the Vote: Is Orbán's System Cracking? (Turning Points) #1
🎙️ Our Hungary election mini-series begins nine days before the April 12 vote.In this episode, Kristóf Szombati and Erdem Evren discuss what is actually at stake in Hungary's election — beyond the question of whether Viktor...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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57:46
The End of Policing? Abolitionism in New York’s City Hall (Frontlines) #5
🎙️ Season 2 of This Authoritarian Life continues at another frontline: policing as a site of concentrated state violence and neoliberal austerity management.In this episode, we speak with Alex Vitale — Professor of Sociology...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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1:06:46
Unsafe Positions: How Precarity and Repression Silence the University (Frontlines) #4
🎙️ Season 2 of This Authoritarian Life continues at another frontline: the university — where political repression and economic precarity work together to silence critical voices and disempower those who produce knowledg...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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1:05:00
Defund, Co-opt, Replace: How Authoritarians Reshape Culture (Frontlines) #3
🎙️ Season 2 of This Authoritarian Life continues at another frontline: culture — where authoritarian power doesn’t just silence dissent, but reshapes the institutions that decide what gets staged, funded, and celebrate...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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57:35
From Blockades to Reclaiming Politics: Serbia’s Student Uprising (Frontlines) #2
🎙️ Season 2 of This Authoritarian Life continues one another urgent frontline: Serbia.In this episode, we speak with activist-journalists Anastazija Govedarica Antanasijević and Iskra Krstić ab...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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48:57
Kristóf Szombati
Host
Erdem Evren
Co-host
Polina Georgescu
Editor
Shai Levy
Editor
Vera Jónás
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