Middle East History
191 episodes · Page 3 of 8
#4876: How Hebrew Lived and Irish Died: Language Revival Lessons
Why one national language experiment created native speakers and the other created a school subject.
#4857: How States Square the Circle on Assassination
From the Hashashin to drone strikes: how states build parallel legal systems for assassination.
#4792: Shadowing an IMS Forecaster in 2026
What does a human forecaster actually do when AI models already handle 95% of the routine work?
#4777: The Circassians: Israel's 5,000-Person Muslim Minority
Who are the Circassians? A 5,000-person Muslim community in Israel that isn't Arab, serves in the IDF, and speaks a language with 60 consonants.
#4659: When Companies Ruled Empires: The EIC Story
How a spice trading firm ended up governing 250 million people — and what that means for Big Tech today.
#4651: From Medici Bankrolls to 501(c)(3) Filings
Tracing the thread from Renaissance patrons funding cathedrals to the modern nonprofit sector of think tanks and foundations.
#4579: Dubai Stopover: What's Real Emirati Culture?
Hannah's Dubai layover raises a bigger question: what's beneath the luxury branding? We explore the real culture, from pearl diving to poetry.
Also available in:العربية
#4566: The 28-Day Trap: ADHD Meds and Zero Margin
When a missile crisis meets a refill date, the system fails. Why ADHD patients live with zero margin for error.
#4539: Athens Beyond the Acropolis: A Jerusalem Comparison
What does daily life in Athens actually feel like? Think Jerusalem — palimpsest streets, community cats, and a rhythm all its own.
#4538: Inside Dubai: Pearls, Oil, and the 90% Expat Nation
Dubai's towers hide a deeper story: a tiny citizen class, a 90% expat workforce, and two economic collapses that forced reinvention.
#4485: How to Start an Architecture Movement That Actually Works
Recovering lost design technology — Art Deco, Jerusalem stone, and building a new architectural style from the ground up.
#4307: What Destroyer Crews Actually Do During Negotiations
Three years of continuous carrier presence. Three operational modes. What life is really like on a Navy destroyer in the Gulf.
#4220: Venice's Playbook: City-States, Confederacies, and Modern Autonomy
Could Renaissance Italy's city-state model solve today's governance conflicts? Venice's rise and limits hold surprising lessons.
#4098: Taqiyya, Hudna, and Jihad: A Strategic Grammar
How Iran and militant groups use four Islamic concepts as a coherent strategic doctrine.
#3952: How Sectarian Identity Predicts Middle East Politics
Why sectarian identity predicts political views across the Muslim world more reliably than income, education, or age.
#3890: The UN's Broken Human Rights Machine
Why does the UN appoint special rapporteurs with obvious bias? A former hostage's testimony reveals the institutional failure.
#3862: Why Your Books Got the City Centre Wrong
Is the "poor inner city" a literary myth? Jerusalem's luxury towers vs. Dickens' slums.
#3784: The Caliphate's Paper Trail: How ISIS Built a State
Beyond the violence, ISIS built a functioning bureaucracy with tax forms, ministries, and municipal services. This is how.
#3771: How Mossad Built a Fake Factory to Pager-Bomb Hezbollah
Mossad didn't just intercept pagers — they manufactured them from scratch, explosives included, through a multi-layer fake company network.
#3682: How Far Back Can You Trace Your Family Tree?
Why most genealogists hit a wall around 1600 — and who can trace their lineage back 2,500 years.
#3677: The Last Poppleberrys: A Surname on the Brink
How a marsh, a poplar tree, and one 19th-century laborer created the world's rarest surname.
#3653: Israel's Expired Gas Mask Problem
Millions of expired gas masks sit in Israeli homes. Why won't the government replace them?
#3640: The Desert Empire That Out-Romaned Rome
The Nabataeans weren't just traders with pretty buildings. They built working water systems in 80mm of rain and invented the Arabic alphabet.
#3630: Why Your Hummus Isn't Biblical (It's Medieval)
Hummus isn't ancient. The lemon gives it away. Here’s where the chickpea-tahini combo actually started.