Podcast
The Cosmopolitan
Hosted by The Syllabus / Listen Notes · EN
A curated playlist of the best new podcasts on international affairs. Powered by The Syllabus. (To see the articles, books, reports and videos that are also part of the Cosmopolitan, check out our site: the-syllabus.com)
19episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
How International Institutions and Structures Failed Palestine
3d ago00:49:55Tap to summarizePodcast: Beyond the Ballot BoxEpisode: How International Institutions and Structures Failed PalestinePub date: 2026-06-04Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationSaul Takahashi is a Japanese human rights lawyer and academic known for his work on Palestine, international human rights law, and Islamophobia research. He served as Deputy Head of Office of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Occupied Palestine from March 2009 to May 2014. He’s currently a Non-resident Fellow at the Hashim Sani Centre for Palestine Studies, University Malaya. In this episode, we speak to Saul about his personal journey, what he learned about the limits of the United Nations while working there, what he witnessed while living and working in Palestine, post-war Japan and more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BFM Media, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
New Thinking: Chinese Firms in Africa w/ Elisa Gambino
3d ago00:38:52Tap to summarizePodcast: SPERI Presents...Episode: New Thinking: Chinese Firms in Africa w/ Elisa GambinoPub date: 2026-05-29Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationHow are Chinese firms' activities in Africa shaped by local social, cultural and political processes? In what sense is this embeddedness flexible and how does this affect firms' internationalisation? What is specific and generalisable about Chinese firms? How are geographies of trade and production shifting towards South-South engagement?Dr Elisa Gambino is Hallsworth Research Fellow in Political Economy at the Global Development Institute of the University of Manchester, UK and Adjunct Researcher at the Centre for Asian Studies of the University of Ghana. She joins Josh White to discuss her article 'Flexible embeddedness: how Chinese lead firms internationalise in Africa' (2026), published in Review of International Political Economy and co-authored with Costanza Franceschini. They unpack the concept of flexible embeddedness through the lens of Chinese lead firms' internationalisation in Kenya and Ghana and the varied, dynamic and contested nature of South-South engagement.'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.The series is produced by Chris Saltmarsh and Josh White. This episode was edited by Josh White with support from Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from SPERI, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
Mengqi Wang, "Anxious Homes: Inflexible Demand and China's Housing Market" (Cornell UP, 2026)
1w ago01:04:47Tap to summarizePodcast: New Books in Chinese Studies (LS 29 · TOP 10% what is this?)Episode: Mengqi Wang, "Anxious Homes: Inflexible Demand and China's Housing Market" (Cornell UP, 2026)Pub date: 2026-05-19Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationAnxious Homes: Inflexible Demand and China's Housing Market (Cornell UP, 2026) is a study of the power that shapes the forms of the homes Chinese citizens strive for and the possible paths they may take to realize their home ownership dreams. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Mengqi Wang discusses how the Chinese real estate industry functions in the everyday, welding aspirational middle-class families, especially migrant families, to the property-owning class and the urban growth machine. Urban housing was a socialist benefit in China until the market reforms and privatization in the 1990s. Today, most Chinese citizens consider homeownership a necessity rather than an economic privilege. Wang analyzes the making of homeownership ideologies through "inflexible demand" (gangxu)—a concept that real estate brokers, developers, homebuyers, and the government in China use to craft homeownership as indispensable for fulfilling dreams of urban citizenship. The ethnography shows that gangxu helps to articulate diverse attempts to accumulate value through housing at China's urbanizing city periphery, while giving shape to a housing-based, postsocialist right to the city. Anxious Homes argues that homeownership does not necessarily engender independence but suggests further inclusion of citizens within the dominant regime of accumulation. Mengqi Wang is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Duke Kunshan University. Her research interests include economic anthropology, urban anthropology, political economy, gender studies, and science and technology studies. Yadong Li is an anthropologist-in-training. He is a PhD candidate of Socio-cultural Anthropology at Tulane University. More details about his scholarship and research interests can be found here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studiesThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New Books Network, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
How The British Made The Far Right Acceptable / Daniel Trilling
