Alle afleveringen
242 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
-
Taiz: The Yemeni City That Refuses to Surrender
15 oktober 2026 · 59 min
We welcome back friend of the show Baraa Shiban, who was recently on the front lines in Yemen. The Houthis have surrounded Taiz once again. Can the city that has defied Yemen's tyrants for generations hold out against another devastating siege? Lees meer
For mind-expanding Q&A's with Aimen, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Baraa and Thomas discuss:
Baraa's eyewitness journey into besieged Taiz along its treacherous mountain supply route.
Life under siege: ruined streets, sniper fire, shelling and hospitals running short of supplies.
Displaced families, makeshift schools and the children dreaming of justice.
Taiz's defiant celebration of Yemen's 1962 republican revolution.
From Rasulid capital to republican stronghold: Taiz's turbulent history.
Taiz's political traditions: Nasserists, Socialists, Islamists and resistance to the Imamate.
Outgunned defenders confronting Houthi artillery, drones and Iranian support.
The fall of Al-Turbah and the battle for Mocha, Bab al-Mandab and Taiz's supply routes.
The Saudi-backed counteroffensive and whether Taiz can survive without outside help.
Find Baraa on X: https://x.com/BShtwtr
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
We’re Addicted to Security, and It’s Destroying Us
13 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 14 min
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, Ruben Andersson, professor of social anthropology at Oxford University's Department of International Development, discusses his new book Age of Security: The Rise of a Global Obsession. Lees meer
For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Ruben and Thomas explore:
How security replaced politics
Why failed security breeds more security
The border crackdown that fuels illegal migration
How neoliberalism hollowed out social order
Sweden’s slide into gang violence
When Big Tech became Big Security
China and the rise of the Paranopticon
How surveillance blurred civilian and military life
Why Covid made us surrender freedom so easily
Can we escape the politics of fear?
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Adrian Wooldridge: Can Liberalism Save Itself?
8 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 23 min
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, journalist Adrian Wooldridge discusses his latest book Centrists of the World Unite: The Lost Genius of Liberalism. Lees meer
For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Adrian and Thomas explore:
Why liberalism is in crisis — and whether it can reinvent itself
Modernity, permanent change and the birth of the liberal world
Erasmus, tolerance and the case for a “chastened liberalism”
Hobbes, individualism and whether liberalism misunderstands human nature
John Stuart Mill, moral formation and the need for cultural elites
Power, authority and how liberal distrust became a “democracy of disdain”
Meritocracy, elite failure and the rise of the examination class
Identity politics, minority rights and the limits of anti-majoritarian liberalism
America, China and the unraveling of the liberal international order
Can liberalism recover its moral foundations without Christianity?
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small .
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The Real Geopolitics of Sudan’s Civil War
6 oktober 2026 · 53 min
Sudan’s civil war has become a regional proxy struggle, with the UAE, Egypt, Iran, Turkey and other powers backing rival armed camps as the country fragments under the pressure of war. But while the RSF’s foreign support has drawn intense scrutiny, the forces sustaining Sudan’s army — from Islamist networks to drones, money and weapons supplied from abroad — have received far less attention. Lees meer
For mind-expanding Q&A's with Aimen, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Aimen and Thomas discuss:
Why Sudan has become everyone’s proxy war
The UAE, the RSF — and the case against the usual narrative
Who is really backing Burhan’s army?
How the Muslim Brotherhood returned through Sudan’s war
Iran, Turkey and the drone war changing the battlefield
The hidden regional contest between Egypt and Ethiopia
Did Sudan’s army use chemical weapons?
Can the outside powers stop the war they helped sustain?
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The Middle East Braces for Escalation
2 oktober 2026 · 57 min
The war is widening, diplomacy has stalled, and the Middle East is once again sliding towards escalation as the relationship between Israel and the Gulf states grows closer while pressure on Iran is mounting at sea, in the air, and across its network of regional allies. Lees meer
For mind-expanding Q&A's with Aimen, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Aimen and Thomas discuss:
The failure of the latest US-Iran diplomacy at the UN and the growing risk of renewed escalation.
Israeli claims of renewed Iranian nuclear activity at Pickaxe Mountain and the wider nuclear question.
The secret Abu Dhabi meeting and the emerging Saudi-UAE-Israeli security alignment.
The war in Yemen, the Houthi advance, and Saudi plans for a major counter-offensive.
Pakistan’s growing military role in Saudi Arabia and the significance of the Mecca Pact.
The widening regional front: Somaliland, al-Shabaab, Eritrea, Europe, and security around the Bab al-Mandab.
Iraq after the US troop withdrawal and the future of Iran-backed militias across the region.
The Strait of Hormuz, pressure on Iran’s economy and aviation, and the attempted FlyDubai terrorist attack.
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Carlos the Jackal: The World’s First Super-Terrorist
29 september 2026 · 1 uur 4 min
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joby Warrick tells Thomas all about his latest book The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist. Lees meer
For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Joby explains:
Carlos the Jackal: From Venezuelan Marxist to Global Terror Icon
Wadi Haddad, the KGB and the Birth of International Terrorism
Dawson’s Field and the Rise of Made-for-TV Terror
How the Media Created the Myth of “Carlos the Jackal”
OPEC 1975: Gaddafi, Ransom Millions and Carlos’s Biggest Coup
Carlos Inc: How Dictators Turned Terrorism Into a Hired Service
From Carlos to Bin Laden: The Shift From Marxism to Jihadism
Joby Warrick Meets Carlos: Unrepentant After 30 Years in Prison
Find Joby on X: https://x.com/JobyWarrick
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small .
