REEL TALK with Daizy Gedeon

A special report from Nabatieh, South Lebanon, with Daizy Gedeon. This is not a typical episode of Reel Talk. This time, I went to South Lebanon to witness the devastation firsthand, meet the people living through it, and hear the stories behind the ruins. In September, I returned to a region I had been afraid to visit since October 2023. Accompanied by my cameraman, Malek, and my friend Abbas Al-...

A surgeon stood outside the US Embassy in London and called Israel a “genocidal settler colonial entity.” Within days, he was suspended by his hospital and arrested at his home. I sit down with Dr. Ranjeet Brar, consultant vascular and endovascular surgeon at King’s College Hospital, to discuss the speech that triggered the fallout, his fight over free speech, and his legal challenges to the NHS’s...

IS AMERICA LOSING CONTROL OF THE MIDDLE EAST? In this episode of Real Talk with Daizy Gedeon, Daizy sits down with Dr. Steven Cook, senior fellow for Middle East and African Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The End of Ambition, for a candid conversation about the U.S.-Israel war with Iran and its wider consequences. Dr. Cook argues that what began as an attempt to eliminat...

Can a Jewish American find more brotherhood in Beirut than back home? In this episode of Real Talk, I sit down with Jacob Berger, Jewish-American content creator, humanitarian, and outspoken anti-Zionist voice, to unpack his second trip to Lebanon — from paragliding over Beirut to preparing to cross the "yellow line" into South Lebanon. Jacob has spent the past week travelling a country...

In this episode of Real Talk, Daizy Gedeon speaks with Ammar Al-Kahwaji, the 19-year-old founder of the Sumud Project, joining us from Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Ammar has been displaced eight times since October 7. His home, school and community in Bani Suheila were destroyed, and he now lives with his family in Al-Mawasi. Yet amid unimaginable circumstances, he has continued working to help f...

In this episode of Real Talk, Daizy Gedeon sits down with Rami Khouri, Palestinian-American journalist, political commentator, and Senior Public Policy Fellow at the American University of Beirut, to examine the starkly opposing domestic and strategic pressures driving Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, and regional leadership today. Within a single nine-day window, two diametrically opposed politi...

Is the war over Iran's nuclear program about global security or the hidden collapse of Western economic power? In this episode of Real Talk, Daizy Gedeon sits down with Radhika Desai, Professor of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba and Director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group, to examine the deeper economic drivers behind today's Middle East conflicts. Within a single nine-...

Can Lebanon and Israel finally achieve peace or is this agreement destined to fail? | In this episode of Real Talk, I sit down with Matthew Levitt—former FBI counterterrorism official, former U.S. Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary, and Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute—to examine the new U.S.-brokered framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel. The proposal promises a path toward end...

In this episode of Reel Talk, I take an in-depth look at the historic Lebanon–US–Israel Framework Agreement. It was presented as a breakthrough. It was hailed as a path toward peace. It was described as the beginning of a new chapter for Lebanon. But less than two weeks later, Israeli strikes continued, Lebanese political leaders were already rejecting it, legal experts questioned whether it is ev...

In this episode of Reel Talk, I sit down with Australian Greens Senator David Shoebridge to confront one of the most urgent questions facing Australia today: Is Australia still acting in its own national interest, or has it become an extension of Washington's foreign policy agenda? Australia says it supports international law. Australia says it supports human rights. Australia says it supports...

In this episode of Reel Talk, Daizy Gedeon sits down with former Lebanese ambassador, political analyst and former presidential candidate Tracy Chamoun for a confronting and deeply personal conversation about the destruction unfolding in southern Lebanon. As Washington announces “productive ceasefire talks” between Lebanon and Israel, villages in the south continue to be bombed, demolished and emp...

In this episode of Reel Talk, I sit down with Kamal Shehadeh to confront one of the most controversial decisions Lebanon has made in its digital future: the Memorandum of Understanding with Oracle. At first glance, it’s framed as opportunity training 50,000 Lebanese in AI and cloud computing. But beneath the surface, a far more urgent question emerges: What happens when a nation at war begins alig...

Are we living through the beginning of World War III or the collapse of everything we thought we knew about the world? In this urgent and deeply human conversation, bestselling author and spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson joins me to explore how we navigate fear, grief, and collective trauma as global crises escalate. From war tensions to the collapse of faith in institutions, millions of peop...

