Arab Digest podcasts

The GCC, Iran and Trump's busted flush 16.07.2026 35мин

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Gulf analyst Giorgio Cafiero. Donald Trump blundered into the Iran war. He wants to bully and bluff his way out but Iran is holding firm. This leaves the Gulf states in an increasingly vulnerable and dangerous predicament caught on the frontlines of a war they were not consulted about and never wanted. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Ever Land: a brilliant debut novel 07.07.2026 32мин

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the writer Amy Abdelnoor. Ever Land, her debut novel, explores the Palestinian resistance against Israel's brutal colonisation through the eyes of two young women. One is a murdered Palestinian, the other a Jewish teenager from North London who with her family emigrates to Israel. The seamless interweaving of their stories creates a stunning and disturbing narrative. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Iran and a complicated jigsaw puzzle 01.07.2026 25мин

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Iran expert Dr Sanam Vakil. Their conversation focuses on the challenges facing any sort of a peace deal that emerges from the current talks. There are many pieces to the puzzle and a long and challenging road to finding a solution that works for the parties concerned. And then there is the missing piece to this complex puzzle: Palestine. Without a fair solution to the Palestinian struggle the region will remain a dangerous tinderbox. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Uncertain times in Syria 25.06.2026 33мин

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Syrian analyst and pollster Malik al-Abdeh. With reconstruction of a war ravaged country still not effectively under way Syria's president Ahmed al-Sharaa faces multiple challenges both from within the country and from external players including Iran which my guest argues poses an even greater threat than Israel. He also urges the government to build a narrative that tells the Syrian people positive change is on the way. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Iraq: a new PM and old dilemmas 17.06.2026 26мин

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Iraq expert Renad Mansour. With a new prime minister in place Iraq still faces severe challenges both domestically and regionally. A country that had successfully avoided being pulled into Israel's war against Palestine has since the February 28 attack by the US and Israel been dragged into a conflict that remains unresolved and threatens its hard won stability. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Algeria: economic opportunity knocks 10.06.2026 31мин

With the Ukraine war and the conflict in the Gulf, Algeria finds itself well placed to benefit economically. So Arab Digest editor William Law asked the North Africa and Western Mediterranean energy and security analyst Francis Ghilès to talk about how Algeria can exploit the opportunities and whether a country facing structural economic challenges can get past those challenges to realise the windfalls that wars in Europe and the Middle East are creating. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

The war that Trump has lost 03.06.2026 35мин

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Quincy Institute's Annelle Sheline. Their conversation explores the damage that the Iran war is doing to Donald Trump's MAGA base and what the casual and contemptuous manner in which he treats his Gulf allies will mean for present and future relations with the GCC as Netanyahu strives to further exploit the president's guileless acceptance that Israel with America's backing is winning wars that are in fact already lost. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

The encirclement of Sisi 27.05.2026 27мин

William Law, editor of the Arab Digest newsletter, welcomes the Egyptian political and economic analyst Maged Mandour on to this week's podcast. Their conversation focusses on the trap that Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has built for himself and his country. With America, the UAE and Israel determined to reshape the Arab world to fit their own purposes Sisi is caught in a debt trap with the Emiratis being his biggest financial backer while the Israelis with the support of Donald Trump push forward to become the Middle East's new hegemon. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

How hard has the war hit GCC economies? 20.05.2026 28мин

Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes the Gulf banking and finance analyst Andrew Cunningham onto the podcast to talk about the extent to which the Iran war is impacting the economies of the GCC states. They discuss the metrics used to measure economic damage and explore just how quickly Gulf economies can rebound once the war has ended. Given that the regime in Tehran has survived and will continue, both the West and the GCC will need to find what Andrew Cunningham calls a grand bargain with Iran. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Football, Sudan and Sheikh Mansour 15.05.2026 29мин

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week on the podcast is the analyst and rights expert Nick McGeehan. The subject is football and how the owner of Manchester City FC is the subject of a complaint about his relationship with the Rapid Support Forces conducting a genocidal campaign as the Sudan civil war rages. Their conversation also explores FIFA's response to issues raised by the Palestinian Football Association about racism and matches being played in illegal West Bank settlements. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

