Babel will take you beyond the headlines to discuss what’s really happening in the Middle East and North Africa. It features regional experts who explain what’s going on, provide context on pivotal developments, and highlight trends you may have missed. Jon Alterman, senior vice president, Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy, and director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts the podcast along with his colleagues from the Middle East Program. This podcast is made possible through the generous support of the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates. All views, positions, and conclusions expressed here should be understood to be solely of those of the speaker(s).
https://www.csis.org/podcasts/babel
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 3 days 2 hours 20 minutes
episode 1: Sectarianism in Lebanon
Jon and Hanin Ghaddar discuss sectarianism in Lebanon, the changing role of Hezbollah, and what’s next for a country mired in economic troubles.
episode 2: A Mezze: Sana's Solar Revolution
Solar panels are giving Yemenis access to affordable power solutions, even as traditional electric grids are failing.
episode 3: Jihadi Poetry in Yemen
This week, Jon, Will, and McKinley talk about who joins militant jihadi groups and why. Then, Jon talks with Elisabeth Kendall, an Oxford University-based scholar of Arabic literature who has focused on poetry among Yemeni jihadis.
episode 4: COVID-19 and Cascading Crises in the Middle East
In this special episode of Babel, McKinley Knoop interviews Jon Alterman about how COVID-19 is exacerbating a series of existing crises in the Middle East.
episode 5: A Mezze: Iraq’s Explosive Plague
From dens of snakes attacking Iraqi villagers to a swarm of locusts descending on Baghdad, a changing climate has unleashed plagues of biblical proportions on Iraq in recent years.
episode 6: Economic Implication of COVID-19 in the Middle East
Jon talks with Tarik Yousef, a senior fellow in the global economy and development program at Brookings and director of the Brookings Doha Center.
episode 7: A Mezze: Moral Test
The UAE government is attempting to instill morals in its students from a young age, with mandatory lessons on ethics and Emirati culture that are tested with a standardized exam.
episode 8: COVID-19 in Iran
This week, Jon talks with Ariane Tabatabai, a Middle East fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund.
episode 9: A Mezze: You've Got Mail
A lack of mail boxes, accurate addresses, and even agreed-upon street names has continued to make postal reform in the Middle East a source of frustration.
episode 10: Disinformation During Covid-19
This week on Babel, Nabih Bulos, the Middle East bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, joined Jon to talk about disinformation in the Middle East during Covid-19.