Tagged: The Middle East

Our guest on this edition of ST is Molly Williamson, a highly experienced former Foreign Service Officer who served six U.S. Presidents over the course of a long, far-flung career, eventually achieving the rank of Career Minister. Throughout the 1990's and early 2000's, she held important positions within the U.S. Departments of Energy, Commerce, State, and Defense.

On this edition of ST, we speak by phone with Candida Moss, a professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

On this installment of ST, we welcome Dr. Elizabeth Colton, who's still pursuing an active, long-running, and wide-ranging career in diplomacy, journalism, foreign-relations scholarship, and U.S. and international politics and education. Such work has taken her to more than 100 countries; she's taught and/or delivered lectures on six different continents. Last night, Dr. Colton addressed to the Tulsa Committee on Foreign Relations on the topic of "Foreign Policy Challenges for the New Administration" --- which will be, of course, in this case a second Obama Administration. Dr.

On this edition of ST, we speak by phone with Mustafa Akyolm, a columnist for two Turkish newspapers whose work has also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, and elsewhere. He's also spoken at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Brookings Institution, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the TED conference.

The uprising in Syria continues to be a cause of great concern around the globe as fighting intensifies between rebel forces and pro-government soldiers, with much of the combat occurring in and near the ancient trading city of Aleppo, in northwestern Syria. On this installment of ST, as we listen back to an interview that first aired in late May, we offer another story of Aleppo --- and of one of Judaism's most sacred texts. Our guest is the journalist Matti Friedman, a correspondent for the Associated Press who grew up in Toronto and now lives in Jerusalem.

On this edition of our show, we speak by phone with the journalist Matti Friedman, a correspondent for the Associated Press who grew up in Toronto and now lives in Jerusalem. Friedman's new book --- a highly engaging hybrid of history, mystery, biblical scholarship, and good old suspense-driven storytelling --- is called "The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible." As has been written of Friedman's book in a starred review in Booklist: "Written in the tenth century, the Aleppo Codex is the most accurate copy of the Hebrew Bible.