The Lede

Ahmed El Shamsy is an associate professor of Islamic thought at the University of Chicago. As part of a new series from New Lines Magazine big ideas from history, El Shamsy joins culture editor Lydia Wilson to talk about how the Middle East changed in the age of printing. They discuss how the “European book drain” induced the Arab world’s adoption of the printing press, why printing enabled a revi...

Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton has circled the globe three times in pursuit of the Earth’s rarest sounds. His sound portraits record quickly vanishing natural soundscapes. In this episode he joins New Lines Magazine's Rasha Elass to talk about the quiet he found during the pandemic, when human noise pollution subsided, and what that brief but profound period of respite can teach us about our wo...

Author and historian Haris Durrani speaks to New Lines Magazine's Faisal Al Yafai about representation and religion in the classic sci-fi novel “Dune” and its recent film adaptation. They discuss how the book’s Islamic themes are ignored or missed by non-Muslim audiences, why Hollywood fails at representing the Middle East on screen and how a new generation of Muslim authors is changing science fi...

Pakistani writer and novelist Fatima Bhutto speaks to New Lines Magazine's Faisal Al Yafai for this podcast about what we mean when we talk about political fiction — and how the stories we are most attracted to reflect not just the world we live in but what we think that world should be. They discuss why she decided to be a writer, rather than a politician like her aunt Benazir Bhutto, why the CIA...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shattered the precarious geopolitical balance in Eastern Europe. Yet the ripple effects from the conflict extend far beyond that region. In this podcast presented by New Lines Magazine's Faisal Al Yafai, Lydia Wilson reports from Amman where she speaks to freelance journalist Suha Ma’ayeh and international relations expert Amer Al Sabaileh about the impact the war...

The Arab world has a rich literary heritage and a vibrant contemporary literary scene which has attracted many English speaking readers – Arabic is one of the top-ten most translated languages for American audiences. But the process of translation is complex and often politically fraught. In this podcast, Reem Bassiouney, sociolinguistics professor and award-winning author of Sons of the People: T...

As Ukraine braces for a fourth week of war, Syria marks 11 years of brutal fighting. The same Russian bombs pounding Kharkiv have been continually used against Syrian cities like Idlib and Aleppo since Vladimir Putin intervened in 2015. In this podcast, Anand Gopal, award-winning journalist and author of “No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes,” joins N...

Eight years before the recent Russian invasion, a popular uprising in Kyiv overthrew the old Moscow-backed government in favor of moving toward the European Union — an act for which Russia has been punishing Ukraine ever since. It is those events that inspired Kalani Pickhart’s recent novel, “I Will Die in a Foreign Land.” Hailed as one of the best books of 2021, it has found renewed relevance in...

In the new age of counter-insurgency, civil conflict and proxy wars, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stands out as a rare modern example of so-called ‘“conventional’” warfare fought between the armed forces of two nation-states. In this podcast, New Lines Magazine's Lydia Wilson talks to Mary Kaldor, author of the pioneering 1999 book ‘“New and Old Wars,”’, to discuss what Russia’s goals are, why the...

The war in Afghanistan may be over, but a humanitarian crisis threatens to be even deadlier than the 20 years of fighting. In a follow-up to our podcast episode from September, New Lines Magazine's Faisal Al Yafai talks to Fazelminallah Qazizai, Pashtana Durrani and Emran Feroz to explore how the country’s situation has changed over six months of Taliban rule. They discuss how U.S. sanctions have...

Few topics evoke as much passion as food; recipes have become political battlegrounds. In this podcast, New Lines Magazine's editor and hummus-opinion-haver Kareem Shaheen is joined by Dr. Suna Çağaptay of Bahçeşehir University and contributing editor Riada Asimovic Akyol to talk about what food means to them. They discuss what we mean when we call food “authentic,” the problem with pesto hummus a...

For this special crossover episode with the podcast “The Fire These Times,” its host, Elia Ayoub, joins New Lines Magazine's Faisal Al Yafai and Lydia Wilson to talk about Lebanon’s civil war, which ended in the 1990s but was never truly resolved. They discuss how the absence of public memorialization has intensified sectarian divides, why there can be no peace without accountability and what Syri...

