40: The Revolution While Dreaming

In the first half of the episode, we paid tribute to Jordanian poet, activist, novelist, travel writer, and editor Amjad Nasser (1955-2019), who died at the end of October. In the second, we talked about the political space occupied by Moroccan-French writers Tahar Ben Jelloun an ...  Show more

We discuss two novels set in Iraq -- one featuring a despondent policeman, and one featuring a determined grandma and her donkey. Also, how John Updike once dismissed the great Saudi writer Abdelrahman Mounif as "insufficiently Westernized" to write a novel. 

What does it mean to stand with Palestine in a world on fire?In this special live episode, recorded at Reference Point in London, Benjamin Ashraf of The New Arab chairs a powerful conversation with historian Ilan Pappé, scholar Katherine Natanel, and legal academic Nadine El-Enan ...  Show more

Episode 24 is alive & the girls discuss big news on the way, the former Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, stories of young activists in Palestine, namely Ahed Tamimi and her family, mental illness, & more. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetw ...  Show more

The brothers welcome distinguished writer, novelist, and intellectual of the New Left Review Tariq Ali to Makdisi Street. They discuss the similarities and differences between the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations of the 1960s and 1970s and contemporary demonstrations against th ...

The Middle East is in meltdown, and perhaps some of the rawest descriptions aren't coming from aid groups or reporters but from writers. Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha was forced to flee his home in Gaza a year ago. Since then, he and his wife say they have lost almost 100 famil ...  Show more