Podcast appearances and mentions of Saddam Hussein

This episode is a re-release; it originally aired November 29, 2015. Women's rights activist and international humanitarian Zainab Salbi discusses her dedication to helping women in war-torn regions rebuild their lives. An Iraqi-American, Zainab talks about growing up in Saddam Hussein's inner circle, leading a life of privilege and luxury but also one of fear and terror. When she was 19 years old, Zainab left Iraq for an arranged marriage in the United States, which turned out to be abusive, forcing her to leave the marriage and start a new life. She later founded Women for Women International, a grassroots humanitarian and development organization dedicated to serving female survivors of war. Zainab talks about following her calling and what she's learned about humanity through her advocacy work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

https://www.patreon.com/raykump Support the show + get bonus episodes every week.Ray talks about the start of summer, the Strait of Hormuz, gas prices, the Washington Reflecting Pool, a strange Saddam Hussein book order, Pope Leo's warnings about AI, Catholic power politics, He-Man, the World Cup, grilling, summer projects, giant ant movies, and The Butterfly Effect.

Ein historischer Moment im Monterrey-Stadion: Dank des entscheidenden Tores von Stürmerstar Ayman Hussein bezwingt der Irak Bolivien mit 2 zu 1 und qualifiziert sich zum ersten Mal seit 40 Jahren wieder für eine Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft. Das gesamte Land befindet sich im Ausnahmezustand, denn für die Menschen im Irak bedeutet dieses Nationalteam weit mehr als nur Sport – es ist ein Spiegelbild ihrer eigenen, von Konflikten gezeichneten Geschichte und zugleich ein Symbol der Hoffnung. Nahost-Korrespondent Daniel Böhm erzählt im Gespräch mit Simon Schaffer von aktuellen und früheren Spielern, deren Lebensläufe von den Traumata der vergangenen Jahrzehnte geprägt sind. Gast: Daniel Böhm, Nahost-Korrespondent Host: Simon Schaffer Der ganze Text von Daniel Böhm mit noch mehr Spielern, etwa aus der ebenso legendären Mannschaft von 2007, gibt es [zu lesen bei der NZZ.](https://www.nzz.ch/international/irak-und-die-fussball-wm-sie-kamen-aus-der-hoelle-ld.10006510) Lust auf noch mehr digitale Inhalte der NZZ? [Probier`s drei Monate aus.](https://abo.nzz.ch/25077808-2/)

A version of this essay has been published by Open Magazine at https://openthemagazine.com/world/india-will-collapse-without-digital-sovereignty-and-pax-indica-lessons-from-hormuzBy now it is clear that the Iran War (or West Asia War) has been a disaster to all concerned, including the principals as well as assorted passersby. The massive amounts spent by the US (at last count $25 billion) are at least articulated; the bill for the enormous infrastructural and human suffering inflicted on Gulf states, in the theater of war, must be greater, by definition.The collateral damages suffered by the rest of the world from the cessation of trade through the Straits of Hormuz will presumably run into the trillions of dollars. As one of the worst affected, India, which imports 90% of its hydrocarbons from the Gulf, not to mention other essential items such as urea (for fertilizer), sulfuric acid, helium, etc., is on track to take a massive hit. As an article in The Economic Times said, “India must brace for broad-based economic shock”.Indian exports of up to $50 billion are also affected, especially agricultural products including perishable foodstuffs, but also gems and jewellery, electronics, textiles and garments. Some of this can be diverted via Oman and the UAE's Fujairah port, but much of it passes through the Straits of Hormuz and is potentially blocked and/or stranded at sea.The Hormuz closure is a body blow to India's economy. What can and will India do about it? The Indian State has a habit of rising to the challenge only when there is a crisis, while vegetating otherwise. The 1991 economic crisis is a case in point; the sanctions following “The Buddha is smiling”, and the denial of cryogenic rocket engines and supercomputers are other examples where the nation rallied. So were covid vaccines. Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention.Turning a threat into an opportunityIf I were to be an optimist, I could say that the current crisis is actually an opportunity. In fact, a major opportunity. My reading of the Iran War is that it is President Trump's strategic tit-for-tat against China for denying him rare earths and cutting off soybean purchases. In return Trump decided to deny China access to oil by closing access to Venezuela and Iran. Whether this will work, or whether the G2 condominium (read ‘surrender') will prevail, is unclear.But that is, in a sense, background noise that needs to be managed. India needs to focus on its own issues, of which I see several as critical, and the solution in general is to become Atmanirbhar, self-reliant, and from that, to create an Anti-Fragile nation:* National security/defense* Food security* Energy security* Digital security/narrative control* Trade securityThe first three do not need an explanation: they are obvious. Internal and external security are pre-requisites for any successful society. If India's hard-won food security can be threatened by external threats, then there needs to be some deep introspection. Energy security means diversification, both of hydrocarbon sources, and of types of energy, including renewables, nuclear, biomass, coal-based, and so on.Malign narratives and digital sovereigntyNarrative control is something that the Indian State has failed at so far; it is laughably easy to create hate speech against Indians and India (as has been demonstrated freely by any number of players, starting from the MAGA crowd, to Audrey Truschke to a”Cockroach Janata Party” and some nitwit Norwegian journalist in just the last fortnight) and there are no consequences to the culprits. It's enough to make me pine for Lee Kuan Yew's aggressive legal battles against the media.It's one thing if it were only a problem with foreigners, but with the massive spread of social media, and in particular generativeAI, it is becoming a serious domestic issue. Since India is an avid consumer of social media, and because generativeAI is trained on things like Wikipedia, X, Whatsapp and Google content, biased and motivated material becomes ensconced as The Truth. I have written about narrative warfare and manufacturing consent.This used to be a one-way tsunami of (mis)-information by legacy media, but now there is also the opposite: the wholesale and free vacuuming-up of Indian data (whatever happened to “data is the new oil”?). The “Great Firewall of China” both kept out foreign BIg Tech applications and prevented their plundering Chinese data: is that the way to go?Manufactured narratives are intended for regime change: all the color revolutions today are hatched with massive bot-farms funded by some combination of Deep State, CCP, ISI, Qatar etc. (for example the alleged Gen-Z uprisings that rocked Nepal, drove Sheikh Hasina out of Bangladesh). Thus muzzling malign narratives, and ensuring data security, are imperative.Even Singapore is not immune: it had to block anti-India narratives that likely originated from Chinese sources.A particularly striking example of narrative warfare is the virtual hate speech inducted into Wikipedia by deeply prejudiced anonymous editors. Ashley Rindsberg, who exposed the mighty New York Times' biases in his book The Gray Lady Winked, provides many examples of this.Of note to Indians and Hindus is his recent substack titled “Wikipedia's India War” where he identifies just four editors as having created most of the content condemning the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) in ‘Wikivoice', i.e. the allegedly neutral perspective of Wikipedia. They are, on the contrary, shown to be highly one-sided.As Rindsberg mentions, Wikipedia being central to generativeAI, the damage is baked into the world-view of all AI applications. Truly Orwellian. Says Rindsberg: “four… anonymous accounts can have an enormous impact on what millions of people believe to be the truth.” “Over four years (2021-2025), editors systematically erased HAF's identity as an American civil rights group, transforming its Wikipedia page into a heavily curated dossier of accusations.”Trade, and how the Spice Route was far superior to the Silk RoadFinally, something that is becoming increasingly important: ensuring freedom of trade. This is more than just freedom of navigation, although I find it instructive that Emperor Rajendra Chola sent a huge fleet 1,001 years ago simply to open up the Straits of Malacca. India can make an active attempt to regain primacy in Indian Ocean trade, the whole Pax indica idea.Here is another example of the power of narrative: we have been led to believe that the Silk Road to China was some major highway of commerce between ancient Rome and ancient China, but it was a term coined only in 1877 by the German Ferdinand von Richthofen. There was no highway. A large caravan might take six months, and with 500 camels traversing treacherous deserts and braving bandits, it might carry a maximum of 100 tons. That is puny.In comparison, on the Spice Route, a single stitched ship from Muziris could carry 400 tons of ivory, pepper, silk, tigers and elephants; and the historian Strabo around 1 CE talks about fleets of 250 ships going from Alexandria to India on a six-week monsoon-powered journey. That is 100,000 tons of merchandise. No wonder Pliny the Elder complained that Rome's treasuries were being emptied of gold by India.Simple question: where are hoards of ancient Roman coins found in Asia? Answer: not along the Silk Road. The hoards are in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.Today, it is possible for India to aspire to port-led development of trade, especially with the major ports at Trivandrum (Vizhinjam), Maharashtra (Vadhavan), and Great Nicobar (Galathea Bay). The underlying ‘software' of India's millennia-old trade competency was a ‘multi-protocol switch' as I pointed out, and today's India Stack can replicate that. Then there is the need for a blue-water navy: muscle to provide security on the Hormuz to Malacca sea-lanes.So there is a vision. How can India get there? This is where policy matters, as I discussed with policy expert Anuj Gupta. Policy, especially industrial policy, has had a bad reputation in certain circles because it was deemed to violate the virginal purity of classical capitalism. However, in a recent U-turn, even the World Bank admitted that industrial policy may not be all that bad, after all: the success of Japan, the Asian Tigers, and China can't be ignored.That leads to the question of why policy in India has produced mediocre outcomes, what is different now, and where the best use of policy might be.Industrial Policy: What went wrong in the past?There are many problems here. To begin with, the Soviet model, which Nehruvians swore by, was, in hindsight, a dead end. Second, there is the problem of governance: post-Independence bureaucrats have awkwardly borne the legacy of imperial hauteur and the needs of a developing society. Third, until recently, the bare necessities (food, electricity, road access) were not available to many citizens, and GDP growth was not their priority.There is also the culture of jugaad: of clever ways in which you overcome constraints through frugal improvisation and seat-of-the-pants making-do. This is fine for one-off things (e.g. converting a tractor trailer into a makeshift transport vehicle because your truck broke down), but it does not make for efficient and replicable industrial products. As The Economic Times said recently, it is time to junk jugaad. Quality has to become ingrained in people's minds.The issue of governance is significant: the bureaucracy and the judiciary have both under-performed, politicians, as everywhere, have been venal. It is said that China's growth can be attributed to the fact that its babus are engineers, and therefore with engineering ruthlessness move in straight lines. The US' babus are lawyers, and India's are humanities graduates. Well, engineers are not very good at second-order effects (eg. China's lurch from one-child policy to demographic collapse), but a little bit of ruthlessness is probably good.What is going reasonably well?There are a few modest success stories: for example, in electronics manufacturing or assembly. The PLIs (and DLIs) have produced the desired effort, with clusters of excellence where global suppliers have also set up shop (as they did earlier for the automobile industry in, say, Sriperumpudur). The fact that a lot of iPhones in the US are now imported from India is laudable, even though it may be derided as “screwdriver jobs”. That's where one starts the move up the value chain.The current semiconductor policy is a big hope, especially after the landmark agreement by the Dutch firm ASML with Tata Electronics in Dholera, Gujarat. Given that ASML has a near-monopoly position in Deep Ultraviolet Lithography (DUV) this is a major boost to India's chip ambitions. My recent conversation with AMD CTO Suraj Rengarajan went into India's chances to realize its ambitions.A recent announcement from Trivandrum-based fabless startup NetraSemi (a recipient of DLI) of the commercial availability of its edge AI chips is a landmark.Next is the newly announced plan for energy security revolving around both coal gasification and intensive offshore exploration. These fall squarely into the Atmanirbhar category: India simply cannot afford to have its energy held hostage by distant nations. It also needs distinctly Indian innovation.The Samudra Manthan initiative is also showing some promise. At least one out of three deep-water wells in the Andaman Sea (SriVijaya Puram-3) are reported to be showing the availability of natural gas, although it will take 5-10 years for this to be commercially available.What should the future look like for India's Industrial Policies?This of course is the hard question. Here is my personal perspective, and I accept that reasonable people may disagree. I think three areas need to be focused on, and will pay large dividends.* Drones and swarming software* Social media and AI stack* Maritime Trade and Blue-Water NavyI admit that these are not the only worthwhile industrial policies. Another is for copper, which would reverse the catastrophic effects of the closure of the Sterlite plant in Thoothukkudi, as the metal is an increasingly important component in electronics, data centers, etc., and far from being self-sufficient earlier, India now imports 50% of its needs. Another area of interest in quantum computing.There are also failures from which the right lessons need to be learned. The policy for EV batteries has apparently failed: according to Swarajya magazine, India has not been able to escape from near-total dependence on imported Chinese batteries.Drone swarmsI wrote recently that drones may well herald a step-change in warfare. For the moment, though, they are searching for their niche in offensive/defensive warfare. Drone hardware is already a well-trodden path with Chinese and other nations dominating it, although with IdeaForge, Paras, Garuda, IoTechworld Avigation etc., India is also making progress there. And India is indeed buying the hardware, $2 billion-worth, according to the Economic Times.But I believe the real game is in drone swarms. AI-based control software (similar to HiveMind) that would allow an entire swarm to act autonomously, just like a murmuration of starlings, would be the gold standard to aim for. Such a self-managing swarm would be virtually impossible to defend against, and I think India should put in place a PLI to support it, leveraging software capability in the country.Of course, drones are not just for military purposes, but also for commercial uses including things like logistics and agricultural use, such as precision delivery of fertilizer and pesticide to crops (as Garuda demonstrates). An Indian initiative that supports both drone hardware, and especially drone software, would be a potential winner.Digital Sovereignty: Social media and AI stackThere is a raging battle over which part of the AI stack India needs to invest in. As an old Unix hand, I believe the foundational model is not where the differentiation is. In analogy with Linux (the open-source Unix variant that was popularized by Linus Torvalds and an army of volunteers), there is little value in re-writing the operating system, but one can differentiate by building on top of it, or by judiciously choosing certain modules of it.Besides, the cost of building an entirely new foundational model would be astronomical and would consume the entire budget of IndiaAI Mission.Thus, my personal opinion is that the foundational model (especially when, it is believed, there are more or less open-source models available for free, e.g. Llama, DeepSeek) is not where India should expend its precious R&D resources, but on the layers of the stack above it. It is the data that matters, as Larry Ellison apparently suggests too.But there is the interesting counter-example of Sarvam AI which is producing its own sovereign model: multi-lingual and presumably otherwise tuned to Indian needs. The question is whether this can survive when hundreds of billions worth of capital investment are going to the US Big Tech companies and their Chinese rivals. The sad history of Koo, a Twitter rival, comes to mind. So does Arattai, a Whatsapp rival, whose popularity has waned. .A well-thought-through industrial policy on generativeAI is therefore essential. The status quo ante is unsustainable; given the fact that Sarvam has also found it difficult to raise funds in the US, it is worth pondering whether a China-style massive subsidy is the answer. And where should it go, into foundational models or into the layers of the stack above it? The answer is “both”, but with priority to the latter.Here is where I would prioritize investments, in order:* Vertical applications in specific domains: e.g. defense, healthcare, agriculture, governance (particularly in the judiciary and in ease of doing business in the bureaucracy)* Fine-tuning and customization: for the needs of the Indian context, e.g. multi-linguality under Bhashini* Compute infrastructure: GPUs, sovereign and protected indian datasets* Sovereign Small-Language Models such as Sarvam AIAs mentioned above, at the moment India's data is being sucked up for free by US Big Tech. In addition, there is the real danger that Indic Knowledge Systems will be mined and digested, as has happened to yoga, pranayama, etc., which have been given Western analogs and nomenclature, as in Pilates, ‘coherent breathing' etc.These two problems are connected, and both need to be tackled in parallel. Social media is being weaponized against India, and this is magnified by the legacy media in a positive feedback loop. Three examples: one was the rage against Adani based on the dubious research of Hindenburg, which then went under; the second is Bloomberg's reckless accusation about gold reserves being sold by the RBI, which they were forced to retract, but social media and Wikipedia will remember it; the third is the meteoric (media) rise of the Cockroach Janata Party.Trade using major ports, Digital Public Infrastructure and a blue water navyUsing trade for competitive advantage is an age-old tactic. The trade tiffs between the US and China are examples of this: we are witnessing war by other means. Many nations are getting into this act, and India does have some advantages, partly based on geography. Maritime trade is likely to continue to be the key, which makes naval chokepoints the big story, but not the only story to watch out for.The major aspects of maritime trade include infrastructure, the digital “multi-protocol switch”, and security. On the one hand, India is developing not only major container ports, and the road/rail links to get to them, and the industrial goods to ship out through them, but also a serious shipbuilding industry, which was one of India's historical strengths. Then it used to be stitched wooden ships (teak beams lashed together with coconut rope). Now it's modern steel ships.There are the big, efficient new ports, which can now turn ships around with Singapore-like efficiency; the proposed third aircraft carrier group which will make it possible to patrol the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal at the time; the Air-Independent Propulsion diesel submarines and nuclear submarines that can monitor (and if necessary, deny) narrow straits; the sale of supersonic Brahmos cruise missiles to the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia (and Cyprus) that create ship-denial zones: all this is muscle.And the final piece, the ‘software' for trade, the “multi-protocol switch”. This last is complicated. Its value is underestimated by many. But this is what enables friction-less transactions between various unrelated parties. The India Stack and the Digital Public Infrastructure can be utilized to provide such a facility. But it is complex enough to need significant study as to what is possible, and how to roll it out.Second-order effectsIn closing, it is worth considering some of what the (unintended) consequences of these proposals may be. Let us note that the G2 has no interest in allowing India to grow and make it a G3. They will do everything in their power to kneecap India, by all means possible.There is also a certain derision for India in some circles. Here is a generic western opinion on why China got rich, and India didn't. Well, the author doesn't consider the second-order effects of the wholesale destruction of Chinese civilization: that is a tradeoff Indians may not prefer for themselves. We all know how China's well-intentioned One Child Policy turned into demographic collapse within a few years. Besides, as The Economist asks, “China is innovative. Its economy is a mess. Which will win out?”This is why I think planning for these second-order effects is important. We tend to ignore them because they seem counterintuitive or unlikely, but Nassim Taleb has sensitized us to how low-probability Black Swan events can have grave consequences.As an example, attempting digital sovereignty may have unwelcome side-effects: Big Tech have the first-mover advantage and network effects and there are increasing returns to scale. They will surely make it hard for a new player to break in. Besides, the large investments in data centers and GCCs that they are making in India would make it very difficult for them to be ejected with a “Great Indian Firewall”.Even taxing their capture of Indian data will be complicated; not to mention that they have demonstrated that they can happily violate copyright laws with no consequence; therefore they will find ways to chew up and spit out Indian Knowledge Systems, and essentially re-colonize India. Digital colonialism is not a threat, it is a reality today, and it is a consequence of the relatively open Indian system.In addition, there is a malign group, the “barbarians within” as Arnold Toynbee once put it, who are ready to sacrifice Indian sovereignty for a pittance.Given all this, it will be very difficult to put in place serious measures to gain digital independence; and the narrative-peddling is likely to gain further momentum: just consider the caste allegations that have haunted BAPS in the US (despite the cases being dismissed by the US DoJ), the Cisco Systems case where, again, the case was dismissed, but the narrative continues, and the persistent efforts in various US states to turn caste into a weapon to bludgeon Indians.Another sensitive issue is that of the multi-protocol switch for trade. While from an Indian point of view, it eases trade and harks back to a Golden Age of Indic maritime commerce, but that will be viewed elsewhere very differently, for instance by the US as an attempt to de-dollarize. The US has jealousy guarded – with very good reasons that we will not go into here – the dollar's reserve currency status.We have also seen what happened to those who attempt to hurt the dollar's primacy: in 1985, the Plaza Accord devalued the dollar, and that was a body blow to Japan's economy, which has not recovered its mojo to this day. Later, Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi both had ideas about replacing the petro-dollar with, respectively, the Euro and a new pan-African gold-backed currency. We know what happened to them.If the India Stack multi-protocol switch is perceived as an alternative to the US dollar, there may be grave consequences. Therefore, it should be conceived and deployed only as an adjunct to it and to the almighty SWIFT settlement system.ConclusionIndia is at a crossroads now. Even though the Hormuz closure is a serious problem, if it plays its cards right, adversity can be turned into opportunity across a variety of perspectives. The key is Atmanirbhar, self-reliance. If India can now implement a crash program of industrial policy, and at the same time overcome an ingrained Third-World tendency to cut corners, it can finally break free of the years of underperformance, what I called the Nehruvian Penalty in 2004.It is possible, but there are caveats: unforeseen consequences. Hic sunt dracones. Here be dragons. Be afraid. Be very afraid.3700 words, 7 June 2026This is episode 192 of the Shadow Warrior podcast. Here is a companion AI-generated slideshow. (Note that the borders of India are not necessarily depicted correctly here, because it is generated by an AI, notebookLM.google.com) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/subscribe

