Latest episode

  • 2. Justice in Syria: on the trail of Assad's henchmen

    56:44||Season 4, Ep. 2
    Since 2011, war crimes investigator Bill Wiley has been on the trail of the criminal elements of the Assad regime who have carried out extraordinary amounts of killings, torture and other crimes. His organisation https://cijaonline.org/ has been collecting evidence and documenting these crimes since the start of the civil war. Now that Assad's regime has fallen, it was a good opportunity to understand the current status and likely trajectory of attempts to bring justice to Syrians.

More episodes

View all episodes

  • 1. France in the Age of Populism

    51:07||Season 4, Ep. 1
    How does a society like France grapple with the challenge of populist politics? I spoke to Thom Reilly, former British Ambassador to Morocco who was a candidate in the European parliamentary elections for Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance political party.
  • BONUS EPISODE - CRISIS IN GEORGIA

    01:10:41|
    Marika Mariashvili returns for a special bonus episode as Georgia faces a constitutional crisis - the existing president refusing to cede power after a stolen election, and a new puppet in place taking his order from Moscow.
  • 19. Charles Gammell on Iran post-Assad

    49:47||Season 3, Ep. 19
    What does the fall of Assad mean for the mad Mullahs running Iran? I spoke to Charles Gammell.
  • 18. Christmassy Episode: Miguel Delaney on the geopolitics of football

    54:35||Season 3, Ep. 18
    Miguel Delaney, Chief Football Writer at the Independent is the author of states of play, a book about the geopolitics of football. You can find him on Bluesky and Twitter.migueldelaney
  • 17. Inside HTS: what does Al-Jolani want and how will they rule?

    01:07:23||Season 3, Ep. 17
    There are literally a tiny number of people in this world who can speak with authority and insight on Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham - or HTS - the militant group that swept into Damascus a week ago. One of those people is Orwa Ajjoub, a Sweden-based academic of Syrian origin who has been studying this group for several years and who has direct contacts inside the group.I feel incredibly privileged to have had an extensive conversation with Orwa about HTS's origins, their evolving relationship with jihadism, their intentions and ambitions now in power and whether Al-Jolani is genuinely no longer part of a terrorist network. I found the whole discussion absolutely fascinating and I hope that you do too.You can follow Orwa's work here: https://x.com/OAjjoub and here https://www.mei.edu/profile/orwa-ajjoub and here https://bsky.app/profile/orwaajjoub.bsky.social If you feel able, please support the work of this podcast by becoming a paid subscriber of my substack arthursnell.substack.com
  • 16. The history of Syria, from the Pharaohs to the Pharaonic

    53:01||Season 3, Ep. 16
    I spoke to the brilliant historian James Barr about the history of Syria from the Pharaohs to the present day. You can find James on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/jamesbarr.bsky.social and his books in all the good book places.Please check out my susbtack and - if you feel like supporting this podcast and are able to - take out a paid subscription which is enormously appreciated. https://arthursnell.substack.com