Real Talk

'Obama’s first term was sort of a hinge moment. It was when the old bipartisan pro-Israel consensus... began to visibly crack.' How did the pro-Israel lobby shape Obama's Middle East policy during his two terms in office? Mohamed Hashem speaks to Eli Clifton, co-founder of the Quincy Institute and co-author of Israel's Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power.

'Iraq didn't have a Jewish problem.' Avi Shlaim is one of the most celebrated historians on Israel-Palestine. The Oxford Emeritus Professor was born into an Arab Jewish family in Baghdad, Iraq. At five years old, his family moved to Israel, where he felt he was treated as a second-class Israeli due to his Arab background. In this Real Talk interview, Avi sits down with Mohamed Hashem to speak abou...

"It's my burden. I was born into it." Eyal Weizman is a leading architect, author, and the founder of Forensic Architecture, whose evidence has fed directly into South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the ICJ. His new book, Ungrounding, traces the destruction of Gaza back to the Nakba of 1948 and argues that what's happening there today isn't a rupture, but a continuation of decades of dis...

'Nothing for me is worth selling my soul.’ Hala Rharrit spent 18 years as a US diplomat, most recently serving as the State Department's Arabic language spokesperson. In the wake of the Gaza genocide, she was tasked with defending America’s Gaza policy to the Arab world. She refused and soon quit. In this Real Talk interview, Hala sits down with Mohamed Hashem about what she saw from inside the Bi...

'You cannot run in a Democratic primary as a pro-Israel candidate and not get destroyed.’ AIPAC poured nearly $15 million to unseat Jamaal Bowman in 2024, making it the most expensive House primary in US history at the time. The former Congressman joins Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk to break down what the progressive wave, including Abdul El-Sayed's primary win in Michigan. means for the Democratic...

'That pro-Netanyahu, pro-Likud crowd have been gunning for me for 25 years’ Trita Parsi, political analyst and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, joins Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk to respond to the campaign against him, including calls for his deportation from the US, and explains why it backfired.

"I am now getting death threats from registered Telegraph readers." Misan Harriman is a widely celebrated photographer and activist. He’s also the first Black male photographer to shoot the cover of British Vogue, and the director of an Oscar-nominated short film. His work has spanned at least three continents, documenting protest movements from the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 to the pro-P...

Fadi Kattan is a renowned Palestinian chef from Bethlehem and the co-founder of Akub, one of London's most celebrated Palestinian restaurants. In this conversation on Real Talk, Fadi invites Mohamed Hashem into his restaurant to talk about Palestinian food,Israel's appropriation of Palestinian cuisine, and why food is one of the most powerful tools of cultural survival. All while Mohamed attempts...

"You got me to talk about things I don't talk about normally." Daniel Levy is a former Israeli negotiator who served under two prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. Today, the British-born analyst and president of the US Middle East Project is one of the most prominent voices heavily critical of Israel's actions against Palestinians. But in this conversation on Real Talk, Daniel Levy speak...

'Hundreds of people are coming to my events, many of them Jewish, and they tell me I gave them their ancestors back' Molly Crabapple is an Emmy Award-winning artist, author and journalist. Her new book, Here Where We Live Is Our Country, tells the largely forgotten story of the Jewish Labour Bund, a secular, socialist, anti-Zionist mass movement founded in 1897 that at its peak was the largest Jew...

‘I regret losing my job. Not what I said’ Mark Bonnick worked at Arsenal for 22 years. Then on Christmas Eve 2024, the former kitman was fired over posts he made on X criticising Israel over the genocide in Gaza. Arsenal accused him of bringing the club into disrepute. The case was quickly framed by media outlets as one of antisemitism. But reports later revealed that the Football Association told...

"The left loves to lose. They can't get enough of it." Ana Kasparian has been an influential and prominent voice in US independent media for nearly two decades. The co-host and executive producer of The Young Turks speaks with Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk to make the case for a left-right coalition on Israel, and why she believes the establishment of both parties has failed the American people. Kas...

"Mom, I'm at our house." Yousra Elbagir is Sky News UK's Africa correspondent. She has been highly praised for her reporting on a war that's been largely absent from mainstream news coverage: Sudan. As the fighting enters its fourth year, Sudan has become the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Millions have been displaced as cities are destroyed by a brutal power struggle and foreign interference....

