Afghanistan: The Center of the World (2021)

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NPR

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 16.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Afghanistan has, for centuries, been at the center of the world. Long before the U.S. invasion — before the U.S. was even a nation — countless civilizations intersected there, weaving together a colorful tapestry of foods, languages, ethnicities and visions of what Afghanistan was and could be. The story of Afghanistan is too often told from the perspective of outsiders who tried to invade it (and always failed) earning it the nickname "Graveyard of Empires." In this episode, we're shifting the perspective. We'll journey through the centuries alongside Afghan mystical poets. We'll turn the radio dial to hear songs of love and liberation. We'll meet the queen who built the first primary school for girls in the country. And we'll take a closer look at Afghanistan's centuries-long experiment to create a unified nation.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, I'm Yolanda Sangueini, Vice President of Programming at NPR.
0:04.6	The stories you're about to hear were originally aired last year, just weeks after the US
0:09.5	with Drew Troops from Afghanistan and the Taliban retook control of the country.
0:15.1	It had been 20 years since 9-11, and most other news outlets were focused on covering this
0:20.2	moment from a US perspective.
0:22.6	Threwline shifted the narrative to Center Afghanistan and its people in a three-part series
0:27.8	called Afghanistan the Center of the World.
0:31.4	And now that series has won an award, a Peabody, one of the most prestigious honors in journalism.
0:38.6	We are so proud.
0:40.4	Threwline was created by two young producers of color, Rund Abdel Fatah and Ramteen Arablui,
0:46.6	Muslim American, Millennial immigrants, refugees from Palestine and Iran.
0:51.3	Their vision was simple.
0:53.0	History must be at the center of NPR's journalism.
0:56.3	Because how can we know who we are without knowing who we've been?
1:00.7	We're so proud that this is the kind of work Threwline does every week.
1:04.8	Today, Episode 1 Afghanistan the Center of the World.
1:20.7	All this world is like a tale we hear, man's evil and their glory disappear.
1:33.3	Long, long ago, at the center of the world, a tale was written of a father and a son.
1:39.4	They were called Rustam and Sohreb.
1:42.4	Give ear onto the combat of Sohreb against Rustam, though it would be a tale replete
1:48.4	with tears.
1:53.4	Rustam was a great warrior, lauded by kings, feared by many.
	...

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