The Left Unsaid

This week, senior members of the Biden administration presented their defense before history, explaining or pointing fingers over their support for Israel’s assault on Gaza. In this episode, we pick that defense apart and compare it to earlier justifications of US imperial crimes.Read NPR’s article, sourced from a couple dozen senior Biden officials: “We Didn’t Do Enough”If we understand the failings of the establishment Democratic party, we empower ourselves to overcome them. And a rising crop of challengers aim to do just that, willing to name this moral collapse and oppose it.Plus, the enormous Global Sumud Flotilla, carrying aid to Gazans, gives us hope, even as US warships threaten Venezuela on the other side of the ocean.Come to theleftunsaid.net to sign up for our new mailing list.

This episode features part two of our conversation with Catholic Worker organizers Lenore Yarger and Steve Woolford, and their son Quinn. From their rural North Carolina home base, they’ve spent 20 years running the GI Rights Hotline, an anonymous lifeline for soldiers looking to get out, resist, or simply not follow illegal orders. Their hotline blew up when Trump ordered National Guard deployments to Los Angeles.What happens when the empire turns inward? What kinds of calls do they get from soldiers at the breaking point?We also learn some history of resistance to right-wing, anti-immigrant nativism in Siler City, a small North Carolina town.Links:GI RIGHTS HOTLINE: (877) 447-4487, girightshotline.orgA documentary recommendation from the Iraq War era: Sir, No Sir!Support the show at theleftunsaid.net, and help us keep bringing you the stories official history leaves out.

This week, the tide may finally be starting to turn against genocide. A majority of Democratic Senators voted with Bernie to cut off some weapons to Israel. Not enough, but a major step forward.Zohran Mamdani polls overwhelmingly ahead in the New York mayoral race, including among Jewish voters. Over in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn launched a new leftist party and immediately matched Labour’s membership. Turns out “don’t fund a genocide” is a winning platform.But apparently, it's still a tough sell for some in Congress. And ambitious centrists seem to think they can run without strong moral opposition to forced starvation. From Roy Cooper's Senate ambitions here in North Carolina to Kamala’s resurrection tour, the "moderates" are scrambling to catch the cultural tide without getting too wet.Then, we turn to something radical in a whole other way. Patrick, Meg, and Finn are joined by friends and Catholic Worker organizers Lenore Yarger, Steve Woolford, and their son Quinn. They talk about anarchist Catholic hospitality, voluntary poverty, and raising kids while forging an alternative to the dominant US family culture.Part two of that conversation, on military resistance and Steve and Lenore's work with the GI Rights Hotline, is coming soon.ALSO IN THIS EPISODE:The rise of Zohran social media clones with none of his substanceThe European hornets that attacked PatrickLINKS:Join The Left Unsaid newsletter⁠⁠The Labour Files, a docuseries on Corbyn and the Labour PartyZeteo's parody of centrists copying ZohranAnd Liam Elkind's real-life campaign video parroting Zohran's style without the substance.

After a brief hiatus due to vacation, COVID superspreading, and a flood event here in Chapel Hill, we’re back with our very first interview. This week, we talk with our cousin Chiara Kimelia, Dartmouth student and freshly minted canvassing superhero, who hit the pavement for Zohran Mamdani’s historic, come-from-the-left win in NYC’s mayoral primary.We explore the generational and community politics motivating voters to support Zohran, and how a campaign built on affordability and human dignity can beat Cuomo with a war chest. Plus, Chiara shares what it was like watching U.S. imperialism from abroad, as she backpacked alone for a year after high school, then landed back on at Dartmouth, a university that called the cops on its own community.Also in this episode:​Medicaid got gutted.​ICE is set to become the largest police force in U.S. history.​Trump threatens to “take over” NYC.​Israel explicitly plans to set up concentration camps.​And we get rare good news from the North Carolina Democratic Party.LINKS:​Ryan Wang has some great shorts on the NC Dem Party’s resolutions for a People’s Primary + Israel arms embargo. Part 1: about the resolutions. Part 2: how they pulled it off. Part 3: what it all means.​Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa, a wonderful piece of Palestinian fiction.​Deaf President Now documentary. (Now streaming on Apple TV.)Please subscribe, rate, review, and tell a friend.