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The Houthis Are Winning — Here’s Why
24 september 2026 · 1 uur 10 min
Aimen's away this week. But not to worry! Sitting in his seat is Mohammed al-Basha: a Yemeni-American analyst with over twenty years of experience. Basha is the perfect person to help us understand better the larger forces at work in the Yemen Civil War — with consequences for the entire world. Lees meer
For world-class Q&A's with Aimen, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Basha and Thomas discuss:
How the Houthis Smashed Yemen’s Western Front in Just Seven Days
Inside the Houthi Machine: From Mountain Rebels to a Revolutionary State
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi: The Hidden Leader His Followers Treat Like a Sacred Authority
How Gaza Supercharged Houthi Recruitment, Weapons and Global Ambition
Why Yemen’s Anti-Houthi Forces Keep Falling Apart
Tareq Saleh: The Warlord Who Embodies Yemen’s “Game of Thrones”
Saleh Co-Opted the Tribes — the Houthis Are Trying to Crush Them
Could the Houthis Take All of Yemen — and Would Yemen Survive It?
Find Basha on X: https://x.com/BashaReport
And on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bashareport
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
1453: The Catastrophe That Ended Rome
22 september 2026 · 1 uur 24 min
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, historian Anthony Kaldellis of the University of Chicago discusses his new book 1453: The Conquest and Tragedy of Constantinople. Lees meer
For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Anthony explains:
Why the ‘Byzantines’ were really Romans
The Roman state’s extraordinary longevity
Constantinople’s strategic importance
The rise of the Ottoman state
Ottoman slavery, the devşirme, and the janissaries
Romans, Italians and Turks living side by side
Venice and Genoa’s role in the East
Ottoman cannon and the myth of Orban
Why the siege was not inevitable
The enslavement and dispersal of the Romans
How ‘Byzantium’ was reinvented after its fall
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small .
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Globalisation Made Global Jihad Possible
17 september 2026 · 1 uur
In this week’s Conflicted Conversation, UCL associate professor Philip Cunliffe makes a provocative case: far from being polar opposites, global Islamism and American unipolarity were born of the same globalised order. But what happens when that order starts to fall apart? And is today’s rising New Left inadvertently fighting to save the liberal-imperial system it says it wants to destroy? Lees meer
For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Philip and Thomas discuss:
How U.S. unipolarity and globalisation reshaped the world after the Cold War
Why Cunliffe thinks ‘global Islam’ is a distinctly modern political phenomenon
How early state-seeking Islamism gave way to transnational Islamism and jihadism
Why neoliberal globalisation weakened state sovereignty and boosted Islamist networks
The strange overlap between liberal humanitarianism and jihadist causes
How the CIA, Afghanistan and Syria blurred the line between ally and enemy
Why the new American Left could revive the logic of liberal interventionism over Israel
What comes after the decline of American empire: sovereign nation-states or rival new blocs?
Find Philip on X: https://x.com/thephilippics
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small .
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Saudi Arabia’s Yemen Disaster
16 september 2026 · 1 uur 3 min
Every region-watcher was stunned over past week as the anti-Houthi forces in Yemen suffered an extremely brutal reversal—with global consequences. Aimen lifts up the curtain of inter-Gulf politics to help Thomas understand better what went wrong, and why Saudi Arabia's confused foreign policy may deserve the lion's share of the blame. Lees meer
For mind-expanding Q&A's with Aimen, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Aimen and Thomas discuss:
Did Iran dupe Saudi Arabia?
How the Houthis humiliated their rivals
Mocha falls: Bab al-Mandab exposed
Saudi Arabia’s oil lifeline gets hit
Why Yemen’s anti-Houthi coalition imploded
The bitter Saudi-UAE divorce
Has Qatar reshaped Saudi foreign policy?
Why Trump refused MBS’s rescue call
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Re-Interrogating 9/11: A 25th Anniversary Debate
11 september 2026 · 1 uur 6 min
To commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Aimen and Thomas take a deeper, wider look at the historical, ideological, and geopolitical context on either side of that momentous world-changing event. Lees meer
Join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Aimen and Thomas discuss:
Was 9/11 an ending as well as a beginning?
The myth of the peaceful 1990s
America inherited a geopolitical mess after the USSR's collapse
America as a revolutionary power
Could preserving Middle Eastern monarchies have prevented later disasters?
Al-Qaeda and liberal globalisation
Jihadism amid the wreckage of earlier promises
Was the War on Terror a rupture or an acceleration?
Bin Laden’s selective use of history
History without a puppet master
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The End of the Nation State?
9 september 2026 · 1 uur 34 min
Where did the nation-state come from—and what happens if the conditions that made it powerful are now disappearing? Lees meer
Thomas discusses these questions and much more in this wide-ranging Conflicted Conversation with award-winning novelist and essayist Rana Dasgupta, whose new book After Nations: The Making and Unmaking of a World Order sets out to explain where our world order came from and where it could be going.
Rana explains:
The origins of the modern nation-state and the decline of universal sacred empires
Louis IX, the Crown of Thorns and the sacralisation of the French state
How Enlightenment political theology transformed God, sovereignty and individual rights
Industrialisation, mass democracy, welfare states and the political power of workers
Liberalism, populism and the changing relationship between elites and mass democracy
The origins of international law in empire, property rights and global capitalism
Why the postwar rules-based international order is now weakening
The East India Company, Silicon Valley and the rise of quasi-sovereign corporate power
China as an alternative model of state power and control over private capital
Climate change, mass migration and whether the nation-state can survive a new ‘nomad century’
Find Rana on X: x.com/byranadasgupta
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small .
Learn more about your ad choices. Vis… -
The Battle for Taiwan
3 september 2026 · 1 uur 13 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, journalist Chris Horton talks about his new book Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and Its Struggle for Survival. Lees meer
Chris explains:
Why China wants Taiwan and why the island is vital to control of the western Pacific.
Taiwan’s strategic position in the First Island Chain between China, Japan and the Philippines.
How a Chinese invasion, blockade or maritime quarantine of Taiwan could unfold.
Why a war over Taiwan could devastate global trade and the world economy.
What Taiwan’s fall would mean for US power, Japan and the Philippines.
Why Taiwan is an independent democracy but still officially called the Republic of China.
Who the Taiwanese are: Indigenous peoples, Hoklo, Hakka and post-1949 mainlanders.
How martial law, dictatorship and democratisation created modern Taiwanese identity.
Why the Kuomintang, once Communist China’s enemy, is now Taiwan’s most Beijing-friendly major party.
Whether Taiwan could eventually choose closer integration with China through democracy rather than war.
