Mustafa Akyol — Religion, Democracy, and the New Turkey

Mustafa Akyol — Religion, Democracy, and the ...

Up next

Michael Pollan — The Mystery of Consciousness

From Krista: Michael Pollan’s latest book, A World Appears, is an exploration — with scientists and journalists and technologists and spiritual teachers — of what consciousness is, and is not, or might be: from the plants which have always fascinated him, to the new technologies ...  Show more

“The Fierce Urgency of Now” — Michelle Alexander and Lucas Johnson

From Krista: On April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech at Riverside Church in New York City called “A Time to Break Silence.” This is often referred to as his “Beyond Vietnam” Speech. His own allies criticized it as a risky departure from a focus on civil rights. But ...  Show more

Recommended Episodes

Turkey
Beyond Belief

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed July's failed military coup on the exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. Since a 3-month state of emergency was declared, more than 50,000 people have been rounded up, sacked or suspended from their jobs in the mili ...  Show more

Ep 161 | The Islamist Head-fake: Support Democracy, Reject Liberty
Reform This!

In this week’s episode join Dr. Jasser as he looks at the crux of the debate raging across Muslim-majority communities about whether the goal for modern society is democracy or liberty. As an American patriot, Zuhdi reminds us that there’s a reason the word democracy doesn’t appe ...  Show more

Devrim Adam Yavuz, "Democracy and Capitalism in Turkey: The State, Power, and Big Business" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
New Books in Middle Eastern Studies

While a positive correlation between capitalism and democracy has existed in Western Europe and North America, the example of late-industrializing nations such as Turkey has demonstrated that the two need not always go hand in hand, and sometimes the interests of business coincid ...  Show more

Shadi Hamid on Democracy, Liberalism, and the Middle East
Democracy Paradox

Autocracy as we understand it today is a modern creation. I think there we see very few successful examples of modern autocracies that are able to sustain themselves.

Shadi Hamid

Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon

  Show more