In this week's episode, Robert Kubinec of NYU Abu Dhabi joins Marc Lynch to discuss his book,. Kubinec argues that businesses must respond to changes in how perks and privileges are distributed after political transitions, either by forming political coalitions or creating new informal connections to emerging politicians. Employing detailed case studies and original experiments, Making Democracy Safe for Business advances our empirical understanding of the study of the durability of corruption in general and the dismal results of the Arab Uprisings in particular. (Starts at 2:35).

Also this week, due to the American Political Science Association (APSA) annual meeting disruption, Marc Lynch invites four junior scholars from the APSA MENA section panels to put together "virtual posters" describing their work and its significance to our podcast audience. (Starts at 37:18). The four scholars are: Ansar Jasim (Free University of Berlin), "Unmaking Homes: Urban Violence and its Afterlives in Baghdad"; Elizabeth Parker-Magyar (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), "Workplace, Networks and Social Movements: Evidence from Jordan"; Amir Mahdavi (University of Connecticut), "Iran's 2021 Election: A Turning Point from Electoral to Hegemonic Authoritarianism"; Ameni Mehrez (Central European University), "The Political Legacy of Secular Policies: Evidence from Tunisia."

Music for this season’s podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.