Podcasts about Arab Spring

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and then the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, many thought the world was going to be a much better place going forward. That has not turned out to be the case. 9/11; the failed promise of the Arab Spring; the Middle East still on fire; Russia-Ukraine; political tribalism. Does it sometimes feel as if the world is no longer capable of making progress? Host Steve Paikin asks Janice Stein (Founding Director, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management, University of Toronto). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nicole F. Watts's Republic of Dreams: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Struggles, and the Future of Iraqi Kurdistan (NYU Press, 2025) is a harrowing portrait of Iraqi Kurdistan and its history, as it weathers Hussein's genocidal campaign against the Kurds, a civil war, the US invasion of Iraq, the Arab Spring, and the sustained neglect of the city of Halabja. Watts, a former journalist and now professor of political science, has spent over a decade researching the struggles of the Kurdish people in Iraq, and in vivid, lyrical prose, she tells their story through the eyes of Peshawa, a young Muslim Kurd whose family barely survived the bombing and then fled for their lives.Throughout the book, the thread of Peshawa's story immerses readers in the everyday and extraordinary world of Iraqi Kurds between the late 1980s and 2022, exploring the meaning of home and dislocation in the wake of war and genocide.Based on over a hundred in-depth interviews with Iraqi Kurdish activists, journalists, elected officials, and community organizers, and hundreds of hours of conversations with Peshawa and his family, Republic of Dreams brings to vivid life the story of modern Kurdistan, and the Kurdish national dream to have their own homeland. 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

Nicole F. Watts's Republic of Dreams: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Struggles, and the Future of Iraqi Kurdistan (NYU Press, 2025) is a harrowing portrait of Iraqi Kurdistan and its history, as it weathers Hussein's genocidal campaign against the Kurds, a civil war, the US invasion of Iraq, the Arab Spring, and the sustained neglect of the city of Halabja. Watts, a former journalist and now professor of political science, has spent over a decade researching the struggles of the Kurdish people in Iraq, and in vivid, lyrical prose, she tells their story through the eyes of Peshawa, a young Muslim Kurd whose family barely survived the bombing and then fled for their lives.Throughout the book, the thread of Peshawa's story immerses readers in the everyday and extraordinary world of Iraqi Kurds between the late 1980s and 2022, exploring the meaning of home and dislocation in the wake of war and genocide.Based on over a hundred in-depth interviews with Iraqi Kurdish activists, journalists, elected officials, and community organizers, and hundreds of hours of conversations with Peshawa and his family, Republic of Dreams brings to vivid life the story of modern Kurdistan, and the Kurdish national dream to have their own homeland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

Nicole F. Watts's Republic of Dreams: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Struggles, and the Future of Iraqi Kurdistan (NYU Press, 2025) is a harrowing portrait of Iraqi Kurdistan and its history, as it weathers Hussein's genocidal campaign against the Kurds, a civil war, the US invasion of Iraq, the Arab Spring, and the sustained neglect of the city of Halabja. Watts, a former journalist and now professor of political science, has spent over a decade researching the struggles of the Kurdish people in Iraq, and in vivid, lyrical prose, she tells their story through the eyes of Peshawa, a young Muslim Kurd whose family barely survived the bombing and then fled for their lives.Throughout the book, the thread of Peshawa's story immerses readers in the everyday and extraordinary world of Iraqi Kurds between the late 1980s and 2022, exploring the meaning of home and dislocation in the wake of war and genocide.Based on over a hundred in-depth interviews with Iraqi Kurdish activists, journalists, elected officials, and community organizers, and hundreds of hours of conversations with Peshawa and his family, Republic of Dreams brings to vivid life the story of modern Kurdistan, and the Kurdish national dream to have their own homeland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

In 2004 Facebook was created. Two years later in 2006 Twitter was founded AND the very first episode of the Agenda aired here on TVO. Fast forward to 2011 and social media was seen as helping sow the seeds of democracy in the Middle East during the Arab Spring. And many were optimistic that these growing connections would help harness the wisdom of the crowd. It would be like "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" when you asked the audience. And the audience was almost always right. So ... what happened? How has social media evolved? How has social media changed us? And has it been a net negative or net positive? Cory Doctorow, Vass Bednar, Jeff Jarvis, and Douglas Rushkoff join to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CIA analyst turned best-selling spy novelist David McCloskey visits with old friends John & Jerry where they look at the CIA and their experiences in The Middle East before, during and after The Arab Spring. With a survey of what's happening in The Middle East currently.

The Arab Spring is when Egyptian Youssef Rakha first starts writing novels. Moroccan Soukaina Habiballah publishes her first poetry collection shortly after, while French Moroccan Leïla Slimani works as a journalist at the time, reporting on the protests unfolding throughout Northern Africa and the Maghreb, before turning to fiction.How have these experiences shaped their writing? All three writers explore the quest for freedom, whether on a personal or a collective level. Can we talk about a post-Arab Spring literature, or is that merely a handy label for the West?«Just like Arab Muslim lives, Arab Muslim writing is not worth the civilized world's attention,» Rakha wrote in an essay in Guernica last year.Soukaina Habiballah is the award-winning author of four poetry collections, a short story collection, a novel and a play, Nini Ya Momo.Youssef Rakha was selected among the Hay Festival's best Arabic writers under 40 in 2009. He is the author of a number of critically acclaimed novels and poetry, most recently the novel The Dissenters.Leïla Slimani is one of the most prominent literary voices in Frankophone literature today. She won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2016 for her novel Lullaby, and has excited critics with her trilogy of a French-Moroccan family saga.Habiballah, Rakha and Slimani was joined by journalist and critic Helene Hovden Hareide for a conversation about freedom and revolutions, about the power of literature for readers, authors and for moving the world forward. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The New Preachers of Egypt—so named because of their novel preaching styles, which incorporate everything from melodrama to music to self-help—came to prominence on the world's first Islamic television channel on the cusp of the Arab Spring uprisings. They promoted an innovative and inclusive Islamic piety that millions of young middle-class viewers found radical and compelling—but were scorned as neoliberal by leftists, as stealth Islamists by secularists, and as too Westernized by other Muslim preachers. Drawing on long-term fieldwork with the New Preachers, their producers, and followers in Cairo, Yasmin Moll shows how Islamic media and the social life of theology mattered to contestations over the shape of a New Egypt. These mass-mediated fractures within Islamic Revivalism were happening at a time of both revolutionary possibility and authoritarian entrenchment. The New Preachers' Islamic media inspired a "revolution within" that transcended the country's divisions and anticipated the ethos of creativity, solidarity, and coexistence that soon would mark Tahrir Square, the ethical epicenter of the 2011 uprising. Vividly written and boldly theorized, The Revolution Within: Islamic Media and the Struggle for a New Egypt (Stanford University Press, 2025) challenges conventional accounts of the 2011 revolution and its aftermath as a struggle between secular and religious forces, reconsidering what makes a practice virtuous, a public Islamic, a way of life Godly. Yasmin Moll is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. Reighan Gillam is Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creations. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

https://youtu.be/wrIFxgnkJ1A Nathan Miller, Founder and CEO of Miller Ink, is on a mission to help organizations communicate clearly and strategically—especially in moments of high stakes and crisis. We explore Nathan's journey from diplomacy and speechwriting at the UN to launching one of California's top crisis communication firms. He shares the Miller Ink Communications Framework, which anchors every campaign with a clear objective, a targeted audience, and a compelling message. Nathan breaks down how to craft memorable messaging using the 3 Cs (Clear, Concise, Compelling) and the 3 S's (Stories, Statistics, Soundbites). He also reveals how to build a reputation-driven business, navigate hiring decisions, and future-proof your communications in a rapidly changing media landscape. --- Communicate in Soundbites with Nathan Miller Good day, dear listeners. It's Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint and my guest today is Nathan Miller, founder and CEO of Miller Ink. and he's also a seasoned communication strategist with deep experience in business, government, diplomacy, crisis management and issue advocacy. Nathan, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Steve. It's great to be here. Well, it's good to have you. And I've got some questions I'm really curious about that I want to ask you. And starting with my favorite one, what is your personal “Why” and what are you doing to manifest it in your business? My personal “Why” really is a couple of things. One, our business makes a huge impact for a lot of people and to feel that impact every day is tremendous and it gives me a lot of satisfaction and pride. The people who work for Miller Ink., the people who work here and launched their careers through this company, our clients, every day you get to be in rooms with people who are solving problems, addressing challenges, navigating different challenges, and helping them get to a better place is incredibly gratifying. You want to be somebody who's of service in that way. We do a lot of advocacy and mission-driven work as well as an agency. I've done a lot of work on behalf of the Jewish community and the State of Israel, which has also been very meaningful. And for me, the most important personal “Why” is I have three kids and so much of what I do is really for them. And that is really one of my big North Stars in life. Yeah, well, lots of meaningful stuff in your life. And you left the UN Security Council, where you were a writer, to become a PR entrepreneur. So tell me about this journey. The journey was crazy. My career began, I got a master's in public policy here at UCLA. I went to Europe for a little bit. I worked in Brussels with the EU institutions there at a think tank. And then I came back and I worked at a PR firm in LA for a couple of years early in my career. I got a job as the chief speechwriter for Israel's mission to the UN. And it was a crazy time to be doing that job. I was really young, and it was the outbreak of the Arab Spring. A lot of different things that were happening in the Middle East and in the world. So, fascinating moment. And I did that job for three years. And at that point, my now wife and I were dating, and she was in LA and I was in New York, and we had to figure out a place to be. So I said, you know what, I'm gonna come back. And I think I have a problem with authority is what I learned working in big institutions in different ways. And I like to be able to set the pace of what I do. And so I say, every entrepreneur has a different cross that they're trying to not bear. And for me, it was really having control of my own destiny, and that mattered a lot to me. So I was a young guy. I saw communications changing rapidly, really rapidly. When I started at the UN, then the ambassador, Susan Rice, they asked her if she was on Twitter and she said, I don't do diplomacy by haiku. And that was like a funny thing.

The boys are joined by Private military contractor Tysson Ley and talk about drinking spiced rum in Iraq's Green zone, the pitfalls of being called Tysson, joining the Welsh Guards as a teenager, operations in Northern Ireland and getting battered by the RUC. Tysson talks about going for SAS selection, having to learn to walk again after a bad accident, sailing Antonio Banderas yacht, working on the doors in Magaluf and the legend of Mucca. Tysson talks about going into the Private military sector, nearly being involved in toppling an African government, the absolute carnage of Baghdad, having Christmas dinner in Saddam Husseins palace, having to evacuate out of Yemen during the Arab Spring and doing close protection for Holly Valance plus much much more…..@ambitioniscritcal1997 on Instagram @TheAiCPodcast on Twitter

Conflicted returns with another episode in our series on the Syrian Civil War, welcoming a new guest onto the show to tell us about her experiences of living life under ISIS in the city of Raqqa – Rania Ali. Rania tells us about her experiences growing up in Raqqa, and the city's rich history - a place of conflict throughout the centuries. As the Arab Spring protests began, Rania became involved, and she details the secretive nature of organizing protests under a repressive regime. She tells us about the development of the conflict in Syria, the impact of the Free Syrian Army's liberation of the city in 2013, telling us about her family's exodus from Raqqa, and the devastation upon their return. But a key memory for Rania in the conflict was the rise of ISIS. She tells us about the resilience and courage of her community, particularly the women who organized protests and resisted the extremist regime, despite the grave risks involved. We hear about her harrowing experiences living during the ISIS caliphate, the threats she faced, and her eventual escape from the city, alongside the thrilling and tragic stories of her friends. New Conflicted Season 5 episodes will be coming every two weeks, but if you want to have your Conflicted fix every single week, then you'll have to join our Conflicted Community. Subscribers will get bonus episodes every other week, and can also join our Conflicted Community chatroom, where you can interact with fellow dearest listeners, discuss episodes past and future, get exclusive messages from Thomas and Aimen, ask future Q&A questions and so much more. All the information you need to sign up to the Conflicted Community is on this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  Conflicted is proudly made by Message Heard, a full-stack podcast production agency which uses its extensive expertise to make its own shows such as Conflicted, shows for commissioners such as the BBC, Spotify and Al Jazeera, and powerfully effective podcasts for other companies too. If you'd like to find out how we can help get your organisation's message heard, visit messageheard.com or drop an email to hello@messageheard.com! Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Christiane Amanpour is chief international anchor of CNN's flagship global affairs program “Amanpour,” which airs weekdays on CNN International and nightly on PBS in the United States. She is also host of “The Amanpour Hour,” and is based in the network's London bureau. Beginning in 1983 as an entry-level assistant on the international assignment desk at CNN's headquarters in Atlanta, Amanpour rose through the organization becoming a reporter at the New York bureau, and later, the network's leading international correspondent. On the ground during the siege of Sarajevo, Amanpour exposed the brutality of the Bosnian War, reporting on the daily tragedy of life for civilians in the city. She was outspoken, calling out the human rights abuses, massacres and genocide committed against the Bosnian Moslems, later saying “There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral you are an accomplice.” Throughout her time at CNN, Amanpour has secured exclusive interviews with global power players. In the wake of the September 11 attacks she was the first international correspondent to interview British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. During the height of the Arab Spring she conducted an Emmy-winning interview with Libya's former leader ‘Colonel' Moammar Gadhafi, and she was also the last journalist to interview Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak just before he was deposed. In January 2014, Amanpour also exclusively broke the news of a dossier of testimony and photographs which alleged to show systematic torture of prisoners by government forces in Syria, evidence she used to confront Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about his government's support for the Assad regime. In addition to her work as an anchor and reporter, Amanpour is an active rights campaigner. A board member of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Centre for Public Integrity and the International Women's Media Foundation, she has used her profile to raise awareness of key global issues and journalists' rights. She has interviewed educational rights activist Malala Yousafzai for CNN on several occasions – bringing focus to her courage and international advocacy work. Amanpour has earned 16 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, four Peabody Awards, two George Polk Awards, three duPont-Columbia Awards and the IWMF's Courage in Journalism Award. She has received nine honorary degrees, is an honorary citizen of Sarajevo, and a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Freedom of the Press and the Safety of Journalists. Amanpour holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Rhode Island.Ralph Ranalli of the HKS Office of Communications and Public Affairs is the host, producer, and editor of HKS PolicyCast. A former journalist, public television producer, and entrepreneur, he holds an BA in political science from UCLA and a master's in journalism from Columbia University.Scheduling and logistical support for PolicyCast is provided by Lilian Wainaina.Design and graphics support is provided by Laura King and Delane Meadows. Web design and social media promotion support is provided by Catherine Santrock and Natalie Montaner. Editorial support is provided by Nora Delaney and Robert O'Neill. 

Arab News 50th anniversary podcast: Recounting the moments that changed the Middle East. Powered by Google's NotebookLM AI tool. Episode IV: 2005–2015 Rafik Hariri assassinated, Arab Spring uprisings erupt, Saudi women win driving rights Read more here: https://www.arabnews.com/arabnews50

Send us a textThere is power in preserving the rich, diverse history and culture of LGBTQIA+ people, across generations and backgrounds, promoting creativity, collaboration, and community among queer people, organizations, and allies. Especially in this particular cultural moment, when the lives and stories of our queer community are being targeted and silenced more than ever before, we need to lift up and celebrate the institutions whose mission it is to collect, preserve, and share those stories and histories widely and proudly. Special Guest: Robert KestenRobert Kesten, Human Rights Advocate, is Executive Director of Stonewall National Museum Archives & Library, one of the world's largest and most significant institutions of its kind, celebrating 50+ years of preserving history and culture in the face of prejudice and hate. Kesten's human rights advocacy has taken many forms, including writing and producing an award winning documentary on the Holocaust at Concentration Camps in Poland, working on the Ghanaian Constitution, coordinating and producing events leading to Ukrainian independence, producing events for the first AIDS day treatment center in the nation, pushing for the decriminalization of homosexuality in Ukraine, challenging book banning, LGBTQIA+ inclusion in schools and navigating anti-LGBTQ sentiments. Kesten also worked on the West Bank during the Intifada and was brought into Egypt and Tunisia during the Arab Spring to try and establish human rights cities. Links from the Show:https://stonewall-museum.org/ https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/stonewall-queer-history-exhibit-drexel-20240407.html https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article296353869.html https://washingtonpress.com/author/robertkesten/https://sfbwmag.com/human-rights-leaders-honored-during-international-human-rights-symposium-at-florida-atlantic-university/ https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/opinion/columns/your-voice/2023/04/14/lets-act-to-ensure-lgbtqia-are-safe-and-valued-in-florida-schools/70110517007/ Join Mama Dragons here: www.mamadragons.org In the Den is made possible by generous donors like you. Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today at www.mamadragons.org. Support the showConnect with Mama Dragons:WebsiteInstagramFacebookDonate to this podcast

Join Raza Ahmed and Danayal Zia for Friday's show from 4-6pm where we will be discussing: ‘Arab Spring' and ‘Finding Gods' Arab Spring The Arab Spring sparked waves of protest and hope across the Middle East—but did it lead to real democracy or deeper instability? We'll explore the regional dynamics, Western influence, and the challenges of post-revolution transitions. Join us as we discuss the lessons learned, today's socio-political realities, and what the future might hold for reform in the Arab world. Finding God For decades, statistics have shown a decline in religion in the West, but what if that is all about to change? Surprisingly, Gen Z seems to be the key! Recent studies reveal that found only 13% of teenagers identified as atheists, whereas 62% of 18-24 year olds identify as spiritual. Join us as we discuss what may be causing this shift. Guests: Maria Sihoven - University student from Finland who has converted to Islam Ahmadiyyat. Rafaella - Currently working as a pharmacist in London, she converted to Islam Ahmadiyyat during University in 2022

We got a new podcast! We're happy to announce that Syria: The Inconvenient Revolution (STIR) is now out on Patreon and wherever you listen to podcasts. In this episode,⁠ ⁠Leila Al-Shami⁠⁠ (⁠⁠Burning Country⁠⁠) and Elia Ayoub (⁠⁠The Fire These Times⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Hauntologies⁠⁠) introduce themselves and the podcast.What is STIR about? From the Assad regime to the Arab Spring and beyond, we will dive into questions of reconstruction, prisoners, the forcibly disappeared, transitional justice, minority rights, women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, environmental politics, culture and more.STIR is part of the From The Periphery Media Collective. To support all of our projects please head out to⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/fromtheperiphery⁠⁠STIR is also on⁠ ⁠Bluesky⁠⁠!Credits and More:Leila Al Shami (Host, Lead Researcher). More:⁠ ⁠Bluesky⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Mastodon⁠⁠ and her⁠ ⁠Blog⁠⁠Elia Ayoub (Host, Producer). More:⁠ ⁠Bluesky⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Mastodon⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and his⁠ ⁠Newsletter⁠⁠Hisham Rifai (Illustration)Omar Offendum and Sami Matar (Music)

