Psychic Militancy

In this episode I was joined by psychoanalytic colleagues, Avgi Saktepoulou and Iris Hefets to discuss boycott & divestment from the state now known as Israel and Zionism more broadly--a call that answers the Palestine Global Mental Health Networks call for all psychoanalysts of conscience to resign from the International Psychoanalytic Asociation. This feels like an even more timely conversation considering the currently underway US-Zionist aggression on Iran, the ongoing genocide in Palestine, and the no-existent ceasefire in Lebanon. In addition to BDS in psychoanalysis, we will discuss the institutional demands that we must make as well as interrogate the limits of this approach and all the ways we need to remain engaged in praxis "outside the clinic" so to speak. Originally from Cyprus and from Greece, Dr. Avgi Saketopoulou is a practicing psychoanalyst in NYC on faculty at NYU's Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is the author of Sexuality Beyond Consent: Risk, Race, Traumatophilia and co-author, with Ann Pellegrini, of Gender Without Identity. Avgi is the founder of the Cypriot and of the Greek chapters of the Palestine Mental Health Network and a vocally persistent critic of psychoanalysis' silence on the Palestinian genocide. Iris Hefets, works as a Psychoanalyst in Berlin, mainly with PoC-patients that suffer from (transgenerational) traumata in English, German and Hebrew. She was born in Israel and left during the 2nd Intifada for political reasons. She is a member of JVP-Germany. She resigned from the German Psychoanalytic Society/IPA in late 2023, together with another Jewish-Israeli, Palestinian and Turkish colleague due to the racist approach of the German Society they all experienced over the years and especially since the beginning of the Israeli Genocide in Palestine. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel and follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod or UpScrolled: @psychicmilitancy. For pre-releases and to keep up to date with all announcements for livestreams and new episodes, consider becoming a patron at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

In this episode, I sit down with the one and only Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian to talk about the textures of life making that abound in Palestine, produced and created by Palestinians, for the preservation and continuation of all of Palestine. We discuss the centrality of al-Quds (Jerusalem) in her thinking and in her scholarship, and unpack the ways in which her focus has always been to provide counter-readings that trouble hegemonic knowledge production that positions Palestinians as always-already victims or "disposable". As always, the conversation with Nadera draws on feminist practices of being, despite pressures of erasure, displacement, and dispossession. Nadera Shalhoub-Kervorkian is a leading scholar in the fields of violence against women and the impacts of political violence on childhood, focusing primarily on the experience of Palestinians subject to settler colonial technologies of violence. She received the Women's Rights Prize from the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation for her research, which has been supported by more than a dozen foundations. Nadera is currently a visiting professor of gender and sexuality studies at Princeton. She is the Chair of Global Law at the Queen Mary University of London School of Law and is the Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law-Emeritus at the Faculty of Law-Institute of Criminology and the School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  Check out a selection of Nadera's work here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/incarcerated-childhood-and-the-politics-of-unchilding/36A4B3C853F77EF66E16C6FD70F7F1D9 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/security-theology-surveillance-and-the-politics-of-fear/1278E8298C3722A3B85EFC426C859DB5 https://statecrime.org/2024/02/28/state-crime-journal-special-issue-on-abolitionism-settler-colonialism-and-state-crime/ Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy and follow us on social media for all the latest updates. You can find us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod & UpScrolled: @psychicmilitancy And consider supporting us on Patreon for pre-releases: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

