Podcast cover: Throughline

Throughline

The past is never past. Every headline has a history. Join us every week as we go back in time to understand the present. These are stories you can feel and sounds you can see from the moments that shaped our world.

Oil may dominate the headlines about the Middle East, but the real power often flows through water. Three narrow passages - the Suez Canal, the Strait of Hormuz, and Bab el-Mandeb – shape how the world moves. In times of crisis, they've become chokepoints, disrupting global trade, rattling markets, and shifting the balance of power way beyond the region. In this episode, three stories from these waterways… how they've helped define the modern Middle East and, as we've seen recently with Hormuz, the economic currents that affect us all.

Guests:

Alex Von Tunzelmann, author of Blood and Sand: Suez, Hungary, and Eisenhower's Campaign for Peace

Harold Lee Wise, author of Inside the Danger Zone: The U.S. Military in the Persian Gulf, 1987-1988

Farea Al-Muslimi, Yemen and Gulf researcher at Chatham House in London

Support shows like Throughline with NPR+. Sign up today at plus.npr.org.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Read more

Stay informed, the audio way.

Podmust curates what you need to listen.
Discover some of our collections: our best Music podcastsour best Business podcastsour best TV & Film podcasts.

Well, the bad news is: we're French. But the good news is: Podmust curates the world's podcasts so you can focus on staying informed or entertained. And voilà!

© Podmust
Navigation