We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2018: They fought for the Iranian revolution – and then for Saddam Hussein. The US and UK once condemned them. But now their opposition to Tehran has made them favourites of Trump White House hardliners By Arron Merat. Read by Lucy Scott. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture (Pegasus Books, 2026). Our discussion explored not only the story of a disappearing language, but also the broader questions of memory, identity, and what it means to inherit a fragile cultural legacy. At the heart of Ellis's book is Judeo-Iraqi Arabic—also known as Baghdadi Jewish Arabic or Hakimalna—a language once spoken by the Jews of Iraq. Rich with layers of Hebrew and Judeo-Babylonian Aramaic, it reflects over two millennia of Jewish life in the region. Today, however, it stands on the brink of extinction. As Ellis shared, a language is considered endangered when it is no longer passed on to children, and Judeo-Iraqi Arabic may have only about a thousand speakers remaining worldwide. Within a generation, it could fall silent. Ellis described a powerful turning point in her own awareness: a casual question from another parent about why she was not sending her son to a nursery that spoke “her language.” Her spontaneous response—“my language is dead”—became the catalyst for the journey that led to this book. That moment captures the quiet grief of linguistic loss, but also the urgency of preservation. Our conversation traced the long arc of Iraqi Jewish history, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE. Iraqi Jews lived in the region long before the arrival of Arabic, shifting over centuries from Hebrew to Aramaic and later to Arabic, while preserving distinctive linguistic features from earlier eras. This layered history lives on in the language itself. Yet the mass departures of Iraqi Jews in the mid-20th century—particularly the 1950–51 airlift—fractured this continuity. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Iraq. And yet, as Ellis emphasized, culture does not disappear all at once. Language may fade, but other forms of transmission endure. Food, in particular, becomes a powerful vessel of memory. Ellis initially resisted including recipes in her book, but came to understand that cooking is itself a kind of language—a sensory bridge to the past. The image of her mother carrying three rolling pins from Iraq is emblematic of this continuity: tangible objects that hold intangible heritage. Even the book's title gesture—“always carry salt”—evokes protective practices familiar across Mizrahi communities, small rituals that encode belief, memory, and identity. We also discussed the remarkable story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, discovered in 2003 in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters. The archive contains hundreds of thousands of documents—school records, letters, communal registers—offering an intimate portrait of everyday Jewish life in Iraq. Today, innovative projects are using AI to transcribe and translate these materials across multiple scripts, making them accessible to descendants and scholars alike. Yet the archive's ultimate fate remains uncertain, raising complex questions about ownership, memory, and cultural restitution. A particularly resonant theme in our conversation was Ellis's struggle with authenticity. As a second-generation Iraqi Jew raised in the UK, she grappled with whether she had the “right” to tell this story, especially without having visited Iraq herself. Her resolution—to be “authentic to me”—offers an important model for thinking about diasporic identity. Preservation, she suggests, does not require perfect replication. It allows for adaptation, creativity, even reinvention. One can honor tradition while also “messing with it,” whether by adjusting a recipe or reimagining inherited practices. Ellis introduces a beautiful concept she calls “milk language”—the language absorbed in early childhood, through intimacy and care, even if it is not the dominant language of one's environment. This idea invites us to reconsider how language lives within us, not only as a tool of communication but as a carrier of emotional and cultural memory. As an educator, I was especially struck by Ellis's closing insight and her implicit call to action: to speak with our elders while we still can. There is a profound difference between hearing fragments of family stories in childhood and sitting down, as an adult, to listen fully and intentionally. These conversations do more than preserve history; they create connection, continuity, and a deeper sense of self. Always Carry Salt is not only a memoir. It is an invitation—to remember, to document, and to carry forward what might otherwise be lost. In a time when so many cultural threads are at risk of unraveling, Ellis's work reminds us that preservation begins with attention, with curiosity, and with the willingness to listen. 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

I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture (Pegasus Books, 2026). Our discussion explored not only the story of a disappearing language, but also the broader questions of memory, identity, and what it means to inherit a fragile cultural legacy. At the heart of Ellis's book is Judeo-Iraqi Arabic—also known as Baghdadi Jewish Arabic or Hakimalna—a language once spoken by the Jews of Iraq. Rich with layers of Hebrew and Judeo-Babylonian Aramaic, it reflects over two millennia of Jewish life in the region. Today, however, it stands on the brink of extinction. As Ellis shared, a language is considered endangered when it is no longer passed on to children, and Judeo-Iraqi Arabic may have only about a thousand speakers remaining worldwide. Within a generation, it could fall silent. Ellis described a powerful turning point in her own awareness: a casual question from another parent about why she was not sending her son to a nursery that spoke “her language.” Her spontaneous response—“my language is dead”—became the catalyst for the journey that led to this book. That moment captures the quiet grief of linguistic loss, but also the urgency of preservation. Our conversation traced the long arc of Iraqi Jewish history, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE. Iraqi Jews lived in the region long before the arrival of Arabic, shifting over centuries from Hebrew to Aramaic and later to Arabic, while preserving distinctive linguistic features from earlier eras. This layered history lives on in the language itself. Yet the mass departures of Iraqi Jews in the mid-20th century—particularly the 1950–51 airlift—fractured this continuity. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Iraq. And yet, as Ellis emphasized, culture does not disappear all at once. Language may fade, but other forms of transmission endure. Food, in particular, becomes a powerful vessel of memory. Ellis initially resisted including recipes in her book, but came to understand that cooking is itself a kind of language—a sensory bridge to the past. The image of her mother carrying three rolling pins from Iraq is emblematic of this continuity: tangible objects that hold intangible heritage. Even the book's title gesture—“always carry salt”—evokes protective practices familiar across Mizrahi communities, small rituals that encode belief, memory, and identity. We also discussed the remarkable story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, discovered in 2003 in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters. The archive contains hundreds of thousands of documents—school records, letters, communal registers—offering an intimate portrait of everyday Jewish life in Iraq. Today, innovative projects are using AI to transcribe and translate these materials across multiple scripts, making them accessible to descendants and scholars alike. Yet the archive's ultimate fate remains uncertain, raising complex questions about ownership, memory, and cultural restitution. A particularly resonant theme in our conversation was Ellis's struggle with authenticity. As a second-generation Iraqi Jew raised in the UK, she grappled with whether she had the “right” to tell this story, especially without having visited Iraq herself. Her resolution—to be “authentic to me”—offers an important model for thinking about diasporic identity. Preservation, she suggests, does not require perfect replication. It allows for adaptation, creativity, even reinvention. One can honor tradition while also “messing with it,” whether by adjusting a recipe or reimagining inherited practices. Ellis introduces a beautiful concept she calls “milk language”—the language absorbed in early childhood, through intimacy and care, even if it is not the dominant language of one's environment. This idea invites us to reconsider how language lives within us, not only as a tool of communication but as a carrier of emotional and cultural memory. As an educator, I was especially struck by Ellis's closing insight and her implicit call to action: to speak with our elders while we still can. There is a profound difference between hearing fragments of family stories in childhood and sitting down, as an adult, to listen fully and intentionally. These conversations do more than preserve history; they create connection, continuity, and a deeper sense of self. Always Carry Salt is not only a memoir. It is an invitation—to remember, to document, and to carry forward what might otherwise be lost. In a time when so many cultural threads are at risk of unraveling, Ellis's work reminds us that preservation begins with attention, with curiosity, and with the willingness to listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies

