CONFLICTED

By Message HeardReligion & Spirituality History

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CONFLICTED episodes

February 28 🚨 Emergency Episode: The Iran War Has Begun 🚨
In this very special Emergency Episode, Aimen and Thomas discuss the Iran War, which began this morning with wide-ranging air strikes carried out by Israel and the United States against IRGC and Iranian regime targets, and which almost immediately resulted in Iranian counter-strikes against seven states in the region — including in Dubai, where Aimen lives.

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57 min
February 26African Slavery: The Untold Story
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to former BBC journalist Martin Plaut about his new book Unbroken Chains: A 5,000-Year History of African Enslavement, which tells the whole story of African slavery, a story far older and more global than the one that focuses only on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Martin explains:
How Africa’s slavery story begins in the Nile Valley around 2900 BC

Why the trans-Saharan slave routes remain less examined than Atlantic slavery

What Islam did — and didn’t — change about slavery in practice

Indian Ocean slavery

Oman’s slave market in Zanzibar and its caravans that penetrated deep into central Africa

Indigenous African slavery in Ethiopia and the Sokoto Caliphate

The role of racial hierarchies and ‘slave blood’ stigma within societies

Barbary corsairs and European so-called ‘white slavery’

Contemporary chattel slavery in Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Sudan, and Libya

Why major institutions still prefer commemorating slavery in the past to confronting it in the present
Follow Martin on X: https://x.com/martinplaut
And his personal website: https://martinplaut.com/

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm

Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

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50 min
February 24Conflicted Revisited: Spying for Saudi
As Saudi Arabia celebrates Founding Day, and as the murky underbelly of GCC geopolitics is on everyone's minds, we're re-releasing this classic Conflicted episode from early 2022.
Thomas & Aimen discuss:
The deep history of Arabia

The first foundations of Saudi Arabia

The transition from British to American dominance in the Middle East

Aimen’s family history within the British imperial system

The 1920 Iraqi revolt

St John Philby (Abdullah Philby)

The consolidation of Saudi Arabia under Ibn Saud

Oil politics and the American-Saudi partnership

Cold War spy-craft and intelligence networks in Saudi Arabia

Espionage culture in the region

The murder of Jamal Khashoggi
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/

Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConflictedYoutube
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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Rowan Bishop.

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1 hr 21 min
February 19The People Who Became Arabs
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to historian Yossef Rapoport about his new book Becoming Arab, and the revolutionary argument at its heart: that Arab identity in Egypt and the Levant was not the result of mass migration from Arabia, but was forged in the medieval countryside between the 11th and 15th centuries.
Rapoport explains:
What the word ‘Arab’ meant in the early Islamic centuries

Why most medieval villagers in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine did not initially think of themselves as Arabs

Why migration models fail to explain Arabisation in the settled countryside

How Islamisation and Islamic governance reshaped rural society

The role of clan genealogies, taxation, and local leadership in creating Arab village identities

The extraordinary 1245 Fayyum survey and what it reveals about rural Egypt

The rise of popular Arab epics and the imagination of tribal ancestry

Ibn Taymiyyah’s critique of manufactured tribalism in the 14th century

How medieval Arabisation reshapes modern debates about identity, belonging, and land
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm

Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4
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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
57 min
February 17Trump, Netanyahu, and the Iran Endgame
With war clouds gathering once again over the Middle East, Aimen takes us behind the scenes of the indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. He narrates the shifting Iranian position, the will-he-or-won’t-he calculus surrounding Donald Trump, and the vital strategic role played by Israel as the White House formulates a way forward. Is this brinkmanship, miscalculation, or the prelude to full-scale war?
They discuss:
Iran’s negotiating position over the past 17–18 days

The domestic factors informing Trump’s thinking

How the IRGC is united around a rejectionist position

How Israel may have helped provide the White House with the narrative it needs to get buy-in from U.S. citizens

What really went on during Netanyahu’s recent visit

The truth beyond Scott Bessent’s claims about causing a dollar crisis in Iran
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/

Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
58 min
February 12How the US is Abandoning its Afghan Allies
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to U.S. Navy veteran Shawn VanDiver, founder of AfghanEvac, about the fate of Afghans who worked alongside American forces during the U.S. occupation, and how the Trump administration’s immigration restrictions are increasingly freezing them out.
Shawn explains:
Who America’s Afghan allies were and the risks they took

The complex tragedy of the National Guardsmen shooting in Washington D.C.

