Podcasts about Anatolia

In this episode of Oldest Stories, we return to the Armenian Highlands in 786 BCE to witness the death of King Menua of Urartu (Biainilli) and the rise of his son Argishti I—a transition that begins the golden age of the Urartian kingdom. Explore the geopolitics, warfare, urbanization, and social engineering of one of the most impressive and least understood Iron Age empires.We trace Argishti I's ruthless expansion across Anatolia and the Caucasus, highlighting his staggering military campaigns—including the mass deportation of over 50,000 captives from the Diauehi—and the founding of major cities like Argishtikhinili and Erebuni (modern Yerevan). His reign marks a peak of Urartian power, economic integration, and cultural homogenization, supported by a complex bureaucracy and a militarized frontier strategy aimed at rival Assyria.The episode also dives into Argishti's successor, Sarduri II, and the approaching storm of Tiglath-Pileser III's Assyrian military revolution. We examine the collapse of Urartu's frontier buffer, the mysterious succession crisis involving multiple kings named Rusa, and the kingdom's eventual unraveling under Cimmerian pressure and internal fragmentation. From glorious conquest to slow collapse, we recount the full arc of Urartian dominance, with attention to archaeological gaps, historiographic debates, and ancient sources.Whether you're interested in Iron Age imperialism, ancient warfare, Near Eastern archaeology, or the origins of Armenian civilization, this episode offers deep insight into one of history's great highland kingdoms.#Urartu #Argishti #AncientArmenia #IronAge #OldestStoriesPodcast #Assyria #TiglathPileser #AncientHistory #Biainilli #Diauehi #Etiuni #Cimmerians #HistoryPodcast #NearEast #Yerevan #Archaeology #AncientWarfare #Khaldi #NeoHittites #Mesopotamia #KingsAndConquests #AncientEmpiresI am also doing daily history facts again, at least until I run out of time again. You can find Oldest Stories on Reels, Tiktok, and Youtube.If you like the show, consider sharing with your friends, leaving a like, subscribing, or even supporting financially:Buy the Oldest Stories books: https://a.co/d/7Wn4jhSDonate here: https://oldeststories.net/or on patreon: https://patreon.com/JamesBleckleyor on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCG2tPxnHNNvMd0VrInekaA/joinYoutube and Patreon members get access to bonus content about Egyptian culture and myths.

In this episode of the Umayyad Caliphate, we continue our exploration of Caliph Hisham ibn Abdul Malik's reign as the Umayyad Caliphate faces mounting crises across its vast empire. The year is 110 AH (728 CE), and the empire's edges are on fire. In the Caucasus, Maslamah ibn Abdul Malik leads a grueling campaign against the Khazar Khaganate through the treacherous Darial Pass. Despite claiming victory, his retreat is chaotic, marked by ambushes, torrential rain, and widespread exhaustion. Meanwhile, cracks appear in the empire's eastern front. In Khurasan, a well-intentioned tax policy by Governor Ashras unleashes a wave of conversions among non-Arab Muslims—but when the policy is reversed, these new converts revolt. Their rebellion draws in the powerful Turgesh Khaganate, sparking a devastating loss for the Umayyads at the Battle of Baykand and the bloody Siege of Karmajah. We also examine the collapse of Muslim authority in India, the chaotic military campaigns in Anatolia led by Hisham's sons, and the shocking fall of Ardabil to the Khazars—a disaster that results in the death of a Muslim governor and the capture of tens of thousands of civilians. As we move through these events, we see a common theme: a once-dominant caliphate now overstretched, undermanned, and increasingly reactive. The Muslim armies are no longer conquering; they're fighting to survive. Strategic missteps, overreliance on loyalist Syrian troops, and a refusal to adapt military policy are setting the stage for further instability. This episode paints a grim but necessary portrait of an empire entering a period of sustained decline. From Armenia to Transoxiana, we witness the human cost of imperial overreach—and the resilience of those left to defend a collapsing frontier.

Músicas de nuestro planeta... y alrededores Music from our planet... and beyond Viajamos por todo el orbe e incluso escuchamos música de otros planetas imaginarios (¿o no?), con nuevos e interesantes discos que llegan hasta nuestras manos y oídos, y que nos hacen viajar por las cumbres de los Andes, entre las comunidades indígenas norteamericanas, con un encuentro galáctico-japonés, haciendo diversas escalas en África (Lesoto, Níger y La Reunión), pasando después por Anatolia, Persia, los países nórdicos y Gran Bretaña. We travel across the globe and even listen to music from other imaginary planets (or not?), with new and fascinating albums reaching our hands and ears, taking us through the peaks of the Andes, among Native North American communities, with a galactic-Japanese encounter, making various stops in Africa (Lesotho, Niger and Réunion), then moving through Anatolia, Persia, the Nordic countries and Great Britain. - Pacha Wakay Munan - Machu tara - El tiempo quiere cantar - Sons of Membertou - The people of the dawn / Wejkwita'jik (The gathering song) - Wapna'kik: The people of the dawn - Kuunatic - Kuuminyo [+ Rekpo] - Wheels of Ömon - Famo Mountain - Oi, oi, oi (Putting baby to sleep) - For those left behind - Etran de L'Aïr - Agadez - Agadez [single] - Votia - Vié kaz - Vié kaz - Gavur Gelinler - Ufak ufak - Burçak tarlasında gelin olması - Sibel - Burçak tarlası - Ne biraktik - Araz Salek - Goshāyesh 11 & 15 - Peripheries of Nahavand - Maija Kauhanen & Johannes Geworkian Hellman - First flight - Migrating - Päivi Hirvonen - Eksyneelle - Maa palaa - iyatraQuartet - Beatriz - Wild green Kuunatic (Celine Fougerouse)

Title: Chains and Afflictions Text: Acts 21:27-36 FCF: We often struggle responding well to slander and persecution for Christ's sake. Prop: Because of the offense of the gospel we will be slandered and reviled, so we must be ready to give a defense for the hope we have in us. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Acts chapter 21. In a moment we will read beginning in verse 27 from the Legacy Standard Bible. You can follow along in the pew bible or in whatever version you prefer. Last week we saw the powder keg situation that Paul and his 8 gentile companions walked into as they brought a gift for the Jerusalem church from several churches in gentile lands. Tension between Jews and the Romans continues to mount and along with that the pernicious rumor that Paul is anti-Mosaic law and advising new Jewish believers to forsake circumcising their children and the laws and customs of Moses. The Elders wisely advised Paul to demonstrate that he is not against the law of Moses by submitting to purity rituals with 4 other men who are doing so. Paul humbly discarded any liberty he may have assumed and willingly submitted to help ease tensions between Jewish Christians and the non-believing Jews. But we know the future. It has been confirmed by many witnesses. Paul will suffer with chains and afflictions in Jerusalem. Although it was wise advice and although Paul humbly submitted, we know that things will implode quickly. But even in this difficult situation, we will find vital lessons for we who claim Christ and face uncertain days. Please stand with me to give honor to and to focus on the reading of the Word of God. Invocation: Mighty God and Lord of Hosts. You are holy, holy, holy. You have sent the Son to claim Your people for Your Kingdom and You have sent Your Spirit to dwell in us and seal us and preserve us until the Day of Judgment. As You are Alpha and Omega, You have written and decreed the end from the beginning. No one can tell You “no” and no one can slap away Your mighty hand from doing as You please. In these truths Lord, we must rest, especially when we are slandered, maligned, ridiculed, reviled, and persecuted for Your name. Without the truth that all this is according to Your Immutable Will, we would surely flounder and fall. Impress upon us, Your Children, the greater truth that when these days of trouble come upon us, we must rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for when we suffer for Your name, we have a great reward in the Kingdom which we will share with a great cloud of witnesses. Help us to see this and be encouraged in this text this morning. And use this encouragement to turn us away from despairing in trouble. Turn us instead to being ready to give a defense for the hope we have in us. We pray this in Jesus' name… Amen. Transition: Let us once again dive right into the text this morning. I.) Because of the offense of the gospel, men will falsely accuse us of evil things, so we must be ready to give a defense for the hope we have in us. (27-30) a. [Slide 2] 27 - Now when the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon noticing him in the temple, began to throw all the crowd into confusion and laid hands on him, i. Ok, so right off the bat there are some contextual clues we need to unravel to understand what is happening here. ii. First, the seven days here is referring to the general process of purification that would need to be endured for these men and for Paul. 1. We aren't exactly sure why these men performing the Nazarite vow were going through purification, because that isn't normally part of it, but the process itself took a week. 2. In that week's time, any seeking purification would have to be ritually washed on the third and the seventh day. No doubt Paul is in the temple on the seventh and final day of his purification. 3. This means that generally speaking, people who had ill intentions toward Paul would know on which day he would be in the temple next. iii. Second, we see that there are Jews from Asia present here in Jerusalem. Well, who are these folks and what are they doing here? 1. We might be tempted to think that these Jews have followed Paul to Jerusalem to harm him. This is possible, but there is a far simpler explanation for why these folks are here. Do you remember? 2. Yep! It is Pentecost, the Jewish feast commemorating the harvest. Shavuot (Sha-voo-ot) is one of the three pilgrimage feasts that are required for Jewish males to attend. 3. Anyone who was a Jew that took seriously the law of Moses would have made every effort to be in Jerusalem for this festival. 4. So, it shouldn't be a big surprise for us to find Jews from Asia in Jerusalem at this time. iv. Third, how would they recognize Paul and what had Paul done that infuriated them so much? 1. Although Luke only mentions the province in which they are from, the capital city of the province of Asia was the great city of Ephesus. A city in which Paul spent three years ministering. 2. Later, we find out that these people recognized one of Paul's companions who was from the city of Ephesus. This almost certainly confirms that these Jews were from or at least very familiar with the city of Ephesus and Paul's 3 year ministry there. 3. So why are they so opposed to Paul? 4. Well Paul preached in Ephesus and many Jews became disciples of Christ. He actually lead them out of the synagogue and took them to the hall of Tyrannus where he continued to teach and preach the gospel. 5. Needless to say, the Jews from Asia were not big fans of Paul. v. In Ephesus and in other cities around the empire, it has been clear thus far that the Jews were not always trusted, liked, or respected by the gentile communities in which they lived. vi. Although their faith was granted a special status as being allowed to be practiced within the empire, it still did not mean that the pagans around them respected them. vii. But here, the non-believing Jews clearly had numerical and ideological superiority over the Jewish Christians. viii. If there was ever a chance to stamp out Paul and his teachings – this is it. ix. So, these Asian Jews take this chance, grab hold of Paul and stir up the crowd against him. x. How? b. [Slide 3] 28 - crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches to everyone everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides, he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” 29 - For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. i. These Asian Jews bring two charges against Paul. ii. The second charge is far more inflammatory to the crowd than the first. iii. The first charge is the accusation that Paul teaches against the Jewish people, against the law of Moses and against the temple of Yahweh, and he does so throughout the Roman Empire. iv. Ironically, this was the same charge levied against Stephen which led to his execution by stoning. Paul once saw things the same way these folks did. But for the grace of God yes? v. Such an accusation could be easily explained away. In fact, Paul's very presence in the temple that day going about his sacrifices and the end of his purity rituals would actually serve to counter their claim. vi. But the second charge is what gets the crowd stirred. vii. They claim that Paul has brought Trophimus, a man they would know to be a gentile, into the temple with him. viii. [Slide 4] As we know the temple mount could be entered by Gentiles. They could actually get fairly close to the temple itself. But Gentiles could not pass into the court of women or the court of the Israelites. ix. [Slide 5] Many scholars make much of the archeological evidence, like the sign on the screen, that warned gentiles with death if they entered into the temple grounds. And we even have speeches from Roman officials which seem to have allowed for the Jews to execute people who did violate such laws. x. But as I studied this, my mind wondered what Old Testament teaching or law is in view with the prohibition of gentiles entering the temple grounds. xi. Especially since they are under the impression that doing so would defile it. xii. What Old Testament law do they base this on? 1. [Slide 6] The closest thing I could find is Ezekiel 44:6-9 a. In reading this text, we can see very clearly that God judges Israel for allowing worshippers to come into the temple and even serve as priests who were neither circumcised in heart nor circumcised in flesh. b. God issues a command that no one shall enter His temple who is uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh. 2. [Slide 7] But what do we do with the 5th gospel of Isaiah, who says in Isaiah 56:6-8… a. Here we see… explicitly… that Gentiles should not be strictly forbidden to come into the temple to make sacrifices. b. Why? c. Because God will be the one bringing them to do that one day! 3. So how do we harmonize these two texts? a. How can God bring foreigners into the temple if those uncircumcised in heart and flesh cannot enter? b. How did the Jews of this time harmonize this? i. The Jews of this time, completely ignore the Isaiah passage. ii. Even if a Gentile converted and became a Jew, even becoming circumcised… they would still not be permitted, even into the court of women. c. So how do we harmonize it? i. While we could be accused of exploiting a loophole, the fact of the matter is that there are many prophetic riddles throughout the scriptures. God expects us to think as we read His Word. ii. [Slide 8] What two conditions must be met in order to reject a foreigner from the temple according to Ezekiel 44? They must be both uncircumcised in heart and in flesh. iii. Trophimus was a gentile, uncircumcised in flesh, but circumcised in his heart. Therefore, he does not meet the conditions of Ezekiel 44 but DOES meet the conditions of Isaiah 56. xiii. [Slide 9] Added to this – These Jews raise issue with Paul and grab hold of him and will drag him out and attempt to kill him even though… 1. He is a Jew 2. He is enduring purification rights under the Mosaic Law 3. Even if he brought a gentile into the temple… the Gentile is the one that should be killed according to their law, not him. He would certainly be punished perhaps even severely. 4. But Paul should not be killed for this infraction even if it were exactly as they said it was. xiv. The fact of the matter is, the Jews, because of their national pride and racial prejudice, have so perverted the Word of God that they have determined that the exact opposite of what He has revealed is true. xv. And now they are going to kill Paul, an apostle of their Messiah and Everlasting King, because of their rebellion and their racism. c. [Slide 10] 30 - Then all the city was stirred, and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. i. As we pointed out last week, this time period was right in the middle of the escalation of hostility between Jews and the Roman Empire. ii. Although we are still 13 years away from the fall of Jerusalem, the conflict begins in AD 66 which is only 9 years away. iii. Not only that but Festus, a character we will meet in a few chapters, will actually spend two years making peace with the Jews and effectively kick the can of the revolt down the road… iv. Adding all this together we can see that even though the fall of Jerusalem is 13 years away, it is not a stretch for us to consider that at the moment Paul walks in the temple of Jerusalem, the divide between Jews and the Romans was nearing its peak. v. Knowing this, we can see quite easily why the crowd would respond to Paul the way they did. vi. Loyalty to the temple was closely tied to patriotism and Jewish Nationalism. An attack on the temple was an attack on Judaism. vii. And Paul is the lightening rod for all of this. viii. They took him out of the temple, because they could not commit violence and shed blood within the temple courts ix. To avoid this the guards close the doors. x. The temple guards could have stopped the violence. Instead, they closed the doors. d. [Slide 11] Summary of the Point: Throughout the book of Acts Luke has portrayed the Jesus movement as the next step in Judaism. To confess Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah of God and eternal heir to the throne of David is to take the next and final step in the redemptive history of Israel. In Acts we've seen many Jews embrace this New Covenant, which was ratified in the death and resurrection of Jesus proving Him to be the Messiah. He is the Son of Man prophesied in Daniel. He is the suffering Servant prophesied in Isaiah. And yet, as clear as this was to many, it remained repulsive and offensive to many more. The offense of the gospel drives natural man to terrible things. Jesus predicted that the disciple is no greater than the master. Meaning that what they did to Him, we can expect the same to be done to us. Paul is actually living out that experience in the pages of the passage we just saw. They accused Jesus of blaspheming the temple. And here Paul is accused of defiling it. We can expect the same to come to us. If we are to preach the gospel, we should both expect it to be offensive to the world and that we will be falsely accused of doing evil things because of it. So, what is our response? Our text this morning does not include Paul's response to all of this. Mainly because his response is quite lengthy. But generally speaking, we can see as Paul raises his defense of the gospel and his ministry, that we too must be ready to give a defense for the hope we have in us. Transition: [Slide 12 (blank)] But surely someone in the crowd will have the sense to question Paul as to whether these things are true? Surely someone will have the courage to say – yes but Paul is still a Jew and can go into the temple himself. So surely he doesn't deserve to die? Let us see if anyone among them will do this. Perhaps the Romans will if the Jews won't? II.) Because of the offense of the gospel men will revile and persecute us, so we must be ready to give a defense for the hope we have in us. (31-36) a. [Slide 13] 31 - While they were seeking to kill him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. 32 - At once he took along soldiers and centurions and ran down to them; and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. i. Luke doesn't tell us who took the report to the commander. Perhaps one of Paul's companions or the church reported this to the Roman officer? ii. A Roman cohort consists of 1000 men. It is roughly 1/6 of a Roman Legion. iii. Within each cohort there were there were Centuries which would be 100 men, and each of them would be lead by a Centurion. iv. As a Roman officer in Judea, your one job is to make sure that these generally rebellious Jews paid their taxes and didn't revolt. v. During festivals, when Jerusalem was full of Jews on pilgrimage, it would be all hands on deck. vi. We see that this commander wastes no time, at once taking soldiers and their centurions down to where the beating was happening. vii. The Anatolia fortress was located on the Western side of the northern wall of the temple mount. Two stair cases down led to the outer courts. viii. So they were probably there quickly. ix. It is hard to know how many men he took with him, but we can assume at least a couple hundred since he took centurions (plural) with him. x. Assuming that is the case, 200 fully armed Roman soldiers running down the steps to the temple would be quite an intimidating sight. xi. No wonder the Jews stopped beating Paul when they came marching down. xii. But if the relations of the Romans and the Jews are so strained, how would the Roman Commander make sure that this doesn't look like the Romans are once again coming in to tell them how they should practice their religion? b. [Slide 14] 33 - Then the commander came up and took hold of him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; and he began asking who he was and what he had done. i. The Roman Commander has Paul bound in chains, probably to two separate guards. He then asks who the man was and what he has done. ii. The concept of innocent until proven guilty is not a universal ideal. iii. The Romans certainly did not consider prisoners innocent until proven guilty. iv. In fact, as we've seen in the study of the book ok Acts, their subjects especially those who were not Roman citizens, could be beaten and imprisoned, and in some cases even killed without charge. v. This Roman commander shrewdly assumes that the man being beaten is guilty and asks the crowd for the information regarding his guilt. vi. If the answer he got was that clear – that Paul had defiled the temple – the Roman officer probably would have let them kill Paul. c. [Slide 15] 34 - But among the crowd some were shouting one thing and some another, and when he could not find out the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. i. This is the very definition of mob mentality. ii. Most of these people had no idea why they were hitting this man, they just knew that he had done something worth hitting him for. iii. When emotionalism and extreme rhetoric wins, the most natural thing we humans do, is follow the crowd of people who scream the loudest. iv. We'll always find something to be outraged about, and if it isn't what the crowd is outraged about – that's ok – we'll just vent our frustration in the convenient opportunity the mob has provided. v. Like when we burn a city when a football team wins… or also if they lose the big game???? vi. Such in the case here. vii. Seeing that the crowd has no idea who this person is or what he did, the commander chooses to escort the man to safety so that they could interrogate the prisoner himself. Which we will see him attempt to do in a few weeks. d. [Slide 16] 35 - And when he got to the stairs, he actually was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd; 36 - for the multitude of the people kept following them, shouting, “Away with him!” i. Even today, tactically speaking, stairs are what are called fatal funnels. ii. They are essentially hallways forcing you to change altitude and keeping you from flanking to safety. iii. These stairs are probably the first flight of stairs up to the Anatolian fortress. They would have been quite wide, but would have been difficult to navigate especially with a large crowd of people following them trying to get at their prisoner. iv. The Roman soldiers are forced to pick up and carry Paul up the stairs because the crowd continued to try to assault Paul on the way up. v. They call out “away with him” which is a great literal translation of the words, but idiomatically this certainly was their cry for Paul to be put to death. vi. We are reminded of the crowds call to “crucify” someone after He too entered the temple offering something that no one wanted. vii. Scholars sometimes press the similarities too far, but I think it is obvious that Luke sees the similarity of Christ's experience in Jerusalem during his passion week and Paul's experience here. Although they do not end the same of course. e. [Slide 17] Summary of the Point: Although Luke makes it clear in the book of Acts that the Romans saw no threat posed to the empire by the Christians, we should note that that doesn't mean that the Romans would always ride in and save Christians from persecution. In fact, this particular Roman commander not only arrested Paul without any idea what Paul did, he also, as we will see in the following weeks, intends to beat Paul some more in order to find out what happened in the temple. And these Jews, while not being in agreement as to why Paul was being beaten, all agreed on one thing… he needed to die. Again, we compare Paul's experience to our Lord Jesus'. He too was not rescued by the Romans. And the people cried out for Him to be killed too. Paul is suffering the same way Jesus suffered. If it can happen to Paul, and all the apostles, and countless others throughout the church's history, then it most certainly can… and will happen to us. If we faithfully preach the gospel men will revile us and persecute us. Why? Because the gospel is offensive. But again, what do we do when this happens? We must be ready to give an answer for the hope we have in us. Conclusion: So CBC, what have we learned today and how shall we live? Basic Concepts for Faith and Practice: [Slide 18] The gospel is by nature offensive to natural man. The religiously zealous Jews and the Roman pagans alike, both despise what Paul teaches and seek to silence it. And the world goes about silencing those who speak the gospel in two ways presented in this passage. They falsely accuse those who preach the gospel of evil things. They accused Paul of defiling the temple and teaching against the law of Moses. They will also revile and persecute those who preach the gospel. We see them beat, arrest, and call for the execution of Paul, to silence his teaching of the gospel. What does that mean for us? They will hate us too. Even if we are nice. Even if we are kind. Even if we are loving. They will still hate us. They will falsely accuse us of some of the most terrible things. And they will revile us and persecute us. What then should we do? We must be ready to give an answer for the hope we have in us. Even as they usher us through the door to that hope. These are the basic concepts of faith and practice in this text – but let's us dive a little deeper into them today. 1.) [Slide 19] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must affirm that the gospel is offensive to natural man. a. Why is it offensive? b. It teaches that every single person, whether they are moral, immoral, religious, irreligious, wealthy, poor, powerful, powerless, strong, weak, regardless of nationality, tribe, language, political party, every person is spiritually dead in their sin. c. They are… as the bible calls them… children of wrath. d. Slaves to sin. e. Every single person lacks all agency to do anything to save themselves or even to seek God to save them. f. This is what Paul says in Romans chapter 3 and this is what Augustine of Hippo defended in his treatise On Grace and Free Will against the Pelagian heresy. g. Mankind is not naturally equipped in their will to choose God or pursue Him in any way. They are given commands by God but are unable to accomplish them without God giving them grace to do so. h. There are two things I have found in my life that seem to be universally true of we humans. i. We hate being told we are wrong ii. And we hate being told we can't do anything about it. iii. Not only do we hate being told these things… we reject these things entirely. i. But the gospel tells us both and to the most extreme degree. i. It isn't just that we are wrong… we are dead wrong. So wrong that we have committed treason against the highest court of the highest kingdom on whose throne sits the highest God, Yahweh. ii. And we not only can't do anything about it… we don't even want to. Men love darkness and hate the light because their deeds are evil and they want to keep doing them. iii. There are none righteous and there are none who seek God. You are children of wrath of your father the devil and slaves to sin. iv. Just to quote a few j. All of this is the preamble of the gospel. k. It's funny – to the world that doesn't sound like good news at all. l. But to we who have been made alive in Christ… To know we are sinners and deserve nothing but judgment and wrath… That truly is good news. m. Why? n. Because Christ died for sinners! Just like you. Just like me. o. But until God gives a new heart and enables a person to see their own wickedness, they will continue to hate the gospel and fundamentally disagree with its accusations against them. p. As Matthew Henry once said, “Men hate Christ because they love their sin.” q. From our discussion last week – fear that the gospel may be right leads them to hate it. And what do we humans do with things we fear? We either flee them or we fight them. r. And that leads us to something we must deny. A lie we must dismiss especially now in the culture we are in… 2.) [Slide 20] Refutation: “What lies must we cast down” or “What do we naturally believe, or have been taught to believe, that this passage shows is false?” We must deny that religious toleration for the true gospel is normative. a. Although it is a much easier sell today than it would have been a few decades ago, because we still have relative freedom to continue to worship God in the way that He has commanded us to, we tend to find it difficult to connect with warnings about coming persecution. b. One other general human trait that I have observed is that we as humans tend to believe that all of life will continue as it has. We assume that because we live in a country where we are free from constant persecution against our beliefs that this will always be true. c. However, we know from the words of Christ that if we are His disciple then we should not expect anything less than the same rejection He experienced. d. If Men hate Christ because they love their sin – it stands to reason that they will hate any who follow Christ and are calling them to repent of their sin. e. This is why the “God loves you and is just wanting you to love Him back” gospel message is so popular today. Because it doesn't actually call anyone to abandon their sin. Instead, the message conveys the idea that God would be really lucky to have you if you would just say yes. f. And because of this message being out there, the real gospel message of God calling all men to repent and believe on Christ as Savior and Lord – is reviled and despised. g. And just like Paul was accused of blasphemy against the temple and even betrayal toward his own kinsmen, we too will be slandered. i. We spoke last week how the church is seen as homophobic or transphobic because we agree with God about sexuality and gender. ii. We are accused of hating democracy and freedom because we advocate for our laws to be based on God's moral will. iii. We are accused of intolerance because we believe Jesus when He says He is the only way to the Father. iv. We are accused of hating women because we believe God's word when it tells us of gender roles and authority structures within the home. v. In short, the world will rebrand us as arch villains because we have the audacity to see, through the lens of ancient Scripture, that their cherished practices are sin. vi. And we may, in the most loving and compassionate way we can, call them to repent and trust on Christ for the forgiveness of sin and new life… vii. But remember men love darkness rather than light for their deeds are evil. viii. God must give them a new heart in order for them to receive the gifts of repentance and faith. h. And unfortunately, men's hatred of the gospel and those who preach it will not just stop at slander. As it did with Paul, slander was the vehicle used to harm, revile, and persecute Paul. We too should expect the same. i. It is only a small step from where we are to where many other countries are in relation to persecution. ii. We may be tempted to think that such things could never happen in our country or that if they do, we are decades away. iii. But my friends, it would not surprise me to wake up tomorrow and learn that it is no longer legal to preach certain scripture passages or certain interpretations of scriptures passages. iv. It seemed like overnight governors of states were commanding churches not to sing to God in their services. v. And there isn't a party that exists today that has a biblical worldview. So just like Paul could not look to the Romans to save him, so too we cannot look to the Republicans to save us. vi. We will be persecuted on all sides. Not just from liberals. We will be persecuted by people who call themselves Christians. Perhaps even some in this very room will be the ones turning us in to the authorities. i. I don't know when the hammer will fall. I don't know how long God will allow for us to worship Him in peace with the culture around us. But I do know that from where the country started to where we are – our trajectory is on a nose dive headed straight for persecution. j. It does us no good to put our heads in the sand and continue to deny that such things would or could happen. k. We must even now ready ourselves by counting the cost and whether we are willing to pay it. l. But what is our response to persecution? Should we resist? Should we fight back? 3.) [Slide 21] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don't naturally do or aren't currently doing?” We must take every opportunity to give a defense of the hope that is in us. a. Interestingly, in this text, there is not a single example positively of what we are to do, nor is there a direct command in this passage associated to what is happening in the text. b. Before the end of this chapter Paul will respond. c. And originally in my sermon planning I did include verses 37-40. d. But in order to understand Paul's response we would need to look into what he says which would mean looking at MANY more verses. e. Paul actually begins his first of 6 defenses of his faith and ministry that are recorded in the last 7 chapters of the book of Acts starting in chapter 22. f. Now without looking at the first defense in its entirety let alone looking at all 6 defenses, we can still draw a very general application from what we know of the remainder of the book of Acts. g. And quite simply that is that we should take every opportunity we are given, in the midst of persecution, in the midst of slander, in the midst of opposition and hardship from all sides, we should take the opportunity we are given to give a defense for the hope that is in us. h. We cannot afford to fight back, resist, or get even when persecution comes. Why? Because we always have a responsibility to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ. i. Paul was gravely assaulted by these people, but he will stand before them and 5 more hostile audiences in the next 7 chapters, and will boldly decare the gospel of Jesus Christ. j. We must do the same. k. And maybe you are thinking… wow. I don't think I can do that. l. That is just not my default setting. Someone takes a swipe at me, my natural impulse is going to be to swipe back. m. So, the real discussion is, how do you fight that natural impulse and do what Jesus commands you to do? n. I think it starts with what Jesus says should be our perspective on persecution in general. 4.) [Slide 22] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don't naturally do or aren't currently doing?” We must rejoice and be exceedingly glad when we are persecuted for Christ's sake. a. Although you'll have to forgive me for going outside of our text this morning to snag this application, because the scriptures are one, I don't think I am doing any disservice to Luke's account by tossing this little aside in. b. [Slide 23] Matthew 5:11-12 c. After reading this text, tell me you don't see Paul's experience all over Christ's teaching here in the sermon on the mount! d. Paul was slandered. Paul was reviled. Paul was persecuted for Christ's sake. So, what should Paul's response be? What should our response be? e. We must rejoice and be exceedingly glad. f. What? Why? g. Because we are blessed. We are favored of God when this happens. h. How does that compute? How does this comfort us? 5.) [Slide 24] Comfort: “What comfort can we find here?” or “What peace does the Lord promise us in light of this passage of scripture?” Our reward in heaven is great and we are in good company. a. God's kingdom and His righteousness is constantly opposed by a kingdom that is perishing. b. In the Old Testament, God's prophets were treated this way. And time proved that they were right. c. In the New Testament, His apostles were treated this way and time has proved out that they were right. d. My friends, if you are truly slandered, reviled, and abused for the sake of Christ and His gospel… You are blessed. e. You are blessed because your reward will be great in the Kingdom and in that kingdom there will be many, just like you, who were hated for the gospel. f. So, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. g. You are in good company. [Slide 25 (end)] Let me close with a word of prayer from the English Reformer Thomas Cranmer Merciful God, you grant all peace. You are the giver of all good gifts, the defender of all nations. And you desire us to count all people as neighbors, to love them as ourselves, and not to hate our enemies. Rather, you want us to wish them well, and also to do them good if we can. Look down upon us and see this small portion of earth where the name of Jesus Christ is proclaimed. Give to all of us the desire for peace, unity, and calm. Make us weary of all war and hostility, weary of bitterness toward those we call enemies. May we and they praise your holy name with one heart. May we all remake our lives according to your way. Grant, O Lord, that our children's children may know the benefit of your great gift of unity. May you discredit all those who work against it. Diminish their strength and punish those who interrupt godly peace-or rather, convert their hearts to the better way, and make them embrace unity and peace, which will be for your glory. Put away from us all war and hostility. But if we are driven to it, be our shield and protection as we seek peace. Do not look on our sins, Lord, or the sins of our enemies. Do not give us what we deserve, but remember your abundant, infinite mercy. Do this, O Lord, for your Son's sake, Jesus Christ. Amen. Benediction: May the God Who changes not, Who has no shadow of turning, And Whose compassions fail not, Preserve you by His loving kindness, So that you might know, Great are His faithful acts, they are new every morning. Until we meet again, go in peace.

