We're Not Kidding with Mehdi & Friends

They first bonded over their  shared love of Nando's — now Mehdi and UK comedian Nish Kumar reunite to talk about their shared contempt for the Trump administration. The two sat down in Washington DC to discuss UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's disastrous visits to the White House and the childish behavior of US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD...

Live from New York — it's 'We're Not Kidding'! This past week, Mehdi traveled to the 'On Air Fest' in Brooklyn for a very special LIVE taping of 'WNK' with award-winning sports journalist and broadcaster Jemele Hill. You may remember Jemele from the  first Trump administration, when political 'nepo baby' and then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called for ESPN to fire Jemele for...

Mehdi is once again joined by 'We're Not Kidding' powerhouse Bassem Youssef for a raw and honest conversation about the state of the world. To steal a phrase from MAGA Republicans speaking about Donald Trump — "Daddy is home." Mehdi and Bassem unpack the first few weeks of Trump's second term, including the escalating violence in the West Bank occurring during the "fake" Gaza ceasefire.  The two a...

'We're Not Kidding' is back! After a not-very-relaxing holiday break, Mehdi is joined by tech and online culture journalist ( and new Zeteo contributor !) Taylor Lorenz to discuss the new age of American oligarchy. Trump is back in office and his inauguration was a star-studded showcase of spineless tech billionaires.  Mehdi and Taylor also unpack the dumbfounding blunder of Democrats' TikTok ban,...

If you've followed Mehdi's career, you know he's interviewed heads of state, members of Congress, homicidal mercenaries, and even terrorists. But this may be Mehdi's most intimidating guest yet — Huda Kattan — the superstar beauty influencer, activist, reality TV show host, and founder and CEO of international beauty brand 'Huda Beauty'. Funnily enough, Huda was  also nervous to sit down with one...

Hasan Minhaj and Mehdi Hasan don't just share a common brown name… actually, that may be all they have in common. One loves to debate, the other avoids it like the plague. One is obsessed ( sorry, Mehdi ) with Twitter, the other avoids it like the plague. And one knew months ago that Trump was going to win, and with record levels of Black and Brown support. They also talked about Joe Rogan and dia...

Following the (depressing) results of the 2024 US presidential election, Mehdi is joined by comedians Amanda Seales and Francesca Fiorentini for a (funny) post-post-mortem on Democrats' historic shellacking. They discuss the Harris campaign's many mistakes, from cozying up to Republican neocons, to abandoning Bernie Sanders-style populism, to inexplicably hiding their only cool person, Tim Walz. "...

It's less than a week until the 2024 US presidential election and who better to discuss the government with than 'Parks and Rec' star and comedian Nick Offerman. The last time Mehdi spoke with Nick about current events was back in May 2021, right before Nick was to testify before Congress about the Covid-19 vaccine. More recently, Nick released a couple of comedic songs to encourage Americans to v...

If you've been tuning into Zeteo's flagship podcast, 'We're Not Kidding' for the last six months, you're going to find this one is a very special episode.  Bassem Youssef returns to WNK for an intimate and heartfelt conversation – one unlike you've ever seen on this show. It's also a version of Bassem none of us, including Mehdi, have ever seen before. " I'm from a very, very, very deep point of d...

In the latest episode of 'We're Not Kidding', Mehdi is joined by comedians  Matt Lieb and Sammy Obeid to discuss the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas and Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza that followed. Matt, a Jewish-American, and Sammy, a Palestinian-American, share their personal experiences over the past year, including how they've managed to maintain their sense of humor...

In the latest episode of 'We're Not Kidding', Mehdi's in London (again!) and this time chatting with the Nando's-loving comedian and host of 'Pod Save the UK' Nish Kumar. We promise you will laugh – and maybe even cry of laughter.  Nish and Mehdi lead with that - their shared love of Nando's - and how, as Nish describes, it's the only thing uniting a fragmented British society right now.  The two...

Mehdi is joined by Oscar-winning actor and producer Riz Ahmed for a high school reunion (yes, they went to school together back in London in the 1990s!) and catch up on life, work, and how the world has changed for brown folks since their childhood. They talk about Riz's journey as an actor — from playing stereotypical roles to now creating his own work and championing the work of up-and-coming fi...

On this week's special LIVE episode of 'We're Not Kidding,' filmed in front of a studio audience in the Washington DC area, Mehdi is joined by activist, influencer and fashion designer Alana Hadid, who has been one of the most vocal advocates for the people of Gaza over the past nine months. Alana's family is arguably the most famous Palestinian family on Earth, and the Hadids have received a ton...

On this week's episode of 'We're Not Kidding,' Mehdi travels to London to speak with U.S. comedian, writer, and actor Rob Delaney, who has lived in the UK for the last 10 years. In this powerful, wide-ranging, and at times emotional conversation, Rob speaks with Mehdi about how the tragic loss of his 2 year-old son in 2018 drove him to speak out against Israel's brutal assault on Palestinian child...

On this week's bonus episode of 'We're Not Kidding,' Bassem Youssef joins Mehdi for an honest and critical conversation about Oct. 7, and the avalanche of Israeli propaganda and lies that followed Hamas' deadly attack. Bassem and Mehdi discuss and debunk a number of lies and distortions about the events on the day, from Israel's controversial "Hannibal directive," which led to the Israeli military...

On the new episode of 'We're Not Kidding,' Mehdi is joined by stand-up comedian, actor, and social justice advocate Amanda Seales for an unfiltered conversation about Palestine, and the cultural backlash for speaking out against genocide and U.S. imperialism. Amanda, who has Palestinian family members, has been a vocal proponent for Palestinian liberation over the last eight months, at great profe...

Stand-up comedian, best-selling author and acclaimed TV host W. Kamau Bell joins Mehdi as co-host of 'We're Not Kidding' this week. They discuss the student protestors, who join a long line of American anti-war demonstrators, as well as the police's use of brute force against them. Mehdi and Kamau also examine the censorship of pro-Palestinian voices in the media and Hollywood, why Batman is polit...

Bassem Youssef is back with Mehdi to co-host the third episode of 'We're Not Kidding.' They talk about the religious extremists, from the illegal settlements in the West Bank to the hallways of the U.S. Congress, who are trying to bring about the end of times - as well as a bunch of red cows that wield a lot of spiritual power. And they disagree on a few things too.  SUBSCRIBE TO ZETEO TO SUPPORT...

Palestinian-Lebanese-American comedian, Sammy Obeid, who rose to fame because of his viral jokes on Palestine and his Netflix show 100 Humans , joins Mehdi to guest host the second episode of 'We're Not Kidding.' They dive into the student protests, DNA tests, pushing back against misinformation with comedy, the power of slogans, and doing 1001 nights of stand-up.  SUBSCRIBE TO ZETEO TO SUPPORT IN...

In the very first episode of the new Zeteo podcast, ' We're Not Kidding ,' Mehdi and guest co-host Bassem Youssef sit down and talk about what their brown parents make of their career choices, becoming famous for the right reasons, pushing back against the media's coverage of Gaza, and Mehdi's new hoodie.  SUBSCRIBE TO ZETEO TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT AND UNFILTERED JOURNALISM: https://zeteo.com/subsc...

Introducing Zeteo's flagship podcast, 'We're Not Kidding,' a show where funny people talk about serious things, hosted by Zeteo founder and CEO Mehdi Hasan, and regularly featuring internationally acclaimed comedian Bassem Youssef. Each episode, Mehdi is joined by a renowned guest for a sometimes lighthearted, sometimes vulnerable conversation about topics they can't discuss anywhere else.