Centre Stage
Episodes
The challenge of transitional justice
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, lawyer and international justice expert Ruben Carranza says that who stands trial at the ICC reflects the priorities ...
The 1930s 2.0 & the collapse of American soft power
30 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, political philosopher and historian Roy Casagranda delivers a sharp analysis of the US. He explains why the US is inc...
Trita Parsi on Iran, the US and the Middle East
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Iranian-born author and professor Trita Parsi joins Centre Stage to unpack the history between the US and Iran, Iran’s nuclear ambitions and Was...
Fired Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah on free speech
31 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is journalist Karen Attiah. The Washington Post fired Attiah in September from her role as Global Opinions ...
Beyond the rubble: The cost of a Palestinian state
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Mohammed Mustafa joins Centre Stage to talk about the horrific realities he witnessed during his volunteer postings in Gaza. The Australian emergen...
Mozambique at 50: A conversation with President Chapo
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fifty years after independence, Mozambique is navigating the challenges of a young democracy—from conflict and displacement to the urgent need f...
Mary Trump on politics, power and the future of US democracy
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist, bestselling author and niece of US President Donald Trump, joins Centre Stage to offer her analysis of her uncle&...
Bearing witness: A doctor’s reckoning with Gaza
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Mimi Syed, a US emergency physician, joins Centre Stage to talk about the horrific reality she witnessed during her two trips to Gaza in 2024. She ...
The importance of preserving Palestinian archives
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is Zach Foster, a Jewish historian of Palestine. He joins us to discuss his work on preserving Palest...
The West’s 'principles fall apart' over Palestine
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
French political analyst Francois Burgat was charged with supporting terrorism over a social media post he shared, which included a statement by Hamas...
When justice fails: Genocide and colonialism in Palestine
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rula Shadid, discusses the global perception of Palestine and Western complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Connect with us: @AJEPodc...
Progress, Secularism and the Orientalist Gaze
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Olivier Roy, a professor of Orientalism, talks about the roots of Orientalism and the enduring myth of how only the West represents progress. From col...
Gabor Mate on trauma and Palestinian suffering
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is Dr Gabor Mate, a retired physician, author and Holocaust survivor who has written extensively on trauma ...
Norman Finkelstein on identity politics, free speech and pro-Palestine protests
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is scholar and activist Norman Finkelstein. He discusses his latest book on the role of identity politics i...
Jeremy Corbyn on Gaza and Britain’s Imperial Legacy
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jeremy Corbyn, an Independent MP in the UK Parliament, has long fought for economic justice, peace and a British foreign policy that tries to atone fo...
The White House vs US universities
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Harvard fights back against the administration’s cuts — will it succeed? Andrew Manuel Crespo, lead counsel for Harvard’s faculty, d...
Ralph Wilde on the ICJ & why Israeli occupation must end
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
International lawyer Ralph Wilde joins Centre Stage to talk about the 2024 landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice that deems Israel&rsq...
Nathan Thrall confronts Israel’s occupation
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Pulitzer Prize winning author Nathan Thrall joins Centre Stage to talk about how his experiences, working and living in Israel, Gaza, the occupied Wes...
World order at a 'tipping point'
24 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is Humza Yousaf, the former first minister of Scotland who made history as the first Muslim to lead a Weste...
Syria: The rise of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Patrick Haenni, an author and researcher specialising in Syria, shares his expertise on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Haenni discusses HTS’s origins and...
The difficulty of working as a medic in Gaza
28 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
British plastic surgeon, Dr Victoria Rose, travelled to Gaza twice this year to provide life-saving medical care to children wounded by the genocide i...
Why protests are a manifestation of power
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is Palestinian American activist and adjunct professor Amin Husain. New York University suspended Husain in...
Politics, policies & power: John Mearsheimer’s blunt analysis
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
John Mearsheimer is a political scientist and influential scholar in international relations who is best known for his theory of offensive realism. Me...
Adversarial journalism: Gaza, The US vote and the future of news
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jeremy Scahill is an American investigative journalist and author. He co-founded Drop Site News, a non-partisan organisation dedicated to reporting on...
Presidential candidate Chase Oliver wants to disrupt US politics
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chase Oliver is the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate in the 2024 US election. He joins Centre Stage to talk to Al Jazeera’s Phil Lavelle...