The journalist Richie McGinniss has always craved action. As a reporter he's found it – and a lot more – in the chaos of the streets, embedding himself with protestors to cover the most divisive and violent demonstrations in American history.Richie may be a media professional of the new era, posting his intense, on-the-ground videos on social media, but he brings an old-school newsman's credibility from his extensive professional experience and globe-trotting life story.Richie studied Arabic and Middle Eastern history at Georgetown University and subsequently traveled to Jordan, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, and Egypt's Tahrir Square less than a month before it became the flashpoint for the widespread protests and revolutions that erupted during the Arab Spring. Richie has worked at the Al-Jazeera program, “Min Washington,” broadcasting to households in Arabic throughout the Middle East, at NBC News's Washington Bureau as a production assistant, and as the video director at Daily Caller, where he built a team of ten video producers. While covering the demonstrations in Kenosha, Wisconsin, sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, Richie witnessed Kyle Rittenhouse shoot Joseph Rosenbaum and nearly got shot himself when a bullet ricocheted near his foot. Richie was plunged into the national spotlight and praised for his clear, non-biased, neutral reporting of the violence. On the ground for the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, Richie not only got closer to the action than virtually any other journalist but emerged with a nuanced understanding of how news events can be interpreted and manufactured by the media. Richie recently published his book, Riot Diet: One Man's Ride Through America in Chaos. I've read Riot Diet and can tell you it's a powerful series of reports from some of the most infamous protest riots of our times. Though definitely not for the faint of heart, I highly recommend Richie's book to anyone interested in an insider's look at some of the people covering those events and how they unfold.https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0DLQXN1DK

Today, our Long Story Short podcast is taking you outside of Europe, to the Mediterranean, to Tunisia. This may not be a strictly European story, but what happens in our neighborhood can have major implications for us too. Especially considering that just last year, Tunisia signed a 255-million-euro deal with the European Union to tackle irregular migration.The birthplace of the Arab Spring, is once again caught in a judicial farce, because last week, a Tunisian court sentenced 40 people up to 66 years of prison. But who are these people, and why is the EU turning a blind eye in its transactional relationship with Tunisia?Join us on our journey through the events that shape the European continent and the European Union.Production: By Europod, in co production with Sphera Network.Follow us on:LinkedInInstagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Correspondent The story of the arrest, trial and imprisonment of Australian journalist Peter Greste, who while reporting on the Arab Spring uprising becomes entangled in a deadly game of rivalries. Sinners Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their Mississippi hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Chapter 13 of The Book of Trump, Ghost turns his focus to one of the most misunderstood figures in modern geopolitics: Bashar al-Assad, the “Lion of Damascus.” This epic solo deep dive traces Assad's rise from London-trained eye surgeon to defiant Syrian leader, revealing how Western-backed regime change efforts, globalist proxy wars, and pipeline politics converged to ignite the Syrian Civil War. Ghost connects the dots between U.S. and Israeli-backed jihadi proxies, the CIA-funded White Helmets, and the 5C infrastructure vision Assad proposed to create economic unity across the Middle East, before the Arab Spring was weaponized to destroy it. With receipts endorsed by General Flynn, Ghost breaks down the propaganda, chemical weapons psyops, and false flags used to justify toppling Assad, exposing the international coalition that fueled ISIS and Al-Qaeda's rise in the region. Weaving together history from Lawrence of Arabia to the Sykes-Picot betrayal and the current-day gas wars between Qatar and Iran, this episode places Syria at the heart of a global struggle for sovereignty. It's not just Assad they want gone, it's anyone defying the uniparty's monopoly on power. A must-listen for those ready to challenge the mainstream narrative and rediscover the truth behind the war on Syria.

Lindsey Hilsum is the International Editor for Channel 4 News, where she has worked for over 25 years. Having started her career as an aid worker in Latin America, she transitioned to journalism, and she has now reported from six continents for over three decades. She has covered many major conflicts including Kosovo, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and across the Middle East during the Arab Spring. Her third book I Brought the War with Me: Stories and Poems from the Front Line is out now. On the podcast Lindsey tells Katy Balls about starting out her career in Guatemala and in Kenya, what it was like being the only English-speaking journalist in Rwanda when the genocide broke out in 1994, and why she is drawn to studying human behaviour in extreme situations. She also talks about her surprising link to flat screen TV technology, how journalism has changed from cutting up clippings from a typewriter to modern open-source intelligence techniques and the place she would most like to travel to – the past. Having always carried a book of poetry with her on her travels, she also reads a favourite included in her new book: The Child at the Window by Siegfried Sassoon.  Produced by Patrick Gibbons. 

Lindsey Hilsum is the International Editor for Channel 4 News, where she has worked for over 25 years. Having started her career as an aid worker in Latin America, she transitioned to journalism, and she has now reported from six continents for over three decades. She has covered many major conflicts including Kosovo, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and across the Middle East during the Arab Spring. Her third book I Brought the War with Me: Stories and Poems from the Front Line is out now. On the podcast Lindsey tells Katy Balls about starting out her career in Guatemala and in Kenya, what it was like being the only English-speaking journalist in Rwanda when the genocide broke out in 1994, and why she is drawn to studying human behaviour in extreme situations. She also talks about her surprising link to flat screen TV technology, how journalism has changed from cutting up clippings from a typewriter to modern open-source intelligence techniques and the place she would most like to travel to – the past. Having always carried a book of poetry with her on her travels, she also reads a favourite included in her new book: The Child at the Window by Siegfried Sassoon.  Produced by Patrick Gibbons. 

Is the world on the brink of World War 3? In this explosive conversation, Jason Dev Baidya dives deep into the current state of geopolitics and global conflicts, exploring the role of AI in modern warfare, political assassinations, and the shifting power dynamics across the world. We analyze historical events like the JFK assassination conspiracy, Epstein Island scandal, and US involvement in Bangladesh politics, shedding light on how past incidents shape today's international policies. With growing tensions in China, India, and Nepal, we discuss Nepal's security threats and whether it poses a risk to its neighbors. We also break down controversial topics like the Hindu Rashtra movement in Nepal, the future of democracy vs monarchy, and the reforms needed in Nepal's political system. Additionally, we examine global banking system flaws, the impact of COVID on businesses, and the consequences of migration on global politics. The conversation also uncovers secretive operations like Operation Olympic Games, cyber warfare, and the Arab Spring's geopolitical impact. How is AI being used in assassinations? What are the hidden influences behind wars? And what does the future hold for Nepal's government policies and economy? Watch now to uncover the truth behind these pressing global issues.

Is the world on the brink of World War 3? In this explosive conversation, Jason Dev Baidya dives deep into the current state of geopolitics and global conflicts, exploring the role of AI in modern warfare, political assassinations, and the shifting power dynamics across the world. We analyze historical events like the JFK assassination conspiracy, Epstein Island scandal, and US involvement in Bangladesh politics, shedding light on how past incidents shape today's international policies. With growing tensions in China, India, and Nepal, we discuss Nepal's security threats and whether it poses a risk to its neighbors. We also break down controversial topics like the Hindu Rashtra movement in Nepal, the future of democracy vs monarchy, and the reforms needed in Nepal's political system. Additionally, we examine global banking system flaws, the impact of COVID on businesses, and the consequences of migration on global politics. The conversation also uncovers secretive operations like Operation Olympic Games, cyber warfare, and the Arab Spring's geopolitical impact. How is AI being used in assassinations? What are the hidden influences behind wars? And what does the future hold for Nepal's government policies and economy? Watch now to uncover the truth behind these pressing global issues.