"My commanders liked the fact I was a Nazi. They saw it as making me a better warrior." Matt Kennard is a British investigative journalist who co-founded Declassified UK, and is also the author of Irregular Army. It’s a book that uncovers how the US military, desperate to fill its ranks during the War on Terror, began looking the other way on things that would once have disqualified soldiers from...

Peter Oborne spent decades at the heart of the British establishment. The award-winning journalist and author of ‘Complicit’ sits down with Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk to break down how the Iraq war set the template for Gaza, and why there is a direct path between the two. Oborne also calls out Keir Starmer for not condemning Israeli war crimes, and what it means that Margaret Thatcher was more wi...

"I don't feel safe with my own people." Ariana Jasmine is one of the biggest Iranian-American political content creators, whose videos on Iran's history, the US-Israeli war on the country, and US politics have been widely shared online. In this conversation on Real Talk, she speaks with Mohamed Hashem to discuss the Iranian diaspora's split over western intervention, the Pahlavi monarchist movemen...

“Can I curse on this?” Hasan Piker is one of the most influential political streamers in the world, followed by millions across platforms who tune in daily to watch him dissect news, culture and global politics in real time. In this wide-ranging conversation on Real Talk, he sits down with Mohamed Hashem to discuss the Epstein files, Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the state of the Democratic Party, an...

What was Jeffrey Epstein doing for Israeli intelligence? A new series of reports by Drop Site News has been examining this very question. Drop Site journalist Murtaza Hussain joined Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk to examine Epstein’s lesser-known ties to powerful figures inside Israeli political and intelligence circles. Hussain explains how Epstein formed a relationship with former Israeli Prime Min...

If AI is an empire, Karen Hao is saying you can resist it. “We don’t need empires to benefit from AI.” Hao is an investigative journalist and author of Empire of AI , she joined Mohamed Hashem to share what she saw while embedded inside OpenAI. In this conversation, she reveals the inner workings of Silicon Valley, such as how CEOs like Sam Altman shape the story of AI, and what all that means for...

Does the UK need its own Zohran Mamdani? “It’s not The Office,” says British comedian Nish Kumar. “You can’t remake it from one country to another.” The acclaimed stand-up comedian sat down with Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk for a conversation that ranged from Mamdani’s win to the UK’s Nando’s obsession. They also unpacked the state of progressive politics in the UK, and what it means to do comedy a...

“Ben Gvir came to me and said, ‘You are a terrorist, and you will be treated as a terrorist’.” In her first media testimony since leaving Israel, Yasemin Acar recounts what she endured after being on the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian mission that set sail in international waters to break Israel’s siege on Gaza. Yasemin, a leading activist from Germany, describes the moment she was dragged, bea...

“I hear her voice in my dreams.” Israel’s killing of five-year-old Hind Rajab in 2024 sent shockwaves around the world, sparking global outrage and condemnation. Hind was fleeing Gaza City with her relatives when their car was targeted by Israeli forces. She survived the initial attack and, trapped among her family’s bodies, pleaded for help in desperate phone calls with Palestine Red Crescent res...

On this week’s Real Talk, MSNBC host and veteran reporter Ayman Mohyeldin joined Mohamed Hashem to discuss the US political rhetoric on Gaza. For over two decades, Ayman has reported on the front lines of the world’s biggest stories - from the wars in Iraq and Gaza to the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. Today, he co-hosts MSNBC’s “The Weekend: Primetime”. In this conversation, Ayman reflects on the po...

“One voice message I got from a journalist in Gaza… that’s worth more to me than anything I did with Reuters.” For eight years, Valerie Zink worked as a photojournalist for Reuters. But after Israel killed her colleagues in Gaza, and western media coverage led to accusations of complicity in Israel’s genocide, she could no longer stay silent. Valerie publicly resigned and cut up her Reuters press...

"The overwhelming will of the world is for a state of Palestine now… I want it to be imposed on Israel, pure and simple." Jeffrey Sachs joins Real Talk to discuss Israel’s genocide in Gaza, America’s complicity, and why he believes the UN still offers a hope for peace. The renowned economist and public policy analyst explains why Israel “does not speak for me” as a Jew, the danger of conflating cr...