This week, Trump launched a full-throttle, unprovoked strike on Iran, violating U.S. law, international law, and any shred of moral credibility.The oligarchy is flexing its muscles, but we can flex back.We examine the opposition to this war, a populist opposition that covers the spectrum from MAGA to Bernie and the left.CNN, Fox and other mainstream outlets start to manufacture consent, but we've got tools to fight back.TAKE ACTION. CAIR has an easy set of action alerts that make it easy to contact your Representative and your Senators.We remind ourselves how to innoculate our minds against manufactured consent to war, dissect the liberal feminist Trojan horse arguments for “liberation by airstrike,” and remind folks that this exact imperial playbook led us into Iraq.Also this week:Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil is finally out on bail after ICE disappeared him for leading campus protests.The Senate Parliamentarian tells Republicans that they can't cut food stamp cuts.The Democrats once again show they hate nothing more than a charismatic leftist by throwing everything they've got against Zohran Mamdani. (Go VOTE if you're a New Yorker!)Subscribe, rate, and share with your friends. Visit us at TheLeftUnsaid.net to follow the action.LinksWatch "The Encampments" on Watermelon+ Recommended read: “Crimes of the Century: How Israel, with the help of the U.S., broke not only Gaza but the foundations of humanitarian law." by Suzy Hansen in New York Magazine.⁠Ask your Representative to oppose war.⁠ And ⁠your Senators⁠ too.

This week on The Left Unsaid, we skip the burgers and throw something juicier on the grill: the imperial myth machine. It’s a Father’s Day edition, so naturally we’re spending it exactly how Dad likes—tearing into bipartisan war propaganda and the elite penchant for fascist-adjacent pageantry.Finn and Patrick debrief from their trip to DC where The Left Unsaid crew filmed CodePink giving Congress hell and glimpsed Trump’s weak military cosplay. We then returned home to experience the odd pageantry of surburban liberal resistance at our local “No Kings” protest, with its awkward fusion of patriotic aesthetics and moral outrage.Also: the history and latest stage of Israel’s illegal war on Iran, praised as “stunning” by the mainstream media. the long history of Israeli fear-mongering about Iranian nukes (Bibi still crying wolf after 33 years). the West’s grotesque double standards.why the Democrats remain stuck in their usual position: verbally “concerned” while materially complicit.plus the rapid rise of Zohran Mamdani’s insurgent NYC mayoral campaign.This Father's Day, we'll recommmend 2 books:From Zohran's dad, the seminal Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, and Sim Kern’s Genocide Bad, about Israeli propaganda and how to answer it.Sign up to stay in touch at TheLeftUnsaid.net

This week, we keep it a little shorter, since Finn, Patrick and Meg are deep in work on a documentary about Gaza solidarity in the high schools.On the podcast, we cover: AI and the Big Dumb Bill. The House passed a monster benefits-cut bill. Half of them didn’t even read it. it is bad in almost every way, EXCEPT, it finally kicked off the divorce between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. We discuss the latest insults flying between them.ICE in LA. Trump is sending the military and the National Guard to break up sanctuary cities. Protesters fight back. A union leader gets hospitalized. Tiananmen Square, but worse, as a protestor is run down by an ICE van⁠. (disturbing)Travel Ban Redux. Trump revives the Muslim ban idea and ends protections for hundreds of thousands. The Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Since we recorded, Israel has boarded the ship and detained and deported its activists. Greta was on board, our hero. Read their latest updates here.Mexico Elects Its Judges, So Naturally It’s a “Dictatorship” Now. The Western press flips out over a democratic reform that is overcoming judicial corruption.Dockworkers vs. Empire. French unions block weapons shipments to Israel.Mamdani Rising. NYC’s most charismatic DSA candidate wrecks Cuomo at the debate. He’s surging in the polls and he already raised enough money, so he's just asking for your time now. See the fun debate where everyone beats up on Andrew Cuomo.Support the show:TheLeftUnsaid.net – Join the mailing list and subscribe wherever you listen.

