Tahrir Podcast - بودكاست التحرير

In episode 56 of Tahrir Podcast, Abdalla Nasef sits down in-person at Harvard University with former Tunisian Prime Minister Dr. Youssef Chahed for a conversation about Dr. Chahed's rise within Tunisian politics as the youngest head of government in Tunisia's history, and the longest serving since 2011. The conversation touched on day-to-day governance, counter-terrorism, Tunisian democracy (and its erosion), managing fiscal stress, and advice about building democracy in the Arab World/Middle East and North Africa region.Dr. Youssef Chahed is a Tunisian politician who served as the 14th Prime Minister of Tunisia—being the youngest head of government in Tunisia’s history and the longest serving since the country’s democratic transition in 2011. He’s currently a senior fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative. Following Tunisia’s democratic backsliding in 2021 after a vibrant democratic decade in which it was the only success story out of the Arab Spring with Dr. Chahed being Prime Minister from 2016 to 2020, he found himself in elected president-turned-autocrat Kais Saed’s crossfires, with many cases and charges against him.Episode on YouTube:https://youtu.be/Bqp9hRzIjKsStreaming on all platforms!Reach out! [email protected] us on Patreon for as low as $2 per month ($20 per year)! patreon.com/TahrirPodcast

In episode 55, Barbara Slavin and Nilo Tabrizy tuned in to discuss the war in Iran, how it came to be, how likely it is to end, as well as OSINT. Now streaming on all platforms.Episode on YouTube: youtu.be/wOBl0aB4ddMBarbara Slavin is a Distinguished Fellow at The Stimson Center and former founding director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East Programs. She has been covering the Middle East since the 1980s. Slavin also wrote the obituary for Iranian leader Ali Khamenei in Foreign Policy following his decapitation during the war.Nilo Tabrizy is a journalist and writer. Previously, she was a reporter on the visual forensics team at The Washington Post, utilizing open source reporting methods in her investigations with a focus on covering Iran. She is the co-author of For the Sun After Long Nights, a book about the 2022 Iranian women-led uprising. She also worked for The New York Times and VICE News.

In episode 54 of Tahrir Podcast, Killian Clarke joined to discuss his new book, "Return of Tyranny: Why Counterrevolutions Emerge and Succeed" (Cambridge University Press, 2025)⁠.The book offers one of the first systematic studies of counterrevolution. Drawing on global data since 1900 and new evidence from Egypt’s 2011 revolution, the book explains why counterrevolutions emerge and what enables them to succeed. It advances a movement-centric argument, showing how the strategies revolutionary leaders adopt—both during their campaigns and after taking power—shape a regime’s vulnerability. Violent, ideologically radical movements tend to build regimes that are hard to overturn, while democratic revolutions like Egypt’s face greater risks, though they can still avert counterrevolution by preserving elite coalitions, maintaining broad support, and mobilizing the public when threatened.Killian Clarke is an Assistant Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, affiliated with the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. This is his first book.Link to book (use offer code REOTY2025 for 20% discount): https://www.cambridge.org/ga/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/return-tyranny-why-counterrevolutions-emerge-and-succeed?format=HB&isbn=9781009646901Link to Clarke's website: https://www.killianclarke.com/Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/CVIPKrsBn6sStreaming everywhere! ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/TahrirPodcast⁠⁠⁠Reach out! [email protected] us on Patreon for as low as $2 per month ($20 per year)! / tahrirpodcast

This episode was recorded on 08 December 2024, the day Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fled the country, ending over 50 years of brutal Assad family rule, and concluding a brutal 14-year civil war. In this episode that I now release a full year later, Danni Makki joined me from Damascus as opposition forces took over the capital, liberating it.

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FV2a5IGZYsYStreaming everywhere! ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/TahrirPodcast⁠⁠⁠Reach out! [email protected] us on Patreon for as low as $2 per month ($20 per year)!https://www.patreon.com/TahrirPodcast