But you don’t look arab
Hello from Atlanta,
One of the reasons I started this podcast was so I could have longer, back-story conversations with all of the interesting Americans I call friends, colleagues or Twitter/X DM buddies.
Hala Gorani and I have known each other since we sat next to each other in CNN's London's bureau in the early 2000's. Hala and I overlapped as correspondents and anchors for the next twenty years. Both of us left the network in the same week. Our husbands are still hired at CNN (they're better behaved than Hala and I.) In fact, Kim and Christian have worked together in every war zone since Archduke Ferdinand was shot. Basically, the four of us have seen a few things together.
Hala wrote a great memoir called But You Don't Look Arab which details her family history in Aleppo, Syria and in the Ottoman Empire. I wanted to talk to her about events in Syria and the personal and political implications of a post-Assad country.
Take a listen to her geopolitical assessment (WITHOUT a prediction because she says she always gets things wrong) and the extraordinary story of her great-great grandmother who was kidnapped by a one-eyed man and taken to the Sultan's harem in Constantinople as a child.
And do buy her book - it will make a great Christmas present!
Enjoy,
Robyn