US election 2024: The Arab American reality
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Arab Americans are expected to play a critical role in the upcoming US presidential election. And, while they’ve traditionally voted Democrat, that ...
Aafia Siddiqui: 'Victim of all victims' | Part 2
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In part 2 of this episode of Centre Stage, we conclude our interview with Clive Stafford Smith, a civil rights lawyer who represents Aafia Siddiqui, a...
Aafia Siddiqui: 'Victim of all victims' | Part I
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In part 1 of this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is Clive Stafford Smith, a civil rights lawyer and legal counsel for many of the prisoners at Gua...
The Bosnian Genocide and Gaza War: Drawing Parallels
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Refik Hodzic is a journalist, filmmaker and an expert in transitional justice who has also worked as a spokesperson for the International Criminal Tri...
Is the Western model of governance collapsing?
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is veteran journalist and editor-in-chief of The Middle East Eye, David Hearst. His career spans decades of...
We need leaders who see past their own interests
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The trailblazing leader of Slovenia who became the country’s first female president did it without the backing of a political party. President Natas...
‘Arab volcanoes’ will erupt
25 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, the former president of Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki, explains how being a medical doctor has helped shape his political ...
A world where ‘self-defence’ is used as justification for genocide
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For six months, people have watched Israel’s war on Gaza and heard words like genocide, apartheid, and ICJ become part of the daily news lexicon. Fo...
Israel is "given a pass" by the international community
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Diana Buttu is an international lawyer, a former legal adviser to the PLO, and a staunch defender of the Palestinian cause. Buttu debunks the myth tha...
Israel’s law-of-the-jungle approach betrays humankind
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mustafa Barghouti joins us on Centre Stage. He talks with to us about confronting Israeli oppression, the realities of what he calls Israel’s “sys...
In Gaza now, it’s worse than ethnic cleansing
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is Ilan Pappé. He’s an Israeli historian and professor at the University of Exeter. Pappé is known for ...
Politics without respect for international law risks to be criminal
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, our guest is UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese. She is an internationa...
The overlooked significance of Christians in the Holy Land
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, Harry Hagopian talks about the interfaith mosaic of Islam, Judaism and Christianity within the Israel-Palestine conte...
Documenting Israel’s War Crimes
06 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Omar Shakir is the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. He has spent years documenting and investigating human rights abuses and Israe...
Religion used as an 'excuse' in Gaza war
30 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Omar Suleiman talks about the oppression of pro-Palestinian voices in the West, the growing Islamophobia and how it lends itself to racism. In thi...
The collapse of liberal democracies
23 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We sit down with Peter Oborne to discuss the role of the media in shaping the narrative around the war on Gaza and the growing divide in the West betw...
Former Israeli negotiator's perspective on the war in Gaza
16 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We sit down with former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy to discuss the war in Gaza from historical, inter-faith, and geopolitical perspectives. Levy se...
Palestine's envoy to UK discusses the past, present and future for his people
10 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we hear from Palestine’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Husam Zomlot as he reflects on the war in Gaza, the double standards it...
It's a war on children
02 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta shares his experience as a surgeon in different hospitals in Gaza during the ongoing Israeli wa...
Islamic Roots of Modern Psychology
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Dr. Rania Awaad explores modern psychology concepts in Islamic tradition, modern psychology and spirituality, and psychology in tradi...
Muslim women’s image in media
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Centre Stage, Sarah Joseph explores issues related to the representation of Muslim women in mainstream media. We discuss the common...
Being Muslim in the UK's government
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi talks with Jamal Elshayyal about her Pakistani heritage and her illustrious career at the heart of British politics. They cover...
An author's perspective on Islam
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Former Catholic nun and author Karen Armstrong shares her perspective on Islam from her years of research with Al Jazeera's Samantha Johnson. In this ...
Being Muslim in the US
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the second episode of Centre Stage, Dr. Dalia Fahmy discusses what it is like to be a Muslim in the US. What form of discrimination are Muslims fac...
Islam's Influence on the US
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the first episode of Centre Stage, Dr. John Esposito explores Islam's influence on the US with Soraya Salam. They discuss various topics ranging fr...
Introducing Centre Stage
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Centre Stage is the new interview podcast by Al Jazeera. Don't miss out on thought-provoking conversations with influential leaders. Coming soon!