I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture (Pegasus Books, 2026). Our discussion explored not only the story of a disappearing language, but also the broader questions of memory, identity, and what it means to inherit a fragile cultural legacy. At the heart of Ellis's book is Judeo-Iraqi Arabic—also known as Baghdadi Jewish Arabic or Hakimalna—a language once spoken by the Jews of Iraq. Rich with layers of Hebrew and Judeo-Babylonian Aramaic, it reflects over two millennia of Jewish life in the region. Today, however, it stands on the brink of extinction. As Ellis shared, a language is considered endangered when it is no longer passed on to children, and Judeo-Iraqi Arabic may have only about a thousand speakers remaining worldwide. Within a generation, it could fall silent. Ellis described a powerful turning point in her own awareness: a casual question from another parent about why she was not sending her son to a nursery that spoke “her language.” Her spontaneous response—“my language is dead”—became the catalyst for the journey that led to this book. That moment captures the quiet grief of linguistic loss, but also the urgency of preservation. Our conversation traced the long arc of Iraqi Jewish history, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE. Iraqi Jews lived in the region long before the arrival of Arabic, shifting over centuries from Hebrew to Aramaic and later to Arabic, while preserving distinctive linguistic features from earlier eras. This layered history lives on in the language itself. Yet the mass departures of Iraqi Jews in the mid-20th century—particularly the 1950–51 airlift—fractured this continuity. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Iraq. And yet, as Ellis emphasized, culture does not disappear all at once. Language may fade, but other forms of transmission endure. Food, in particular, becomes a powerful vessel of memory. Ellis initially resisted including recipes in her book, but came to understand that cooking is itself a kind of language—a sensory bridge to the past. The image of her mother carrying three rolling pins from Iraq is emblematic of this continuity: tangible objects that hold intangible heritage. Even the book's title gesture—“always carry salt”—evokes protective practices familiar across Mizrahi communities, small rituals that encode belief, memory, and identity. We also discussed the remarkable story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, discovered in 2003 in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters. The archive contains hundreds of thousands of documents—school records, letters, communal registers—offering an intimate portrait of everyday Jewish life in Iraq. Today, innovative projects are using AI to transcribe and translate these materials across multiple scripts, making them accessible to descendants and scholars alike. Yet the archive's ultimate fate remains uncertain, raising complex questions about ownership, memory, and cultural restitution. A particularly resonant theme in our conversation was Ellis's struggle with authenticity. As a second-generation Iraqi Jew raised in the UK, she grappled with whether she had the “right” to tell this story, especially without having visited Iraq herself. Her resolution—to be “authentic to me”—offers an important model for thinking about diasporic identity. Preservation, she suggests, does not require perfect replication. It allows for adaptation, creativity, even reinvention. One can honor tradition while also “messing with it,” whether by adjusting a recipe or reimagining inherited practices. Ellis introduces a beautiful concept she calls “milk language”—the language absorbed in early childhood, through intimacy and care, even if it is not the dominant language of one's environment. This idea invites us to reconsider how language lives within us, not only as a tool of communication but as a carrier of emotional and cultural memory. As an educator, I was especially struck by Ellis's closing insight and her implicit call to action: to speak with our elders while we still can. There is a profound difference between hearing fragments of family stories in childhood and sitting down, as an adult, to listen fully and intentionally. These conversations do more than preserve history; they create connection, continuity, and a deeper sense of self. Always Carry Salt is not only a memoir. It is an invitation—to remember, to document, and to carry forward what might otherwise be lost. In a time when so many cultural threads are at risk of unraveling, Ellis's work reminds us that preservation begins with attention, with curiosity, and with the willingness to listen. 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

I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture (Pegasus Books, 2026). Our discussion explored not only the story of a disappearing language, but also the broader questions of memory, identity, and what it means to inherit a fragile cultural legacy. At the heart of Ellis's book is Judeo-Iraqi Arabic—also known as Baghdadi Jewish Arabic or Hakimalna—a language once spoken by the Jews of Iraq. Rich with layers of Hebrew and Judeo-Babylonian Aramaic, it reflects over two millennia of Jewish life in the region. Today, however, it stands on the brink of extinction. As Ellis shared, a language is considered endangered when it is no longer passed on to children, and Judeo-Iraqi Arabic may have only about a thousand speakers remaining worldwide. Within a generation, it could fall silent. Ellis described a powerful turning point in her own awareness: a casual question from another parent about why she was not sending her son to a nursery that spoke “her language.” Her spontaneous response—“my language is dead”—became the catalyst for the journey that led to this book. That moment captures the quiet grief of linguistic loss, but also the urgency of preservation. Our conversation traced the long arc of Iraqi Jewish history, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE. Iraqi Jews lived in the region long before the arrival of Arabic, shifting over centuries from Hebrew to Aramaic and later to Arabic, while preserving distinctive linguistic features from earlier eras. This layered history lives on in the language itself. Yet the mass departures of Iraqi Jews in the mid-20th century—particularly the 1950–51 airlift—fractured this continuity. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Iraq. And yet, as Ellis emphasized, culture does not disappear all at once. Language may fade, but other forms of transmission endure. Food, in particular, becomes a powerful vessel of memory. Ellis initially resisted including recipes in her book, but came to understand that cooking is itself a kind of language—a sensory bridge to the past. The image of her mother carrying three rolling pins from Iraq is emblematic of this continuity: tangible objects that hold intangible heritage. Even the book's title gesture—“always carry salt”—evokes protective practices familiar across Mizrahi communities, small rituals that encode belief, memory, and identity. We also discussed the remarkable story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, discovered in 2003 in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters. The archive contains hundreds of thousands of documents—school records, letters, communal registers—offering an intimate portrait of everyday Jewish life in Iraq. Today, innovative projects are using AI to transcribe and translate these materials across multiple scripts, making them accessible to descendants and scholars alike. Yet the archive's ultimate fate remains uncertain, raising complex questions about ownership, memory, and cultural restitution. A particularly resonant theme in our conversation was Ellis's struggle with authenticity. As a second-generation Iraqi Jew raised in the UK, she grappled with whether she had the “right” to tell this story, especially without having visited Iraq herself. Her resolution—to be “authentic to me”—offers an important model for thinking about diasporic identity. Preservation, she suggests, does not require perfect replication. It allows for adaptation, creativity, even reinvention. One can honor tradition while also “messing with it,” whether by adjusting a recipe or reimagining inherited practices. Ellis introduces a beautiful concept she calls “milk language”—the language absorbed in early childhood, through intimacy and care, even if it is not the dominant language of one's environment. This idea invites us to reconsider how language lives within us, not only as a tool of communication but as a carrier of emotional and cultural memory. As an educator, I was especially struck by Ellis's closing insight and her implicit call to action: to speak with our elders while we still can. There is a profound difference between hearing fragments of family stories in childhood and sitting down, as an adult, to listen fully and intentionally. These conversations do more than preserve history; they create connection, continuity, and a deeper sense of self. Always Carry Salt is not only a memoir. It is an invitation—to remember, to document, and to carry forward what might otherwise be lost. In a time when so many cultural threads are at risk of unraveling, Ellis's work reminds us that preservation begins with attention, with curiosity, and with the willingness to listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture (Pegasus Books, 2026). Our discussion explored not only the story of a disappearing language, but also the broader questions of memory, identity, and what it means to inherit a fragile cultural legacy. At the heart of Ellis's book is Judeo-Iraqi Arabic—also known as Baghdadi Jewish Arabic or Hakimalna—a language once spoken by the Jews of Iraq. Rich with layers of Hebrew and Judeo-Babylonian Aramaic, it reflects over two millennia of Jewish life in the region. Today, however, it stands on the brink of extinction. As Ellis shared, a language is considered endangered when it is no longer passed on to children, and Judeo-Iraqi Arabic may have only about a thousand speakers remaining worldwide. Within a generation, it could fall silent. Ellis described a powerful turning point in her own awareness: a casual question from another parent about why she was not sending her son to a nursery that spoke “her language.” Her spontaneous response—“my language is dead”—became the catalyst for the journey that led to this book. That moment captures the quiet grief of linguistic loss, but also the urgency of preservation. Our conversation traced the long arc of Iraqi Jewish history, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE. Iraqi Jews lived in the region long before the arrival of Arabic, shifting over centuries from Hebrew to Aramaic and later to Arabic, while preserving distinctive linguistic features from earlier eras. This layered history lives on in the language itself. Yet the mass departures of Iraqi Jews in the mid-20th century—particularly the 1950–51 airlift—fractured this continuity. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Iraq. And yet, as Ellis emphasized, culture does not disappear all at once. Language may fade, but other forms of transmission endure. Food, in particular, becomes a powerful vessel of memory. Ellis initially resisted including recipes in her book, but came to understand that cooking is itself a kind of language—a sensory bridge to the past. The image of her mother carrying three rolling pins from Iraq is emblematic of this continuity: tangible objects that hold intangible heritage. Even the book's title gesture—“always carry salt”—evokes protective practices familiar across Mizrahi communities, small rituals that encode belief, memory, and identity. We also discussed the remarkable story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, discovered in 2003 in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters. The archive contains hundreds of thousands of documents—school records, letters, communal registers—offering an intimate portrait of everyday Jewish life in Iraq. Today, innovative projects are using AI to transcribe and translate these materials across multiple scripts, making them accessible to descendants and scholars alike. Yet the archive's ultimate fate remains uncertain, raising complex questions about ownership, memory, and cultural restitution. A particularly resonant theme in our conversation was Ellis's struggle with authenticity. As a second-generation Iraqi Jew raised in the UK, she grappled with whether she had the “right” to tell this story, especially without having visited Iraq herself. Her resolution—to be “authentic to me”—offers an important model for thinking about diasporic identity. Preservation, she suggests, does not require perfect replication. It allows for adaptation, creativity, even reinvention. One can honor tradition while also “messing with it,” whether by adjusting a recipe or reimagining inherited practices. Ellis introduces a beautiful concept she calls “milk language”—the language absorbed in early childhood, through intimacy and care, even if it is not the dominant language of one's environment. This idea invites us to reconsider how language lives within us, not only as a tool of communication but as a carrier of emotional and cultural memory. As an educator, I was especially struck by Ellis's closing insight and her implicit call to action: to speak with our elders while we still can. There is a profound difference between hearing fragments of family stories in childhood and sitting down, as an adult, to listen fully and intentionally. These conversations do more than preserve history; they create connection, continuity, and a deeper sense of self. Always Carry Salt is not only a memoir. It is an invitation—to remember, to document, and to carry forward what might otherwise be lost. In a time when so many cultural threads are at risk of unraveling, Ellis's work reminds us that preservation begins with attention, with curiosity, and with the willingness to listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/language

I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture (Pegasus Books, 2026). Our discussion explored not only the story of a disappearing language, but also the broader questions of memory, identity, and what it means to inherit a fragile cultural legacy. At the heart of Ellis's book is Judeo-Iraqi Arabic—also known as Baghdadi Jewish Arabic or Hakimalna—a language once spoken by the Jews of Iraq. Rich with layers of Hebrew and Judeo-Babylonian Aramaic, it reflects over two millennia of Jewish life in the region. Today, however, it stands on the brink of extinction. As Ellis shared, a language is considered endangered when it is no longer passed on to children, and Judeo-Iraqi Arabic may have only about a thousand speakers remaining worldwide. Within a generation, it could fall silent. Ellis described a powerful turning point in her own awareness: a casual question from another parent about why she was not sending her son to a nursery that spoke “her language.” Her spontaneous response—“my language is dead”—became the catalyst for the journey that led to this book. That moment captures the quiet grief of linguistic loss, but also the urgency of preservation. Our conversation traced the long arc of Iraqi Jewish history, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE. Iraqi Jews lived in the region long before the arrival of Arabic, shifting over centuries from Hebrew to Aramaic and later to Arabic, while preserving distinctive linguistic features from earlier eras. This layered history lives on in the language itself. Yet the mass departures of Iraqi Jews in the mid-20th century—particularly the 1950–51 airlift—fractured this continuity. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Iraq. And yet, as Ellis emphasized, culture does not disappear all at once. Language may fade, but other forms of transmission endure. Food, in particular, becomes a powerful vessel of memory. Ellis initially resisted including recipes in her book, but came to understand that cooking is itself a kind of language—a sensory bridge to the past. The image of her mother carrying three rolling pins from Iraq is emblematic of this continuity: tangible objects that hold intangible heritage. Even the book's title gesture—“always carry salt”—evokes protective practices familiar across Mizrahi communities, small rituals that encode belief, memory, and identity. We also discussed the remarkable story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, discovered in 2003 in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters. The archive contains hundreds of thousands of documents—school records, letters, communal registers—offering an intimate portrait of everyday Jewish life in Iraq. Today, innovative projects are using AI to transcribe and translate these materials across multiple scripts, making them accessible to descendants and scholars alike. Yet the archive's ultimate fate remains uncertain, raising complex questions about ownership, memory, and cultural restitution. A particularly resonant theme in our conversation was Ellis's struggle with authenticity. As a second-generation Iraqi Jew raised in the UK, she grappled with whether she had the “right” to tell this story, especially without having visited Iraq herself. Her resolution—to be “authentic to me”—offers an important model for thinking about diasporic identity. Preservation, she suggests, does not require perfect replication. It allows for adaptation, creativity, even reinvention. One can honor tradition while also “messing with it,” whether by adjusting a recipe or reimagining inherited practices. Ellis introduces a beautiful concept she calls “milk language”—the language absorbed in early childhood, through intimacy and care, even if it is not the dominant language of one's environment. This idea invites us to reconsider how language lives within us, not only as a tool of communication but as a carrier of emotional and cultural memory. As an educator, I was especially struck by Ellis's closing insight and her implicit call to action: to speak with our elders while we still can. There is a profound difference between hearing fragments of family stories in childhood and sitting down, as an adult, to listen fully and intentionally. These conversations do more than preserve history; they create connection, continuity, and a deeper sense of self. Always Carry Salt is not only a memoir. It is an invitation—to remember, to document, and to carry forward what might otherwise be lost. In a time when so many cultural threads are at risk of unraveling, Ellis's work reminds us that preservation begins with attention, with curiosity, and with the willingness to listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

