There are 37 items tagged:
Middle East

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  • The Homelands Blog

    Sandy Tolan recently returned from Gaza, where he was reporting on water in the context of the ongoing war there. He found people living under siege but determined not to give up hope. Sandy posted …

  • Back to the Garden

    Back to the Garden

    Alan Weisman reconsiders the Genesis story in the light of what we now know came after it. His essay originally appeared in the 2018 book “Eden Turned on Its Side” by photographer Meridel Rubenstein.

  • The Homelands Blog

    In a wide-ranging review of recent books on the Middle East, essayist N.S. Morris lauds Sandy Tolan’s Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land for its intimacy and freshness. “Tolan exhibits novelistic …

  • The Homelands Blog

    Sandy Tolan‘s Children of the Stone has been named one of Booklist‘s Top 10 Art Books of 2015. The news was published in the magazine’s November 1, 2015, issue on the arts. Reviewer Donna Seaman wrote: “Tolan illuminates …

  • The Homelands Blog

    Music, occupation, hope, despair, healing, and the terrible weight of history are all the subjects of Sandy Tolan‘s rapturously reviewed new book, Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land.  While you …

  • Children of the Stone

    Children of the Stone

    Sandy Tolan’s book about freedom and conflict, determination and vision, and the potential of music to help children everywhere see new possibilities for their lives.

  • The Homelands Blog

    Sandy Tolan’s new book, Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land will be published in April by Bloomsbury USA. Sandy will launch the book on April 21 at the Los Angeles Public Library, then head out on …

  • The Homelands Blog

    What if we could transform sand, salt water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide into soil, fresh water, vegetables, trees, biofuel, and electricity? That’s what an ambitious Norwegian-led initiative has been doing in the desert near Doha for the last two …

  • Countdown

    Countdown

    In this monumental piece of reporting, Alan Weisman travels to more than 20 countries, beginning in Israel and Palestine and ending in Iran, on an urgent search for ways to restore the balance between our species’ population and our planet’s capacity to sustain us.

  • Desert Lunch

    Desert Lunch

    In the desert of Qatar, scientists and engineers are working to transform “what we have enough of” – sand, sunlight, sea water, and CO2 – into “what we need more of” – energy, fresh water, and food. Does their idea hold promise for the world’s driest places?

  • Could Agriculture Bloom in the Desert?

    Could Agriculture Bloom in the Desert?

    Petroleum-rich Qatar has welcomed innovators seeking solutions to the challenges facing desert areas worldwide, from renewable energy to fresh water to food production.

  • Egypt’s Growing Pains

    Egypt’s Growing Pains

    More than one million Egyptian farmers have quit the land in the last 20 years, reshaping the country’s physical and political landscape.

  • In Egypt, Food for a Revolution

    In Egypt, Food for a Revolution

    Egyptians used to grow nearly all their own food. Today, the country relies on imports. The people on the street aren’t happy.

  • Trader

    Trader

    Hussein Ralib Esfandiari crosses back and forth between Dubai and his native Iran laden with whatever bargains he can find at market. The Gulf is one of the most politically volatile regions on earth. But politics is the least of Hussein’s worries.

  • Cargo Agent

    Cargo Agent

    Foreign workers have the same rights in Saudi Arabia, as long as they’re alive. But when non-Muslims die there, as thousands do each year, they have to go home for burial. And somebody’s got to get them there. Meet Wahid Khan Habibula.

  • The World Without Us

    The World Without Us

    How would the Earth respond if humans were suddenly to disappear? How quickly would our cities, our objects, our waste, and the myriad other changes we have wrought disappear – or would they disappear at all? Most urgently, asks this New York Times bestseller, what can we do to lessen the damage we’re inflicting on the only planet we have?

  • Fixer

    Fixer

    Tarek Haidar Eskandar can deliver an interview with a rebel commander or an interview with a victim of the latest catastrophe. Or at least that’s the promise. It’s a seat-of-the-pants business, and Tarek’s a seat-of-the-pants type of guy.

  • The Lemon Tree

    The Lemon Tree

    The tale of a simple act of faith between two young people – one Israeli, one Palestinian – that symbolizes the hope for peace in the Middle East. Winner of a Christopher Award, Booklist’s best adult non-fiction book of 2006, and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

  • The Imaginary Village

    The Imaginary Village

    In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee their homes to make way for the new state of Israel. More than 50 years later, the villages of Palestine remain intact in the imaginations of refugees and their descendants.

  • Roots of Resentment, Part II

    Roots of Resentment, Part II

    Produced for NPR in the wake of the September 11 attacks, this documentary explores the historical roots of anger in the Arab world toward the west in general, and the U.S. in particular. Part 2 of a two-part series.

  • Roots of Resentment, Part I

    Roots of Resentment, Part I

    Produced for NPR in the wake of the September 11 attacks, this story explores the historical roots of anger in the Arab world toward the west in general, and the U.S. in particular. Part 1 of a two-part series.

  • Ethiopian Jews

    Ethiopian Jews

    A profile of Shula Mulah, an Israeli woman of Ethiopian descent, who came to Israel in 1984 as part of an airlift called “Operation Moses.”

  • The Stone and the Viola

    The Stone and the Viola

    A first-person profile of a West Bank boy who grew up throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. Now, as a teenager, he has embarked on a life in music. The inspiration for Sandy Tolan’s 2015 book “Children of the Stone.”

  • The Lemon Tree

    The Lemon Tree

    An audio documentary, weaving the voices of an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man whose families occupied the same house, exploring the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

  • Troubled Waters | Part V: Negev Ancient Springs

    Troubled Waters | Part V: Negev Ancient Springs

    Part 5 of a five-part series examining the role of water in political tensions and the peace process in the Middle East.

  • Troubled Waters | Part IV: Of Jordan: A River and a Nation

    Troubled Waters | Part IV: Of Jordan: A River and a Nation

    Part 4 of a five-part series examining the role of water in political tensions and the peace process in the Middle East.

  • Troubled Waters | Part III: Collision In Gaza

    Troubled Waters | Part III: Collision In Gaza

    Part 2 of a five-part series examining the role of water in political tensions and the peace process in the Middle East.

  • Troubled Waters | Part II: Under the West Bank

    Troubled Waters | Part II: Under the West Bank

    Part 3 of a five-part series examining the role of water in political tensions and the peace process in the Middle East.

  • Troubled Waters | Part I: The Politics of Mideast Water

    Troubled Waters | Part I: The Politics of Mideast Water

    Part 1 of a five-part series examining the role of water in political tensions and the peace process in the Middle East.

  • Solar Energy and Middle East Peace

    Solar Energy and Middle East Peace

    Developing solar energy is part of the Israeli-Jordanian peace agreement, but the modest plans may be overwhelmed by market forces.

  • The State of Solar Energy

    The State of Solar Energy

    In Israel, where developing alternative energy was always seen as a matter of survival, solar technology is pointing a way out of dependence on fossil fuels. Story produced in 1995.