Episode #130: The Price is Wrong
As the coronavirus crisis continues to grip the world, the markets have been on the shakiest ground yet since the 2008 economic recession -...
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Off the Hookah with Phil and Cooper
Each week, we’ll dive into the top news happening around the Middle East to discuss the stories behind the headlines. With the proliferation of regional conflicts and political drama, we wil...
Episodes
20 of 100 episodesEpisode #129: The Wizarding World of Bibi Netanyahu (feat. Ben Caspit)
Phil and Cooper record their first remote podcast due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on recent political intrigue in Israel. After t...
Episode #128: Hardliners and Health Scares (feat. Ali Ahmadi)
Iran held parliamentary elections at the end of February, resulting in a serious swing to the right, with conservative Principlist politicia...
Episode #127: Turkey Playing Chicken (feat. Diego Cupolo & Mohammed al-Khatieb)
An update on Syria this week; Turkey is lashing out at a Syrian government offensive across the border in the Idlib province, a key Syrian t...
Episode #126: The Art of No Deal (feat. Yossi Beilin & Daoud Kuttab)
So Trump released the final installment of his Israel-Palestine peace plan. But we've heard this song before - last year in Bahrain, when hi...
Episode #125: Drawing Lines (feat. Nazlan Ertan)
Protests in Iraq and Lebanon. Censorship in Egypt and Iran. Growing conservatism in Turkey. All of these events are catalysts - both good an...
Episode #124: Muscat's Out of the Bag (feat. Karen Young)
Oman's leader, Sultan Qaboos, died last week after ruling the country for 50 years. Qaboos is considered the father of modern Oman, so Phil...
Episode #123: Off the Brink (feat. Ali Hashem)
We're back from holiday break and you probably have a lot of questions: Who was Qasem Soleimani? Why was he assassinated? Will the US and Ir...
Episode #122: Peace Out 2019 (feat. Special Guests from Al-Monitor)
It's that time of year, folks, whether you're trying to find the cheapest apple pie in the grocery store or battling parents for the last Tu...
Episode #121: The Winter of Iranian Discontent (feat. Sarbas Nazari)
We've recently covered the protests in Lebanon and Iraq - two countries where Iran remains highly influential. But Iran has been dealing wit...
Episode #120: Gantz Hardly Wait (feat. Ksenia Svetlova)
Back from Thanksgiving break, Phil and Cooper give a thorough rundown of everything that's been happening in Israel lately. In the span of a...
Episode #119: If You Smell What Iraq is Cooking (feat. Renad Mansour)
In light of the last episode's updates on protests in Lebanon, Phil and Cooper talk about the demonstrations that have been accelerating in...
Episode #118: Uproot in Beirut (feat. Ghalia al-Alwani)
Massive demonstrations have broken out in Lebanon's major cities for the past few weeks, where protesters' frustrations with economic woes a...
Episode #117: Bombs Over Baghdadi (feat. Ali Hashem)
President Trump announced the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi last Sunday, so Phil and Cooper give a long-overdue history of the I...
Episode #116: Ceasefire & Desist (feat. Amberin Zaman)
Following up on Episode #115, Phil and Cooper discuss what's happened in Syria since President Trump decided to withdraw US troops from the...
Episode #115: Seen and Not Kurd (feat. Bulent Aliriza & Jack Detsch)
This week, President Trump made a controversial decision to pull the US military out of northern Syria, allowing Turkey to proceed with a mi...
Episode #114: Double Double, Oil and Trouble (feat. Henry Rome)
Phil and Cooper play catch-up on this month's news, including the attacks on oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. These drone and missile ope...
Episode #113: Déjà-Yahu (feat. Akiva Eldar & Lara Friedman)
Israel held another election this week after a first round in April led to a stalemate, when Prime Minister Netanyahu was unable to form a m...
Episode #112: En-voyage (feat. Yousef Munayyer & Danny Zaken)
President Trump's foreign policy circle shrunk a little more this week, with National Security Advisor John Bolton getting the boot. But the...
Episode #111: Yemen At Work (feat. Naseh Shaker, Afrah Nasser, Bruce Riedel & Bryant Harris)
Phil and Cooper do a deep dive into the ongoing conflict in Yemen, which has become one of the worst humanitarian crises in history. We look...