In this episode of Capital for Good we speak with Michael Posner, the Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance at NYU's Stern School of Business, director of the school's Center for Business and Human Rights, a long-time leader in the field, luminary thinker, advocate, former State Department Official, and the author of the new book, Conscience Incorporated. We begin with Posner's early interests in international human rights issues, sparked in law school when he was tasked with investigating atrocities in Uganda under Idi Amin. He lays out the principals of early, post-World War II and UN inspired human rights law focused on universality, and the responsibility of governments to promote, protect and enforce human rights. Notably absent from this early framework is the role of business. Posner explains that his interest in the intersection of human rights took shape when he began to observe that large multinational corporations had a critical role to play, particularly when they operated in weak states that lacked the ability to protect human rights. We discuss why companies should care, fundamentally, about human rights on ethical dimensions (“outsourcing might be a smart business strategy, but you can't outsource responsibility if you're the main economic beneficiary,”) and because there are material costs that can arise from irresponsible practices, often reputational crises and/or regulation. We explore the deficiencies of various business frameworks: how and why Milton Friedman's shareholder primacy worldview fails to account for environmental and social externalities and a broader set of stakeholders; how and why ESG conflate environmental and social considerations and emphasize risk rather than meaningful performance on issues like climate change or worker protections. Posner suggests that this moment of backlash against all things ESG, DEI and “woke capitalism” offers us an opportunity to do better. We touch on sometimes complex tensions between climate change and human rights concerns, acknowledging that climate change can only be solved if we transition to a lower carbon economy, with the scale up of renewable energy and the development of technologies like electric vehicles, which in turn rely on things like batteries. We know that today batteries are reliant on inputs like critical minerals, long mined in ways and places rife with human rights challenges, and today often controlled by Chinese companies. China is also the world's largest and lowest cost producer of solar panels, and much of that production occurs in Xinjiang, with forced labor of the Uyghur ethnic minority. Posner discusses a number of ways to better integrate climate and human rights considerations. Before opening the floor to audience questions, we discuss the evolution of technology and human rights issues. When Posner was at the State Department from 2010 to 2012, he had a front tow seat to the Arab Spring and the “Facebook Revolution,” witnessing how activists used social media to fight authoritarianism. Although he says he still believes in the power of technology to open up political discourse, he has become much more concerned about issues of data privacy, surveillance, harmful violent and incendiary content, information and disinformation, and ways in which companies try to shield themselves with first amendment (to which they are not legally subject) to avoid more vigorous content moderation or human rights engagement. We conclude with the role of corporate leaders when it comes to human rights. While Posner notes he is typically conservative about how much executives should speak out on specific issues, he believes strongly that “business leaders need to be attentive and active if there are fundamental threats to our democracy.” This episode of Capital for Good was recorded as part of Social Impact Week 2025, a week of social impact-related events for the Columbia Business School community, organized by the Social Enterprise Club, Green Business Club, Community Impact Club, and LEO Impact Fund. Thanks for Listening! Subscribe to Capital for Good on Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Drop us a line at socialenterprise@gsb.columbia.edu.  Mentioned in this Episode Conscience Incorporated: Pursue Profits While Protecting Human Rights The Fair Labor Association

International Arrivals speaks with multi-disciplinary artist Lara Baladi (Egypt/Lebanon) (tahrirarchives.com). Baladi discusses Tahrir Cinema” an influential public pop-up cinema that served as a platform where filmmakers, artists, activists and civilians could share their stories during the 2011 Egyptian uprisings, aka Arab Spring. She talks about the current atmosphere in Egypt and censorship in the arts. Emphasizing the voices of the people, Vox Populi, Tahrir Archives her continuing project, includes a series of artworks and publications. The culmination of which is  Anatomy of Revolution, an ABC and Archive of Revolting. This project (a website and series of installations), offers a visual lexicon of resistance and global protests and speaks to the importance of archiving as resistance itself. This discussion touches on the impact of social media, and artistic strategies employed during times of upheaval.  Baladi's project Anatomy of Revolution, which aims to reinterpret historical narratives through a collaborative platform, involves workshops in the context of art spaces, conferences, and universities, focusing on the importance of visual connections in making complex information accessible to facilitate research, and critical thinking.

This week, Alan and Lionel discuss alarming threats to global press freedom with guests Jodie Ginsberg and former war correspondent Peter Greste.As an award-winning journalist with Al Jazeera, Peter was reporting on the Arab Spring when he was arrested under charges of terrorism. He shares his story of being wrongfully imprisoned in Egypt for 400 days (later dramatised in the film The Correspondent).Jodie, director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, an American nonprofit organisation, also highlights the increasing dangers facing journalists in the US, including attacks on public broadcasting and legal threats.In the face of mounting pressures, how can young reporters find hope? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elizabeth Shortino, Former Acting U.S. Executive Director at the IMF, joins Mike Shanley to discuss the role of the IMF and U.S. Executive Director, how the IMF assesses political risk, IMF engagement in emerging and frontier markets, and insights for business expanding into new markets. BIOGRAPHY: Elizabeth Shortino recently served as the Acting U.S. Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an international financial institution charged with promoting international monetary and financial stability and growth. In this role, Ms. Shortino represented the United States at the IMF Executive Board and advanced U.S. interests on a range of issues, including IMF lending to strategic countries such as Argentina, Egypt, Pakistan and other; IMF surveillance of global markets and growth; and all IMF institutional and policy issues. Prior to working at the IMF, Ms. Shortino spent 20 years in public service at the U.S. Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget covering international economic and development issues. She served as Director for the International Monetary Policy office and led Treasury's staff engagement and coordination on all G7 and G20 Finance Track issues, including communique negotiations, designing and advancing the U.S. agenda for its p. Ms. Shortino also oversaw the Treasury stance on all IMF policy issues and country lending programs. Prior to this role, Ms. Shortino managed the Office of Middle East and North Africa and helped coordinate an international response amongst the G7, Gulf partners, and international financial institutions to support countries undergoing democratic transitions as part of the Arab Spring. She also oversaw U.S. Treasury economic engagement in strategic countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, and negotiated U.S. sovereign loan guarantees to several Middle East countries. Prior to joining the U.S. Treasury, Ms. Shortino worked at the Office of Management and Budget covering international and defense spending and served as a management consultant for Cap Gemini and at Ernst & Young. Ms. Shortino holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters in International Studies from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. LEARN MORE: Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Global Strategy Podcast with Mike Shanley. You can learn more about working with the U.S. Government by visiting our homepage: Konektid International and GovDiscovery AI. To connect with our team directly, message the host Mike Shanley on LinkedIn.

Jim talks with John Robb about the ideas in his recent essay "Blitzing DC," about how a networked organization took over Washington. They discuss the early roots of network warfare in Iraq, McLuhan-esque societal rewiring, open source dynamics & plausible promise, the Arab Spring & Occupy movements, empathy triggers, Trump's 2016 campaign as a hybrid swarm, The_Donald as a meme amplifier, the Blue Network's counter-response, the George Floyd protests & moral framework, censorship & 'the long night', digital rights & moderation, the Ukraine conflict & swarm response, the Red Network reconfiguration, digital ledgers & truth-seeking accounts, the professionalization of Red digital warriors, network decision-making at a societal level, the government contracting corruption, defense procurement issues, the D.C. area wealth concentration, the future of network organizations, and much more. Episode Transcript Global Guerrillas (Substack) JRS EP 254 - John Robb on What Went Wrong with America "Blitzing DC," by John Robb "The Open-Source War," by John Robb (New York Times) "Musk and Moderation," by Jim Rutt (Quillette) John Robb is an author, inventor, entrepreneur, technology analyst, astro engineer, and military pilot. He's started numerous successful technology companies, including one in the financial sector that sold for $295 million and one that pioneered the software we currently see in use at Facebook and Twitter. John's insight on technology and governance has appeared on the BBC, Fox News, National Public Radio, CNBC, The Economist, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek. John served as a pilot in a tier-one counter-terrorism unit that worked alongside Delta and Seal Team 6. He wrote the book Brave New War on the future of national security, and has advised the Joint Chiefs of Staff, NSA, DoD, CIA, and the House Armed Services Committee.

In this week's Gaslit Nation bonus show, we're joined by Olga Lautman, an expert on the Russian mafia. Her Substack, Trump Tyranny Tracker, is a vital resource documenting Trump's war against America, and the global war of fascism vs. democracy.    Olga made headlines recently by exposing connections between Trump's National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, and Russia, connected to SignalGate. (We call it the Kremlin Klown Kar for a reason!) Olga breaks down the implications of SignalGate and Trump's Putin-backed war against our democracy.     We also discuss a disturbing trend: an anti-war Russian scientist at Harvard was detained at immigration and faces deportation back to Russia, where she could be imprisoned or worse. This escalates alarm bells that the Trump regime is “disappearing” people, starting with the most vulnerable.    Olga offers insights on recent victories like the historic Democratic win in deep-red Trump country in Pennsylvania, as well as Trump's ongoing efforts to suppress votes and carry out his next coup. We also discuss whether to stay and fight or flee the country.   Stay and fight! Fleeing abroad, especially this early, is like obeying in advance.    Thank you to everyone who supports Gaslit Nation–we could not make this show without you! To listen to the full episode and get all bonus shows, all shows ad-free, and more, be sure to join our community on Patreon.com/Gaslit - discounted annual subscriptions are available.    Show Notes:   Tell Gov. Kathy Hochul NO mask ban in New York state! https://action.aclu.org/send-message/say-no-mask-bans-new-york   Signalgate: Trump Tries To Dodge Explosive National Security Scandal | All Of Them Should Be Fired https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihHU3IVVrfM&t=552s   Don't miss out on our upcoming Gaslit Nation book club discussion and more. For all the details, check the show notes! For March, we're reading Gene Sharp's revolutionary handbook From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, which informed revolts in Ukraine, the Arab Spring, Hong Kong, and beyond. Our March 31st salon at 4pm will open with a book club discussion of Dictatorship to Democracy. For April, we're reading (if you haven't already!) Octavia Butler's The Parable of the Sower, and May's book club pick is Total Resistance: Swiss Army Guide to Guerrilla Warefare And Underground Operations. Get ready to make some good trouble!  Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!   EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: March 31 4pm ET – Gaslit Nation Book Club: From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, which informed revolts in Ukraine, the Arab Spring, Hong Kong, and beyond  NEW! April 7 4pm ET – Security Committee Presents at the Gaslit Nation Salon. Don't miss it!  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon. Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon. Have you taken Gaslit Nation's HyperNormalization Survey Yet? Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community 

What's the best way to fight evil? Laugh at fascist idiots and keep hunting Nazis, with your camera and the power of your voice.    This week, we're honored to welcome legend Sandi Bachom, an award-winning documentary filmmaker of such powerful films as Telling Jokes in Auschwitz and a Getty Images contributor whose work has appeared in acclaimed films like Laura Poitras's All The Beauty and All The Bloodshed, Danny's Strong's Dopesick, and Alex Gibney's Crime of the Century. But Sandi isn't just behind the camera—she's on the frontlines, documenting Nazis, like Trump's MAGA rallies, and the Charlottesville tiki torch march where Heather Heyer was murdered. Sandi was also at the Capitol on January 6th, capturing Trump's violent coup attempt in real time, footage used by the January 6 committee in Congress.  Stay loud. Stay brave. And as always—get ungaslit.    Join the Resistance Gaslit Nation Book Club: This Monday, March 31st at 4 PM ET, we're discussing From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp—the handbook that inspired revolutions from Ukraine to the Arab Spring. Grab your copy in the show notes and join us!  Share Your Story: History is unfolding now—and we need your eyewitness accounts. Take our Reject Hypernormalization Survey (linked in the show notes) to combat gaslighting and preserve the truth.   This week's episode is sponsored by Factor: Eat smart with Factor. Get started at FACTOR MEALS.com/gaslit50off to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping.    Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!   Show Notes:   Take Gaslit Nation's Reject Hypernormalization Survey https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/survey-reject-hypernormalization   Read or listen to for free: Gene Sharp's From Dictatorship to Democracy https://archive.org/details/from_dictatorship_to_democracy_1306_librivox   Patti Smith clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxqhg6z-t9o   Humiliation as Propaganda: Videos of Shackled Detainees Have History in El Salvador https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/world/americas/deportation-videos-el-salvador.html Amid ‘DEI' purge, Pentagon removes webpage on Iwo Jima flag-raiser Pages celebrating Navajo code talkers and other minority service members were also erased. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2025/03/17/pentagon-dei-native-american-iwo-jima/     Olga Lautman unmasks the making of a Russian/Trump group chat: https://x.com/OlgaNYC1211/status/1904344536521797806   EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: March 31 4pm ET – Gaslit Nation Book Club: From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, which informed revolts in Ukraine, the Arab Spring, Hong Kong, and beyond NEW! April 7 4pm ET – Security Committee Presents at the Gaslit Nation Salon. Don't miss it! Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon.  Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal groupavailable on Patreon.  Have you taken Gaslit Nation's HyperNormalization Survey Yet?: https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/survey-reject-hypernormalization Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community  

Here's the first half of our recording of Monday's Gaslit Nation Salon with Dr. Lisa Corrigan, author of Prison Power: How Prison Politics Influenced the Movement for Black Liberation, and Black Feelings: Race and Affect in the Long Sixties. Dr. Corrigan is the Director of the Gender Studies Program at the University of Arkansas, and Affiliate Faculty in both African & African American Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies. The full discussion was over two hours, with Dr. Corrigan staying on to answer listeners' questions. Patreon supporters can find the full two-hour video recording of our discussion at Patreon.com/Gaslit. See you at Monday's salon at 4pm ET with Rise and Resist!  If you need to channel your rage and grief, especially after this recording, be sure to read Gaslit Nation's book of the month, From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp, which has inspired revolts around the world. Consider contributing in any way you can to crucial state races like Josh Weil's campaign in Florida and Judge Susan Crawford for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Every act of love and solidarity for our families and communities—whether it's showing up to protests, making calls, or donating what you can—makes a real difference. Gaslit Nation's salon on Monday at 4pm will be co-hosted by Rise and Resist, the protest group haunting Elon Musk's nightmares. Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!   EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: March 31 4pm ET – Gaslit Nation Book Club: From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, which informed revolts in Ukraine, the Arab Spring, Hong Kong, and beyond  NEW! April 7 4pm ET – Security Committee Presents at the Gaslit Nation Salon. Don't miss it!  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon. Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon. Have you taken Gaslit Nation's HyperNormalization Survey Yet? Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community  Show Notes: Meet Dr. Lisa Corrigan https://gender-studies.uark.edu/directory.php?uid=lcorriga Prison Power How Prison Influenced the Movement for Black Liberation https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/B/Black-Feelings Black Feelings Race and Affect in the Long Sixties https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/B/Black-Feelings Trump and Musk pluck $80M in funding authorized by Congress from NYC's bank account: The federal government took funds from the city's bank account and called it a “clawback” of taxpayer money. A lot of other people would call it stealing. https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-elon-musk-new-york-city-fema-funds-rcna192255 From Dictatorship to Democracy: https://archive.org/details/from_dictatorship_to_democracy_1306_librivox Josh Weil for Congress https://joshweil.us/ Judge Crawford for Wisconsin Supreme Court https://www.crawfordforwi.com/    

What's the easiest way for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to invade Canada? Simple: Have voters sit out the upcoming election and let Pierre Poilievre become Prime Minister. If you're Canadian—especially if you live abroad—now's the time to get organized. Make sure you and at least five of your family and friends have a plan to vote. Not sure if you're registered? Check here! Voting from abroad? Double-check your registration and make sure you've got everything you need by visiting this link. In this week's Gaslit Nation Canada Super Special, we're joined by the amazing Leigh McGowan from Politics Girl, plus Marcus Kolga, a Canadian writer, filmmaker, and human rights advocate. Marcus is an expert on Russian and Central/Eastern European issues and Kremlin disinformation. He regularly shares his insights in top publications like The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Maclean's, and The Atlantic Council. Marcus also played a crucial role in the Canadian campaign for the Magnitsky human rights sanctions and has helped drive similar efforts in Estonia, Latvia, Sweden, and Australia. His expertise has taken him to testify before parliaments in the UK, Australia, and Canada, covering everything from Russian disinformation to Interpol reform. Currently, he's a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Centre for Advancing Canada's Interests Abroad. This week's bonus show will be our live discussion with Dr. Lisa Corrigan, author of Prison Power: How Prison Politics Influenced the Movement for Black Liberation and Black Feelings: Race and Affect in the Long Sixties. Dr. Corrigan is the Director of the Gender Studies Program at the University of Arkansas and also teaches in both African & African American Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies.   Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!   EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: March 17 4pm ET – Dr. Lisa Corrigan joins our Gaslit Nation Salon to discuss America's private prison crisis in an age of fascist scapegoating  March 31 4pm ET – Gaslit Nation Book Club: From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, which informed revolts in Ukraine, the Arab Spring, Hong Kong, and beyond  NEW! April 7 4pm ET – Security Committee Presents at the Gaslit Nation Salon. Don't miss it!  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon.  Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon.  Have you taken Gaslit Nation's HyperNormalization Survey Yet? Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community    Show Notes: Ways to Vote in Canada https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=vote&document=index&lang=e How Canadians Can Vote Abroad https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/living-abroad/elections-faq Meet Politics Girl https://www.politicsgirl.com/ Meet Marcus Kolga https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/cm-expert/marcus-kolga/ Nadia Guerrera for Parkdale–High Park https://nadiaguerrera.ca/  Clip: Dropkick Murphys call out a Nazi at their Boston show https://bsky.app/profile/meidastouch.com/post/3lkhxscnvws2x Clip: Stephen Marche on why the US can't occupy Canada https://bsky.app/profile/jimmyalto.bsky.social/post/3lkgixldo6s2t Want to topple a dictator? Gaslit Nation Book Club: From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480x270/p08qz3w0.jpg.webp

Just months after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, Syria has been rocked by an eruption of violence. Coastal towns have turned into killing fields, with forces aligned with the government accused of massacring hundreds of civilians from religious minorities. The Syrian online space is also littered with misinformation - part of an information war that is inciting sectarian fear and deepening divisions, in a country still raw from years of civil war and decades under a brutal regime. Lead contributors: Zaina Erhaim – Journalist Ahmad Primo – Founder, Verify Syria Ola Suliman – Campaigns lead, The Syria Campaign Rim Turkmani – Syria research programme director, LSE On our radar: The Trump White House is waging an unprecedented crackdown on pro-Palestine activism on university campuses. Meenakshi Ravi reports on Mahmoud Khalil - a Columbia graduate and, in theory, permanent US resident, who now faces deportation. ICE's PR blitz: Immigration raids as entertainment In Trump's America, immigration enforcement isn't just policy - it's a spectacle. With ICE raids increasingly staged for the cameras, and journalists given front-row access to capture dramatic arrests, is it law and order or a made-for-TV performance? The Listening Post's Tariq Nafi explores the media's role in shaping the immigration debate. Featuring: Patrick Bet-David – Host, PBD podcast Michelle Garcia – Journalist and author Abraham Paulos – Deputy director, Black Alliance for Just Immigration

