SHAPIRO: Mohammed al-Refai was a 22-year-old refugee from Syria. In 2015, millions of Syrians fled the civil war in their country. Mohammed's family went across the border to Jordan, but something ...

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Steven Heydemann, Middle East Studies director at Smith College, about how Syria might avoid replicating Arab countries that are worse off after overthrowing dictators.

Syrian rebels have taken two major cities and are closing in on a third. What does all this mean for the Assad regime?

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with professor Joshua Landis, who directs the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, about how the fall of the Assad regime could change global dynamics.

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Sara Kassim, a freelance reporter in Aleppo about the situation on the ground after opposition forces have captured large swaths of land in the area.

Austin Tice has been missing in Syria for years. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with two of his siblings, after Assad's regime fell ...

As Syria's economy collapsed during the long ... GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hey, Ari. SHAPIRO: What is Captagon? MYRE: Well, Captagon was created as a legal pharmaceutical drug in Germany in the 1960s.

HEYDEMANN: Well, I think Syria faces significant headwinds, and they arise in part from the identity of HTS as an Islamist movement. SHAPIRO ... Thank you very much, Ari. Transcript provided ...

SHERLOCK: Well, Ari, yeah, I mean ... so this gives them a seat at the table in what comes next in Syria. SHAPIRO: That's NPR's Ruth Sherlock. Thank you. SHERLOCK: Thank you.