I was so excited to be joined by two kickass and unbending comrades and colleagues, both of whom have been fighting the struggle against the violence of Zionism in the academy and beyond. We discuss each of our "cases" with specific focus on the mechanics of these zionist smear campaigns and their intention to silence us, disappear us, and derail us from our political commitments. But more importantly, we talk about how we have NOT disappeared and we continue to confront power—maybe even commit to kicking it in the shins ;-) Maura Finkelstein is a writer and anthropologist. Her first book, The Archive of Loss: Lively Ruination in Mill Land Mumbai, was published by Duke University Press in 2019. Her anti-Zionist writing has been published by Allegra Lab, The Scottish Left review, The New Arab, The Markaz Review, Mondoweiss, Middle East Eye, and Al Jazeera. She is currently working on a book about Hillel International and a history of Zionist repression on US college and university campuses. Check out some of Maura's writing and speaking here: https://themarkaz.org/equating-critique-of-israel-with-antisemitism-us-academics-are-being-silenced/  https://www.americananthropologist.org/online-content/what-is-our-anthropology-for-knowledge-production-and-platform-in-a-time-of-genocide https://azadessa.substack.com/p/on-academic-freedom-in-a-time-of?publication_id=274849&post_id=160531034&isFreemail=true&r=58m3sz&triedRedirect=true Michel DeGraff is a linguist, educator and human-rights advocate. After being faculty at MIT Linguistics for 28 years, he now has a brand-new title of "Faculty at Large" at MIT School of the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences — in retaliation for his protesting the rejection of his "Special Topics" course proposal on "Language and linguistics for decolonization and liberation in Haiti, Palestine and Israel." For nearly three decades now, his work has centered on justice for marginalized communities through liberatory linguistics, mother-tongue-based education and related initiatives toward universal access to quality education and equal opportunity. His most recent articles, for a Free Palestine and on academic freedom and free speech, have been published in Curriculum Inquiry, CounterPunch, Middle East Eye, Academe Blog, Mondoweiss, Newsweek, Inside Higher Ed, Le Monde Diplomatique, etc. (all available at http://mit.edu/degraff). His forthcoming book, to be published by MIT Press in both Kreyòl and English, is titled: Our own language: Harnessing the Power of Kreyòl and Other Mother Tongues for Education and Liberation / Lang a nou : Kreyòl ak lòt lang manman se zouti pou edikasyon ak liberasyon Find Michel here: http://mit.edu/degraff And check out some of his writing: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03626784.2025.2607673 https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/02/17/what-a-federal-court-taught-us-and-what-universities-must-learn-about-anti-zionism-vs-antisemitism/ https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/teach-linguistics-mit-zionist-lawsuit-shows-language-silence-israel-critics  https://academeblog.org/2026/01/30/the-new-mccarthyism-at-the-mit-chapter-of-aaup/ Make sure to follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod; TikTok: @psychic.militancy; UpScrolled: @psychicmilitancy And for pre-releases and all the updates, consider becoming a patron at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

This episode is dedicated to political prisoner and revolutionary, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who continues to be unjustly incarcerated and tortured by the violent US carceral machine. Mumia has been incarcerated for more than 44 years and has been continuously punished for his principled stances and unbending political commitments. I was joined by longtime comrade and friend of the show, Jared Ware, Gabe Bryant, and Dr. Ricardo Alvarez. Johanna Fernandez was meant to join us, but when she couldn't, Mumia's consulting physician, Dr. Ricardo Alvarez, joined in. All of them are stalwart organizers in the fight for Mumia's liberation and the conversation was wide-ranging, including analysis about why we must commit to the struggle for liberating all political prisoners. Gabriel Bryant is a Philadelphia-based activist and organizer for Mobilization4Mumia, dedicated to securing the release of imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. He frequently chairs rallies, webinars, and demonstrations demanding medical care and freedom for Abu-Jamal. Jared Ware is one of the hosts of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism. He has published pieces in 68to05, Abolition Journal, Mint Press News, The New Inquiry, Prism, San Francisco Bay View, Southern Cultures, Shadow Proof, Truthout, and other outlets. Make sure to check out Jared on Millennials are Killing Capitalism at:    / @makcapitalism   And if you don't already follow Mumia's case and the frequent public addresses he makes, be sure to check out https://www.prisonradio.org/ Follow us on IG at: @psychicmilitancypod; TikTok: @psychic.militancy; & UpScrolled: @psychicmilitancy

