The View From Here is a brand-new weekly podcast hosted by former Pentagon official and foreign policy analyst Jasmine El-Gamal.
Each Thursday, Jasmine connects the dots between global headlines and the human stories behind them.
From war rooms to conflict zones to refugee camps, she draws on her experiences to examine how policy decisions impact real lives, uncovering the unseen costs of power.
The View from Here is foreign policy, reimagined: from the people shaping it, to those it impacts.
Get in touch with us with your thoughts and questions! You can find us at jasmine@viewfromherepod.com.
Disclaimer: The View from Here aims to showcase a wide range of views and opinions, which do not necessarily reflect those of the podcast or its host.
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Jasmine El-Gamal attends a Tommy Robinson march, observing that while organizers promote Islamophobia, attendees often express tangible, misdirected grievances. Joined by UK Muslim Network guests, the discussion advocates for direct engagement to humanize abstract conflicts and challenge misconceptions. The episode highlights social media's influence on polarization, the government's responsibility to address anti-Muslim hate, and the need for courage in fostering intercommunity understanding.
President Donald Trump is in China this week for a high-stakes summit with President Xi Jinping and the world is watching the relationship that may define this century. For most people, US-China relations can feel abstract. A contest between two great powers, played out through issues like trade and technology. The reality is that this relationship affects almost every aspect of our daily lives: from the prices we pay at the pump and in grocery stores, to the technology we use, and even the info...
Antisemitism is on the rise, and Jewish communities around the world are ever more fearful for their safety. Meanwhile, the conversations in the media around how to tackle this growing problem are more often than not divisive and oversimplified. So I reached out to Rabbi Daniel Epstein, former Chief Rabbi at the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London and now in Australia, to have what we knew would be a tough discussion. We have been in an ongoing conversation for over two years about many of t...
Is the UK-US Special Relationship over, or has it just changed beyond recognition? This week, Britain's own ambassador to Washington admitted the US’s special relationship is "probably Israel." Meanwhile, Trump has rebuked Starmer over Iran, and King Charles flew to Washington on a charm offensive. I sat down with a former senior British diplomat in the United States and former Ambassador to Iran Sir Richard Dalton, to get a real--and brutally honest--perspective. We cover: → Is the Special Rela...
Lebanon is a tiny country of almost 6 million people, and it's always found itself being used as a proxy battleground between different states and actors around it. The Palestinian Liberation Organization set up camp there in the 1970s to fight Israel from Lebanese territory. The Syrians for years under the Assad regime had a strong military presence in Lebanon, described as a de facto occupation that finally ended in 2005. And of course, you have longstanding Iranian influence in Lebanon throug...
What does the Islamic Republic really want? As the US imposes a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz in order to ratchet up the pressure on Iran, the two sides still seem intent on trying to find a way to make negotiations work and to bring an end to this destructive war that's affected so many in the region and worldwide. The question is, who is making the decisions inside of Iran? And what do they really want? We know what the US says it wants. It wants the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and it w...
In just two days, we've gone from President Donald Trump threatening to destroy all of civilization in Iran, to a ceasefire agreement and vice President JD Vance now headed to Islamabad, Pakistan for negotiations with the Iranians. But in the meantime, Israel is pounding Lebanon. On April 8th, the IDF conducted 100 strikes across Lebanon in 10 minutes scenes of absolute terror and carnage. Iran says that it will not go through with the negotiations as long as Israel continues to conduct these st...
Who are the Houthis in Yemen and why did they wait weeks after the war between Israel, Iran, and the US started in order to get involved? How did they originate? Where did they come from? What do they want? Are they really just a proxy that does whatever Iran tells them to? Or are they an organization that has their own objectives and are only allied with Iran when it also suits their own purpose? I'm Jasmine El-Gamal, and this is the View From Here, where every week we take you behind the headl...
The war between Iran, Israel, and the US doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Despite reports of a flurry of diplomacy this last week, there are also reports of a US military operation and potentially a ground invasion increasingly imminent. Now as these three parties to the conflict continue to play games of brinksmanship, the Arab Gulf States are looking increasingly vulnerable, stuck between Israel, Iran, and the US. They tried to prevent the war, and now they seem to be split between whet...
