The Lede

Ruby Lal’s new biography of the Mughal Princess Gulbadan brings to life the princess’s remarkable seven-year pilgrimage, from her home in the harem of her nephew Emperor Akbar in India to the holy city of Mecca. Surviving shipwrecks and expulsion orders from the Ottoman Sultan, Gulbadan eventually returned to India where she would go on to write groundbreaking works. 

Lal joins New Lines’ Rasha Elass on The Lede to discuss her book “Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan,” which is based on Gulbadan’s own long-forgotten writings.

Produced by Finbar Anderson

New Lines Contributing Editor Lisa Goldman has spent much of her life living and working in Israel, but her most recent reporting trip revealed a side of the country she had not seen before. “It’s unprecedented,” she tells New Lines Africa Editor Kwangu Liwewe on Global Insights. 

“Israelis feel for the very first time that their army couldn’t protect them, it didn’t protect them. They had been living with a very strong sense of confidence that whatever happened, they were physically secure because they had such a well-trained army and a highly efficient intelligence system. And all of that broke down on Oct. 7.”

Goldman shares the insights she gained from the ground, including how local media helps to drive support for Israel’s war in Gaza, personal tensions with her old friends brought about by the conflict and what it was like when Iran bombarded Tel Aviv with over 300 drones and missiles while she was there.

Produced by Finbar Anderson and Erin Brown

“Going into Gaza, that pit of fear was more like a web that sat on my chest and never settled.”

Arwa Damon has been in plenty of war zones, but going into Gaza was unlike anything she’s yet experienced.

The veteran CNN correspondent joins New Lines’ Faisal Al Yafai on The Lede for a conversation about her recent humanitarian mission into the Palestinian territory. They discuss the moving and heartbreaking human interactions Damon had with Palestinians in Gaza, the Israeli strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven aid workers just days before Damon’s trip, and the lasting impact of journalists not being allowed into Gaza to cover the conflict.

Damon also picks up on the topic she discussed in her last appearance on The Lede. Back in November, she spoke with Al Yafai about how trauma impacts decision-making in situations like the Israel-Hamas conflict. That episode, titled “The Emotional Fog Of War,” has since been nominated for multiple awards.

Further listening: The Emotional Fog Of War — With Arwa Damon

Further reading: Gaza in a Million Pieces

Produced by Finbar Anderson

Early Arabic hunting poetry showcases a fascinating overlap between the pre-Islamic world, which was dominated by the concepts of fate and time, and the post-Islamic world, in which the standout theme was an omniscient or omnipotent god. “The wise thing about the poetry is it doesn’t seek to reconcile the two, it allows both to coexist,” says Montgomery, Sir Thomas Adams's professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge, who joins New Lines Culture Editor Lydia Wilson on The Lede.

Montgomery tells Wilson how poetry is a portal to the pre- and early Islamic worlds, and how, after struggling with one set of translations for over 20 years, inspiration came from an unlikely source: YouTube.

Further reading: The Seven Hanging Odes of Mecca

Produced by Finbar Anderson and Joshua Martin

For more information go to newlinesmag.com/podcast

For Alex Rowell, the need to reassess the legacy of former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser has only increased in the decades since the death of the hugely influential figure, and especially recently.

“If you just take a moment to look at the Arab Spring and the countries in which the largest protests occurred, and the regimes against which millions so courageously rose up … they were precisely the regimes that were the most direct legacies of Nasser’s time in power,” Rowell, New Lines’ online editor and author of “We Are Your Soldiers: How Gamal Abdel Nasser Remade the Arab World,” tells Joshua Martin.

Rowell and Martin consider Nasser’s enduring impact up to the present day, including Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.

Further reading: Hoping to Channel Nasser, Egypt’s Sisi Provokes a Backlash

Produced by Finbar Anderson

For more information go to newlinesmag.com/podcast

In a year of elections across the globe, none will be bigger in scale than that in India, where nearly 1 billion people are eligible to vote. “In the seven decades since India got its independence, democracy has been its identity,” Surbhi Gupta tells Kwangu Liwewe on the first episode of Global Insights on The Lede. 

Gupta and Liwewe discuss the various key issues in the upcoming elections, such as the rise of Hindu nationalism and controversies such as improper donations to major parties, as well as the arrest of key opposition figure Arvind Kejriwal.

Further listening:

Further reading:

Produced by Finbar Anderson

For more information go to newlinesmag.com/podcast

“War changes you. It doesn’t necessarily make you a tougher person or a better person or a worse person, but it is a training on the art of dying,” Joumana Haddad tells New Lines’ Faisal Al Yafai. “I’ve always thought about that ever since I can remember. And it’s not easy to live while thinking you can die any minute.”

The author and activist explains how growing up during the Lebanese Civil War fundamentally shaped her character, encouraging her to try to change the world around her, even if that might just be in her immediate circle.

Haddad and Al Yafai discuss why she chooses to remain in Lebanon despite physical threats to her safety and a tempestuous political climate, most recently manifested in the war in Gaza that has turned southern Lebanon into a warzone. They also discuss some of the ideas that have put Haddad in the firing line in Lebanon, such as her insistence that wearing of the veil or burqa should be banned.

Produced by Finbar Anderson

For more information go to newlinesmag.com/podcast

After the attacks in Israel on Oct. 7 last year that sparked the current war in Gaza, Laliv Melamed watched as Israeli society came together to mourn its victims — and also closed itself off. It was a phenomenon she recognized from previous conflicts. 

“The entire public sphere becomes like a collective body that is orchestrating around this war effort. I remember in later wars, or operations in Gaza, when I went out to demonstrate, people were shocked that I’m demonstrating in a time of war, because when war is happening everyone needs to be on the same front and just support the troops,” she tells New Lines’ Lisa Goldman.

In her book “Sovereign Intimacy: Private Media and the Traces of Colonial Violence,” Melamed charts the history of what she calls Israeli amnesia back to the 1982 war with Lebanon. She considers how both the country’s media and its anti-war movement present a “partial image of violence,” with profound implications for Israeli society and for those on the other side of the wars it prosecutes, whether in Lebanon or Gaza.

Produced by Finbar Anderson

For more information go to newlinesmag.com/podcast

In September 2022, the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement broke out in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. On this week’s episode Arash Azizi, the author of a new book on the movement, “What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom,” and New Lines’ Danny Postel discuss its immense popularity, how it was different to other protest movements in Iran and why it ultimately failed. Azizi and Postel also consider how the current war in Gaza has shaped the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regional standing.

For more information go to newlinesmag.com/podcast

One hundred years ago this week, the Ottoman Caliphate was formally abolished by a decree of the nascent Republic of Turkey’s National Assembly. In this week’s episode of The Lede, New Lines’ Faisal Al Yafai talks to Professor Ryan Gingeras of the Naval Postgraduate School in California, whose book “The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire” tells the story of the caliphate’s final years.

Further listening:

For more information go to newlinesmag.com/podcast