Centre Stage

Nov 04 2024 30 ep. 19 mins 36
Centre Stage Podcast artwork

Centre Stage is an interview podcast where influential thought leaders share their perspectives on pressing world issues.

  Society & Culture  News
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Why protests are a manifestation of power

Nov 04 2024 18 mins  
In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is Palestinian American activist and adjunct professor Amin Husain. New York University suspended Husain indefinitely for statements he made off campus about Palestine. Husain is also the founder of Decolonize This Place, an art collective that promotes social justice. He talks about why Israel’s war on Gaza resonates with students and f

Politics, policies & power: John Mearsheimer’s blunt analysis

Nov 04 2024 29 mins  
John Mearsheimer is a political scientist and influential scholar in international relations who is best known for his theory of offensive realism. Mearsheimer talks to Al Jazeera’s Rawaa Auge about the wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Lebanon and how global and regional powers support and arm the belligerent parties. Mearsheimer also weighs in on the 2024 US presidential election, and

Adversarial journalism: Gaza, The US vote and the future of news

Oct 31 2024 19 mins  
Jeremy Scahill is an American investigative journalist and author. He co-founded Drop Site News, a non-partisan organisation dedicated to reporting on major stories while focused on accountability and accuracy. Scahill joins Al Jazeera’s Phil Lavelle, to dissect the 2024 US presidential election, American interests in the Middle East, Israel’s war on Gaza and what the future of

Presidential candidate Chase Oliver wants to disrupt US politics

Oct 28 2024 16 mins  
Chase Oliver is the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate in the 2024 US election. He joins Centre Stage to talk to Al Jazeera’s Phil Lavelle about why having more voting options is important, and what the US would be like under Libertarian governance. Oliver also offers his take on US foreign policy, how he’d tackle diplomacy with allies and addresses current conflicts.

US election 2024: The Arab American reality

Oct 28 2024 23 mins  
Arab Americans are expected to play a critical role in the upcoming US presidential election. And, while they’ve traditionally voted Democrat, that seems to be changing, leading some to talk about a political chasm within the Arab American community in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza, and American support for that war. In this episode: Maya Berry (@iMayaBerry), executive dire

Aafia Siddiqui: 'Victim of all victims' | Part 2

Oct 09 2024 20 mins  
In part 2 of this episode of Centre Stage, we conclude our interview with Clive Stafford Smith, a civil rights lawyer who represents Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani American woman serving an 86-year prison sentence — a victim, says Stafford Smith, of the United States’s so-called “war on terror”. In this episode: Clive Stafford Smith (@CliveSSmith), civil rights lawyer and leg

Aafia Siddiqui: 'Victim of all victims' | Part I

Oct 02 2024 23 mins  
In part 1 of this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is Clive Stafford Smith, a civil rights lawyer and legal counsel for many of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. His best-known client is Aafia Siddiqui, who he says is a victim of circumstance, and should never have ended up on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after the 9/11 attacks in the US. In this episode: Clive Stafford Smith (@

The Bosnian Genocide and Gaza War: Drawing Parallels

Sep 17 2024 16 mins  
Refik Hodzic is a journalist, filmmaker and an expert in transitional justice who has also worked as a spokesperson for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Hodzic joins us on Centre Stage, where he draws parallels between the Bosnian genocide and the war in Gaza, discusses the role of Western governments in achieving justice, and explains why young people

Is the Western model of governance collapsing?

Sep 12 2024 14 mins  
In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is veteran journalist and editor-in-chief of The Middle East Eye, David Hearst. His career spans decades of reporting on Eastern Europe, Russia and the Middle East. Hearst talks about why he thinks we’re currently witnessing the collapse of the Western governance model, and how the mistakes of the West are linked to the war on Gaza. In

We need leaders who see past their own interests

Aug 21 2024 22 mins  
The trailblazing leader of Slovenia who became the country’s first female president did it without the backing of a political party. President Natasa Pirc Musar had a diverse career as an attorney, journalist and former information commissioner. A staunch advocate for human rights, President Musar talks about Slovenia’s recent recognition of Palestine, and why a reform of the U