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://shop.orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousThe Iron Sultanate, officially the Great Sultanate of the Invincible Iron Wall of the Two Horns that pierce the Sky, is a Muslim state and the most prominent Islamic nation in the world. A continuation of the Sultanate of Rûm, the Iron Sultanate is most well known for its Iron Wall - A vast and massive bulwark, tens of thousands of kilometers in length, encircling the Sultanate whole. The nation was formed at the end of the great Muslim migration, with the closing of the Gates of al-Qarnayn in 1109. The Sultanate rules over parts of Anatolia and the Levant, and primarily borders lands controlled by Heretic forces. The leader of the Sultanate and its army is the Sultan, or Padishah, which functions as a hereditary title.Support the show

Few analysts are more familiar with the politics of both contemporary Turkey and the United States than my old friend , the distinguished Turkish political scientist Soli Ozel. Drawing on his decades of experience in both countries, Ozel, currently a senior fellow at the Institut Montaigne, explains how democratic institutions are similarly being challenged in Trump's America and Erdogan's Turkey. He discusses the imprisonment of Istanbul's popular mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, restrictive speech in American universities, and how economic decline eventually undermines authoritarian regimes. Ozel emphasizes that effective opposition requires both public discontent and compelling leadership alternatives, which Turkey has developed but America currently sorely lacks. Most intriguingly, he suggests that Harvard's legal battle against Trump could be as significant as the 1925 Scopes trial which marked the end of another bout of anti-scientific hysteria in America. 5 Key Takeaways* Populist authoritarianism follows a similar pattern regardless of left/right ideology - controlling judiciary, media, and institutions while claiming to represent "the people" against elites.* Academic freedom in America has declined significantly, with Ozel noting he experienced more classroom freedom in Turkey than at Yale in 2019.* Economic pain combined with a crisis of legitimacy is crucial for challenging authoritarian regimes, but requires credible opposition leadership to succeed.* Istanbul mayor Imamoglu has emerged as a powerful opposition figure in Turkey by appealing across political divides and demonstrating practical governance skills.* Turkey's strategic importance has increased due to its position between war zones (Syria and Ukraine) and Europe's growing need for security partners as American support becomes less certain. Full TranscriptAndrew Keen: Hello, everybody. It's not great news these days that the U.S. Brand has been, so to speak, tarnished as a headline today on CNN. I'm quoting them. CNN, of course, is not Donald Trump's biggest fan. Trump tarnishes the U S brand as a rock of stability in the global economy. I'm not sure if the US was ever really a rock of stability for anything except itself. But we on the show as. As loyal viewers and listeners know, we've been going around the world, taking stock of the US brand, how it's viewed around the word. We did a show last week with Simon Cooper, the Dutch-based Paris writer of the Financial Times, who believes it's time for all Americans to come and live in Europe. And then with Jemima Kelly, another London-based correspondent. And I thought we would broaden. I asked european perspective by visiting my old friend very old friend Soli Ozel. iVve known him for almost forty years he's a. Senior fellow of international relations and turkey at the montane institute he's talking to us from vienna but he is a man who is born and spends a lot of his time thinking about. Turkey, he has an interesting new piece out in the Institute Montaigne. Turkey, a crisis of legitimacy and massive social mobilization in a regional power. I want to talk to Soli later in this conversation about his take on what's happening in Turkey. But first of all, Soli, before we went live, you noted that you first came to America in September 1977. You were educated here, undergraduate, graduate, both at uh, sized in Washington DC and then at UC Berkeley, where you and I studied together at the graduate program. Um, how do you feel almost 50 years, sorry, we're dating ourselves, but how did you feel taking off your political science cap, your analyst cap, how did you feel about what's happening in America as, as a man who invested your life in some ways in the promise of America, and particularly American education universities.Soli Ozel: Yeah, I mean, I, yes, I came to the States or I went to the States in September of 1977. It was a very different America, post Vietnam. And I went through an avant garde college liberal arts college.Andrew Keen: Bennington wasn'tSoli Ozel: Bennington College, and I've spent about 11 years there. And you and I met in 1983 in Berkeley. And then I also taught at American universities. I taught at UC Santa Cruz, Northwestern, SAIS itself, University of Washington, Yale, and had fellowships in different parts. Now, of course, in those years, a lot has changed in the US. The US has changed. In fact, I'm writing a piece now on Christopher Lash. And reading Christopher Lasch work from the 60s and the 1970s, in a way, you wonder why Trumpism has not really emerged a bit earlier than when it did. So, a lot of the... Dynamics that have brought Donald Trump to power, not once, but twice, and in spite of the fact that, you know, he was tried and found guilty and all that. Many of those elements have been there definitely since the 1980s, but Lascch identified especially this divergence between educated people and less educated people between brainies and or the managerial class and the working class in the United States. So, in a way, it looks like the Trumpism's triumph came even a bit late, although there were a couple of attempts perhaps in the early 1990s. One was Pat Buchanan and the other one, Ross Perot, which we forget that Ross Perot got 19% of the vote against in the contest when Bill Clinton. Won the election against George H.W. Bush. So underground, if you will, a lot was happening in the United States.Andrew Keen: All right. And it's interesting you bring up Lash, there's that sort of whole school Lasch Daniel Bell, of course, we had Daniel Bell's son, David Bell, on the show recently. And there's a lot of discussion, as I'm sure you know, about the nativism of Trump, whether it's uniquely American, whether it was somehow inevitable. We've done last week, we did a show about comparing what's happening now in America to what happened after the First World War. Being less analytical, Solé, my question was more an emotional one to you as someone who has built their life around freedom of expression in American universities. You were at Bennington, you were at SICE, you're at UC Berkeley, as you know, you taught at UC Santa Cruz and Yale and many other places. You come in and out of this country giving lectures. How do you personally feel about what's happening?Soli Ozel: Yeah, okay. I mean, in that sense, again, the United States, by the way, I mean the United States has been changing independently of Mr. Trump's presidency. It was much more difficult to be, I mean when I went to college in Bennington College, you really did not bite your tongue when you were going to speak either as a student or a professor. And increasingly, and especially in my last bout at Yale in 2019, I felt that, you know, there were a lot of constraints on what you could say or how you could say it, whether you would call it walkism, political correctness, whatever it was. It was a much, the atmosphere at the university was much more constrained in terms of what transpired in the classroom and that I mean, in Turkey, I had more freedom in terms of how we debated things in class that I felt that...Andrew Keen: That is astonishing. So you had more freedom in...Soli Ozel: As well, you did in Yale in 1990. I'm talking about not the political aspect of things, but how you debate something, okay, whether or not, I mean, there would be lots of views and you could you could present them without insulting anyone, however you presented them was fine, and this is how what the dynamics of the classroom had been when I was a student. So, in that sense, I guess it wasn't just the right that constrained speech, but also the left that constrained the speech, because new values were added or new norms were invented to define what can and cannot be said. And of course, that goes against the grain of what a university education ought to be. I mean, I had colleagues. In major universities who told me that they really were biting their tongue when they were giving their lectures. And that is not my understanding of education or college education and that certainly has not been my experience when I came to the States and for my long education here for 11 years.Andrew Keen: Solit, you and I have a long history of thinking about the Middle East, where back in the early 80s, we TA'd a class on the Arab-Israeli conflict with Yaya Sadowski, who at that time was a very independent thinker. I know he was a close friend of yours. I was always very influenced by his thinking. You're from Izmir, from a Jewish family in Turkey. So you're all too familiar with the complexity of anti-Semitism, Israel, the Middle East, Turkey. What do you personally make of this hysteria now on campus about anti-semitism and throwing out anyone, it seems, at least from the Trump point of view, who are pro-Palestinian? Is this again, I mean, you went back to Christopher Lasch and his thinking on populism and the dangers of populism in America. Or is this something that... Comes out of the peculiarities of American history. We have predicted this 40 years ago when you and I were TAing Sadowski's class on Arab-Israeli conflict at Berkeley.Soli Ozel: The Arab-Israeli conflict always raises passions, if you will. And it's no different. To put it mildly, Salvador, I think. Yeah, it is a bit different now. I mean, of course, my hunch is that anti-Semitism is always present. There is no doubt. And although I followed the developments very closely after October 7. I was not in there physically present. I had some friends, daughters and sons who were students who have reported to me because I'm supposed to know something about those matters. So yeah, antisemitism is there. On the other hand, there is also some exaggeration. We know that a lot of the protesters, for instance, were Jews themselves. But my hunch is that the Trump administration, especially in their attack against elite universities, are using this for political purposes. I'm sure there were other ways of handling this. I don't find it very sincere. And a real problem is being dealt with in a very manipulative political way, I think. Other and moreover So long as there was no violence and I know there were instances of violence that should be punished that I don't have any complaints about, but partially if this is only related to what you say, I'm not sure that this is how a university or relations between students at the university ought to be conducted. If you're not going to be able to say what you think at the university, then what else are you going to say? Are you going be able say it? So this is a much more complicated matter than it is being presented. And as I said, my view or based on what I follow that is happening at colleges, this is being used as an excuse. As somebody I think Peter Beinhart wrote today in the New York Times. He says, No, no, no. It is not really about protecting Jewish students, but it is protecting a certain... Type of Jewish students, and that means it's a political decision, the complaints, legitimate complaints, perhaps, of some students to use those against university administrations or universities themselves that the Trump administration seems to be targeting.Andrew Keen: Yeah, it's interesting you bring up Beinart. He was on the show a year or two ago. I think he notes that, I mean, I don't want to put words into his mouth, but he seems to be suggesting that Jews now have a responsibility almost to speak out, not just obviously about what's happening in the U.S., but certainly about what is happening in Gaza. I'm not sure what you think on.Soli Ozel: He just published a book, he just published the book being Jewish in the US after Gaza or something along those lines. He represents a certain way of thinking about what had happened in Gaza, I mean what had happened to Israel with the attack of Hamas and what had happened afterwards, whether or not he represents the majority. Do you agree with him? I happen to be. I happen to be sympathetic to his views. And especially when you read the book at the beginning, it says, look, he's a believer. Believer meaning he is a practicing Jew. So this is not really a question about his own Jewishness, but how he understands what being a Jew actually means. And from that perspective, putting a lot of accent to the moral aspects of Jewish history and Jewish theological and secular thinking, He is rebelling, if you will, against this way of manipulative use. On the part of some Jewish organizations as well of what had gone on and this is this he sees as a along with others actually he also sees this as a threat to Jewish presence in the United States. You know there is a simultaneous increase in in anti-semitism. And some people argue that this has begun even before October 7. Let us not forget Charlottesville when the crowds that were deemed to be nice people were chanting, Jews will not replace us, and those people are still around. Yeah, a lot of them went to jail.Andrew Keen: Yeah, I mean Trump seemed to have pardoned some of them. And Solly, what do you make of quote-unquote the resistance to Trump in the U.S.? You're a longtime observer of authoritarianism, both personally and in political science terms. One of the headlines the last few days is about the elite universities forming a private collective to resist the Trump administration. Is this for real and is it new? Should we admire the universities or have they been forced into this position?Soli Ozel: Well, I mean, look, you started your talk with the CNN title. Yeah, about the brand, the tarnishing of the U.S. Whatever the CNN stands for. The thing is, there is no question that what is happening today and what has been happening in my judgment over the last two years, particularly on the issue of Gaza, I would not... Exonerate the Biden administration and the way it actually managed its policy vis-a-vis that conflict. There is, of course, a reflection on American policy vis a vis that particular problem and with the Trump administration and 100 days of storm, if you will, around the world, there is a shift in the way people look at the United States. I think it is not a very favorable shift in terms of how people view and understand the United States. Now, that particular thing, the colleges coming together, institutions in the United States where the Americans are very proud of their Madisonian institutions, they believe that that was there. Uh, if you will, insurance policy against an authoritarian drift in their system. Those institutions, both public institutions and private institutions actually proved to be paper tigers. I mean, look at corporations that caved in, look at law firms that arcade that have caved in, Look at Columbia university being, if you will the most egregious example of caving in and plus still not getting the money or not actually stopping the demands that are made on it. So Harvard after equivocating on this finally came up with a response and decided to take the risk of losing massive sums of grants from the federal government. And in fact, it's even suing. The Trump administration for withholding the money that was supposed to go to them. And I guess there is an awakening and the other colleges in order to protect freedom of expression, in order, to protect the independence of higher education in this country, which has been sacrosanct, which is why a lot of people from all around the world, students... Including you and I, right? I mean, that's why we... Yeah, exactly. By the way, it's anywhere between $44 and $50 billion worth of business as well. Then it is there finally coming together, because if you don't hang together, you'll hang separately, is a good American expression that I like. And then trying to defend themselves. And I think this Harvard slope suit, the case of Harvard, is going to be like the Stokes trial of the 1920s on evolution. It's going to be a very similar case, I believe, and it may determine how American democracy goes from now.Andrew Keen: Interesting. You introduced me to Ece Temelkuren, another of your friends from someone who no longer lives in Turkey. She's a very influential Turkish columnist, polemicist. She wrote a famous book, How to Lose a Country. She and you have often compared Turkey. With the rest of the world suggesting that what you're going through in Turkey is the kind of canary in the coal mine for the rest the world. You just came out with a piece, Turkey, a crisis of legitimacy, a massive social mobilization and regional power. I want to get to the details of what's happening in Turkey first. But like Ece, do you see Turkey as the kind of canary and the coalmine that you got into this first? You're kind of leading the narrative of how to address authoritarianism in the 25th century.Soli Ozel: I don't think Turkey was the first one. I think the first one was Hugo Chavez. And then others followed. Turkey certainly is a prominent one. But you know, you and I did other programs and in an earlier era, about 15 years ago. Turkey was actually doing fine. I mean, it was a candidate for membership, still presumably, formally, a candidate for membership in the European Union, but at the time when that thing was alive. Turkey did, I mean, the AKP government or Erdogan as prime minister did a lot of things that were going in the right direction. They certainly demilitarized Turkish politics, but increasingly as they consolidated themselves in power, they moved in a more authoritarian path. And of course, after the coup attempt in 2016 on the 15th of July, that trend towards authoritarianism had been exacerbated and but with the help of a very sui generis if you will unaccountable presidential system we are we find ourselves where we are but The thing is what has been missed out by many abroad was that there was also a very strong resistance that had remained actually unbowing for a long time. And Istanbul, which is, of course, almost a fifth of Turkey's population, 32 percent of its economy, and that's where the pulse of the country actually beats, since 2017 did not vote for Mr Erdogan. I mean, referendum, general election, municipal election. It hasn't, it hasn't. And that is that really, it really represents the future. And today, the disenchantment or discontent has now become much broader, much more broadly based because conservative Anatolia is also now feeling the biting of the economy. And this sense of justice in the country has been severely damaged. And That's what I think explains. The kinds of reaction we had throughout the country to the first arrest and then incarceration of the very popular mayor of Istanbul who is a national figure and who was seen as the main contender for the presidency in the elections that are scheduled to take place in.Andrew Keen: Yeah, and I want to talk more about Turkey's opposition and an interesting New York Times editorial. But before we get there, Soli, you mentioned that the original model was Chavez in Venezuela, of course, who's always considered a leftist populist, whereas Erdogan, Trump, etc., and maybe Netanyahu are considered populists of the right. Is that a useful? Bifurcation in ideological terms or a populist populism that the idea of Chavez being different from Trump because one's on the left and right is really a 20th century mistake or a way of thinking about the 21st century using 20th-century terms.Soli Ozel: Okay, I mean the ideological proclivities do make a difference perhaps, but at the end of the day, what all these populist movements represent is the coming of age or is the coming to power of country elites. Suggests claiming to represent the popular classes whom they say and who are deprived of. Uh, benefits of holding power economically or politically, but once they get established in power and with the authoritarian tilt doesn't really make a distinction in terms of right or wrong. I mean, is Maduro the successor to Chavez a rightist or a leftist? I mean does it really make a difference whether he calls himself a leftists or a rightists? I is unaccountable, is authoritarian. He loses elections and then he claims that he wins these elections and so the ideology that purportedly brought them to power becomes a fig leaf, if you will, justification and maybe the language that they use in order to justify the existing authoritarianism. In that sense, I don't think it makes a difference. Maybe initially it could have made a difference, We have seen populist leaders. Different type of populism perhaps in Latin America. For instance, the Peruvian military was supposed to be very leftist, whereas the Chilean or the Brazilian or the Argentinian or the Uruguayan militaries were very right-wing supported by the church itself. Nicaragua was supposed to be very Leftist, right? They had a revolution, the Sandinista revolution. And look at Daniel Ortega today, does it really matter that he claims himself to be a man of the left? I mean, He runs a family business in Nicaragua. And so all those people who were so very excited about the Nicaraguan Revolution some 45 years ago must be extraordinarily disappointed. I mean, of course, I was also there as a student and wondering what was going to happen in Nicaragua, feeling good about it and all that. And that turned out to be an awful dictatorship itself.Andrew Keen: Yeah, and on this sense, I think you're on the same page as our mutual friend, Moises Naim, who wrote a very influential book a couple of years ago. He's been on the show many times about learning all this from the Latin American playbook because of his experience in Venezuela. He has a front row on this. Solly, is there one? On this, I mean, as I said, you just come out with a piece on the current situation in Turkey and talk a little bit more detail, but is America a few stops behind Turkey? I mean you mentioned that in Turkey now everyone, not just the urban elites in Istanbul, but everyone in the country is beginning to experience the economic decline and consequences of failed policies. A lot of people are predicting the same of Trump's America in the next year or two. Is there just one route in this journey? Is there's just one rail line?Soli Ozel: Like by what the root of established wow a root in the sense of youAndrew Keen: Erdogan or Trump, they come in, they tell lots of lies, they promise a lot of stuff, and then ultimately they can't deliver. Whatever they're promising, the reverse often happens. The people they're supposed to be representing are actually victims of their policies. We're seeing it in America with the consequences of the tariff stuff, of inflation and rise of unemployment and the consequences higher prices. It has something similar. I think of it as the Liz Truss effect, in the sense that the markets ultimately are the truth. And Erdogan, I know, fought the markets and lost a few years ago in Turkey too.Soli Ozel: There was an article last week in Financial Times Weekend Edition, Mr. Trump versus Mr. Market. Trump versus, Mr. Market. Look, first of all, I mean, in establishing a system, the Orban's or Modi's, they all follow, and it's all in Ece's book, of course. You have to control the judiciary, you have to control the media, and then all the institutions. Gradually become under your thumb. And then the way out of it is for first of all, of course, economic problems, economic pain, obviously makes people uncomfortable, but it will have to be combined with the lack of legitimacy, if you will. And that is, I don't think it's right, it's there for in the United States as of yet, but the shock has been so. Robust, if you will, that the reaction to Trump is also rising in a very short period, in a lot shorter period of time than it did in other parts of the world. But economic conditions, the fact that they worsen, is an important matter. But there are other conditions that need to be fulfilled. One of those I would think is absolutely the presence of a political leader that defies the ones in power. And I think when I look at the American scene today, one of the problems that may, one of problems that the political system seems to have, which of course, no matter how economically damaging the Trump administration may be, may not lead to an objection to it. To a loss of power in the midterms to begin with, is lack of leadership in the Democratic Party and lack of a clear perspective that they can share or program that they present to the public at large. Without that, the ones that are in power hold a lot of cards. I mean, it took Turkey about... 18 years after the AKP came to power to finally have potential leaders, and only in 2024 did it become very apparent that now Turkey had more than one leader that could actually challenge Erdogan, and that they also had, if not to support the belief in the public, that they could also run the country. Because if the public does not believe that you are competent enough to manage the affairs of the state or to run the country, they will not vote for you. And leadership truly is an extraordinarily important factor in having democratic change in such systems, what we call electoral authoritarian.Andrew Keen: So what's happened in Turkey in terms of the opposition? The mayor of Istanbul has emerged as a leader. There's an attempt to put him in jail. You talk about the need for an opposition. Is he an ideological figure or just simply younger, more charismatic? More attractive on the media. What do you need and what is missing in the US and what do you have in Turkey? Why are you a couple of chapters ahead on this?Soli Ozel: Well, it was a couple of chapters ahead because we have had the same government or the same ruler for 22 years now.Andrew Keen: And Imamo, I wanted you to pronounce it, Sali, because my Turkish is dreadful. It's worse than most of the other.Soli Ozel: He is the mayor of Istanbul who is now in jail and whose diploma was annulled by the university which actually gave him the diploma and the reason why that is important is if you want to run for president in Turkey, you've got to have a college degree. So that's how it all started. And then he was charged with corruption and terrorism. And he's put in zero. Oh, it's terrorism. There was.Andrew Keen: It's terrorism, they always throw the terrorist bit in, don't they, Simon?Soli Ozel: Yeah, but that dossier is, for the moment, pending. It has not been closed, but it is pending. Anyway, he is young, but his major power is that he can touch all segments of society, conservative, nationalist, leftist. And that's what makes people compare him also with Erdogan who also had a touch of appealing to different segments of the population. But of course, he's secular. He's not ideological, he's a practical man. And Istanbul's population is about anywhere between 16 and 18 million people. It's larger than many countries in Europe. And to manage a city like Istanbul requires really good managerial skills. And Imamoglu managed this in spite of the fact that central government cut its resources, made sure that there was obstruction in every step that he wanted to take, and did not help him a bit. And that still was continuing. Still, he won once. Then there was a repeat election. He won again. And this time around, he one with a landslide, 54% against 44% of his opponent, which had all theAndrew Keen: So the way you're presenting him, is he running as a technocrat or is he running as a celebrity?Soli Ozel: No, he's running as a politician. He's running a politician, he is a popular politician. Maybe you can see tinges of populism in him as well, but... He is what, again, what I think his incarceration having prompted such a wide ranging segments of population really kind of rebelling against this incarceration has to do with the fact that he has resonance in Anatolia. Because he does not scare conservative people. He aspires the youth because he speaks to them directly and he actually made promises to them in Istanbul that he kept, he made their lives easier. And he's been very creative in helping the poorer segments of Istanbul with a variety of programs. And he has done this without really being terribly pushing. So, I mean, I think I sense that the country sees him as its next ruler. And so to attack him was basically tampering with the verdict of the ballot box. That's, I, think how the Turkish public interpreted it. And for good historical reasons, the ballot box is really pretty sacred in Turkey. We usually have upwards of 80% of participation in the election.Andrew Keen: And they're relatively, I mean, not just free, but the results are relatively honest. Yeah, there was an interesting New York Times editorial a couple of days ago. I sent it over. I'm sure you'd read it anyway. Turkey's people are resisting autocracy. They deserve more than silence. I mean from Trump, who has very peculiar relations, he has peculiar relations with everyone, but particularly it seems with Turkey does, in your view, does Turkey needs or the resistance or the mayor of Istanbul this issue, need more support from the US? Would it make any difference?Soli Ozel: Well, first of all, the current American administration didn't seem to particularly care that the arrest and incarceration of the mayor of Istanbul was a bit, to say the least, was awkward and certainly not very legal. I mean, Mario Rubio said, Marco Rubio said that he had concerns. But Mr. Witkoff, in the middle of demonstrations that were shaking the country, Mr. Witkof said it to Tucker Carlson's show that there were very wonderful news coming out of Turkey. And of course, President Trump praised Erdogan several times. They've been on the phone, I think, five times. And he praised Erdogan in front of Bibi Netanyahu, which obviously Bibi Netanyah did not particularly appreciate either. So obviously the American administration likes Mr. Erdogans and will support him. And whatever the Turkish public may or may not want, I don't think is of great interest toAndrew Keen: What about the international dimension, sorry, Putin, the Ukrainian war? How does that play out in terms of the narrative unfolding in Turkey?Soli Ozel: Well, first of all, of course, when the Assad regime fell,Andrew Keen: Right, and as that of course. And Syria of course as well posts that.Soli Ozel: Yeah, I mean, look, Turkey is in the middle of two. War zones, no? Syria was one and the Ukraine is the other. And so when the regime fell and it was brought down by groups that were protected by Turkey in Idlib province of Syria. Everybody argued, and I think not wrongly, that Turkey would have a lot of say over the future of Syria. And I think it will. First of all, Turkey has about 600 miles or 911 kilometer border with Syria and the historical relations.Andrew Keen: And lots of Syrian refugees, of course.Soli Ozel: At the peak, there were about 4 million, I think it's now going down. President Erdogan said that about 200,000 already went back since the overthrow of the regime. And then of course, to the north, there is Ukraine, Russia. And of course this elevates Turkey's strategic importance or geopolitical importance. Another issue that raises Turkish geopolitical importance is, of course, the gradual withdrawal of the United States from providing security to Europe under the umbrella of NATO, North Atlantic Alliance. And as the Europeans are being forced to fetch for themselves for their security, non-EU members of NATO such as Britain, Norway, Turkey, their importance becomes more accentuated as well. And so Turkey and the European Union were in the process of at least somewhat normalizing their relations and their dialog. So what happened domestically, therefore, did not get much of a reaction from the EU, which is supposed to be this paragon of rights and liberties and all that. But But it also left Turkey in a game in an awkward situation, I would think, because things could have gone much, much better. The rapprochement with the European Union could have moved a lot more rapidly, I will think. But geopolitical advantages are there. Obviously, the Americans care a lot for it. And whatever it is that they're negotiating with the Turkish government, we will soon find out. It is a... It is a country that would help stabilize Syria. And that's what President Trump also said, that he would adjudicate between Israel and Turkey over Syria, because these two countries which have been politically at odds, but strategically usually in very good terms. Whether or not the, so to avoid a clash between the two in Syria was important for him. So Turkey's international situation will continue to be important, but I think without the developments domestically, Turkey's position and profile would have been much more solid.Andrew Keen: Comparing US and Turkey, the US military has never participated, at least overtly, in politics, whereas the Turkish military, of course, has historically. Where's the Turkish Military on this? What are they thinking about these imprisonments and the increasing unpopularity of the current regime?Soli Ozel: I think the demilitarization of the Turkish political system was accomplished by the end of the 2000s, so I don't think anybody knows what the military thinks and I'm not sure that anybody really wonders what the army thinks. I think Erdogan has certainly on the top echelons of the military, it has full control. Whether or not the cadets in the Turkish military are lower echelons. Do have political views at odds with that of the government that is not visible. And I don't think the Turkish military should be designing or defining our political system. We have an electorate. We do have a fairly, how shall I say, a public that is fairly attuned to its own rights. And believes certainly in the sanctity of the ballot box, it's been resisting for quite some time and it is defying the authorities and we should let that take its course. I don't think we need the military to do it.Andrew Keen: Finally, Soli, you've been very generous with your time from Vienna. It's late afternoon there. Let's end where we began with this supposed tarnishing of the U.S. Brand. As we noted earlier, you and I have invested our lives, if for better or worse, in the U S brand. We've always been critical, but we've also been believers in this. It's also important in this brand.Soli Ozel: It is an important grant.Andrew Keen: So how do we, and I don't like this term, maybe there is a better term, brands suggest marketing, something not real, but there is something real about the US. How do we re-establish, or I don't know what the word is, a polish rather than tarnish the US brand? What needs to happen in the U.S.Soli Ozel: Well, I think we will first have to see the reinvigoration of institutions in the United States that have been assaulted. That's why I think the Harvard case... Yeah, and I love you.Andrew Keen: Yeah, and I love your idea of comparing it to the Scopes trial of 1926. We probably should do a whole show on that, it's fascinating idea.Soli Ozel: Okay, and then the Democratic Party will have to get its act together. I don't know how long it will take for them to get their act together, they have not been very...Andrew Keen: Clever. But some Democrats will say, well, there's more than one party. The Sanders AOC wing has done its job. People like Gavin Newsom are trying to do their job. I mean, you can't have an official party. There's gonna be a debate. There already is a debate within the party between the left and the right.Soli Ozel: The thing is, debates can be endless, and I don't think there is time for that. First of all, I think the decentralized nature of American governance is also an advantage. And I think that the assault has been so forceful that everybody has woken up to it. It could have been the frog method, you know, that is... Yeah, the boiling in the hot water. So, already people have begun to jump and that is good, that's a sign of vitality. And therefore, I think in due time, things will be evolving in a different direction. But, for populist or authoritarian inclined populist regimes, control of the institutions is very important, so you've got to be alert. And what I discovered, studying these things and looking at the practice. Executive power is a lot of power. So separation of powers is fine and good, but the thing is executive power is really very... Prominent and the legislature, especially in this particular case with the Republican party that has become the instrument of President Trump, and the judiciary which resists but its power is limited. I mean, what do you do when a court decision is not abided by the administration? You cannot send the police to the White House.Andrew Keen: Well, you might have to, that's why I asked the military question.Soli Ozel: Well, it's not up to the military to do this, somehow it will have to be resolved within the civilian democratic system, no matter where. Yes, the decks are stacked against the opposition in most of these cases, but then you'll have to fight. And I think a lot hinges on how corporations are going to react from now on. They have bet on Trump, and I suppose that many of them are regretting because of the tariffs. I just was at a conference, and there was a German business person who said that he has a factory in Germany and a factory in Ohio. And he told me that within three months there would not be any of the goods that he produces on the shelves because of tariffs. Once this begins to hit, then you may see a different dynamic in the country as well, unless the administration takes a U-turn. But if it does take a U turn, it will also have weakened itself, both domestically and internationally.Andrew Keen: Yeah, certainly, to put it mildly. Well, as we noted, Soli, what's real is economics. The rest is perhaps froth or lies or propaganda. Soli Ozel: It's a necessary condition. Without that deteriorating, you really cannot get things on values done.Andrew Keen: In other words, Marx was right, but perhaps in a slightly different context. We're not going to get into Marx today, Soli, we're going to get you back on the show. Cause I love that comparison with the current, the Harvard Trump legal thing, comparing it to Scopes. I think I hadn't thought of that. It's a very interesting idea. Keep well, keep safe, keep telling the truth from Central Europe and Turkey. As always, Solia, it's an honor to have you on the show. Thank you so much.Soli Ozel: Thank you, Andrew, for having me.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Send us a textAs we return to the Empire in Nicaea, we follow the reign of Emperor John Vatatzes. After rebuilding the Byzantine Navy, he launched an invasion of Thrace and expanded Nicaea into Europe. While John spent most of his reign on the battlefield, his son Theodore grew up in the Empire in exile. Because of his prolific writing, we have an insight into his thoughts and ideas. We can see how he viewed the East as Superior to the West and thought of himself and all his friends, who grew up in Anatolia and never knew Constantinople before the fall. It is here that Theodore brings up the idea of a return to Greek life before the Romans. A cultural identity that is separate from just the Orthodox Church and the Roman Emperors.The History of Modern Greece Podcast covers the events from Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and the fall of Constantinople in 1453, to the years under the Ottoman Empire, and 1821 when the Greeks fought for independence... all the way to the modern-day.Website: www.moderngreecepodcast.comMusic by Mark Jungerman: www.marcjungermann.comCheck out our 2nd Podcast: www.antecedors.com

Andronikos III Palaiologos takes charge of a Roman state still recovering from the loss of Anatolia and the raids of the Catalans.He takes on the challenge with enthusiasm and tangles with the Turks, Latins and Serbs. He also reunites Epiros and Thessaly with Constantinople.Period: 1328-41Check out my episodes on the First Crusade which have been turned into videos by @Empire-Builders Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Picture this: a group of locals stumble upon massive, intricately carved stones peeking out of the ground in southeastern Turkey. Not architects or historians, just ordinary folks going about their day. Turns out, it's the world-famous Göbekli Tepe, an ancient archaeological marvel dating back over 11,000 years. News spread like wildfire, and archaeologists were soon on the scene, unraveling the secrets of this prehistoric site. The accidental discovery rewrote the history books, challenging our understanding of early human civilization and leaving everyone in awe of the ancient builders who left their mark so long ago. CreditsCredit: Vulture Stone: Sue Fleckney - https://flic.kr/p/x4o3q1, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vulture_Stone,_Gobekli_Tepe,_Sanliurfa,_South-east_Anatolia,_Turkey.jpg Göbekli Tepe: German Archaeological Institute, photo E. Kücük., CC BY 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_archaeological_site_of_G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe_-_main_excavation_area.png CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/: Göbekli Tepe: Teomancimit, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe,_Urfa.jpg Klaus-Peter Simon: Göbekli2012, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G%C3%B6bekli2012-11.jpg UrfaMuseum, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UrfaMuseumG%C3%B6bekli.jpg CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/: Göbekli Tepe: Zhengan, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe_surrounding_area.JPG Dosseman: Urfa Göbeklitepe Building, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Urfa_G%C3%B6beklitepe_Building_B_5326.jpg Göbeklitepe Building, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G%C3%B6beklitepe_Building_C_5372_(cropped).jpg Göbeklitepe Building, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G%C3%B6beklitepe_Building_C_sept_2019_5373crop.jpg Urfa Göbeklitepe Building, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Urfa_G%C3%B6beklitepe_Building_A_5345.jpg Beytullah eles: Göbeklitepe Şanlıurfa, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G%C3%B6beklitepe_%C5%9Eanl%C4%B1urfa.jpg Göbeklitepe, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G%C3%B6beklitepe.jpg Şanlıurfa Müzesi Göbeklitepe: Cobija, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C5%9Eanl%C4%B1urfa_M%C3%BCzesi_G%C3%B6beklitepe_D_Tap%C4%B1na%C4%9F%C4%B1.jpg Göbekli Tepe Pillar: Zhengan, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe_Pillar.JPG Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hasta hace no muchas décadas era impensable que alguien pudiera escuchar en una vida entera música de todos los parajes que recorremos en tan solo una hora de Mundofonías. Bueno, en pleno siglo XXI mucha gente tampoco lo hace y la inmensa mayoría de los medios dan la espalda a esta maravillosa posibilidad que en este programa se hace real. Viajamos entre Brasil, Honduras, Birmania, el Tíbet, Anatolia, los Países Bajos, Grecia y el norte de África, rindiendo tributo también al músico garifuna Aurelio Martínez, recientemente desaparecido, y a todas las víctimas del terremoto y la guerra de los pueblos de Birmania. Until just a few decades ago, it was unthinkable that someone could hear music from all the places we explore in just one hour of Mundofonías in a single lifetime. Well, in the 21st century, many still don’t – and the vast majority of media outlets turn their backs on this marvellous possibility, which becomes real in this programme. We travel through Brazil, Honduras, Burma, Tibet, Anatolia, the Netherlands, Greece, and North Africa, also paying tribute to the Garifuna musician Aurelio Martínez, recently departed, and to all the victims of the earthquake and war among the peoples of Burma. - Pernambuco Quartet - Pifando / Coco embolada - Brésil: Musique du Nordeste / Brazil: Music of the Nordeste - Aurelio - Chichanbara - Lándini - Sein Bo Tint - Aung pa khei ti loun - Excavated shellac: An alternate history of the world's music [V.A.] - Urna Chahar-Tugchi - Agitu tolgói - Duun / Voices - Mehmet Polat Quartet - Roots in motion - Roots in motion - Savina Yannatou, Primavera en Salonico and Lamia Bedioui - The immortal water - Watersong - Thanos Stavridis & Drom - Zaramo - Fygame - Christos Kanellos Malamás - Rast ninni / Dilek - Dilek - Christos Kanellos Malamás - Amfibolia - Oración - (Christos Kanellos Malamás - Segâh leyli şarkı - Dilek) 📸 Thanos Stavridis & Drom

