For Tammy’s last TTSG book club as pod host (!), we welcome Jillian Tamaki, award-winning author and a key member of our early-COVID Discord crew. Jillian’s new graphic novel, Roaming, published with her cousin and co-author, Mariko Tamaki, follows three Canadian college freshmen on a spring break trip to New York. We hear about Jillian’s use of vernacular tourist archives like Flickr and YouTube to build scenes of NYC from afar; the complex dynamics among young women friends, especially when traveling; and what makes a good artistic collaboration. [Note: From 3:15 to 26:10, Jillian presents a slideshow, but the BTS is great even without the visuals!]
🎧 Heads-up: Tomorrow (Monday, Dec. 4) Tammy and Jay will record their final co-host ep, and take listener questions! Ask away here: https://forms.gle/bVtcVVyyNKz7Epe76
This week, Andy joins us for one of Tammy’s last eps as a host of TTSG. 🥲 After catching up on dog COVID, [6:10] we discuss how China’s historical self-identification as a vanguard of the Third World has given way, through decades of technological and economic growth, to a more general anti-West position. [29:00] We also reflect on the various pockets of U.S. public opinion on Gaza and Zionism, from Andy’s college students to our elected officials (and their press secretaries). [53:30] Finally, we debate whether the term “barbaric” has been selectively applied since October 7, along with larger questions of media bias.
In this episode, we ask:
Where does China’s relatively strong support of Palestine come from, and is it actually as strong as it seems?
How does the movement for a free Palestine fit into the idea of what it means to be a good leftist?
Should media outlets rethink when to publish gruesome images of victims of violence?
* More on the three young Palestinian American students who were shot in Vermont, the NYU doctor who was fired over his racist social media posts, and the friendship between a Palestinian and a pro-Israel chef in Philly that has soured
* Words from Lydia Polgreen and from Jay on the question of publishing graphic photos of children killed in Gaza
Reminder: Tammy is hosting a virtual TTSG book club meeting for subscribers tonight at 5pm PST // 8pm EST(9am in Shanghai) with cartoonist, illustrator, and Discord OG Jillian Tamaki! We’ll get some BTS insight from Jillian on the graphic novel she just published with her cousin and co-author, Mariko Tamaki, Roaming. You can find the Zoom info on Discord or in this post!
The organizer and Jay talk about why Columbia made this decision, what the climate is like on campus, and what the administration has been telling students about the suspensions. We also talk about divestment, broadly, as an organizing tactic and discuss the anti-apartheid divestment protests for South Africa.
Tammy will be back next week for three more episodes!
Reminder: On Nov. 29, Tammy will host her last TTSG book club event over Zoom with cartoonist, illustrator, and Discord OG Jillian Tamaki—on Jillian’s new graphic novel, Roaming! Check out the Discord for details and a book discount.
This week, we’re joined by our friend Jamie Lauren Keiles, a former contributing writer at the New York TimesMagazine who is working on a book about nonbinary identity in America and posting at the archival Instagram account @sexchange.tbt. [4:45] Jamie discusses his resignation from the TimesMagazine, and why he signed the recent open letter by WAWOG (the Writers Against the War on Gaza) as well as an earlier letter criticizing NYT’s trans coverage. [47:40] We also talk about the process of unlearning pro-Israel propaganda and where a trans, anti-Zionist, observant Jew finds himself today, both institutionally and spiritually.
In this episode, we ask:
How is the presumed “objective” position within a media institution created and reinforced?
What good (if any) can an open letter do? And how much does it matter what an American Jew thinks about all of this?
How do people’s minds actually get changed on Israel-Palestine?
[1:04:00] And a big announcement! Listen to the end to catch Tammy and Jay present a new phase for the podcast. (Spoiler: Tammy is moving on in early December; Jay is continuing and wants your feedback.)
As always, subscribe on Patreon or Substack to join our Discord community, which we hope to continue cultivating into the future. Also: On Nov. 29, Tammy will host her last TTSG book club event with cartoonist, illustrator, and Discord OG Jillian Tamaki—on Jillian’s new graphic novel, Roaming! Check out the Discord for details and a book discount.
This week, we are joined by Tania Hary, the executive director of Gisha (“access”), an Israeli legal organization that fights for the freedom of movement of Palestinians. [2:25] We discuss the restrictive status quo that was in place long before October 7, in which Israel controlled travel in and out of the occupied territories, the flow of goods and food into Gaza, and the Census-like registry of the Palestinian population (that is implicated in the questioning of Gazan fatalities). [30:45] Tania explains how political repression and compulsory military service convince many Israelis that theirs is the “most moral army in the world.”
