Jerusalem
92 episodes
#6226: Sarah Tuttle-Singer: The Writer Who Lives Inside the Story
A Venice Beach kid who moved inside Jerusalem's Old City walls — and writes herself into every story she tells.
#6224: Marcus James: Jerusalem's Spiritual Mayor
He hitchhiked with Kerouac, followed the Grateful Dead, and now cleans windows near the Old City. Meet Jerusalem's spiritual mayor.
#6019: Who Should Decide What Gets Built?
A listener asks what developers' role in a city should really be — and two very different cities show what happens when you get the answer right or...
#6018: The Plan Nobody Has Ever Read
Jerusalem's Taba is a legal document no single person has ever read cover to cover — and it governs where millions of people can build.
#5872: When Citizen Engagement Becomes Paperwork Theater
Four names for the same thing: when cities consult residents to produce receipts, not change. A look at participation-washing.
#5824: Herod's Four Walls: Why Only One Became the Kotel
Herod built four retaining walls around the Temple Mount. Three survive today — but only one became Judaism's holiest prayer site. Here's why.
#5803: Who Built Jerusalem's Old City Walls?
The stone ring around Jerusalem's Old City is younger than you think — and the legend about its architects is wrong.
#5802: The Mamluks: From Slave Market to Sultan's Throne
How did enslaved soldiers become the rulers of Egypt and the Levant for 267 years? The Mamluk system explained.
#5788: What Is a Consulate That Isn't a Consulate?
Israel says the consulate closed. Britain says the mission lives. Same building, same seven staff, one screwdriver.
#5685: East Jerusalem's Residency Trap: What 300,000 People Actually Want
A third of East Jerusalem's residents hold residency, not citizenship. What the polling says about identity surprises almost everyone.
#5684: Who Built the Dome of the Rock?
The stones are documented. The dirt underneath them has never been dug. Why the Temple Mount is archaeology's biggest open question.
#5683: How a Handshake Became the Temple Mount Status Quo
No treaty, no law, no signature — just Moshe Dayan's oral agreement with the Waqf, still governing the Mount 59 years later.
#5612: Who Keeps Working During Sukkot?
An ideal of universal rest meets a city that doubles in size. Who kept the lights on during the pilgrim festivals?
#5531: Crayon Lines and Custom Posts: How Border Precision Creates Absurdity
A wax pencil drawn across a 1948 map became Jerusalem's binding border. Ghajar's line is precise but unmarked. What makes a border real?
#5530: Jerusalem's Pencil Line: 1948–1967
Two commanders drew a ceasefire line in wax pencil in 1948. It became a city's border for nineteen years.
#5510: Six Churches, One Roof, 270 Years of Deadlock
Six churches share Jerusalem's holiest sites — and none can move a chair without the other five agreeing. Here's how that happened.
#5499: Jerusalem's Russian Compound: 17 Acres, Three Churches
A 68-dunam walled district in central Jerusalem has been a pilgrimage campus, a prison, and a city hall. Here's how it became Russian.
#5497: Mandelbaum Gate: Inside Jerusalem's Divided Crossing
For 19 years, one narrow seam connected two hostile halves of Jerusalem. Here's how the Mandelbaum Gate actually worked.
#5496: Taking Down Jerusalem's 7km Border, Street by Street
Barbed wire, minefields, and a wax-pencil line: how Jerusalem's seven-kilometre border was physically torn down after 1967.
#5495: Musrara: Growing Up on Jerusalem's Pencil-Drawn Border
How a border drawn with wax pencils in 1948 split Musrara's homes in two — and shaped the neighborhood that raised the Israeli Black Panthers.
#5423: Underground Burial in Jerusalem: 24,000 Graves, 3 Elevators
Jerusalem ran out of ground for its dead — so it built a multi-storey car park where the parking spaces are graves.
#5315: What It's Like Living Next Door to a Prime Minister
Motorcades, megaphones at 5:30 a.m., and a three-meter wall — what neighbors of heads of state actually endure.
#5243: The Antenna on the Consulate Roof
When a host country cuts the water and the fiber, one thing still reaches London: the HF antenna bolted to the consulate roof.
#5223: Jerusalem's Ghost Towers and the Diaspora Buyer
10,340 unsold apartments, 15,000 ghost homes, and luxury towers pre-sold to buyers who visit twice a year. What is Jerusalem becoming?