This is The Reason interview with Nicholaspe. Today's episode is sponsored by the Reason

Speak Easy, a monthly unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free

thinking and heterodoxy. Go to reason.com slash events for information and tickets to the next one.

My guest today is Faisal Sayyid Al-Muthar, the co-founder of Ideas Beyond Borders, a nonprofit that

translates books and articles about limited government, freedom of thought, and market

economics into Arabic and other languages, and then distributes them for free in the Middle

East and other parts of the world.

So full disclosure, I'm on the board of IBB.

I talked with Faisal about Ideas Beyond Borders new book,

Untold Stories of the Middle East,

which celebrates entrepreneurs in Kurdistan, Afghanistan, and elsewhere,

whom IBB has given startup grants.

How the October 7th attacks on Israel and fighting in Gaza and Lebanon will affect the region

for decades.

And what it was like to grow up in Baghdad under Saddam Hussein, various Islamic terrorist

groups, and the U.S. occupation.

This conversation was taped in front of a live audience in New York.

Here is the reason interview with Faisal Saeed al-Matar of ideas beyond borders.

Faisal, thanks for talking.

Thanks for having me.

All right.

Some people like me over here.

...