Makdisi Street

The brothers host a livestream discussion with Akbar Shahid Ahmed on his new book Crossing the Red Line: Biden, his Advisors, and Israel's War in Gaza (2026), published by WW Norton

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The brothers welcome Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) of Drop Site News to the show to discuss shifts in the American political landscape, the growing disillusionment with Israel and how AIPAC has become an index of political corruption, the contradiction between donors and electoral base in Democratic Party politics, Abdul el-Sayed's political maneuvering ahead of the Michigan senate vote, and Trump's embrace of the legacy of early modern piracy.

Date of recording: Sept 29, 2026

Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel https://youtu.be/WwubT5qBS_Q X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet

Check out Ussama's personal SubStack https://makdisi.substack.com/ Music by Hadiiiiii

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The brothers host the award-winning Palestinian-American poet Fady Joudah to discuss his newest work, Exhibit G: Poems, Essays, and Photographs of Gaza (2026).

Watch the livestream on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnUPf7gMDSs

Consider supporting the show for access to the next livestream edition of Madisi Street Reviews! www.patreon.com/makdisistreet

The brothers welcome Chris Doyle, Director of the Council for British-Arab Understanding (CAABU) and leading expert on British policy to the Middle East. We discuss the context behind British complicity in the Gaza genocide under former Prime Minister Keir Starmer and why he thinks the apparent shift in policy under new Foreign Minister Ed Milliband is genuine. We also talk about the power of the Israel lobby in the UK and the unprecedented crackdown on free speech and Palestine solidarity protests.

Date of recording: Sept 15, 2026

Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel https://youtu.be/9pDWjlgUs40 X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet

Check out Ussama's personal SubStack https://makdisi.substack.com/ Music by Hadiiiiii

Consider supporting the show www.patreon.com/makdisistreet

The brothers regroup to discuss israel's ongoing campaigns of genocidal destruction in southern Lebanon and Gaza; the regional consequences of the apparent stalemate in the US war on Iran; continuing shifts in Western public attitudes toward the question of Palestine and the gap between public or voter sentiment on the one hand and actual policy making on the other, as well as an illustrative contrast between the consolidation of pro-Israel establishment politicians in the US (witness the recent bill to protect Israel by muzzling US universities) and possible signs of change in Europe, including the recent move to recognize the illegality of the 1967 occupation in its entirety.

Date of recording: Sept 8, 2026

Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel https://youtu.be/GAIte4DE8ec X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet

Check out Ussama's personal SubStack https://makdisi.substack.com/ Music by Hadiiiiii Consider supporting the showwww.patreon.com/makdisistreet

Two of the three brothers reflect on summer travels and discuss Ussama's recent visit to Australia, the extraordinary repression across the Western world intended to shield Israel from criticism or even analysis, the provenance of the so-called IHRA misdefinition of "antisemitism," and the replacement of a culture of denial by a culture of suppression.

Date of recording: August 25, 2026

Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel https://youtu.be/9pDWjlgUs40 X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet

Check out Ussama's personal SubStack https://makdisi.substack.com/ Music by Hadiiiiii Consider supporting the showwww.patreon.com/makdisistreet

The brothers reunite in a special, in-person episode at their parents' mountain house in Dhour Choueir, Lebanon, to discuss their recent trip to southern Lebanon, what they saw on the ground, the wider regional implications, and where U.S. politics stands today.

Produced by Layla Makdisi

Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEd2P3lOkN8

X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet

Check out Ussama's personal SubStack https://makdisi.substack.com/ Music by Hadiiiiii Consider supporting the showwww.patreon.com/makdisistreet

The brothers welcome journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates back to the show to discuss Kamala Harris's ill-fated 2024 presidential campaign and the debacle of the Democratic Convention's exclusion of Palestinian-American voices (about which he's written recently for Vanity Fair), the betrayal of the radical Black tradition, tensions in the civil rights movement over the question of Palestine and the significance of the emerging break with Zionism on the American right.

Check out his article:

https://www.vanityfair.com/story/the-next-black-president?srsltid=AfmBOorwIn31nJd05iOQ99YVlFQ7ldQCrcpGKRpwpda8EBI4DZctwE7j

Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel https://youtu.be/rZrXgODaPV4

Date of recording: July 13, 2026

X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet

Check out Ussama's personal SubStack https://makdisi.substack.com/ Music by Hadiiiiii Consider supporting the showwww.patreon.com/makdisistreet

**Please join our Patreon for access to our next livestream and to submit your questions/comments** Come and join the brothers for another patron-only livestream discussion of the situation in Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza. We look forward to your questions and comments!

Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Date of recording: July 16, 2026

X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet

Check out Ussama's personal SubStack https://makdisi.substack.com/ Music by Hadiiiiii Consider supporting the showwww.patreon.com/makdisistreet

The brothers welcome back Aslı Ü. Bâli, Professor of Law at Yale Law School, for an intense and wide-ranging discussion of the state of the Middle East in the aftermath of the failed US-Israeli war on Iran. They discuss the potential geopolitical outcomes the apparent US strategic defeat, examine the nature and assumptions of what had been American primacy over the Gulf, the liability and costs to the US and the Middle East of the decades-long American political embrace of an Israel drunk on borrowed power and impunity, Turkey's role in the regional realignment, the question of pipelines and resources, and the importance of international law in the context of the Gaza genocide. Check out her recent article, "Object Lessons" https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/object-lessons/

Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel

Date of recording: June 23, 2026

X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet

Check out Ussama's personal SubStack https://makdisi.substack.com/ Music by Hadiiiiii Consider supporting the showwww.patreon.com/makdisistreet