How does a Western-educated king survive — and thrive — in the political chaos of the Middle East for more than 25 years?

Aaron Magid, a journalist formerly based in Jordan, discusses his book The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan, exploring the fascinating story of Jordan's King Abdullah II: a monarch shaped by American culture, dependent on American support, yet ruling one of the region's most fragile and strategically vital countries.

From Georgetown and Star Trek to Gaza, the Arab Spring, ISIS, Trump, Obama, and the future of the Hashemite Kingdom — this conversation dives deep into the balancing act that has kept Jordan stable while the region around it burns.

• Why does Washington invest billions in Jordan?
• How "American" is King Abdullah really?
• Can authoritarian stability survive economic despair?
• And how has Jordan managed to weather every regional storm?

A timely conversation about power, survival, diplomacy, and the quiet importance of Jordan in Middle Eastern politics.

Olga Gershenson, professor of Jewish and Near East Studies and Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, explains how a generation raised on VHS, torrents, and global cinema reinvented horror in Israel—turning familiar tropes into sharp, funny, and deeply local cultural critique. From "Hebraizing" zombies to exposing the absurdities of military life, Israeli horror is anything but escapist—it's subversive, original, and long overdue.

Why did it take so long for horror to emerge in Israeli cinema—and why did it suddenly explode in the 2010s?

Her book, New Israeli Horror: Local Cinema, Global Genre, is available here: https://websites.umass.edu/newisraelihorror

Oz Frankel, professor of American history at the New School for Social Research in New York, discusses his book Coca Cola, Black Panthers and Phantom Jers: Israel in the American Orbit 1967-1973.

A thought-provoking episode exploring how early Zionist thinkers engaged deeply with Arabic language and Islamic culture, challenging conventional views of identity and "Orientalism" in the Middle East.

Dr Mostafa Hussein, Assistant Professor of Jewish-Muslim Relations at the University of Michigan, discusses his book Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman Palestine.

Did you know that a Yiddish newspaper once had a larger circulation than The New York Times?

At the turn of the 20th century, the Yiddish press in America wasn't just a news industry — it was the beating heart of immigrant Jewish life. Newspapers didn't just report the news; they offered advice, shaped politics, and helped newcomers navigate a bewildering new society.

In this week's episode, historian Ayelet Brinn joins us to discuss her award-winning book A Revolution in Type: Gender and the Making of the American Yiddish Press.

Among the fascinating stories we explore:

• Why men sometimes wrote under female pseudonyms just to get published
• How "women's columns" became unexpected spaces for radical political ideas
• The strange linguistic world of early Yiddish journalism — where the same word might be spelled differently in the same article
• And how immigrant newspapers became guides to everyday life, with readers even showing up at editorial offices for personal advice.

What emerges is a portrait of a vibrant media ecosystem where journalism, politics, gender, and immigrant identity collided in surprising ways.

If you were a newly arrived immigrant a century ago, would you trust a newspaper to guide you through daily life?

Amir Naaman and Dr Ran Heilbrunn, Israeli writers based in Germany, discuss their new collection of essays Inversion: Gay Life after the Homosexual. What are the next steps for queer theory after the impressive gains made by gay rights activism over the last few decades?

For Michael Sfard, one of Israel's most prominent human rights lawyers and author of the forthcoming book Occupation from Within: How Israel's Oppression of the Palestinians Turned Inwards, the government's anti-democratic proposals, collectively known as the "judicial overhaul", are a culmination of the decades-long occupation of the Palestinians.

The episode is sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA and co-hosted by Prof David N. Myers.

How will the much-touted special relationship be affected by President Trump's overhaul of many aspects of American governance? Alon Pinkas, former Israeli diplomat and author of the forthcoming book An Unnatural Alliance, reflects on his time as Consul-General in New York in the early 2000s - how has Israeli diplomacy in the US evolved since?

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