The Special Immigrant Visa system and why it failed

Trump’s first travel ban and the dismantling of refugee pathways

The Doha Agreement and the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan

The creation of AfghanEvac and cooperation with the U.S. government

How Trump’s second term is closing the door on Afghan allies
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm

Follow AfghanEvac:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AfghanEvac
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afghan_evac
X: https://x.com/afghanevac
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@afghanevac
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/afghanevac
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/afghanevac.bsky.social
Truth Social: @AfghanEvac

Follow Shawn VanDiver:
X: https://x.com/shawnjvandiver
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shawnjvandiver
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnvandiver/
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/shawnjvandiver.bsky.social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shawnjvandiver
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnjvandiver

Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
52 min
February 10The CIA’s Zero Units in Afghanistan
After a tragic shooting in Washington, D.C., Thomas and Aimen trace the story back to Afghanistan and to the CIA-backed Zero Units that carried out some of the coalition’s most clandestine kill-or-capture missions.
They discuss:
The November 2025 D.C. shooting and the alleged link to a former Zero Unit operative

What the Zero Units were designed to do and why they were so controversial

Afghanistan's geography of terrorism and counterterrorism

The lifelong psychological damage caused by black ops

How the Doha Agreement sidelined the US’s Afghan partners

The halfway house vetting pipeline through German

The problem of PTSD, monitoring, and support for both Afghan allies and U.S. veterans

Whether America can fight future wars if local allies believe they’ll be left behind
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/

Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
51 min
February 05Why China’s Rise Cannot Be Stopped
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to veteran Singaporean diplomat Prof. Kishore Mahbubani about his thesis that the 21st century will be remembered as ‘the Asian Century’, and how the West can prepare peacefully and optimistically for China's return as the fulcrum of world history.
Drawing on his books Living the Asian Century, Has China Won?, and Can Asians Think?, Prof. Mahbubani explains:
Why the 21st century will be the Asian century and why this need not require Western decline

How colonialism shaped Asian self-perception, and the need for intellectual decolonisation

How other countries can adopt Singapore’s model for success

His meeting with Fidel Castro, Hafez al-Assad, and Yasser Arafat

The hypocrisy of Western power and diplomacy

How the United States keeps the UN weak on purpose

Why Pres. Trump’s China realism has been a good thing

The threat of war in Asia
Follow Prof. Mahbubani on X: https://x.com/mahbubani_k

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
1 hr 6 min
February 03Trump vs Iran: The War That Wasn’t
In this semi-emergency episode, Aimen helps Thomas unpack the last eight months of escalating tension and threats between the US and Iran, and explains why it’s now unlikely the American ‘armada’ President Trump sent to the Gulf will be going to war with Iran anytime soon.
Thomas and Aimen discuss:
How the 12-Day War changed Iran

Why Israel’s Doha strike jolted the Gulf and accelerated a ceasefire

The Saudi–Pakistan defence pact and the Abraham Accords fallout

How the region became more militarized and less diplomatically aligned

Iran’s protest wave and the regime’s unspeakably brutal crackdown

How Trump’s promises were empty from the start

Why this may be Trump’s ‘Obama red line’ moment

What this latest example of TACO signals to China
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConflictedYoutube
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
1 hr 5 min
January 29Paul Kenyon: 30 Years Under Fire as a BBC War Reporter
In this episode, Thomas talks to distinguished BBC journalist Paul Kenyon about his new podcast series Two Nottingham Lads. Paul recalls highlights from his remarkable career, which has taken him from Iran to Libya to Ukraine to Stockport —as he watched, in real time, America lose its grip on the international order.
Paul talks about:
How two Nottingham lads ended up on opposite sides of the Ukraine War

The time he was detained by Iranian secret police

Watching anti-Gaddafi tribesmen ride into Benghazi on horseback

Accompanying unarmed Ukrainian guards as they marched uphill toward Russian troops

Getting to know the notorious ISIS brides in the Midlands

Being the only BBC journalist in Liverpool who witnessed the outbreak of the riots there in summer 2004

Listen to Two Nottingham Lads here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntm9

Follow Paul on X: https://x.com/paulkenyonTV
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulkenyontv/

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
59 min

About CONFLICTED

From the publisher's feed

An ex-Al Qaeda jihadi turned MI6 spy and a former monk turned filmmaker, have been embedded at the heart of conflicts in the Middle East. Together Aimen Dean and Thomas Small unpack the realities of…