Graduation Day.  Book 3 in 18 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels."You know nothing of what you speak of, Ishara, yet you now feel free to insult us," she simmered."Don't know, don't care. It was all before my time. I care about the 'here-and-now' as well as what we do in the future. What I am asking you is what concrete item or 'thing' can be provided to House Zorja to put this blood feud behind you. Name it and House Ishara will endeavor to procure it for you.""We are not merchants," Jana's eyes narrowed."No. I didn't imply you were. If you want new sandals for everyone in your House, I'll find you new sandals. If you want 100,000 acres of ranchland, I'll find you the land. Name it," I persisted."Our prestige cannot be bought," she 'explained'."No, but a blood feud with House Ishara can be avoided by making a request of us in the same way as expressing your desire to harm my daughter can be expressed by denying my offer," I hardened. "And 'fuck you very much' if you think I won't use every son, daughter, mother, aunt, and uncle of Ishara when I come gunning for House Zorja too.""You wouldn't dare bring outsiders into this," Klavdiya interjected."Why not? The offices of Ishara handed House Zorja the coup of the century ~ the capture of the People's Liberation Army Navy nuclear carrier. A member of House Zorja commanded that task, yet they did so by leading forces marshalled by House Ishara, outsider forces. You may wish to keep playing by old rules concerning who is and isn't part of a House, but I am not so constrained, sisters.""So Klavdiya, if House Meenakshi pursues its blood feud with House Zorja, House Ishara will gleefully join them in the pummeling. And we have Isharans in the 9 Clans, the Khanate and the Illuminati who will gladly help us out in slapping them around like the old-fashion curmudgeons they are showing themselves to be, or, House Zorja may request a gift from House Ishara and we will happily clear accounts between them and House Meenakshi in the name of our daughter, Parvati. Their choice.""You are still on the mats," Elsa reminded me. Sikia coiled protectively next to us."And you said something about a lesson being long overdue," Pamela smirked, "Kitten.""Cáel Ishara," Shawnee said in a soft voice, "perhaps it is germane to the argument: the fault of the blood feud rests with House Zorja, not House Meenakshi."I fell on my back, carrying Tad fi with me. She gasped out in surprise while remaining closely cuddled with me. Her right hand never left my lips."Why does no one tell me this shit?" I moaned."You are hard," Tad fi announced. "Are you ready to have more sex?" She was sounding upbeat about our prospects. She was also ignorant of our surroundings being deaf and blind to the mortal realm."Gossamer Wing," I created a pet name for the augur, "we are lying on the sparring mats of a large combat arena in the central Full-blooded training center for Havenstone with roughly 500 sisters in attendance (the audience had grown). While I am enticed by your scent, words, proximity and sweet memories of what we've shared, I'm probably going to be badly beaten up really soon for a terrific diplomatic snafu.""But then we can have sex?""Yeah. I'm totally up for having sex with you after they release me from Medical," I assured her. I looked around her to a very unhappy Mahdi."Can you find it in your heart to forgive House Zorja? Anything I can,""Yes," she abruptly cut me off.What the fuck?"At this time, my hatred of House Ishara, and you in particular, make any grievance I have with House Zorja pale in comparison. You have bewitched my only daughter. She bares your child, and it will be a wonderful child if the soiled augur you've stuck your cock in is to be believed," she ground out bitterly. "I want to go home. I want to find enemies to kill. And when I do, Cáel Ishara, know each and every one of them will carry your face in my mind."She turned to Jana. "Do you agree that we both hate Ishara enough to put aside our current differences?"Jana studied Mahdi, me, then Mahdi again and agreed. She stood. Mahdi stood. They clasped arms like Amazons, then hugged like sisters."Agreed. He is much worse."My thoughts on the matter. Woot! I was having sex! Oh, and I was making Aya happy by ending a blood feud."My admiration of you continues to increase," Krasimira looked at me. "This diplomacy stuff is harder than it looks yet you pull it off so effortlessly.""Yay me!" I muttered."Keeper, are we done?" Sikia asked Krasimira."I believe so," the older Amazon rose to her feet. Sikia was far faster in rising."Mahdi of Meenakshi, you have insulted me and my augur. Defend yourself," she snarled. If Tad fi hadn't been immediately present, Mahdi wouldn't have even warranted a warning no doubt."Had you done your job," Mahdi flowed into her fighting stance, "you both wouldn't be pregnant.""Whoa now," I struggled to rise while keeping Tad fi close and my body between her and the Meenakshi/Zorja side of the mat. "Sikia, I can't let you fight. You're pregnant too.""Don't be stupid, Cáel Ishara," Sikia retreated off the mat, so she could shed her jacket and footwear. "Amazons have fought pregnant for thousands of years.""Hold on now," NYPD Sgt. Larisa Kutuzov said in English as she moved forward. I was a millisecond too late. Larisa's foot touched down on the mat and Marlene Zorja popped her one, a hand chop to the larynx. The senior cop stumbled forward."Mom!" shouted Nikita. Marlene followed up with a leg sweep, putting Larisa face first on the mats, then a fist strike to the back of the head, knocking her out. Neat and tidy in less than two seconds.Nikita was about to charge in when Chaz stopped her."Footwear," he advised in the tone of voice I had learned to associate with him and imminent violence. The moment he stopped her, he was quickly removing his own socks and shoes. Virginia and Pamela were doing the same. I was allowed freedom of movement because I was holding Tad fi. Krasimira exited because of her unique status. The rest were already barefoot."Gale, could you please stay with Tad fi," I tried to hand her off."No," Gale looked me over. "I will fight." No hint on whose side she would be fighting on. Krasimira came to my rescue."I'll take her.""Tad fi," I told the augur, "I have to go get beaten up now, but I promise I will be back for you directly.""This is not your fight," Krasimira said. "The words and deeds are Sikia's.""A, she carries my child and B, the deeds being called into question are my fault.""You told me once they were the Will of Ishara," Krasimira mused."We are one in the same," I gave a lopsided grin."Be careful," Tad fi pleaded. "Your future is a chaotic jumble, I cannot see,""Eh, I've been very bad. We'll talk about it later. Gotta go," I headed onto the mats.Pamela was giving the ground rules to the 'normals': No 'fair warnings'. No 'fair play'. No 'time outs'. You fought until unconscious, or you surrendered."This is going to suck," Virginia assessed our odds. Two Amazons had removed Larisa from the mats and were tending to her. Nikita was kneeling by her side until she heard Virginia, then came our way.Besides Sikia, we had Pamela, Chaz, Virginia, myself and Nikita. Oneida stepping up was nice. She wasn't a great combatant, but we dearly needed the help. Gale joining us was, unsettling. Amazons don't play fair, so this could be a ruse.Against us were all three Zorja and both Meenakshi ~ I imagined Rhada felt she had something to prove to her mother. They'd picked up ten other Amazons and Rhonwenn Nemain. Klavdiya joined them to counterbalance her baby sister. Eight to seventeen ~ ouch."Damn," a familiar voice from my first days on the job spoke up from behind me, "we almost missed this." I didn't dare look over my shoulder. Desiree stepped between Chaz and Virginia. Rachel came up on my left and Tiger Lily on my right. At the tail end of our line was Mona, Meridian, Brielle and Wiesława. Fifteen to seventeen was looking much better, especially considering Desiree had brought five Security Detail warriors with her, all of whom were moving to further bolster our numbers."Rachel," Elsa looked to her underling, "you have no idea why you are fighting.""It is for Cáel. So it must be for a better tomorrow," Rachel laughed."Very well," Elsa smirked."You!" Mahdi pointed at me, and we both charged. It was a jumbled nightmare of clashing bodies, war cries and flashes of movement all around. Our side had two main advantages -While Chaz was by no means the best hand-to-hand combatant present, he knew the basic Amazon style and most Amazons didn't know his. Added to his overall height and bulk advantages, he bought us time.Of greater importance, Rachel, Tiger Lily and Mona had extensive training working as a team, which none of the opponents had.Elsa was the most dangerous individual on the mat. Pamela was the second most dangerous, so Elsa grabbed a couple of partners and ganged up on her to drive her off the mats. Chaz went next, out-Elsa'ed and beaten unconscious. The issue was, it took her too long to accomplish those two feats. By the time she rounded on me, Rachel and Tiger Lily, our half of the field had wiped out theirs. It was six of us (me, Rachel, Tiger Lily, Gale, Wiesława and Desiree) versus four of them (Elsa, Marlene, Klavdiya and Rhonwenn).Still, I was facing Elsa, so a judicious bit of treachery was required."Gale," I huffed and puffed, "please retire. I don't want you to fight your sister.""What?" Gale snapped. She'd taken a beating, yet remained feisty."No, fighting her sister is okay with me," Desiree scowled. "We are still facing fucking Elsa.""All the other women you have mated with have failed. I remain," Gale trumpeted."Oh, you are right," I half-turned. "All the reason you are more precious to me.""Really?""Of course," I deepened my introspective appreciation of her."Oh," and Klavdiya punched Rhonwenn. That was an 'oh, Cáel Ishara must actually care for my baby sister and not be just a Playa' on Klavdiya's part. Yeah. I'm a horrible fucking person at times.Rachel, Tiger Lily and I rushed Elsa. Marlene pivoted to ward against Klavdiya while Gale and Wiesława stormed in against her. Desiree helped Klavdiya finish drubbing Rhonwenn before they combined to force Marlene off the mats. Elsa chose to go down swinging in a dogpile of bodies. I took an ear-ringing blow to the head which allowed Rachel to apply a chokehold and it was lights out for the Head of SD.After some water bottles went around and those concussed returned to wakefulness, the resolution of the brawl was decided. Mahdi apologized to Sikia. It was short, terse and sparing of any empathy, yet was within the bounds of Amazon etiquette. She departed with Rhada, which left me to pick up the pieces, starting with Nikita's mom."Oh," the older woman moaned then, "Ms. Fredrickson? What are you doing here?""Avenging you, Mother," Nikita fluffed up the truth. "She, Cáel and the others cleaned house on the woman who jumped you and her allies.""Desk Sergeant," Desiree gave a curt nod."This isn't over," Larisa winced as she moved to a sitting position."Mrs. Kutuzov, it is over," I headed off a colossal waste of time. "This is my daily life and part of your daughter's life with JIKIT. You will find scant witnesses and no tape recordings of these events. This craziness is just another day in the life here at Havenstone. You stepped on the mat and thus became fair game to any physical confrontation an opponent cared to mete out. Consider this sovereign soil of an independent nation-state.""We," she looked around. "You kicked their asses?""Definitely," Pamela gave a feral snarl."This is plain nuts," she shook her head, winced in cranial pain, then put her aching head in her hands."One of the reasons we've put our dating in hiatus," Nikita comforted her mother while looking at me, and smiling affectionately.Ah, for fuck sakes! I was engaged to someone else and having a dozen kids by ten different women. How could I still possibly be considered viable dating material? Oh yeah, martial valor, laughing at death, I hung out with truly exceptional cool people and I would always be in need of saving, a plus for a crusader like Nikita.I had so many allies to tend to, but only one who seemed to be making an exit. I swooped down on Tad fi long enough to place her fingers to my lips."I'll be right back, friend of a friend in need," and off I went. I caught Tavi of House Stolgos just outside the door. She wasn't avoiding me. She'd been observing Chaz and he had been otherwise occupied.My British companion had played a pivotal role in the combat and taken his beating like a man. He'd been rendered unconscious. So had many others, so no stigma was attached to his loss. Post-battle, he had chosen to sit on his haunches, knees up, talking to several of the Amazons, both kneeling and standing. A few had been bystanders and a few others foes.He stayed on his ass to reduce his height advantage. Letting Amazons make eye contact while not having to look up at you created definite benefits. His good natured approach to his role in the fight and pummeling earned him positive vibes as well. He made it clear the tussle to him was not macho-personal. He was my 'brother / sister / sibling' spiritually-speaking via Pamela adopting us both as her 'grandsons', so my fights were his fights. Sikia had my (Cáel's) child, so that bond extended to her as well ~ family.Pamela and I had schooled him on Amazon psychology and those lessons were now paying serious dividends. 'The Male' hadn't wanted to fight them ~ 'Amazons are tough' he'd confessed, he knew this because he worked with several every day on JIKIT~ but family was on the line, so he fought. Mahdi had apologized, so the matter was settled. The other Amazons he'd fought? They had fought for their reasons and he was okay with not questioning them about it.Why? He was conscious of his conspicuous status as a 'guest', knew he was in no way an Amazon, and was not privy to what motivated them. He didn't want to be an Amazon. He had his own, much younger, martial tradition he was proud of, yet was eager to learn from the vastly greater Amazon war lore because 'winners' didn't have a gender-bias and no other tradition could compete with the Amazons' 3,000 years.Under normal circumstances, the women around him wouldn't have given credence to his praise. He was a male after all. Through the tiny tear I'd created in their insulating social fabric, Chaz was building upon his own exploits. In the after-battle analysis, the Amazons reflected on the realization Elsa had concentrated on him as her number two objective, second only to Pamela who scared everyone who knew anything about her. That bolstered Chaz's appeal.For the Amazons who thought a male would get all pouty and cry over being beaten up by a girl/girls, Chaz was breaking the mold. He wasn't angry. He was amused. The fight had been a learning experience and he'd felt honored to watch, no matter how briefly, a warrior of Elsa's caliber fight. He'd explained 'I', Cáel Wakko Ishara, considered Elsa one of the top 5 combatants I'd ever seen, which included Ajax the Unconquered. The others were Sakuniyas, reborn Amazon and former Queen of Assyria, Saint Marie, the Golden Mare, and Pamela, the Cliff-walker.More happy Amazons because the list's only non-Amazon was a dead Hero from the Trojan Wars and it was well known I 'got around' (aka dealt with violent outsiders.) Chaz was telling the truth, almost. The 'fifth' person on the list was Alal, but explaining him would be difficult, so Chaz edited him for this particular audience. Good man.In the hallway, "Tavi, a moment," I called out. She slowed down, took a few more steps allowing me to catch up."Yes Ishara?" she gave me her best neutral look. Yep. She was jealous."I beg two favors from you," I quickly went down to one knee in her path. That caught her off guard and left her in the awkward position of me being terribly close and staring up at her."I, I will listen," she muttered."I would like to know if you are pregnant," I asked very softly. Yes, she was, but she didn't want to tell me. She contemplated pushing past me. It would be very easy. "I know I am stepping beyond the boundaries between warriors. Please. My destiny has brought you two together. I am at fault here." 'Fault' was the key word."If I have a son, he will be given to the Queen," Tavi's face was stern and unforgiving. "He will live.""That's not what he's worried about," I shook my head. "He wants to be a father to your daughter, Tavi. He wants to introduce you to his mother and grandmothers, maybe his sisters too, if that can be arranged.""Huh?""He is not like me, Tavi. There is no other in his life, but you.""I, I will not leave my House for him," she protested angrily."He would never ask you. That doesn't mean he doesn't want to remain at your side for years to come. He can be a father to your child and not be a part of House Stolgos in the same way you can be a mother to your child and not be a part of Clan Tomorrow.""Oh," she furrowed her brow. "How would this possibly work?""I have an 'in' with the Queen," I winked. "I'll work out something.""He knows I will never stop being an Amazon," she elucidated intensely."Absolutely. He is an intelligence operative after all. He's figured a few things out for himself.""Why doesn't he tell me these things?""Tavi, he threw his body on top of me to shield me from a bomb blast, so he's undoubtedly brave, but telling you what is in his heart is scary for him. As his brother, I see behind his silence,""Oh, what should I do?" she was vexed."Go back in there, demand to speak with him and tell him the truth," I stood up."The truth?""That you are going to have a little StolgosTomorrow-ite running around sometime next year," I exuded confidential friendliness."Cáel Ishara," she tilted her head slightly, "you don't know much about infants, do you?""Nope," I pseudo-confessed. I actually did know something about newborns. I'd studied up so I could make a move on a cute girl whose free time was eaten up by babysitting, so I 'helped out'. Oink."They aren't 'running around'," she turned to head back into the gym, "until the ninth month at the earliest. Normally, running doesn't happen until the eighteenth month.""My fiancée has a three-year old, so she should be able to help me through some of the hardest parts," I babbled along. Tavi didn't give a crap.In we went. Tavi stormed straight toward the bevy of Amazon babes concentrating on 'her' Chaz."Color Sergeant Tomorrow," she abruptly interrupted. "A moment of your time.""Ladies," Chaz uncoiled himself from the surrounding women. The Amazons were either mildly put off, they thought they were about to get laid, or pissed off, they were sure they were about to get laid, and Tavi was stomping on their happy."Yes, Ms. Gentry," Chaz linked his hands behind his back in a 'rest easy' stance. 'Gentry' was the fake last name Tavi used in the outside world. She motioned toward the windows with her head. Off they went. I couldn't hear what was being said, but my lip reading skills were up to the task.T: (I am pregnant)C: (I love you)T: (Oh) ~ stunned. Go Chaz!C: (Well, I don't imagine the Amazons have a marriage ceremony and an Anglican service would be inappropriate, so perhaps we could research a Scythian ritual which could make both families happy) ~ delivered in the patented smooth Chaz style.T: (Marriage? To you?)C: (I will not submit to being anyone's slave nor would I ever ask you to submit to me. Outside of that, will you be my partner and my partner alone until the cliffs separate us?)T: (Amazons are not monogamous)C: (I am)T: (I will, I mean, can I think about this?)C: (I am not going anywhere, Tavi){Pause}T: (Did you put Ishara, Cáel Ishara up to this?)C: (Yes)T: (Why?)C: (I imagine he explained what I am feeling better than I could)T: (Oh, do you want me to meet your mother and grandmothers?)C: (Absolutely)T: (Okay)C: (Okay ~ you would like to meet my Mother and Grandmothers?)T: (No, yes, I mean, yes I would like to meet them and I am okay with you being with no other woman until the cliffs separate us, and I will do the same, no other males)C: (If I pick you up, hug you and kiss you, will your sisters freak out?)T: (I don't know)So Chaz swept Tavi up until her head was higher than his (a feat, considering their 8" height differential) and kissed her deeply. Mumbled words followed. Tavi wrapped her legs around Chaz's waist and out they went. Around me were angry murmurings of the 'did that Amazon just run off with our man' variety. Not my problem. I had plenty of different Amazons wanting my attention. Hallelujah!