This week, The Left Unsaid bursts out of the living room and into the headlines. Literally. Our youngest co-host and resident teenage rabble-rouser, Finn, organized a Walkout for Palestine at Chapel Hill High School and made the front page of the local paper. We bring you the exclusive on how it all went down. You'll be impressed by these students.But first:the grotesque theater of the "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation" (aka deadly military-industrial photo op).The ongoing hostage negotiations between Israel and HamasThe inconvenient truth that Hamas wants out of governing GazaIran, uranium enrichment, and the looming shadow of another forever warIsrael's documented use of Palestinians as human shieldsThis one’s for the kids. And for hoping that the grown-ups finally decide to grow up.Links:IndyWeek Article on the WalkoutCheck out this reel featuring Finn's Walkout.Contact us or get involved: info@TheLeftUnsaid.netCalls to Action:Thumbs up the episode.Leave a review.Organize a walkout.Sign up for our mailing list at TheLeftUnsaid.net.If you're in Chapel Hill/Carrboro and want to support students, help us keep the school board honest, or connect with like-minded parents, send us a message. We’re building a local crew. Boots on the ground. Eyes wide open.

This week, the McElwee family returns to the belly of the beast - domestic politics - to rip apart Trump’s $4.5 trillion “budget” bill, aka oligarchic looting plan. We break down what’s in the bill, how it’s quietly murdering people with paperwork and poverty, and a truly massive expansion of fascist border law enforcement.Meanwhile, the genocide rages on in Gaza, two Israeli consulate employees are shot in DC, and the ADL blames it on our favorite Twitch streamer.Also in this episode: Ms. Rachel inspired Meg to speak out more loudly for Palestine, and should inspire you too! Columbia’s president gets drowned out during her commencement address. (Free Mahmoud!) And the U.S. empire continues to kneecap its own soft power by going after Harvard’s international students.This one’s packed. Listen in, leave us a comment, call your senator (you can do it after 5pm, introverts), and if you’re able, support us at TheLeftUnsaid.net. No paywalls, no ads, just one semi-functional family trying to tell the truth.Links:See Ms. Rachel with Rahaf, a young girl who had both her legs amputated after Israel bombed her.Here is Meg's reel for our actual day job, Sew Liberated, inspired to go harder for solidarity with Gaza.You can read Corey Robin, one of Patrick's favorite academics, on Facebook of all places.

This week, we start with the deranged plot twist of the Duck Dynasty guy teaming up with Homeland Security to turn immigration into reality TV. For these people, The Hunger Games was a how-to manual. From there, we drag our mics out of the simulacra and into the real: the criminalization of journalism, the surveillance of dissent, and borders as literal and ideological weapons.We discuss famous left-wing streamer Hasan Piker’s interrogation at the airport, Jeremy Scahill’s consistent moral and journalistic brilliance, and Mr. Rogers's humanist commitments.Plus: Keir Starmer cosplays as Trump, beloved online educator Ms. Rachel get burned for supporting children's right to live, and Trump’s alternative Oligarchy Tour through the Middle East provides both opportunities and traps for global justice.Also: weird French philosopher Jean Baudrillard,, climate apartheid, trad wives, and the AI-generated Trump Gaza real estate ad. Links:DropSiteNews.com, excellent news site founded by Jeremy ScahillHasan Piker and Jeremy Scahill's sit down togetherReport from the Center on Constitutional Rights about the foundational use of "terrorism" in US law to smear PalestiniansBook recommendation: Capital in the 21st Century“Your Border Is Showing”, our episode on India, Pakistan, and borders.Patrick is an Irish skedaddler, for sureThat awful AI-generated ⁠Trump Gaza promo video⁠, which was intended to poke fun at Trump but then was endorsed by him.Go show Ms. Rachel some love, especially if you have toddlers!Help us keep the simulacra glitching:Leave a review wherever reviews are left (or anywhere else, for that matter)Use the yellow mic button at TheLeftUnsaid.net to drop us a question or righteous rantFollow us on Instagram: @theleftunsaid.pod⁠Subscribe to us on YouTube⁠Tell your friends!

