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“A real gem - a podcast for intellectual conversations that manage to be erudite and fun. It's the best way to keep up with the latest ideas, research, and thinking on Israel and its interactions with the Jewish world, Palestinians and the Middle East. What I love about it is that I never know where the next conversation would go.”
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“The Tel Aviv Review has become my indispensable companion on the road and an always provocative challenge to my own fixed ideas. This podcast is easily on the level of the best public radio interview shows in America. Kudos for making this unique contribution to the intellectual life of Israel.”
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“The hosts' probing questions revealed a sophisticated grasp of modern European history and politics, their intersection with the history of Israel and a welcome ability to listen to what I said and respond with thoughtful follow-up questions.”
Recent Episodes
COVID and the Israeli Economy: A Bittersweet Reckoning
Does the fact that Israel is a small and centralized economy work in its benefit? To what extent was the relative robustness of the Israeli economy squandered by the mishandling of the pandemic response by decision makers? How quickly will it bounce back?
Could It Happen To Us?
Acclaimed journalist and historian Anne Applebaum examines how a wave of nationalist populism swept through the western world - and tore apart her own circle of friends
About the Hosts
Gilad Halpern
Gilad is a journalist, broadcaster and media historian. He is also a founding co-editor of the Tel Aviv Review of Books magazine, an English-language online quarterly, and an Idit Fellow at the University of Haifa, researching the history of the Jewish press in Mandatory Palestine. Previously he was Managing Editor for Ynetnews and Assignments Editor for Haaretz English Edition. His work appeared on the BBC, Al Jazeera, Al Monitor, Time Out magazine, the Jewish Quarterly and the Jewish Chronicle.
Dr. Yael Berda
Dr. Yael Berda is Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Hebrew University, and a fellow at Middle East initiative at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She received her PhD from Princeton University; her MA from Tel Aviv University, and her LLB from Hebrew University faculty of Law. Previously a practicing Human Rights lawyer, representing clients in Military, District and Supreme courts in Israel, her most recent books are Living Emergency: Israel's Permit Regime in the West Bank and Colonial Bureaucracy and Contemporary Citizenship: Legacies of Race and Emergencies in the Former British Empire.
Can America Ever Get It Right in the Middle East?
If a former White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf, who served as special assistant to President Obama concludes that you shouldn't undertake regime change in the Middle East, you probably shouldn't. But nothing is ever quite that simple.