2w ago01:20:54Tap to summarizePodcast: This Is Hell! (LS 57 · TOP 0.5% what is this?)Episode: How The British Made The Far Right Acceptable / Daniel TrillingPub date: 2026-05-12Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationJournalist and author Daniel Trilling returns to This Is Hell! to talk about his new book “If We Tolerate This: How the British establishment made the far right respectable”, published by Pan Macmillan. This is Daniel’s fourth appearance on the show. Daniel was shortlisted for the 2022 and 2023 Orwell Prizes, for his writing focused on homelessness, human rights and politics. His work has also been shortlisted for the Political Book Awards and the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing. Daniel is also an associate lecturer in journalism at London College of Communication, where he helps with the Refugee Journalism Project, a training and mentoring scheme for exiled media workers in the UK, which you can learn more about at refugeejournalismproject.org. Link to purchase Daniel Trilling's new book https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/daniel-trilling/if-we-tolerate-this/9781037411571 We will have new installments of Rotten History and Hangover Cure. We will also be sharing your answers to this week's Question from Hell! from Patreon. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishellThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from This Is Hell!, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
Weekend Listen: Writer Amitav Ghosh on Why India Has Lost Its Way
2w ago00:33:36Tap to summarizePodcast: Big Take Asia (LS 33 · TOP 5% what is this?)Episode: Weekend Listen: Writer Amitav Ghosh on Why India Has Lost Its WayPub date: 2026-05-03Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationFor more than 30 years, the Indian-born writer Amitav Ghosh has built a global following with novels that draw on deep historical research. But his latest offering, Ghost-Eye, is more esoteric. The plot moves back and forth between India and the US, using past lives to explore the ties between the personal and the political. The plot centers on a psychiatrist treating a 3-year-old who shocks her family by insisting she remembers a past life in a fishing community. In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Ghosh explains why he’s finding it harder to write nowadays, how the memories of his childhood came flooding back during the Covid pandemic, why he sees capitalism as an obstacle to protecting the environment and thinks India has lost its way diplomatically. Read this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interviewWe have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bloomberg, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
EP. 872: TUPAC: FORGED IN REVOLUTIONARY FIRE ft. HAMZA SHEHRYAR
May 901:53:08Tap to summarizePodcast: THIS IS REVOLUTION ＞podcast (LS 47 · TOP 1% what is this?)Episode: EP. 872: TUPAC: FORGED IN REVOLUTIONARY FIRE ft. HAMZA SHEHRYARPub date: 2026-04-29Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationRead Hamza's article in Jacobin here: https://jacobin.com/.../tupac-biography-black-panthers.../ Since his death in 1996, Tupac Shakur has existed less as a person than a symbol, flattened by myth, commodified by nostalgia, and recycled endlessly by an industry that thrives on decontextualized images of rebellion. A corrective is long overdue. Check out our new bi-weekly series, "The Crisis Papers" here: https://www.patreon.com/bitterlakepresents/shop READ THE WEEKLY TIR NEWSLETTER HERE: https://www.patreon.com/collection/1853497 Thank you guys again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and everyone of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH! Become a patron now https://www.patreon.com/join/BitterLakePresents? Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!) THANKS Y'ALL YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9WtLyoP9QU8sxuIfxk3eg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thisisrevolutionpodcast/ Twitter: @TIRShowOakland Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland Substack: https://jmylesoftir.substack.com/.../the-money-will-roll... Read Jason Myles in Current Affairs Magazine here: https://www.currentaffairs.org/.../donald-trump-is-a-pro... Read Jason Myles in Damage Magazine https://damagemag.com/2023/11/07/the-man-who-sold-the-world/ Read Jason in Black Agenda Report: https://www.blackagendareport.com/rainbow-and-machineThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from bitterlake, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
The French Colonial Tourism Industry in Ifrane, Morocco
