Episodes
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Sune Engel Rasmussen is a Danish journalist and author who lived in Afghanistan, reporting extensively for several international outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian.
In this interview, we discuss his book Twenty Years, which offers an unique intimate insight into two decades of Western involvement in Afghanistan, told through the stories and struggles of young men and women affected by it, along with his own experiences of living and working in the country.
📺 Watch on YouTube
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
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Andrew North is an award-winning British journalist and former BBC correspondent in Afghanistan, Iraq, India, and the United States. He lived and reported from Afghanistan throughout two decades of international involvement and visited the country three times after the Taliban’s return, with his last visit resulting in his kidnapping by the group’s intelligence agents. His recently published book, War & Peace & War, tells his and the stories of five people who lived through the country’s conflicts.
In this interview, he shares his stories and insights.
📺 Watch on YouTube
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
X: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Rahmatullah Nabil is an Afghan politician and former intelligence chief. Having lost his father at the age of one, he was raised by his mother, who dedicated her life to him. Nabil left school and joined one of the Mujahideen factions as a teenager. An ambush on Soviet forces, during which he was injured, and the discovery of a handwritten letter belonging to a Soviet soldier, changed his life. This led him to become a refugee in Pakistan, where he graduated from university and worked for the UN. He eventually joined the Afghan Republic government, becoming the country’s spymaster and later a presidential candidate. In this interview, he shares his extraordinary life story, and his thoughts and hopes for Afghanistan.
📺 Watch on YouTube
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
X: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Rahmatullah Nabil is an Afghan politician and former intelligence chief. Having lost his father at the age of one, he was raised by his mother, who dedicated her life to him. Nabil left school and joined one of the Mujahideen factions as a teenager. An ambush on Soviet forces, during which he was injured, and the discovery of a handwritten letter belonging to a Soviet soldier, changed his life. This led him to become a refugee in Pakistan, where he graduated from university and worked for the UN. He eventually joined the Afghan Republic government, becoming the country’s spymaster and later a presidential candidate. In this interview, he shares his extraordinary life story, and his thoughts and hopes for Afghanistan.
📺 Watch on YouTube.
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
X: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Sir William Patey is a retired British diplomat with extensive experience in Middle Eastern and South Asian geopolitics. He served as the UK Ambassador to Kabul from 2010 to 2012, following earlier roles as Ambassador to Sudan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. In this interview, he shares his insights and analysis on Afghanistan—discussing what went wrong, what the future may hold, and recounting stories from his time in the country.
📺 Watch on YouTube.
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
X: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mark Urban is a British journalist, broadcaster, and best-selling author of many books, including War in Afghanistan and The Skripal Files. He has covered Afghanistan extensively since the late 1980s, witnessing firsthand the withdrawal of Soviet forces, accompanying Ahmad Shah Massoud as he took Kabul in 1992, and other key events. In this interview, he shares his stories of the country and his thoughts on its future, as well the impacts of the West's failure.
📺 Watch on YouTube.
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
X: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Sir Laurie Bristow, the UK's last ambassador in Kabul, witnessed the disintegration of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul into the hands of the Taliban in August 2021. He is the author of Kabul: Final Call, which provides an insider's view of the events as they unfolded. In this interview, we discuss the book, Sir Laurie’s reflections on his experiences, and his thoughts on the current situation in the country and its future.
📺 Watch on YouTube.
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
X: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Professor Thomas Barfield is one of the preeminent experts on Afghanistan, having spent over five decades studying and writing on the country. He is the author of 'Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History' and 'Shadow Empires,' among many others.
In this interview, he talks about traveling around Afghanistan for the first time in 1971 and the impact it had on him, his fieldwork in northern Afghanistan, the country's history, its place in the region, its complex politics and society, as well as his thoughts on the future, along with plenty of fascinating and funny stories and anecdotes.
📺 Watch on YouTube: youtu.be/NaKD_xUhlAg
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
X: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobi
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Professor Thomas Barfield is one of the preeminent experts on Afghanistan, having spent over five decades studying and writing on the country. He is the author of 'Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History' and 'Shadow Empires,' among many others.
In this interview, he talks about traveling around Afghanistan for the first time in 1971 and the impact it had on him, his fieldwork in northern Afghanistan, the country's history, its place in the region, its complex politics and society, as well as his thoughts on the future, along with plenty of fascinating and funny stories and anecdotes.
📺 Watch on YouTube: youtu.be/NaKD_xUhlAg
Subscribe through “Support the Show” link below.Send us a Text Message.
Support the Show.
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @RohYakobi
X: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobiHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Artemis Akbary is an LGBTIQ rights activist and the co-founder and Executive Director of the Afghan LGBT Organization (ALO), and a producer/presenter at Radio Ranginkaman. They have spoken and campaigned at various international gatherings about the plight of the LGBTIQ community in Afghanistan. In this moving interview, Artemis shares their personal story, and their harrowing experience of growing up in Iran, fleeing to Turkey, and then settling in Europe, enduring years of torment and abuse, as well sharing stories of LGBTIQ men and women persecuted in Afghanistan.
Subscribe through “Support the Show” link below.Send us a Text Message.
Support the Show.
