HEIST

In a new book, _Fear Eats Ali_, curator and writer Edwin Nasr captures that reality in a work of what he calls hysterical fiction. Through the character of Ali - a queer new transplant in Berlin from Beirut navigating his own political ambivalence and family history - Nasr explores the surreal and painful reality of navigating the German legal system and life in the city. In this episode, Nasr tal...

In this episode, HEIST founding editor Ruthie Weissmann talks to food writers Jane Silver and Natalie Avila-Lamando. Together, they unpack what went into creating the HEIST Food Map - a curated, up-to-date guide to 80 places Berliners actually eat at. We set out to make an interactive food map that's useful, honest, and the best source to finding where to eat in Berlin.

In this episode, HEIST founding editor Ruthie Weissmann sits down with Zara Rahman to unpack her widely discussed essay explaining why she decided to leave Berlin. Zara opens up about the "masks off" moment following October 7th, the hypocrisy of Berlin's faux-progressive left, and the stark divide in how people of different backgrounds experience the city's political realities.

Die Linke won the Berlin state elections for the first time last week. In another historic first, their leader Elif Eralp could become the first mayor of Turkish descent. But the backlash is here. The impact of these kinds of electoral firsts can be hard to make out in the immediate aftermath, and the media cycles are spinning fast and heavy. So in this episode, HEIST founding editors Peter Matthe...

How do the editors at HEIST choose what news and features we publish? In this episode, founding editors Ruthie Weissmann and Peter Matthews talk to Ben Schuman-Stoler about how they run the editorial side of things at HEIST. They talk about some of their favorite Berlin animal stories, stories that went viral, and what happens on a very slow news day. We recorded this extra episode also to promote...

Our guest this episode is researcher, filmmaker, and strategist Alon Sahar, who recently published the report “The Campaign against UNRWA and the Palestinian Right of Return in Germany; Israel-aligned Actors, Narratives, and Policy Uptake” with the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. HEIST founding editor Peter Matthews and Alon talk about the historical 20th century geopolitical context here, and then hon...

“National narratives tell you what you must not say.” In this episode, Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah joins HEIST founding editor Peter Matthews. Gurnah challenges history from a European perspective. To him, the idea of European centers is not just an oversight, but a kind of blindness. His work, novels with interwoven histories based on complex and surprising historical narratives, won the Nob...

In this episode, HEIST founding editor Peter Matthews is joined by investigative reporter Lea Fauth. They discuss her reporting for Deutschlandfunk Kultur in two German cities where factories, unions, and workers are responding to the Zeitenwende, the new era of German investment in manufacturing arms.

In this episode, HEIST founding publisher Ben Schuman-Stoler talks to writer Lily Johnston about her experience at TRYP Expo, Berlin's new festival for "human flourishing.” Together they reflect on if the Expo means something bigger for Berlin. They talk about new synthetic drugs, the surprising Nazi history of psychedelics, what happens when subculture is commercialized, and ask, is there such a...

In this episode, HEIST founding editor Peter Matthews is joined live at Chapters Bookshop in Berlin by historian Quinn Slobodian to discuss his latest book, Muskism, and ideas about the far-right and the AfD from his 2025 Hayek's Bastards.

When an AfD candidate was criticized for referencing a concentration camp badge on a campaign billboard, the party’s defense was immediate: "How dare you accuse us of being homophobic? Our leader, Alice Weidel, is a lesbian." It’s a perfect, toxic blend of strategic provocation and plausible deniability. But it points to a much deeper, more disturbing mutation within European politics. In this epi...

In this episode, HEIST founding editor Peter Matthews sits down with Berlin-based journalist Yossi Bartal to discuss the rise and fall of Hudhaifa Al-Mashhadani - a seemingly pathological liar who became the German media and political establishments’ darling. But this isn't just a story about a single grifter. It’s an indictment of German media’s failures, a patriarchal style of inter-Neukölln gov...

In the inaugural episode of the HEIST Podcast, Peter Matthews and Ben Schuman-Stoler sit down with journalist Hebh Jamal to discuss her reporting on what it feels like to live as a Palestinian in Berlin. She details the dystopian reality of building infrastructure in a city that would rather pretend you don't exist.

The HEIST podcast is coming soon. We'll launch on 6 July with three episodes at once: interviews with Ben Miller, Hebh Jamal, and Yossi Bartal. Subscribe to this feed and pass it around - help us spread the word.