President Trump says a deal with Iran to end the war is scheduled to be signed on Sunday. His comments echo those of the Pakistani Prime Minister, who's mediating talks between the sides. This has been disputed by an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, who ruled out signing a memorandum of understanding this soon. Also on this podcast: we report from the occupied West Bank, after international condemnation of ongoing Jewish settler attacks against Palestinians. Switzerland votes whether to cap its population at 10 million. And a new documentary about the chefs who cooked for brutal dictators such as Saddam Hussein, Pol Pot and Idi Amin. The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.ukPhoto: Trump speaks to reporters Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

“That's not the America that I believed in and that I chose to merge my fate with.” — David Frum on Trump's predatory foreign policy What does it mean to be an American? It's a slippery question — especially for those of us born outside the United States. Take, for example, David Frum, the Toronto-born writer and Presidential speechwriter who coined the phrase “Axis of Evil” in 2002. Back then, it included Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Today, one wonders if Frum, who has written two powerful jeremiads about Donald Trump, would include what he calls this "fascoid" in this exclusive club. Frum still lives part of the year on Loyalist Parkway in Ontario — a road honouring British troops fleeing the American Revolution. From his deck, what remains of the Canadian in Frum gazes across Lake Ontario at the American shore. The lights on the other side of the lake, he admits, are more glittering. But unlike Nick Carraway in his favourite American novel The Great Gatsby, David Frum isn't seduced by all that glitters. Carraway, Frum says, is an unreliable narrator impressed by the gangster glamour of Jay Gatsby. But Gatsby, like Donald Trump, Frum reminds us, is a criminal. And Gatsby, perhaps also like Trump, is at least part of the answer of what it means to be an American. Five Takeaways •       Loyalist Parkway: Canada as the Product of the American Revolution: Frum spends part of the year on Loyalist Parkway in Ontario — a road named for the refugees who fled the American Revolution northward and settled across Lake Ontario. Canada, in his telling, is the product of what he calls the American civil war that nobody calls that: the revolution of 1776. It was, for the Loyalists, a shattering loss. From his house, he looks across the lake at the American shore. There is something brighter there, more glittering, more charged. That particular Canadian vantage point — attracted to and slightly outside of America — is where Frum and Zakaria both live. •       Predatory America: Trump vs the American Tradition: America is currently at war with Iran. Trump's stated aim, in Frum's analysis, is purely predatory — to take Iran's oil, enrich the United States by impoverishing Iranians, plunder like a bandit. He compares this to Trump's Venezuela policy. Frum's verdict: that is a president against the American tradition. George W. Bush — whatever the failures of the Iraq war — went to Iraq to overthrow a dictatorship and bring a better future. He went in the name of American ideals. Trump invokes no ideals. He just wants the oil. •       The Axis of Evil Defence: Andrew raises the uncomfortable parallel: Frum coined “axis of evil,” worked for Bush, helped set the fuse for the wars that led, arguably, to the current moment. Frum's defence is structural. The Iraq war of 2003 was the continuation of a conflict that began when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. Bill Clinton nearly returned to war with Iraq in 1994 and struck it in 1998, for the same reason: Iraq's violation of the 1991 armistice. Bush was following that path. He went to war in the name of ideals. He didn't go to steal Iraq's oil. That is the American tradition, even in failure. •       Nick Carraway Is an Unreliable Narrator: The conversation's most surprising section: Frum on The Great Gatsby. Nick Carraway, Frum argues, is not a reliable guide to Gatsby's moral complexity. He is a narrator seduced by gangster glamour — who constructs moral explanations for an attraction he knows he shouldn't feel. The tell: Nick is horrified by the glamour one night, then thrilled the next morning to fly in Gatsby's private seaplane. Gatsby is a criminal. And Gatsby is, for Fitzgerald, a symbol of America: a self-invented person with a fabricated backstory, living on bootlegging and organised crime, staring across the water at a green light he can never reach. •       Looking Across the Lake: The Canadian Analyst of American Life: Frum's closing meditation: there is something about knowing America from the inside, but there is also something valuable about the critical distance of the outsider. He looks across Lake Ontario at the American shore from which the Loyalists fled — the shore they looked back at because there was something magical on the other side. Fareed Zakaria looks across the Atlantic from India. Both naturalized citizens brought to America by an idea of what it was. Both rethinking that idea now. Frum's plan for July 4: sitting on his deck in Ontario, looking across the water, wishing well to American democracy. About the Guest David Frum is a senior editor at The Atlantic and the host of The David Frum Show. He was a speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush in 2001–2002. He is the author of Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic (HarperCollins, 2018) and Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy (HarperCollins, 2020). He lives in Washington, D.C. and Wellington, Ontario. He is working on a memoir. References: •       The David Frum Show — Frum's show at The Atlantic, where his interview with Fareed Zakaria is referenced at the opening. •       The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald — the central text of the conversation's second half. •       Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic by David Frum (HarperCollins, 2018). •       Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy by David Frum (HarperCollins, 2020). •       Loyalist Parkway, Ontario — the road where Frum lives part of the year, named for the refugees from the American Revolution. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,900 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting. WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters: 

En vemodig slutt - Trym, Hanna og Jesper har tatt på seg penstasen før de tar sommerferie. Elin Ørjasæter er på flyet til VM-gutta og gir dem en skikkelig moral-boost!

In this powerful episode of Between the Notes, Paisan Kapitan sits down with two remarkable guests whose stories are built on perseverance, reinvention, faith, and the pursuit of opportunity.

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Conférence publique du 21 mai 2026 - Episode #8 "Syrie, une nouvelle donne régionale ?" Bernard Hourcade (CNRS, CeRMI) et Jean Marcou (Sciences Po Grenoble – UGA) Modération : Philippe Pétriat (Université Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne) Jean Marcou, politiste spécialiste de la Turquie et Bernard Hourcade, géographe spécialiste de l'Iran, analysent l'évolution des relations de la Syrie avec la Turquie et l'Iran, de 1946 à nos jours. Dans un premier temps, Jean Marcou retrace la période allant de l'indépendance de la Syrie jusqu'aux années 1990. Durant cette période, la Syrie apparait comme le voisin le plus problématique de la Turquie. En effet, alors que la Turquie s'aligne sur le bloc occidental, la Syrie baasiste se rapproche de l'Union soviétique durant la guerre froide. Plusieurs différends aggravent cette rivalité : la question du Sandjak d'Alexandrette, le partage des ressources en eau du Tigre et de l'Euphrate et le soutien syrien au PKK kurde. Un rapprochement entre les deux pays s'opère dans les années 2000, après l'arrestation d'Abdullah Öcalan et la fin du soutien de la Syrie au PKK. Les relations diplomatiques et économiques connaissent un développement soutenu et cela jusqu'en 2011. Bernard Hourcade décrit les relations méfiantes que la Syrie entretient avec l'Iran, tourné à l'époque du Shah vers l'Occident. Dès la révolution islamique, la Syrie reconnaît le nouveau régime islamique afin de contrebalancer l'influence de l'Irak de Saddam Hussein au Moyen-Orient. Cette alliance se renforce durant la guerre Iran-Irak grâce à des partenariats militaires et stratégiques. Le soutien de la Syrie au Hezbollah contribue à son essor et renforce l'influence régionale de l'Iran. Malgré des intérêts communs contre Israël et l'extrémisme sunnite, certaines divergences idéologiques ont parfois fragilisé leur relation. La guerre en Syrie bouleverse profondément les équilibres régionaux. Les relations entre la Turquie et la Syrie entrent dans une période de forte hostilité en 2011, rompant avec la politique turque précédente du « zéro problème avec les voisins ». Après avoir tenté de jouer un rôle de médiateur auprès du régime de Bachar al-Assad, la Turquie soutient finalement les forces d'opposition. Son implication militaire s'accompagne parfois d'alliances controversées avec certains groupes djihadistes, notamment Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Les tensions avec d'autres puissances, comme la Russie dans la région d'Idlib, illustrent la complexité du conflit. La frontière turco-syrienne devient une zone de conflit marquée par des affrontements entre différentes factions. La Turquie fait face à plusieurs défis : l'accueil massif de réfugiés syriens, les tensions économiques et sociales liées à leur intégration ainsi que la montée d'un discours anti-réfugiés. De plus, l'autonomie kurde du Rojava suscite des inquiétudes à Ankara en raison des liens des YPG avec le PKK. Depuis la chute du régime de Bachar al-Asad, la Turquie a renoué un dialogue dynamique avec la Syrie et des projets de coopération économique, énergétique et éducative sont lancés. Toutefois, Ankara maintient une présence militaire dans le nord de la Syrie au nom de la sécurité et de la stabilité régionales. Le retour des réfugiés syriens installés en Turquie depuis 2011 (près de 3 millions) et l'opposition à toute constitution d'une entité kurde autonome constituent toujours deux lignes directrices de la politique turque à l'égard de la Syrie. Quant à l'Iran, sa stratégie d'expansion régionale a échoué face aux attaques israéliennes après la chute du régime de Bachar Al-Assad – qui a compliqué les échanges avec le Hezbollah au Liban. L'Iran subit une défaite idéologique et une perte d'influence territoriale dans un contexte d'évolutions des alliances favorisant les puissances sunnites telle que l'Arabie saoudite. Captation : BULAC

Today's Headlines: The Traitor Fund is effectively dead for now — the DOJ said it "disagrees strongly" but will abide by the court's ruling, which is the closest thing to a clean win we've gotten in a while. Trump's America 250 birthday celebration continues to implode, with a competing Power to the People Festival announced for October 3rd featuring Springsteen, Joan Baez, and Dave Matthews, while the UFC fight at the White House is still on but now requires attending service members to meet a waist-to-height ratio under .55, and the National Park Service is spending $5 million on a no-bid contract to gold-plate four bronze horse statues near the Lincoln Memorial, which is giving Saddam Hussein's living room. Trump reportedly told Netanyahu on a bad phone call that "you're fucking crazy, you'd be in prison if it weren't for me, everybody hates Israel because of this" — accurate — and Netanyahu pulled back on planned Beirut strikes, with Lebanon's parliament speaker saying Hezbollah is ready for a full ceasefire with Israel, though the US bombed Iranian drone sites yesterday and a cargo ship was attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, so "ceasefire" continues to mean whatever anyone needs it to mean. Florida's attorney general sued OpenAI and Sam Altman for marketing ChatGPT without adequately warning of its dangers, citing its alleged role in mass shootings, suicide encouragement, and helping a murder suspect dispose of bodies — and Anthropic filed its IPO the same day at a $965 billion valuation, because timing is everything. And finally, a second man named Dan Sullivan entered the Alaska Senate race against incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan with no policies and no party affiliation, just a stated goal of unseating the other Dan Sullivan, which is either a Democratic ploy or the most chaotic campaign launch of the cycle. Resources/Articles mentioned: AP News: Trump reconsidering $1.8 billion fund, AP source says, as Justice Department temporarily pauses it Rolling Stone: Tom Morello Announces Power to the People Festival With Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, More NBC News: No heavyweights allowed: Troops must meet fitness criteria to attend White House UFC event Ts-horse-statues Axios: "You're fucking crazy": Trump fumes at Netanyahu in call on Lebanon Axios: Lebanese official told U.S. that Hezbollah ready for full ceasefire with Israel AP News: US bombs Iran, downs missiles fired at bases in Kuwait Axios: Florida sues OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman over ChatGPT - Axios Tampa Bay CNBC: Anthropic confidentially files IPO prospectus with SEC, prepping Wall Street for landmark AI deal NYT: Senator Dan Sullivan Has a New Challenger in Alaska Subscribe to the Betches News Room and join the Morning Announcements group chat. Go to: betchesnews.substack.com Morning Announcements is produced by Sami Sage and edited by Grace Hernandez-Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Share a commentBabylon keeps rising in the human imagination for one reason: it promises unity, power, and prosperity without surrender to God. We follow that thread from the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley, where Genesis places the world's earliest rebellion, through the Tower of Babel and God's judgment that shattered one language into many. Along the way, we talk about why the “cradle of civilization” can also become a graveyard when pride hardens into defiance.We also zoom in on the real city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq. From Nebuchadnezzar's engineered wonder and the Ishtar Gate to Daniel's prophecies and Babylon's historic collapse, the pattern is clear: empires love the idea of Babylon. Then the story jumps forward to leaders who tried to reboot it Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Saddam Hussein, whose New Babylon dreams were entangled with money, oil, and a hunger for global influence.From there we land in Revelation 18 and the fall of Babylon the Great. We wrestle with the question of literal versus symbolic, walk through the warning to God's people to separate from her sins, and face the haunting picture of global commerce grieving a city's destruction in a single hour. If you care about biblical prophecy, end times, Armageddon, and the pull of a one-world government and one-world religion, you'll find a lot to think about here. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us: what modern “Babylon” tempts people the most today? Learn more: https://www.wisdomonline.org/Support the show

Share a commentBabylon keeps rising in the human imagination for one reason: it promises unity, power, and prosperity without surrender to God. We follow that thread from the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley, where Genesis places the world's earliest rebellion, through the Tower of Babel and God's judgment that shattered one language into many. Along the way, we talk about why the “cradle of civilization” can also become a graveyard when pride hardens into defiance.We also zoom in on the real city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq. From Nebuchadnezzar's engineered wonder and the Ishtar Gate to Daniel's prophecies and Babylon's historic collapse, the pattern is clear: empires love the idea of Babylon. Then the story jumps forward to leaders who tried to reboot it Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Saddam Hussein, whose New Babylon dreams were entangled with money, oil, and a hunger for global influence.From there we land in Revelation 18 and the fall of Babylon the Great. We wrestle with the question of literal versus symbolic, walk through the warning to God's people to separate from her sins, and face the haunting picture of global commerce grieving a city's destruction in a single hour. If you care about biblical prophecy, end times, Armageddon, and the pull of a one-world government and one-world religion, you'll find a lot to think about here. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us: what modern “Babylon” tempts people the most today? Learn more: https://www.wisdomonline.org/Support the show

Once... twice... three times a celbrity?! In this week's episode we make a list if our favorite celebrities! It could be based on their art, maybe how they dress, charity, personal experience, ANYTHING! Here is a spoiler... Neither one of us chose Saddam Hussein! So without him out of the picture who could it possibly be?!I guess you will have to listen to find out!Let us know your favorite celebs by going to our social medias and dropping us a message. We love getting messages! We also talk about vampires and frankensteins?! Is that right? checks the notes Yea... somehow we get on frankenstein and vampires... hmmm... odd...Well, anyway I'll stop takin gup your time. You can listen right now. Grab your favorite blanket, warm up a hot cup of apple cider and get Nostalgic with us!Make sure to leave us a 5 star review, and tell a friend about the show. If you want to suggest a topic for an upcoming show email us at NotableNostalgia90@Gmail.com or find us at Facebook.com/NotableNostalgiaThanks for listening Nostalgia Nerds!