A template for troubled times 06.05.2026 29мин

Arab Digest editor William Law invites the North Africa specialist Tarek Megerisi onto this week’s podcast. The starting point for their conversation is Tarek's take on the EU's "Pact for the Mediterranean" and how a fresh approach to North Africa could shape positive outcomes in a region urgently in need of them. They explore the threat that Israel and Trump's America pose regionally as well as globally and what Europe could do to ease that threat. Tarek concludes with his assessment of the current situation in Libya. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Hezbollah and the war in Lebanon 29.04.2026 31мин

Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes back the Levant expert Dr Lina Khatib to discuss the war in Lebanon. Dr Khatib argues that Hezbollah though significantly degraded continues to play a spoiler role and that until a solution is found that ends the Israeli-American war against Iran Lebanon will continue to suffer further collateral damage. She also argues that with the war over Israel will have no choice but to pull out of Lebanon. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

How safe is al-Sharaa? 22.04.2026 28мин

To discuss the current situation in Syria Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Syrian analyst Malik al-Abdeh.The leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and president of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa has been embraced by Washington but he has faced multiple challenges, including assassination attempts, as he works to balance pressure from Israel and Türkiye with internal threats and ISIS re-emerging in a bleak economic landscape. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

The Gulf and three mad countries 15.04.2026 34мин

The Gulf states are on the frontline of a war they worked hard to prevent. Once it began they find themselves facing a prime minister who uses permanent war to survive politically, a president who increasingly seems out of touch with reality and a regime that those two, Netanyahu and Trump, said they would replace but which has become only more hardline and more threatening. To help explain the challenging landscape the Gulf states are staring at, Arab Digest editor William Law has brought the defence and security expert Andreas Krieg back onto the podcast. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

High energy stakes and the Strait of Hormuz 08.04.2026 32мин

Arab Digest editor William Law has invited two top energy analysts - the Baker Institute's Jim Krane and Arab Digest's Alastair Newton - onto the podcast to discuss the implications and the impact for energy markets as Donald Trump vows to use force to open the passage. Iran’s Gulf neighbours and the wider region wonder, as does the rest of the world, how the war will end and where markets are headed once it does. The podcast was recorded 7 April at 1500 GMT Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

MAGA Inc. versus America First 01.04.2026 30мин

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the conservative analyst Jon Hoffman. Amidst conflicting reports that Trump's base is or is not fracturing over the US-Israel war against Iran Jon Hoffman argues that the longer the conflict continues the greater the rift will grow between Trump's hardcore MAGA supporters who back his war and young disillusioned American Firsters who see continued support for Israel as a betrayal of his promises to them. The podcast was recorded 30 March. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Notes From a Lost Country 25.03.2026 36мин

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest is the Iraqi-American writer Sinan Antoon. The podcast focusses on his latest novel which interweaves the stories of two Iraqis in America , one a retired surgeon slipping into dementia, the other a young torture survivor but their conversation also ranges into the attempt by Israel to obliterate Palestinian culture and the impact of the current Iran war on Iraq. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Iran and regime survival 18.03.2026 26мин

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest on this week's podcast is the Iran expert Sanam Vakil. As the war continues and Donald Trump flounders the Islamic regime is conducting its fight for survival with a tenacity that neither the Israelis or the Americans anticipated. Should the regime survive the majority who want change will lose but if it falls the likeliest outcome is chaos with further suffering inflicted on the Iranian people. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Türkiye and the Iran war 11.03.2026 32мин

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Turkish analyst and writer Aslı Aydıntaşbaş. President Erdoğan's efforts to adopt a neutral stance while urging de-escalation are challenged by events on the ground and in the neighbourhood as Israel with Trump's backing moves to reshape the map of the Middle East. The Israeli tactic of using maximum kinetic force to achieve regional hegemony is raising fears in Ankara that the next target will be Türkiye. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Israel's strategy of chaos 05.03.2026 31мин

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the defence and security analyst and Gulf specialist Andreas Krieg. The US/Israel war against Iran is upending security in the Gulf states and creating global anxiety and uncertainty. Donald Trump entered the war with no exit strategy. Now he and his administration are wavering. However, Benjamin Netanyahu has an end game: to create chaos in the neighbourhood believing it will give Israel security at home and dominance in the region. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.