Ari Shapiro has been one of the hosts of All Things Considered, NPR's award-winning afternoon newsmagazine, since 2015. During his first two years on the program, listenership to All Things Considered grew at an unprecedented rate, with more people tuning in during a typical quarter-hour than any other program on the radio.

As Syria's economy collapsed during the civil war, the country became something of narco-state. The now-ousted regime was estimated to earn billions annually from trafficking a drug known as Captagon.

The brutal regime of Bashar al Assad fell over the weekend with dizzying speed. Syrians within the country and around the world burst into celebration. Now, the rebel group Hay'at Tahrir al Sham, or HTS has to govern.

What comes next in Syria? That is a huge question after the ... TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey, Ari. SHAPIRO: What kind of chemical weapon stockpile did Bashar al-Assad have? BOWMAN: Well, Ari, Assad ...

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.

In Syria, people have grown up looking over their ... RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: Hi, Ari. SHAPIRO: We've seen celebrations across the country at the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime, but this is ...

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Mohammed al-Refaai, who we first met nine years ago when he moved to Ohio from Syria. KUOW is Seattle’s NPR news station. We are an independent, nonprofit news ...

The news in Syria has raised immediate questions about the fate of Assad's stockpiles of chemical weapons and the continued presence of U.S. forces fighting the Islamic State in the northeast.

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 ...

Last week, after 50 years of tyranny and repression, the government of Bashar Assad fell in Syria. It fell thanks to a combination of three forces: first, Israel's military utterly eviscerated ...

Senior U.S. diplomats on Friday held their first formal talks in Damascus with the leader of the Islamist rebels who overthrew the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a discussion they later characterized as “good” and “thorough.”

Major obstacles could stymie Syria’s new leaders as they struggle to find some footing and improve the country’s living conditions. By Ephrat Livni In the week since President Bashar al-Assad ...