{8:00 pmDon't try this at home.I covered my face with a pillow and pressed down hard. I'd already tried breathing exercises, meditation and even contemplated more cranial trauma before thinking up this particular crazy idea. It took some mental effort and accessing some of my Alal-'pain sorting' skills to accomplish, but in the end, I felt myself 'let go'.I sat up."Hello," Tad fi beamed."Hey," I took a deep breath. Since we were talking, I must have passed out. Her eyes wandered over the room."Is this the world as you see it?" she wondered. Oh yeah, I had to be creating the environment for her to enjoy.Sikia was kneeling on the bed a foot away, her gaze moving between the two of us. The 'grayness' of her form suggested she was wholly in reality and not in the 'Ishara-space' the goddess had shown me and I was now sharing with my augur."This is how you see me?" she examined her fingers, her wrists, then some long locks of her hair."You are more beautiful," I answered. The impact of my words crossing over drew her eyes back to me. It was the magic of hearing for the normally deaf girl. I concentrated, peeled back some fantasy and attached a realistic form to Sikia. Tad fi followed my gaze."Your hair," she addressed her guardian, "It is lighter than I imagined."Sikia said something I couldn't understand, muffled as it was by my dreaming."I cannot hear you, but I see you through his eyes," the augur carried on her conversation. They touched. It had to be somewhat bizarre for Sikia. As she reached for Tad fi's hand, her friend intercepted the extended member. Their fingers intertwined before completing the journey to the guardian's lips."Don't cry, no, we couldn't have, no, we shouldn't have knocked him out sooner. I don't think he was aware of this discipline when we first met. Were you, Cáel?""No. Perhaps if I had understood more about the consequences of seeing ghosts, I might have," I tapered off. "Now that we know. I can try this more often.""Your health?" Tad fi worried."I might be immortal," I confessed. I was confessing because I was desperately seeking a way to share some of my genetic quirkiness with her ~ some strength to carry her through this pregnancy and spare her life, Dot Ishara be damned."And you would seek a way to spare me," she graced me with her gentle presence. Lying in the 'spirit' world was a whole lot tougher than in the flesh."Yeah. I've got some arcane lore rattling around in my head, plus I have a few outside sources I can ask for help. I'm not giving up on you.""I have foreseen my death.""Well, un-foresee it," I scolded her. "Dot Ishara told me we see what might happen, though nothing is guaranteed. So even your death isn't an absolute. Since it hasn't happened, I see no reason to let it happen. You are going to live to hold our daughter. If not, my immortality is worthless.""You can never save everyone. Sometimes you must let a few go to save the rest," she advised."If I find someone I'm not attached to, I'll let them go. I promise. Until then, I'm, ugh, I'm fading, and I'm keeping you.""We shall see," she murmured. I fell back into my body and into wakefulness."Now we have sex," Tad fi announced in a melodic voice."He is ready to perform," Sikia agreed. She was fondling my balls with one hand while her breath played across my rod. I sat up to see the augur climbing up the bed between my thighs. She kissed my glans, licked across its top, then kissed it again."I've got it from here," she told Sikia."What?" Sikia was confused. Tad fi's lips began to engulf my sceptre."Sikia, come here," I gently pulled on her arm. She was conflicted yet up some came.We started out with tender kisses on the lips. I kept drawing her toward me. My lips and tongue migrated down her chin and throat to her breasts. When she thought my target was her breasts, she was all onboard. That was a mere stop-off point on my journey, though I played around for a while.At the same time, I had to use subtle movements with my hips and clenches with my gluts to school Tad fi on her fellatio. Thankfully, I was doubly-blessed. This wasn't my first time schooling two girls at once and Tad fi could determine more from such minimal reactions due to her heightened sense of my muscle contractions through her touch than any other woman I'd ever met.When I began running my tongue in large lashes underneath her breasts, I confused Sikia once more. She was resistant as my hands on her hips pulled her higher so that my lips and teeth could tease her taut stomach while I twirled my tongue in her belly button. She giggled.I had been slowly wiggling down the bed, backing Tad fi up, so when it came time to mount Sikia on my face, I had the headboard room. I kept her muscular thighs securely in hand because the moment I had her happy, I pushed her up. She looked down, seeking guidance and I motioned her to turn around. She did the eye-ball math, realized she'd be facing her augur, and hastily obeyed. Of course, her movement on the bed alerted Tad fi through mattress vibrations.Sikia was sitting on my face, leaning down so she could run her hands through Tad fi's hair and along her face and lips (and my phallus). I kept my hands pressed between our bodies. My right made the sojourn to my pubic area to play around and give them both something else to suck on, my fingers. My left loitered around between Sikia's breasts and her clitoris when my lips were otherwise occupied.I could cup her clit with my tongue in a U-shape, rubbing it along my taste buds. Most of my time was taken up with my tongue broad lashing her vulva or tightly-twisted and delving into her cunt and my nose pushing against her brown hole. I could tilt myself up so I could make tongue-intrusions into her back passage as well. The first time, she squealed.Before she could decide if she wanted to make me stop (she did, virtually all first timers always default to asking their partner to stop, so you have to distract them), Tad fi wanted to know what had brought her reaction on. Then came Sikia's troubled revelation of what I was doing, how the augur shouldn't suffer through it, despite the increasing pleasure she was receiving, only to finally be unable to supply the answer as to why Tad fi shouldn't experience it too.Sikia shot me a treasured look of bewilderment. I'd brought her to orgasm with my tongue alone. I was a guy after all."Switch?" I suggested. Tad fi was still administering one of the slowest, most considerate blowjobs I'd ever experienced. She wasn't rushing toward anything. Sure, she was unschooled, but was devoting her incredible sensitivities to my pleasure and taking pleasure in her ability to bring me to such excitement."Change places?" she mused. "Okay." Tad fi's lips slid off me with one final, loud 'pop', then she used her spider-like fingers to climb up my body while Sikia traveled south. She lavished butterfly kisses on my face ~ childish, yet so very appropriate between us ~ and I mirrored the gesture.With some reluctance, she mounted me, facing Sikia. My tongue flicking across her clit on its first exploration brought out a joyous gasp. It only got better from there.The Long Slide Into Domestic Life:"Twins?" Hana snuggled into my arms. We were at her place, naked in bed together after a late late-night unscheduled meeting with some VIPs. Despite the late/early hour, she was alert, tense even. It had been a mentally stimulating late night encounter which had brought me to her bed."Yes. That is what Tad fi predicted," I inserted between raining kisses down on her forehead. Hana liked non-distracting attention when she was in this kind of mood. She was exhausting herself mentally as she was building up to being amorous."Ana-Călina and  rp d?" she worked over the names on her tongue. "They have a special meaning?""Only if you are Hungarian and Romanian," I teased her. She elbowed me slightly. " rp d was the semi-mystical pagan warlord who led the Ten Tribes who became known as the Hungarians ~ the Magyar peoples ~ into the Carpathian Basin, present day Hungary. Ana-Călina was born a Byzantine princess of the storied House of Basarab; she married Radu Negru, thus becoming the first Princess of a free Wallachia ~ the foundation for a free Romania. She was also the great-grandmother of Dracula.""So they are famous names with regional historical significance, did they live long, happy lives?"" Árpád, no one knows for sure. His kids were quarrelsome, but they did manage to found a dynasty at the start of the second millennia which ruled for three centuries.""Ana-Călina, yeah. I think so," I continued. "She lived into her seventies and her eldest son left his country stronger, richer and safer than when he received it. She did out live her husband by over fifty years, and got to see her youngest grandson bury most of his rivals, the kids from her husband's first marriage.""Ah, what?" Hana rose up until we were eye to eye. Since she was naked, her boobs swayed slightly as she did so. My eye flickered. "Eyes forward, Mister," she playfully barked. "What happened to all her other grandsons?""Wallachia in the 15th century was a tad rough and tumble," I evaded."They killed one another?""Mostly they were killed by conspiracies amongst their boyars, nobles of the time.""Why does, Tad fi want to dredge up these names again?" she kept eye contact."Not a clue," I pleaded."But you think it is important?""No. I think you are important. Screw Fate. It can name its own kids. We can chose whatever names make you happy, except 'Up'. Up's been taken.""You've named another of your offspring 'Up'? That's cruel, or does that mean something in another language I'm unaware of?" she shifted her shoulders so her boobs wobbled again. Of course, I broke eye contact. I hadn't had sex in hours and her boobies were right there, damn it!"Actually, Pamela and I named this secret agent in Hungary that, just to fuck with his head," I divulged."Oh. Pamela. I should have known," she slowly smiled. "You are being very well behaved," she added. Woot! She noticed I wasn't throwing her down and pawing her delectable flesh. "One more thing before the nookie.""Name them. Their dead," I pledged."Not necessary," her sigh turned into a giggle. "If I'm going to be having twins, I'm going to be rather big come late March. We need an earlier wedding date."Oh, fuck me!"What do you have in mind?" I tried to keep the creeping dread out of my voice."New Year's Day?" she suggested. I did a quick calculation. That was annihilating 78 days out of what remained of my bachelor life. In 114 days my life would cease having any meaning whatsoever. I'd be a Mr. to someone's Mrs. The end"Sure, I can arrange to be killed before then," stumbled out of my mouth."What was that?" Hana pouted."Nothing Dear. Cosmic psychic intersection with an Al -demon; don't know what came over me," I fibbed."Man up," Hana bit my nose. "Our marriage won't be that bad if we both work at it. It isn't like I'm demanding celibacy from you." Then she mouthed 'yet'."Wait. Did you mean celibacy, as in no fun at all, or monogamy, as in only 'happy time' with you?" I desperately sought clarification."Oh," she pursed her lips. "I meant monogamy. I didn't mean to scare you.""Oh, thank goodness," I sighed."Here," her gaze turned tender. "Let me make it up to you." Hana placed one hand on my shoulder and rose up my body until my face was gently nestled in her bosom. Then she wiggled back and forth, basically because I'm a big baby and easy to please. I was alternating which nipple I was kissing in no time."Mmm," she murmured. "I've missed you." Her other hand's fingernails coasted down my abdomen and found 'Mr. Happy' had risen to attention. Okay, he'd been hopping up and down on my groin since she'd said we were 'going to bed' 30 minutes ago. Hana decided wrap up my shaft with her hand, then applied a few tender strokes. I reciprocated by cupping her left tit in one hand, forming a mound with her areola at the center, and began to twirl from the outside inward to her hardened nipple with just the tip of my tongue.It was 4 a.m. Why was I taking it slow when I had my final work review with Katrina in three hours? Hana deserved this and more. Why was Hana doing it? She was her own boss, plus her life was careening wildly outside of anything she'd imagined before she'd first laid eyes on me. Half of the financial empire she shared with her father was suddenly in the hands of a military dictatorship, her beloved father was dealing with the murder of her hated step-brother and she was marrying a Prince in a European cathedral which required someone high in the Vatican's approval process to use.Yeah, her life had gone nuts. Worse, she loved me. And I wasn't the kind of man she ever thought she'd love. She'd thought she'd never love anyone again after her life with her asshole of an ex-husband and their bitter, contentious divorce. I was barely someone she could classify, and Hana was a terribly ordered and organized person. Saying my life was messy was being generous. I was some mysterious warrior-diplomat-playboy-aristocrat who hung out with people more bizarre than me.Hana picked up her tempo. I switched breasts. Her motor was really starting to hum. Any other night, I could have moved straight to revving her up to an orgasm. I had the time to make it two without any problems. A good one and Hana would be happy and drift off to sleep. Instead, I intuited she wanted more, so we developed our own game of cat and mouse with her climax, and its suspension, being our ultimate goal.My left hand danced down the back of her ribcage like playing keys on a piano. It was a light, teasing gesture. Her hair the color of tarnished gold cascaded down as she began placing her own kisses upon my crown. Each move by one partner evoked a response by the other. Hana ran my glans over her glistening labia, getting it nice and slick. I worked down her waist, cupped her ass, and then glided over her thigh to the back of her knee where I started tickling her. She snickered."You are distracting me," she murmured. I wasn't. I knew these things."I like to get the feel of every inch of your flesh," I responded. More mirthful noises from her. Slowly, her gooey vestibule rubbed against and over the top, until I felt myself entering. There, she hesitated. I propelled my hips an inch up, twisted right then left before falling back down, a micro-fuck."Ah," she emoted her approval. "My turn." Hana's knees spread to the side, making a memorable sound on the silk sheets as she impaled herself. This time she rolled her hips forward, back, then did a slow 360 with me  inside her, letting the slow progress over her spark memories for her to savor. "I never believed sex could be like this," Hana hiccupped."How so?" I knew the answer, but wanted her to put her chaotic passions to words. It would make her happier."Experimenting, silly. Stopping in the middle and doing, this," she reversed her hip rotations this time. "I never imagined a lover having such patience, or,""Yourself as being so openly sexually adventurous?" I finished."Yeah," she huffed. "I really, really owe your college professor, plus you and all your diligence, for this," at the last moment, she encountered the gateway to her G-spot. I knew precisely where that gem was. Previously, Hana had gained a vague idea where it was from the perspective of masturbation and our prior lovemaking. Now I had let Hana rediscover that joy with my cock as her tool to utilize as she wished."You realize pregnant women want even more sex," she hummed. She was vigorously working my cock now. Hana had bridged a huge gap, sexually. Normally, a woman of Hana's quality tried to please her man first with the hope her orgasm would soon follow. I was different. My greatest sexual gratification came from her ecstasy. She was confident in that now. By bringing herself to climax, she was making me excited for what would come next."That's okay," I propped myself up on one elbow now that Hana was riding me cowgirl-style. "I dig big chicks." The open-palm slap to the chest was a given."Hercege, you, you are horrible," she growled around a feral smile. The lip-biting, tongue-sucking kiss was equally vicious, primal and leading Hana to the end of her tether. Not only was Hana's sexual trust in me/us expanding, she was putting extra effort into her physical workout regime too. She might still have a ways to go to compete with an Amazon, but it was still going to be a great night."Hercegn , I am nothing but a twisted shadow of masculine lust whose every contour is cast by your muliebrous glow," I teased. Her eyes twinkled. Yes, definitely still going to be a great night."Okay," Hana yawned, "I give up. What does 'muliebrous' mean?" She'd been holding on to that for an hour and a half. It was five-thirty and I was dressing in my biking clothes before heading into work."From the Latin 'muliebri' which means 'womanly'," I answered. Her sleepy eyes drank in both my response and my physique. I had discovered another thing Hana liked and that was to expand her academic/linguistic frontiers. She was enchanted with the idea that I liked to engage her mind along with her body, sparking on all cylinders.She'd crawled over to my side of the bed, her head resting on my pillow, soaking up my scent as she watched me. I knelt down, kissed her on her ear, cheek and finally the side of her lips. Hana was beat."Have a good day and be careful," she mumbled. Her eyes closed. Her chest rose with one last, waking breath before her sleep rhythms took her."Ditto," I whispered. I snuck into  Annela's room and planted a kiss on her head as well. The craziness of my life had a way of cascading over to the ones I loved. Loved? Oh boy,7:00 am Monday, September 8th, Graduation Day!Brielle and her buddy were humming along as the elevator doors closed. Once more, my 'hellish' schedule demanded I change in the elevator. I'd gone to gun practice with my bike clothes on, so I absolutely had to change into business attire in the magic box, in front of them.Juanita adjusting my tie was a less than subtle attempt to strangle me. I was about to be late to my final 'start of day' meeting as an intern in Executive Services, so her chastisement would have to wait. Who would have thunk it? Juanita would have to wait outside for this ceremony. Paula raced with me to be the last one in, only to have Daphne grace us with the 'news':"The meeting won't start for another fifteen minutes," she grinned. "Katrina is bringing up the 'new hires' for the fall program."I finger-flicked my head. The 84 days as an intern was merely the 'training wheels' period. To really be a member of ES was at least a two year training process. The Amazons around me had started their training for this gig when they were fifteen and were eighteen and nineteen now, their ID's said they were older for legal purposes.In theory, my four years in college was counted as 'preliminary' training and provided things such as acclimation to outsider culture ~ aka 'acting normal'. Logically, I would train under someone like Desiree or Buffy for a year before being a full-fledged member of the service."How many this time?" I asked Daphne since she seemed to be in the know."Twenty," she grinned. "We are getting two."I noticed there was still only my tiny desk in Katrina's office. That meant the new guys would be out in the office pool with everyone else. Probably for the best. The ladies were now used to having a male around, so would be careful in what they did and didn't say. I yawned."Tired," Fabiola smirked."Oh yeah," I stifled another yawn. "Met an emissary from the Pope." Fabiola glowered. "No. Seriously. I met an emissary from Holy See. I let Hana know I wanted to get married in a highly improbable place, a ruined cathedral, so she contacted the Catholic Church and one of their guys wanted to meet with me.""That had to be fun," Tigger grinned. "What does the Cult of the Nazarene think of you and the Goddess Ishara?""We actually discussed polytheism and the place of an omnipotent, omnipresent being in the scope of things," I placed my hands behind my back and rocked back and forth. "It was quite interesting. The guy knew his shit."By that, I meant he was probably with the Pope's Secret Service as well as a Brainiac with a PhD in something. He'd promised to be in touch as soon as he heard back from his superiors. He had this hot chick with him who I suspected was a nun. And if his driver wasn't ex-military, it was because he was still in the service. On the plus side, Hana had been beaming when we left, which assured me the meeting had gone well, so we had sex from 4 AM until 5:30, thus my current fatigued state."Are you going to abandon your faith?" Fabiola taunted me."I don't have faith, Fabiola of Minerva. Faith would imply I don't know there are supernatural entities screwing with our lives. I know they do exist, I've met a few. To satisfy your disingenuous curiosity, we discussed the nature of the Weave and it being the possible manifestation of God's Will.""How did that go?" Paula appeared interested."He strongly suggested I should 'revisit my Catholic roots' soon. By that, I think he meant I'm supposed to start attending church regularly," I shrugged. "The Pope is sending an envoy to the Great Khan too, so odds are good I'm getting married," I pronounced the last bit as the doom-laden prediction it was."Oh, yes," Fabiola reached passed Paula and smacked me in the chest with the back of her hand. "That is for insinuating you and I had intercourse to my Mother and the Council.""Was that chastising me for lying, or for not making it so?" I winked."Ah, no!" she pouted. "Stop lying about me."I looked down at my phone."We've got twelve minutes," I double-pumped my eyebrows. "Want to go to Katrina's bathroom?""What! No!" Fabiola

