Podcast
Tel Aviv Review
Hosted by TLV1 Studios · EN
Showcasing the latest developments in the realm of academic and professional research and literature, about the Middle East and global affairs. We discuss Israeli, Arab and Palestinian society, the Jewish world, the Middle East and its conflicts, and issues of global and public affairs with scholars, writers and deep-thinkers.
25episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Patron-Exclusive Sample: Iran and the Bomb: A Long View
3w ago00:13:47Tap to summarizeThe major turning points in Iran's nuclear program were not the JCPOA or the latest wars, but the Shah's defiance of Henry Kissinger and the Iran-Iraq War, says Dr. Sina Azodi, Assistant Professor of Middle East Politics at George Washington University and author of Iran and the Bomb: The United States, Iran and the Nuclear Question.
Transcribe →The Arab King and the American Republic
4w ago00:35:26Tap to summarizeHow 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.
Transcribe →A Nightmare on Herzl Street
Apr 2700:47:49Tap to summarizeOlga 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
Transcribe →The Dialectics of a Special Relationship
Apr 600:39:11Tap to summarizeOz 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.
Transcribe →Early Zionism's Arabists
Mar 2300:35:16Tap to summarizeA 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.
Transcribe →Bubbe-Meises for the Masses: A Gendered Reading of the US Yiddish Press
Mar 900:35:03Tap to summarizeDid 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?
Transcribe →When Everybody Is LGBT, Nobody Is
Feb 300:46:26Tap to summarizeAmir 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?
Transcribe →The Beginning of the End of Israeli Democracy
Jan 1900:41:29Tap to summarizeFor 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.
Transcribe →Patron-Exclusive: Israel-Us Relations at a Crossroad?
Jan 1200:08:09Tap to summarizeHow 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? Join us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/telavivreview
Transcribe →The Ottoman World of Sports
Dec 2200:37:13Tap to summarizeDr. Murat Yildiz, a historian of the Middle East at Skidmore College, discusses his book, The Ottoman World of Sports: Refashioning Bodies, Men and Communities in Late Imperial Istanbul. (Forthcoming, University of Texas Press).
Transcribe →