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @RohYakobi
X: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobiHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Thomas Ruttig is a co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. He has worked on and in Afghanistan since he graduated in Afghan Studies from Humboldt University, Berlin in 1985: as an East German (GDR) diplomat, including at the GDR Embassy in Kabul (1985-89), as political affairs officer for two United Nations missions in Afghanistan (2000-2003, including as UNSMA head of office Kabul, adviser to the Afghan Independent Emergency Loya Jirga Commission and UNAMA head of office Islamabad and Gardez), deputy to the EU Special Representative for Afghanistan (2003-2004); political adviser to the German Embassy in Kabul (2004-06).
In this interview he shares his story of Afghanistan and the history of Germany's relationship with the country.
Subscribe through “Support the Show” link below.Send us a Text Message.
Support the Show.
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @RohYakobi
X: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobiHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Thomas Ruttig is a co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. He has worked on and in Afghanistan since he graduated in Afghan Studies from Humboldt University, Berlin in 1985: as an East German (GDR) diplomat, including at the GDR Embassy in Kabul (1985-89), as political affairs officer for two United Nations missions in Afghanistan (2000-2003, including as UNSMA head of office Kabul, adviser to the Afghan Independent Emergency Loya Jirga Commission and UNAMA head of office Islamabad and Gardez), deputy to the EU Special Representative for Afghanistan (2003-2004); political adviser to the German Embassy in Kabul (2004-06).
In this interview he shares his story of Afghanistan and the history of Germany's relationship with the country.
Subscribe through “Support the show” link below.Send us a Text Message.
Support the Show.
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @RohYakobi
X: @TheAfgPod & @RohYakobiHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Fereshta Abbasi is the Afghanistan Researcher at Human Rights Watch and a Chevening Scholar. Born a refugee in Iran, she was taken to Afghanistan as a child, where she pursued her education, eventually becoming a lawyer.
In this interview, she shares her remarkable story and inspirational achievements.
Subscribe through “Support the show” link below.Send us a Text Message.
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Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @RohYakobi
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Llewelyn Morgan is a professor of Classics at the University of Oxford. He is the author of "The Buddhas of Bamiyan", a book that explores the long and complex history of the Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, and their eventual destruction in 2001.
Professor Morgan has written extensively on Afghanistan, and in this interview, he discusses his work, the Buddhas of Bamiyan, their histories, and more.
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Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @RohYakobi
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Ambassador Franz-Michael Mellbin is a former EU Special Representative and Danish ambassador in Afghanistan. He played a central role in the implementation of the Danish and EU efforts in Afghanistan, from September 11, 2001, until the evacuation from Kabul. He assisted the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations with the planning of US Afghanistan policies. Mellbin negotiated the first peace agreement in Afghanistan in over 20 years, between the government and Hekmatyar/Hezb-e-Islami, and took the initiative for the EID ceasefire with the Taliban in 2018. He is currently the Danish ambassador in the Philippines.
In this candid interview, he reflects on his time in Afghanistan and shares his thoughts and stories.
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Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @RohYakobi
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Andrew Quilty is a multi-award-winning Australian photojournalist and the author of "August in Kabul". He lived and worked in Afghanistan for almost a decade, capturing and covering the country's stories. His work has been published globally. He was in Kabul the day the Taliban arrived in August 2021, riding his motorcycle and capturing their arrival.
In this interview, he reflects on his time in Afghanistan, his love for the country and its people, and more.
📺 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ozEy0jbpSEE
🙏🏽 Subscribe through “Support the show” link below.Send us a Text Message.
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Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @RohYakobi
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Born in a refugee camp in Pakistan, Pashtana Durrani is an Afghan human rights activist and the founder of LEARN Afghanistan, an NGO through which she runs undercover schools across the country. In this interview, she talks about her life and work.
Her book, "Last to Eat, Last to Learn", is out now.
📺 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gwLgJY4l9Wk
🙏🏽 Subscribe through “Support the show” link below.Send us a Text Message.
Support the Show.
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @RohYakobi
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In this first Q&A episode, I attempt to answer some of your questions...
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Producer: Roh Yakobi
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Instagram: @RohYakobi
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Born in Bamiyan, Zahra Nader is an award-winning journalist and the Editor-in-Chief of Zan Times, a media outlet focused on women and marginalised communities in Afghanistan. In this interview, she talks about her childhood, her struggles as a refugee in Iran, her life in Kabul and Canada, her experiences, and her dreams for her outlet and herself, sharing her incredible story.
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➼ BetterHelp.com/TheAfgPodSend us a Text Message.
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Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @RohYakobi
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Renowned for her decades of humanitarian work, providing health and education services to millions in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Sima Samar discusses her extraordinary life journey in this interview. She talks about her origins in a village in Hazarajat and her rise to become a globally recognised physician, activist, and politician.
Her memoir, OUTSPOKEN: My fight for freedom and human rights in Afghanistan, is published on 27 February in the US/Canada and 13 March in the UK.
🌏 Get 10% discount on your first month of BetterHelp. BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy service with more over 34,000 professional therapists.
➼ BetterHelp.com/TheAfgPodSend us a Text Message.
Support the Show.
Producer: Roh Yakobi
Music ©: Dawood Sarkhosh
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @RohYakobi
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