Song track by Cafe de Anatolia mixing & selected Alex Manzo

Antiochus III has been waiting a long time for revenge on his independent-minded cousin Achaeus the Younger. Well, now's his chance. Join us today as we watch Antiochus sweep all before him on a vengeful path of destruction across Anatolia... Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1966), The House of Seleucus (Vol. II). New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc. The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), Sardis (online) (Accessed 05/08/2024). Polybius (1979), Polybius the Histories, in Six Volumes (Volume III). Translated by W. R. Paton. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann, Ltd.

Millennias ago, the world's first-recorded priestesses served as the vessel and voice of the Goddess for powerful kings and empires across Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the Levant. My guest this week, Lisa Moriah, is a Mesopotamian and Biblical goddess wisdom keeper, shamanic priestess, somatic sound healer, and temple sales & marketing coach. Her work supports ancient-future devotion that is steeped in text and history, bridging the millennias between the earliest-recorded priestesses and modern women. Lisa believes your body and voice are portals to ancient power and she shares this wisdom and more in this episode.On this guest episode, I ask Lisa to explain how sound is the most feminine of all healing modalities, what is “somatic sound?” and how women use this to perform self-healing for trauma. She shares about how she uses some very ancient technologies for sound healing, based in Abrahamic religious tradition and finding Goddess in Abrahamic religious tradition. I ask how she came to specialize in transmitting the presence of Goddess in sacred texts and where does Goddess reclamation work intersect with sound. Lisa is creating a safe harbor for Women who are ready to reclaim the Goddess within free from standard religion, a beautiful offering and fascinating work! BIO: Lisa Moriah is a Mesopotamian and Biblical goddess wisdom keeper, shamanic priestess, somatic sound healer, and temple sales & marketing coach. Her work supports ancient-future devotion that is steeped in text and history, bridging the millennias between the earliest-recorded priestesses and modern women. She loves nothing more than amplifying the wisdom of ancient feminine voices for audiences today. Sound is Lisa Moriah's primary healing tool—including voice, rhythm, early temple instruments, and Eastern musical modes called makams. By reviving the path of the En priestesses of Sumer, and the Qadosha priestesses of the Israelite temple, she helps women re-member the goddess heritage that birthed their Abrahamic faith of origin. Practically, this work also activates authentic voice and dissolves inner blocks—so feminine creativity and leadership can flow unhindered. Lisa Moriah's ritual and transformational work is underpinned by seven years of goddess devotion and ritual, ten years of online business, and twenty years of professional writing. Learn more about Lisa here:lisamoriah.com browse current offerings at schoolofdivineradiance.com. Follow her on Instagram @ lisamoriahspeaksListen to her weekly podcast, Sound of the Goddess, https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/sound-of-the-goddess/

Comenzamos descubriendo el muy interesante proyecto Folk_ME, que, desde Hungría, nos sumerge en la interpretación de las músicas tradicionales, ofreciendo la oportunidad de escudriñarlas en profundidad. Nuestro invitado es Miklós Both, director de la Hagyományok Háza, (Casa de las Tradiciones), quien nos explica este proyecto y nos presenta tres fascinantes piezas provenientes de Ucrania y Transilvania. Disfrutamos también con novedades y adelantos que nos llevan por Hungría, Anatolia, Noruega, Bretaña y Gran Bretaña, homenajeando también al gran artista francés Gabriel Yacoub, recientemente desaparecido, con músicas del mítico grupo Malicorne. We begin by exploring the highly interesting Folk_ME project, which, from Hungary, delves into the interpretation of traditional music, offering the opportunity to examine it in depth. Our guest is Miklós Both, director of Hagyományok Háza (House of Hungarian Heritage), who explains this project and presents three fascinating pieces coming from Ukraine and Transylvania. We also enjoy with new releases and previews that take us through Hungary, Anatolia, Norway, Brittany, and Great Britain, also paying tribute to the great French artist Gabriel Yacoub, recently passed away, with music from the legendary group Malicorne. - Lajkó Felix - Hilarion halala - GisL - Iryna Slyvchuk, Iryna Tomkovych, Lilia Molodtsova, Olena Kushniruk, Viktoriya Vorontsova - Ne krychy, zhuravli, bo y ne lyuta zima - [Folk_ME] - Havasréti Pál, Mester László, Vizeli Balázs - Férfitánc zene Nagyenyed környékéről (Pontozó) - [Folk_ME] - András Orsolya Erzsébet, Enyedi Ágnes, Mihó Attila, Szabó Dániel - Gyergyói csárdás és sebes - [Folk_ME] - Ozan Baysal - Haydar Haydar - Tel ve ten - Jason Carter - I believe - In and out of time - Alan Stivell - Tri martolod - Liberté-Roazhon - Malicorne - La chasse gallery - Le bestiaire - Kvedarkvintetten - Stasgangar - Tagal - (Malicorne - Voici la Saint-Jean (ronde) - Almanach) Voz invitada: Guest voice: Miklós Both (Hagyományok Háza, Folk_ME) 📸 Havasréti Pál, Mester László, Vizeli Balázs (Folk_ME)

Pues lo que dice el título hablamos de Paulicianos y Bogomilos, dos herejías de tipo gnóstico nacidas en Anatolia y los Balcanes, respectivamente, una consecuencia de la otra y su traslado a Occidente donde dan pie a los Cátaros o Albigenses

In the calm before the storm, we examine what was going on in Anatolia. Achaeus the Younger has been a rising power since he's been free to romp round the peninsula, squaring off against Attalus I of Pergamon and whoever else he comes across. Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Edward Arthur. Espenak, F., NASA (date unknown) Solar Eclipses of Historical Interest (online) (Accessed 19/07/2024). Polybius (1979), Polybius the Histories, in Six Volumes (Volume III). Translated by W. R. Paton. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann, Ltd. Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), List of solar eclipses in antiquity (online) (Accessed 19/07/2024).