In this episode, I am joined by Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, a stalwart organizer and professor who has been a fierce mainstay in the movement for the liberation of Palestine for decades. In this episode we get into her history beginning in Nablus, Palestine, and discuss the communal processes, people, and mentors that reared her. To me, Rabab has long been someone who exemplifies what it means to take unbending stances, despite the consequences--and she has absolutely faced very severe consequences. More than anything, I am excited for listeners to meet her as someone with such deep roots in the broader struggle for liberation and not just as someone merely fighting back against Zionist aggression and violence against her as an individual. We discuss her personal history, organizing history, fun anecdotes from growing up, and more. Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi is the founding Director and Senior scholar of Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies (AMED) Program at San Francisco State University, the first of its kind in the world, and Principal Investigator of Teaching Palestine: Pedagogical Praxis and the Indivisibility of Justice. She is an internationally-known scholar and distinguished professor who is committed to community development and student engagement alongside her extensive academic work and publication and teaching schedule. She received her BA summa cum Laude in Special Honors Curriculum; Sociology; and Women's Studies at Hunter College-CUNY, and her MA, MPhil and PhD from Yale University where she was awarded the prestigious Sterling Fellowship, a full scholarship, a dissertation fellowship, and the Teaching Excellence award, received for the first time by a Palestinian, Arab or Muslim. Check out all the wonderful work AMED Studies have been doing here: https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@amedsfsu2018⁩  Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy and make sure to follow us on IG: @pyschicmilitancypod & UpScrolled @psychicmilitancy. For pre-releases and so you don't miss out on all the livestream announcements, consider becoming a Patron at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

Hold on tight, folks!! I was joined by the unbending and awesome comrade, Dylan Rodríguez, to talk all things counterinsurgency. We analyzed the current psyops pressures upon us and how they different from the past, unpacked what he calls "lexical warfare" and the logics of "liberal counterinsurgency" as a political project and machinery of violence, and talked about his forthcoming book Counterinsurgency Machine coming out with AKPress next year. Like all our conversations, we gave love and centered all the liberation and freedom fighters, past and present, incarcerated and "free".  Dylan Rodríguez is a teacher, scholar, organizer and collaborator who has worked at the University of California-Riverside since 2001. Dylan's lifework focuses on liberationist, anticolonial, and abolitionist confrontations with the antiblack, colonial, and white supremacist violences that permeate the ongoing Civilization project. He is devoted to studying and teaching the historical, collective genius of rebellion, survival, and insurgent futurity that radically challenge dominant forms of authority, power, and institutionality. Make sure to subscribe to the channel and follow us on IG at: @psychicmilitancypod & TikTok at: @psychic.militancy Consider also becoming a Patron to get the latest announcements and pre-releases. Find us at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

In this livestream, I was joined by Rania Khalek to continue Psychic Militancy's ongoing public facing conversations about empire and its violent malcontent. She and I both are WTF-ing empire, as one does, and we wanted to come together to talk about what she has witnessed in the so-called Middle East region, on-the-ground analysis, especially about Lebanon, normalization bs, the suffocation of Cuba, the abduction of Maduro and so much more. We importantly center our analysis in how the impunity of Zionist aggression in Gaza, especially, and as facilitated by US Empire has created a new world of possibilities for the atrocities we are seeing. Rania Khalek is a journalist for Breakthrough News, where she hosts the show Dispatches. She also co-hosts the weekly Freedom Side livestream with Eugene Puryear. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel and consider becoming a Patreon for all the latest announcements and exclusive content before it is released. You can find us here: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy And follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod & TikTok: @psychic.militancy

