Tahrir Podcast - بودكاست التحرير

In episode 58 of Tahrir Podcast, Mairav Zonszein and Dahlia Scheindlin tuned in to discuss and dissect the upcoming Israeli Knesset elections, future scenarios, and what polling suggests. We discussed the banning of Arab parties from the election, the rise of the Israeli right, and Gadi Eisenkot's bid to lead the new government, the NAZA documentary, and West Bank settler violence.

Episode on YouTube: youtu.be/kVPv8PMvUoo

Mairav Zonszein is an Israel-Palestine senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. She is also a contributing Opinion writer to the New York Times and has covered Israeli politics and U.S. foreign policy for over a decade. 

Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin is a public opinion expert and strategic consultant with over 25 years of experience. She is among the founders of +972 Magazine, an award-winning independent magazine run by Palestinian and Israeli journalists. Dr. Dahlia is currently a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy and a senior analyst at Haaretz Newspaper. Her 2023 book, The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel, was listed among the Best Books of 2024 by Foreign Affairs.

In episode 57 of Tahrir Podcast, Robin Yassin-Kassab joined to discuss his new book, "The Blood Between Us: Syria After the Fall of Assad" (Saqi Books, 2026). This book offers a first-hand account of Syria's abrupt transformation after the collapse of the brutal Assad regime, tracing how decades of protest, repression and resistance culminated in the swift fall of a sixty-year dictatorship. Drawing on reporting and interviews gathered across the country, Robin Yassin-Kassab follows the Syrians living through this fragile new chapter, weighing the freedoms unlocked by the regime's end against the unresolved violence, competing powers and open questions of justice that will determine whether Syria rebuilds or slides back into conflict.

Robin Yassin-Kassab is a leading British Syrian writer and journalist. He is a prominent voice on the Syrian Revolution and war, with by-lines in The Guardian, Foreign Policy and Newsweek, and regular appearances on the BBC, Channel 4 and Al Jazeera. He is a contributing editor to the quarterly journal Critical Muslim, and the author, with Leila al-Shami, of the critically acclaimed "Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War" (shortlisted for the Folio Prize), as well as the novel "The Road from Damascus". Yassin-Kassab is currently the English editor of the Prisons Museum, an NGO that documents and investigates detention facilities run by both ISIS and the Assad regime.

Link to book: https://saqibooks.com/books/saqi/the-blood-between-us/?utm_source=Tahrir&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=TahrirBloodBetweenUs

Episode on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=RBl1godKL5U

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In episode 56 of Tahrir Podcast, Abdalla Nasef sits down in-person at Harvard University with former Tunisian Prime Minister Dr. Youssef Chahed for a conversation about Dr. Chahed's rise within Tunisian politics as the youngest head of government in Tunisia's history, and the longest serving since 2011. The conversation touched on day-to-day governance, counter-terrorism, Tunisian democracy (and its erosion), managing fiscal stress, and advice about building democracy in the Arab World/Middle East and North Africa region.

Dr. Youssef Chahed is a Tunisian politician who served as the 14th Prime Minister of Tunisia—being the youngest head of government in Tunisia’s history and the longest serving since the country’s democratic transition in 2011. He’s currently a senior fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative. 

Following Tunisia’s democratic backsliding in 2021 after a vibrant democratic decade in which it was the only success story out of the Arab Spring with Dr. Chahed being Prime Minister from 2016 to 2020, he found himself in elected president-turned-autocrat Kais Saed’s crossfires, with many cases and charges against him.

Episode on YouTube:https://youtu.be/Bqp9hRzIjKs

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In episode 55, Barbara Slavin and Nilo Tabrizy tuned in to discuss the war in Iran, how it came to be, how likely it is to end, as well as OSINT. Now streaming on all platforms.

Episode on YouTube: youtu.be/wOBl0aB4ddM

Barbara Slavin is a Distinguished Fellow at The Stimson Center and former founding director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East Programs. She has been covering the Middle East since the 1980s. Slavin also wrote the obituary for Iranian leader Ali Khamenei in Foreign Policy following his decapitation during the war.

Nilo Tabrizy is a journalist and writer. Previously, she was a reporter on the visual forensics team at The Washington Post, utilizing open source reporting methods in her investigations with a focus on covering Iran. She is the co-author of For the Sun After Long Nights, a book about the 2022 Iranian women-led uprising. She also worked for The New York Times and VICE News.

In episode 54 of Tahrir Podcast, Killian Clarke joined to discuss his new book, "Return of Tyranny: Why Counterrevolutions Emerge and Succeed" (Cambridge University Press, 2025)⁠.

