In Part One of this two-part series, Qatar Me Once, Shame on You traces the 1995 palace coup that remade Qatar and set the stage for its modern role in the Gulf. From father and son, coup and counter-coup, Al Jazeera and Al Udeid, gas wealth and U.S. power, this episode asks how a small state learned to survive by becoming useful to everyone and trusted fully by no one.

Production note: Professor John McKawim is a composite narrator and analyst, performed through a synthetic text-to-speech voice. The show is tagged for AI transparency, but the research, writing, editing, and direction are creator-led.