{"podcast":{"title":"Ask Haviv Anything","slug":"ask-haviv-anything-7201561","podcast_index_feed_id":7201561,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/100cf5c64/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ask-haviv-anything","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/42985569/42985569-1738694258551-29e2c98fbae05.jpg","author":"Haviv Rettig Gur","episode_count":148,"summary":"\"Ask Haviv Anything\" is a podcast about history, a podcast you, dear listener, will help to shape and direct, focusing not just on what I want to talk about but on what you want to learn and discuss. Nothing is off limits. We're going to talk about big and painful things, and also beautiful and fascinating things, wars and identities and painful history. And also more light-hearted things. Humor matters, especially when facing tough subjects. Join me on this journey. A podcast by Haviv Rettig Gur","last_synced_at":"2026-09-04T00:22:24.834596+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-haviv-anything-7201561"},"episode":{"title":"141: Why Western ideas crash and burn in the Middle East, with Simon Sebag Montefiore","slug":"141-why-western-ideas-crash-and-burn-in-the-middle-east-with-simon-sebag-montefiore","published_at":"2026-08-24T08:26:51+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-haviv-anything-7201561/141-why-western-ideas-crash-and-burn-in-the-middle-east-with-simon-sebag-montefiore","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-haviv-anything-7201561","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ask-haviv-anything/episodes/141-Why-Western-ideas-crash-and-burn-in-the-Middle-East--with-Simon-Sebag-Montefiore-e3nqf76","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/100cf5c64/podcast/play/124648102/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-7-24%2F430420600-44100-2-c8e849865a0a9.mp3","summary":"To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/), or Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/havivrettiggur). And be sure to check us out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/haviv.rettig.gur/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@haviv.rettig.gur). -- Why does the West misunderstand the Middle East? Best-selling historian Simon Sebag Montefiore returns to the pod to discuss The Cauldron, his sweeping new history of the region, from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of its modern states to oil, Islamism, revolution and the Arab Spring. The book is a kind of prehistory of present-day Western stumbling in the Middle East. Western powers repeatedly arrive with grand political theories — imperialism, nationalism, socialism, liberal democracy — only to watch them change beyond recognition or collapse on contact with the region’s deeper identities, loyalties and social contracts. It is a conversation about the states that endured, the ones that failed, and why the Middle East remains so intensely debated in the West — and so poorly understood. -- This episode is sponsored by the Technion. Israel became the Startup Nation by turning talent into strength, ideas into industries. For more than a century, the Technion has trained the engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs who transformed Israel into the Startup Nation and delivered breakthroughs that changed the world. Now Technion scientists are advancing the next wave of innovation to help power Israel’s next chapter. Israel. Engineered by the Technion. Join us. Visit https://ats.org/rebuild . -- If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskH…","meta_description":"To support our work, please consider joining our Patreon community (https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything), Substack (https://havivgur.substack.com/)…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4104,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ask-haviv-anything-7201561/episodes/141-why-western-ideas-crash-and-burn-in-the-middle-east-with-simon-sebag-montefiore/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-haviv-anything-7201561/141-why-western-ideas-crash-and-burn-in-the-middle-east-with-simon-sebag-montefiore.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}