Find Chris on X: www.x.com/heguisen
Visit Chris’s website: www.chrishortonwriter.com
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small .
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Trump's Strangulation Strategy
1 september 2026 · 58 min
Aimen's prediction on 4 August came true, and in the intervening weeks the United States have ramped up the economic pressure on the Iranian regime. The question is: how with the IRGC react? The war re-escalated over the weekend, and as the Iranian people began to make their feelings felt, all indications are that peace is farther away than ever. Lees meer
Aimen and Thomas discuss:
Operation Economic Outcast: US sanctions and regional trade restrictions tighten Iran’s economic isolation.
Strait of Hormuz: US demining, Gulf oil exports and Iran’s new underwater drone threat reshape the naval war.
Iran’s economic crisis: collapsing rial, inflation, shortages and possible unrest increase pressure on the IRGC.
UAE-Iran trade: Dubai’s historic commercial role shrinks as Gulf states join Washington’s economic campaign.
US strategy in the Gulf: Trump administration cohesion, long-term military deployment and growing concern about China.
Iran escalation risks: attacks on Gulf infrastructure, domestic repression and renewed US-Iran fighting.
Tactical nuclear weapons: Aimen warns the conflict could cross the nuclear threshold if escalation continues.
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Simon Sebag Montefiore: How the Modern Middle East Was Made
25 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 12 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Simon Sebag Montefiore returns to the show, this time to talk about his new book The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East. Lees meer
Simon explains:
How Britain and France tried — and often failed — to shape the post-Ottoman Middle East
Why Sykes–Picot is a misleading shorthand for the region’s modern borders
How Atatürk, Nasser and other Middle Eastern leaders remade the region through their own choices
The violent shift from Ottoman pluralism to nationalist, more homogeneous states
Why Nasser’s charisma produced a powerful Arab myth but a disastrous authoritarian model
Why traditional monarchies in Morocco, Jordan and the Gulf often outlasted revolutionary republics
How America became the Middle East’s dominant anti-imperial imperial power after Europe’s retreat
Why militias, parastates and insurgencies make “total victory” in today’s Middle East so elusive
Find Simon on X: x.com/simonmontefiore
Visit Simon’s website: www.simonsebagmontefiore.com
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small .
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The Rise of the Offshore World
20 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 1 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Ian Kumekawa (a fellow of Harvard University and a lecturer at MIT) talks about his book Empty Vessel: The Story of the Global Economy in One Ship. Lees meer
Ian explains:
The offshore global economy: where loopholes, ships and responsibility slip beyond ordinary jurisdiction
From Little Toot to rusting barges: how industrial capitalism lost its confident postwar world
Sweden’s socialist shipyards, private tax dodges, and the strange birth of the Vessel
Containerisation’s hidden cost: how global trade hollowed out Manhattan’s working waterfront
The Falklands War, Thatcherism, and the private infrastructure behind imperial sovereignty
New York’s floating prison: mass incarceration meets offshore legal ingenuity
Wall Street goes offshore onshore: banks, deregulation and International Banking Facilities
Neoliberalism, legality and injustice: when the modern economy makes the immoral lawful
Visit Ian’s website: www.iankumekawa.com
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The Battle for Yemen Begins Again
18 augustus 2026 · 56 min
Yemeni researcher and political analyst Baraa Shiban (and dear friend of the show) is back not only to give us an update on Yemen now that the civil war (and Saudi Arabia’s role in it) are heating up again, but also to give Thomas a much-deserved dressing down for not going far enough to hold Jeremy Hunt to account for his role in the Stockholm Agreement. Lees meer
Baraa explains:
The collapse of the 2022 Yemen truce and renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and Red Sea shipping
The Yemen battlefield map: Houthi control of Sanaa, Hodeidah and the northwest versus government-held south and east
The strategic importance of Marib and Hadramaut, including Saudi-trained National Shield and Emergency Forces
Mocha, the Giants Brigades and the impact of the UAE withdrawal on anti-Houthi military capabilities
The Stockholm Agreement and how the 2018 ceasefire strengthened long-term Houthi leverage
Why the Houthis are escalating now and how renewed fighting serves Iran’s regional strategy
Houthi links with the IRGC, Hezbollah and Iraqi militias, including operations and financial networks in Iraq
Saudi war aims, the Mecca Accords and the emerging Saudi–Turkey–Pakistan security architecture
Follow Baraa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baraashiban/
Follow Baraa on X: https://x.com/BShtwtr
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small .
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Libya: The Return of the Arab Strongman?
13 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 19 min
Turning their attention away from Iran and toward another Middle Eastern hotspot, Aimen and Thomas explain the course of events in Libya since the Arab Spring. Seismic political events are underway in that sad country, which has been riven by civil war and political division for over fifteen years. Lees meer
They discuss:
The difference between East and West Libya
First Libyan Civil War: state collapse and militia fragmentation
NATO intervention and Western short-termism
Khalifa Haftar: from Gaddafi officer to eastern strongman
Second Libyan Civil War: Operation Dignity and divided government
Libya proxy war: Egypt, UAE, Russia, Turkey and Qatar
Libyan oil politics: NOC, Central Bank and Haftar’s leverage
U.S.-backed Libya deal: Saddam Haftar, Dbeibah and Pakistan mediation
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The Crusades: What Was Really Going On?
11 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 19 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Nicholas Morton discusses his new book The Crusader Storm: A Global History of the Wars for the Middle East. Lees meer
Associate Professor in History at Nottingham Trent University, Nicholas reframes the Crusades as one part of a much larger transformation of the medieval Middle East, driven above all by Seljuk-Turkmen expansion, Byzantine contraction, Fatimid decline and the fragmentation of political power.