This week we're talking about Iran and what it means for the slain Supreme Leader's son to be chosen as his successor. Fourteen days into the war, there still doesn't seem to be any kind of off ramp or any kind of vision for how this war ends. And in the meantime, more and more damage is being done to the region, not just to Iran, not just to the US and Israel those are all parties to the conflict, but also across the Gulf, across Lebanon and we can't see an end. To unpack the rapidly unfolding ...
After the fall of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro at the hands of US forces, President Trump called Colombian president Gustavo Petro a "sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States." Petro responded by accusing Trump of being "an accomplice to genocide" with a "senile brain." Then, suddenly, things changed. The two leaders exchanged a phone call on January 7th and agreed to meet at the White House, despite the Trump administration having rescinded Petro's visa earli...
Jasmine sat down with Mira Awad, a Palestinian Israeli singer and peace activist who has had to grapple with her complex dual identity her whole life. She asked Mira what it was like to live in that in between space and how it’s impacted her life and activism. Mira was also the first, and only, Palestinian Israeli to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2009, despite facing significant pressure from both Israelis and Palestinians to withdraw, for different reasons. Jasmine ask...
As Iranians take to the streets in what is now the largest protest movement in recent history, and President Trump says help is on the way, Jasmine spoke to Iranian-American analyst Negah Angah to unpack the latest from Iran. Jasmine and Negah delve into what the current protests mean and how they differ from past movements. Negah highlights the diverse patchwork of religions and ethnicities that make up Iranian society, and what Iran's history can tell us about what might come next, including w...
Following the explosive events of January 3, 2026, when a high-risk U.S. military operation targeted the capital of Venezuela, Caracas and resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, Jasmine goes beyond the headlines to unpack what this all means, politically, socially, and economically: 🎙️ The View from Venezuela: Venezuelan analyst and journalist César Báez describes how ordinary Venezuelans are experiencing this moment of upheaval, including the astonishing pivot of Venezuela’s lead...
Is the Trump administration betraying our wartime allies by shutting down immigration? On November 26, a 29-year old Afghan man, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, shot two National Guardsmen in Washington, DC, 20 year old Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and 24 year old Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolf. Sarah died of her injuries. The Trump administration is using this tragic incident to crack down on immigration, and have mentioned the Afghan community specifically. But there is more to the picture. Rahmanullah had re...
In part two of the Muslims in America episode, I spoke to local New York historian, City University of New York lecturer and small business owner Asad Dandia, who made history himself when he sued the New York Police Department in 2017 after they sent an informant to spy on his community. In doing so, Asad helped change the course of New York history. We spoke about his journey, as well as his work helping to get Zohran Mamdani elected as the first Muslim mayor of New York, and what the future h...
I sat down with Wael Al Zayat, the CEO of Emgage, an organization working to empower Muslim Americans through civic engagement. We talk about what it means to lead a national organization in this moment—one in which Muslim Americans are becoming more politically active, but also more targeted, as we saw during the mayoral race in New York City recently. Wael walks us through the trends he’s seeing within the community, how attitudes are shifting and what issues are driving people to the polls. W...
I wanted to start this season with a topic that has been severely underreported in the media and under prioritized by governments, and that is Sudan. Sudan has been in the headlines recently after the city of el-Fasher was captured by the RSF, the Rapid Support Forces, one of two parties, the other being the Sudanese Armed Forces, to a conflict that has ravaged the country in unimaginable ways. More than 150,000 people have died in the conflict across the country, and about 12 million have fled ...
In this solo episode, Jasmine reflects on the key themes and lessons learned from season one: the importance of human security and the responsibility to protect; the role of trust, whether between states or between societies and their governments; why exhibiting empathy in negotiations is not a weakness, but rather, sound strategy; why recognizing and understanding human fear is necessary to breaking cycles of violence; and why accountability in politics is a key factor in a healthy society. Jas...
Israel's September 9th strike on Hamas leaders in Doha has raised urgent questions about whether any red lines exist anymore. For the first time, Qatar, a major non-NATO ally to the US, host to Hamas’ political office and a key mediator in ceasefire talks, was directly targeted. What does this mean for Qatar’s security, its relationship with Washington, and the fragile regional balance moving forward? To unpack this unprecedented event, Jasmine sat down with Nawaf Al-Thani, a retired general fro...