What's the Republican spending bill all about? It's an extremely dangerous powergab engineered by Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House and dirty lawyer who came up with the legal strategy to try to overturn the 2020 election. The Republican spending bill essentially grants legal protections to Trump and Musk's ongoing illegal mass purge, to protect them against court orders–one of the last levers of power we have left. Any Democrat who votes for this is complicit in Trump and Musk's tech-backed coup, illegally mass firing federal workers to replace them with an A.I. surveillance state. This week's episode continues our conversation with Gil Durán of the Third Reich and FrameLab newsletters on Controlled Opposition—those Vichy Democrats who refuse to stand up to the fascist Republicans in power. But why? What's in it for them? In a dictatorship, no one is safe—not even former allies like Putin, who've found themselves mysteriously falling out of windows or exploding mid-air. Why are some Democrats still playing the role of complicit bystanders? The Senate is gearing up to vote on the extreme Republican spending bill, which slashes life-saving programs like Head Start and community health centers, while funneling billions to the Pentagon and Homeland Security. At a time when Trump is threatening to invade Canada and Greenland, and ICE is denying due process to green card holders like Mahmoud Khalil, the stakes couldn't be higher. The bill also cuts Washington, DC's budget—an attempt to punish the city for daring to protest Trump's corrupt regime. But here's the thing: shutting down the government doesn't empower Trump or Musk—it forces Democrats to get on the front lines and expose the Republican spending bill for what it really is: a power grab designed to protect Trump and Musk's illegal tech-backed coup. There's hope, though. While Trump and Musk face a future of justice (their approval ratings are plummeting), we need to keep fighting back.  Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit! Show Notes:  The Nerd Reich https://www.thenerdreich.com/    FrameLab https://www.theframelab.org/   Chuck Schumer and Senate Dems are expected to help advance the GOP spending bill, which Republicans say would let Trump defund whatever projects he wants https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-republican-cr-budget-bill-nightmare-democrats-1235296004/   The 10 Democrats who voted to censure Rep. Al Green are misreading the moment https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/al-green-trump-resistance-democracy-rcna195314   Crypto cash is flooding the 2024 election. Here's who's benefiting. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2024/crypto-firms-candidates-house-senate-election-2024/   Facebook cofounder Sean Parker illegally damages redwood forest for fantasy Game of Thrones wedding https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2024/crypto-firms-candidates-house-senate-election-2024/   Rep. Al Green Speaking in Congress https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3ljo4v6aip223   Congressional Supporters of Al Green Sing “We Shall Overcome” in Congress https://bsky.app/profile/ariellaelm.bsky.social/post/3ljqoabwcps2i   Some Democrats Endorse Bill Allowing Elon Musk to Create His Own Currency The GENIUS Act is the first pro-crypto bill Republicans want to rush through this Congress. Thanks to industry money, several Democrats are ignoring the bill's major problems. https://prospect.org/power/2025-03-10-some-democrats-endorse-bill-allowing-elon-musk-create-own-currency/   These 10 Democrats voted to censure Al Green https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5180324-10-house-democrats-censure-al-green/   Announcement! Are you concerned about what the broligarchy is doing with your data but feeling overwhelmed by all the tech? Do you get frustrated by the erosion of your sense of privacy and yet are unsure of what steps you, as a non-techie individual, can do?    Join us on Monday April 7th for a special edition of the Gaslit Nation salon when representatives from the Gaslit Nation Security Committee will share a plan for taking control of your data, protecting your privacy, and regaining data sovereignty in an age of surveillance capitalism.    This presentation will be geared towards non-techies and will help you prioritize steps you can take today to secure your data. Attendees will receive the following documents in a PDF: surveillance awareness self-assessment, prioritized action plan checklist, a calendar for the first thirty days of taking control of your data, and a copy of the presentation slides.   EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: March 17 4pm ET – Dr. Lisa Corrigan joins our Gaslit Nation Salon to discuss America's private prison crisis in an age of fascist scapegoating  March 31 4pm ET – Gaslit Nation Book Club: From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, which informed revolts in Ukraine, the Arab Spring, Hong Kong, and beyond  NEW! April 7 4pm ET – Security Committee Presents at the Gaslit Nation Salon. Don't miss it!  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon. Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon. Have you taken Gaslit Nation's HyperNormalization Survey Yet? Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community 

How do we fight back against the broligarchs? Journalist Gil Durán, of the must-read newsletters Nerd Reich and FrameLab, shows the way, in this week's Gaslit Nation.    Jean-Paul Sartre's famous line, “Hell is other people,” from his play No Exit, written in Nazi-occupied France, captured a grievance that mirrored the era's ideological clashes—fascism, communism, and isolationism, often overlapping and competing, fueling Stalin's genocides, the Holocaust, and World War II. The solution to sharing society with others, it seemed, was elimination: kill them.    This is why democracies rely on tolerance—you don't have to like my existence, but you must let me exist in peace. Yet today's tech oligarchs, having amassed unimaginable wealth, would rather invest billions in creating tech colonies and new religions to justify mass murder, enslavement, and C.E.O. king fiefdoms than address world hunger, provide free education, and strengthen social safety nets. Their vision isn't coexistence—they're building an anti-empathy billionaire bunker cult.    Gil Durán, a San Francisco journalist and former editorial page editor of The Sacramento Bee and The San Francisco Examiner, has a front-row view of the rise of the broligarchs, analyzing their fascist justifications for cruelty in his popular newsletter, Nerd Reich. Durán spent over a decade in California politics, serving as chief communications strategist for Governor Jerry Brown, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Attorney General Kamala Harris. His work has appeared in The New Republic, Esquire, and PBS. He co-founded Framelab, a newsletter on politics, language, and the brain, with Dr. George Lakoff. Most importantly we discuss: how do we defeat the Nerd Reich and the Vichy Democrats?    This week's bonus for our Patreon subscribers at the Truth-teller level and higher continues with Gil Durán of Nerd Reich, examining Democratic leaders as controlled opposition—public allies secretly serving the oligarchs. Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!   Show Notes:   The Nerd Reich by Gil Durán https://www.thenerdreich.com/   FrameLab https://www.theframelab.org/   Trump on Charter Cities: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-a-new-quantum-leap-to-revolutionize-the-american-standard-of-living   One of Peter Thiel's favorite book: The Sovereign Individual: How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780684810072 Find a Tesla Takedown Protest near you: https://www.teslatakedown.com/   Download/print fliers made by Rise and Resist: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NsdVaglj2-qbaUxPL-aXlPSSMbnjAPV-/view?usp=sharing   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rCUHIzHfJunm2fnZzdm2sMUWlRYeUtGg/view?usp=sharing   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MfkQlear-zAGgpkth6j_r85sSoXihilr/view?usp=sharing   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fXKCdNCrkPOL8nYI8I9WU7-DGIAGHSXb/view?usp=sharing   https://drive.google.com/file/d/14oYKLO_vzVzEU1sxXSaH1kd_lZ1ylaOG/view?usp=sharing   Clip: Elon Musk realizes he might lose his empire: https://bsky.app/profile/internetceleb.bsky.social/post/3lk2rd73f422n   Robert Reich on Twitter: “When Trump was sworn in, Elon Musk's corporations were under more than 32 investigations conducted by at least 11 federal agencies. Most of the cases are now closed or likely to be closed soon, and the federal agencies are being defanged by DOGE. Funny how that works, huh?” https://x.com/RBReich/status/1898780869092884808   Andrea on Bluesky: “Start building a case for Trump and Musk to be arrested by the International Criminal Court” https://bsky.app/profile/andreachalupa.bsky.social/post/3lk47dkixgs2k   EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: March 17 4pm ET – Dr. Lisa Corrigan joins our Gaslit Nation Salon to discuss America's private prison crisis in an age of fascist scapegoating  March 31 4pm ET – Gaslit Nation Book Club: From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, which informed revolts in Ukraine, the Arab Spring, Hong Kong, and beyond  NEW! April 7 4pm ET – Security Committee Presents at the Gaslit Nation Salon. Don't miss it!  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon. Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon. Have you taken Gaslit Nation's HyperNormalization Survey Yet? Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community 

This week on Conflicted, Ronnie Hamada is back with Thomas to describe his experiences as a Kurdish civilian during the Syrian Civil War, as we continue our retrospective on that most complex of conflicts. And this week, after setting up some Kurdish history last time, Ronnie takes us through what it was like to live through the Arab Spring protests as a university student, where he saw his classmates attacked by Assad backed thugs, and as violence increased around him by the day. In a gripping conversation, Ronnie recounts some harrowing experiences, detailing a terrifying robbery at an internet cafe, the escalating violence in Aleppo, and the eventual decision to flee to Afrin. He shares the impact of the war on civilians, the rise of the PYD and YPG, and his family's efforts to navigate the chaos.  New Conflicted Season 5 episodes will be coming every two weeks, but if you want to have your Conflicted fix every single week, then you'll have to join our Conflicted Community. Subscribers will get bonus episodes every other week, and can also join our Conflicted Community chatroom, where you can interact with fellow dearest listeners, discuss episodes past and future, get exclusive messages from Thomas and Aimen, ask future Q&A questions and so much more. All the information you need to sign up to the Conflicted Community is on this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  Conflicted is proudly made by Message Heard, a full-stack podcast production agency which uses its extensive expertise to make its own shows such as Conflicted, shows for commissioners such as the BBC, Spotify and Al Jazeera, and powerfully effective podcasts for other companies too. If you'd like to find out how we can help get your organisation's message heard, visit messageheard.com or drop an email to hello@messageheard.com! Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Syria's complex history and politics led to the overthrow of Bashar Al Assad on December 8, 2024 – as unexpected as the Arab Spring revolutions that gripped the Middle East thirteen years earlier.   Located at the center of regional competition, the nation of Syria will continue to experience foreign intervention from its neighbors, as well as the United States.  Meanwhile, the millions of Syrian refugees outside the country are gradually returning to rebuild their homeland.  Host Sahar Aziz speaks with Professor Bassam Haddad about the origins of Syria's uprising in 2011 that culminated in the overthrow of the Assad regime in 2024, the current uncertainty of Syria in regional politics, and what to expect in U.S. Middle East policy under the second Trump administration.Support the Center for Security, Race and Rights by following us and making a donation at https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rucsrr Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr Follow us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/rucsrr Follow us on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/rucsrr Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://csrr.rutgers.edu/newsroom/sign-up-for-newsletter/

