The Podcast

Here’s a repository with all of our episodes!

İlker Aytürk coined the term “post-Kemalism”. In the latest episode of OSP, he sits down with Eli to explain why that paradigm has run its course and what Turkey’s century-long struggle with modernity and democracy can tell us about the politics of today.

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Previous episodes

#5_ wendy pearlman

In this episode, we sit down with Professor Wendy Pearlman to discuss ethnography within the Syrian diaspora, the process of homemaking in exile, and what the fall of the al-Assad regime has meant for Syrians since December 2024.

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#4_ ezgi başaran

In the first episode of our brand-new series on Turkish politics and political history, we are joined by Ezgi Başaran. Başaran explains what the recent imprisonment of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu means for Turkey’s democratisation journey and assesses how recent developments in Turkish politics reflect the zeitgeist of our time.

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#3_ kenneth roth

In this episode, Kenneth Roth reflects on three decades at Human Rights Watch, unpacks how to pressure authoritarian regimes, and discusses Sudan, Gaza, and censorship on university campuses

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#2_ aboubakr jamai

Our second episode is an interview with Professor Jamai. We discussed the impact of Morocco's infrastructure projects, the impact of the 2011 constitution and the government's normalisation of diplomatic ties with Israel which still hold to this day.

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#1_ peter beinart

In our first episode, we talked with Professor Peter Beinart about his latest book "Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza." We discussed the impossibility of liberal Zionism, its persistence in American political discourse and the role of dialogue today.

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#6_ james barr

James Barr joins Natalia to unpack why Middle East history “matters” to western audiences, from the uses and limits of imperial archives to the afterlives of Sykes–Picot and the shifting public attitudes from Gaza to Yemen. They unpack all this and more as James teases his ambitious new book tracing the history of the region from 600 BC to today.

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