Interested In Leveling Up on the Middle East ?
I Recommend This Exercise
I don’t recommend anything I haven’t done myself.
Force yourself to go to the Caravans Podcast put out by Stanford University. I’ve vetted it for you. Start at the beginning and listen to the whole thing.1 Take the time you need, when you need it. And pay attention. Learn as much as you can. Yes, I have done this (and much more besides), which is why I can recommend it.
If you can’t do this, I understand. It’s just a suggestion. It’s put me way ahead in a way impossible to explain to anyone who is way behind (which is most people).
I’d say that if you want to know the significance of what happened in Israel this past week,2 but your nervous system can’t handle the details of the particular thing,3 starting with this is a positive step forward for yourself and your ability to explain it to others.
I’m in a men’s Bible study and we just finished Ruth a few weeks ago. We are now in 1 Samuel.
The overarching concern in those early chapters of 1 Samuel are terrorists coming over from Gaza. Defense against that.
They were called Philistines back then.
Before you say, some things never change or something like that that normal people would say, I would caution you. The Philistines were not funded by a nuclear-seeking, left-wing revolutionary Socialist Iran.
I would also add this: pay attention ! as you listen. Notice the date of the podcast. Always always always notice the date of the episode, both the date it was published and the date that it was recorded , and how those data interact and affect what is talked about. If you look at the very last episode4 of Caravan, you’ll notice a huge gap between that one and the ones before. And you’ll notice it was published Thursday.5
Here’s the Caravans Podcast’s first episode. Start here, and take as long as you need, but work a way to make regular progress, and push through the accents and the boredom.6 It’s good for you. It’s good for all of us :
Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D. is producer and host of The Republican Professor Podcast.
He served in the United States Navy for seven years as a Naval Aircrewman, Linguist, Analyst, Special Operations intel operator, and support staff for foreign language education and training for the National Security Agency.
Dr. Mather teaches International Relations, Political Geography, Constitutional Law, and American Politics at Azusa Pacific University in Lost Angeles County, California. His first Masters (of 4) is in Biblical Studies in the original languages, culture, history, and literature of the Bible. His Ph.D. is in Public Law and American Politics. The bulk of his undergraduate work was in Chinese Mandarin language and culture studies.
In case this is unclear to you, I mean listen to each episode, all of them, all the way through, stop for breaks as needed, in chronological order, one at a time [obvi], not just one episode.
I recommend listening, if you can, to Ben Shapiro’s explanation and description in his last episode (1824) called “The Face of Absolute Evil” available here [Sunday, 8 October 2023]. Soundcloud has audio only if you can’t handle the video.
Video here: https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1824-the-face-of-absolute-evil3
Video here:
To release stored trauma in the body and increase your window of tolerance, I recommend Sarah Jackson Coaching. She’s an expert in that kind of thing and has a tool kit available. She was a guest on The Republican Professor summer 2022.
That would be: “At the Cusp of Israeli-Saud Normalization ?” [Thurs, October 5, 2023], available here. Spoiler alert, Iran does not want Israeli-Saud normalization [understatement of the year]. The Saudis and Iran are not friends, but so far have had mutual animosity toward Israel. President Trump began a movement to change that with the Saudis and other Middle Eastern states to counterbalance Iran.
That would be Thursday, 5 October 2023, just before the attacks in Israel this past weekend on the Jewish sabbath/holiday. The Jewish Sabbath starts Friday evenings and goes for 24 hours normally.
Again, in case this is unclear to you, listen to each episode, all of them, all the way through, stop for breaks as needed, in chronological order, one at a time [obvi], not just one episode.