Today in 1946, the birthday of professional wrestling's Eighth Wonder of the World, Andre the Giant. What a movie they could make about this guy's life, and arguably the weirdest scene would be the time he came to Baghdad to wrestle in front of a future Iraqi dictator. Plus: it's Lettuce Month, which means it's time for the annual lettuce eating contest for the University of Minnesota's Lettuce Club. The Sheikh of Baghdad (from Weird Minnesota by Eric Dregni (via Google Books) Lettuce Club at University of Minnesota has lettuce eating contest (The Minnesota Daily)Anybody want a peanut? Or anybody want to back our show on Patreon?

Some kids from Jersey go down the Shore. Tom Mangine went to West Point, then to the Balkans, then Haiti, then Africa, then Chile — and somehow managed to be on the ground every time history got loud.   Reviews are the lifeblood of independent podcasts. If TP&R belongs in more people's ears, here's how you make that happen: Apple Podcasts: Rate & Review on Apple Spotify: Rate on Spotify   Thomas Mangine grew up in Manalapan, New Jersey — Springsteen country — and went on to spend three decades doing work most of us only encounter in spy thrillers. A West Point graduate, U.S. Army officer, intelligence professional, and financial crimes investigator, Tom has worked across six continents and visited 87 countries. He has tracked money for terrorists, investigated organ trafficking and corruption in professional sports, advised major financial institutions on predictive compliance, and taught financial crime investigation to military and civilian professionals across dozens of countries. He is a certified instructor with both the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists (ACFCS) and the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS).   This one's a little different. Tom is a high school buddy, and we hit record in the middle of a conversation that had already started. What followed was nearly two hours of stories, insights, and the kind of frank talk you only get from someone who has no reason to perform for a camera.   Calls to Action ✅ If this conversation resonates, consider sharing it with someone who believes connection across difference still matters. ✅ Subscribe to Corey's Substack: coreysnathan.substack.com ✅ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen: ratethispodcast.com/goodfaithpolitics ✅ Subscribe to Talkin' Politics & Religion Without Killin' Each Other on your favorite podcast platform. ✅ Watch the full conversation and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@politicsandreligion   Key Takeaways From Manalapan to the world's pressure points. Growing up in a central Jersey town full of World War II veterans, Holocaust survivors' grandchildren, and teachers who took their students seriously shaped Tom's sense of civic obligation well before West Point entered the picture. The community you grow up in sets the frame for what you think is worth doing.   Arabic, Kuwait, and the value of obscure skills. Tom chose to study Arabic at West Point when almost no one else was. Within a year, Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait and suddenly everyone wanted to know who spoke Arabic. The lesson: depth in an unfashionable area compounds.   What George H.W. Bush actually understood. Tom's instructor at West Point, Colonel Richard Augustus Norton — a Vietnam vet who had also served in Lebanon and learned both Farsi and Arabic — explained to his cadets exactly why the first Bush did not drive to Baghdad. Occupying it would have meant a decade of entanglement. A decade later, Tom watched those predictions come true in real time.   Learn what normal looks like before you can spot abnormal. From a South African tracker teaching Tom to read an empty watering hole as a threat indicator, to Secret Service agents training currency detection by feel rather than scanner, to teaching financial crime investigators to recognize patterns before they see violations — this is a through-line of Tom's entire career.   Predictive compliance versus retroactive compliance. When Tom moved into the private sector at the Bank of Montreal, his boss Andy Hoffman wanted something the financial industry rarely did: get ahead of problems instead of responding to them. Tom's military intelligence background — built on anticipating failure before it happens — turned out to be exactly the right preparation.   Bureaucracies eat good work. Tom spent two years writing threat assessments in Haiti, working 90-hour weeks, only to have a naval vessel show up with a 2003 report because his updates had been lost in the system. The same pattern repeated across Afghanistan, Ukraine, Belarus, and elsewhere. Institutional memory is not a given. Someone has to fight for it.   Being open to learning is harder than it sounds. Tom has trained professionals ranging from 20 to 55 years old across dozens of countries. The single hardest thing to teach is not technical knowledge. It is the willingness to actually revise what you already believe.   About Our Guest Thomas J. Mangine is a West Point graduate, retired U.S. Army officer, and financial crimes and risk management expert with three decades of experience across the military, diplomatic, and private sectors. He has deployed to Bosnia, Haiti, Africa, Chile, and beyond, and has trained financial crime investigators and national security professionals in dozens of countries. He is a certified instructor with ACFCS and ACAMS.   Links and Resources Connect with Tom on LinkedIn: Thomas J. Mangine Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists (ACFCS): acfcs.org Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS): acams.org Joint Special Operations University (JSOU): jsou.edu   Connect on Social Media Corey is @coreysnathan on all the socials… Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Twitter Threads Bluesky TikTok Thanks to our Sponsors and Partners Thanks to Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org) for making today's conversation possible. Proud members of The Democracy Group   Jersey produces fighters, dreamers, and people who show up. Tom Mangine is proof. Now go talk some politics and religion with gentleness and respect.

Tonight on Gulf War Side Effects, Kevin and Wade break down one of the most important — and least understood — strategies of the Gulf War: the Left Hook.Using a powerful video from Clear & Present History, they walk through how Norman Schwarzkopf outsmarted Saddam Hussein and turned what could have been another Vietnam into one of the fastest and most decisive victories in modern military history.Get access to past and bonus content with exclusive guest. Please help support the podcast and veterans so we can keep making the show - patreon.com/GulfWarSideEffects▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Contact me with your questions, comments, or concerns at kevinsimon@gulfwarsideeffects.com

Aimen's in the thick of it this week so isn't able to appear on the show. Sitting in for him is Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli researcher and analyst, and a doctoral student at Princeton University. During field research in Iraq in 2023, she was kidnapped by Kata'ib Hezbollah and held in captivity for over two years, suffering torture and solitary confinement. In what we hope will be the first of many appearances on Conflicted, Elizabeth discusses: Saddam Hussein's faith campaign and the rise of Shia religious politics in Iraq The Sadrist movement in Iraq and Muqtada al-Sadr The politicisation of sectarian identity in post-2003 Iraq Iraqi militias as criminal-political enterprises engaged in in theft, extortion, oil smuggling, and dollar smuggling The difference between Iraqi militias and Lebanese Hezbollah The impact of militia rule on ordinary civilian life Iraq's extreme inequality despite its oil and gas wealth The 2003 Iraq War and the debate over American responsibility Iraqi elite agency and the failures of Iraq's political class The 2010 Iraqi election crisis and Nouri al-Maliki's return to power The Iraqi constitution and the failure of constitutional democracy Iraq's dependence on oil revenues and the Strait of Hormuz The impact of the current Iran war on Iraq's economy Iranian attacks on Iraqi oil exports and oil tankers The U.S. military presence in Iraq after ISIS American influence over Iraqi prime ministerial politics Nouri al-Maliki, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and Ali al-Zaidi Fa'iq Zaidan and the power of Iraq's judiciary Join the Conflicted Community here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Elizabeth's personal website: https://elizabeth-tsurkov.net/en/ Find Elizabeth on X: https://x.com/LizHurra Find Elizabeth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-tsurkov-79491b15/ Find us on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The ceasefire between the US and Iran is teetering. Fresh attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and rising tensions raise the risk of a wider regional war.Amjad Tadros — a 4-time Emmy-winning former CBS News Middle East producer who survived a US cruise missile strike and came face to face with Saddam Hussein — shares his perspective from three decades covering Iraq, the Arab Spring, and Syria's civil war.Join host Khudania Ajay (KAJ) for insight from someone who has witnessed wars from the inside.Support independent journalism at https://kajmasterclass.com

Kalla krigets mest omfattande krig mellan två stater utkämpades mellan Iran och Irak 1980–1988. Antalet döda räknades i hundratusentals – både soldater och civila. Konflikten präglades av ett hänsynslöst utnyttjande av människoliv för att nå tveksamma territoriella mål, och den politiska och militära ledningen på båda sidor uppvisade stor inkompetens.Ett av de mest anmärkningsvärda inslagen var Iraks återkommande användning av kemiska stridsmedel, både mot iranska förband och mot civila kurder.I detta avsnitt av Militärhistoriepodden försöker Martin Hårdstedt och Peter Bennesved förstå en av 1900-talets mest brutala konflikter. Kriget fördes med modern västerländsk och sovjetisk militärmateriel, men leddes ofta av befäl som inte var uppgiften vuxna. Iraks diktator Saddam Hussein inledde kriget i tron att det skulle bli en snabb och enkel seger.Ett centralt mål var att ge Irak en ledande ställning bland arabstaterna. Efter fredsavtalet mellan Egypten och Israel suspenderades Egypten ur Arabförbundet 1979, vilket skapade ett maktvakuum i regionens maktspel. Iran framstod samtidigt som den främsta rivalen till Saddam Husseins anspråk på arabiskt ledarskap. Till detta kom grundläggande motsättningar mellan Irans shiamuslimska majoritet och Iraks sunnimuslimdominerade maktelit.Av stor betydelse för Irak var också att återta och kontrollera strategiska områden längst in i Persiska viken, kopplade till gränsdragningen vid Shatt al-Arab. I Algeröverenskommelsen 1975 accepterade Irak att gränsen i floden drogs efter farledens mittlinje (thalweg), något Saddamregimen senare ifrågasatte – och använde som ett av flera argument för kriget.Bild: Iraniska soldater ber i en skyttegrav under Operation Karbala-5 nära Shalamcheh utanför Khorramshahr, februari 1987. I bild står Ali Azimi från byn Mohajeran, som senare skadades av kemiska stridsmedel; längst ned syns Sadegh Artimani. Foto: Mahmoud Badrfar (tasnimnews.com). Public domain (Iran).Klippare: Emanuel Lehtonen Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Fixer: A Journalist's Accidental Journey through the Middle East by Amjad Tadros Amjadtadros.com https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G4RFWG9Z Dive into the heart of the Middle East with The Fixer, Amjad M. Tadros's gripping memoir of life as a CBS News “fixer.” A Jordanian son of Palestinian refugees, Tadros survived a U.S. missile strike in Baghdad, only to be visited by Saddam Hussein in his hospital bed. From tracking 9/11 hijackers' origins to witnessing the Arab Spring's broken dreams, he navigated wars, dictators, and hope with a front-row seat to history. Straddling Arab and Western worlds, Tadros faced accusations of betrayal from both sides—labeled a spy by some Arabs, a defender of tyrants by Westerners. With humor, courage, and unflinching honesty, he unveils the truth behind the headlines, offering a rare glimpse into a region of chaos and resilience. Perfect for readers of The Forever War and Guests of the Ayatollah, The Fixer is a vibrant tale of identity, survival, and the search for truth in the Middle East—a place Tadros calls home. About the author Amjad M. Tadros is an award-winning investigative journalist and media entrepreneur with more than three decades of leadership in journalism, digital media, and communications. As CBS News’ Middle East producer from 1990 to 2023, he managed regional coverage of transformative events, including Iraq’s wars, the September 11 hijackers’ backstories, the Arab Spring, and Syria’s chemical attacks on civilians. His commitment to truth earned him four Emmy Awards, including for stories about Syria’s chemical gas attacks (2016) and White Helmets (2017), a 2008 Peabody Award, and two Alfred I. duPont Awards from Columbia Journalism School. In 2013, Tadros co-founded Syria Direct, an independent media organization empowering young Syrians to deliver impartial news about their country’s conflict. Publishing in Arabic and English, it reaches audiences in Syria, the Syrian diaspora, diplomats, and scholars. It serves as a resource for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees’ Commission of Inquiry on Syria. Syria Direct earned the 2017 McNulty Prize, the 2019 Migration Media Award, and the 2020 Free Press Unlimited Syria Co-Production Fund prize for its impactful journalism. Now retired from CBS News, Tadros focuses on strategic media initiatives and governance while managing his family’s Medjool date farm, exporting premium dates globally. He holds an honors degree in mechanical engineering from Imperial College London and a diploma in public narrative from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Enjoy this episode? Please share it with at least ONE friend who you think needs to hear it!Investigative mythologist William Henry explains how Babylonian prophecy, Judeo-Christian tradition, and Islam converge on the Temple Mount and the Ark of the Covenant, and why that timeline may still be unfolding today, in episode 244 of the Far Out with Faust podcast.William Henry is an investigative mythologist, author, and longtime researcher of human spiritual transformation, known for his work on Ancient Aliens and his Gaia series The Awakened Soul: The Lost Science of Ascension. With over 30 years of research and multiple books including Cloak of the Illuminati and The Watchers, his work explores the intersection of ancient texts, ascension science, and emerging technologies, including transhumanism and the evolving relationship between consciousness and the human body.In this conversation, Faust and William Henry challenge the conventional view of the Ark of the Covenant, suggesting it may have been something far more than a relic: a form of ancient technology tied to human transformation. They explore how overlapping messianic timelines across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam continue to shape real-world events, while tracing a hidden thread that links the Anunnaki, Osiris, and Jesus through a shared concept of the “garment of light.” As the discussion moves into the present, the question shifts: are transhumanism and artificial intelligence a break from the past, or the latest phase of the same ancient impulse to transcend the human body?In this episode: • Temple Mount prophecy: why Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all point to the same contested site • Ark of the Covenant: relic, weapon, or lost technology tied to ascension and human transformation • Solomon's Temple and Babylon: how destruction, exile, and prophecy created a timeline still unfolding today • The Messianic race: why multiple religions may be working toward the same prophesied endgame • The “garment of light”: the hidden link between the Anunnaki, Osiris, and Jesus • Iraq Stargate theory: what Saddam Hussein was allegedly searching for in ancient Babylon • Sacred sound and resonance: the lost technology behind megaliths and suppressed scientific breakthroughs • The Anunnaki and human origins: genetic intervention, the neocortex, and the rise of civilization • Transhumanism and AI: are modern technologies continuing an ancient blueprint for human evolution • The future of humanity: what happens when AI replaces labor and reshapes human purposeIf these ancient timelines, religious prophecies, and emerging technologies are all pointing in the same direction, the real question isn't what's coming — it's whether we're recognizing it in time.00:00:00 - Teaser & Introduction00:03:11 - The Middle East, The Temple Mount & The Ark of the Covenant00:08:22 - Messianic Prophecies & Modern Political Symbolism00:17:16 - Saddam Hussein, Nebuchadnezzar & The Babylon Connection00:23:40 - The Anunnaki, Osiris, Jesus & The Transmittable Garment00:28:51 - Ancient Genetic Alteration & The Awakening of the Neocortex00:32:42 - Rethinking AI, Transhumanism & Scientific Materialism00:46:10 - The Fall from Eden & Technology as a Tool for Ascension00:55:49 - Sacred Geometry, Crop Circles & The Shroud of Turin00:59:53 - The Lineage of Ascension & Avatars01:05:39 - Sound Frequency, Megaliths & Suppressed Ancient Tech01:14:12 - The Next 50 Years: Singularity, Awakening & The Soul01:27:11 - The Viral Story: Saddam Hussein's Secret Iraqi Stargate01:34:42 - Outro & Final ThoughtsCheck out William Henry's bookshttps://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B006FYUDHUConnect with William Henrywe'd love to hear from you

