The war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, 2023 with a terror attack that killed 1400 Israelis and now the world is waiting for the next phase, an expected israeli invasion of Gaza. In the lull before the assault begins FRDH host Michael Goldfarb speaks with two veteran journalists who have been living the story and reporting on it for nearly 50 years. What can be done and how far will Israel be allowed to go by the US in its aim of eradicating Hamas? What are the prospects for gettting nearly 200 Israelis held hostage by Hamas safely returned?

In a world of conspiracy theories presented as facts in new media how can you be sure of what you know? In this FRDH podcast Dr. Matthew Sweet, cultural historian and BBC presenter who has spent more time than you or I investigating this murky world, explains how knowledge is intentionally corrupted by conspiracy friendly media and why people embrace these ideas.

A half-century after the Chilean coup of 1973 an eyewitness and participant in that traumatic history remembers. Marc Cooper, then an American in his early twenties, was the President of Chile Salvador Allende’s translator. In this podcast he remembers what he saw before, during and after the coup; his narrow escape; and the US role in Allende’s overthrow. Eyewitness testimony on an important but neglected moment in history.

Christian nationalism is an increasingly loud form of the faith and many evangelical Christians in America are tired of its hypocrisy. In this FRDH podcast, Michael Goldfarb speaks with Andrew Whitehead, evangelical Christian and professor of sociology about his book American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens The Church.

War has come with a vengeance to Odesa in 2023 and poet and translator Boris Dralyuk wants to talk about Odesa’s identity and the poetry and comedy and love it inspires. In this podcast he tells about Odesa’s unique historical identity as the place where so many poets, novelists, musicians and comedians come from. He knows his stuff since he is one of them.

Karl Marx was wrong when he wrote History repeats itself, first as tragedy then as farce. The second time around it is still tragic as the events of midsummer 2023 show. In this podcast with BBC great Robin Lustig we look at how from riots in Paris to Israeli incursions into the West Bank city of Jenin the conflicts we have covered 15/20/30 years ago keep blowing up again. Give us 50:56 to argue it out.

Every Saturday night for the last 26 weeks in Tel Aviv crowds of up to 150,000 have staged demonstrations against Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu over his attempt to gut the courts and steer Israel towards strong man rule, with Netanyahu as the strong man. This short shapr podcast contains sound and interviews from the demonstration held on July 1st, 2023.

To say Democracy is in crisis today is not hyperbole but people don’t have an idea about fixing it. Forty years ago Oxford professor Maurice Pope saw the crisis coming and wrote a book about one possible solution. Needless to say the book couldn’t find a publisher. Their attitude was crisis, what crisis? The manuscript was lost for forty years, rediscovered and has recently been published and in this FRDH podcast Michael Goldfarb talks with the author’s son, Hugh Pope, about his father’s big idea to bypass electoral politics and take democratic decision making back to the people.

Journalist Isabel Hilton talks about China today, its leader Xi Jinping, and the many different Chinas he is trying to bring under his control. China is constanstly in the news but for all the coverage it remains an unknown place. Isabel Hilton has half a century of experience reporting on the country and in this wide-ranging conversation paints a picture of Chinese society and the recent history that has created it,