In this episode, we ask:
How are Israelis consuming images from and narratives about Gaza?
What does it mean for politicians and media to dispute information, namely death counts, coming from sources in a besieged Gaza?
What does this war reveal about the world order, humanitarian law, and human rights?
This week, New York Times Magazine contributing writer and repeat guest Rozina Ali talks with us about media coverage of the war in Israel and Gaza as well as the challenges faced by journalists, more than twenty of whom have been killed in the region over the past two weeks. We also discuss whether there has been a chilling of speech in the West, the history of suppressed expression when it comes to Israel and Palestine, and how all this may shake out in politics and public sentiment.
In this episode, we ask:
How accurate are the comparisons of this moment to 9/11, in terms of media suppression, Islamophobia, and our ability to parse complicated political issues?
Does social media incentivize checking certain boxes around Israel-Palestine over moving dialogue forward?
Why are U.S. elected officials so out of touch with public opinion?
If you’re a writer, journalist, or media worker who has faced retaliation for expressing your views on the war in Gaza, you can reach out to the National Writers Union for support by filling out this survey.
This week, we’re joined by Amjad Iraqi, a senior editor at +972 Magazine and a policy analyst at the think tank Al-Shabaka. Since Hamas’s brutal attack and Israel’s declaration of war, thousands of people in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel have been killed. More than a million people have been ordered to leave the northern Gaza Strip; more than two million Gazans are being denied food, water, electricity, and fuel. [3:10] Amjad, a Palestinian citizen of Israel based in London, explains what’s different about this moment for both Palestinians and Israeli Jews. [32:30] He also untangles the international context in which Hamas operates, both in relation to its Arab neighbors and global powers like the United States—the only country, he believes, with the power to stop Israel from committing genocide. [47:20] Finally, Amjad highlights the need to reject colonial and statist frameworks in fighting for Palestinian liberation.
In this episode, we ask:
How was Israel able to manufacture a forgetting of occupied Palestinians by Israeli Jews?
How has the politics in Israel shifted following Hamas’s attack?
How should we understand this latest wave of violence, given the violence required to maintain Israel’s “status quo”?
What are the freedom dreams of Palestinian people?
[0:30] We begin by addressing Hamas’s recent attack on Israel, to which Netanyahu responded with a declaration of war. (We’ll have an area expert on the show next week to talk about all this at greater length.) [12:10] In the second half of the episode, we discuss the new U.S. Senator from California, Laphonza Butler, and how her appointment by Gavin Newsom (following Dianne Feinstein’s death) factors into next year’s race for that seat. We explore the organizer-to-politician career path and ponder how labor-y a labor candidate has to be.
In this episode, we ask:
What would unbiased media coverage of Israel/Palestine actually look like?
Has the (online) left overcorrected on identity politics and started to judge “diverse” figures too harshly?
This week, our guest is Samhita Mukhopadhyay, a writer and editor and the former executive editor at Teen Vogue. [5:30] Samhita’s personal essay in The Cut explores how being prescribed the new weight-loss drug Mounjaro, not long after her father died of complications from diabetes, challenged her thinking around health and body image. [36:00] We also discuss the decline(?) of the girlboss—Samhita is writing a book on women and work culture—and the enduring power of individualistic corporate feminism. Plus, we hear about Samhita’s tenure at Teen Vogue as the outlet expanded its political coverage and tried to change the culture of fashion magazines. (Apologies for the slightly worse-than-usual audio quality on this ep.)
In this episode, we ask:
Has the body image discourse around Ozempic and Mounjaro limited the drugs’ real, life-changing possibilities?
What does it mean for both weight-loss culture and health access that these are pricey prescription medications?
When is hating on girlboss culture classist and racist?
This week, it’s just us, talking more hot labor summer and a bit about poetry (Tammy recommends the work of Mai Der Vang!). [9:00] After 146 days on strike, the Writers Guild of America, which represents about 11,000 screenwriters, announced on Sunday that they’d reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP studio group. (Forgive the timing of this ep: the WGA released details of the tentative agreement on Tuesday night, after we had recorded; members will still have to vote on the deal.) [23:00] Meanwhile, as one strike (maybe) ends, another expands! Nearly 20,000 United Auto Workers members across 40 states have walked off the job to demand a fairer share of record profits from the Big 3 automakers, seeking to reverse Great Recession-era losses and prove the might of a new and improved UAW.
In this episode, we ask:
Why does so much of the public support the WGA strike, a white-collar union whose ranks include very highly paid (less sympathetic?) members?
How sturdy is the very new, seemingly democratic operation of the UAW under Shawn Fain?
Can this union wave bring back American manufacturing, or are we just buying time before another big offshoring push?