Nicholas explains:
The Seljuk-Turkmen transformation of the medieval Middle East
Why the Crusades were not the region’s main event
Dandanqan, nomadic warfare and the rise of Seljuk power
Abbasids, Fatimids and fragmented government before the First Crusade
Manzikert, Byzantine civil war and the Turkish conquest of Anatolia
Frankish-Turkish rivalry, alliances and shared warrior culture
Crusader violence and Christianity’s uneasy relationship with holy war
Nizari Ismailis, Seljuk civil wars and competing Muslim priorities
Damascus and Byzantium as key powers in Crusader geopolitics
The Middle East as a crossroads of trade, ideas and cultural exchange
Follow Nicholas on X: https://x.com/NicholasMorto11
On Bluesky: @nicmorton.bsky.social
On Instagram: @Nicholas Morton
And his You Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MedievalNearEast
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoic… -
Slavery and Islam: The Whole Story
6 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 6 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Justin Marozzi discusses his new book Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World. Lees meer
Justin traces the long, varied history of slavery in the Islamic world, arguing that slavery could sometimes offer remarkable paths to freedom and power, but that these exceptions never erased the violence of capture, ownership and exploitation—or the uneasy entanglement of abolition with Western imperialism.
Justin explains:
The scale and longevity of slavery in the Islamic world
The spiritual status of enslaved people in early Islam
The Quran, manumission and the legal regulation of slavery
The Islamic conquests and the expansion of slave-taking
Anti-black racism and the Zanj Revolt in Abbasid Iraq
Concubines, eunuchs, and sexual slavery
Mamluks, Janissaries and elite forms of servitude
Christian and Muslim slave-raiding across the Mediterranean
Ottoman abolition and its entanglement with Western imperialism
Modern slavery, Daesh and hereditary servitude in Mauritania
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Will America Cut and Run?
4 augustus 2026 · 50 min
Donald Trump has once again stepped back from a threatened major attack on Iran. So has America lost the Iran War? Or is Trump’s apparent hesitation part of a longer strategy to exhaust the Iranian regime? Lees meer
Aimen and Thomas discuss:
Whether Iran has outmanoeuvred Trump despite America’s overwhelming military superiority
Aimen’s three possible futures for the war: US withdrawal, prolonged attrition or extreme escalation
Why an American retreat could unleash an even more destructive regional war
Israel, the Gulf states and Pakistan in a Middle East without American restraint
The revival of the US–Iran MoU and President Pezeshkian’s lack of authority over the IRGC
America’s possible ‘death by a thousand cuts’ strategy against Iran’s military and economy
Iran’s collapsing currency, soaring inflation and ability to withstand prolonged pressure
Trump’s highly personal style of government and the absence of a stable American war strategy
The limits of air power and America’s repeated failure to convert destruction into political victory
The danger of nuclear escalation if Iran races towards a bomb or misreads Trump’s restraint as weakness
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
U Thant: The Diplomat Who Defined the 1960s
30 juli 2026 · 1 uur 24 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thant Myint-U talks about his new book Peacemaker: U Thant, the United Nations and the Untold Story of the 1960s. It tells the story of his grandfather U Thant, the Burmese schoolteacher turned UN Secretary-General who guided the United Nations through some of the most dangerous crises of the 1960s, yet is now woefully forgotten or badly misremembered. Lees meer
Thant explains:
U Thant’s forgotten role as UN Secretary-General during the great crises of the 1960s
His sociability, humour, directness, and moral imagination
How Buddhism shaped U Thant’s approach to crisis
How newly independent post-colonial states tried to remake the world order
Burma/Myanmar after empire: colonial destruction, weak institutions, and postcolonial state-building
The Non-Aligned Movement: Afro-Asian internationalism beyond the US–Soviet Cold War
Congo, Katanga and sovereignty: U Thant’s defence of postcolonial borders against neo-imperial fragmentation
The Cuban Missile Crisis: U Thant’s overlooked role in helping Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro de-escalate
Vietnam and the lost peace channel: U Thant’s ignored 1964 attempt to open talks with Ho Chi Minh
The Six-Day War and the UN-Israel rupture: UNEF, Nasser, Israel, and the myth that the UN abandoned Israel
U Thant’s late one-world vision, the decline of Bandung idealism, and the lost promise of postcolonial internationalism
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Visit Thant’s website: thantmyintu.com
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren …
-
Wassim Nasr: My Inside Account of Macron’s Syria Visit
28 juli 2026 · 1 uur 4 min
French war reporter and global jihadism expert Wassim Nasr was part of the presidential press party during Emmanuel Macron’s recent visit to Damascus. He shares his first-hand account not only of what happened between Macron and Syrian president Ahmad al-Sharaa during the visit, but also what he discovered afterwards, during a trip to Aleppo and to the northern town of Kobane. Lees meer
Wassim and Thomas discuss:
What it was like inside Macron’s presidential delegation to Syria
France–Syria relations after the fall of Bashar al-Assad
Macron and Ahmed al-Sharaa at the Umayyad Mosque and Mount Qasioun
Islamic State bombings during Macron’s Damascus visit
French investment in Syrian reconstruction, energy, ports and transport
Aleppo’s security, political representation and slow post-war recovery
Kobani, SDF integration, PKK influence and Arab–Kurdish tensions
Ahmed al-Sharaa’s Islamist pragmatism and Syria’s dependence on his leadership
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Follow Wassim on X: https://x.com/SimNasr
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Indo-European: The Language Family That Went Global
23 juli 2026 · 1 uur 15 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas meets Laura Spinney, author of Proto: How One Language Went Global, the story of the Proto-Indo-European language and its descendants, which are spoken today by half of humanity. Lees meer
Laura explains:
How, where, and among whom Proto-Indo-European emerged
How Indo-European split into English, Hindi, Persian, Russian, Greek, Latin-derived Romance languages, Celtic, Germanic, Baltic and Slavic tongues
How linguists reconstruct an unwritten prehistoric language through sound laws, comparative vocabulary and ancient texts
Why ancient DNA has transformed the debate over Indo-European origins by restoring migration to the centre of the story
Who the Yamnaya were, and how mobile pastoralists north of the Black Sea spread language through cattle, wagons, dairy and steppe mobility
How a small number of steppe migrants may have transformed Europe’s languages through disease, prestige, violence, intermarriage and social networks
Why Tocharian, Sanskrit and Persian reveal extraordinary Indo-European journeys from the Pontic-Caspian steppe to China, India and Iran
How ‘Aryan’ began as a real Indo-Iranian self-description before being distorted by racial nationalism and Nazi pseudoscience
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find Laura on X: https://x.com/lfspinney
And on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/laurainparis.bsky.social
And on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laura.spinney
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Lea… -
Iran Will Never Give Up Hormuz
21 juli 2026 · 1 uur 7 min
The MoU with Iran has broken down, war has returned to the Middle East, and so Aimen walks us through the events since the war re-ignited on 7th July. Lees meer
More than anything, the fighting now focuses on the Strait of Hormuz. In Iran’s eyes, it has won control of the Strait as a spoil of war. In the rest of the world’s eyes, freedom of navigation through the Strait remains a cast-iron principle of international law.