I was joined by Lebanese comrades Rami Zureik and Munira Khayyat, both of whom are from the South, and work and think about land-based struggle and healing. We will discuss the current political landscape of Lebanon, with focus on the South; unpack the many atrocities the Zionist state has perpetrated even after the so-called "ceasefire", and importantly to Psychic Militancy, the ways people continue to create life and resist occupation.  Rami Zurayk is a native of Jabal Amel in South Lebanon, a farmer and a Researcher in Ecosystem Management. He has written extensively in Arabic, English and French about the political ecology of the Arab World, with special emphasis on Lebanon and Palestine.  Munira Khayyat is an anthropologist whose research revolves around life in war, intimate genealogies of empire, and theory from the South. Her first book, A Landscape of War: Ecologies of Resistance and Survival in South Lebanon (University of California Press 2022) examines resistant ecologies in a world of perennial warfare. Drawing on long-term fieldwork in frontline villages along Lebanon's southern border with Israel, she examines war not only as a place of death and destruction, but also necessarily, as an environment of living. Check out some of Munira's work here (including a piece by our other guest, Rami!): https://www.culanth.org/fieldsights/series/another-season-of-war-in-lebanon And here in this stunning e-publication: https://freight.cargo.site/m/Y2744105737271792238767236430700/Dignified_Life_Outliving_Impossible_Ecologies_LOWRES.pdf And here she is on Speaking out of Place, right after the Zionist aggression began on Lebanon in Fall 2024: https://speakingoutofplace.com/2024/10/12/an-urgent-episode-on-lebanon-with-munira-khayyat-a-landscape-of-war-ecologies-of-resistance-and-survival-in-south-lebanon/ Don't forget to subscribe to the channel and follow us on IG at: @psychicmilitancypod & TikTok @psychic.militancy For exclusive audio and video releases, make sure to become a Patron at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

The comrades from Tankie Group Therapy came together for the first ever LIVE to officially launch Psychic Militancy and to process, well, every f-ing thing that has been happening so that we don't have to do it alone. I hosted this comrade power line-up including your favorites, Justin Podur, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Alex Aviña, Sina Rahman, Jared Ware, Asa Winstanley, Adnan Hussein, Joe Emersberger, Arama Rata and Mikey Inouye. Make sure to Subscribe to our YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy and follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod & TikTok: @psychic.militancy And sign up to be a Patron to keep up with announcements of new episodes, livestreams and for exclusive releases! www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy  

  In this episode I sit down with Diana Buttu for a raw and moving conversation about how throughout the arch of her life and career she has remained aligned with the psychic, affective, and material reality of Palestine. She discusses being on Palestine's negotiating team under Yasser Arafat and shares exclusive details she has never before publicly spoken about. In discussing the importance of remaining psychically aligned for Palestine, we go into how sexism, racism, and attempts at psychic destabilization are all part of the aggression of Zionism and its expansionism. Most movingly, we talk about Palestine always having been, and continuing to be a real place with real people who persist. Diana Buttu is a lawyer specializing in negotiations, international law, and international human rights law. Earlier in her career, Buttu worked on the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, serving as the only female negotiator during her five-year tenure. Follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod & TikTok: @psychic.militancy Become a Patreon to get announcements, early access to full episodes, and more! www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy    

My comrade Jared Ware from fan favorite podcast Millennials Are Killing Capitalism will be joining me for our first live together on Psychic Militancy! We will be continuing the ongoing conversations we have been having on MAKC Live! and unpack and analyze how to remain focused in the face of Empire's violent reach, including the spectacle(s) of ICE violence, carceral discipline we are subjected to, the ongoing aggression on Venezuela, psyops related to Iran, Palestine and Lebanon...and much more.  Jared Ware is one of the hosts of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism. He has published pieces in 68to05, Abolition Journal, Mint Press News, The New Inquiry, Prism, San Francisco Bay View, Southern Cultures, Shadow Proof, Truthout, and other outlets. Catch Jared and our comrades at: https://www.youtube.com/@MAKCapitalism and on IG: @makcapitalism Follow us on IG at: @psychicmilitancypod & TikTok at: @psychic.militancy To stay up to date on announcements and get first access to full episodes, consider becoming a Patreon at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy Here are the links mentioned in this livestream: Venezuela Responds to the Kidnapping of their President Nicolás Maduro with Andreína Chávez Alava: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=uVHdMKDXXBU  Resist the US Colonization of Venezuela! Trump Kidnaps President Maduro with Alexander Aviña: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oECFKV--BKY https://progressive.international/blueprint/e57562a0-4dbd-479f-b77d-ed23bee16394-irans-indigenous-labor-movement-and-working-class-sovereignty/en/ The Malcolm Effest: Iran, women's rights and external disruptions to sovereignty - Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf9A8aih1UA&list=PLwYUBYeb4u9g8k77_zVYzqmETp_nRe6cT&index=27&t=2s  

