Krystal Kyle & Friends

Thanks for tuning in to Episode 175 of KK&F with Ken Roth. A growing number of countries support arresting Netanyahu for Israel’s grievous crimes against humanity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Biden stands alone in the way he has used his position of power to shut down critique, and now judicial proceedings, against Netanyahu. He’s made it clear the U.S. won’t play the role it’s promised to play as a world power in upholding international law. This reveals the total hypocrisy in the U.S.’s interpretation of what global leadership requires. But sadly, because of the vested financial interest our country has made in the genocide, it doesn’t come as a surprise, either.

We sat down with Ken Roth to unpack the case the ICC is making against Netanyahu and how successful it’s likely to be, what kind of international consensus is building around it, and whether Biden’s refusal to cooperate will be a major hindrance. Ken’s an expert on this topic, so we think you’ll appreciate his essential insight! You can listen to this episode as a podcast on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more.

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In the multi-track beef that’s unfolded in the past few months between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake, reputations have been tarnished, #1 hits have been released, and parents have been pulled into the fray. Beginning in late March with “Like That,” the beef now encompasses nine songs (and counting?), giving each rapper a platform to call his opponent’s character into question, slight his rapping skills, and diminish his place of importance in modern pop culture. How did this all start, and where will it end?

We tackle these questions with music critic Anthony Fantano, who leads us through the backstory and gives us a breakdown of this explosive back-and-forth. We hope you’ll enjoy this fresh new pop-culture focus on KK&F, and we can’t wait to hear what you think. You can listen to this episode as a podcast when it’s released tomorrow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and more.

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Hundreds of people around the country, largely on college campuses, have been arrested and assaulted by police for peacefully engaging in pro-Palestine encampments. The persecution of these people, and the infringement of their First Amendment rights, reveals how solidly our political establishment backs Israel at any cost, and how willing it is to compromise the so-called foundational values of this country in order to avoid challenging Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign in Palestine. There have been far too few courageous voices in American politics taking on this status quo. Jill Stein is one of those voices, and in our exclusive interview, we check in with her about the shocking details of her arrest, her ongoing advocacy for Palestine, and how it fits into her view for the presidency.

On this episode of KK&F, we have the opportunity to talk to Jill about what a third-party, pro-Palestine presidency would mean for the nation, how she plans to fight this uphill battle, and why fighting back against two-party hegemony is more important than ever. You can listen to this episode as a podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Violence against peacefully protesting students is now taking place at an unfathomable scale. Hundreds of protesters were attacked and arrested at Columbia; hundreds more were also assaulted and rounded up at UCLA, across the country. And dozens of schools in between are mounting their own solidarity encampments, and facing massive repression from the alliances of universities and local police forces.

These alliances are not new. They characterized the university’s response to protests against apartheid in South Africa and against the Vietnam War. What’s especially disturbing is that from the local level to the federal level, our government is, on the whole, utterly failing to protect these young people peacefully exercising their right to protest a genocide. The failure of leadership from Biden in particular — a president who has and will again demand the youth vote as the anti-Trump — is galling. Students across America are being left at the mercy of cops’ batons as they lose their housing and face total uncertainty in their academic careers.

We talk with Zaid Jilani this week about this massive uprising that’s sweeping the country, the insidious response from universities and governments, and what any principled free speech advocate should be doing right now about it. You can listen to this podcast when it’s released tomorrow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

The high visibility of student protests on social media have brought conversation on the genocide in Gaza to the fore. Dave Smith, a libertarian comedian, is also thinking about the unforgivable atrocities Israel has perpetrated in Palestine, and to that end, he recently debated Dennis Prager and Batya Ungar-Sargon (alongside Cenk Uygur). In this debate, Dave shares his fiery and brilliant perspective, making a clear case for boycotting, sharing why his politics lead him to support a ceasefire, and much more. Now, we’re talking to him about the aftermath of the debate, touching on the wildest points made by the other side, why he continues to voice his support for Palestine, and much more.