Funding for the NIH and US biomedical research is imperiled at a momentous time of progress. Exemplifying this is the work of Dr. Anna Greka, a leading physician-scientist at the Broad Institute who is devoted to unlocking the mysteries of rare diseases— that cumulatively affect 30 million Americans— and finding cures, science supported by the NIH.A clip from our conversationThe audio is available on iTunes and Spotify. The full video is linked here, at the top, and also can be found on YouTube.Transcript with audio and external linksEric Topol (00:06):Well, hello. This is Eric Topol from Ground Truths, and I am really delighted to welcome today, Anna Greka. Anna is the president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) this year, a very prestigious organization, but she's also at Mass General Brigham, a nephrologist, a cell biologist, a physician-scientist, a Core Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and serves as a member of the institute's Executive Leadership Team. So we got a lot to talk about of all these different things you do. You must be pretty darn unique, Anna, because I don't know any cell biologists, nephrologists, physician-scientist like you.Anna Greka (00:48):Oh, thank you. It's a great honor to be here and glad to chat with you, Eric.Eric Topol (00:54):Yeah. Well, I had the real pleasure to hear you speak at a November conference, the AI for Science Forum, which we'll link to your panel. Where I was in a different panel, but you spoke about your extraordinary work and it became clear that we need to get you on Ground Truths, so you can tell your story to everybody. So I thought rather than kind of going back from the past where you were in Greece and somehow migrated to Boston and all that. We're going to get to that, but you gave an amazing TED Talk and it really encapsulated one of the many phenomenal stories of your work as a molecular sleuth. So maybe if you could give us a synopsis, and of course we'll link to that so people could watch the whole talk. But I think that Mucin-1 or MUC1, as you call it, discovery is really important to kind of ground our discussion.A Mysterious Kidney Disease Unraveled Anna Greka (01:59):Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it's an interesting story. In some ways, in my TED Talk, I highlight one of the important families of this story, a family from Utah, but there's also other important families that are also part of the story. And this is also what I spoke about in London when we were together, and this is really sort of a medical mystery that initially started on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, where it was found that there were many families in which in every generation, several members suffered and ultimately died from what at the time was a mysterious kidney disease. This was more than 30 years ago, and it was clear that there was something genetic going on, but it was impossible to identify the gene. And then even with the advent of Next-Gen sequencing, this is what's so interesting about this story, it was still hard to find the gene, which is a little surprising.Anna Greka (02:51):After we were able to sequence families and identify monogenic mutations pretty readily, this was still very resistant. And then it actually took the firepower of the Broad Institute, and it's actually from a scientific perspective, an interesting story because they had to dust off the old-fashioned Sanger sequencing in order to get this done. But they were ultimately able to identify this mutation in a VNTR region of the MUC1 gene. The Mucin-1 gene, which I call a dark corner of the human genome, it was really, it's highly repetitive, very GC-rich. So it becomes very difficult to sequence through there with Next-Gen sequencing. And so, ultimately the mutation of course was found and it's a single cytosine insertion in a stretch of cytosines that sort of causes this frameshift mutation and an early stop codon that essentially results in a neoprotein like a toxic, what I call a mangled protein that sort of accumulates inside the kidney cells.Anna Greka (03:55):And that's where my sort of adventure began. It was Eric Lander's group, who is the founding director of the Broad who discovered the mutation. And then through a conversation we had here in Boston, we sort of discovered that there was an opportunity to collaborate and so that's how I came to the Broad, and that's the beginnings of this story. I think what's fascinating about this story though, that starts in a remote Mediterranean island and then turns out to be a disease that you can find in every continent all over the world. There are probably millions of patients with kidney disease in whom we haven't recognized the existence of this mutation. What's really interesting about it though is that what we discovered is that the mangled protein that's a result of this misspelling of this mutation is ultimately captured by a family of cargo receptors, they're called the TMED cargo receptors and they end up sort of grabbing these misfolded proteins and holding onto them so tight that it's impossible for the cell to get rid of them.Anna Greka (04:55):And they become this growing heap of molecular trash, if you will, that becomes really hard to manage, and the cells ultimately die. So in the process of doing this molecular sleuthing, as I call it, we actually also identified a small molecule that actually disrupts these cargo receptors. And as I described in my TED Talk, it's a little bit like having these cargo trucks that ultimately need to go into the lysosome, the cells recycling facility. And this is exactly what this small molecule can do. And so, it was just like a remarkable story of discovery. And then I think the most exciting of all is that these cargo receptors turn out to be not only relevant to this one mangled misshapen protein, but they actually handle a completely different misshapen protein caused by a different genetic mutation in the eye, causing retinitis pigmentosa, a form of blindness, familial blindness. We're now studying familial Alzheimer's disease that's also involving these cargo receptors, and there are other mangled misshapen proteins in the liver, in the lung that we're now studying. So this becomes what I call a node, like a nodal mechanism that can be targeted for the benefit of many more patients than we had previously thought possible, which has been I think, the most satisfying part about this story of molecular sleuthing.Eric Topol (06:20):Yeah, and it's pretty extraordinary. We'll put the figure from your classic Cell paper in 2019, where you have a small molecule that targets the cargo receptor called TMED9.Anna Greka (06:34):Correct.Expanding the MissionEric Topol (06:34):And what's amazing about this, of course, is the potential to reverse this toxic protein disease. And as you say, it may have applicability well beyond this MUC1 kidney story, but rather eye disease with retinitis pigmentosa and the familial Alzheimer's and who knows what else. And what's also fascinating about this is how, as you said, there were these limited number of families with the kidney disease and then you found another one, uromodulin. So there's now, as you say, thousands of families, and that gets me to part of your sleuth work is not just hardcore science. You started an entity called the Ladders to Cures (L2C) Scientific Accelerator.Eric Topol (07:27):Maybe you can tell us about that because this is really pulling together all the forces, which includes the patient advocacy groups, and how are we going to move forward like this?Anna Greka (07:39):Absolutely. I think the goal of the Ladders to Cures Accelerator, which is a new initiative that we started at the Broad, but it really encompasses many colleagues across Boston. And now increasingly it's becoming sort of a national, we even have some international collaborations, and it's only two years that it's been in existence, so we're certainly in a growth mode. But the inspiration was really some of this molecular sleuthing work where I basically thought, well, for starters, it cannot be that there's only one molecular node, these TMED cargo receptors that we discovered there's got to be more, right? And so, there's a need to systematically go and find more nodes because obviously as anyone who works in rare genetic diseases will tell you, the problem for all of us is that we do what I call hand to hand combat. We start with the disease with one mutation, and we try to uncover the mechanism and then try to develop therapies, and that's wonderful.Anna Greka (08:33):But of course, it's slow, right? And if we consider the fact that there are 30 million patients in the United States in every state, everywhere in the country who suffer from a rare genetic disease, most of them, more than half of them are children, then we can appreciate the magnitude of the problem. Out of more than 8,000 genes that are involved in rare genetic diseases, we barely have something that looks like a therapy for maybe 500 of them. So there's a huge mismatch in the unmet need and magnitude of the problem. So the Ladders to Cures Accelerator is here to address this and to do this with the most modern tools available. And to your point, Eric, to bring patients along, not just as the recipients of whatever we discover, but also as partners in the research enterprise because it's really important to bring their perspectives and of course their partnerships in things like developing appropriate biomarkers, for example, for what we do down the road.Anna Greka (09:35):But from a fundamental scientific perspective, this is basically a project that aims to identify every opportunity for nodes, underlying all rare genetic diseases as quickly as possible. And this was one of the reasons I was there at the AI for Science Forum, because of course when one undertakes a project in which you're basically, this is what we're trying to do in the Ladders to Cures Accelerator, introduce dozens of thousands of missense and nonsense human mutations that cause genetic diseases, simultaneously introduce them into multiple human cells and then use modern scalable technology tools. Things like CRISPR screens, massively parallel CRISPR screens to try to interrogate all of these diseases in parallel, identify the nodes, and then develop of course therapeutic programs based on the discovery of these nodes. This is a massive data generation project that is much needed and in addition to the fact that it will help hopefully accelerate our approach to all rare diseases, genetic diseases. It is also a highly controlled cell perturbation dataset that will require the most modern tools in AI, not only to extract the data and understand the data of this dataset, but also because this, again, an extremely controlled, well controlled cell perturbation dataset can be used to train models, train AI models, so that in the future, and I hope this doesn't sound too futuristic, but I think that we're all aiming for that cell biologists for sure dream of this moment, I think when we can actually have in silico the opportunity to make predictions about what cell behaviors are going to look like based on a new perturbation that was not in the training set. So an experiment that hasn't yet been done on a cell, a perturbation that has not been made on a human cell, what if like a new drug, for example, or a new kind of perturbation, a new chemical perturbation, how would it affect the behavior of the cell? Can we make a predictive model for that? This doesn't exist today, but I think this is something, the cell prediction model is a big question for biology for the future. And so, I'm very energized by the opportunity to both address this problem of rare monogenic diseases that remains an unmet need and help as many patients as possible while at the same time advancing biology as much as we possibly can. So it's kind of like a win-win lifting all boats type of enterprise, hopefully.Eric Topol (12:11):Yeah. Well, there's many things to get to unpack what you've just been reviewing. So one thing for sure is that of these 8,000 monogenic diseases, they have relevance to the polygenic common diseases, of course. And then also the fact that the patient family advocates, they are great at scouring the world internet, finding more people, bringing together communities for each of these, as you point out aptly, these rare diseases cumulatively are high, very high proportion, 10% of Americans or more. So they're not so rare when you think about the overall.Anna Greka (12:52):Collectively.Help From the Virtual Cell?Eric Topol (12:53):Yeah. Now, and of course is this toxic proteinopathies, there's at least 50 of these and the point that people have been thinking until now that, oh, we found a mangled protein, but what you've zeroed in on is that, hey, you know what, it's not just a mangled protein, it's how it gets stuck in the cell and that it can't get to the lysosome to get rid of it, there's no waste system. And so, this is such fundamental work. Now that gets me to the virtual cell story, kind of what you're getting into. I just had a conversation with Charlotte Bunne and Steve Quake who published a paper in December on the virtual cell, and of course that's many years off, but of course it's a big, bold, ambitious project to be able to say, as you just summarized, if you had cells in silico and you could do perturbations in silico, and of course they were validated by actual experiments or bidirectionally the experiments, the real ones helped to validate the virtual cell, but then you could get a true acceleration of your understanding of cell biology, your field of course.Anna Greka (14:09):Exactly.Eric Topol (14:12):So what you described, is it the same as a virtual cell? Is it kind of a precursor to it? How do you conceive this because this is such a complex, I mean it's a fundamental unit of life, but it's also so much more complex than a protein or an RNA because not only all the things inside the cell, inside all these organelles and nucleus, but then there's all the outside interactions. So this is a bold challenge, right?Anna Greka (14:41):Oh my god, it's absolutely from a biologist perspective, it's the challenge of a generation for sure. We think taking humans to Mars, I mean that's an aspirational sort of big ambitious goal. I think this is the, if you will, the Mars shot for biology, being able to, whether the terminology, whether you call it a virtual cell. I like the idea of saying that to state it as a problem, the way that people who think about it from a mathematics perspective for example, would think about it. I think stating it as the cell prediction problem appeals to me because it actually forces us biologists to think about setting up the way that we would do these cell perturbation data sets, the way we would generate them to set them up to serve predictions. So for example, the way that I would think about this would be can I in the future have so much information about how cell perturbations work that I can train a model so that it can predict when I show it a picture of another cell under different conditions that it hasn't seen before, that it can still tell me, ah, this is a neuron in which you perturbed the mitochondria, for example, and now this is sort of the outcome that you would expect to see.Anna Greka (16:08):And so, to be able to have this ability to have a model that can have the ability to predict in silico what cells would look like after perturbation, I think that's sort of the way that I think about this problem. It is very far away from anything that exists today. But I think that the beginning starts, and this is one of the unique things about my institute, if I can say, we have a place where cell biologists, geneticists, mathematicians, machine learning experts, we all come together in the same place to really think and grapple with these problems. And of course we're very outward facing, interacting with scientists all across the world as well. But there's this sort of idea of bringing people into one institute where we can just think creatively about these big aspirational problems that we want to solve. I think this is one of the unique things about the ecosystem at the Broad Institute, which I'm proud to be a part of, and it is this kind of out of the box thinking that will hopefully get us to generate the kinds of data sets that will serve the needs of building these kinds of models with predictive capabilities down the road.Anna Greka (17:19):But as you astutely said, AlphaFold of course was based on the protein database existing, right? And that was a wealth of available information in which one could train models that would ultimately be predictive, as we have seen this miracle that Demi Hassabis and John Jumper have given to humanity, if you will.Anna Greka (17:42):But as Demis and John would also say, I believe is as I have discussed with them, in fact, the cell prediction problem is really a bigger problem because we do not have a protein data bank to go to right now, but we need to create it to generate these data. And so, my Ladders to Cures Accelerator is here to basically provide some part of the answer to that problem, create this kind of well-controlled database that we need for cell perturbations, while at the same time maximizing our learnings about these fully penetrant coding mutations and what their downstream sequelae would be in many different human cells. And so, in this way, I think we can both advance our knowledge about these monogenic diseases, build models, hopefully with predictive capabilities. And to your point, a lot of what we will learn about this biology, if we think that it involves 8,000 or more out of the 20,000 genes in our genome, it will of course serve our understanding of polygenic diseases ultimately as well as we go deeper into this biology and we look at the combinatorial aspects of what different mutations do to human cells. And so, it's a huge aspirational problem for a whole generation, but it's a good one to work on, I would say.Learning the Language of Life with A.I. Eric Topol (19:01):Oh, absolutely. Now I think you already mentioned something that's quite, well, two things from what you just touched on. One of course, how vital it is to have this inner or transdisciplinary capability because you do need expertise across these vital areas. But the convergence, I mean, I love your term nodal biology and the fact that there's all these diseases like you were talking about, they do converge and nodal is a good term to highlight that, but it's not. Of course, as you mentioned, we have genome editing which allows to look at lots of different genome perturbations, like the single letter change that you found in MUC1 pathogenic critical mutation. There's also the AI world which is blossoming like I've never seen. In fact, I had in Science this week about learning the language of life with AI and how there's been like 15 new foundation models, DNA, proteins, RNA, ligands, all their interactions and the beginning of the cell story too with the human cell.Eric Topol (20:14):So this is exploding. As you said, the expertise in computer science and then this whole idea that you could take these powerful tools and do as you said, which is the need to accelerate, we just can't sit around here when there's so much discovery work to be done with the scalability, even though it might take years to get to this artificial intelligence virtual cell, which I have to agree, everyone in biology would say that's the holy grail. And as you remember at our conference in London, Demi Hassabis said that's what we'd like to do now. So it has the attention of leaders in AI around the world, obviously in the science and the biomedical community like you and many others. So it is an extraordinary time where we just can't sit still with these tools that we have, right?Anna Greka (21:15):Absolutely. And I think this is going to be, you mentioned the ASCI presidency in the beginning of our call. This is going to be the president gets to give an address at the annual meeting in Chicago. This is going to be one of the points I make, no matter what field in biomedicine we're in, we live in, I believe, a golden era and we have so many tools available to us that we can really accelerate our ability to help more patients. And of course, this is our mandate, the most important stakeholders for everything that we do as physician-scientists are our patients ultimately. So I feel very hopeful for the future and our ability to use these tools and to really make good on the promise of research is a public good. And I really hope that we can advance our knowledge for the benefit of all. And this is really an exciting time, I think, to be in this field and hopefully for the younger colleagues a time to really get excited about getting in there and getting involved and asking the big questions.Career ReflectionsEric Topol (22:21):Well, you are the prototype for this and an inspiration to everyone really, I'm sure to your lab group, which you highlighted in the TED Talk and many other things that you do. Now I want to spend a little bit of time about your career. I think it's fascinating that you grew up in Greece and your father's a nephrologist and your mother's a pathologist. So you had two physicians to model, but I guess you decided to go after nephrology, which is an area in medicine that I kind of liken it to Rodney Dangerfield, he doesn't get any respect. You don't see many people that go into nephrology. But before we get to your decision to do that somehow or other you came from Greece to Harvard for your undergrad. How did you make that connect to start your college education? And then subsequently you of course you stayed in Boston, you've never left Boston, I think.Anna Greka (23:24):I never left. Yeah, this is coming into 31 years now in Boston.Anna Greka (23:29):Yeah, I started as a Harvard undergraduate and I'm now a full professor. It's kind of a long, but wonderful road. Well, actually I would credit my parents. You mentioned that my father, they're both physician-scientists. My father is now both retired, but my father is a nephrologist, and my mother is a pathologist, actually, they were both academics. And so, when we were very young, we lived in England when my parents were doing postdoctoral work. That was actually a wonderful gift that they gave me because I became bilingual. It was a very young age, and so that allowed me to have this advantage of being fluent in English. And then when we moved back to Greece where I grew up, I went to an American school. And from that time, this is actually an interesting story in itself. I'm very proud of this school.Anna Greka (24:22):It's called Anatolia, and it was founded by American missionaries from Williams College a long time ago, 150 and more years ago. But it is in Thessaloniki, Greece, which is my hometown, and it's a wonderful institution, which gave me a lot of gifts as well, preparing me for coming to college in the United States. And of course, I was a good student in high school, but what really was catalytic was that I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to go to Harvard. And that was really, you could say the catalyst that propelled me from a teenager who was dreaming about a career as a physician-scientist because I certainly was for as far back as I remember in fact. But then to make that a reality, I found myself on the Harvard campus initially for college, and then I was in the combined Harvard-MIT program for my MD PhD. And then I trained in Boston at Mass General in Brigham, and then sort of started my academic career. And that sort of brings us to today, but it is an unlikely story and one that I feel still very lucky and blessed to have had these opportunities. So for sure, it's been wonderful.Eric Topol (25:35):We're the ones lucky that you came here and set up shop and you did your productivity and discovery work and sleuthing has been incredible. But I do think it's interesting too, because when you did your PhD, it was in neuroscience.Anna Greka (25:52):Ah, yes. That's another.Eric Topol (25:54):And then you switch gears. So tell us about that?Anna Greka (25:57):This is interesting, and actually I encourage more colleagues to think about it this way. So I have always been driven by the science, and I think that it seems a little backward to some people, but I did my PhD in neuroscience because I was interested in understanding something about these ion channels that were newly discovered at the time, and they were most highly expressed in the brain. So here I was doing work in the brain in the neuroscience program at Harvard, but then once I completed my PhD and I was in the middle of my residency training actually at Mass General, I distinctly remember that there was a paper that came out that implicated the same family of ion channels that I had spent my time understanding in the brain. It turned out to be a channelopathy that causes kidney disease.Anna Greka (26:43):So that was the light bulb, and it made me realize that maybe what I really wanted to do is just follow this thread. And my scientific curiosity basically led me into studying the kidney and then it seemed practical therefore to get done with my clinical training as efficiently as possible. So I finished residency, I did nephrology training, and then there I was in the lab trying to understand the biology around this channelopathy. And that sort of led us into the early projects in my young lab. And in fact, it's interesting we didn't talk about that work, but that work in itself actually has made it all the way to phase II trials in patients. This was a paper we published in Science in 2017 and follow onto that work, there was an opportunity to build this into a real drug targeting one of these ion channels that has made it into phase II trials. And we'll see what happens next. But it's this idea of following your scientific curiosity, which I also talked about in my TED Talk, because you don't know to what wonderful places it will lead you. And quite interestingly now my lab is back into studying familial Alzheimer's and retinitis pigmentosa in the eye in brain. So I tell people, do not limit yourself to whatever someone says your field is or should be. Just follow your scientific curiosity and usually that takes you to a lot more interesting places. And so, that's certainly been a theme from my career, I would say.Eric Topol (28:14):No, I think that's perfect. Curiosity driven science is not the term. You often hear hypothesis driven or now with AI you hear more AI exploratory science. But no, that's great. Now I want to get a little back to the AI story because it's so fascinating. You use lots of different types of AI such as cellular imaging would be fusion models and drug discovery. I mean, you've had drug discovery for different pathways. You mentioned of course the ion channel and then also as we touched on with your Cell paper, the whole idea of targeting the cargo receptor with a small molecule and then things in between. You discussed this of course at the London panel, but maybe you just give us the skinny on the different ways that you incorporate AI in the state-of-the-art science that you're doing?Anna Greka (29:17):Sure, yeah, thank you. I think there are many ways in which even for quite a long time before AI became such a well-known kind of household term, if you will, the concept of machine learning in terms of image processing is something that has been around for some time. And so, this is actually a form of AI that we use in order to process millions of images. My lab has by produced probably more than 20 million images over the last few years, maybe five to six years. And so, if you can imagine it's impossible for any human to process this many images and make sense of them. So of course, we've been using machine learning that is becoming increasingly more and more sophisticated and advanced in terms of being able to do analysis of images, which is a lot of what we cell biologists do, of course.Anna Greka (30:06):And so, there's multiple different kinds of perturbations that we do to cells, whether we're using CRISPR or base editing to make, for example, genome wide or genome scale perturbations or small molecules as we have done as well in the past. These are all ways in which we are then using machine learning to read out the effects in images of cells that we're looking at. So that's one way in which machine learning is used in our daily work, of course, because we study misshape and mangled proteins and how they are recognized by these cargo receptors. We also use AlphaFold pretty much every day in my lab. And this has been catalytic for us as a tool because we really are able to accelerate our discoveries in ways that were even just three or four years ago, completely impossible. So it's been incredible to see how the young people in my lab are just so excited to use these tools and they're becoming extremely savvy in using these tools.Anna Greka (31:06):Of course, this is a new generation of scientists, and so we use AlphaFold all the time. And this also has a lot of implications of course for some of the interventions that we might think about. So where in this cargo receptor complex that we study for example, might we be able to fit a drug that would disrupt the complex and lead the cargo tracks into the lysosome for degradation, for example. So there's many ways in which AI can be used for all of these functions. So I would say that if we were to organize our thinking around it, one way to think about the use of machine learning AI is around what I would call understanding biology in cells and what in sort of more kind of drug discovery terms you would call target identification, trying to understand the things that we might want to intervene on in order to have a benefit for disease.Anna Greka (31:59):So target ID is one area in which I think machine learning and AI will have a catalytic effect as they already are. The other of course, is in the actual development of the appropriate drugs in a rational way. So rational drug design is incredibly enabled by AlphaFold and all these advances in terms of understanding protein structures and how to fit drugs into them of all different modalities and kinds. And I think an area that we are not yet harnessing in my group, but I think the Ladders to Cures Accelerator hopes to build on is really patient data. I think that there's a lot of opportunity for AI to be used to make sense of medical records for example and how we extract information that would tell us that this cohort of patients is a better cohort to enroll in your trial versus another. There are many ways in which we can make use of these tools. Not all of them are there yet, but I think it's an exciting time for being involved in this kind of work.Eric Topol (32:58):Oh, no question. Now it must be tough when you know the mechanism of these families disease and you even have a drug candidate, but that it takes so long to go from that to helping these families. And what are your thoughts about that, I mean, are you thinking also about genome editing for some of these diseases or are you thinking to go through the route of here's a small molecule, here's the tox data in animal models and here's phase I and on and on. Where do you think because when you know so much and then these people are suffering, how do you bridge that gap?Anna Greka (33:39):Yeah, I think that's an excellent question. Of course, having patients as our partners in our research is incredible as a way for us to understand the disease, to build biomarkers, but it is also exactly creating this kind of emotional conflict, if you will, because of course, to me, honesty is the best policy, if you will. And so, I'm always very honest with patients and their families. I welcome them to the lab so they can see just how long it takes to get some of these things done. Even today with all the tools that we have, of course there are certain things that are still quite slow to do. And even if you have a perfect drug that looks like it fits into the right pocket, there may still be some toxicity, there may be other setbacks. And so, I try to be very honest with patients about the road that we're on. The small molecule path for the toxic proteinopathies is on its way now.Anna Greka (34:34):It's partnered with a pharmaceutical company, so it's on its way hopefully to patients. Of course, again, this is an unpredictable road. Things can happen as you very well know, but I'm at least glad that it's sort of making its way there. But to your point, and I'm in an institute where CRISPR was discovered, and base editing and prime editing were discovered by my colleagues here. So we are in fact looking at every other modality that could help with these diseases. We have several hurdles to overcome because in contrast to the liver and the brain, the kidney for example, is not an organ in which you can easily deliver nucleic acid therapies, but we're making progress. I have a whole subgroup within the bigger group who's focusing on this. It's actually organized in a way where they're running kind of independently from the cell biology group that I run.Anna Greka (35:31):And it's headed by a person who came from industry so that she has the opportunity to really drive the project the way that it would be run milestone driven, if you will, in a way that it would be run as a therapeutics program. And we're really trying to go after all kinds of different nucleic acid therapies that would target the mutations themselves rather than the cargo receptors. And so, there's ASO and siRNA technologies and then also actual gene editing technologies that we are investigating. But I would say that some of them are closer than others. And again, to your question about patients, I tell them honestly when a project looks to be more promising, and I also tell them when a project looks to have hurdles and that it will take long and that sometimes I just don't know how long it will take before we can get there. The only thing that I can promise patients in any of our projects, whether it's Alzheimer's, blindness, kidney disease, all I can promise is that we're working the hardest we possibly can on the problem.Anna Greka (36:34):And I think that is often reassuring I have found to patients, and it's best to be honest about the fact that these things take a long time, but I do think that they find it reassuring that someone is on it essentially, and that there will be some progress as we move forward. And we've made progress in the very first discovery that came out of my lab. As I mentioned to you, we've made it all the way to phase II trials. So I have seen the trajectory be realized, and I'm eager to make it happen again and again as many times as I can within my career to help as many people as possible.The Paucity of Physician-ScientistsEric Topol (37:13):I have no doubts that you'll be doing this many times in your career. No, there's no question about it. It's extraordinary actually. There's a couple of things there I want to pick up on. Physician-scientists, as you know, are a rarefied species. And you have actually so nicely told the story about when you have a physician-scientist, you're caring for the patients that you're researching, which is, most of the time we have scientists. Nothing wrong with them of course, but you have this hinge point, which is really important because you're really hearing the stories and experiencing the patients and as you say, communicating about the likelihood of being able to come up with a treatment or the progress. What are we going to do to get more physician-scientists? Because this is a huge problem, it has been for decades, but the numbers just keep going lower and lower.Anna Greka (38:15):I think you're absolutely right. And this is again, something that in my leadership of the ASCI I have made sort of a cornerstone of our efforts. I think that it has been well-documented as a problem. I think that the pressures of modern clinical care are really antithetical to the needs of research, protected time to really be able to think and be creative and even have the funding available to be able to pursue one's program. I think those pressures are becoming so heavy for investigators that many of them kind of choose one or the other route most often the clinical route because that tends to be, of course where they can support their families better. And so, this has been kind of the conundrum in some ways that we take our best and brightest medical students who are interested in investigation, we train them and invest in them in becoming physician-scientists, but then we sort of drop them at the most vulnerable time, which is usually after one completes their clinical and scientific training.Anna Greka (39:24):And they're embarking on early phases of one's careers. It has been found to be a very vulnerable point when a lot of people are now in their mid-thirties or even late thirties perhaps with some family to take care of other burdens of adulthood, if you will. And I think what it becomes very difficult to sustain a career where one salary is very limited due to the research component. And so, I think we have to invest in our youngest people, and it is a real issue that there's no good mechanism to do that at the present time. So I was actually really hoping that there would be an opportunity with leadership at the NIH to really think about this. It's also been discussed at the level of the National Academy of Medicine where I had some role in discussing the recent report that they put out on the biomedical enterprise in the United States. And it's kind of interesting to see that there is a note made there about this issue and the fact that there needs to be, I think, more generous investment in the careers of a few select physician-scientists that we can support. So if you look at the numbers, currently out of the entire physician workforce, a physician-scientist comprised of less than 1%.Anna Greka (40:45):It's probably closer to 0.8% at this point.Eric Topol (40:46):No, it's incredible.Anna Greka (40:48):So that's really not enough, I think, to maintain the enterprise and if you will, this incredible innovation economy that the United States has had this miracle engine, if you will, in biomedicine that has been fueled in large part by physician investigators. Of course, our colleagues who are non-physician investigators are equally important partners in this journey. But we do need a few of the physician-scientists investigators I think as well, if you really think about the fact that I think 70% of people who run R&D programs in all the big pharmaceutical companies are physician-scientists. And so, we need people like us to be able to work on these big problems. And so, more investment, I think that the government, the NIH has a role to play there of course. And this is important from both an economic perspective, a competition perspective with other nations around the world who are actually heavily investing in the physician-scientist workforce.Anna Greka (41:51):And I think it's also important to do so through our smaller scale efforts at the ASCI. So one of the things that I have been involved in as a council member and now as president is the creation of an awards program for those early career investigators. So we call them the Emerging-Generation Awards, and we also have the Young Physician-Scientist Awards. And these are really to recognize people who are making that transition from being kind of a trainee and a postdoc and have finished their clinical training into becoming an independent assistant professor. And so, those are small awards, but they're kind of a symbolic tap on the shoulder, if you will, that the ASCI sees you, you're talented, stay the course. We want you to become a future member. Don't give up and please keep on fighting. I think that can take us only so far.Anna Greka (42:45):I mean, unless there's a real investment, of course still it will be hard to maintain people in the pipeline. But this is just one way in which we have tried to, these programs that the ASCI offers have been very successful over the last few years. We create a cohort of investigators who are clearly recognized by members of the ASCI is being promising young colleagues. And we give them longitudinal training as part of a cohort where they learn about how to write a grant, how to write a paper, leadership skills, how to run a lab. And they're sort of like a buddy system as well. So they know that they're in it together rather than feeling isolated and struggling to get their careers going. And so, we've seen a lot of success. One way that we measure that is conversion into an ASCI membership. And so, we're encouraged by that, and we hope that the program can continue. And of course, as president, I'm going to be fundraising for that as well, it's part of the role. But it is a really worthy cause because to your point, we have to somehow make sure that our younger colleagues stay the course that we can at least maintain, if not bolster our numbers within the scientific workforce.Eric Topol (43:57):Well, you outlined some really nice strategies and plans. It's a formidable challenge, of course. And we'd like to see billions of dollars to support this. And maybe someday we will because as you say, if we could relieve the financial concerns of people who have curiosity driven ideas.Anna Greka (44:18):Exactly.Eric Topol (44:19):We could do a lot to replenish and build a big physician-scientist workforce. Now, the last thing I want to get to, is you have great communication skills. Obviously, anybody who is listening or watching this.Eric Topol (44:36):Which is another really important part of being a scientist, no less a physician or the hybrid of the two. But I wanted to just go to the backstory because your TED Talk, which has been watched by hundreds of thousands of people, and I'm sure there's hundreds of thousands more that will watch it, but the TED organization is famous for making people come to the place a week ahead. This is Vancouver used to be in LA or Los Angeles area and making them rehearse the talk, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, which seems crazy. You could train the people there, how to give a talk. Did you have to go through that?Anna Greka (45:21):Not really. I did rehearse once on stage before I actually delivered the talk live. And I was very encouraged by the fact that the TED folks who are of course very well calibrated, said just like that. It's great, just like that.Eric Topol (45:37):That says a lot because a lot of people that do these talks, they have to do it 10 times. So that kind of was another metric. But what I don't like about that is it just because these people almost have to memorize their talks from giving it so much and all this coaching, it comes across kind of stilted and unnatural, and you're just a natural great communicator added to all your other things.Anna Greka (46:03):I think it's interesting. Actually, I would say, if I may, that I credit, of course, I actually think that it's important, for us physician-scientists, again, science and research is a public good, and being able to communicate to the public what it is that we do, I think is kind of an obligation for the fact that we are funded by the public to do this kind of work. And so, I think that's important. And I always wanted to cultivate those communication skills for the benefit of communicating simply and clearly what it is that we do in our labs. But also, I would say as part of my story, I mentioned that I had the opportunity to attend a special school growing up in Greece, Anatolia, which was an American school. One of the interesting things about that is that there was an oratory competition.Anna Greka (46:50):I got very early exposure entering that competition. And if you won the first prize, it was in the kind of ancient Rome way, first among equals, right? And so, that was the prize. And I was lucky to have this early exposure. This is when I was 14, 15, 16 years old, that I was training to give these oratory speeches in front of an audience and sort of compete with other kids who were doing the same. I think these are just wonderful gifts that a school can give a student that have stayed with me for life. And I think that that's a wonderful, yeah, I credit that experience for a lot of my subsequent capabilities in this area.Eric Topol (47:40):Oh, that's fantastic. Well, this has been such an enjoyable conversation, Anna. Did I miss anything that we need to bring up, or do you think we have it covered?Anna Greka (47:50):Not at all. No, this was wonderful, and I thoroughly enjoyed it as well. I'm very honored seeing how many other incredible colleagues you've had on the show. It's just a great honor to be a part of this. So thank you for having me.Eric Topol (48:05):Well, you really are such a great inspiration to all of us in the biomedical community, and we'll be cheering for your continued success and thanks so much for joining today, and I look forward to the next time we get a chance to visit.Anna Greka (48:20):Absolutely. Thank you, Eric.**************************************Thanks for listening, watching or reading Ground Truths. Your subscription is greatly appreciated.If you found this podcast interesting please share it!That makes the work involved in putting these together especially worthwhile.All content on Ground Truths—newsletters, analyses, and podcasts—is free, open-access.Paid subscriptions are voluntary and all proceeds from them go to support Scripps Research. They do allow for posting comments and questions, which I do my best to respond to. Many thanks to those who have contributed—they have greatly helped fund our summer internship programs for the past two years. And such support is becoming more vital In light of current changes of funding and support for biomedical research at NIH and other US governmental agencies.Thanks to my producer Jessica Nguyen and to Sinjun Balabanoff for audio and video support at Scripps Research. Get full access to Ground Truths at erictopol.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to my latest Mix " Progressive Planet 37 " Mixed in the Progressive House - Melodic Techno - Deep Tech House - Deep Electronic Genres!! - The Full 20 Track List is below. This Mix is 1hr 34Mins. * Please note: All tracks in this Mix are from Promos I receive from Record Labels and artists from across the globe! If you wish to have your track removed from this Mix, please message me and I will remove your track from this Mix!* B

