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The Syria conflict was initially part of a wave of uprisings in 2011 known as the Arab Spring, which began in part as a cry for political freedom and more economic opportunity. Fast-forward to today where unemployment in some of these countries is among the highest in the world.

"They are depressingly high if you look at the region as a whole," Sudeep Reddy, an economics reporter for The Wall Street Journal, tells Tell Me More host Michel Martin. "About 25 percent of youth, 1 in 4 people, are unemployed, between the ages of 15 and 24 — and that is actually, probably, undercounting the severity of the problem."

Martin spoke about Arab youth and unemployment with Reddy and Shadi Hamid, director of research for the Brookings Doha Center. What follows is excerpts from the interview:

The beauty of the Internet — and the reason for its ubiquitous place in our lives — is that just about anyone can use it to offer services, products or information. But the link between what's out there on the Internet, how fast it gets to us and how much data can get to us, is dependent on Internet service providers and the rules that govern them. That's where things get thorny for the principle of net neutrality.

If your eyes are already glazing over, consider this: This debate could affect the speed, quality and cost of your Hulu or Netflix binge-viewing.

Net neutrality is back in the news today because a landmark case is getting its day in a D.C. federal court. The case challenges whether the federal government can enforce net neutrality rules. Here's a primer to get you up to speed:

What Is Net Neutrality?

Net Neutrality refers to the notion that's governed the Internet since the beginning — all Internet users deserve equal access to online information, no matter whether you use Verizon or Comcast. Internet service providers should be "neutral" to the content their customers consume.

The Way Things Are Now

As things are now, the Federal Communications Commission regulates net neutrality by "policing" an open Internet. The current rules, passed in 2010, prevent broadband Internet service providers from blocking lawful content and other Internet services. Time magazine sums up the three rules:

"First, the order requires ISPs to be transparent about how they handle network congestion; second, the ISPs are prohibited from blocking traffic such as Skype or Netflix on wired networks; third, the order outlaws 'unreasonable' discrimination, meaning the ISPs can't put such services into an Internet 'slow lane' in order to benefit their own competing services."

On the character of Douglas, whose unexpected death brings the friends together

"Douglas is one of these characters who turns up who has what you might call limited charisma, or charisma limited to a particular circle of people, but with ambitions for it to be broader. ... Ned and the others, too, in each of their own ways, were susceptible to the antic opposition persona presented.

"... [They'd] fallen under a spell and gotten with a kind of unstated program, an oppositional program, opposition to the culture."

On Ned's wife, Nina, who is trying to get Ned to have a baby with her

"The problem for Nina with Ned is that he's been brought along to the point of being willing to do it. But she wants him to want to do it, and that means embracing the possibility of the child living in a decent world, a happier world, a better world, a world that would be [nurturing] and decent. ... He's struggling with the feeling."

Read an excerpt of Subtle Bodies

When it comes to Syria's rebels, the conventional wisdom in Washington has been that there are countless factions with a range of agendas and it's difficult, if not impossible, to know exactly who they are.

But ask researchers who've spent two years digging into social media and YouTube videos and they offer a remarkably detailed picture of rebel brigades, their ideologies and their arsenal of weapons in the fight against President Bashar Assad's regime.

"It's a myth that we don't know about the rebels," says David Kilcullen, the CEO of Caerus, a Virginia-based strategy firm that tracks Syria's governance councils for clients that include the U.S. government, aid agencies and development banks.

Kilcullen, a former counterterrorism strategist at the U.S. State Department, says the Syrian conflict is the most open in history. One rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, supports seven YouTube channels, updated daily. Islamist battalions wage "hearts and minds" campaigns on Facebook. Syria activists and fighters maintain hundreds of Twitter feeds.

"There is a new level of connectivity," Kilcullen says. "We have an enormous data base. It's easy to know what's going on. It's hard to validate."

For Kilcullen, one of the key takeaways is that the more moderate rebel groups are becoming less influential in comparison to the more radical Islamist factions.

"The civilian, secular democracy folks have been sidelined," says Kilcullen. "That is just a fact of life and I do think it's tragic. Today, you are looking at a polarized resistance, a larger number at the extremes."

A Profile Of The Rebels Emerges

Researchers at Caerus spend hours calling into Syria to confirm videos for detailed analyses that include monthly reports on the price of bread in the bakeries of northern Syria, where much of the fighting takes place.

Nathaniel Rosenblatt, a Caerus researcher, is working on a study of rebel checkpoints around Aleppo, Syria's largest city in the north of the country.

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