What Happened to Syria?

What Happened to Syria?

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What Happened to Syria? episodes

  • Message to Listeners (Upcoming Hiatus)

    Hey y'all, we're going to put out one or two more episodes before we take a month off. 


    In the meantime, keep an eye out for The Terror, a 12-part miniseries about al-Qaeda, 9/11, and its aftermath due for release on September 11, 2021.

     

     

    6 min
  • Episode 9 - A Thousand Deaths (April 22 to May 24, 2011)
    This week, the Syrian Revolution takes a bloody and tragic turn when the Assad regime begins to put restive towns and cities under military siege. Starvation, indiscriminate bombings, and other horrors associated with the Syrian Civil War (a label that many Syrians see as a misnomer) begin to be seen in mid-2011.
     
    Sources cited:
     
    Syria by Samer N. Abboud
     
    Civil War in Syria by Baczko, et al
     
    The Syrian Revolution by Yasser Munif
     
    Inside Syria’s Slaughter: A Journalist Sneaks Into Dara’a, the ‘Ghetto of Death’ by Christian Clanet for Le Monde, published in partnership with Worldcrunch and Time Magazine
     
    Impossible Revolution by Yassin al-Haj Saleh
     
    No Turning Back by Rania Abouzeid
     
    The Last Sanctuary in Aleppo by Alaa al-Jaleel
     
    Assad or We Burn the Country by Sam Dagher
     
    Music licensing:
     
    Fragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomyn
    Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
    Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/l-fragments
    Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ndyyIhwojys
     
    Genocide by Silent Carrion
    Creative Commons - attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international (cc by-nc-nd 4.0)
    https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Silent_Carrion/Suprematism_EP_III_Sol/Silent_Carrion_-_Suprematism_EP_III_Sol_-_01_Genocide
    1 hr 20 min
  • Episode 8 - The Assad Family and Regime (Part 1, 1930 to 1970)

    How did the Assad family seize power in Syria? The answer lies in a man named Hafez al-Assad (basically, imagine an alternate version of Bashar al-Assad with confidence and a modicum of masculinity).

     

    Hafez rises from a poor country boy from the Alawite heartland, the bottom rung of the Syrian socioeconomic power, to becoming the most powerful man in the country over the first forty years of his life.

     

    The consequences of Hafez al-Assad's military and political career would lead directly to the events of 2011. 

     

    Sources cited:

    Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East by Patrick Seale

    We Crossed A Bridge and It Trembled by Dr. Wendy Pearlman

    The Home That Was Our Country by Alia Malek

    Assad or We Burn the Country by Sam Dagher

     

    Music licensing:

    Genocide by Silent Carrion

    Creative Commons - attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international (cc by-nc-nd 4.0)

    https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Silent_Carrion/Suprematism_EP_III_Sol/Silent_Carrion_-_Suprematism_EP_III_Sol_-_01_Genocide 

    1 hr 23 min
  • Episode 7 - The Great Friday (April 1 to April 22, 2011)

    The regime and its opponents both dig in their heels while each tries to convince the other to give up. Appeasement, brutality, and other mix-messaging dominate the regime's approach to increasing unrest while protestors continue to put their lives on the line to voice their grievances. 

     

    This culminates in the Great Friday, where Syria sees its largest protests and highest death toll thus far.

     

    Sources cited: 

     

    Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad by Dr. David Lesch

     

    We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled by Dr. Wendy Pearlman

     

    My Country by Kassem Eid

     

    No Turning Back by Rania Abouzeid

     

    Music licensing: 

     

    Fragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomyn

    Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

    Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/l-fragments

    Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ndyyIhwojys 

     

    Ultimate Metal by Loyalty Freak

    Creative Commons - CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication 

    https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Loyalty_Freak_Music/HYPER_METAL_/Loyalty_Freak_Music_-_HYPER_METAL__-_08_ULTIMATE_METAL 

     

    Fire Away by Forget the Whale

    Creative Commons - Attribution-Non Comercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) 

    https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Forget_the_Whale/you-me-talk-now/fire-away-instrumental 

     

    Genocide by Silent Carrion

    Creative Commons - attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international (cc by-nc-nd 4.0)

    https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Silent_Carrion/Suprematism_EP_III_Sol/Silent_Carrion_-_Suprematism_EP_III_Sol_-_01_Genocide

    59 min
  • Episode 6 - Inside Daraa’s Uprising feat. Fadil al-Mhameed
    Fadil al-Mhameed lived right next to the Omari mosque in 2011, when Daraa became the epicenter of the Syrian Revolution. He witnessed, participated, and documented the uprising and crackdown by the regime, at grave personal cost.
     
    Fadil sustained a gunshot wound to the hand in 2011 before he was badly injured a barrel bombing in 2014. He and his family have since resettled in the United States.
     
