The brothers welcome Drop Site News journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous to the show to discuss the latest developments in Gaza, as, despite a nominal "ceasefire," Israel's genocide grinds on, and as, meanwhile, dystopian plans to remake Gaza put forward by the likes of Jared Kushner are slowly put into place, which would see Palestinians forced into biometrically controlled concentration camps as parts of the territory are plundered or developed for the enrichment of foreign investors. The conversation shows that we are entering a pivotal moment, in which either Israel's worst and most dystopian desires will be fulfilled or they will break apart—in Gaza.

Date of recording: January 27, 2026

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Music by Hadiiiiii

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A special edition of the Makdisi Street podcast in which Ussama interviews fellow historian Avi Shlaim in Jaipur, India where both were attending the Jaipur Literature Festival. Ussama asks Avi about his new book Genocide in Gaza, the history of coexistence devastated by the project of colonial Zionism, and about when and why Avi became an anti-Zionist. They discuss the importance of archives, ethical history writing, the virulent anti-Palestinian racism of Benny Morris, and the significance about the refusal of the historical profession's leading bodies in the West to take a clear stand against genocide.

Date of recording: January 15, 2026

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Music by Hadiiiiii

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The brothers welcome Professor Greg Grandin to the show to discuss the US kidnapping of the Venezuelan president against the historical context of other American imperial interventions in Latin America, the recurring use of Latin America as a stage to reboot US interventions elsewhere around the world, different models of regime change, the collapse of international law and legitimacy and the specificities of Trump as a symptom of American decline and the crisis of empire.

Date of recording: January 7th, 2026

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Music by Hadiiiiii

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