Best of Live & Learn 2016: Conflict Zones

As Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad’s soldiers recapture the city of Aleppo from rebel forces, we’ll hear again from Syrian activist Mazen Al Hamada, who barely escaped the war alive, about the system of detention and interrogation that he and many of his fellow Syrians were subjected to. After that, Ahmed Masoud, an accomplished writer, director, choreographer, scholar and playwright, shares his experience of growing up in the Gaza Strip, a place often described as "hell on earth" and how he is working on humanising the Palestinian conflict for a global audience. We will end with Rayyan Harries, who left almost everything behind to backpack and end up in the Greek island of Lesvos, the epicentre of the most dire migrant crisis in living memory, cooking for thousands of Syrian refugees. The full interviews as mentioned in this podcast are available here, here and here.