In this episode, Iyad and Ahmed discuss how a broad range of political and economic factors can impact democracy, and how the concept of a 'public sphere' can either strengthen or weaken democratic nations. Episode Timetags: 05:00 - Centralisation of political and economic activity & weakened democracy 06:00 - Economic inequality as a threat to democracy 07:00 - APPGs in the UK, captured by the private sector - article referenced: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/17/lobbying-fears-as-mps-interest-groups-receive-13m-from-private-firms 10:00 - French colonial censorship in Syria 11:00 - "Public sphere" theory & democracy (+ shout-out to Belabbes Benkredda!) 12:30 - Jurgen Habermas - German philosopher of the public sphere 14:30 - Disinformation in the public sphere & the destruction of Arabic Twitter 15:30 - What is the impact of a shared public sphere on nationalism? 17:30 - Two public languages in The Middle East: Indo-European & Semitic