In the wake of the Bronze Age Collapse, a new power emerged in central Anatolia—the Phrygians. This episode examines their origins, tracing their migration from the Balkans and their settlement in the lands west of the former Hittite heartland. Drawing from archaeology and historical sources, we explore how the Phrygians established themselves as skilled wool workers, metalworkers, and cavalrymen, ultimately rising to prominence under the legendary King Midas.Despite their influence, the Phrygians remain an understudied civilization, often viewed through the perspectives of their more well-documented neighbors—Assyrians, Greeks, and Neo-Hittites. We investigate the cultural and economic structures that defined Phrygia, the debates surrounding their script and language, their religious devotion to Kybele, and their role as a possible bridge between the eastern and western Mediterranean worlds. Finally, we trace their decline, from the height of their power to their downfall at the hands of the Cimmerians in 696 BCE.Key topics include Phrygian origins, Balkan migrations, Iron Age Anatolia, the Neo-Hittite states, early cavalry warfare, the Phrygian alphabet, Tumuli burial practices, Kybele worship, and the role of Phrygia in regional trade networks.I am also doing daily history facts again, at least until I run out of time again. You can find Oldest Stories on Reels, Tiktok, and Youtube.If you like the show, consider sharing with your friends, leaving a like, subscribing, or even supporting financially:Buy the Oldest Stories books: https://a.co/d/7Wn4jhSDonate here: https://oldeststories.net/or on patreon: https://patreon.com/JamesBleckleyor on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCG2tPxnHNNvMd0VrInekaA/joinYoutube and Patreon members get access to bonus content about Egyptian culture and myths.

Join us as we talk to Dr Aaron Judkins about his and Dr Judd Burton's new book "Decoding Gobekli Tepe: Biblical Anatolia and the Watchers". (Dr. Judd was unable to join due to some technical issues.) Dr. Judkins takes us down some rabbit trails with new evidence and theories that may just bring to light the truth behind this ancient site!

With the exile of Syria's Bashar Al-Assad recently, much interest has been focused on the sect of Islam of which he was a member. However, there are some who claim that the denomination known as Alawite is not Islam at all, but a heretical break-off sect. To understand this somewhat intricate situation we speak with Dr. Stefan Winter who has studied religion in Syria and Turkey for decades. Stefan Winter is a Canadian historian specializing in the study of Ottoman Syria. He teaches at the Université du Québec à Montréal and has been visiting professor at Koç University in Istanbul. His research concentrates on Shi‘i, Bedouin and Kurdish principalities in northern Syria and southern Anatolia and has been published by Cambridge University Press, Princeton University Press and in a number of academic journals. His work won the Syrian Studies Association's prize for best dissertation in 2002 and the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association's Fuat Köprülü Award in 2017.

THIS WEEK! We are joined for a fourth time with Daniel Maynard from The Eastern Roman Empire Youtube Channel. And we talk about the forgotten empire known as Trebizond. During the fourth crusade when the Latin Empire took over Constantinople several sucsessor states carved up "mini empires", in Anatolia. Such as "Nice", The Latin Empire, And of course "Trebizond. But what made Trebizond such a sucsesull "empire"? And how did it handle the external threats thrown it`s way? Find out this week on "Well That Aged Well", with "Erlend Hedegrt"You can find a link to Daniels Youtube Channel here:Eastern Roman History - YouTubeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/well-that-aged-well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back Wine friends, today we explore Turkish wines! Turkey is one of the world's oldest wine regions, yet its incredible diversity remains largely undiscovered. With over 1,400 indigenous grape varieties and 8,000 years of winemaking history, this episode dives into Turkey's deep-rooted wine culture. Join us as we explore the fascinating story of Turkish wine, inspired by the book Turkish Wine: A Heritage Reborn. We're joined by Sila, daughter of winemaker Olus from Vinolus Winery, and wine writer Bronwen Batey, who helped bring this story to an English-speaking audience. Today we very much spotlight two must-try Turkish white grapes: Narince and Emir, the Cappadocia region and it's terroir and why it's a must visit region to add to your list.   I'm proud to be working with Drinklusive—the drink industry's first-ever inclusivity mentorship program founded by Aidy Smith, and The Three Drinkers, and supported by Jancis Robinson, the Gérard Basset Foundation, and WSET. It's all about giving underrepresented voices a platform in the drinks world. If you're in the UK, applications are open now - CLICK HERE!   If you want to skip ahead:   03.34: Sila shares her background as the daughter of Olus, Vinolus Winery's founder in              Cappadocia and her journey to lead the winery's second generation 04.41: Bronwen discusses her WSET diploma, her role in translating a book on Turkish                  wine, and the diverse range of contributors involved 08.01: The Story of Vinolus Winery 11.00: Overcoming Challenges as a Female Winemaker 12.29: Organic Winemaking & Sustainability: Vinolus Winery's holistic approach to winemaking              embraces eco-diversity and sustainability 13.07: The Deep History of Turkish Winemaking 16.00: Wine Production in the Ottoman Empire 18.30: Tasting Turkish Wines – Narince known for its versatility and mineral-driven flavors, is a             standout variety produced at Vinolus £18.10 Vino Turco 23.18: The growth of Narince in Cappadocia, and different style of Narince 27.51: The Meaning of Narince, reflecting the wine's approachable complexity 28.05: Narince's Flavor Profile 29.22: Emir - a fuller-bodied white wine made from 40-year-old bush vines in Cappadocia 30.11: Turkey's most renowned indigenous white grape 33.02: Discussing Cappadocia's Terroir-how the high altitude and volcanic soil contribute to its             wines' mineral-driven character. 34.01: Turkish Wine Regions: Turkey's key wine regions, with Thrace as the largest, followed by             Anatolia, where Cappadocia is located. 37.30: Turkey's Microclimates: Bronwen highlights how Turkey's diverse             microclimates allow for the production of a wide variety of grape types and wine styles,             making it an exciting region for discovery. 39.08: Cappadocia's Wine Culture - Cappadocia's famous “Fairy Chimneys” and ancient             underground cities, once used for wine storage. 41.02: Wine Aging in Cappadocia - how Cappadocia's underground caves provide ideal aging              conditions for wine, thanks to their stable temperature and humidity.   To read more about the book you can go to their instagram page HERE   To purchase the book Turkish Wine: A Heritage reborn- go to AMAZON   Or you can purchase via the publisher in Austria HERE Any thoughts or questions, do email me: janina@eatsleepwinerepeat.co.uk Or contact me on Instagram @eatsleep_winerepeat If you fancy watching some videos on my youtube channel: Eat Sleep Wine Repeat Or come say hi at www.eatsleepwinerepeat.co.uk Until next time, Cheers to you!   ---------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- THE EAT SLEEP WINE REPEAT PODCAST HAS BEEN FEATURED IN DECANTER MAGAZINE, RADIO TIMES AND FEED SPOT AS THE 6TH BEST UK WINE MAKING PODCAST.

Maria Callas is Mother. Jason sucks.SUPPORT THE SHOW: PATREONFOLLOW THE SHOW: INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // TIKTOK // YOUTUBEEMAIL THE SHOW: abreathoffreshmovie@gmail.com  SHOP THE SHOW: TEE PUBLIC 

Anatolia (o Asia Menor) es una península emplazada en el Próximo Oriente, en la zona ocupada actualmente por la parte asiática de Turquía. Históricamente, Anatolia es una región que ha visto el paso de diversas civilizaciones (Troya, el Imperio Hitita, el Imperio bizantino, el Imperio otomano, griegos, turcos, etc.). Este documental hace un repaso de la historia de este pueblo a través de los restos arqueológicos encontrados.

Playlist: Gnonnas Pédro - Yiri Yiri BoumAl-Qasar - Enyio NkondonSeun Kuti & Egypt 80 - MoveAmadou & Mariam, featuring M. - MasiteladiManu Chao - Tantas TierrasTotal Gadjos - Wine Virgin & VodaGeoffrey Miller - It's Not The Fallin'Wayne Patrick Garrett - Something About UsAdrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad - Moreno - The Midnight HourVarious, featuring Kazakh Central Committee Folk Ensemble, Akhmet Zhubanov - Karasay/Kalinchek (From Aiman-Sholpan)Various, featuring Babarakhim Mirzayev, Abdulakadyr Ismailov, K. Shabaratov, K. Aliev - Mubarak (Festival)Amir Amiri Ensemble - Roohal Arvah (Spirit of Our Love)Dharma Down - A Murder of CheerleadersNovalima - AmanecerMomo Ryuk, Othman Wahabi, Cafe de Anatolia, The Wild Child - Livity (The Wild Child's Mysterious Interpretation)Dennis Mpale - Paying My BillsFrantz Casseus, Marc Ribot - SimbiSix Dead Bulgarians - LuminaireTrendafilka - Oi Na Ivana Na KupalaTamar Ilana, Ventanas - Ke na m'agapas!Strat Andriotis - While We WaitFabiano do Nascimento - Train to Imagination (Live)Celia Cruz - Tu Voz

With Molon dealt with, Antiochus III now turns his attention towards Lesser Media and the east. Hermias, the scheming minister, is fine with this decision given that there's an heir been born and the possibility of a regency should anything happen to the king. However, Antiochus has his own ideas- as does prince Achaeus over in Anatolia... Sources for this episode: Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Vol. I). London: Edward Arthur. Cook, J. M. (1999), The Persians. London: The Folio Society. Gershon, L., Smithsonian Magazine (2020), Grandson of President John Tyler, Who Left Office in 1845, Dies at Age 95 (online) (Accessed 24/06/2024). Polybius (1979), Polybius the Histories, in Six Volumes (Volume III). Translated by W. R. Paton. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann, Ltd. Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Artabazanes (online) (Accessed 24/06/2024). Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Darius III (online) (Accessed 24/06/2024). Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Harrison Ruffin Tyler (online) (Accessed 24/06/2024).

Au cœur de la nuit, les auditeurs se livrent en toute liberté aux oreilles attentives et bienveillantes de Valérie Darmon. Pas de jugements ni de tabous, une conversation franche, mais aussi des réponses aux questions que les auditeurs se posent. Un moment d'échange et de partage propice à la confidence pour repartir le cœur plus léger.

GÖBEKLI TEPE has been called the oldest temple in the world. Who—or what—was worshipped there? Dr. Aaron Judkins and Dr. Judd Burton, authors of the new book Decoding Gobekli Tepe: Biblical Anatolia and the Watchers (https://amzn.to/3WpE3xu), join us to explore the significance of the ancient site. They discuss the archaeological evidence that supports biblical narratives, the spiritual connections to ancient Anatolia (modern Türkiye), and the cultural implications of the site's findings. We delve into the role of the Watchers, the worship of the moon-god, and the anthropomorphic representations found at Göbekli Tepe, ultimately connecting these themes to the veneration of ancestors and the Rephaim. Aaron and Judd also discuss cultural engineering by the Watchers and their astonishing discovery of a connection between iconography at Göbekli Tepe and the Luwians, a Bronze Age people who lived in what is now southern Türkiye—thousands of years after Gobekli Tepe was built.

US and Israel discuss Gaza amid Jenin abductions US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held his first call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under Trump's administration. They discussed Iran, Israeli captives in Palestine's Gaza, and reaffirmed US support for Israel. Rubio emphasised Washington's unwavering backing for its ally, calling it a top priority for Trump. Trump sends troops to border, halts refugee arrivals President Trump has deployed 1,500 additional troops to the US-Mexico border and has frozen refugee arrivals. Refugees cleared to enter the US are now in limbo, with travel and processing suspended. Trump's administration says the moves aim to “secure America's borders,” but critics argue they could destabilise humanitarian efforts. The orders signal the administration's firm stance on immigration from day one. Panama challenges Trump over canal threat Panama has taken its dispute with Trump to the UN, denouncing his veiled threat to seize the Panama Canal. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Guterres, Panama cited the UN Charter's ban on force against member states. The US president accused China of increasing influence over the waterway, sparking tensions. Wildfire forces mass evacuations near Los Angeles A new wildfire is raging north of Los Angeles, tearing over 9,000 acres near Castaic Lake. Fanned by fierce Santa Ana winds, the fire has forced the evacuation of 50,000 people as flames and smoke consume the hillsides. The region, still recovering from earlier wildfires, now faces another round of devastation. 2,200-year-old mosaic unearthed in Türkiye's Assos In Türkiye's ancient city of Assos, archaeologists have uncovered a stunning 2,200-year-old mosaic and an 1,800-year-old tomb. The mosaic, a rare Hellenistic treasure, features intricate geometric and floral designs and likely adorned a gymnasium later repurposed in Byzantine times. Head archaeologist Nurettin Arslan hailed the discovery as one of Anatolia's earliest examples of Hellenistic art.

GÖBEKLI TEPE has been called the oldest temple in the world. Who—or what—was worshipped there? Dr. Aaron Judkins and Dr. Judd Burton, authors of the new book Decoding Gobekli Tepe: Biblical Anatolia and the Watchers (https://amzn.to/3WpE3xu), join us to explore the significance of the ancient site. They discuss the archaeological evidence that supports biblical narratives, the spiritual connections to ancient Anatolia (modern Türkiye), and the cultural implications of the site's findings.  We delve into the role of the Watchers, the worship of the moon-god, and the anthropomorphic representations found at Göbekli Tepe, ultimately connecting these themes to the veneration of ancestors and the Rephaim. Aaron and Judd also discuss cultural engineering by the Watchers and their astonishing discovery of a connection between iconography at Göbekli Tepe and the Luwians, a Bronze Age people who lived in what is now southern Türkiye—thousands of years after Gobekli Tepe was built. Our new book The Gates of Hell is now available in paperback, Kindle, and as an audiobook at Audible! Derek's new book Destination: Earth, co-authored with Donna Howell and Allie Anderson, is now available in paperback, Kindle, and as an audiobook at Audible! Follow us! • X: @viewfrombunker | @sharonkgilbert | @derekgilbert• Telegram: t.me/gilberthouse• YouTube: @GilbertHouse | @UnravelingRevelation• Facebook.com/viewfromthebunker Sharon's novels Winds of Evil and The Armageddon Strain are available now in paperback, ebook (Kindle), and audiobook (Audible) formats! Get signed copies of the first two books of The Laodicea Chronicles now at GilbertHouse.org/store! Thank you for making our Build Barn Better project a reality! The building has HVAC, a new floor, windows, insulation, ceiling fans, and an upgraded electrical system! We truly appreciate your support. If you are so led, you can help out at www.GilbertHouse.org/donate. —— Download our free app! This brings all of our content directly to your smartphone or tablet. Best of all, we'll never get canceled from our own app! Links to the app stores for iOS, iPadOS, Android, and Amazon Kindle Fire devices are at www.GilbertHouse.org/app. Please join us each Sunday for the Gilbert House Fellowship, our weekly Bible study podcast. Log on to www.GilbertHouse.org for more details. Check out our weekly video program Unraveling Revelation (unravelingrevelation.tv), and subscribe to the YouTube channel: YouTube.com/UnravelingRevelation. —— Special offers on our books and DVDs: www.gilberthouse.org/store. —— NOTE NEW DATES FOR OUR NEXT TOUR OF ISRAEL: Due to the ongoing war, we've decided to postpone our next tour of Israel until October 19–30, 2025. For the latest information, log on to GilbertHouse.org/travel. Discuss these topics at the VFTB Facebook page (facebook.com/viewfromthebunker) and check out the great podcasters at the Fringe Radio Network (Spreaker.com/show/fringe-radio-network)!

GÖBEKLI TEPE has been called the oldest temple in the world. Who—or what—was worshipped there? Dr. Aaron Judkins and Dr. Judd Burton, authors of the new book Decoding Gobekli Tepe: Biblical Anatolia and the Watchers (https://amzn.to/3WpE3xu), join us to explore the significance of the ancient site. They discuss the archaeological evidence that supports biblical narratives, the spiritual connections to ancient Anatolia (modern Türkiye), and the cultural implications of the site's findings.  We delve into the role of the Watchers, the worship of the moon-god, and the anthropomorphic representations found at Göbekli Tepe, ultimately connecting these themes to the veneration of ancestors and the Rephaim. Aaron and Judd also discuss cultural engineering by the Watchers and their astonishing discovery of a connection between iconography at Göbekli Tepe and the Luwians, a Bronze Age people who lived in what is now southern Türkiye—thousands of years after Gobekli Tepe was built. 

Playlist: Thee Marloes - I KnowVaudou Game - KolikoAl-Qasar , featuring Mamani Keita & Cheick Tidiane Seck - PromisesVaudou Game - R​â​lerCombo Daguerre, featuring Meridian Brothers - La Poulie (Meridian Brothers Remix)Wayne Patrick Garrett - Mystic GrottoWyzaker - The Walkway ManBeny Esguerra & New Tradition Music, featuring Los Gaiteros de Ovejas - ReturnDumai Dunai - Parova MashynaAmir Amiri Ensemble - Sarzamineh Madaran (Towards My Motherland)Tamar Ilana & Ventanas, featuring Demetrios Petsalakis - Dance With The SunTHE PARAGONS - The Tide is HighJah'Mila - Déjà VuSeun Kuti & Egypt 80 - MoveMdou Moctar - Takoba - Injustice VersionMomo Ryuk, Othman Wahabi, Cafe de Anatolia, Habibi Jam - Bamana Prayer (Habibi Jam Remix)Parchman Prison Prayer - Parchman Prison BluesSugar Brown - Bottom of the MountainJoe Ely - Slave to the Western WindThe Surf Hermits - Road TripŞatellites - Yok YokPat Kalla, Le Super Mojo - Canette (Bosq Remix)Mello Joy Boys, Lost Bayou Ramblers - Mello Joy BoogieLost Bayou Ramblers - Freetown Crawl/Fightin' Ville Brawl

A new week means new questions! Hope you have fun with these!What type of liquor is used in a classic Tom Collins cocktail?Prohibition in America ended with the ratification of which Constitutional Amendment?The spread of market disturbances – mostly on the downside – from one country to the other is known as "Financial" what, a word used as the title of an unrelated 2011 Matt Damon film?Which two Oscar nominated actors played Tom Cooper in Christopher Nolan's 2014 film Interstellar?The peninsula known as Anatolia makes up the majority of the land area of which country?Which part of the body's immune system is also known as leukocytes?What language has also been known in English as "Cambrian", "Cambric", and "Cymric" (Cum-rik)?Dielli, Surya, and Utuliya are names in various world mythologies for what heavenly body?Sporting clays, skeet, and trap are all types of what recreational and competitive hobby?MusicHot Swing, Fast Talkin, Bass Walker, Dances and Dames, Ambush by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Don't forget to follow us on social media:Patreon – patreon.com/quizbang – Please consider supporting us on Patreon. Check out our fun extras for patrons and help us keep this podcast going. We appreciate any level of support!Website – quizbangpod.com Check out our website, it will have all the links for social media that you need and while you're there, why not go to the contact us page and submit a question!Facebook – @quizbangpodcast – we post episode links and silly lego pictures to go with our trivia questions. Enjoy the silly picture and give your best guess, we will respond to your answer the next day to give everyone a chance to guess.Instagram – Quiz Quiz Bang Bang (quizquizbangbang), we post silly lego pictures to go with our trivia questions. Enjoy the silly picture and give your best guess, we will respond to your answer the next day to give everyone a chance to guess.Twitter – @quizbangpod We want to start a fun community for our fellow trivia lovers. If you hear/think of a fun or challenging trivia question, post it to our twitter feed and we will repost it so everyone can take a stab it. Come for the trivia – stay for the trivia.Ko-Fi – ko-fi.com/quizbangpod – Keep that sweet caffeine running through our body with a Ko-Fi, power us through a late night of fact checking and editing!