    Music licensing:
     
    Fragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomyn
    Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
    Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/l-fragments
    Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ndyyIhwojys
     
    Arrow Arrow by Aglow Hollow
    Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
    https://freemusicarchive.org/music/aglow_hollow/Proximate_Laws_Baba_Yaga_Booty_Calls/arrow-arrow
     
    Come and Get It By Scott Holmes
    Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
    https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/media-music-mix/come-and-get-it
     
    Ultimate Metal by Loyalty Freak
    Creative Commons - CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
    https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Loyalty_Freak_Music/HYPER_METAL_/Loyalty_Freak_Music_-_HYPER_METAL__-_08_ULTIMATE_METAL
    52 min
  • Episode 5 - An Infamous Speech (March 26 to March 31, 2011)

    Protests have broken out across the country and the death toll from state violence against protestors has already broken the triple digits. Syria is in shock after the events of March 25, when more than a hundred people were murdered by soldiers and Shabiha in a single day. 

     

    Things are going to go from bad to worse when Bashar al-Assad gives a speech that changes everything. 

    Sources cited:

    We Crossed A Bridge and It Trembled by Dr. Wendy Pearlman

    Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad by Dr. David Lesch

    No Turning Back by Rania Abouzeid

     

    Music licensing

    Fragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomyn

    Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

    Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/l-fragments

    Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ndyyIhwojys

     

    Ultimate Metal by Loyalty Freak

    Creative Commons - CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication 

    https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Loyalty_Freak_Music/HYPER_METAL_/Loyalty_Freak_Music_-_HYPER_METAL__-_08_ULTIMATE_METAL

     

    Hello Tomorrow by Cult Fantastic

    Creative Commons - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

    https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Cult_Fantastic/I_Love_My_Selfie_EP/Cult_Fantastic_-_I_Love_My_Selfie_-_03_Hello_Tomorrow

    44 min
  • Bonus Episode 7 - Revolution in Raqqa feat. Hasan al-Kassab
    Hasan al-Kassab (@HasanAlKassab2 on Twitter) was a medical student from Raqqa in 2011, when the protests began. Today, he's a Syrian revolutionary activist living in Romania.
     
    Hasan joins us in this episode to talk about what the revolution was like in Raqqa and other parts of East Syria, located far away from Daraa, Damascus, and Homs.
     
    There's so much more to Raqqa than ISIS and everything else that happened after 2014. Thank you Hasan al-Kassab for telling us your story.
     
    Music license

    Fire Away by Forget the Whale

    Creative Commons - Attribution-Non Comercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) 

    https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Forget_the_Whale/you-me-talk-now/fire-away-instrumental 

    22 min
  • Bonus Episode 6 - The Bride and Groom of the Revolution feat. Noura Ghazi
    They fell in love while risking their lives to protest against a regime that routinely arrests, tortures, and executes dissidents.
     
    Noura Ghazi decided she wanted to be a lawyer at 13, when her father was a political prisoner. She met Bassel Khartabil in April of 2011, when activists in Damascus were trying to organize what they hoped would be a revolution similar to what had just taken place in Tunisia and Egypt. Bassel was a software developer who had worked overseas and returned to Damascus to take part in the Syrian revolution.
     
    The two became famous among Syrian activists when they got engaged. Their romance was seen as one of the revolution's triumphs. But things took a very tragic turn when Bassel was detained by the regime.
     
    We are so honored to have Noura Ghazi on as a guest to tell her story. She continues her work as a lawyer campaigning for the rights of Syrians detained and "disappeared" by the regime.
     
    Music license
    Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ndyyIhwojysFragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomynCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/l-fragments
    29 min
  • Episode 4 - The Revolutionaries (Part 1)

    This is our first "biographical" episode. This week, we're going to look at individuals who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives to engage in non-violent resistance to tyranny.

     

    Sources cited:

    The Impossible Revolution by Yassin al-Haj Saleh

    Assad or We Burn the Country by Sam Dagher

    Razan Zeitouneh's appearances on Democracy Now!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_btXxZyMt7w

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNjC_nFwc10

    Razan Zeitouneh's Final Message

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmRGpQwmAUE

    Yassin al-Haj Saleh speaking to Syrian Revolution: A History From Below at 41:43

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1Bdbf5FlCs&t=2977s

     

    Music licensing

    Fragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomyn

    Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

    Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/l-fragments

    Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ndyyIhwojys

    27 min
  • Bonus Episode 5 - Damascus to DC (Part 3) feat. Mamoun
    What is one to do after being exiled from your homeland?
     
    That's exactly the situation Mamoun found himself in eight years ago. Coming of age and finding a path for oneself is difficult enough without a war at home and being able to visit one's family.
     
    Mamoun will encounter the difficulties of being an exiled Syrian in Lebanon, Europe, and later the US at the start of Donald Trump's presidency on his path to finding a new home and embarking on the path of becoming an attorney.
    57 min

About What Happened to Syria?

From the publisher's feed

A look back at what's happened in Syria since 2011.