With the 2026 World Cup having started in the USA, the brothers welcome Abdullah Al-Arian, Chair of History at Georgetown University Qatar and editor of Football in the Middle East: State, Society, and the Beautiful Game. We talk about how football shapes Arab identity, including the role of diaspora, and how it is instrumentalized by Arab states. We also talk about the controversies and politics of the World Cup, including the journey of Team Palestine during a genocide, and discrimination against Iran's team and fans from across the global south. We wrap by discussing the question of FIFA Eurocentrism, corruption, and double standards, including FIFA's cowardice in not banning Israel.

For the record, we all try to predict who will win the World Cup!

Date of recording: June 19, 2026

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Music by Hadiiiiii

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In anticipation of the publication of Eyal Weizman's new book, Ungrounding: The Architecture of Genocide, which will be released in the US next month, the brothers hosted a livestream with Eyal to which our Patreon supporters had access, including the opportunity to ask questions of Eyal either via the livestream chat (which we will moderate) or in advance via email.

Watch the livestream edition
https://youtu.be/EInAD1Utpgw

Date of recording: June 16, 2026

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Music by Hadiiiiii

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The brothers discuss the latest developments in the regional war, with a special focus on Lebanon and the nature of Israeli bombardment of civilian homes, which is tied to the destruction of homes on different scales across historical Palestine since 1948. The brothers also discuss co-existence in the Mashriq region and the Zionist challenge to that.

Check out Ussama's article
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/03/opinion/lebanon-israel-iran-war.html

Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel

Date of recording: June 8, 2026

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Music by Hadiiiiii

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The brothers welcome Trita Parsi back to the show to discuss the status of US-Iran negotiations, the pressures of the ongoing stalemate on both sides, the prospects of an agreement given Israel's continued disruption in Lebanon and the vagaries of Trump's egotism, whether Iran can coerce a stop to Israeli aggression in Lebanon & Germany's experience of schadenfreude in the UN.

Check out Trita's Substack
https://tritaparsi.substack.com/

Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel

Date of recording: June 4, 2026

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Music by Hadiiiiii

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The brothers get together for a conversation about the ongoing Israeli war on Lebanon, the meaning of deterrence, the role of Iran in Lebanon, the question of Lebanon's sovereignty, and the divisions within Lebanon about how best to defend the country and its people.

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Date of recording: May 28, 2026

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The brothers welcome Lebanese scholar and original "Angry Arab" Asad AbuKhalil, author, columnist, professor, and public intellectual. The discuss the increasing depravity of a long history of Israeli wars on Lebanon going back to 1948; why so many in Lebanon continue to put their faith in the pipe-dream of peace with a state that is actively committing genocide, the neglect of the South during the decades of alleged Lebanese prosperity in the run up to the civil war, the origins of the Dahiye, why the current Lebanese government has turned its back on resistance, and the extent to which Lebanese leaders and politicians have collaborated with Israel since 1948, the difference between the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and today, the price of, and discontent with resistance, and the anti-Shii bigotry of Lebanese political culture.

Date of recording: May 13, 2026

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The brothers welcome to the show Jehad Abusalim, who grew up in the city of Deir el Balah in the Gaza Strip and now heads the Gaza Genocide Center. They discuss what it was like to grow up under occupation in Gaza, what normal life was like for a generation under siege, isolated and cut off from the world. They discuss the ongoing Gaza genocide, still being perpetrated by Israel (though it is no longer being covered in Western media), the conditions for yet again displaced Palestinians living in the aftermath of Israel's destruction of Gaza and in the deliberate limbo covered up by Trump's Orwellian "Board of Peace." And they take up the question of Gaza's possible futures in the face of brazen indifference and inhumanity.

Date of recording: May 7, 2026

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Music by Hadiiiiii

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The brothers welcome to the show Michael Young, journalist and editor of the Carnegie Middle East Center's Diwan blog, to discuss the vexed and controversial question of Lebanese-Israeli negotiations against the background of the continued Israeli bombardment and occupation of Lebanese territory and the deliberate destruction of entire towns along Lebanon's southern border.

Date of recording: April 28, 2026

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Music by Hadiiiiii

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