Today we discuss the torrent of right wing podcast commentary regarding the war in Iran and the importance of a victory in the conflict to combating their narratives, as well as more revelations on Zohran Mamdani's wife, and the aftermath of Joe Kent's resignation and appearance on Tucker Carlson's show. Plus, the new sexual misconduct allegations against Cesar Chavez.
In this episode, First Things brings you the recording of the 2026 D.C. Lecture presented by Mary Harrington. Please subscribe to access more information about future lectures and many great articles!
Last week, Palestinian-American author, scientist, and activist Susan Abulhawa made national headlines after the Zionist press attempted to tie her online posts criticizing Israel's apartheid and genocide with Zohran Mamdani's wife Rama Duwaji as part of an attempted smear campaign: Rama had illustrated a short story that was part of a collection Abulhawa helped to compile and edit. In response to the hit-job on Rama, Zohran distanced himself from Abulhawa, calling her posts "reprehensible" and "patently unacceptable." But were they? And were leftists like Zohran and others strategically or morally justified in throwing her under the bus? Susan took to Twitter with a 20 minute response to the contraversy, but for the first time, on Bad Faith podcast, she's opening up in an interview about what happened. In conversation with Briahna, she puts her comments into context -- describing the humiliation of Zionist oppression growing up in an orphanage in Jerusalem -- and she challenges the notion that there's any language 'too strong' to describe the gravity of Israel's oppression.
Iran is using an affordable strategy to even the playing field in the war with the U.S. It’s using drones that cost in the thousands of dollars to combat American missiles that cost several million. Military analysts have already signaled concern about the U.S. producing enough munitions, and this isn’t helping. Today on the show, why the U.S. spends so much on munitions and what it’s learning from Iran.
Author Daisy Hernández grew up in New Jersey in a community she describes as “the United Nations of Latinos,” with parents from Cuba and Colombia and relatives from Puerto Rico and Peru. Her new book Citizenship uses her family story to trace the history of citizenship in the United States. In today’s episode, she speaks with NPR’s Emily Kwong about the concept of “social citizenship” and why American citizenship fails to fit into a fixed legal definition.
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Our old friend Noah Rothman joins us today to discuss Joe Kent's resignation letter and reinvention as a Tuckerite - the strange new respect by anti-Trump pundits, the true purpose of the career Israel-bashers, and will others follow his lead? Plus, the latest developments on the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz.