While I'm away on vacation, the staff at The North Star will be playing some of our favorite episodes from some of our other podcast series. Today, here's a very special episode of Sick Empire. Be sure to subscribe to them on your favorite podcasting platform!

The morning of May 25th, 2020 the first episode of Sick Empire aired. Back then there was no vaccine for the Coronavirus, we were all stuck in quarantine, and George Floyd would be murdered later that day. To commemorate our one year anniversary Sick Empire will highlight the crimes against humanity happening in East Jerusalem. You’ll hear Branden Janese in conversation with four guests who all share a link to social justice work in the Middle East. In true Sick Empire fashion we blend together voices that would have most likely never found themselves in a room together including, a New York City public defender, a Muslim community organizer, a Black girl who currently lives on the Gaza Strip, and a historian and writer.

This episode is a rollercoaster. There are moments that are hard to listen to, like when one guest describes watching a recent bombing of her neighborhood in Gaza and how another guest refuses to give up fighting for freedom even when it comes with exceptional losses. We also unpack the layers of inequality in solidarity work.