SHOULD THE LAW APPLY TO EVERYONE OR ONLY TO THE POWERLESS? In this episode, we examine what happened at the 2026 Munich Security Conference, where Lebanese media outlet This Is Beirut co-hosted a panel with MIND Israel founded by former Israeli military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin. The discussion reportedly covered: • Regional integration • Hezbollah disarmament • The post-Gaza landscape • Leba...

In Beirut, Lebanon, Syrian refugees are finding an unexpected way to heal from war and displacement: cricket. This special audio report takes you inside Alsama Project, an education initiative founded in 2020 by former McKinsey London partner Richard Verity, German journalist and author Meike Ziervogel, and their Syrian partner Kadria Hussein. What started as a desire to do more has grown into a p...

When Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead in Jenin in May 2022, Israel blamed “crossfire.” The Biden administration called it “tragic circumstances.” No names. No charges. No accountability. In this episode of Reel Talk , Daizy Gedeon speaks with veteran Wall Street Journal correspondent Dion Nissenbaum about the investigation behind the documentary “Who Killed Shireen?” — the fil...

For the first time in decades, the idea of peace between Lebanon and Israel is no longer a complete taboo. Retired generals, party leaders and policy experts are openly debating what was once unspeakable. But how do you even talk about peace with a country accused of genocide in Gaza, systematic ceasefire violations in Lebanon, and ongoing occupation of Lebanese territory? In this fiery, in-depth...

Drawing on three decades at the World Bank, Sayed discusses emergency cash support for hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, the shift from aid to social development and jobs, and the government’s new return plan for Syrian refugees. She also addresses tough political questions: international pressure, IMF reforms, Hezbollah’s weapons and Israel’s violations, and whether a technocratic government can...

Dr. Jill Stein breaks down “Uniting for Peace” a little-known UN General Assembly tool that activates when Security Council vetoes stall action. She explains past uses, what a two-thirds vote could unlock today, and why her Lifeline for Palestine coalition is urging member states to bring a resolution now. #UnitingForPeace #UNGA #InternationalLaw #HumanitarianAid #ProtectCivilians #GlobalDiplomacy...

On the second anniversary of the Oct 7 war, surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah recounts 43 days inside Gaza’s besieged hospitals from Al-Shifa to Al-Ahli and Al-Awda where he treated children pulled from rubble and watched colleagues targeted and killed. He explains why he called it genocide within days, how hospitals became battlefields, why health workers were tracked, and what must happen next for acco...

One Year After Nasrallah: Lebanon at a Crossroads A special report on the first anniversary of Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination by Israeli airstrikes in Beirut. From the October 7 war to the September pager attacks, the Israeli invasion, and the failed ceasefire, this episode retraces the chain of events that reshaped Lebanon. We explore the assassinations, mass displacement, and regional escalati...

Lebanon faces one of its most decisive moments since the civil war. In this exclusive Reel Talk interview, host Daizy Gedeon sits down with Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri to discuss the government’s decision to adopt the Lebanese Army’s plan to monopolize all weapons under state control. Mitri addresses the secrecy surrounding the army’s report, Hezbollah’s rejection of the decision,...

"Lebanon at a Crossroads: Hezbollah Faces Disarmament" Lebanon is at a crossroads. After a brutal war with Israel that killed Hezbollah’s top leaders and the collapse of Syria’s Assad regime, the Lebanese government has taken an unprecedented step: moving to disarm all non-state actors under Resolution 1701 and the Taif Accord. Hezbollah has fiercely rejected this decision, calling it “n...

"Battles, Alliances, and a Dangerous Gamble" In post-Assad Syria, As-Suwayda is gripped by fierce clashes between Druze fighters, including religious leader Hikmat al-Hijri, and forces loyal to Ahmad al-Sharaa. But their positions on Israel ignite a storm: Was this a necessary alliance — or a fateful step that let foreign powers into southern Syria? In this episode of Reel Talk, I discus...

Lebanon’s 16 million-strong diaspora is its invisible powerhouse — yet a law passed in 2017 threatens to strip them of their electoral influence by 2026. Why is a constitutional right being reduced to a token gesture?
And who really benefits when Lebanese abroad are silenced? In my first Episode of Season 3 with Ziyad Baroud, Ibrahim Mneimneh, Carole Abi Jaoude, Sergio Jalil, Rola Afra and Layal B...