when you buy a bottle of “italian” or “spanish” olive oil, there’s a decent chance it came from tunisia.

the oil, that is, not the label.

in this episode, we trace the path of tunisia’s most important export from ancient olive groves to supermarkets worldwide and unpack how global trade rules, branding power, and consumer habits keep countries like tunisia invisible on the shelf.

it’s not just about olive oil. it’s about who gets to create value, and who gets to claim it.

in september 2024, albania’s prime minister announced a plan to create a new sovereign state inside tirana, the capital of the country.

a spiritual microstate, run by the bektashi order, a sufi-inspired religious group. it sounded symbolic. maybe even strange. but it was real.

in this episode, we break down what the bektashi proposal actually is, where it came from, and why it’s raising questions. about power, corruption, religious identity, and what happens when politics uses faith to sell a bigger story.

most people in ulaanbaatar don’t live in apartments, they live in ger districts.

entire neighborhoods built from traditional yurts, often without sewage, piped water, or reliable heat.

in this episode, we look at how the collapse of the soviet union, climate disasters, and decades of underinvestment led hundreds of thousands to settle on the city’s edge, and why those areas are still waiting for the basics.

in this episode, we explore the story of om banna and the bullet baba shrine in rajasthan, india. after a fatal motorcycle crash in 1988, locals claim the bike kept returning to the crash site on its own, despite being impounded by police.

eventually, they built a temple around it. today, travelers stop to leave offerings of liquor and pray for safe journeys.

topics covered:

om banna and the origin of the bullet baba shrine

roadside temples and folk religion in india

royal enfield’s cult status

ritual, memory, and belief systems in rural india

whether it’s superstition or something else, the bike is still there and so is the story.

after 14 years of civil war, assad is finally out, but syria is not at peace.

in this episode, I break down the new power struggle between turkey and israel as both countries move into post-assad syria.

turkey’s backing the new government. israel’s bombing airbases. and behind the scenes, the u.s. is trying to stop its allies from turning on each other because if they do, a much bigger conflict could be around the corner.

this isn’t just about syria. it’s about who gets to dominate the region next.

you see thai restaurants everywhere, but barely any thai communities. from istanbul to nyc, that pattern kept popping up, and i started asking why. turns out, it wasn’t a coincidence. this episode looks at how thailand used food as soft power and why your local pad thai might have more to do with global strategy than migration.

in somalia, you don’t swipe cards or tap your phone. you punch numbers into your phone and pay in seconds, no apps, no banks necessary. this episode unpacks how mobile money took over the economy, the role of the telecom companies, and what hawala, worldremit, and 5g in the middle of nowhere all have to do with it.

since late 2023, over 800,000 afghans have been expelled from pakistan, with millions more at risk. iran is doing the same. many of those being deported have lived outside afghanistan for decades, if not their whole lives. but now they’re being pushed back into a country with no jobs, no aid system, and no real plan to support them. and almost no one is talking about it.