Oct 15

299. Gaza: The Palestinian Revolt, The Black and Tans, & Bomber Harris (Part 9)

When Palestinian Arabs rose up against the British in 1936, what repressive tactics were used to quell the revolt? Who was the WW2 hero “Bomber” Harris, and why did he bomb Palestinians in the 1930s? How did Christians, Muslims and Jews who had once co-existed in the region turn ... Show More

49m 4s

Oct 13

298. Gaza: The British Occupation of Palestine (Part 8)

What was the British Mandate of Palestine that emerged after World War I? Why were the Black and Tans sent to Palestine and what methods did they use to enforce order? How did tensions between Zionist settlers and Arab Palestinians begin to rise in Mandate Palestine in the 1920s ... Show More

50m 24s

Oct 8

297. Gaza in WW1: A Rematch For Gallipoli (Part 7)

How did British Army General Murray fail to take Gaza in 1917? Who was General Allenby and how did his tactics in the cavalry charge on Gaza City lead to transformation in the region? What are the connections between the Gallipoli campaign and the siege of Gaza? Anita Anand and W ... Show More

43m 43s

Sep 30

87. Mossad Pager Attack: Crippling Hezbollah (Ep 2)

Hezbollah thought they’d found the perfect solution to Israeli surveillance: the pager. In the midst of their paranoia, they negotiated a cut-price deal for thousands of new devices, but what they received was a trap. The mass explosions on September 17 2024, injured 3,000 people ... Show More

47m 34s

Jun 2025

577. The Irish War of Independence: The Violence Begins (Part 2)

What was Sinn Féin’s totemic first move after winning a majority seat in 1917? Were the IRA’s methods during this early stages of the war as violent as they are commonly believed to have been? How sectarian was the IRA? What crucial strategy did the Irish adopt in order to overwh ... Show More

1h 4m

Feb 2025

Season 4, Episode 5: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs: A History

Send us a textJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs and historian Eugene Rogan, professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Oxford, as they delve into the complex history of the Arab world, from the Ottoman conquest in 1516 to today’s geopolitical crises of the modern Middle East. Throu ... Show More

52m 39s

Sep 28

86. Mossad Pager Attack: The Long War with Hezbollah (Ep 1)

"The smartphone is a lethal collaborator. " This was the stark warning from Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in February 2024. In the wake of intense conflict with Israel, the group made a fateful decision to abandon high-tech communications. They knew that their phon ... Show More

52m 11s

Sep 20

Subverting Syria: Dark Histories of US Empire w/ Patrick Higgins

This episode is a release of our sister program The Adnan Husain Show. Adnan discusses a crucial history of US subversion of Syria's sovereignty even before the conclusion of WW2 starting with interference and covert operations by the OSS precursor to the CIA and then through the ... Show More

1h 18m

Sep 3

597. The First World War: The Massacre of the Innocents (Part 4)

What happened at the crucial, bloody, Battle of Ypres in October 1914? How did the battle come about? Why did the Germans and the British fight each other so brutally and for so long to take Ypres? What made the fighting so particularly violent? How were the British able to repel ... Show More

55m 15s

Aug 27

595. The First World War: The Battle of the Frontiers (Part 2)

What was Britain's first military move following the outbreak of the First World War? Where did the French launch their initial attack on the Germans? Whose army was the biggest and best of all the participants in the war? And, what unfolded at the pivotal Battle of the Ardennes ... Show More

1 h

Aug 24

594. The First World War: The Invasion of Belgium (Part 1)

Following the declaration of war in 1914, how did the outbreak of the First World War unfold? What were the earliest military engagements of this terrible, totemic event? Who were its key political players and how did they respond? What was the attitude to the war in Germany? Wer ... Show More

1 h

Sep 10

599. The First World War: Downfall of the Habsburgs (Part 6)

After endeavouring to wreak their revenge on Serbia, what would be the greatest hammer blow to the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the First World War? With Leviv having fallen apocalyptically to the Russian hordes, what had gone so wrong? How might the war have been brought to an ... Show More

1h 1m

Aug 20

593. The Fight of the Century

Why did two men - John Heenan and and Tom Sayers - illegally meet in a field in Hampshire, in 1860, to brutally fight one another, captivating Britain in the process? What can the fight tell us about the nature of Britishness in the 19th century? Was this the birth of boxing? Who ... Show More

57m 19s

300. Gaza: The 1948 War (Part 10)