Lea Ypi on Indignity and the Fragility of Truth

In this episode, political scientist and philosopher Lea Ypi joins us to discuss the ideas behind her new book Indignity: A Life Reimagined. Named one of the world’s top ten thinkers by Prospect magazine, Ypi draws on her upbringing in communist Albania to examine the intertwined questions of freedom, democracy, memory, and political change. Building on the success of her memoir Free, Indignity blends philosophy and personal history to reimagine Europe’s past—from Ottoman aristocracy to the rise of modern Albania and Greece, and from war and communism to the global financial crisis.

In conversation with De Dépendance-editor Nuria Ribas Costa, Ypi reflects on what it means to survive in an age of extremes, exploring the fragile boundary between truth and narrative, fact and fiction. Together, they confront difficult questions about moral judgment, inherited histories, and what the crises of liberal democracy might teach us about our present moment.