Aimen and Thomas discuss:
Why the US–Iran MoU collapsed over control of the Strait of Hormuz
Iran’s attacks on Gulf shipping and the return of the US naval blockade
US strikes on Bandar Abbas and Iran’s coastal military infrastructure
GCC retaliation: Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE and Jordan confront Iran
Trump assassination threats and divisions inside the US administration
Saudi Arabia’s internal debate over Iran and renewed war with the Houthis
Houthi threats to close Bab al-Mandab and attack Saudi infrastructure
Oman, NATO and Israel’s roles in the widening Iran war
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
How Netanyahu Failed to Prevent October 7
16 juli 2026 · 1 uur 2 min
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, Thomas talks with Yaakov Katz, the former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post and co-author of While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East. Lees meer
Yaakov explains:
October 7 intelligence failure and Israel’s missed warnings
Hamas’s ‘Jericho Walls’ plan and ignored Unit 8200 alerts
The Israeli conceptzia: why leaders believed Hamas was deterred
Netanyahu’s Gaza containment strategy and Qatari money policy
Hamas as a political asset against Palestinian statehood
Israel’s overreliance on technology, SIGINT and border barriers
Unit 504, HUMINT failure and the absence of agents in Gaza
Gaza’s tunnel network and Hamas’s hidden underground military city
Operation Guardian of the Walls and Israel’s exaggerated ‘Metro’ success
Netanyahu’s responsibility, Israeli division and the post–October 7 media war
**PLUS: Yaakov answers listener questions! FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY!**
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find Yaakov on X: https://x.com/yaakovkatz
And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yaakov.katz
And on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaakovkatz
Yaakov's website: www.yaakovkatz.com
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Ben Hodges: Russia Can Be Defeated
14 juli 2026 · 51 min
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, Thomas talks with retired US lieutenant general Ben Hodges, former commanding general of US Army Europe. Drawing on his experience at the heart of NATO’s military leadership, Hodges explains: Lees meer
His proposed path to Ukrainian victory
Ukraine’s deep strikes on Russian oil and gas infrastructure
Ukraine’s campaign to isolate and recover Crimea
Why Hodges overestimated the speed of Ukraine’s victory
The risk of Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine
America’s failure to define clear political objectives in war
Ukraine’s emergence as a European defence-industrial centre
Why Western armies have been slow to learn from Ukraine
Pentagon procurement and the military-industrial complex
The NATO summit in Ankara and support for Ukraine
The damage Trump has done to trust between NATO allies
The geopolitical importance of Ukraine to Europe and the United States
Why the Kremlin fears a successful democratic Ukraine
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Syria Turns Another Corner (Conflicted Revisited)
10 juli 2026 · 50 min
As Aimen works hard to uncover the truth of what's going on in the region now that the MoU has been torn to shreds — or so it seems — and in recognition of Syria being taken off the State Sponsor of Terrorism list, we are rerunning this episode from last year where Aimen tells the story of his nephew who joined the jihad against the Assad regime. Lees meer
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Guns, Greed and the Making of Modernity
7 juli 2026 · 59 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas discusses the true foundations of modernity with Clifton Crais, author of The Killing Age: How Violence Made the Modern World. Lees meer
Clifton explains:
The Mortecene as an alternative to the Anthropocene
Why global violence accelerated after 1750
How firearms destabilised traditional political orders
The role of credit and debt in expanding slavery
Global complicity beyond a simple West-versus-rest narrative
The industrial destruction of whales, elephants and bison
Vodun and other religious responses to predatory power
What muskets can teach us about drones and AI
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Undiscovered: The Battle of Qala-i-Jangi
3 juli 2026 · 36 min
In this special episode, we bring you an exclusive audio episode of ‘Undiscovered’ the new YouTube-first documentary series from Conflicted’s executive producer and Message Heard founder, Jake Warren. Lees meer
Jake sits down with the legendary journalist Robert Young Pelton to discuss the infamous battle of Qala-i-Jangi, which he experienced first hand, and how it changed the war on terror forever.
In this episode they discuss:
How Robert became a journalist and documentarian
Robert’s documentary ‘Heavy D and The Boys’
Meeting and spending time with General Dostum
The rumours and myths about General Dostum
Being an eyewitness to the battle of Qala-i-Jangi
Finding John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban
The death of CIA officer Johnny Micheal "Mike" Spann
Where the US went wrong in Afghanistan
Find Robert on X: https://x.com/RYP__
And on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_robert_young_pelton_
And on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmfzgtljwtgY1IgXt2YGiFg
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Ross Field.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The Bastard Children of Neoliberalism
30 juni 2026 · 1 uur 4 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas sweats his way through a personally revealing exchange with Quinn Slobodian, Professor of International History at Boston University and the author of Hayek’s Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right. Lees meer
Quinn explains:
Friedrich Hayek’s “knowledge problem” and his defence of markets over central planning.
Hayek’s later theory of cultural evolution, inherited institutions, and the limits of universal market society.
The split between “cultural Austrians” at George Mason University and “racial Austrians” around the Mises Institute.
Murray Rothbard’s move from courting anti-war hippies to building alliances with paleoconservatives and racial nationalists.
Hans-Hermann Hoppe, anarcho-capitalism, secession, and racially homogeneous private communities.
The Bell Curve, Charles Murray, IQ research, and the politics of scientific claims about race and inequality.