This motivating discussion was supposed to run earlier, but then the third year anniversary of Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine was marked by Trump viciously reminding the world he works for Russia by kicking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of the White House, after he, Vance, and MTG's boyfriend tried to ambush the war hero.    In our recorded first ever Gaslit Nation book club, we discussed Albert Camus' The Stranger (Matthew Ward translation) and Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, to see what wisdom they hold for us today, and how these two works “talk to each other.”    For March, we're reading Gene Sharp's revolutionary handbook From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, which informed revolts in Ukraine, the Arab Spring, Hong Kong, and beyond. Our March 31st salon at 4pm will open with a book club discussion of Dictatorship to Democracy. For April, we're reading (if you haven't already!) Octavia Butler's The Parable of the Sower, and May's book club pick is Total Resistance: Swiss Army Guide to Guerrilla Warefare And Underground Operations. Get ready to make some good trouble!    To hear the full discussion, be sure to join our community on Patreon. Thank you to everyone who supports Gaslit Nation–we could not make this show without you!    Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit! EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: March 17 4pm ET – Dr. Lisa Corrigan joins our Gaslit Nation Salon to discuss America's private prison crisis in an age of fascist scapegoating  March 31 4pm ET – Gaslit Nation Book Club: From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, which informed revolts in Ukraine, the Arab Spring, Hong Kong, and beyond  NEW! April 7 4pm ET – Security Committee Presents at the Gaslit Nation Salon. Don't miss it!  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available here Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available here Have you taken Gaslit Nation's HyperNormalization Survey Yet? Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community   

Who is "Woke Jesus"? It's the actual Jesus from the Bible—the dark-skinned Jewish revolutionary who advocated for feeding the poor and healing the sick. The Christian nationalists who use Trump's MAGA movement as a weapon against our democracy are also at war with Jesus, as this week's guest explains. By the strictest definition, doesn't that make Trump the anti-Christ?    Investigative journalist Katherine Stewart, author of the new book Money, Lies, and God, examines the right-wing Libertarian elites taking over our democracy through white Christian nationalist foot soldiers and offers ways to fight back. Stewart is also the author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism and The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children. Her journey included witnessing Christian nationalist recruitment and hate campaigns take root in her child's public school. As Andrea discuses in the opening of this week's show, MAGA/Russia are weakening the U.S. from within (mass purge, trade war, declaring war on experts, etc.) so that we're scared and confused, and easier to conquer. We won't let them win.    Thank you to everyone who joined Gaslit Nation's first book club last month! For March, we're reading Gene Sharp's revolutionary handbook From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, which informed revolts in Ukraine, the Arab Spring, Hong Kong, and beyond. Our March 31st salon at 4pm will open with a book club discussion of Dictatorship to Democracy. For April, we're reading (if you haven't already!) Octavia Butler's The Parable of the Sower, and May's book club pick is Total Resistance: Swiss Army Guide to Guerrilla Warefare And Underground Operations. Get ready to make some good trouble!    EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: March 17 4pm ET – Dr. Lisa Corrigan joins our Gaslit Nation Salon to discuss America's private prison crisis in an age of fascist scapegoating  March 31 4pm ET – Gaslit Nation Book Club: From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, which informed revolts in Ukraine, the Arab Spring, Hong Kong, and beyond  NEW! April 7 4pm ET – Security Committee Presents at the Gaslit Nation Salon. Don't miss it!  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join on Patreon.com/Gaslit.  Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group on Patreon.com/Gaslit.  Have you taken Gaslit Nation's HyperNormalization Survey Yet? Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community  Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!   Show Notes:   Voting is an act of fact checking: The dictator or wannabe dictator claims legitimacy. By voting, even if your vote is illegally not counted, your presence casting the vote adds up, and together the exit polls can indicate whether the election was stolen. Look to Venezuela's grassroots powerhouse effort to count votes to prove the opposition won the election: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/10/gonzalez-proof-win-venezuela-election-vote-tally-maduro   Russia sought to influence LGBT voters with ‘Buff Bernie' ad: Materials made public in committee dump of Facebook propaganda https://www.washingtonblade.com/2017/11/01/russia-facebook-ad-sought-influence-lgbt-voters-buff-bernie/   The Insider reveals new details of Russian intelligence scheme offering Taliban $200,000 bounties for killing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/01/09/the-insider-reveals-new-details-of-russian-intelligence-scheme-offering-taliban-200-000-bounties-for-killing-u-s-soldiers-in-afghanistan   Marisa Kabas on Blueskye: “SCOOP: Now that Linda McMahon is confirmed/sworn in as secretary, Trump will be imminently issuing an executive order eliminating the Department of Education. I've obtained a draft of an email that McMahon will be sending to staff re: the EO and the department's “final mission”. Here is a portion:” https://bsky.app/profile/marisakabas.bsky.social/post/3ljj64pfjzk2v   Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy by Katherine Stewart https://bookshop.org/p/books/money-lies-and-god-inside-the-movement-to-dismantle-american-democracy-katherine-stewart/21368231?ean=9781635578546&next=t&next=t   The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism by Katherine Stewart https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-power-worshippers-inside-the-dangerous-rise-of-religious-nationalism-katherine-stewart/8555591?ean=9781635577877&next=t&next=t   The Good News Club: The Religious Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children by Katherine Stewart https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-good-news-club-the-religious-right-s-stealth-assault-on-america-s-children-katherine-stewart/6717978?ean=9781610392198&next=t&next=t Download "From Dictatorship to Democracy" for free here:  https://archive.org/details/from_dictatorship_to_democracy_1306_librivox   Download "Total Resistance: Swiss Army Guide to Guerrilla Warefare And Underground Operations" https://archive.org/details/total-resistance-swiss-army-guide-to-guerilla-warfare-1965 Opening clip: https://x.com/theelishev/status/1896120665532719511 Clip: Trudeau: "I heard he talked about banking again this morning in a tweet, which doesn't make any sense because 16 banks are currently active in Canada holding about $113b worth of assets in this country, so American banks are alive and well and prospering in Canada. It's an example of not really being able to see what he wants ... what he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that'll make it easier to annex us." https://x.com/atrupar/status/1896962522764227069 Clip of Daryl Hannah at the Oscars: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1301955947523848 Clip: Conan Jokes About 'Anora' and Russia At The Oscars 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiwBNniPhR8  

This week for our Conflicted Community members, we return to Yemen for an interview with, Dr Elisabeth Kendall, an academic whose work has covered so many varied manifestations of the country's culture, politics, and the conflict that has engulfed it for the past decade. Elisabeth is a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Cambridge, where she is also the Mistress of Girton College. Her research explores how militant jihad groups use 'soft' culture (poetry, literature, song) and harness local grievances, to recruit and win toleration in the broader community, and she has spent significant time in Yemen, carrying out research, while also following the ongoing war. Thomas and Elisabeth discuss her journey into the field, and the complexities of Yemeni politics, particularly during the Arab Spring, emphasising the importance of primary sources in understanding jihadism and critiques the international community's role in Yemen's political landscape. They discuss the complex dynamics of the Yemeni conflict, exploring the roles of various international and regional actors, the evolution of the Houthis, and the challenges of achieving peace. And to end, they have a fascinating discussion on the significance of poetry in jihadist culture, illustrating how it serves as a tool for propaganda and emotional engagement. To listen to the full episode, you'll need to subscribe to the Conflicted Community. And don't forget, subscribers can also join our Conflicted Community chatroom, where you can interact with fellow dearest listeners, discuss episodes past and future, get exclusive messages from Thomas and Aimen, ask future Q&A questions and so much more. All the information you need to sign up is on this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  Conflicted is proudly made by Message Heard, a full-stack podcast production agency which uses its extensive expertise to make its own shows such as Conflicted, shows for commissioners such as the BBC, Spotify and Al Jazeera, and powerfully effective podcasts for other companies too. If you'd like to find out how we can help get your organisation's message heard, visit messageheard.com or drop an email to hello@messageheard.com! Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on Conflicted, we begin in earnest our retrospective on the Syrian Civil War, where we will be inviting actual Syrians from a multitude of different perspectives, to tell us about their experiences of the war.  After setting the scene with our old friend Wassim Nasr last time, over our upcoming episodes, we'll be creating a kind of narrative history for you, our listeners, as we make sense of this most complex of conflicts from as many angles as we can. In this episode, Thomas invites on Syrian Kurd Ronnie Hamada to delve into the complexities of the Syrian Civil War, focusing on the Kurdish experience and setting the scene with their historical identity.  Ronnie has been working in data and analysis of conflicts in Syria and the wider Middle East for the past 10 years, working alongside journalists and NGOs to map conflicts and combat misinformation, and his story of life under siege in Aleppo and Afrin is an extraordinary one… They explore the historical context of Kurdish nationalism, the impact of Arab nationalism, and the political dynamics within Kurdish communities in Syria. Ronnie shares his personal story and insights, highlighting the challenges faced by Kurds, including statelessness and cultural repression and the intricate dynamics of Kurdish identity and politics in Syria, particularly in the context of the Arab Spring. New Conflicted Season 5 episodes will be coming every two weeks, but if you want to have your Conflicted fix every single week, then you'll have to join our Conflicted Community. Subscribers will get bonus episodes every other week, and can also join our Conflicted Community chatroom, where you can interact with fellow dearest listeners, discuss episodes past and future, get exclusive messages from Thomas and Aimen, ask future Q&A questions and so much more. All the information you need to sign up to the Conflicted Community is on this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  Conflicted is proudly made by Message Heard, a full-stack podcast production agency which uses its extensive expertise to make its own shows such as Conflicted, shows for commissioners such as the BBC, Spotify and Al Jazeera, and powerfully effective podcasts for other companies too. If you'd like to find out how we can help get your organisation's message heard, visit messageheard.com or drop an email to hello@messageheard.com! Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The fight for immigrant rights is at a crossroads. With the second Trump administration bringing unprecedented legal and financial attacks, many advocates and professionals are asking: How can we do more to empower immigrants right now, beyond defensive legal battles?In this episode of SYNARCHY, host and Immigrant Finance® Co-Founder Adina Appelbaum speaks directly to change-lmakers, advocates, and professionals who are ready to step up and create real, lasting impact for immigrant communities. She draws on insights from her time living in Egypt during the Arab Spring, underscoring the role of social movements and the power of hope, collective action, and resilience.She calls for the urgent need to move beyond defense mode and shift into building long-term solutions that create a better world, for example immigrant financial resilience, to make lasting change.Adina introduces the Immigrant Finance® Certification Program, a new initiative designed for those who want to go beyond advocacy and equip immigrants with the financial tools to build wealth, security, and power.

This week for our Conflicted Community members, we have an interview with the Egyptian political activist Dalia Ziada, whose incredible personal story crosses so many of the major events in the modern middle east, from the Arab Spring, to October 7th. Dalia is an award-winning Egyptian writer and political analyst whose work focuses on governance, geopolitics, and defense policy. In Egypt, she co-founded the Liberal Democracy Institute in 2015, she is the Executive Director of the Center for Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean Studies and also serves as a board member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Egypt's National Council for Women. She's a frequent media commentator, advocating for women's rights and against female genital mutilation in the Muslim World, and she is the author of multiple books, including “The Curious Case of the Three-Legged Wolf - Egypt: Military, Islamism, and Liberal Democracy”, on the Arab Spring and its fallout in Egypt. In a wide ranging conversation, Thomas and Dalia discuss her story of liberal activism in Egypt, teaching herself out of antisemitism, the Arab Spring, October 7th, and more… To listen to the full episode, you'll need to subscribe to the Conflicted Community. And don't forget, subscribers can also join our Conflicted Community chatroom, where you can interact with fellow dearest listeners, discuss episodes past and future, get exclusive messages from Thomas and Aimen, ask future Q&A questions and so much more. All the information you need to sign up is on this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  Conflicted is proudly made by Message Heard, a full-stack podcast production agency which uses its extensive expertise to make its own shows such as Conflicted, shows for commissioners such as the BBC, Spotify and Al Jazeera, and powerfully effective podcasts for other companies too. If you'd like to find out how we can help get your organisation's message heard, visit messageheard.com or drop an email to hello@messageheard.com! Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Arab Spring hits THE NEWSROOM in its fifth episode ("Amen"), but once again Aaron Sorkin finds himself more concerned with Will McAvoy's workplace dramas, including a nefarious attempt by the ACN morning show to bring his downfall. PLUS: Was the '60s "the decade where everything changed"? At least one magazine cover believes so! PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/122160705

Bridget sits down with Curtis Yarvin, political theorist and writer formerly known as Mencius Moldbug. They discuss the road that brought Curtis to this point, his debate with Ilya Shapiro, whether capitalism requires democracy, whether oligarchs are more concerned with the outcomes of power rather then power itself, the Arab Spring, debating “isms”, why he believes the most peaceful and stable form of government is the monarchy, the truth about revolutions, why he's selective about his conspiracy theories, the Great No, the power of the executive branch, and why all Libs are basically conformists. Check out his Substack, Gray Mirror - https://bit.ly/WiW-GrayMirror --------------------------------------------------------------------- Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn't conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there's no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she'll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PHETASY IS a movement disguised as a company. We just want to make you laugh while the world burns. https://www.phetasy.com/ Buy PHETASY MERCH here: https://www.bridgetphetasy.com/ For more content, including the unedited version of Dumpster Fire, BTS content, writing, photos, livestreams and a kick-ass community, subscribe at https://phetasy.com/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bridgetphetasy/ Podcast - Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/walk-ins-welcome/id1437447846 https://open.spotify.com/show/7jbRU0qOjbxZJf9d49AHEh https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I3gqggwe23u6mnsdgqynu447wvaSupport the show

On Syria, the fall of Assad, and nationalism in the Middle-East. [Patreon Exclusive] Historian Djene Bajalan talks to Alex about a major rearrangement in the Levant. We discuss: Who are Syria's new rulers HTS, and what is their vision – if any? Did geopolitics really determine the fall of Assad and the Ba'ath Party? How HTS's victory is so profoundly different from Islamism in Iran 1979 Why 2025 finally closes the book on the Arab Spring – and on secular Arab nationalism Were the Kurds wrong to rely on US protection? And in the full episode we continue by discussing... Is Turkey the big winner of the decade? What the Left gets wrong on nationalism Civic versus ethnic nationalism, revisited What was democratic, liberal and revolutionary about nationalism – and whether it can be again How conservatives recuperate left-wing ideas, which were always conservative from the start Links: Djene's writing at Jacobin /95/ The Fall of Rojava? ft. Dani Ellis / Alexander Norton

So much can happen in 25 years…let's go back to how the 20th century began…in just a quarter century, we got radio, airplanes, the Great War, the Russian revolution, the Soviet Union, and the rise of Communism. The Titanic sank…women were empowered to vote…Einstein came up with the theory of relativity…Henry Ford changed manufacturing forever with the use of the assembly line, not to mention the introduction of cars. We also go stainless steel, the first x-ray machine, the zipper, neon lighting, and instant coffee…and that's just for starters. Now let's look at the first 25 years of the 21st century… 9/11 and the wars that followed…the rise of China as global power…the Arab Spring…an awareness of climate change…LGBT rights and social movements…covid…trump…the incorporation of the internet into everything. Now that the century is a quarter done, it's also a good time to look back on what happened in music…the short answer is “a lot”…but because change happened so consistently and was adopted by so many people, it's easy to lose perspective of how much things have changed since the clocks ticked over to January 1, 2000. Let's take stock of things…this is part two of the greatest rock moments of the millennium—so far. Songs in this episode: The Thermals - Here's Your Future Amy Winehouse - Rehab REM - Mine Smell Like Honey Joy Division - Transmission Women - Eyesore The Hives - Tick Tick Boom Presidents of the USA - Video Killed The Radio Star Twenty One Pilots - Heathens Our Lady Peace - Will The Future Blame Us U2 - The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since TechStuff first launched in 2008, a lot of stuff has happened in the world of tech. Join Jonathan as he looks back on a big tech story for each year of his experience in hosting a technology podcast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Air Date 12/28/2024 Decades of dictatorial rule in Syria have come to an end, leading to something else to be determined. Israel sprang into action taking control of Syrian land on their border. And no one seems to care what the US thinks of all this, which is telling. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Full Show Notes | Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Membership 20% off for the Holiday! Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Send the Gift of Membership! (Or on Patreon) Use our links to shop Bookshop.org and Libro.fm for a non-evil book and audiobook purchasing experience! Join our Discord community! KEY POINTS KP 1: Assad Ousted From Syria - The Muckrake Political Podcast - Air Date 12-10-24 KP 2: Assad downfall: Is the Arab Spring back from the dead? - Middle East Eye - Air Date 12-14-24 KP 3: Syria's Transition, Biden Migrant Detention Facilities Part 1 - American Prestige - Air Date 12-13-24 KP 4: Why is Israel bombing Syria? - The Take - Air Date 12-17-24 KP 5: “Lawless”: Marwan Bishara on Israel Bombing Syria 800 Times & Expanding Occupation of Golan Heights - Democracy Now! - Air Date 12-16-24 KP 6: Syria: Western Hypocrisy, Israeli Expansion & The Fall of Assad - Double Down News - Air Date 12-20-24 (53:44) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR On closing out the year DEEPER DIVES (56:35) SECTION A - THE SYRIAN PEOPLE (1:38:56) SECTION B - ISRAEL (2:03:38) SECTION C - HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND THE PROXY WAR SHOW IMAGE Description: The sun shining through a Syrian flag flying in the breeze against a clear sky. Credit: “Close up of Syrian flag” by Ahmed akasha, Pexels | License: Pexels   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastadon | Threads | X