SEASON 4 EPISODE 83: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (3:00) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has given away his labyrinthine plot to stay in office past 2028 in one social media post and he’s just crazy enough to think it will work. It is in his rant claiming the indictment of a political opponent means "The 2020 Presidential Election Should Be Permanently Wiped From The Books And Be Of No Further Force or Effect…” He is not going to try a new Constitutional Amendment or say the limit is two CONSECUTIVE terms. He's not going another coup (at least not initially). He is going to try to nullify the 2020 Election - and hold that vote again. ANOTHER 2020 Election. In 2028. If you think that's too crazy easy for him - is it crazier than Trump insisting yesterday that we are in a war against UKRAINE? Crazier than indicting the former FBI Director on a threat to kill Trump with a seashell meme? Crazier than trying to get a comedian fired for a joke about Trump’s death and his wife when TRUMP then goes out and makes a joke about his death and his wife and all America is talking about is the dreaded D-word? Crazier than indicting a man for trying to shoot him at the Correspondents’ Dinner when it is now unmistakably clear that the suspect never fired a shot and was never on the same floor as Trump was? Crazier than Trump's insistence that we should pay for this damn ballroom because it'll protect presidents? What - are they sealing themselves in like Saddam Hussein in his Hidey Hole? And then I'll detail Trump’s bid to MATA: Make America 2020 Again. B-Block (36:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Two competing Bari Weiss entries because while nobody's watching her version of the CBS Evening News, everybody seems to have seen her prized reporter Olivia Reingold making a fool of herself on video from the Correspondents' Dinner. And speaking of that, Stephen A. Smith came out of that experience knowing who is to blame for all America's problems: those evil liberals! Whose presidential nomination he expects to win. ESPN has a choice: platform a political idiot and Conservative tool and destroy your franchise, or get rid of him and keep it. C-Block (55:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I often wonder WHY I ever became a political commentator. It wasn't planned and it wasn't supposed to be permanent. And the story of HOW I became a political commentator is even crazier.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm delighted today to be joined by Dr. Joseph Skelton, professor of Pediatrics, founder and director of Brenner Fit, a program at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. FIT stands for Families in Training, which is a family-based pediatric obesity program. He's the author of a new book on children and their weight, a topic we discussed in a separate podcast. But in this podcast, we're talking about something he teaches at Wake Forest, a course in culinary medicine. This is a fascinating, pioneering area of focus, so let's dig in. Interview Transcript There's a lot of language about medicine and nutrition now, so people talk about food as medicine. There's a move afoot to get more training and nutrition and medical education, and here you are doing culinary medicine. Tell me how all these things differ from one another. Our interest in this here at Wake Forest School Medicine started a little organically with our program. A lot of what we do is focus on family meals. There are decades of research showing the benefits of family meals, not only for the nutrition and obesity risk, but the quality of nutrition, time spent together, parent child communication. Kids are less likely to get pregnant or do drugs and alcohol. All these things from just spending that time together over the meal. And I inherited a small teaching kitchen that was at a local organization that someone before me had gotten funding for. And we, sort of, took it over and used this opportunity to teach families how to cook. And a lot of families know how to cook but trying foods in different ways and to get kids involved and things like that. Then a couple years after that, the local YMCA approached us. They had some space and wanted to do this as a partnership. So I became a fundraising machine for a year or two and took a lot of dinners to raise the funds. And we built this gorgeous teaching kitchen, and we were mainly doing it in the efforts of sort childhood obesity treatment or prevention, getting families, teaching them new recipes, which then kind of extended to that whole key thing of getting families just to be comfortable in the kitchen and spending that time together. And we just started seeing these amazing things. We always say we've converted more kids to Brussels sprouts than I think any other effort of just getting them cooking it a different way. You and I were both probably raised with steamed Brussels sprouts, which I think is an abomination. If you really want to highlight the sulfur smell of a food, then you're going to steam it. And so, we really started to do that. And then students started volunteering. Actually, it was a student, Josh Patman, he's an emergency medicine physician now at East Carolina University, and he was a cook in a professional kitchen college. And he said, hey, could I help volunteer with that? And then more student medical students wanted to do it. And then we all found that you, much like I did, I'm a self-taught cook myself, and the more time you spend in that, the more you learn, the more comfortable you are. And the more you start to know, you know, I can teach med students nutrition all day, but that doesn't teach them how to get nutrition on their patients' plates, into their mouth. And so it really grew from there. And then I, kind of, stumbled upon what other people were doing. It started in New York, but the biggest program started was really Tulane School of Medicine that had it as a very focused way about teaching nutrition through cooking. Not just on a blackboard through PowerPoint slides and stuff like that of like hey, let's teach it in a different way. And the old-fashioned analogy, and actually the medical educators hate this, it used to be see one, do one, teach one. That was sort of the old surgical thing. And so, it's really you got to see how to make a recipe and you got to do it yourself. And what we found that when students start then teaching each other, or teaching patients or teaching community members, it really drives home and gives them a much deeper understanding of what nutrition in the real world is. Let's talk about the need for this. If we go back in time and we think about your parents or my parents, you know, the likelihood is that meals were being prepared from the real foods rather than from a package, let's say, or in a micro. How are things different now for the modern parent that has kept people distanced from their food and where it comes from, and that's led families to be distant because they're not having meals together as much? What does that look like now? Yeah, pulling from our own history, you know, Home Ec is not really a thing anymore. We did this study in our own med students. You know, most of their cooking, nutrition, the nutrition education they're getting tends to be the popular media. They're learning it from social media. Very few students have a degree in nutrition or took a nutrition class. And as much as we have to cram into medical student's education, there's not much room for it. They mainly learn to cook from their families. And what we know is families are cooking less and less for multiple reasons. They're much busier. Especially parents, actually parents of kids of all ages with that. And again, the marketing of food, you know, it's much easier to get ready made meals. And I'm not badmouthing those, you know. We're in talks right now of actually writing a cookbook for families, and one of the things that we promise is we're going to have a chapter on assembled meals. You know, having a pre-made salad with a rotisserie chicken, that's still going to be a better thing to do if you bring that home, sit at a table or at a bar or around a coffee table and eat that meal together. It's still going to be better for your family in multiple ways on multiple levels than eating out. And what I see, it really with families right now when it comes to actually raising "healthy eaters" or raising good eaters is when we... and again, I love a good restaurant, I'm not trying to badmouth that... but when you're going out to eat a lot of kids have endless choices and there's two issues. One is a paradox of choice. Whatever they get, they're always going to think that other thing might have been better. And it doesn't allow them to spread their palate and try different foods and get exposed to different things. And we always laugh... whenever in this field we want to play a drinking game where every time you say complex or complexity, you take a drink because, but it is such a complex issue with parents. You know, with kids and getting meals on the table. And hopefully finding some time, whether it's a breakfast or it's a dinner, but finding that time to come together around a meal. You mentioned the paradox of choice. I was reminded at one point I downloaded this cute app called You Choose or something like that. And it would help you make a decision if you were undecided. It would flip a coin, it would roll a dice. It would do, yes, no, it would do rock, paper, scissors, it would do all these things. And I was at a restaurant once. I couldn't decide between two entrees, so I used it. I did rock, paper, scissors, or something, and I then it said, okay you should choose X. So I ordered X and the second I ordered it, I immediately thought I should have ordered Y. Alright, so tell us about culinary medicine. What does this course look like that you teach? Yeah, the best way to think about it is applied nutrition. Because again, you can understand a ton about nutrition, but if that doesn't change into you getting the foods that you want in front of you, to me it's almost theoretical or scientific. It's applied nutrition. It's this idea of teaching some very basic cooking skills, and then including within that very core elements of nutrition. And for us, we tend to do it by the balanced plate. We think that works really well for families. But having it be very real world. You know, so again, we have recipes... in two weeks, I'm doing one... we're doing a rotisserie chicken and you're breaking it apart and making a chicken salad out of it. We were always teaching using microwavable rice and a couple of the students cornered me and said, this is very offensive to my culture. You need to teach people how to make real rice. But what it looks like for us is about a quarter, almost a third of med students will rotate through these classes. So, it's voluntary. Next year we're actually hopefully going to surpass half of the first-year med school class. That's unbelievable. That's very impressive. Well, especially up until last year I was doing this in my free time and paying for it with fundraising money. But yeah, Wake Forest is really behind this now. But about a quarter to a third of med students. They do five classes. And it's set up and again, that sort of theme of that family meal. They come in and we get stuff cooking. We get stuff in the oven; we get stuff on the stove top. We usually take some time out for a very short lecture. Again, tends to be very practical stuff. We include a lot about social determinants of health and food insecurity. Given what I do, we talk about picky eating. Very little do we go into details about Mediterranean diet and Dash diet and some of the really core things with that. We really just try to keep it about getting that balanced plate of a protein, a starch and a fruit or vegetable on the plate in front of you. They come back and usually finish what they're cooking, and then they sit down to eat together. And unlike when I was in med school and you were in grad school, or when you were teaching, a lot of students don't go to class anymore. A lot of students, they record the lectures so they can listen to them at one and a quarter speed and study in the best way for them. I love getting to know my students on a different level of sitting down. And that's what my really own exposure to medical student education anymore is really through this, which to me is just the ultimate. Being able to sit down, teach them some interesting things, eat a meal with them. Given my chemistry background, I love getting into the science of a lot of the stuff. And I think for them being, you know, sort of STEM kids, it makes a lot more sense. One of my favorite things is the science of grilling, you know, the science of garlic, you know, things like that. And it helps them sort of understand and helps them remember that, and also peppering it with the stories. It just tends to stick that much more when they know the science, they know the story, they know the culture behind it. So, it's five classes. It's all set up that way, that there's a short lecture. They're preparing everything they can and they're eating it. Again, we include some very easy stuff. One of the classes we do microwaveable vegetables because that's what a lot of what their patients are doing. The bagged vegetable medleys. And one, the important thing that we teach them is most of these don't have any seasoning. So yeah, you can microwave them, but you have got to teach your patients throw a bit of olive oil on there, throw a pad of butter, do some salt and pepper, add some other spices to it. And they go nuts with one group will do some more Indian spices. One group will do more sort of traditional, one to do more Asian flavorings to it in our teaching kitchen. It's really teaching very practical things like that. The fun part of that, that's really spun onto the other things that I'll tell you about, is about half of those students that do that- we have about 18 per semester- and about half those students end up volunteering with us. They come to the classes that we have that are community focused. Now some of the students are going through lead teacher training. They get Serve Safe Certified. It's awesome for me and my staff because it saves us a lot of time and overtime that they come in, they let themselves in the kitchen, they set up, they run the class, they clean up, and they can't get enough of it. They absolutely love it. Now you do some celebration of different food cultures in your class. Tell, tell us about that. Including, as I understand, some of the food culture that you grew up with. Yeah. Yeah. That, that's about, that was a big understatement right there. We just love that and that's a great thing. Wake Forest, being a private medical school, kids are from all over the country, from all different backgrounds. And so, we absolutely sort of herald that. One of the things I love doing is class three is a plant-based proteins class. The first class is a general cooking class. The second class has a focus on animal proteins, and again, we're always also cooking vegetables and fruits and starches. The third class is plant-based proteins, and I do that as Southern cooking. And I just love that sort of theme with that. So, we do pinto beans, you know, And the slow cooker. We tell them how to use instant pots, pressure cookers. We do black eyed peas. A lot of these kids don't know that you're supposed to eat that on New Year's Day. I do a vegetarian collard green recipe, taught to me by a local chef. And I think this is probably my number one post that I do in social media is cornbread night. And teaching them how to make cast iron skillet cornbread, which is the only way to do cornbread in my book. And letting them know, sort of, the background of a lot of the stuff. My wife is from South Carolina, so I teach them great thing about cornbread if you're a poor student, is you have a slice with your beans and your collard greens, and then for dessert you put honey on. Which is what I picked up in South Carolina. So, you know, really celebrating that stuff. We have a whole Spanish speaking program, and we have an article written, we just haven't found the right journal for it. It says, leave my tortilla out of this. Instead of, you know, saying, oh, you have to eat less tortillas, celebrate it. Why is that such an important part of not even that culture, but this family's food history and stuff like that. Because food is personal, it's cultural, its family, and it's to be celebrated. We do a fourth-year elective, it's the last full elective of their fourth-year class and a very lucky 20 students get to do that class. And we always have one called Family Night where they bring a dish that's important to them and their family. And it could be like me, it was the roasted chicken that one of my classmates in med school cooked. And I just thought that was so exotic. You know, I never had a whole roasted chicken before. You know, we had a student that had spent the first part of her life in Australia, so she did pavlova and told the history about where the pavlova came from. Now that's considered sort of the national dessert of Australia. And I always remember this one student, he was going to emergency medicine, very quiet kid. And he's over there cooking these porridges. That's the only way I could describe it is just these porridges. We said, what are you doing? And he told the most amazing story. I almost tear up when I talk about it. His grandfather fled Saddam Hussein. He was Iraqi Christian and fled Saddam Hussein and his grandfather lived with them. And this was their afterschool snack. Was this Iraqi dish that his grandfather would make. And there was a sweet one and there was a savory one. And so just stuff like that is... it's fantastic. I just, I can't get enough of that. And they remember that. And so, as students leave us, and I just came from Match Day where they found out where they're spending the next three to seven years of their life. And I always say wherever you're going, learn something about that culture and that food. If you're moving to Cincinnati, you have got to learn about Cincinnati Chili and getta. take something from that. I did all my training in Wisconsin and the Wisconsin supper clubs and how you can tell what a fresh cheese curd is, and it's just... food is fantastic. And we can take that with us wherever we go. And it can give you a way to know your patients even better. And when I hear of a family that they're from West Africa, ah, you like Jollof Rice. And their face lights up and like, oh yeah, where'd you have Jollof rice? So, it's a great way to get to know more about people. So, there's way more to it than cooking technique. I mean, there's, you know, you roast a chicken that this temperature for that long, or here's how long you microwave. It's really a lot more than that, isn't it? It's just like medicine. It's science and an art. And you know that one of my most popular lectures I give does not have to do with obesity but has to do with barbecue and all the different styles of barbecue. And what is just amazing, despite what we know about the science of taking spareribs, which are an incredibly tough cut of meat, and you have to cook them low and slow to get that temperature up. I think it's 189 degrees or higher where you start to get the collagen that breaks down and they turn tender. So yeah, spareribs to be good tender and edible, you're talking four to six hours. But then you go to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and you go to Dreamland Barbecue. They do spareribs over live coals for an hour and a half. I sat there talking to the person doing it. I'm like, you must bake them ahead of time. Do you soak them? And he's just like, nope. And so again, I know the science of that. So how do these jokers do that for an hour and a half, and it turns out in what my opinion are the greatest bear ribs in the world. Oh really? Oh, I'll have to try. I'll have to try that place out. Yeah, there's several. Birmingham has two there. There's several in Southeast and they cook them for an hour and a half. Over live coals. Violating every scientific principle of low and slow. Don't get it. It's fascinating. That sounds really good. Yeah. Well, Joey, thanks very much. One final question. Do you see this... is this a movement in medicine now or more and more people doing this? Yeah, you know, it was really big for a while. Tulane had so much. You know, they were sharing their curriculum and they were doing some good research. And that's where a lot of what you see now as the food is medicine food is medicine or as medicine where hey, we need to find ways to get medically tailored meals in the patient's hands. There's really good evidence of that with diabetes and stuff like that. I think what you're seeing now is, I think especially with some of our efforts in the government right now, is sort of demanding more nutrition education in medical school. And I'm going to double down on culinary medicine because you know what? My students, myself, I don't need to know more about the biochemistry of carbohydrates. I need to know the biochemistry of cooking and how to do that quickly and safely to teach my patients. And also, with that, we have to forget, there's an entire field that's already doing this, you know? Dietetics and nutrition and there's professionals that probably are way better than us. But I think having this increased understanding, especially dwelling in that food space, is going to help us relate to them that much more. So even though I do a lot of nutritional counseling and talking, I still use my dieticians way more. I think they're going to be way better at that. So I think there is a lot of steam building towards that, but we don't need to turn doctors into junior dieticians. But I think we can give them deeper understanding of how food and nutrition affects their health and the broader aspects of that. It's not about the biochemistry of insulin secretion, it's about where are they accessing food and how can they make use of the food pantry near them. And let them know, hey, it's okay when you open a can of beans it's gonna smell like cat food initially, but you know what? You wash that off and actually it's not going taste like cat food. And you know, just kind of be able to work with them. Hey, canned beans are perfectly fine. Guess what? Canned beans now are coming in no salt added and low salt preparations. And here's an easy way that you could take these canned great northern beans, chop up some herbs with olive oil and a chunk of garlic and you can make some fantastic bean recipe that is incredibly filling and healthy and cheap as dirt. Oh, that's really nice. Well, this is an exciting advance in the field and you're really at the forefront of it, and your students are lucky that they have this available to them. So, thanks very much for being with us and sharing your experience. Well and what the big secret about this is, Kelly, is this is fantastic. I love doing it. Our med school really values it, but it's a lot of fun. That's the thing. You can tell just by the way you're talking about it. It is so much fun. And again, I just saw all my students that were graduating. And that some of these I hadn't seen in three years and they're like doing Doctors in the Kitchen and then seeing patients, they're cooking and being able to relate to them in those ways. I just have a text from one of my students going to family medicine, and she's like, this changed the trajectory in my career. And I'm not taking credit for that, but just the idea of giving that experience I think especially in my world to medical students, I absolutely love it. In the end it's a hell of a lot of fun. BIO Joseph A. "Joey" Skelton, MD, MS, FAAP, FTOS, DABOM is a Professor of Pediatrics, and of Epidemiology and Prevention, at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He is the Founder and Director of Brenner FIT® (Families In Training), an interdisciplinary pediatric obesity treatment, prevention, research, and educational program. He serves as the Director of the Center for Prevention Science in Child and Family Health, Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Pediatrics, Associate Leader of Community and Stakeholder Engagement at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Childhood Obesity. He is board certified in Pediatrics and Obesity Medicine. His research and clinical work has focused on the treatment of children with obesity. He has secured nearly $10 million in funding over the past 15 years, has given over 50 national and international presentations, and has over 130 peer-reviewed publications. He enjoys teaching cooking classes that are both fun and informative to anyone who will listen.

Does israel control trump? How? Is it just this administration? How did israel influence previous american administrations? Scott Horton joins us to break down how Israel got the United States to attack Iran and do its bidding in the Middle East. Who exactly was involved and why? This episode unveils the real power structure behind U.S. government and Middle East policy, the Neo-Con blueprint that reshaped America's role in the world, and the "Clean Break" plan that led to the removal of Saddam Hussein. Who are the neocons? Is Pete Hegseth smart? Are any of these guys smart?Scott Horton is the Editorial Director of Antiwar.com, director of the Libertarian Institute, and author of "Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism" and "Fool's Errand." He is one of the most cited foreign policy experts in independent media.Is there a secret cabal pulling the strings, or are politicians just that clueless? We break it all down.*JOIN OUR YOUTUBE MEMBERSHIP*OR*Support Us @* https://www.ansaripodcast.com/OR*Patreon:* https://www.patreon.com/c/theansaripodcast/membership*Join The Cosmos Club Newsletter:* https://www.ansaripodcast.com/cosmos-club*Ayubi Collective*FREE 10-Part Masterclass “How to Build Your Own Multi-Billion Dollar Business”https://www.ayubi.com/ansari*Provision Capital:* https://www.provisioncapital.com00:00 Did Israel Tell Trump What to Do in Iran?06:59 Did Trump Try to Use Nuclear Codes?11:18 Ad12:58 How Israel Conquered America24:46 Is Israel planning against America?30:22 Ad30:58 David Wurmser and the Neo-Cons: The people everyone needs to know 39:26 Are they geniuses or THAT stupid? 49:54 What's Israel's Secret Strategy now?54:04 Are Old Zionists Actually Intelligent?01:04:01 Ad01:04:36 When did this all begin? 01:13:14 Where is America Going?01:20:03 Final Thoughts#israel #trump #iran #politics #muslimpodcast *Listen on All Audio Platforms:* https://tr.ee/JeX-ILYSyj*Follow The Ansari Podcast**Instagram:* https://instagram.com/ansaripodcast*TikTok:* https://tiktok.com/@theansaripodcast*Twitter/X:* https://twitter.com/ansaripodcast

This is the third in a series of seven episodes regarding the terrorist leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden.  After successfully participated in the defeat of the Soviet Union, bin Laden returns home to Saudi Arabia expecting a hero's welcome.  The rise of regional threat Saddam Hussein encourages him to once again put down his construction work in favor of a Mujahideen's ak-47.  His offer for help, however, is rejected in favor of the American desert shield.  What follows involves an escape from house arrest, a return to Afghanistan, and a new home established in Sudan.  Along the way, Osama bin Laden begins his war against America; convinced that the West is a Paper Tiger.   Contact the show at resourcesbylowery@gmail.com or on Bluesky @EmpiresPod If you would like to financially support the show, please use the following paypal link. Or remit PayPal payment to @Lowery80.  And here is a link for Venmo users. Any support is greatly appreciated and will be used to make future episodes of the show even better.   Expect new shows to drop on Wednesday mornings from September to May. Music is licensed through Epidemic Sound

There were a lot of dramatic images from the military action known as Operation Iraqi Freedom - but I think few were more dramatic than the middle-of-the-night rescue of a prisoner of war, Jessica Lynch. If you were around at the time, you probably remember it. As Coalition forces advanced quickly from the Kuwaiti border to the capital of Baghdad, Pfc. Lynch's unit of Army maintenance troops made a wrong turn, ended up in the middle of an enemy ambush, and no one knew Jessie Lynch's fate. She was listed as missing in action. But acting on the tip of Iraqi sympathizers, a Special Operations Force fought their way into the hospital where she was imprisoned, found her, and quickly carried her to a waiting helicopter. And then, they had to fight their way out, too. But Private Lynch was safe - saved by rescuers who risked it all to bring her out. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Day You're Rescued." I'll never begin to know what it must have been like to be a prisoner of someone like Saddam Hussein's brutal regime. But I do know a little bit about how it feels to be rescued from a situation that I couldn't get out of, that otherwise would have been fatal. I know what it is to be rescued by someone who risked it all - actually, who gave it all, to bring me out. It's a life-saving experience shared by millions of people over 2,000 years. It's a rescue that can happen to you. This rescue was planned in heaven and executed by no one less than the very Son of God, Jesus Christ. It's described by God Himself in Colossians 1:13-14, our word for today from the Word of God. It says of God that "He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." We don't realize it, but we are in as deadly a situation as that rescued POW was in - actually a lot more deadly, because without a rescue we will be imprisoned forever in an awful place the Bible calls hell. That's where the death penalty is carried out for a human being who has run their own life instead of letting their Creator run it. Who has dared to say, "God, you run the universe. I'll run me." Which, according to the Bible, describes all of us, no matter how religious we might be, and no matter what religion we're from. We're sinners. We are unable to get ourselves out of our own dark side, we're unable to get ourselves out of the penalty for our sin. We are trapped in what the Bible calls "the dominion of darkness." But Jesus came, fighting his way to rescue us. Dying on a cross to pay the penalty we deserve, so we could have (as the Bible says) "the forgiveness of sins" instead of the punishment for our sins. No religion can get you out - only a rescue can. And only Jesus did what had to be done to rescue you. This very day - maybe through these very words - He is breaking into your life, offering to be your personal Rescuer from your personal sin and its eternal penalty. If you'll grab Jesus by His hand and just say, "Jesus, You're my only hope. You paid for my sins when you died on the cross. You proved you're alive by walking out of your grave. I want you to walk into my life today. Beginning today, I am Yours, Jesus." Don't you want to know that you're right with God? Don't you want to know that eternity is settled? If you want to know you belong to this Rescuer that loves you more than anyone ever could, let this be the day you give yourself to Him. Let this be the day that you check out a website that is all for you at a moment like this. It is literally designed for this crossroads moment in a person's life - ANewStory.com. I invite you, I urge you, I encourage you to go there as soon as you can. Jesus paid the ultimate price; made the ultimate sacrifice to bring you out. The strong hand of your Redeemer; I wish you could actually see it. He's reaching for you right now. Please - grab Him now.

