The Take is Al Jazeera’s flagship daily podcast, leading the global news agenda in a world that’s changing fast. The Take makes international news feel intimate, through conversations with Al Jazeera journalists and the people the headlines affect.
Using a mix of reporting, first-person stories, and analysis, The Take connects our listeners to the most important news across the globe, whether it’s happening in Ukraine, Sudan, or Ecuador. With a focus on the Global South, we offer a throughline about the structures and the people that are shaping our world. With millions of listeners, The Take is bringing global communities into the conversation.
Five days a week, our award-winning host Malika Bilal speaks with Al Jazeera English reporters and sources from all walks of life, focusing on a single news story and honing in on the conversations and perspectives listeners won’t find anywhere else. When listeners press play on The Take, they’re opening a visa-free passport to the world. Regular Take listeners know not just what’s in the headlines, but how and why it got there.
Listeners to The Take are invited behind the news headlines, to hear from the people found in their wake. Much like Al Jazeera’s television network and website, we focus on stories from the Global South. Many voices you hear share English as a second, third, or fourth language. That makes us unique and keeps our listeners returning.
Our goal is to bring listeners into the story so they can understand what is happening on the ground. We do this by speaking to the people whose lives are directly impacted – resulting in unique conversations about the news from a perspective that is truly global. Drawing on the expertise of Al Jazeera’s global network of journalists, as well as sources around the world, The Take hears from people at the center of global events who have lived in the communities they are covering. Whether it’s interviewing a content moderator in Kenya about the disturbing content he saw or a Palestinian reporter fleeing war herself, our interviews get personal, even with the experts – and we treat everyone as an expert in their own story.
The podcast is critically acclaimed, having won an Online Journalism Award for Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling and two Gracie Awards for host Malika Bilal, as well as recognition from the Shorty Awards, the Signal Awards, the Lovies, and the Anthem awards.
From the start, we’ve seen our global listenership steadily rise, this year, particularly when it came to interest in Israel and Palestine. After October 7, our extensive coverage of the region in the months and years prior allowed us to actively seek out a diverse range of voices, both Palestinian and Israeli. What we heard resoundingly from listeners was how our efforts contributed to a more diverse and nuanced understanding of events as they unfolded. For our audience, The Take became an essential resource that sparked conversations beyond the headlines. We saw our work’s necessity reflected in the major increases we experienced in our listenership and the dozens of positive messages we have received.
What we’ve heard from many listeners is that they appreciate the stories we are telling and want to hear more. As it turns out, there are few places to listen to the intimate yet in-depth reporting The Take does, from Gaza to the Chagos Islands and Taiwan to Argentina.
