Saudi Arabia: Old Ways and New Directions (?)

Strong Sense of Place | Travel Through Books

Melissa & Dave

Books, Arts

5.0 • 559 Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2024

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Saudi Arabia is the largest country on the Arabian Peninsula, a sea of sand (95% of the country is desert) that holds 17% of the world’s petroleum reserves. Its cities encapsulate the country’s contradictions: ancient souks and ultra-modern skyscrapers, women veiled in abayas but also entering the workforce, petroleum refineries, and sparkling beach resorts. Cards on the table: Saudi Arabia has an abysmal track record on human rights, with women, LGBTQ+ communities, and journalists the target of discrimination and violence. Women are still legally classified as minors, with male relatives making significant decisions on their behalf. But in the last few years, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — known as MBS — passed laws that lessened some restrictions with Saudi Arabia. And he’s invited the world in: His Vision 2030 plan opened Saudi Arabia to tourism. Road signs and menus now appear in English, Western credit cards are widely accepted, and you can even catch an Uber. In this episode, we dive into the changing norms in Saudi Arabia, talk about some of the amazing sights that are now open to the Western world, and discuss the ambitious Neom project: a ‘city of the future’ in the desert. Then we recommend five books that took us to Saudi Arabia on the page: City Of Veils by Zoë Ferraris MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman by Ben Hubbard Cardamom and Lime: Recipes from the Arabian Gulf by Sarah Al-Hamad The Green Bicycle by Haifaa Al Mansour Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel For more on the books we recommend, plus the other cool stuff we talk about, visit show notes. Sign up for our free Substack to connect with us and other lovely readers who are curious about the world. Transcript of Saudi Arabia: Old Ways and New Directions (?) Do you enjoy our show? Do you want be friends with other (lovely) people who love books and travel? Please support our work on Patreon! Strong Sense of Place is an audience-funded endeavor, and we need your support to continue making this show. Get all the info you need right here. Thank you! Parts of the Strong Sense of Place podcast are produced in udio. Some effects are provided by soundly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	At Accardo, you'll save 25% on your first shop and get free delivery, which means if you were to buy a four cheese pizza, you'd basically be getting one of the cheeses for free.
0:10.2	Save and splurge at Accardo, the online supermarket. Geographical and other restrictions. Minimum spend, 60 pounds and charges apply. New customers only, maximum saving 20 pounds terms at Accardo.com.
0:20.1	Hello, welcome to strong sense of place.
0:23.4	In each episode, we focus on one destination and discuss what makes it different than any other
0:28.5	place on Earth.
0:29.3	Then we recommend five books we love that took us there on the page.
0:33.0	I'm Melissa Jewelwan.
0:34.2	I'm David Humphreys.
0:35.6	We're going around the world, one great read at a time.
0:39.0	Thanks for joining us. Welcome to Strong Sense of Place today. We get curious about Saudi Arabia.
1:09.4	Today on Two Truth Sun Alive, we're going to talk about a city that may or may not exist.
1:14.7	And then we'll talk about five books we love.
1:17.3	I'm recommending a surprisingly gothic novel from an author you would not expect to write a gothic novel.
1:23.8	Really?
1:24.7	I've got a nonfiction book that combines ailing kings and scheming royals and international spies and
1:30.8	assassinations and grand visions of the future, and it's all happening right now.
1:36.7	Which sounds really fun until you realize that those things are all pretty scary and intense.
1:40.3	Yes, it is way less sexy when the interesting times are happening to you. Yes.
1:45.9	But first, Mel's going to bring us up to speed with a Saudi Arabia 101.
1:53.4	Let's get oriented. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest country on the Arabian Peninsula. It's tucked between the Red Sea and the Persian
2:03.3	Gulf. Quick note on vocabulary. In the West, we call that body of water the Persian Gulf. That name is in
2:11.0	dispute a little bit. In the Arab world, it's known as the Arab Gulf, or simply, the Gulf, which is what I'll be using throughout the show,
	...

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