This episode is available tomorrow on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

CodePink activist Moataz Salim is our guest this week, talking about the organizing efforts he’s been part of in support of Palestinian liberation. All eyes are on pro-Palestine organizers right now, as students have set up encampments at Columbia (after months of enduring surveillance, chemical attacks, arrests, and doxxing). They’re making a powerful, highly visible statement against the endless slaughter of Palestinians by Israelis (and with U.S. funding), not to mention the grievous actions of their school to silence students who oppose the genocide.

Moataz is on Capitol Hill every day, confronting them with his humanity, as Krystal comments on this week’s episode. Congress is showing its true colors by (often proudly) voicing its support for an ethnic cleansing campaign, and Moataz’s courageous work is holding them to account. In this episode, we cover the essential organizing work Moataz is doing, how he and other Americans are tirelessly bringing visibility to the Palestinian cause, and more.

This episode is available as a podcast on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Medea Benjamin has had an incredibly busy week on Capitol Hill. First, there’s talking to the less-than-allies: publicly challenging the Secretary of Defense, who’s on the record saying there’s no evidence of genocide in Palestine. Same thing with Samantha Power, who has written about, studied, and spoken on genocide and human rights extensively in her political and academic career. She and her co-organizers have also attended a hearing regarding journalist safety, raising, of course, the massively overlooked tragedy of journalist killings in Gaza. At the same time, there are bright spots too — talking, for example, with Rashida Tlaib about potential bills and resolutions to support Palestinians and oppose the genocide.

We talk about these incredible efforts, the Freedom Flotilla, and much more on this week’s episode of KK&F. You can listen to this episode as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Ana Kasparian, host of TYT, reminds us of the line that will get trotted out millions of times before November to hosts of disenchanted voters tired of Democrats’ empty promises and full coffers for war: “Democracy is on the line.” So why is the Democratic Party insisting on Biden? Back in 2020, when the pickings for candidates supporting Medicare for All were incredibly slim but not zero, and there was at least a plurality of options for center-left Democrats promising some small departure from the status quo, you could at least say it looked like the Dems were trying. Now they’re making no attempt to put forward a candidate who speaks to Americans’ most basic moral concerns.

What will be the result of this ethically bankrupt approach? We talk about this and much more on this week’s episode of KK&F. You can listen to this episode as a podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

A recent Atlantic article by a student at Stanford lamenting the purported silencing of Zionist voices and the aggressiveness of pro-Palestine voices on campus might give the impression that defenders of Palestinian liberation, and not of Israeli apartheid, hold the most sway in American institutional settings. These pieces frame the current crisis as intellectual: the unjust violation of free speech against Palestinians’ rights.

But again, as Palestinians’ lives are literally on the line — after nearly six months of ongoing violence in Gaza — our purpose is to reframe these kinds of viral Zionist arguments to place emphasis on the actual mass suffering, death, and privation taking place among the Palestinian population at the hands of the IOF. In this episode, we undertake that kind of reframing with our guest, whose expertise on this topic helps shed new light on Israel’s decades-long subjugation of Palestine and why it’s an issue we should care about.

In this episode of KK&F, Mouin Rabbani joins us for an essential conversation on the latest in Israel’s brutal war on Palestine. You can listen to this episode as a podcast on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Katie Halper joins us to discuss Zionist backlash against Jonathan Glazer’s recent movie The Zone of Interest. Glazer was the only awardee to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza in his speech, in which he rebuked the co-optation of Jewish identity and the trauma of the Holocaust by violent supporters of an ethnostate. The movie, as we note, has clear and resonant parallels to modern-day violence: it presents the idyllic life of oppressors shadowed by the ever-present but never-quite-seen suffering of their victims.

For Zionists to take issue with this film tells us everything we need to know about their absolute dismissal of Palestinians’ humanity and complicity in the violence that Israel’s very existence is currently premised on. Humiliation and cruelty are part of the system. We talk about much more in this episode, including Katie’s debunking of the oft-said statement that Israel protects Jews and why that statement is so harmful. You can listen to it tomorrow when it’s released on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe