This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Mahsa Alimardani, a scholar at the University of Oxford and a senior researcher with Article19. They talk about the recent protests in Iran and how both protestors and the regime have used social media, the cat and mouse game of online access and censorship in Iran, and what Western social media companies can be doing to b ... Show More
May 2025
Babel Special: Jon Alterman's Next Chapter
This week on a special edition of Babel, Will Todman speaks with Jon Alterman, the creator of Babel and the show’s host since it began in 2019. They discuss Jon’s reflections on 22 years directing the CSIS Middle East Program, his analysis of how the Middle East policy ecosystem ... Show More
34m 59s
May 2025
Mohanad Hage Ali: Hezbollah and the Captagon Trade
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Dr. Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy director for research at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. Mohanad's latest paper for Carnegie investigates the rise of a new form of drug smuggling in Lebanon. Together, they discuss Hezbollah’s i ... Show More
50m 16s
May 2025
Analysis: Will Trump’s Houthi Deal Stick?
On Tuesday, May 6, President Trump declared that the United States would immediately halt its bombing of Houthi targets, bringing an end to months of intensified U.S. strikes across Yemen. The president linked the policy reversal to what he described as the Iran-backed Houthis’ c ... Show More
6m 13s
Jan 2023
324. The Protest in Iran and What It Means | Masih Alinejad
Dr Jordan B Peterson and Masih Alinejad discuss the current situation in Iran, the growing unrest as revolution beckons, and the need for support from the world stage. Alinejad recounts her personal experiences growing up in Iran, being exiled, and multiple kidnapping attempts or ... Show More
1h 35m
Oct 2022
Reality vs Propaganda: Understanding Iran’s Protests, w/ Navid Zarrinnal
<p><b>Navid Zarrinnal, a Columbia Univ. PhD and Iranian scholar at Stanford University, joined Rania Khalek to help make sense of the unrest in Iran over the morality police or guidance patrol amid the death of Mahsa Amini and the way Western governments are using a legitimate gr ... Show More
1h 16m
Nov 2022
Iran Confronts Domestic and Regional Change
<p>As the world watches, protests continue to rage across Iran.</p> <p>With protests continuing across the country, Dr Neil Melvin is joined by Dr Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, Senior Research Fellow, RUSI International Security Studies, to consider Iran's future as it faces a changing ... Show More
37m 4s