Radio Open Source Features 'Another Pakistan'

November 14, 2011

Radio Open Source, an online radio conversation hosted and produced by Christopher Lydon in partnership with Brown University and the Watson Institute, recently produced a two-hour podcast of selections from its latest long-running series, “Another Pakistan.”

During the summer of 2011, Lydon and his team traveled to Karachi, Islamabad, and Lahore to record conversations with Pakistani thinkers and artists. Those conversations have resulted in a series of 21 podcasts and two broadcast segments focusing both on the modern turmoil in Pakistan and the legacy of its birth-by-partition in 1947.

Lydon says nearly a month’s worth of conversation leads him to believe “Pakistan is not about to destroy itself, much less go away,” and “Pakistan's mutually-abusive marriage with the United States is not about to end, either.”

“Another Pakistan” extends Radio Open Source’s ongoing look at Pakistan and India, which began in early 2011 with conversations with Vazira Zamindar, associate professor of history and director of Brown’s South Asian Studies concentration, Pratap Mehta, the president of the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based think tank, Najam Sethi, a Pakistani journalist, and David Rohde ‘90, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist who has reported from such countries as India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, among others.

Open Source continues to produce in-depth podcast and broadcast conversations with voices from the Watson Institute, including Catherine Lutz, the Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Family Professor of Anthropology and International Studies and co-director of the Watson-based Costs of War Project, Mark Blyth, a faculty fellow at the Watson Institute, and James Der Derian, a research professor who focuses on global security and media studies at Watson.

The “Another Pakistan” project is a partnership between the Watson Institute and the Asia Society. Additionally, Lydon recently moderated panels at the Asia Society’s Chindia Dialogues.

By Watson Institute Student Rapporteur Lauren Fedor ‘12