The Arabist Podcast

Issandr El Amrani and Steve Negus are back with Ursula Lindsey to geek out on Egyptian politics. Does the presidential election matter? Are Sisi and Sabahi just two variants of Nasserism? Does anyone know what's going on anymore? These and other questions are considered, and Steve tell us about his trips to deep Upper Egypt, where sectarianism is never very far below the surface, echoes of the 1980s and 1990s are pondered and the shockwave of the counter-revolution crashes on some much...

Arabist podcast hosts Ursula Lindsey and Ashraf Khalil talk to Khaled Dawoud, a prominent Egyptian reporter and activist who campaigned to remove the Muslim Brotherhood from power but later resigned as spokesman for a secular political coalition in protest over the killing of Islamist demonstrators. Dawoud has been attacked from all sides of the political spectrum, as he continues to argue for a poliitically negotiated solution rather than the ongoing cycle of violence and repression. He...

On this podcast, journalists Ursula Lindsey and Ashraf Khalil speak to Human Rights Watch's Sarah Lee Whitson about the greatest threats to human rights across the region, and about how to defend human rights in the midst of Egypt's "war on terrorism" and its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Arabist podcast is back after a long summer break, hosted by regulars Ursula Lindsey and Ashraf Khalil and featuring Lina Attalah, editor of Mada Masr. We discuss terrorism and military operations in the Sinai peninsula; the Egyptian media's cheering of the army; and the shortcomings of Egypt's new constitution.

More chaos and mayhem in Egypt over the weekend on the second anniversary of the January, 25 2011 uprising. Is Egypt becoming ungovernorable? What do the protestors want, can the opposition come up with a credible position, is the Muslim Brotherhood even interested in negotiating? Has the polarization created in late 2012 over the new constitution and Morsi's decree created an irreversible dynamic towards more repression, chaos, and instability? So many questions, so few clear answers — but...

The first round of Egypt's referendum on the draft constitution rushed through by Islamist forces has taken place, resulting in a narrow win for Islamists in early results. Our guest Hossam Bahgat, Director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, helps us decode the trends, processes, and politics of the current crisis and how it might unfold.

On this week’s podcast, Issandr and Ursula are joined by Human Rights Watch’s Heba Morayef and The Economist’s Max Rodenbeck to try to ascertain which of the developments of the last week we find the most disturbing: Morsi’s extraordinary new powers? The Muslim Brotherhood’s aping of Mubarak-era tactics? A rushed constitution with major contradictions, ambiguities and curbs on freedoms? The stark political polarization? Take your pick.

Here is Part 2 of this week’s podcast. This was an experiment: Christopher Lydon of Radio Open Source is in town and we invited him to join us and gathered some of our accomplished friends to discuss a topic that is close to all of our hearts: the city of Cairo and the shape it’s in today. Our conversation with architect and urban planner Omar El Nagati, blogger Mohamed El Shahed and writer/curator Sara Rifki was as rich, dense and meandering as the city itself. We discussed the meaning and...

A friend here in Cairo recently told me she felt history was repeating itself all around her: a new Egyptian train tragedy; bodies of Palestinian children being dug out of the rubble of Gaza as Israel carries out yet another bombardment; protesters and police facing off again, on year later, in Mohamed Mahmoud Street. On Thursday evening President Mohamed Morsi issued a decree that involved some repetitions of its own: he sacked the corrupt public prosecutor (again, after a first failed...

The long promised podcast on everything you wanted to know about the new Arab constitutions but were afraid to ask is here. We sit with guest Zaid al-Ali, a member of the team that advised on the Iraqi constitution in 2005 and now advisor to IDEA on constitution-writing, who has been monitoring the constitution-drafting processes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. We start with Libya, where things are just getting started and the big questions are about federalism and sharing the revenues from the...

The gang talk about Ashraf's heroism battling off feral Tahrir hordes, secular discontent and the politics of Egypt's constitution. We top it all off with talk about the US presidential debates and the surprising lack of vision for the US in the Middle East.

We're back in Cairo and devote most of this episode to the US embassy riots: how they started, what they represent, the culture wars they involve, the MB-Salafi battle for who is the biggest defender of Islam, and much more. Also, we ask, what was Morsi thinking, and how might he make it up in his first visit to the US as president of Egypt.

We interrupt our break from the podcast to discuss the latest in Egyptian politics: Morsi asserting his presidential powers, the changes in the Egyptian military, where Egypt's foreign policy might go from here, early worries about press freedom in Morsi's Egypt, and how the opposition can ounter-balance to the Muslim Brothers' strength - if it is even capable of that.

It's never a dull day in Egypt. Your exhausted podcasters explain the week that turned Egypt's flailing transition into a full-blown military coup, breaking down the steps: the Supreme Constitutional Court verdicts, SCAF's new constitutional declaration, the dual claims for the presidency, Mubarak's night of the living dead, and more. It's as if Egypt's politics have entered a quantum state, where every possibility is true and false at the same time. Fasten your seatbelts, turbulence ahead.

The usual three are joined by Ustaz Doktor Josh Stacher to discuss the upcoming second round of Egypt’s presidential election, judicial shenanigans and SCAF’s plotting, what kinds of powers the next president will and won’t have, US-Egypt relations, Salafi sex scandals and of course the infamous public service announcement warning against foreign spies that has been airing on Egyptian TV.

We talk about the results of the first round of presidential elections, the dilemma facing the one-half of voters who did not vote for the candidates that made it to the second round. In a break from Egypt, we discuss the terrible massacre at Houla, Syria and its consequences. And we examine today's verdict from the Mubarak trial, what it means and how angry people are about it — and how it might influence the electoral calculus of the next two weeks.

The first round of Egypt's presidential elections are upon us. We've talked about why the context for them is flawed, now we talk about the pure politics: who's ahead, who's trailing, what we think will happen, and what the country can handle — and give an anti-endorsement.

There's 15 days left to the Egyptian presidential elections. We examine the insurgent campaign of Islamist Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, ask whether the Muslim Brothers are dangerously off-balance as they try to catch up, look at Amr Moussa's claim that he's the only candidate ready to be president on day one, and wonder whether the Abbaseya clashes and other factors contributing to Egypt's political instability could derail the elections or might simply continue even if there's a president.

ssandr El Amrani, Ashraf Khalil and Ursula Lindsey are back after skipping out on the most confusing month in the history of Egyptian politics. We catch up on the state of whatever is left of a transition, presidential politics and elimination of candidates, and examine the chances of some of the ones that made the cut.

The original team is back together to discuss the aftermath of the US-Egypt NGO crisis, dissent in the UAE, and Egypt's presidential elections.