Meg returns for a Mother’s Day episode that is warm, weird, and wildly enraging.We start with a ceasefire (India and Pakistan) and end with state violence (ICE kidnapping a mom in Massachusetts). In between, we explore the imperial roots of the India-Pakistan conflict over Kashmir, why caste and colonialism still matter, and how U.S. immigration law is a eugenics project in bureaucratic drag.Other things we cover:What a teenage Indian pacifist on live TV can teach all of usHow Stephen Miller’s immigration plans recycle 1920s-style race scienceWhy MAGA fascism isn’t new, just newly brandedThe emerging tradition of regular people blocking ICE with their bodiesWhether Trump actually wants a Nobel Peace Prize (spoiler: yes)And what it's like to be the sullied gene pool (looking at you, Finn)Don’t just listen. Organize, radicalize, and leave us a 5-star review that would make Karl Rove proud (but maybe don’t use his name this time).Links:Amazingly wise pacifist Indian teen. This is how you handle reporters.Must-watch documentary, The Settlers, from Louis Theroux. (If you can't watch the BBC, try a Google search or search on X. You might find a friendly pirate.)Meg's current book, Bad Law by Elie MystalAnd, if you want to check out that scene of Cantinflas on the border.

This week, it’s just Patrick and Finn—no Meg, but plenty of rage, history, and dark humor. Starting with the unspeakable horrors coming out of Gaza, they explore not only the U.S.’s financial and political complicity but also why this particular atrocity demands our attention. It’s not “just another war.” It’s a stress test for precious, hard-won moral frameworks: international law, human rights, even the idea of civilization itself.We follow the bloody trail from the Spanish conquest to Israel’s assault on Gaza, with stops in Nicaragua, Ireland, apartheid South Africa, and the U.S. Senate. Along the way, we talk about what it means to be “special carriers” of anti-colonial memory, how ideological tools constrain power, and how we can build that toolbox, even if we have thus far failed to stop the genocide.LinksGet ⁠America, América⁠, an amazing new history of the New World from Yale historian Greg Grandin.Finn and Patrick's single video episode of Playfully Serious on the history of Israel and Palestine, from December 2023

In this episode of The Left Unsaid, Pat, Meg, and Finn take a wild, unbalanced joyride through the myths we’re taught in school — from the sacred veneration of the Founding Fathers to the soothing bedtime stories spun by Ken Burns documentaries.We dig into:How the Trump administration is pushing "patriotic education" (read: mandatory nationalistic myth-making).How liberal takes on history (hello again, Ken Burns) sometimes aren’t that far off from the conservative ones — just with better music.What the 1619 Project gets wrong.Why critical thinking about history matters more than ever, as authoritarianism erupts into the classroom.And why the Constitution isn't the sacred text you were told it was in 8th grade civics class.If you're tired of fairy tales disguised as history, grab your headphones. Let's complicate the past together — and maybe complicate the future too.Links:Trump administration on education: Executive Order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling”2021 President’s 1776 Commission Final ReportThe 2nd Place Winner in the Senior Individual Documentary category of the National History Day competition in 2024, which we noted tied decolonization in Africa to the unfolding of the principles of the Declaration of Independence.Historian Tad Stoermer’s takedown of Ken Burns on the American Revolution.The Dig episode on the Constitution and how Americans have viewed/worshipped it over time, with Aziz Rana.James Oakes, respected historian of slavery and abolitionism in US history, critiquing the 1619 Project and pointing out that history textbooks were actually pretty good, at least in the 80s and 90s.Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States.Incredible new history: America, América, by Greg Grandin.

In this episode of The Left Unsaid, your favorite intergenerational think tank—Pat, Meg, and Finn—dive headfirst into the authoritarian fever dream that is U.S. higher education under pressure from the Trump administration. From threats to Harvard’s funding to the criminalization of pro-Palestinian student speech, we trace how empire comes home to roost.Also:Finn contemplates his college prospects as a politically aware white guy. the rise and fall of soft power, and how U.S. “aid” is often economic sabotage in a humanitarian costume.Plus, a brief return of the Dutch East India Company, because imperialism loves a reboot.And yes, because it's 2025, we fulfill our legal obligation to talk about artificial intelligence. Imagine the State Department run by ChatGPT, where generative coups require no redactions and zero moral reflection. The Trump administration has a plan.

In this debut episode, Patrick, Meg and Finn sway to the vibes of our current political moment: killer robot dogs dressed as cartoons, Mahmoud Khalil and predictive political repression, why "not obeying in advance" might be our most important survival skill.And of course, because it's now legally required of all podcasters, we talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI).Join our attempt to briefly escape the inanity of it all through cozy, family conversation.Free Palestine.