More than a year into Ethiopia’s brutal civil war, the country stands on the brink. The conflict has seen widespread violence against civilians and left millions at urgent risk of starvation. But a recent lull in the fighting has been hailed as an “opportunity for peace.” In this episode, New Lines Magazine's Faisal Al Yafai asks what comes next. He talks to journalist Zecharias Zelalem, VICE News...

Not only is the Middle East one of the world’s most urbanized regions, but it’s also where the story of the city began. In this podcast, New Lines Magazine's Lydia Wilson is joined by Yasser Elsheshtawy, adjunct professor of architecture at Columbia University, and Mona Fawaz, professor of urban studies and planning at the American University of Beirut, to talk about cities in the modern Middle Ea...

In her latest book, The Vanishing, celebrated war reporter Janine di Giovanni reports from some of the Middle East’s most ancient Christian communities — communities she argues may be at risk of disappearing. In this podcast, she joins New Lines Magazine's Lydia Wilson to talk about a career reporting conflict, what drew her to the subject of the book, the complex reasons why Christians are leavin...

Veteran foreign correspondent Luke Harding has reported from all over the world, but there’s one subject he keeps returning to: Russia. His latest book, “Shadow State,” offers a glimpse into the country’s ruthless intelligence services. In this podcast, he speaks to New Lines Magazine's Faisal Al Yafai about how he uncovered their activities, from social media trolling campaigns to mercenary black...

Kamran Bokhari is a foreign policy specialist and director of analytical development at the New Lines Institute. In this episode, he joins host Rasha Elass to talk about his essay in New Lines Magazine on Deobandism, a major fundamentalist Islamic movement with influence across South Asia and beyond. They discuss how it emerged from one of the Sunni tradition’s most liberal schools of jurisprudenc...

REBROADCAST: In a special podcast on the fall of Kabul and its aftermath, New Lines Magazine's Faisal Al Yafai speaks to three reporters who were on the ground in Afghanistan before, during and after the takeover by the Taliban. Emran Feroz, Fazelminallah Qazizai and Shelly Kittleson discuss reporting from around the country, firsthand testimony of what it felt like to see the Taliban walk unoppos...

In this festive special, New Lines Magazine's Ola Salem is joined by colleagues Riada Asimovic Akyol and Kareem Shaheen for a wide-ranging conversation about all things Christmas. They discuss what the holiday means for Muslims, share Christmas traditions—and try their luck playing Ola’s Christmas quiz.

James Barnett is a Fulbright scholar and a researcher at the Center for Democracy and Development in Nigeria. In this podcast he joins New Lines Magazine's Rasha Elass to talk about how he became interested in the underreported crisis of Nigeria’s bandits, how he managed to convince the warlords to talk to him, and what it was like to sit down with such dangerous men.

Earlier this year, the Syrian journalist Asser Khattab stopped writing about Syria. A week ago, in a viral essay New Lines Magazine, he finally explained why - and sparked a much-needed conversation in the media about how international outlets treat the local reporters who make their coverage possible. In our latest podcast, Asser Khattab and New Lines Magazine’s Kareem Shaheen continue that vital...

Rising authoritarianism, social atomization and looming climate change — the world feels like it is falling apart. In this wide-ranging podcast, the acclaimed Turkish novelist and journalist Ece Temelkuran speaks to New Lines Magazine’s Faisal Al Yafai about her book, “Together: 10 Choices for a Better Now,” and the urgent issues that compelled her to write it. They talk about what it felt like to...

Award-winning investigative journalist Tam Hussein’s latest article for New Lines explores the mythologization of Afghanistan by Islamists in Europe and America. In this episode, he talks to New Lines Magazine’s Lydia Wilson about how his experiences growing up in London informed his essay, how pro-jihadist propaganda spread before the internet, and why the far-right admire the Taliban.

Art and archaeology have always been used to tell stories about the present. In this new podcast, author and journalist Olivia Snaije and contributing editor Lydia Wilson talk to New Lines Magazine’s Faisal Al Yafai about how the Middle East’s ancient heritage continues to shape modern politics. They discuss why Lebanon’s heritage took on new importance after the Beirut port blast last year, why I...

Days after a drone was used in an assassination attempt on Iraq’s prime minister, military tech journalist Kelsey D. Atherton spoke to New Lines Magazine’s Faisal Al Yafai about their use in the wars of the past, present and future. They discuss how drones changed modern warfare, how emerging technologies will affect future conflicts — and why we worry about the wrong thing when we talk about kill...