The difference between ideas that are empirically false and ideas rejected because they are morally disturbing.
The post-Cold War transformation of neoliberal enemies from communism to environmentalism, affirmative action, feminism, and welfare.
The divide between neoconservatives and paleoconservatives over US foreign policy, nationalism, and the Iraq War.
Whether Hayek’s Bastards reveals a major genealogy of the modern Far Right—or exaggerates the influence of a provocative fringe.
Visit Quinn’s website: www.quinnslobodian.com
Find Quinn on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/quinnslobodian.com
And on Substack: https://zeithistoriker.substack.com
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicte…
-
The Middle East’s AI Arms Race
25 juni 2026 · 57 min
As the Middle East wakes up to an unnerving new normal following the signing of the M.O.U., Aimen and Thomas turn their attention to something truly cutting edge: the AI Arms Race that is rapidly transforming the Gulf into the front lines of a truly global U.S.-China confrontation. Lees meer
Aimen and Thomas discuss:
Iran’s drone attacks on Gulf data centres.
AI in missile defence and military targeting.
The physical infrastructure behind cloud computing.
Cheap Gulf energy and rapid data-centre construction.
The UAE–Saudi competition for AI leadership.
Sheikh Tahnoon, G42 and MGX.
Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN strategy.
The US–China global AI rivalry.
Israel’s cybersecurity and military-AI role.
Whether AI-generated art can be genuinely creative.
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The Betrayal of the Iranian People
23 juni 2026 · 1 uur 10 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Yeganeh Torbati, the Iran correspondent for the New York Times, discusses her excellent new book Stolen Revolution: Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran. Lees meer
Yeganeh explains how:
The 1979 revolution promised justice but created clerical authoritarianism.
Islamic law was subordinated to preservation of the supreme leader.
Institutions created to help the poor became engines of economic corruption.
The IRGC became a military-economic oligarchy.
Khatami-era reformism failed by refusing to challenge the constitutional source of authoritarian power.
Ahmadinejad promised to overthrow corrupt elites but merely installed new ones.
Rouhani promised economic normalization but enabled even greater corruption.
The destruction of all sources of organized opposition left protesters exposed to overwhelming violence.
Foreign powers encouraged expectations they did not possess the strategy or commitment to fulfil.
Iranian society continues to resist socially and culturally, making the future unstable rather than settled.
Find Yeganeh on X: https://x.com/yjtorbati
And on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yjtorbatireports
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Video Games: The Global Battleground of Modern Politics
18 juni 2026 · 1 uur 39 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, George Osborn draws on his excellent new book Power Play: Video Games, Politics and the Battle for Global Influence to reveal the hidden political power of video games. Lees meer
Once dismissed as a niche hobby, gaming has become one of the largest social environments ever created: a vast digital third space where billions of people form identities, build communities, and increasingly encounter politics — often aligned with authoritarian agendas.
George explains:
The history of video games: from arcades to global digital networks
How gaming helped drive the modern technology revolution
Why video games became the ‘third spaces’ of the internet age
Steam, online gaming, and the rise of digital communities
How China controls and regulates gaming culture
Saudi Arabia's investment strategy in gaming and esports
Russia, information warfare, and influence operations in gaming
Gamergate and the politicisation of gaming communities
Steve Bannon, online culture, and the rise of populist politics
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find George on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/georgeosborn.bsky.social
And on Instagram: www.instagram.com/george_e_osborn
And his Newsletter: www.videogamesindustrymemo.com
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Memorandum of Misunderstanding
17 juni 2026 · 1 uur 13 min
In the wake of the recently published Memorandum of Understanding between the White House and the Iranian regime, Aimen and Thomas explore what the MoU means and reflect on everything they got wrong about the Iran War. Lees meer
They discuss:
How the MoU is a strategic lifeline for the Islamic Republic
How it legitimises Iran’s proxy network, from Hezbollah to the Houthis
How billions in frozen Iranian funds have already been released through Qatar — with American approval
How the proposed $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran has corruption written all over it
How it enshrines the principle that Iran can charge for access to the Strait of Hormuz
Whether Netanyahu lured Trump into a war he did not fully understand
The collapse of the Abraham Accords' vision for a new Middle East
If Conflicted itself has misread Trump, populism, and the future of American power
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Israel’s Road to Endless War
11 juni 2026 · 1 uur 19 min
Elizabeth Tsurkov returns for another Conflicted Conversation. This time, the conversation turns to Israel after October 7th. Elizabeth traces her own political journey from the Israeli right to a hard-won humanism, then explains how Israel’s old security doctrine collapsed — and why the new one may lead not to safety, but to permanent war. Lees meer
Elizabeth and Thomas discuss:
Israel’s security doctrine after 7 October
Israel’s shift from deterrence to pre-emption
Why deterrence without a political endgame failed
Gaza, Hamas and the limits of military victory
Hezbollah, Lebanon and Israel’s buffer-zone strategy
Israel’s new "buffer zone" security perimeter
Iran’s missile threat and Israel’s war with Tehran
The Abraham Accords, IMEC and bypassing Palestine
Why real Israeli fears may be producing the wrong answers
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Elizabeth's personal website: https://elizabeth-tsurkov.net/en/
Find Elizabeth on X: https://x.com/LizHurra
Find Elizabeth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-tsurkov-79491b15/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Has Trump Lost the Middle East?
9 juni 2026 · 1 uur 6 min
Aimen returns to bring us up to date on all the latest manoeuvrings in the Middle East. Lees meer
Aimen and Thomas discuss:
Trump’s chaotic, micromanaged Iran diplomacy and reliance on inexperienced “real estate” advisers.
Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Turkey, and Egypt as flawed or compromised mediators with “skin in the game.”
Why Aimen thinks Switzerland would be the proper neutral US–Iran mediator.
Oman’s tilt toward Iran amid assumptions of American decline and future Iranian regional weight.
The UAE–Saudi split over Iran: Emirati hawkishness versus Saudi caution and strategic bruising.
Saudi resentment over Yemen, Houthi attacks, Israel’s freer hand, and lack of US security guarantees.
Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, and Iran: efforts to decouple the Lebanon front from the US–Iran track
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The West Bank Is Reaching Breaking Point
4 juni 2026 · 1 uur 6 min
Hamza Abu Howidy returns for another Conflicted Conversation. Last time he appeared, he told us his personal story of growing up in Hamas-ruled Gaza, how he was imprisoned and tortured by Hamas for speaking out against their oppression, and how he entered into exile in Germany just before the 7 October attacks changed everything. Lees meer
This time he switches from Gaza to the West Bank, telling Thomas all about the other side of Palestine — a side which goes overlooked, but which is increasingly becoming a zone of almost unbearable conflict.
Hamza and Thomas discuss:
Settler violence as settler terrorism
How Israeli settlements undermine the Oslo process
Settlement expansion as a strategy to prevent a Palestinian state
The shift from a two-state ideal to a one-state reality
The Hardal movement and Smotrich’s political world
The Hilltop Youth: origins, ideology and violence
The dual legal system in the West Bank
The Yehuda Shmuel Sherman incident and the revenge attacks that followed
E1 and the threat to a viable Palestinian state
The West Bank economy after 7 October
Palestinian municipal and national elections
Israeli elections and the lack of hope for political change
Israel’s post-7 October security doctrine
The Board of Peace and the problem of Hamas disarmament
Arab disillusionment with resistance ideology
Find Hamza on X: https://x.com/HowidyHamza
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
My Road to Conflicted (with Jake Warren)
2 juni 2026 · 1 uur 3 min
Because Aimen is still away, we’re taking this opportunity to introduce you all to our executive producer Jake Warren. A journalist and programme-maker, Jake not only had the idea for Conflicted, he is also the founder of Message Heard, the company that produces the show. Lees meer
Jake and Thomas discuss:
Conflicted’s origin story
Jake’s Hungarian-Jewish grandfather who escaped on the Kindertransport
His early work for Vice Media in North Korea, Rwanda, and Lebanon
How he won the trust of notorious Islamist preacher and organiser Anjem Choudary while covering his story
Visiting the family of murdered soldier Lee Rigby
How Jake first came across Aimen’s story
How Thomas and Aimen became friends
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find Jake on X: https://x.com/TheJakeWarren
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConflictedYoutube
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Jeremy Hunt: Democracy’s Defeat Is Not Inevitable
28 mei 2026 · 1 uur 12 min
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, Thomas talks with Tory MP Sir Jeremy Hunt. Over fourteen years of Conservative government, Hunt served as Culture Secretary, Health Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. But in this discussion, Jeremy draws especially on his eventful year running the Foreign Office to argue against Western defeatism and to make the case for liberal democracy. Lees meer
Sir Jeremy discusses:
The view from inside power during Britain’s 2010–2024 crisis years
Britain’s imperial inheritance, post-Brexit identity, and the “Global Britain” problem
Trump’s 2018 NATO shock and Hunt’s case for higher European defence spending
China, Russia and Iran as the new autocratic challenge to liberal democracy
Yemen and the Stockholm Agreement as a tragic test of humanitarian diplomacy
Iran, hostage diplomacy, the JCPOA and the limits of Western coercive power
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced by Thomas Small and Ross Field and edited by Mariana Ramirez-Zablah.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The Madman Theory from Nixon to Trump
21 mei 2026 · 1 uur 14 min
Is Donald Trump mad? Or is he a practitioner of the Madman Theory — and therefore not mad at all? Lees meer
James D. Boys, author of U.S. Grand Strategy and the Madman Theory: From Nixon to Trump, argues that the Madman Theory is not madness, but the performance of madness: a tactic by which a sane leader feigns irrationality to make an adversary believe there is even a one percent chance of overwhelming, disproportionate force.
In this new Conflicted Conversation, Boys explains:
What the Madman Theory means
Donald Trump, unpredictability and Trump Derangement Syndrome
Nuclear strategy, Eisenhower, and Cold War brinkmanship
Barry Goldwater, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the politics of nuclear fear
Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and the Madman Theory in Vietnam
Trump’s use of Madman tactics against North Korea, Iran, NATO and trade partners
Whether Trump’s second-term grand strategy is chaos, coercion or calculated geopolitical pressure
Follow James on X: https://x.com/jamesdboys
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find us on X: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The UAE’s OPEC Withdrawal & Trump’s Wartime Dilemma
20 mei 2026 · 1 uur 9 min
Aimen is back with a huge amount of behind-the-scenes information on what’s been happening in the Middle East in the past three weeks—especially on the real reasons the UAE withdrew from OPEC, and what’s been going on inside Donald Trump’s head as he tries to chart a course to victory in the Iran War. Lees meer
Aimen and Thomas discuss:
The recent discovery of HUGE shale oil reserves in the UAE
The Mar-a-Lago deal the UAE struck with Trump
Why the recent OPEC shake-up had NOTHING to do with Saudi Arabia
The truth about UAE and Saudi attacks on Iran
Did the UAE, Saudi, and Qatar really beg Trump not to resume the war?
How Iran’s military capability remains STRONGER than people think
The corruption behind Pakistan’s mediation efforts in the Iran War
The benefits and liability of Trump as a War Leader
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Utopia or Dystopia? The Truth About Jewish-Muslim History
14 mei 2026 · 1 uur 2 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas talks to Marc David Baer, Professor of International History at the London School of Economics, about his new book Children of Abraham: The Story of Jewish-Muslim Relations. Lees meer
Marc discusses:
The recent stabbing in Golders Green, North London
The myth of utopian co-existence and the counter-myth of total antagonism
The earliest encounters of Jews and Muslims in Arabia
The Qur'an's mixed messaging about Jews
The reality of Sharia dhimmitude laws
Jewish-Muslim relations in the Khazar Kingdom, in Al-Andalus, and in the Ottoman Empire
Colonialism and the rupture of Jewish-Muslim relations
Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Jewish-Muslim solidarity today
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find Marc on X: https://x.com/MarcDavidBaer1
Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Mali’s Crisis is Not What it Seems
12 mei 2026 · 59 min
As we eagerly await Aimen’s return to Conflicted next week, today Wassim Nasr returns to the show. As only Wassim can, he draws on his expertise of the Sahel to explain the remarkable events in Mali over the past several weeks — events which Aimen forecast on the show back in January. Lees meer
Wassim explains:
France’s failed counterterrorism strategy in Mali
JNIM’s emergence from AQIM and local insurgencies
Iyad Ag Ghaly’s political and jihadist leadership
The junta’s repression and strategic miscalculations
The JNIM–FLA alliance in northern Mali
The 25 April 2026 coordinated attacks
Negotiating with Islamists after the War on Terror
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Follow Wassim on X: https://x.com/SimNasr
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Sir Vince Cable: The Crisis of Liberal Democracy
7 mei 2026 · 56 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas talks to Sir Vince Cable, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats in the UK, about his new book Eclipsing the West: China, India and the forging of a new world. Lees meer
Sir Vince discusses:
Postcolonial state-building, development economics, and his formative experiences in Kenya
Globalisation, financialisation, and the legacy of the 2008 financial crisis
The rise of China and India as “superstates” in a new tripolar world
Geo-economics, US–China rivalry, and the breakdown of the liberal international order
Democracy versus authoritarianism and the crisis of liberal governance
Ideology, nationalism, and the limits of rationality in geopolitics
Multipolarity, global disorder, climate crisis, and the future of world order
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced by Thomas Small & Ross Field and edited by Lizzy Andrews.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Iraq: Anatomy of a Broken State
5 mei 2026 · 1 uur 14 min
Aimen's in the thick of it this week so isn't able to appear on the show. Sitting in for him is Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli researcher and analyst, and a doctoral student at Princeton University. During field research in Iraq in 2023, she was kidnapped by Kata'ib Hezbollah and held in captivity for over two years, suffering torture and solitary confinement. Lees meer
In what we hope will be the first of many appearances on Conflicted, Elizabeth discusses:
Saddam Hussein’s faith campaign and the rise of Shia religious politics in Iraq
The Sadrist movement in Iraq and Muqtada al-Sadr
The politicisation of sectarian identity in post-2003 Iraq
Iraqi militias as criminal-political enterprises engaged in in theft, extortion, oil smuggling, and dollar smuggling
The difference between Iraqi militias and Lebanese Hezbollah
The impact of militia rule on ordinary civilian life
Iraq’s extreme inequality despite its oil and gas wealth
The 2003 Iraq War and the debate over American responsibility
Iraqi elite agency and the failures of Iraq’s political class
The 2010 Iraqi election crisis and Nouri al-Maliki’s return to power
The Iraqi constitution and the failure of constitutional democracy
Iraq’s dependence on oil revenues and the Strait of Hormuz
The impact of the current Iran war on Iraq’s economy
Iranian attacks on Iraqi oil exports and oil tankers
The U.S. military presence in Iraq after ISIS
American influence over Iraqi prime ministerial politics
Nouri al-Maliki, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and Ali al-Zaidi
Fa’iq Zaidan and the power of Iraq’s judiciary
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Elizabeth's personal website: https://elizabeth-tsurkov.net/en/
Find Elizabeth on X: https://x.com/LizHurra
Find Elizabeth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-tsurkov-79491b15/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And…
-
The CIA: What is It For?
1 mei 2026 · 1 uur 12 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to journalist Tim Weiner about his new history of the CIA in the 21st century, The Mission, and about the enduring tension between intelligence gathering and covert action. Drawing on four decades of reporting, Weiner argues that the CIA’s greatest failures arise when it abandons its core purpose of understanding the world in favour of trying to change it. Lees meer
Weiner explains:
How he began covering the CIA during the Reagan era and what drew him into intelligence reporting
Why the CIA is best understood as an instrument of presidential power, not an independent actor
The agency’s post–Cold War collapse and its loss of mission before 9/11
How the War on Terror transformed the CIA into a global counterterrorism and paramilitary force
The origins, logic, and consequences of torture, black sites, and the failure of interrogation
The intelligence failures behind the Iraq War and how ‘facts were fitted around the policy’
The rise of drone warfare under Obama and the normalization of targeted killing
Covert operations from Peru to Syria, including the limits and dangers of programs like TIMBER SYCAMORE
The difference between espionage and covert action—and why only the former can prevent war and save lives
Why the greatest danger today is a president who ignores intelligence while using the CIA’s coercive power
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small .
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The Problem of President Trump
28 april 2026 · 1 uur 3 min
Thomas expresses his growing conviction that President Trump has utterly mishandled the Iran War, while Aimen describes: how the final, fatal phase of the Islamabad peace talks was a utter humiliation for Trump; what's going on inside the heads of GCC leaders regarding the White House's leadership; and the Islamic Republic's new delay tactics. Lees meer
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Jack Carr: My Journey Through America’s Long War
23 april 2026 · 1 uur 5 min
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to bestselling novelist and historian Jack Carr. A former Navy SEAL sniper, Carr talks about his phenomenal book Targeted: Beirut: The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Origin Story of the War on Terror as well as his upcoming novel The Fourth Option. Lees meer
Jack describes:
His path from childhood fascination with war to becoming a U.S. Navy SEAL sniper
SEAL training: Hell Week, mental fortitude, and what separates those who quit from those who don’t
Boarding Iraqi oil tankers: enforcing sanctions at sea and policing the post–Gulf War international order
His experience as a sniper in Iraq and Afghanistan
The 1983 Beirut barracks bombing and its role in shaping modern terrorism and U.S. foreign policy
The mistakes in US counter-terrorism policy: how limited responses can shape enemy strategy over time
From warfighter to writer: how Carr’s military experience informs his novels and nonfiction on the War on Terror
Jack Carr's official website: https://www.officialjackcarr.com/
Find Jack on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackcarrusa/
Find Jack on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jackcarrusa/
Find Jack on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JackCarrUSA
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Alan Leer.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The Power Struggle Inside Iran
21 april 2026 · 55 min
Aimen describes the counter-coup which has taken place inside the Islamic Republic against Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, the key to understanding the failure of the Islamabad peace talks. Lees meer
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices