The Exploding Head

What is a rogue state? And if we use this concept to describe Israel, why would that matter? As US-backed Israeli forces just committed yet another massacre in Rafah, targetting displaced people in tents and burning some of its victims alive, what are our elected leaders waiting for, pretending not to have any power? It's all in my episode. That and a healthy amount of rage that I'm encour...

Student protests and encampments around the US and, increasingly, outside of it, have shown a lot. Or, rather, they have revealed a lot. From the rise of Fascism in the US used to protect a Fascist regime in Israel to how parts of our societies can be angered by peaceful protests but not by daily mass murder in Gaza. This and more is what my episode is about. Find more resources here: https://wp.m...

I don't think there are any debates left: Israel's brutality is completely in the open, as shown by its recent destruction of the Al Shifa Hospital and all executions that took place there, as well as its targetting and killing of the World Central Kitchen aid convoy. The disregard for International Humanitarian Law here is two-fold at least: in Israel's conduct and in what its defende...

To support an ideology or an ethno-national project means to support it all and not just an idea of it. It means to support what it actually looks like on the ground for the people for whom it's not an idea but a lived experience. It can't be clearer by now how much violence, killings, destruction, and different (decades-long) forms of oppression people who identify themselves as Zionist h...

There is so much to cover when we talk about an event that the Palestinians have been waiting for over 75 years: the fact that South Africa filed a case against Israel and the mass atrocities it continues to commit in Gaza. For the first time ever, Israel had to defend its crimes in court. If the court rules that there is a base to investigate this further or not, this case has already shown us a...

Although this podcast episode is still on Palestine - because it's still very needed - its format is a bit different today. Why? That is because I was kindly invited for a conversation with CFRO, Vancouver Co-operative Radio , about what's happening in Gaza and how I have been approaching it in and through my own work. In this episode, I also play the audio from my video which you can find...

It's become so clear that to stand with the people of Palestine has never been about "choosing a side" and standing with one country, region, or, even worse, any government, no matter what they do: it's about standing against oppression, anywhere we see it, and, in that fight, we stand with people literally around the world. I've recorded a lot of Palestine in the past years...

There is so much to talk about what's happening in Gaza right now, and to talk about it urgently. In my episode, I focus on four points: how the very narrative is constructed, what war crimes are, the concept of genocide, and the hypocrisy of certain governments that has become painfully clear. Please find my article with all the references and other resources I mention in my episode here: htt...

The podcast is back and I have chosen to start it with something encouraging, personal, and very simple in the end. In addition to telling you what to expect from this season, I want to invite you to look for those Exploding Head moments (or a continuous feeling...) in your life and use them as fuel. Fuel for what? Fuel for your effort to continue to educate yourselves, to reject cynicism, and to...

To do political work, some navigation is needed. But not just through everything that's happening -- through the criticisms and attempts by others to push you into self-censorship, too. My episode is on that kind of navigation. In fact, it's the last episode of this third season of The Exploding Head. And I think it only fits for me to close it with these comments: on how to deal with crit...

In democracies, when courts are losing their independence, it IS alarming. And I would say, it IS alarming in Israel, too. But what else is alarming? What is a must to talk about when we talk about the "threat to the Israeli democracy"? Find more resources here: https://bit.ly/3pZltiO ⁣

Troops, tanks, drones, and bulldozers: this is what the Israeli army used in its recent raid of the Jenin refugee camp. It's the most intense military operation that Israel had in the West Bank in 20 years. And it's a dot in decades-long structural violence that only Israel can end. In my episode, I ask: What's the immediate context of this raid? What's historically special about J...

What is there to say when a Palestinian toddler is shot and killed by Israeli soldiers? On the one hand, a lot. There are plenty of frameworks, concepts, and ways to contextualise it that we can choose to use. And honestly, I feel like I have covered so much in my mini-series on Palestine that there's just nothing new. Because on the other hand, this is all so so tragically not new. The killin...

Henry Kissingers turns 100 years old today, on May 27, 2023. What does it mean? What CAN it mean? We can either say "Happy birthday, good for you," and praise his legacy; or we can call for justice and accountability for the hundreds of thousands of victims of his foreign policy. Which one will you choose? Perhaps my episode can help you decide. I also share a personal story from Laos, w...

Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian journalist, was murdered by an Israeli sniper exactly a year ago. What followed her murder? What happened in Palestine in this past year? And what concepts serve as good lenses to look into this case which is so painfully illustrative of what's been happening in Palestine for decades? I hope you choose to learn about and condemn Israeli state violence. Find my...

Why can it seem problematic at first sight to even define the concept of 'political prisoner'? What can help to do so? And, most importantly, why should we care? In short, we should care about our political prisoners if we care about human rights and our humanity. In my episode, I talk about the broader implication of it, I give examples of political prisoners we've had historically, a...

International Women's Day is about many things. In my episode, I only scratch the surface of where our work is still needed. From violence to legal systems to medical studies to access to healthcare and so much more. One episode simply can't be enough -- but it can be a good start! Find various resources in my article here: http://bit.ly/3JfgwIg

Every year brings its crises, conflicts, and different forms of oppression, with no region being completely safe from anything terrible that can unfold. But can we notice the good things, too? This is what I do in my episode. To answer this question, I go to Brazil (where I happen to literally be at the moment!), Cuba, and the UK.  I talk about a victory for Palestinian human rights, for all...

When it comes to your political education, how do you decide what sources to trust? What are your criteria to choose what you consume and what source to give more importance to? As a lot is happening, ALWAYS, I invite you to reflect on your own framework of how you see the world. How do you choose to understand it? In my episode, I do present my own criteria, without saying this is how it has to b...

2022 has been the deadliest year for Palestinian children in the West Bank in 15 years. To fully understand how the Israeli state policies work, we have to understand how they affect - not unintentionally, but by design - the Palestinian children. In my episode,  I talk about three broad and by no means exhaustive areas of how Israeli state policies target Palestinian children. Although this...

When we talk about politics, can we hold space for nuances and not jump into accusing people of something they don't mean? Can we recognise when someone is using a claim that is simply illogical? This is hugely important -- and not only when we talk about politics. If our aim is to understand what other people are saying and only then see if we agree or disagree with them, then this is crucial. In...

Political representation is good in itself, right? Right. But is it always what we're seeing when a member of a certain group gets into power? Are there examples when behind the surface of diversity we see the same old policies? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is in my podcast episodes, with examples from the UK, Lithuania, and Israel. Please take the time to equip yourself with this kn...

This episode is not here to convince you that climate change (or, rather, climate emergency/climate crisis by now) is real.  Instead, in it, I give you three questions to keep in mind when we deconstruct the debates around it. These questions both shape the narrative and, in a way, they become the narrative itself. These are not conspiracy theories yet they are not that often talked about by...

My podcast is back! There are still many things in this world that make my head wanna explode, there are still many things to deconstruct, educate ourselves about, and oftentimes unlearn. Yet what happened as my podcast was resting? A short answer is a lot. A long answer includes the continuation of the war in Ukraine, imprisonment of Julian Assange, multiple elections in South America, protests i...

Attacks on Palestinians have intensified during the holy month of Ramadan again – they resemble what we saw last year. And the year before. And the year before. Thankfully, as I’m writing this, Gaza is not being bombed by Israel as intensely as last year. There were bombings , yes, but they haven’t turned into another war on Gaza – not that a complete siege is not devastating the people of Gaza ev...