The 2006 execution of Saddam Hussein is characterized as "victor's justice," allowing the former dictator to appear dignified compared to his petty, sectarian captors. Prime Minister Maliki deepened sectarian wounds, while "the Sada" became a notorious dumping ground for the bodies of kidnapped Sunnis. As the first civil war ended, the middle class began a mass exodus, leaving Iraq's future in the hands of increasingly corrupt and violent factions. (4)1930 BAGHDAD 

Reflecting on his childhood during the Iran-Iraq War, Abdul-Ahad recalls the pervasive militarization of society, where children wore military uniforms and celebrated hollow "victories." Saddam Hussein was revered as the "Leader of Necessity," justifying his absolute authority. Crucially, Abdul-Ahad argues that pre-2003 Iraq was defined by class and geography rather than sectarianism — the Sunni-Shia divide was a narrative largely "imposed" by exiles and the conditions created by the American-led war. (2)1746

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad witnessed the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 and the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue — a media spectacle involving more journalists than Iraqis. Transitioning from an architect to an "accidental journalist," he documented the immediate descent into chaos and looting, highlighting the "criminal negligence" of American forces who secured oil ministries while allowing the national museum to be ransacked, as Iraqis hoping for prosperity faced utter disorganization and insecurity. (1)1903

Film and television producer Tom Augustine talks about reaction to Euphoria's new season, new comedy Margo's Got Money Troubles starring Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer; The President's Cake, a film about a 9-year-old Iraqi girl tasked with baking a compulsory cake for Saddam Hussein and Mr Loverman, debuting this week on Rialto. Tom Augustine is an Auckland-based film-maker, writer and critic

Iran, 1979 Iran coup, Muslim Brotherhood, when the US learned the Shah had cancer, US links to Iranian fundamentalists, Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein, the US's history of creating satraps, George H.W. Bush, Nazis, Bush family, US relations with Iran under Bush II, Obama's efforts at détente w/ Iran, Kurt M. Campbell, the pivot to Asia, efforts by the Democrats to disengage the US in the Middle East, Israel, European Union, the Israeli lobby vs. the EU lobby, the inability to pivot to China because of conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, Ukraine-Russian War, Russia's links to Israel, the Trump regime's foreign policy of silver or lead, will Trump manage to buyoff Iran?, Latin America, Operation Condor, are US anti-cartel efforts a revival of Operation Condor? Venezuela, Ecuador, Columbia, hot takes on the Iran War ceasefireResourcesDave's Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/DaveEmoryDave's Archive:https://donate.kfjc.org/product/dave-emory-archive-flashdrive/On Iran:https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-896-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-1/https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-897-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-2/https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-898-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise-part-3/https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-899-fara-mansoor-on-the-deep-october-surprise/Israel/9-11:https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftrs-1316-1317-fireside-rant-about-the-gaza-war-and-israeli-palestinian-conflict-parts-1-and-2/https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr1421-the-walls-came-tumbling-down-nazis-fascists-and-the-9-11-attacks/Music by: Keith Allen Dennishttps://keithallendennis.bandcamp.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Arsenio Hall grew up in Cleveland dreaming of being the next Johnny Carson – kind of. “I wanted to do this show that didn't exist when I was a kid, and I knew the talent was out there.” Hall spoke with Tonya Mosley about his groundbreaking talk show, ‘The Arsenio Hall Show,' and why he decided to end it, despite its massive success.  Before he was a comic, producer and the “roastmaster,” Jeff Ross was a kid growing up in his family's kosher catering hall in New Jersey, serving weddings and bar mitzvahs. “My bar mitzvah was like something between a Super Bowl halftime show and like something Saddam Hussein would throw for one of his kids,” he tells Terry Gross. Ross shows his more vulnerable, introspective side in his new Netflix comedy special, ‘Take a Banana for the Ride.' To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

On 29th January 1991, President George H.W. Bush addressed a joint session of Congress. America was at war with Iraq, having launched Operation Desert Storm to expel Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait. Bush's tone was sombre, measured—a contrast to the triumphalism of his State of the Union a year earlier, when he had spoken of communism crumbling and a new era for the world. Now he spoke of something grander: a "new world order.""What is at stake is more than one small country. It's a big idea: a new world order where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind—peace and security, freedom and the rule of law."Drawing on Kristina Spohr's excellent book Postwall Post Square, we explore the context of that speech. The first Gulf War was a remarkable moment: a coalition of 28 countries from six continents, including traditional allies like Britain and Australia, prickly partners like France, and even Arab nations like Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. Most strikingly, the United States and the Soviet Union—despite Saddam being a long-time Moscow client—cooperated. Bush and Gorbachev had forged a personal accord, and the Cold War was over.But behind the grand rhetoric, the picture was more complex. Moscow's violent crackdown in Lithuania cast a shadow over the gleaming language of freedom. Bush struggled to balance his principled assertion of democratic values against his pragmatic need for Gorbachev's cooperation in the Gulf. And at home, America was sliding into recession. As Democratic Majority Leader George Mitchell pointedly reminded the president: "We have a crisis abroad, but we also have a crisis here at home."Bush invoked the lessons of history—the long struggle against Nazi totalitarianism—to justify American leadership. "We're the only nation on this earth that could assemble the forces of peace," he declared. "This is the burden of leadership and the strength that has made America the beacon of freedom in a searching world."Yet that liberal internationalist language—always a veneer for American imperialism—has now been eviscerated. Trump has abandoned any pretence of moral leadership. His decision to attack Iran, apparently taken after a chat with Netanyahu and against the advice of his own generals, has produced the greatest strategic disaster in American history, bar none. There is no exit strategy, no route to victory, no achievable objective.What Iran has done is fundamental. Unlike Vietnam or Afghanistan, where empires suffered humiliations but survived, America has been strategically and tactically defeated in the Persian Gulf. The petrodollar—propped up by American military power, bases, and security guarantees—is under threat. And once you show that American power is not all-conquering, it causes fragmentation in unprecedented ways.The distance from George H.W. Bush's "new world order" to Trump's chaotic adventurism is less than 40 years. Trump is not the cause of American decline; he is an accelerant to an ongoing process. The empire's days are numbered—and the world is about to become a much more dangerous place.Topics covered:George H.W. Bush's "new world order" speech (29th January 1991)The first Gulf War coalition and Soviet-American cooperationThe contrast between liberal internationalism and American imperialismDomestic recession and the limits of presidential powerMoscow's crackdown in Lithuania as a challenge to the new orderThe collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of historyTrump's Iran disaster and the absence of strategic thinkingThe petrodollar and the foundations of American hegemonyHow Iran has achieved a strategic defeat of the United StatesTrump as an accelerant, not the cause, of declineIf you enjoy the podcast, please consider supporting us. We're migrating from Patreon to Substack—more details soon.Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded 4-2-2026

On this edition of GFA Live, Peter and Keithie talk about WWF SummerSlam 1990 from August 27, 1990! (and some other stuff, of course!) Topics of discussion include: * The Hulk Hogan monster opponent power rankings * Disappointing Bad News vs Jake match * The search for Sapphire concludes * Jake Roberts' promo having issues with the live snake * Volkoff and Duggan do a horrible duet * Why can't anyone say "Saddam Hussein" correctly in this company?

Much like the seams in any suit jacket worn by the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Fox News is barely keeping it together. The network still can't get its message straight regarding Trump's disastrous war in Iran.Fox is following the lead of its glorious leader, a man who appeared to act impulsively, when he decided to attack a country of 92 million people with one of the largest militaries in the Middle East.Trump is highly skilled at selling himself, at least to his cultish base of followers, as a powerful leader who can change the world through his force of will. He is a bumbling fool when it comes to getting Americans excited about his flights of fancy - conquering Greenland, seizing the Panama Canal, managing Venezuela, crushing Cuba and destroying the government of Iran.Trump has also failed to excited the masses about some of his economic policies such as broad sweeping tariffs on imports or the acquisition of Venezuelan oil which the president called ‘garbage tar' when he was on the campaign trail.Trump makes no real attempt to sell the need for military conflict to the American public. The average American couldn't identify Nicolás Maduro, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and Ali Khamenei the deceased Iranian supreme leader or his son Mojtaba Khamenei in a line up.In comparison former president George W. Bush and his administration pitched the Iraq War for nearly a year and a half before the first shots were fired.Saddam Hussein and his sons Uday and Qusay became household names. Their excessive lifestyle and corruption along with their many crimes against humanity and the people of Iran were drilled into the minds of farmers, teachers and factory workers across the country.Bush was also exploiting a grief-stricken country as he falsely connected the horrific terrorist attack on 9/11 to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.Trump isn't helping solidify support for his poorly planned war against Iran as he plays golf on the weekends, holds press conferences with his fawning cabinet members, and accepts meaningless awards meant to stroke his ego.Many Americans view Trump as a puppet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has longed to attack Iran for decades. The war is already unpopular and will only get more despised if Trump doesn't change the perception that he is fighting on behalf of a foreign government's interest.Fox News doesn't know which way is up. Grainy aerial shots of trucks and buildings being obliterated aren't exactly heroic. There are no clear goals or milestones and seemingly no exit strategy to Trump's latest wild endeavor. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingfoxnews.substack.com/subscribe

In the final installment of our three-part investigative series, Ash and Kristen put the stories of Sally Horner, Jan Broberg, and the infamous novel Lolita side by side.At first glance, these cases seem unrelated... a forgotten 1948 kidnapping, a shocking 1970s true crime case, and one of the most controversial novels ever written. But when you line them up, a disturbing pattern begins to emerge.Authority.Grooming.Isolation.Movement.Social camouflage.Narrative control.Public misunderstanding.In this episode, Ash breaks down the blueprint of coercive control that connects all three stories and explores how predators manipulate not just their victims, but the people and systems around them.Because once you see the pattern… you can't unsee it. And the more you recognize it, the harder it becomes for these stories to repeat themselves unnoticed.TW: For everything mentioned above... this is an upsetting topic that I found very difficult to research, make sure to take care of yourselves

As the war rages on, the question is - what does victory look like for everyone involved? We begin with the Iranian view with former nuclear negotiator and diplomat Seyed Hossein Mousavian. Then, from the U.S., the Pentagon senior advisor turned whistleblower who is warning of a dangerous disregard for civilian casualties in Iran. Correspondent Jomana Karadsheh then takes us to the people on the ground, to hear from the Iranians caught between foreign bombs and a repressive regime. Then, Christiane speaks to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett about Israel's endgame in a war boosting Benjamin Netanyahu's popularity. From the archives, recalling the time Saddam Hussein miscalculated Iran's reaction to invasion and how the war forged the strategic mindset of the Islamic Republic. And finally, Iranians around the world mark Nowruz as war casts a dark shadow over celebrations. Air date: March 21, 2026 Guests: Seyed Hossein Mousavian Wes Bryant Naftali Bennett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the world faces another energy crisis, what can past shocks teach us? We look back at earlier oil crises to understand how conflict has disrupted global supply - and what that means for markets today. We hear from a former boss of one of the world's biggest oil companies, BP, on the challenges the business faced when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. And as many of us are now facing rising prices at the pumps, we explore how reliant we've become on oil and whether it's possible to reduce our dependence on it anytime soon. If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.ukPresenter: Rahul Tandon Producers: Rebecca Smyllie and Josh MartinBusiness Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.Each episode is a 17-minute, daily deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story.Recent episodes explore the weight-loss drug revolution, the growth in AI, the cost of living, the economic impact of the war in the Middle East, and why bond markets are so powerful.We also feature in-depth interviews with company founders and some of the world's most prominent CEOs. These include Google's Sundar Pichai, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and the CEO of Canva, Melanie Perkins.(Picture: Plumes of smoke rise over the oil depot tanks hit by joint Israel-US overnight in a station north west of the Iranian capital, Tehran, the 8th of March 2026. Credit: Getty Images)

From September 26, 2024: Steve Coll's latest book, “The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq,” seeks to explain why Saddam Hussein would put his regime at risk over weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that didn't exist. Saddam ultimately lost his regime, and his life, in part because he saw America as an omniscient puppeteer seeking to dominate the Middle East. The United States put thousands of troops in harm's way in pursuit of a rogue WMD program that turned out to be a fiction. Were these outcomes inevitable?Lawfare Student Contributor Preston Marquis sat down with Coll, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, to explore this question. “The Achilles Trap” is unique in that it relies on Saddam's secret tapes and archives to unpack twists and turns in the U.S.-Iraq bilateral relationship dating back to the Cold War. The full review is available on the Lawfare website.To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"God, where are You working in aviation that I can participate?" Throughout his life, Steve Russell, CEO and President of Jungle Aviation and Relay Service (better known as JAARS) has asked the Lord what He had in store next. That pattern continued when he earned his pilot's license; he wondered how the Lord would use that new skill to open doors for Kingdom impact. Little did he know God would use it to move him toward leadership in a global missions effort! Long before Russell arrived at JAARS, God was giving him experiences to prepare him for this season of service. Steve will share how the Lord led him from ministry as a youth pastor to the military, including leading a U.S. Army unit involved in the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Later, God moved him into government service, including in the State of Oklahoma and the U.S. House of Representatives. Now, at JAARS, he leads a worldwide mission working to facilitate delivery of God's Word into the hardest-to-reach places in the world.  Steve will also explain JAARS' history and its historic connection to Wycliffe Bible Translators. Hear how you can pray for JAARS' pilots, mechanics, and technicians, and other aspects of the ministry of JAARS. Also check out their podcast, Uncharted.  The VOM App for your smartphone or tablet will help you pray daily for persecuted Christians in nations like North Korea, Nigeria, Iran, and Bangladesh, as well as provide free access to e-books, audiobooks, video content, and feature films. Download the VOM App for your iOS or Android device today.

Weichert analyzes the 1979 hostage crisis, Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran, and the negative legacy of the Carter Doctrine regarding permanent American involvement in the region. 2.