May 200:15:01Tap to summarizePodcast: Maghrib in Past & Present | Podcasts (LS 29 · TOP 10% what is this?)Episode: The French Colonial Tourism Industry in Ifrane, MoroccoPub date: 2026-04-23Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationEpisode 232: The French Colonial Tourism Industry in Ifrane, Morocco In this podcast, Reese Hollister discussed Morocco’s tourism industry under the French Protectorate (1912-1956) by looking at the creation of Ifrane in the Middle Atlas Mountains. Ifrane was a typical example of colonial hill station, a form of urban settlement in Europe’s colonies, high up and away from tropical environments and colonized subjects. This research project uses Ifrane’s rich and well-preserved visual culture to understand the hows of French colonial settlement and imperial promotion. Reese argues that this tourism industry was only made possible by a strong private-public partnership within the French empire. A 2023 graduate of Manhattan College in The Bronx, Reese Hollister is a young historian who recently completed a Fulbright Student Research Grant in the Kingdom of Morocco. Reese is a lover of the Arabic language, participating in the SALAM Program in Oman to continue learning Modern Standard Arabic and the Fulbright Critical Language Enhancement Award to learn Moroccan Darija. As an historian still finding his niche, Reese is now shifting his energies towards studying Morocco and the Maghrib more broadly. He runs the YouTube channel, Historical Method Man, where he shares his undergraduate work that was “sitting in a drawer.” Reese will be commencing graduate studies at North Carolina State University’s Master of International Studies (MIS) program in Fall 2024. This episode was recorded on May 31, 2024 Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM). Recorded and edited by: Abdelbaar Mounadi Idrissi, Outreach Director at the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM).The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from themaghribpodcast.com, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
Podcast for Social Research, Episode 95: On Crisis and the Origins of Modern Iran
May 201:26:22Tap to summarizePodcast: The Podcast for Social Research (LS 37 · TOP 2.5% what is this?)Episode: Podcast for Social Research, Episode 95: On Crisis and the Origins of Modern IranPub date: 2026-04-15Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this episode of the Podcast for Social Research, Suzanne Schneider and Soraya Batmanghelichi consider the current crisis in Iran, tracing its roots through the touchpoints of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Iranian history. Their conversation ranges over the origins of modern Iranian political and class structures from the eighteenth century to the present, European interventions in the Middle East, the role of the Iranian people in revolutionary change, Iran-U.S. relations and disjunctions, geopolitical fantasies about Iran and the part it plays as a regional actor, and the very human stakes of inhumane conflicts. You can download the episode by right-clicking here and selecting "save as." Or, look us up on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. This episode was produced by Ryan Lentini. If you like what you've heard, consider supporting the podcast by becoming a BISR member or subscribing to Brooklyn Institute's Patreon page, where you can enjoy access to all past and future episodes of the Podcast for Social Research.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
Long Reads: Decoding the French Left w/ Sebastian Budgen (Part 1)
Apr 2600:35:58Tap to summarizePodcast: Jacobin Radio (LS 60 · TOP 0.1% what is this?)Episode: Long Reads: Decoding the French Left w/ Sebastian Budgen (Part 1)Pub date: 2026-04-09Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationTwo years ago, the French president Emmanuel Macron called snap elections for the National Assembly. The far right was widely expected to win and form a government for the first time since the fall of the Vichy regime, but things didn’t work out that way. The New Popular Front, a left-wing electoral alliance, won a surprise victory. Sebastian Budgen, senior editor at Verso, joins Long Reads to discuss the state of the French left. Daniel and Sebastian look in particular at La France Insoumise, which has been one of the most successful parties of the radical left in any European country since the start of the decade. This is a two-part interview. The first part is going to focus on events between the election in 2024 and the start of this year. In our next episode, we’ll be looking at this year’s election results and looking forward to the presidential contest in 2027. Read the article from Politico that Daniel and Sebastian discuss in the interview: https://www.politico.eu/article/french-left-new-popular-front-alliance-uk-labour-party-raphael-glucksmann-jean-luc-melenchon-jeremy-corbyn/ Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies with music by Knxwledge.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jacobin, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →
'Mar-a-Lago face:' MAGA's aesthetic loyalty test
Apr 2600:27:33Tap to summarizePodcast: Code Switch (LS 76 · TOP 0.01% what is this?)Episode: 'Mar-a-Lago face:' MAGA's aesthetic loyalty testPub date: 2026-04-01Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationThe MAGA look — you know the one: dramatic eyeliner, long, wavy hair, sheath dresses — is a defining feature of President Trump's Republican Party. And it's about a lot more than appearances. Journalist Inae Oh joins us to talk about what the aesthetics of MAGA tell us about power, influence, race and femininity.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy PolicyThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
Transcribe →