We also discuss the conservative meltdown over Zohran Mamdani eating with his hands.

This is a BIG BEAUTIFUL episode. We debut a new movie trailer before we discuss Mamdani's win, and speculate how the ruling class will attempt to stop him, then we discuss the Bob Vylan protest in the context of the ongoing Nakba.

Muhammad (AKA @sharghzadeh AKA @persianpoetics) joins us to discuss the insane moment, in which we find ourselves careening into a war with Iran at the behest of Israel.

In the second half of the episode we turn to a discussion of Persian culture, poetry, and influence, as well as Muhammad's recently published book, The Flame of Love, a translation of Rumi's 100 most passionate poems.

The song at the end is 'Seeb' by Simin Ghanem.

Hossam el-Hamalawy returns to the show to talk to us about Egypt's response to the March To Gaza, an internationally coordinated effort by activists to break Israel's siege of Gaza. We also discuss Israel's latest escalation in Iran.

Make sure you check out Hossam's work on Substack: https://3arabawy.substack.com

You can also find him @3rabawy on social media

Bluesky

Twitter

Rishi Gandhi is an award-winning filmmaker. A first-generation immigrant of Indian descent, Rishi has moved between the Côte d’Ivoire, the UK, and the US. Though he has spent years traveling the world, he ultimately decided to make film his home. He joins Ahmed on this special episode to talk about his new project titled 'The Beasts We Carry'.

Please support the project on Kickstarter: Click here to pledge your support

You can follow Rishi and his work on social media: @senor_rish on Instagram and @rishjg.bsky.social on Bluesky

We do a little bit of everything on this one, including ask 'Can a woman find a husband if she has ever been photographed?'

Here's an article that is relevant to our discussion of the ADL: https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/emmaia-gelman-anti-defamation-league/

Closing in on 100 episodes! This one is pretty packed. I'm sick, so the editing is haphazard.

We talk about Hamza Yusuf working with the Trump Administration, then we go on to discuss the outcome of Pittsburgh's mayoral primary and why a forceful stance on Gaza should be a litmus test for progressive politicians. We close by briefly discussing the shooting that happened in DC last week, and unexpectedly veer into an update on The West Wing.

PLEASE leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to our show!

We talk about a lot here:

• India & Pakistan warring in Kashmir
• Trump's Middle East tour and why leftists shouldn't be so quick to praise him for "sidelining Israel"
• Kanye
• Grok's obsession with white genocide and Holocaust denial
• Thomas Friedman's beautiful tribute to Joe Biden