Life in Syria today

This month we return to a country that no longer dominates headlines, but where the reality of war, and its impacts, are still very much felt. Syrian infrastructure, and its economy, have been devastated by the conflict that began in 2011. Though ISIS has now been largely defeated, and the Assad regime has regained control of much of the country, the conflict still continues and life in Syria is still extremely tough. In the first half of the podcast, we listen to an article from the August issue of Geographical magazine in which Nick Redmayne returns to the country for the first time in 10 years. Nick travels from Aleppo to Palmyra, Homs and Damascus, recording the sights and sounds of a country struggling to forget its past and to move towards a better future. In the second half of the podcast, we speak to Dr Rim Turkmani, a research fellow and director of the Syria conflict research programme at the London School of Economics, to find out more about the situation in Syria today, and the reality of life there out of the headlines. The long-read is read by Nick Redmayne.