The Take

A wave of poisonings is taking place in classrooms around Iran. The first documented incident took place back in November at one school in the city of Qom. But the attacks have ramped up recently, with reports of thousands of girls being affected at hundreds of schools nationwide. The poison attacks come on the heels of a protest movement that took off last year in the country under the banner of “woman, life, freedom.” Between the protests and the poisonings, what does the future look like for girls in Iran?

In this episode: 

• Dorsa Jabbari (@DorsaJabbari), Al Jazeera correspondent

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Negin Owliaei, with Ashish Malhotra, and our host, Malika Bilal. Khaled Soltan fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. 

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

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@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

New York City is the wealthiest city in the United States – by some counts, the world. But after three years of pandemic, it has yet to build back better: rents are skyrocketing, concern about crime is at an all-time high, and the focus has landed on people living on the streets and the subways.

There's been a high-profile effort by the city's mayor, Eric Adams, to clear the streets, including controversial sweeps of encampments and hospitalizations by police, even when people don't want to go.

So how can the city protect the most vulnerable New Yorkers?

In this episode:

• Peter Malvan, Homeless Advocate, Urban Justice Center
• Max Rivlin-Nadler (@MaxRivlinNadler), Co-publisher of @HellGateNY

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Alexandra Locke with Chloe K. Li and our host, Halla Mohieddeen, in for Malika Bilal. Ashish Malhotra fact-checked this episode. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take's executive producer and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

2022 saw the highest number of Mexican journalists ever killed in a year. The murders of Lourdes Maldonado Lopez and Margarito Martínez last January sparked an outcry in a string of murders that have largely gone unsolved. We’re revisiting our episode with Mexican journalists about how safe they feel while covering the news there, why there are so many murders of journalists in Mexico, and what's being done to protect them.

In this episode: 

• León Krauze (@LeonKrauze), Univision Anchor
• Alejandra Guerra (@alisguerra8), Journalist in Tijuana, Mexico
• Rocío Galván (@RocioGalvanZ), Journalist in Tijuana, Mexico
• Andalusia Knoll Soloff (@Andalalucha), Journalist in Mexico City
• Natalie Southwick, Program Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom)

Episode credits:

This episode was updated by Amy Walters with our host Malika Bilal. The original production team was Ney Alvarez, Priyanka Tilve, Ruby Zaman, Negin Owliaei, Amy Walters, Alexandra Locke, Tom Fenton, and Stacey Samuel. Special thanks to Lorena Arroyo and Inger Diaz Barriga.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Andy Greiner and Adam Abou-Gad. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s Executive Producer and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

More than 300 Nicaraguans have been stripped of their citizenship. They’re considered political opponents of the president, Daniel Ortega. Some were already out of the country, but 222 were recently deported from Nicaragua to the United States and forced into exile. It’s the latest move by President Ortega to crack down on political dissidents. But will it succeed in silencing them?

In this episode: 

• Felix Maradiaga (@maradiaga), Nicaraguan activist and former presidential candidate

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Ashish Malhotra with Chloe K. Li and our host, Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin and Khaled Soltan fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Why have the people of the Chagos Islands not been allowed to go home? The archipelago in the Indian Ocean was home to Chagossians until the 1960s. As decolonisation swept the globe, the United Kingdom created one last African colony. Slowly and then all at once, it forced people to leave their homes, then leased the land to the United States for a military base. Chagossians have been fighting – and sometimes winning – in court to return to their home islands, and now, Human Rights Watch says what the UK and the US did amounts to crimes against humanity.

In this episode: 

• Clive Baldwin (@cliveabaldwin), senior legal advisor, Human Rights Watch

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Negin Owliaei and our host, Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Photographers have been the entire world’s lens into the Russia-Ukraine conflict for the past year. They’ve captured shocking scenes – from refugees and frontline battles, to portraits of bravery and resilience. But the photographers behind these images have also found themselves in the middle of an information war – to establish what’s really happening on the ground, and how this war will be seen in the future. 

In this episode: 

• Serhii Korovayny (@SerhiiKorovayny), Ukrainian photojournalist
• Natalie Keyssar (@NatalieKeyssar), freelance documentary photographer

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Miranda Lin and Chloe K. Li with our host, Malika Bilal. Khaled Soltan, Chloe K. Li and Ashish Malhotra fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Pakistan is still reeling from last year’s deadly floods, which put a third of the country underwater. Though the country has barely contributed to climate change, its people are still paying the price. Six months on from the worst of the devastation, people across the country are still displaced and they’re facing knock-on effects of the floods on their health. The international community pledged $9 billion to aid Pakistan in rebuilding at the beginning of this year, but experts on the ground say it will be of little use if it doesn’t arrive soon. So is the international community doing enough to help? 

In this episode: 

• Zuha Siddiqui (@SiddiquiZuha), journalist
• Taimur Khan Jhagra (@Jhagra), former health and finance minister, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
• Ed Taylor, emergency response coordinator, Doctors Without Borders (@MSF)

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Ashish Malhotra and Amy Walters with our host, Halla Mohieddeen. Chloe K. Li, Amy Walters and Ashish Malhotra fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Nigerian politics might be on the verge of total upheaval. As Africa’s largest democracy heads to the polls on February 25, a third presidential candidate is disrupting what has in recent years been a two-horse race. Peter Obi, of the tiny Labour Party, is leading most polls ahead of more established candidates Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, and Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress. But in a country where polling data is a new phenomenon, will he actually win?

In this episode: 

• Mark Amaza (@amasonic), Senior Communications Officer, Yiaga Africa
• Preston Ideh (@TimeyinPI), Co-founder, Stears Data

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Ashish Malhotra with Negin Owliaei, Miranda Lin and our host, Malika Bilal. Amy Walters, Alexandra Locke and Negin Owliaei fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

What happens when you can’t go home? The city of Antakya, one of Turkey’s cultural centres, was levelled in the February 6 earthquakes. Thousands of people were killed, and the city is no longer recognisable to many who called it home. The government says rebuilding in the region is about to begin, but many residents are still trying to understand what they’ve lost.

In this episode: 

• Emre Rende (@emrerende), Journalist and photographer
• Bernard Smith (@JazeeraBernard), Al Jazeera correspondent
• Belit Tasdemir (@AKUTAssociation), Coordinator for AKUT Search and Rescue Association

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Amy Walters and Chloe K. Li with our host, Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Polish leaders were not taken seriously about a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine, though they were concerned long before the first air raid sirens rang out in Kyiv in 2022. Ever since, Poland has played a leadership role, pushing the European Union for more aid to Ukraine and hosting both foreign militaries and millions of refugees as a front-line country. But Poland has its own longstanding conflict with the EU, and it has been pushed to the back burner. How has the war in Ukraine changed Poland, and how has Poland changed the EU?

In this episode: 

• Bartosz Węglarczyk (@bweglarczyk) editor-in-chief, Onet
• Maciej Konieczny (@_mkonieczny), member of Polish Parliament 

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Negin Owliaei with Miranda Lin and our host, Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook