#israel
496 episodes
#5236: Who Gets to Hold the Gun? Three Models of State Force
Israel arms citizens for "distributed security," the U.S. treats guns as a right, Japan denies 90% of applicants. Three answers to one question.
#5228: Why Israeli Road Signs Still Spell It "Tiqwa
Israel's Academy of the Hebrew Language is finally standardizing how place names get written in English — but the Q on the signs has survived every...
#5226: One City, Four Spellings: Israel's Transliteration Problem
Petah Tikva or Petakh Tikva? Inside a 250,000-shekel effort to make every Israeli road sign spell place names the same way.
#5222: How to Fill a Room With People Who Remember You
Is there a rent-a-crowd industry, and can you use it to make a 41st birthday feel like being remembered?
#5193: Rethinking How We Travel Long Distances Without Flying
Sleeper trains, cargo ships, and vehicle relocation — the surprising alternatives to flying that already exist.
#5185: Why One Border Becomes Three Fences
What border fences are actually built for — and why a steel barrier that took years to engineer was cut through in minutes.
#5181: Shuafat: Jerusalem's Walled-Off Refugee Camp
Inside the Jerusalem camp that's within the city limits but beyond the barrier — taxed by the city, policed by no one.
#5180: Egypt's Gaza and Israel's Jerusalem: Two Legal Suspensions
Egypt ruled Gaza for 19 years without annexing it. Israel applied full law to East Jerusalem in 1967. Two occupied places, two very different legal...
#5156: Is Gaza One Place or Many?
Gaza is 41 km long, but inside it: refugee camps, native towns, Bedouin tribes, and a fault line that runs through every city.
#5152: Sinai's Level 4 Warning: What's Actually Left of ISIS
Egypt declared terrorism over in North Sinai in 2023. The NSC still rates the peninsula level four. What's actually left?
#5133: Phantom Forms: When Bureaucracy Regulates Nothing
Why do governments create rules even officials don't know about? We trace the lifecycle of phantom forms and what they cost.
#5084: Three Hours in the Dark: Scrutiny or Scapegoat?
Was the scrutiny of Netanyahu's response on Oct 7th legitimate accountability or a witch hunt? We explore the dangerous rush to judgment.
#5068: The PM's Diary: 3 Hours, 2 Versions, 1 Hard Question
An edited official diary, a three-hour gap, and what we actually owe leaders in a crisis.
#5067: Who Gets to Investigate the State?
From medieval England to October 7th — how nations investigate their own worst failures, and why the fight over who asks the questions never ends.
#5066: East Jerusalem Under Jordan: More Than Just a Border
What did 19 years of Jordanian rule actually mean for East Jerusalem? It's a story of legal integration and deliberate neglect.
#5005: How Hamas Lost Its Own Security Chief
The raid that captured Hamas's internal security chief reveals a brutal system that failed at its core mission.
#4983: Crash Landing on You: Romance vs. North Korean Reality
A defector co-writer shaped K-drama's most realistic—and most fictional—portrait of North Korea.
#4968: North Korea Today: Life Beyond the Famine Era
What does ordinary life actually look like in North Korea right now? Smartphones, markets, and K-dramas in Pyongyang vs. survival in the provinces.
#4962: Who Decides What Goes on Jerusalem’s Lampposts?
The law is clear on illegal postering. But enforcement? That’s where it gets complicated.
#4956: Settlements Under Law: Israel, the West Bank, and the ICJ
The ICJ says settlements are illegal. Israel says the land is disputed. Here's both legal arguments.
#4952: How Safe Is Israel Really? Homicide, Policing, and Perception
Israel feels safe to walk around despite headlines. We compare crime data, policing, and what safety actually means.
#4950: The Siege: Ancient Warfare’s Darkest Tactic
From Roman circumvallation to Gaza — how sieges became war crimes, yet persist.
#4947: Israel's Instant Political Parties: Serious or Startup?
Can a general with no political infrastructure win Knesset seats? A deep dive on Israel's startup party culture.
#4946: When Settler Violence Became a Pattern
How a 90% closure rate on complaints reveals a system designed for impunity.