The Lede New Lines Magazine

On this week’s podcast, Cambridge University academic Shruti Kapila, author of “Violent Fraternity: Indian Political Thought in the Global Age,” sits down with New Lines’ Surbhi Gupta to discuss the shock Indian election result and what it means for the future of the world’s largest democracy.
Further listening:The War on India’s Free Press — With Manisha Pande, Samar Halarnkar and Surbhi GuptaIndia’s Political Hinduism — With Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay and Surbhi Gupta
Further reading:Why the Indian Election Results Present Modi With a Defeat Within a WinThe Recent Elections Demonstrate India’s Growing Democratic Deficit
Produced by Finbar Anderson

While the conflict in Gaza plays out on a tiny strip of land a fraction of the size of Los Angeles, its impact on the wider Middle East region has been huge.
New Lines’ Faisal Al Yafai speaks to the Guardian’s Ruth Michaelson, Chloe Cornish of the Financial Times and independent journalist Tara Kangarlou to assess how the war has changed the political and economic landscape in Turkey, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Further listening:Living in a State of Hopelessness: On the Ground in Israel — With Lisa GoldmanOn the Ground in Gaza — With Arwa DamonIn the Firing Line — With Joumana Haddad
Further reading:The Cost of Leaving GazaHow the War in Gaza Is Shaping the 2024 Elections — And the Future of the Democratic Party
Produced by Finbar Anderson

On June 8, 1924, two climbers set off for what they hoped would be the first-ever summit of Mount Everest. As the mist closed in around them high up the mountain, they would never be seen alive again. A century later, the mystery of whether they reached the top continues to inspire fascination and debate, but is perhaps not the most interesting thing about the doomed expedition, anthropologist and former National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis tells New Lines’ Finbar Anderson on this week’s episode.

In the two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian influence in Africa was at a low ebb. But that’s all changed, New Lines Global News Editor Amie Ferris-Rotman tells Kwangu Liwewe on this week’s Global Insights on The Lede. Ferris-Rotman and Liwewe discuss Russia’s past in Africa and its more recent neocolonialist enterprises on the continent, as well as the private military companies acting as Russia’s enforcers and how Russian influence compares to the “long, slow game” played by China.
Produced by Finbar Anderson

Veteran Mexican correspondent Alma Guillermoprieto joins New Lines’ Danny Postel on The Lede for a discussion about how the upcoming election in Mexico is actually not about the two leading candidates, her sadness about the current situation in Nicaragua, and her secret — the celebrated journalist is not interested in politics.
Produced by Finbar Anderson

On this week’s episode of The Lede, New Lines' Lydia Wilson sits down with extremism researcher Elizabeth Pearson, whose book “Extreme Britain: Gender, Masculinity and Radicalisation,” was published in December 2023.
Pearson explains how her research challenged established thinking around extremism, and how she came to the understanding that misogyny and masculinity play a much bigger role in the radicalization process than has been previously thought.
Produced by Finbar Anderson