Accessibility links
Rund Abdelfatah Rund Abdelfatah is the co-host and producer of Throughline.
Rund Abdelfatah headshot
Stories By

Rund Abdelfatah

Thursday

The State of Disunion
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Throughline

The State of Disunion

Is the U.S. on the brink of civil war? It's a question that has been in the air for a while now, as divisions continue to worsen. Beyond the political speeches and debates in the halls of Congress, it's something you're likely feeling in your day-to-day life. Vaccines, school curriculums, climate change, what you define as a human rights issue, even who you call a friend. Some say we've moved beyond the point of discussion. But when words fail, what comes next? In conversation with Malcolm Nance, Anne Applebaum, and Peniel Joseph, we take a deeper look at what we mean when we say civil war, how exactly the country reached this political moment, and where we go from here.

The State of Disunion

Listen · 48:48
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1131732636/1200556353" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

The Woman Question
Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Throughline

The Woman Question

What's happening in Iran right now is unprecedented. But the Iranian people's struggle for gender equality began generations before the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, also known by her Kurdish name, Jina Amini. The successes of this struggle, as well as its setbacks and horrors, are well-documented, but often misunderstood. Scholar Arzoo Osanloo argues that women have been at the center of Iran's century-long fight for freedom and self-determination. It's a historical thread that goes all the way back to Iran's Constitutional Revolution in the early 20th century: A complicated story of reform, revolution, and a fundamental questioning of whether Iranian people — and people around the Islamic world — will accept a government of clerics as the sole arbiters of Islam and the state.

The Woman Question

Listen · 49:44
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1129998206/1200556357" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

The Dance of the Dead (2021)
Hokyoung Kim

Throughline

The Dance of the Dead (2021)

Halloween — the night of ghost stories and trick-or-treating — has religious origins that span over two thousand years. Over time, the Catholic Church, pagan groups, and even the brewing company Coors have played a role in shape-shifting the holiday. How did Halloween turn from a spiritual celebration to a multi-billion dollar industry? From the Great Famine of Ireland to the Simpsons, we present the many evolutions of Halloween.

The Dance of the Dead (2021)

Listen · 49:56
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1127279631/1200556361" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

Silicon Island
Annabelle Chih/Getty Images

Throughline

Silicon Island

In a world where computer chips run everything from laptops to cars to the Nintendo Switch, Taiwan is the undisputed leader. It's one of the most powerful tech centers in the world — so powerful that both China and the U.S. have vital interests there. But if you went back to the Taiwan of the 1950s, this would have seemed unimaginable. It was a quiet, sleepy island; an agrarian culture. Fifty years later, it experienced what many recall as an "economic miracle" — a transformation into not just one of Asia's economic powerhouses, but one of the world's.

Silicon Island

Listen · 46:59
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1127015286/1200556365" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

History

The NPR podcast 'Throughline' examines how Korean culture went global

From BTS to Squid Game, South Korea reigns as a global exporter of pop culture. In the past two decades, government intervention has led the country to become a major driver of global soft power.

The NPR podcast 'Throughline' examines how Korean culture went global

Listen · 7:16
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1126517153/1126517154" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Editing Reality
Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Throughline

Editing Reality

We live in divided times, when the answer to the question 'what is reality?' depends on who you ask. Almost all the information we take in is to some extent edited and curated, and the line between entertainment and reality has become increasingly blurred. Nowhere is that more obvious than the world of reality television. The genre feeds off our most potent feelings – love, hope, anxiety, loneliness – and turns them into profit... and presidents. So in this episode, we're going to filter three themes of our modern world through the lens of reality TV: dating, the American dream, and the rage machine.

Editing Reality

Listen · 51:58
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1125714010/1200556369" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Five Fingers Crush the Land (2021)

This photo taken on June 2, 2019 shows a facility believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, in Artux, north of Kashgar in China's western Xinjiang region. GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

Throughline

Five Fingers Crush the Land (2021)

Over one million Uyghur people have been detained in camps in China, according to estimates, subjected to torture, forced labor, religious restrictions, and even forced sterilization. Last month, the United Nations released a report saying that China's treatment of Uyghurs could be considered "crimes against humanity." The vast majority of this minority ethnic group is Muslim, living for centuries at a crossroads of culture and empire along what was once the Silk Road. This week, we explore who the Uyghur people are, their land, their customs, their music and why they've become the target of what many are calling a genocide.

Five Fingers Crush the Land (2021)

Listen · 55:52
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1124231371/1200556373" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

Getting to Sesame Street

'Sesame Street' hosts Matt Robinson (Gordon), Will Lee (Mr. Hooper) Loretta Long (Susan) and Bob McGrath (Bob) stand with Big Bird on set, circa 1969. Hulton Archive/Children's Television Workshop/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Hulton Archive/Children's Television Workshop/Getty Images

Throughline

Getting to Sesame Street

In American history, schools have not just been places to learn the ABCs – they're places where socialization happens and cultural norms are developed. Arguments over how and what those norms are and how they're communicated tend to flare up during moments of cultural anxiety. Sesame Street was part of a larger movement in the late 1960s to reach lower income, less privileged and more "urban" audiences. It was part of LBJ's Great Society agenda. But Sesame Street is a TV show - not a classroom. And it was funded in part by taxpayer dollars. This story is about how a television show made to represent New York City neighborhoods – like Harlem and the Bronx – has sustained its mark in educating children in a divided country.

Getting to Sesame Street

Listen · 49:00
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1122499583/1200556377" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

How Korean Culture Went Global

Kwak Sin-ae, Bong Joon-ho, cast and crew of Parasite at the 92nd Oscars in February, 2020. Eric McCandless/Eric McCandless via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Eric McCandless/Eric McCandless via Getty Images

Throughline

How Korean Culture Went Global

From BTS to Squid Game to high-end beauty standards, South Korea reigns as a global exporter of pop culture and entertainment. How does a country go from a war-decimated state just 70 years ago, to a major driver of global soft power? Through war, occupation, economic crisis, and national strategy, comes a global phenomenon - the Korean wave.

How Korean Culture Went Global

Listen · 47:55
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1121364712/1200556381" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

American Socialist (2020)
Library of Congress

Throughline

American Socialist (2020)

It's been over a century since a self-described socialist was a viable candidate for president of the United States. And that first socialist candidate, Eugene V. Debs, didn't just capture significant votes, he created a new and enduring populist politics deep in the American grain. This week, the story of Eugene V. Debs and the creation of American socialism.

American Socialist (2020)

Listen · 1:01:17
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1120244344/1200556385" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

Drone Wars (2021)
Hokyoung Kim

Throughline

Drone Wars (2021)

Unseen, they stalk their targets from thousands of feet in the air. Operators are piloting them from military bases halfway across the world. At any moment, they could launch a strike that comes without warning. The attack drone was supposed to be a symbol of the era of precision warfare — a way to wage wars with fewer casualties on both sides. It's a technology that's been honed since it was first dreamed up during World War 1. But are drones actually precise enough? Do drones desensitize us to the casualties of civilians caught between us and our enemies? In this episode, we will explore the past, present and future of drone warfare.

Drone Wars (2021)

Listen · 1:00:55
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1119226852/1200556389" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

Afghanistan: The Rise of the Taliban (2021)
Isabel Seliger

Throughline

Afghanistan: The Rise of the Taliban (2021)

How did a small group of Islamic students go from local vigilantes to one of the most infamous and enigmatic forces in the world? The Taliban is a name that has haunted the American imagination since 2001. The scenes of the group's brutality repeatedly played in the Western media, while true, perhaps obscure our ability to see the complex origins of the Taliban and how they impact the lives of Afghans. It's a shadow that reaches across the vast ancient Afghan homeland, the reputation of the modern state, and throughout global politics. At the end of the US war in Afghanistan we go back to the end of the Soviet Occupation and the start of the Afghan civil war to look at the rise of the Taliban.

Afghanistan: The Rise of the Taliban (2021)

Listen · 54:19
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1117792402/1200556393" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

History

'Throughline': The origins of federal student loans and promises the government made

At the start of the 20th century, only the most privileged could afford to go to college. Today millions of students pursue higher education, but collectively they owe $1.7 trillion in debt.

'Throughline': The origins of federal student loans and promises the government made

Listen · 7:11
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1116880026/1116880027" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Afghanistan: The Center of the World (2021)

Isabel Seliger for NPR Isabel Seliger/Isabel Seliger for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Isabel Seliger/Isabel Seliger for NPR

Throughline

Afghanistan: The Center of the World (2021)

Afghanistan has, for centuries, been at the center of the world. Long before the U.S. invasion — before the U.S. was even a nation — countless civilizations intersected there, weaving together a colorful tapestry of foods, languages, ethnicities and visions of what Afghanistan was and could be. The story of Afghanistan is too often told from the perspective of outsiders who tried to invade it (and always failed) earning it the nickname "Graveyard of Empires." In this episode, we're shifting the perspective. We'll journey through the centuries alongside Afghan mystical poets. We'll turn the radio dial to hear songs of love and liberation. We'll meet the queen who built the first primary school for girls in the country. And we'll take a closer look at Afghanistan's centuries-long experiment to create a unified nation.

Afghanistan: The Center of the World (2021)

Listen · 55:33
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1107183129/1200556397" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

The Mystery of Inflation
Francesco Carta fotografo/Getty Images

Throughline

The Mystery of Inflation

Gas. Meat. Flights. Houses. The price of things have gone up by as much as nine percent since last year. The same amount of money gets you less stuff. It's inflation: a concept that's easy to feel but hard to understand. Its causes are complex, but it isn't some kind of naturally-occurring phenomenon — and neither are the ways in which governments try to fight it.

The Mystery of Inflation

Listen · 49:33
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1115418829/1200556401" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript