Summary
David Lesch, Trinity University’s Ewing Halsell Distinguished Professor of History, joined the Chuck ToddCast to explain the historical and political forces shaping ongoing turmoil across the Middle East. Drawing on decades of scholarship and diplomatic experience, Lesch examined Syria, Iran, regional power dynamics, and why historical context is essential to understanding today’s geopolitical challenges.
As a recent guest on The Chuck ToddCast, Trinity University historian and Middle East expert David Lesch, Ph.D., discussed themes from his biography, Dodgers to Damascus, tracing how his early life as a competitive baseball pitcher intersected with his later career studying Syria and regional geopolitics. The conversation blended personal narrative with geopolitical analysis, using baseball as a metaphor for resilience, identity, and cross-cultural understanding. Listen to the entire podcast here.