Zozan Pehlivan on "The Political Ecology of Violence: Peasants and Pastoralists in the Last Ottoman Century" (Cambridge University Press). The book explores how extreme climate disruptions were a major factor behind tensions between Christian Armenian peasants and Muslim Kurdish pastoralists in eastern Anatolia in the 19th century. Become a member on Patreon or Substack to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

This time, presenting Tebra - organic house DJ-producer from Serbia, which has spent the last 20 years on music production and DJing career, honing a distinct and unforgettable signature sound with an extensive discography, including original releases and a wealth of solid remixes for notable labels like Go Deeva, Bar 25, Cafe de Anatolia, HMWL and Hurry Up Slowly. Milojko Jaric music, the name behind Tebra's project, has earned critical acclaim in the organic, afro house, and progressive house scenes and could best be described as the most honest expression of emotional sound exploration, gaining supports from famous names around the globe as Adriatique, Lee Burridge, Space Motion and many others... Tebra ongoing progress as a live performer is strongly intertwined to the authenticity of his creative process, which is dedicated to generating unexpected sounds that never fail to communicate, engage and move. Don't miss this special mix set made by Tebra featuring some of his hottests remixes, unreleased tracks and some moody ethnic songs! ⚡️Like the Show? Click the [Repost] ↻ button so more people can hear it!

In the last episode of this series, we covered the rise of the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great and its expansion into Anatolia and the eastern Aegean, including the predominantly Greek-speaking region of Ionia.  Though much of Ionia prospered under their new overlords, in 499 BC, the Ionians revolted with their help of their allies, including the city-states of Athens and Eritrea.  By 493 BC, what become known as the Ionian Revolt had been crushed, and order restored to the western fringes of the Persian Empire.  However, the empire's king, Darius I, vowed to punish Athens and Eretria for their involvement in the uprising. The Great King of Persia sent several of his most trusted commanders to subdue both city-states and any others who opposed him, resulting in the first major armed encounter in Europe between the Greeks and Persians on the plains of Marathon. Drawing on historical sources and the latest archaeological research, this series will explore everything from the causes of the conflict to its key figures, the various phases of leading up to this epic encounter and its aftermath.  Contents:00:00  Recap and Introduction01:45 The Northern Aegean Campaigns of Mardonius05:10 Looking to the West08:18 Athens and Eretria09:49 How many Men and Ships?14:30 Island Hopping Around the Aegean16:33 Euboea and Eretria 19:23 Onward to Athens22:21 Decisions27:07 War it is! 29:33 The Battle of Marathon35:44 Counting the Dead38:57 If not by Land, then by Sea!40:00 Aftermath of Marathon44:41 Thank You and PatronsSupport the show

Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: WINTER SLEEP (2014).Director: Nuri Bilge CeylanScreenplay: Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Ebru CeylanCast: Melisa Sözen; Ayberg Pekcan; Nejat IslerSYNOPSISAydin, a former actor, runs a small hotel in central Anatolia with his young wife Nihal with whom he has a stormy relationship and his sister Necla who is suffering from her recent divorce.Watch This On YouTubeSubscribe to our YouTube channelFollow us on LetterboxdFollow us on InstagramFollow us on XFollow us on FacebookFollow us on TikTokFollow us on LinkedInSubscribe to our YouTube channelSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/first-time-go/exclusive-content

The capture of Syria's major cities by rebel groups Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the Syrian National Army, fighting against the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, offers Turkey the opportunity to achieve its strategic goals in the country. The lightning offensive of Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, which has seen the rebels capture several major Syrian cities in less than two weeks, gives Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan leverage over his Syrian counterpart President Bashar al-Assad."Turkey can easily stop both [rebel] entities and start a process. Turkey does have this strength, and Assad is well aware of it," said Murat Aslan of the SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, a Turkish pro-government think tank. Until now, Assad has rejected Erdogan's overtures for dialogue to end the civil war peacefully. "The Turkish intention politically is not to escalate in Syria [but to] start a political, diplomatic engagement with the Assad regime, and come to the terms of a normal state, and that all Syrians safely return to their homes," Aslan noted.Syrian rebels surround Hama 'from three sides', monitor saysSyrian refugees an issueErdogan is seeking to return many of the estimated 4 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey, amid growing public unease over their presence in the country."According to the opinion polls here, yes, the Syrian refugees [are] an issue. For any government, it would be a wonderful win to see these Syrians going back to Syria of their own will," explained Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served in the region and is now a foreign policy analyst for Turkey's Medyascope news outlet.However, Moscow has a lot to lose in Syria, as a key military backer of Assad, who in turn has granted Russia use of a key Syrian naval base. "For Moscow, it's of crucial importance that the personality of Assad remains in power," said Zaur Gasimov, a professor of history and a Russia specialist at the University of Bonn.Syria rebel leader says goal is to overthrow AssadGasimov warns that Turkey could be facing another humanitarian crisis. "Russia would definitely use the military force of its aerospace forces, that can cause a huge number of casualties among civilians. Which means a new wave of migrants towards Turkish eastern Anatolia."With more than a million Syrian refugees camped just across the Turkish border in the rebel-controlled Syrian Idlib province, analysts warn a new exodus into Turkey is a red line for Ankara."If they refresh their attacks on the captured areas by indiscriminate targeting... well [we can] expect further escalations in the region," warned Aslan of the pro-government SETA think tank. "And for sure there is a line that Turkey will not remain as it is, and if there is a development directly threatening the interests or security of Turkey, then Turkey will intervene."Pushing back the YPGWith the Syrian rebel offensive also making territorial gains against the US-backed Kurdish militant group, the YPG, Ankara is poised to secure another strategic goal in Syria. Ankara accuses the YPG of having ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is fighting the Turkish state.France joins Germany, US and Britain in call for de-escalation in Syria"Without putting up a fight, and without getting directly involved, they [Ankara] have achieved one of their goals – for YPG to pull back from the Turkish frontier towards the south," explained Selcen. "I think Ankara now is closer to that goal."With Syrian rebel successes appearing to advance Ankara's goals in Syria, some analysts are urging caution, given the rebels' links to radical Islamist groups. "The crashing down of the Assad regime is not in the interest of Turkey, because there will be chaos," warned international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, of Ankara's Middle East Technical University."Who is going to rule? What type of [governing] structure are we going to have?" he asked. "They are radicals, and another Daesh-style territory would not be in the interest of Turkey – in Turkish prisons, there are thousands of Daesh people."

Vagabundeamos entre músicas de nuevos discos que llegan a nuestros manos y oídos, celebrando danzas y rituales nuevos y ancestrales. Resuena la música desde Quebec, Northumbria, Inglaterra, Gales, Letonia, Lituania, Anatolia, Creta, Japón, Asia Central, Bélgica, Persia y otros orientes. We wander among the music of new albums that reach our hands and ears, celebrating new and ancient dances and rituals. The music resonates from Quebec, Northumbria, England, Wales, Latvia, Lithuania, Anatolia, Crete, Japan, Central Asia, Belgium, Persia, and other Eastern lands. - De Temps Antan - Alexis rachouidine - J'ai mal à mon folklore - Kathryn Tickell - Greystead hornpipe / Remember me - Return to Kielderside - The Trials of Cato - Gog magog - Gog magog - Sutaras - Kalėdų atvirukas nr. 6, sėdzi vyrai užu stalo - Prakalbinti atvirukai - Laimas Muzykanti - Dzaltoneite - Turu buru! - Ogas - Saules meita - Ok, laime! - Elektro Hafız - Başkentli [+ Grup Ses, Gökalp K] - Style is prison - Xanthoula Dakovanou - Rizituals sousta - Rizituals - Kengo Saito / Japanistan Trio - Fuyu no hikari (Reflet de neige) - Douce errance - Soolmaan - Nour - Kashgul - (Kengo Saito / Japanistan Trio - Beshnaw az nay - Douce errance)

All about the energies and magic of December plus a few December holidays to highlight. Correspondences: Crystals: turquoise, onyx, bloodstone, blue topaz  Animals: elk, horse, stag, reindeer  Flowers: Narcissis  Deities: Jupiter, Artemis, Rhiannon, Thor The sun is in Sagittarius until December 22. Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign. Moon Phases December 1: new moon in Sagittarius December 8: second quarter moon in Pisces December 15: full moon in Gemini December 22: fourth quarter moon in Libra December 30: new moon in Capricorn December Ancient Holidays: Saturnalia (December 17-23) - a major Roman festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture and time. Brumalia (December 24 - December 25) - a Roman festival celebrating the winter solstice, overlapping with Saturnalia. The festival honored Bacchus, the god of wine and revelry, and involved feasting and drinking. It was a celebration of the lengthening days and the return of the sun. Sol Invictus (December 25) - Sol Invictus, or the "Unconquered Sun," was a festival dedicated to the sun god Sol. Celebrated on December 25th, this festival marked the rebirth of the sun as the days began to lengthen. It was a significant holiday in the Roman Empire and is thought to have influenced the choice of December 25th for Christmas. Kalikai (December 15 - January 15) - Kalikai was an ancient festival celebrated in the Middle East, including parts of Mesopotamia and Anatolia. The festival was associated with the rebirth of the sun and the end of the darkest period of the year. It involved celebrations, feasting, and offerings to gods and deities associated with the sun and fertility. Feast of the Nativity of Mithras (December 25) - Mithras was a deity from the Persian tradition who was adopted into Roman religion. His birthday was celebrated on December 25. The festival of Mithras celebrated the birth of the god of light and truth. It was part of a broader Mithraic tradition that was influential in the Roman Empire and shared themes with other December festivals. Wild Hunt (December) - In Norse mythology, the Wild Hunt was associated with the Yule season and was believed to be a ghostly procession led by a god or spirit. December Modern Holidays: Yule (December 21) - Yule, or the Winter Solstice, marks the shortest day and longest night of the year. It is a celebration of the rebirth of the sun and the gradual return of longer daylight hours. Dongzhi Festival (December 21 or 22) - The Dongzhi Festival, or Winter Solstice Festival, is celebrated in China and other East Asian countries. Christmas (December 25) - Christmas is one of the most widely celebrated holidays worldwide, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. It is observed by Christians and also celebrated by many non-Christians. Hanukkah (Dates Vary) - December 25 - Jan 2 this year - Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday that typically falls in December, though its exact dates vary each year according to the Hebrew calendar. Kwanzaa (December 26 - January 1) - Kwanzaa is a week-long celebration of African-American culture and heritage, founded in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga. Omisoka (December 31) - the Japanese New Year's Eve celebration, marking the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one.  New Year's Eve (December 31) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/witch-wednesdays/support

At what point did the concept of civilization and civilizations emerge? In what ways  do we know that societies were mingling and exchanging ideas and objects with each other? How were the Crusades responsible for our culture's current sugar obsession?Josephine Quinn is a Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford, and the author of several books, including her latest work How the World Made the West: A 4,000 Year History and also In Search of the Phoenicians.Greg and Josephine discuss the challenges and insights from piecing together 4,000 years of global history, and digging into the concept of 'civilizational thinking' and its origins. Josephine explains how civilizations intertwine through war, trade, and cultural exchange, and also highlights how modern perspectives shape our understanding of past human interactions. They also discuss the subject of another of Josephine's books and unpack the significant yet often misunderstood impact of Phoenicians and other early civilizations on today's world.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Show Links:Recommended Resources:PhoeniciaAge of DiscoveryCrusadesLevantHerodotusOttoman EmpireMinoan civilizationArthur EvansKnossosHeinrich SchliemannBarlaam and JosaphatAbbasid CaliphateThe Invention of TraditionZoroastrianismFernand BraudelGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at the University of OxfordWikipedia ProfileSocial Profile on InstagramHer Work:Amazon Author PageHow the World Made the West: A 4,000 Year HistoryIn Search of the PhoeniciansThe Punic Mediterranean: Identities and Identification from Phoenician Settlement to Roman RuleThe Hellenistic West: Rethinking the Ancient MediterraneanThe Rise and Fall of the Classical World: 2500 BC - 600 ADEpisode Quotes:Tracing the roots of civilizational thinking 10:52: One of the things I really want people to take away from my book is that war is one of the most effective modes of communication that people have. But all the same, depended on fundamental notion of similarity between peoples. [11:36] But around 1500, what's happening with this European expansion is to me, a very radical change in that, at the same time as Europeans are engaging in mass conversions to Christianity overseas, they're expelling the significant Jewish and Muslim populations from Europe itself. And so, it's creating a, sort of, us and them situation. Basically for the first time, a significant scale, I mean, things like that happen on a smaller scale and throughout history in all societies but I think this is really, in terms of a global history, something really quite new. And so, to me, it is the roots of that civilizational thinking that gets fully articulated a few hundred years later, starting in the 18th century. The idea of continents is fictional and is used by other geographers to create divisions in their works. 17:01: The idea of continents is a fascinating one to me. It goes back, in fact, to ancient Greek-speaking scientists who are working on the coast of what's now Turkey, very much in touch with what was going on in the big intellectual centers of antiquity, like Babylon, with Egyptian scientists, and so on. But we don't have any evidence that anybody else thought about the world in terms of continents. But they invented it with some geographers, and it was a kind of label. It wasn't a sort of major concept. One of my favorite commentaries is by another Greek historian, Herodotus. I say Greek-speaking. He also was from Anatolia, grew up in Persian lands, but he says, Well, people say that there are these three continents, and they're all named after women: Europa, Asia, Libya, [the] Greek term for what we now say—Africa, but I think this is nonsense. I mean, people don't even know where they begin and end. And, of course, that's right. I mean, some continents exist. The America exists. Australia exists. But Europe, Asia, and Africa?Why do people care about the heterogeneity of origins of things in the modern world?43:05 This is the big question, isn't it? Do people have an investment in the idea of a pure West that is facing pollution or even replacement from the outside right now? I think it's the same kind of question. And I think part of it is just that that's an easier way to think. It offers certainty. I think certainty is a terribly attractive thing but the problem is that human history isn't certain. It's fuzzy and complicated and if there's one thing that I would love people who read this book to think harder about, it's the idea of heritage. I think heritage is often seen as a very positive thing in the world today. But actually, I feel like there's a danger that people invest in a collective past at the expense of a collective present. And that, I think, is quite dangerous. But it is much easier to read things than it is to have conversations.The idea of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations as two separate cultures is a historical typo.The whole idea of Minoan and Mycenaean are basically just two rival labels of two basically warring groups of archaeologists about exactly the same thing. It's like a historical typo that people now think of them as different.

*) Israel's genocidal war on besieged Gaza enters its 400th day Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 43,500 Palestinians, 70 percent of them women and children, and wounded over 102,700 others, according to local health authorities. Analysts say the estimate is conservative and the actual death toll could be around or beyond 200,000, as thousands of Palestinians remain missing or buried under the debris of bombed homes and shops. Another 10,000 have been abducted and jailed at Israeli torture sites. *) Stein and Trump gain surprising support among Muslim voters American Muslim voters overwhelmingly backed Green Party's candidate Jill Stein in the 2024 presidential election, with 53.2 percent casting ballots in her favour, according to a new survey. In Michigan, Stein received even stronger support, with 59 percent of 502 Muslim respondents backing her, compared to 22 percent for Trump and 14 percent for Harris, according to the poll. Frustration over the Biden administration's Gaza policy led to a "sharp drop" in Muslim support for Harris compared to Biden's 2020 Muslim voter base, according to CAIR's National Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw. *) US, Canada groups urge leaders to condemn anti-Arab violence in Amsterdam Two prominent Muslim groups have criticised North American leaders and media for ignoring attacks and anti-Arab violence by Maccabi Tel-Aviv fans during a Europa League match. "It has been deeply distressing and disturbing to witness the violence that took place in Amsterdam around the Europa League match last night," The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) wrote on X, denouncing all forms of intimidation. The Muslim group urged Canadian leaders to address the incidents directly. "If Canadian leaders choose to weigh in on this issue, they must condemn the well-documented attacks on Arabs in Amsterdam," the statement says. *) 2024 to be the hottest year since industrial revolution Scientists say that 2024 might go down in history as the hottest since humans began burning fossil fuels. According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the global average temperature is expected to exceed the critical 1.5C threshold above pre-industrial levels. This would mark a historic milestone, underscoring the dramatic impact of greenhouse gas emissions and climate crisis. The C3S Monthly Climate Bulletin for October highlights that human activities have created an elevated temperature baseline. An El Nino event also played a role in this year's heating but the climate's complexity is influenced by multiple factors beyond greenhouse gases alone, such as solar radiation, volcanic eruptions, aerosols, and natural climate variability, according to the scientists. *) Turkish first lady attends event on Ottoman sufi poet, heritage in Hungary Türkiye's first lady has attended a special programme in Budapest promoting a book on a 14th-century Ottoman sufi poet and the empire's rich heritage in Hungary. Erdogan visited the tomb of Ottoman Dervish poet Gul Baba — also known as Jafer, or the "Father of Roses" in Hungary — which was restored in 2018 in a collaboration between the Hungarian government and TIKA, the Turkish state aid agency. "I am happy to gather around the legacy of Gul Baba, who came from Anatolia and was laid to rest in this land, on the 100th anniversary of the Türkiye-Hungary Friendship Treaty” she says. "It is truly exciting that six years after TIKA's restoration efforts and the establishment of the cultural centre at the Gul Baba Tomb, this spiritual heritage is now being crowned with a new book," Erdogan wrote in the guestbook at the Gul Baba Tomb.

In the aftermath of Alexander the Great's conquests, the Seleucid kings ruled a vast territory stretching from Central Asia to Anatolia, Armenia to the Persian Gulf. In a radical move to impose unity and regulate behavior, this Graeco-Macedonian imperial power introduced a linear and transcendent conception of time. Under Seleucid rule, time no longer restarted with each new monarch. Instead, progressively numbered years, identical to the system we use today—continuous, irreversible, accumulating—became the de facto measure of historical duration. This new temporality, propagated throughout the empire, changed how people did business, recorded events, and oriented themselves to the larger world. Challenging this order, however, were rebellious subjects who resurrected their pre-Hellenistic pasts and created apocalyptic time frames that predicted the total end of history. The interaction of these complex and competing temporalities led to far-reaching religious, intellectual, and political developments. Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire (Harvard University Press, 2018) by Paul J. Kosmin, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, opens a new window onto empire, resistance, and the meaning of history in the ancient world. Ryan Tripp is an adjunct faculty member in history at Southern New Hampshire University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In the aftermath of Alexander the Great's conquests, the Seleucid kings ruled a vast territory stretching from Central Asia to Anatolia, Armenia to the Persian Gulf. In a radical move to impose unity and regulate behavior, this Graeco-Macedonian imperial power introduced a linear and transcendent conception of time. Under Seleucid rule, time no longer restarted with each new monarch. Instead, progressively numbered years, identical to the system we use today—continuous, irreversible, accumulating—became the de facto measure of historical duration. This new temporality, propagated throughout the empire, changed how people did business, recorded events, and oriented themselves to the larger world. Challenging this order, however, were rebellious subjects who resurrected their pre-Hellenistic pasts and created apocalyptic time frames that predicted the total end of history. The interaction of these complex and competing temporalities led to far-reaching religious, intellectual, and political developments. Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire (Harvard University Press, 2018) by Paul J. Kosmin, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, opens a new window onto empire, resistance, and the meaning of history in the ancient world. Ryan Tripp is an adjunct faculty member in history at Southern New Hampshire University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

The arrival of the Mongols in Anatolia would eventually lead to the expulsion of the Romans. Mongol dominance of the plateau sent waves of tribes into Byzantine territory. It was a crisis which the Emperor Andronikos was not equal to.Period: 1281-1303 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Late Bronze Age collapse was a time of widespread societal collapse during the 12th century BC associated with environmental change, mass migration, and the destruction of cities. The collapse affected a large area of the Eastern Mediterranean (North Africa and Southeast Europe) and the Near East, in particular Egypt, eastern Libya, the Balkans, the Aegean, Anatolia, and, to a lesser degree, the Caucasus. It was sudden, violent, and culturally disruptive for many Bronze Age civilizations, and it brought a sharp economic decline to regional powers, notably ushering in the Greek Dark Ages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Bronze_Age_collapse  

We talk to Dr Nicholas Morton about the arrival of the Mongols into the Byzantine world. Their confrontation with the Seljuks of Anatolia will have serious consequences.Dr Morton is Associate Professor in Middle Eastern and Global history at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. His new book The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East is available now.In it he offers a panoramic account of the Mongol invasions of the Middle East during the thirteenth century, examining these wars from the perspectives of the many different societies impacted by their conquests, including of course Byzantium. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What historical evidence is there for people like Peter, Simon of Cyrene, Pontius Pilate, Jesus, Caiaphas, and other key figures in Jesus's crucifixion? Seven people who had something to do with the trial of Jesus have been found through archaeology! Moreover, excavations in Israel have unearthed numerous archaeological finds that corroborate precisely what's recorded in the Bible. But what if excavations in Israel are just the tip of the iceberg? Beyond Israel, has the wider ancient world yielded artifacts that shed light on the biblical narrative? And what about Jesus? Is there any archaeological evidence that leads us back to Him? For this midweek podcast episode, Frank invites author and field archaeologist, Dr. Titus Kennedy, to talk about his brand-new book 'The Essential Archaeological Guide to Bible Lands: Uncovering Biblical Sites of the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean World.' In the book, Dr. Kennedy explores the various archaeological discoveries across the entirety of the ancient world that provide evidence for the historical accuracy of the Bible. During the episode, Frank and Titus and answer questions like: How did Josephus become a historian for the Romans? How did the emperor Hadrian inadvertently leave a trail of evidence for Christianity? How much of the Holy Land has actually been excavated? What evidence suggests that the Israelites were in Egypt during the time of the Exodus? Minimalist vs. maximalist archaeologists - what's the difference? Has archaeology ever contradicted the historical record of the Bible? What is the archaeological evidence for Jesus? Recognizing the great significance of the evidence that has been located in places like North Africa, Rome, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia, Titus has written this book as a modern resource for an area of archaeology that has gone relatively untouched for the past 30 years! This episode barely scratches the surface of what's uncovered in the book so be sure to grab your copy of 'The Essential Archaeological Guide to Bible Lands.' And if you desire to go even deeper in exploring biblical archaeology, enroll in the brand-new online course called 'Reasons for Faith' where Dr. Kennedy will serve as one of the LIVE instructors along with Dr. Stephen Meyer! To view the entire VIDEO PODCAST be sure to join our CrossExamined private community. It's the perfect place to jump into some great discussions with like-minded Christians while simultaneously providing financial support for our ministry. You can also SUPPORT THE PODCAST HERE. Buy Dr. Titus Kennedy's new book: https://a.co/d/hBSZQS5 Join Dr. Titus Kennedy LIVE in 'Reasons for Faith'!: https://bit.ly/3U0p63V