Coming Soon: The Saudi Project

Quinn Slobodian, author of Crack-Up Capitalism and Professor of History at Wellesley College, discusses how the development of cities like Dubai and countries like Qatar are influencing the Saudi economy and the huge projects the country is spending its money on. This episode was ...  Show more

Saudi Arabian professor of social anthropology and author of Salman's Legacy: The Dilemmas of a New Era in Saudi Arabia, Madawi Al-Rasheed, explains the foundations of the Saudi state and how two key factors – religion and oil – shaped the kingdom. This episode was hosted and pro ...  Show more

Regularly embroiled in international conflicts – both militarily and diplomatically – and locked in a cycle of protest and heavy government crackdowns on the domestic political front, Iran has rarely been out of the international spotlight over the past decades. The protests in r ...  Show more

This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. In the 20th century most autocrats were brutal dictators whose main goal was to control a domestic population. But in the 21st century autocracy has become much more sophisticated and ambitious in its scope. States like Russi ...  Show more

President and Chairwoman of the Saudi Mixed Martial Arts Federation join co-hosts Hanaa and Lucien for an exclusive interview, shedding light on her journey from being the first Saudi woman certified as a boxing coach to holding prominent positions in international sports organiz ...  Show more

After a whirlwind month of travel, Lucien and Dr. Hanaa are back on The TWENTY30 Podcast—and strap in, because they have a LOT of catching up to do. A lot has happened in the fast-paced, fast-changing Kingdom over the past few weeks. The hosts try to tackle as much of it as they ...  Show more