Zionism has always portrayed its terror and violence against the Palestinian masses as a “fight against antisemitism.” In this episode, we explore the history of Zionism as a colonial movement that despised Judaism and echoed the anti-Jewish tropes permeating 19th-century Europe. We look at how Zionist leaders have always sought to transform Jewish identity from a religion into a reactionary, oppressive nationalist project based on Israeli statehood and the militarized subjugation of Palestinian Arabs.

The establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 could not have been accomplished without Zionism’s alliances with imperial powers and antisemitic regimes, ranging from British officials to Nazi leaders and the U.S. imperialists today. More than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled and displaced during the Nakba, which continues to this day with terror in the West Bank and the U.S./Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Leaning on academic scholars and historical research, we discuss how Zionism, as an ideology, sustains itself through its founding myths, manipulative tropes, and brutal methods to put down any resistance. We discuss how Zionist leaders cynically invoke the Holocaust and historical Jewish suffering to shield Israel from criticism, suppress pro-Palestinian activism, and justify ongoing military occupation.

This episode centrally draws on the following works:

• The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation by Abram Leon, 1946
• “The Non-Jewish Jew” by Isaac Deutscher, 1958
• Zionism in the Age of the Dictators by Lenni Brenner, 1983
• Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years by Israel Shahak, 1994
• The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History by Keith Whitelam, 1997
• The End of Judaism: An Ethical Tradition Betrayed by Hajo G. Meyer, 2003
• The Invention of the Jewish People by Shlomo Sand, 2008
• Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany by Francis R. Nicosia, 2008
• “Israel’s Worldwide Role in Repression” by International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, 2012
• Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappe, 2017
• Zionism During the Holocaust by Tony Greenstein, 2022
• Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew by Avi Shlaim, 2024
• “The Forgotten History of Jewish Anti-Zionism” by Zachary Foster, 2025

We encourage listeners who want to support Palestinians to donate to the following organizations:

• Lifeline4Gaza

• The Sameer Project

Links:

• A Conversation Between the Sword and the Neck, with renowned PLFP leader and Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani in 1972
• Edward Said on His Experience as a Palestinian on Democracy Now!
  

Reality TV is everywhere. For decades, the industry has sold the reality genre as raw, unfiltered human drama, but behind the scenes there’s a billion-dollar machine built on manipulation, labor exploitation, and abuse.

Drawing on shows from The Real World to Love Is Blind, from Cops to America’s Next Top Model, we unpack the reasons why we’re so captivated by this human spectacle and examine historical comparisons to cruel voyeurism like gladiator competitions and public crucifixions.

This episode traces the evolution of reality TV and how it functions as both a reflection and a reinforcement of the capitalist system. We dig into the industry’s reliance on low overhead, cheap budgets, and intense psychological pressure tactics, including placing contestants in situations of intense sleep deprivation and isolation. We reveal how production companies exploit vulnerable participants for profit and evade unionization, and we discuss the current lawsuits advocating for basic labor protections.

Finally, we look at how reality TV sells the lie at the heart of the "American Dream," focusing on The Kardashians and The Apprentice, two shows that shaped cultural standards of so-called beauty and success. And we reminisce about older reality TV shows that haven’t aged well. If you ever wanted to know more about the manufactured misery behind the shows you binge-watch every day, this episode is for you.

This episode includes clips from More Perfect Union’s documentary short Inside Love Is Blind’s Brutal Conditions on Set, as well as from the podcast Curse of America’s Next Top Model.

Prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have promised a world where you can gamble on virtually anything, from presidential elections and global military conflicts to the weather and pop culture. Tech billionaires frame these prediction markets as the ultimate "democratization of finance" and objective "truth machines."

Behind the techno-utopian pitch, prediction markets are playgrounds for insider trading. As their CEOs dodge regulation, they threaten to turn the entire world into a high-stakes casino, where those with power always win.

In this episode, we’re joined by Jathan Sadowski, co-host of the podcast This Machine Kills and author of The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalism. Jathan exposes how these wealth extraction machines cater to a tiny minority of insiders and skilled pros who extract profits from everyday traders. We discuss how prediction markets prey directly on this economic anxiety, luring desperate people into high-risk gambling under the guise of financial empowerment.

We share clips from Kalshi founder Tarek Mansour, who views all of human experience as a tradeable asset. As Jathan wrote in his piece The Kalshi-fication of everything: “Financialization is a predatory logic. It is not just one more way of organizing the world among many others. The goal is to eliminate other competing worldviews and reengineer society into a casino where the hedge funds always win. The only human values that matter are the ones that can be turned into tradeable assets and sold to the highest bidder.”

Check out more of Jathan’s work here:

The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalism book

This Machine Kills podcast

Interview with Paris Marx on Tech Won’t Save Us