This was our first live stream, fittingly for the urgent times, with comrades Geo Maher and Alex Aviña. We address the most recent fascistic display of empire in Venezuela, listen to their analysis (some of the most precise and my personal favorite out there!), and importantly, unpack the psychological warfare that is at the heart of this aggression and how we can stay focused and committed to our revolutionary struggles.  Geo Maher is Coordinator of the WEB Du Bois Movement School for Abolition & Reconstruction and author of 5 books, including We Created Chávez and Building the Commune. Please support the incredible project our comrades at the School for Abolition & Reconstruction are doing. You can follow their work on IG at: @abolitionschool and here on YouTube  @AbolitionSchool . Check them out here and please consider donating to help support their incredible work and principled stance in terms of funding streams: https://abolitionschool.org/ You can find some of Geo's books here: Building the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela (https://www.versobooks.com/products/147-building-the-commune); We Created Chávez: A People's History of the Venezuelan Revolution (https://dukeupress.edu/we-created-chavez); Anticolonial Eruptions: Racial Hubris and the Cunning of Resistance (https://www.ucpress.edu/books/anticolonial-eruptions/paper) Alex Aviña is an Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University. He is a historian of Mexico and Latin America. You can find some of Alex's analysis at Foreign Exchanges, with one of my favorites being: https://www.foreignexchanges.news/p/the-american-maginot-line-part-3; and NACLA: Report on the Americas with one of my favorites being: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10714839.2025.2542070; and his book: Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside (https://alexanderavina.com/specters-of-revolution/) Follow us on IG at: @psychimilitancypod & TikTok: @psychic.militancy. And consider becoming a patron to help support the podcast! www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

In this episode, I sit down with Amy Greer, who is best known to us as Mahmoud Khalil's lawyer—the one he called on the day of his abduction by ICE agents. We discuss the ethical imperative for what she calls "embodied lawyering" and how one resist seduction of a carceral discipline intent on innocence under the guise of saviorism. Amy E. Greer is an associate attorney at Dratel & Lewis. She is a member of Mahmoud Khalil's legal team, and one of the lead attorneys in a jawbone First Amendment suit against Columbia University, the House Committee on Education and Workforce, and the federal agencies. She has also recently served as a discipline defense advisor for students facing discrimination and disciplinary charges at Columbia University and Barnard College. Additionally, Amy assists in handling state and federal trial and appellate cases involving extradition, RICO, terrorism, drug trafficking, and sexual assault. She previously worked as an assistant public defender and as a research attorney for death-sentenced clients. Greer earned her J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law in 2020, receiving the Public Interest Award. Admitted in NY, NJ, DC, and multiple federal courts, she has experience in capital defense and holistic representation. She holds a B.A. from Wheaton College, master's degrees in Theater and Library Science, and a Ph.D. focused on race and policy in the U.S. Watch this episode on our YouTube channel Follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod & TikTok: @psychic.militancy   Consider becoming a Patron to support the show! www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah to discuss the centrality of the clinic in the genocidal violence perpetrated by the Zionist settler state in Gaza, his concept of the biosphere of genocide, and importantly, the site of the clinic as central to resistance, refusal, and liberation. Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah is a British-Palestinian Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon. He completed his medical education at University of Glasgow in the U.K and his postgraduate residency training in London. In April of 2024 he was awarded and Honorary Doctorate from the American University of Beirut, where is currently Professor of Conflict Medicine. His work was featured by numerous newspapers and media outlets notably La Monde, The Independent, Telegraph, BBC and CNN. Watch this episode on our YouTube channel Follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod & TikTok: @psychic.militancy Consider becoming a Patron to support the show! www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy