Unshocked with Naomi Klein

Earlier this month, former President Donald Trump put his brazen corruption on full display for America’s top oil executives, promising to rollback the Biden administration’s environmental policies as he asked for a small campaign donation of $1 billion. “It's almost a caricature of big oil. It's like a scene out of Hollywood movies,” Mehdi says, in this latest episode of ‘Unshocked.’ “You've got the presidential candidate sitting in his wedding holiday resort in Florida eating chopped steak with 20 big oil executives saying, ‘Give me $1 billion and I'll make you $100 billion.’ ”Since that first meeting was reported, Trump has only doubled down on his quest for big oil money, visiting Houston last week to meet with fossil-fuel execs, just days after the city suffered their own climate disaster. “The oil companies must have been just so stunned because they're not hurting. They are posting record profits. All of these wars are fantastic for their bottom lines,” Naomi Klein tells Mehdi. In their latest conversation, Mehdi and Naomi explore what’s really behind Trump’s “drill baby drill” obsession, and what it says not only about our future, but also about the right’s preoccupation with brute force, masculinity, and of course, climate denial.“You are here on this planet, and you do have to navigate and negotiate with the force of nature, which is actually stronger than us,” Naomi said. “I think that is perceived by people like Trump as an insult to their masculinity, like the idea that nature is speaking back to them and that their worldview really is about a hierarchy where you have white men at the top.”Later in the conversation, Naomi went on to explain how the genocide in Gaza ties into America’s apathy towards climate disasters, a point made by Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza. “In October, Gustavo Petro said, this is global 1933. And he said that what they were seeing in Gaza was a glimpse of their future in the Global South,” Naomi said. “They see Gaza as part of a process of normalizing mass death, of habituating the planet to just allowing people to die.” ‘Unshocked’ is a monthly conversation between Zeteo Editor-in-Chief Mehdi Hasan and author and activist Naomi Klein, where they pull viewers ‘out of shock’ through analysis, facts, and history. Friendly reminder: All of our content is currently available to all subscribers, free or paid. But this will only be for a limited, promotional period. Building and sustaining an independent media company like this requires, above all else, money. If you appreciate the work our team is doing, and want to be a part of this effort, please consider supporting us by becoming a paid subscriber. Get full access to Zeteo at zeteo.com/subscribe

In a conversation with Mehdi for her new contributor segment at Zeteo called ‘Unshocked,’ Jewish activist, academic, and author Naomi Klein calls for an “exodus from the ideological shackles of Zionism.” Naomi also reacts to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu comparing student protesters at Columbia University to Nazis, telling Mehdi that when it comes to Netanyahu, “there is nobody more adept at exploiting Jewish trauma, historical trauma, and turning it into a political weapon for his own advantage.”Mehdi also opens up to Naomi about why he decided to boycott the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “I can't call out what Israel is doing to Palestinian journalists with American-made bombs and then go to a fun, comedy-type dinner with the President of the United States — who's not just responsible for that, but is also not even acknowledging it,” Mehdi tells Naomi. In 2007, Naomi wrote The Shock Doctrine, a best-selling book that explains what happens when a national crisis throws citizens into a state of shock and how the powerful exploit those moments.Although it may be one of her most popular books, Naomi tells Mehdi that she dreams of a day where The Shock Doctrine will no longer be relevant, where people can stay grounded even in times of chaos. “The idea for calling this segment ‘Unshocked’ — it's not to communicate a kind of world weariness, like nothing can shock me… It's the idea of what I'm hoping we can do together, which is yank us out of shock through analysis, facts, history, and really rooting us in reality,” Naomi explains.Look out for ‘Unshocked’ with Naomi Klein every month, where she and Mehdi provide deeper analysis on various topics related to current events, religion, politics, ideology, and more. To sign up, click your profile icon in the top right corner of the Substack page, go to “manage subscription,” and scroll down to select. Get full access to Zeteo at zeteo.com/subscribe