The book offers one of the first systematic studies of counterrevolution. Drawing on global data since 1900 and new evidence from Egypt’s 2011 revolution, the book explains why counterrevolutions emerge and what enables them to succeed. It advances a movement-centric argument, showing how the strategies revolutionary leaders adopt—both during their campaigns and after taking power—shape a regime’s vulnerability. Violent, ideologically radical movements tend to build regimes that are hard to overturn, while democratic revolutions like Egypt’s face greater risks, though they can still avert counterrevolution by preserving elite coalitions, maintaining broad support, and mobilizing the public when threatened.

Killian Clarke is an Assistant Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, affiliated with the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. This is his first book.

Link to book (use offer code REOTY2025 for 20% discount): https://www.cambridge.org/ga/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/return-tyranny-why-counterrevolutions-emerge-and-succeed?format=HB&isbn=9781009646901

Link to Clarke's website: https://www.killianclarke.com/

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/CVIPKrsBn6s

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This episode was recorded on 08 December 2024, the day Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fled the country, ending over 50 years of brutal Assad family rule, and concluding a brutal 14-year civil war.

In this episode that I now release a full year later, Danni Makki joined me from Damascus as opposition forces took over the capital, liberating it.

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FV2a5IGZYsY

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In episode 52 of Tahrir Podcast, Aaron Magid tuned in to discuss his book, The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan (Universal Publishers, 2025)⁠, as well as commentate on Jordanian politics.

Drawing on interviews with over 100 people—including King Abdullah’s classmates, former Jordanian ministers, and even CIA directors—Aaron offers a deeply reported portrait of one of the Middle East’s most enduring leaders. The first comprehensive biography on Jordans King Abdullah, the book traces his rise from a Massachusetts prep school and British military training to the Jordanian throne, and explores how he’s managed to stay in power for over 25 years amidst regional wars, economic pressures, and mass protests. It also examines his strategic alliance with Washington, his cooperation with the CIA, and the domestic controversies that have shaped his reign—from a $15 billion gas deal with Israel to Jordan’s quiet role in the 2003 Iraq War.

Aaron Magid is an analyst and former Amman-based journalist. His analysis on the Hashemite Kingdom has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, the Atlantic Council, France 24, Al-Jazeera, and the Middle East Institute. He hosts the podcast On Jordan.

Episode on YouTube: youtu.be/jRz_yPBQ9IUStreaming everywhere! ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/TahrirPodcast⁠⁠⁠Reach out! [email protected] us on Patreon for as low as $2 per month ($20 per year)!https://www.patreon.com/TahrirPodcast

In episode 51 of Tahrir Podcast, Professor Vali Nasr joined to discuss his new book, Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History (Princeton University Press, 2025).

Drawing on decades of internal debates, foreign policy shifts, and national security doctrine, the book unpacks how the Islamic Republic has navigated threats and opportunities since 1979 — from the trauma of the Iran-Iraq War to proxy networks, backchannel diplomacy, and a complex posture toward the U.S. and its allies. In this episode, we explore the development of Iran’s strategic worldview, the balance between vigilance and pragmatism, and the high-stakes regional escalations that now test the durability of its doctrine.

Vali Nasr is the Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he served as Dean from 2012 to 2019. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council. From 2009 to 2011, he served as Senior Adviser to the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has advised senior American policymakers, world leaders, and businesses, including the President, Secretary of State, senior members of Congress, and presidential campaigns.

Episode on YouTube: http://youtu.be/Jq6seKNEahU

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In episode 50 of Tahrir Podcast, Emmy-winning journalists Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud join us to talk about their book, Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy (Henry Holt & Co. 2023) — a gripping account of the global investigation that exposed how governments have turned smartphones into tools of surveillance and control.

Based on their work leading The Pegasus Project, the book unpacks how military-grade spyware developed by NSO Group was used to target journalists, activists, and political figures across the world. In this episode, we explore the making of the investigation and the writing of the book — from leaked phone numbers and digital forensics to international collaboration, political pressure, and the high personal stakes of telling these stories.

Laurent Richard is an Emmy-winning investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, and founder of Forbidden Stories, a network that continues the work of threatened or murdered reporters. Over two decades, he has exposed global corruption, arms deals, and surveillance. His work has earned the George Polk Award, the European Press Prize, the RSF Press Freedom Prize, and the 2024 Emmy for The Pegasus Project. He was also named European Journalist of the Year at the Prix Europa in 2018.

Sandrine Rigaud is an Emmy-winning investigative journalist and former editor-in-chief of Forbidden Stories. She led The Pegasus Project and The Cartel Project, uniting reporters worldwide to pursue silenced stories. Her reporting has been honored with the George Polk Award, the Maria Moors Cabot Prize, the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize, and a 2024 Emmy for The Pegasus Project. She is currently a Neiman Fellow at Harvard University.

Episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqPAVky4clo

Sandrine & Laurent's book: https://www.amazon.com/Pegasus-Threatens-Privacy-Dignity-Democracy/dp/1250858690

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