As the Trump administration continues to attack America’s democratic values and institutions, and with political violence on the rise, the Democratic party seems hapless, seemingly unable to offer a real alternative vision. To analyse the current moment, Jasmine sat down with the Vice President of the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy advisor Matt Duss to discuss the Democrats’ shortcomings and why focusing on anti-corruption may just be the one message that unifies voter...
Nearly two years after the Oct 7 attacks on Israel, Jasmine sits down with two Israelis, Etan Nechin and Iddo Elam, who made the rare choice to refuse to serve in the Israeli military. Etan is a writer for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, where he has written extensively about the Netanyahu government's policies and Iddo is an activist against the occupation, apartheid and the genocide in Gaza. She asked them about their decision and how it’s impacted their lives, what their Israeli identity means...
What made Vladimir Putin the person he is today and what does he want out of Ukraine? Three and a half years on from Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, and more than ten years on from annexing Crimea, Jasmine sat down with Russian analyst and the head of the Berlin-based Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, Alexander (Sasha) Gabuev, to understand the man behind the villainous character in the headlines. Sasha and Jasmine spoke about the events that have shaped Putin's world view, the EU and US str...
Alex Smith is a lawyer, humanitarian, famine expert, and former USAID official who resigned in protest over U.S. policy in Gaza. Together with Jasmine, they unpack how a famine - so preventable and so widely predicted - was allowed to unfold in Gaza, the first famine ever declared in the Middle East by the UN-backed IPC. Alex draws on more than two decades of work in conflict zones, from Afghanistan to Sudan, to explain what makes Gaza’s crisis unique: its speed, its deliberate nature, and the s...
It's been four years since the West left Afghanistan in shambles and the Taliban swept back to power. After years of foreign forces in the region, under the stated aim of ensuring peace, prosperity and freedom for Afghan men, women and children, the Taliban reimposed their repressive regime - with horrendous consequences for Afghan women and girls. Shukria Barakzai is an Afghan journalist, former diplomat/politician and feminist. She joined Jasmine in London to talk about life before and after t...
We are not numbers: A Palestinian story of life under occupation. Ahmed Alnaouq is known for being the Palestinian journalist who lost 21 members of his family in an Israaeli military strike after October 7th. But he's more than that. He's an author and editor on a mission to push back against the dehumanization of Palestinians in the Western media and by Western governments. He's here to remind us that Palestinians are not just numbers but a people who have suffered under the brutality of Israe...
What brought about the violence in Sweida? Who are the Bedoins and the Druze and why are they fighting? Is the al-Sharaa government making things better or worse? And what do Israel and the US have to do with all of this? Jasmine El-Gamal sits down with Orwa Ajjoub for part 2 of their conversation, where they discuss the ever growing challenges facing Syrians since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December 2024 and the beginning of Ahmed Al-Sharaa's presidency, and what the international ...
What led to the sudden collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s rule? How was it experienced inside Syria? And how did a little-known former al-Qaeda fighter rise to take his place? In the first of a two-part series, Jasmine explores the fall of the Assad regime and the end of a repressive dynasty that ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than five decades. She is joined by Syrian academic Orwa Ajjoub to unpack this extraordinary political shift, the role of history and trauma, and why understanding the ...
What was it like working in Nasser Hospital in Gaza when it was bombed? What price have the children of Gaza paid since October 7, 2023? And how desperate is the situation in the coastal enclave right now for civilians? In the first episode of The View From Here, Jasmine El-Gamal sits down with Morgan McMonagle - an Irish trauma surgeon who joins humanitarian missions at hospitals in some of the most dangerous places in the world. This week, the view is from Gaza. We want to hear from you! Email...
From war rooms to conflict zones to refugee camps, former Pentagon official and foreign policy analyst Jasmine El-Gamal draws on her experiences to examine how policy decisions impact real lives, uncovering the unseen costs of power. Each Tuesday on The View From Here, Jasmine connects the dots between global headlines and the human stories behind them. The View from Here is foreign policy, reimagined: from the people it affects to those who shape it. Get in touch with us with your thoughts and ...
