Arsalan Mohammad

Sunday

Arsalan Mohammad

The mystery of the ‘Havana syndrome’ attacks

In late 2016, an official at the US Embassy in Cuba woke up in the middle of the night with a ‘severe pain and sensation of intense pressure in the face’. He also felt ‘a loud piercing sound in one ear… and acute disequilibrium and nausea’. A report by the National Academy of Science reported the official was left with, ‘symptoms of vestibular and cognitive dysfunction’, or in simpler terms, left totally dazed and confused. What happened? Five years later, and with over 200 similar cases reported by American diplomatic personnel around the world, mystery and conspiracy theories swirl around the so-called ‘Havana syndrome’.

Monday

Arsalan Mohammad

Reagan, Trump, Halston and me: from Studio 54 to the White House with Bob Colacello

29 min listen

Writer and author Bob Colacello was the editor of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine during the 1970s, a role that placed him at the very epicenter of that era’s glitter, exuberance, and excess. Camera in hand, he accompanied the legendary pop artist through a dizzying social whirl around the world from the dark corners and disco lights of Studio 54 to the inner sanctums of the Reagan White House. Now, as Netflix celebrates the life of his close friend, fashion icon Halston in a new series starring Ewan McGregor, Colacello joins Arsalan Mohammad in the Green Room to talk about what the series got right - and where it went wrong.

Friday

Arsalan Mohammad

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: I Call It Criminal Race Theory

21 min listen

In this week’s edition of The Green Room, Deputy Editor of The Spectator World edition Dominic Green meets human rights activist, campaigner for classical liberal values, research fellow, founder of the AHA foundation and prolific author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, for a chat about her article in the new edition of The Spectator World edition. In it, she examines the perceived flaws in Western civilisation today, the toxic creep of those who push for a totalitarian ‘woke’ agenda and reflects on how tertiary education in the US is in danger of smothering students with critical race theory. ‘You have to drill down on what it is the woke want. They want to dictate what you eat and don’t eat.

Tuesday

Arsalan Mohammad

The rising cost of remembering the Fab Four

From our US edition

If you’re a diehard Beatles fan, it’s been a pricy year. And it’s going to get much worse. Within the last 12 months, those of us unable to resist new or repackaged product from John, Paul, George and Ringo have wrestled with sense and reason over whether to splash out on one of the numerous limited-edition, pre-release colored vinyl copies of McCartney III, the mega-box set reissue of Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band from 1970 or even, dear old Ringo’s recent EP, ‘Zoom In’. And there’s more to come; expect a cascade of marketing hoopla around August’s Get Back, the Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson’s reworking of the band’s 1969 misery-memoir movie Let It Be, as well as a lavish tome of McCartney lyrics and memoirs in November.

beatles george harrison

Thursday

Arsalan Mohammad

The ultimate Dylan mixtape

47 min listen

In this week’s edition of The Green Room, Deputy Editor of The Spectator's world edition Dominic Green and journalist Arsalan Mohammad celebrate Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday by debating a good old-fashioned mixtape of tunes spanning the old master’s 60-year career (with some background sound effects by Arsalan’s dog). To listen to our selection, head over to our special Dylan Spotify playlist here and perhaps let us know what would make your top ten.  Don’t forgot to subscribe to the The Green Room for a weekly dose of books, arts and everything else that makes life worth living. Presented by Dominic Green and Arsalan Mohammad.

Monday

Arsalan Mohammad

Is it all over for Clubhouse?

From our US edition

Have you any Clubhouse invites going? I have five, if anyone wants one. Or is it six? I have to admit I’m not sure — like many people I know, I haven’t looked at the app for some weeks now. Clubhouse seems painfully aware of the fact that decreasing numbers of people do. The wild party that is — was — Clubhouse is winding down. The iOS app, that opened up a members-only world of virtual real-time audio chatrooms is now struggling against falling audiences, increased fuss over mediocre, unmoderated, unpleasant content and the fact that companies such as Twitter and Facebook have neatly purloined the audio concept at its heart and refashioned it for themselves.

clubhouse

Tuesday

Arsalan Mohammad

Harry, Charles and the airing of dirty royal laundry

From our US edition

‘Man passes misery on to man,’ wrote Philip Larkin. ‘It deepens like a coastal shelf.’ The coastal shelf in Montecito, California is not only deepening, it’s practically sinking into the earth’s core, as the former Sussexes continue to blight the world with an ongoing campaign of soft-focus sadness and sorrow. This time Harry’s flying solo, with last week’s clodhopping broadside spread to the world via a podcast hosted by Dax Shepard, a B-list Hollywood chum of Markle’s, that has raised weary hackles in Buckingham Palace yet again and begged the question: why? I really do wonder when the Sussexes will realize their strategy of vulgar, self-serving public soul-baring can only end in (more) tears, hurt and recrimination.

charles

Tuesday

Arsalan Mohammad

The end of the awards ceremony

From our US edition

‘People of color were snubbed in major categories,’ announced Ricky Gervais, during his final kamikaze stint hosting the 78th Golden Globe awards in January 2020. ‘Nothing we can do about that, Hollywood Foreign Press are all very racist.’ Gervais’s words haunt the HFPA this week. The Hollywood institution behind the annual Golden Globes awards is floundering beneath an industry-wide wave of condemnation and cancellation, that culminated on Monday with NBC announcing they won’t be screening the  2022 edition.

awards