{"podcast":{"title":"Middle East Focus","slug":"middle-east-focus-529488","podcast_index_feed_id":529488,"rss_url":"https://middleeastinst.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"http://www.mei.edu","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/a/4/a/8/a4a832f884ee9d9116c3140a3186d450/MEF_square-20250424-uf9f282kb1.png","author":"Middle East Institute","episode_count":100,"summary":"Weekly discussion of Middle East policy, arts, and culture, featuring experts from the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-18T08:19:26.403871+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/middle-east-focus-529488"},"episode":{"title":"Syria: What You Missed","slug":"syria-what-you-missed","published_at":"2026-09-10T16:21:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/middle-east-focus-529488/syria-what-you-missed","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/middle-east-focus-529488","url":"https://middleeastinst.libsyn.com/syria-what-you-missed","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/middleeastinst/Middle_East_Focus_9.9.26_20260217T160513.002642_20260402T104122.002838_20260603T161046.615840_20260604T142209.247149_20260709T143323.213562_20260730T111718.459335_mixdown.mp3?dest-id=531685","summary":"Though it has fallen out of the headlines because of the Iran war, Syria has had a dramatically consequential summer. Hosts Alistair Taylor and Matthew Czekaj are joined by MEI Senior Fellow Charles Lister to take stock of recent developments: the dissolution of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Israeli strikes and the friction with Turkey they have exposed, the standoff in Sweida, as well as Damascus's bid to turn Syria into a trade corridor between the Mediterranean and the Gulf. Is the transition consolidating or fragmenting nearly two years after the fall of the Assad regime? Recorded on September 9, 2026.","meta_description":"Though it has fallen out of the headlines because of the Iran war, Syria has had a dramatically consequential summer. Hosts Alistair Taylor and Matthew Cz…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2711,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/middle-east-focus-529488/episodes/syria-what-you-missed/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/middle-east-focus-529488/syria-what-you-missed.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}