Special Christmas/New Year edition with the brothers' mother! The brothers welcome their mother, the author and educator Jean Said Makdisi, to the show, to discuss her books, her memories of growing up between Palestine and Egypt, living in America in the 1950s and 1960s and returning to Lebanon, where she raised her children through the 1975-1990 war while teaching at Beirut University College.

She is the author of "Teta, Mother and Me: An Arab Woman's Memoir" and "Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir." This episode was recorded live and produced by Layla Makdisi.

Date of recording: August 8, 2025.

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***Producer's note: This is a repost of an episode we released two years ago. Wishing you a Merry Christmas from the Makdisi Street team! Thanks for your support! FREE PALESTINE*** The brothers welcome Dr. Mitri Raheb to the show to talk about the role and visibility of Christians in Palestine's ecumenical culture, so-called Christian Zionism, and how the Bible can be read either as a text authorizing empire and genocide (as with Netanyahu citing the extirpation of the Amalek) or as a text calling for liberation, equality, justice and resistance to empire. Check out his books, Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible (2023) and I Am a Palestinian Christian God and Politics in the Holy Land: A Personal Testimony (1995)

Date of recording: December 22, 2023.

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Music by Hadiiiiii

The brothers welcome Professor Darryl Li of the University of Chicago to the show to discuss the new AAUP/MESA report on federal "antisemitism" investigations on US college campuses, revealing the extent to which US civil rights laws have been distorted and weaponized to suppress the advocacy of Palestinian rights across the United States, to suppress American academic freedom in order to protect the Zionist project in Palestine, as well as the extent to which this process, though taken to a new level by Trump, was actually initiated by liberal and Democratic administrations long before Trump came along.

Date of recording: December 2, 2025

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X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii

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The brothers welcome Ali Abunimah of The Electronic Intifada to the show to discuss mainstream media distortion of Palestine and the rise of alternative media, shifting public opinions on Zionism and solidarity for Palestine in the West, the growing divide between ordinary people and political elites, and the shared sense that we are witnessing the terminal decline of Zionism in the West.

Date of recording: November 3, 2025

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**NOTE: The brothers are hosting a live Q&A on NOVEMBER 18 for patrons only. Please sign up today and drop your questions!**

The brothers welcome Melani McAlister, professor of American Studies at George Washington University, author of the new book Promises, Then the Storm and scholar of American culture and evangelical culture. They discuss the meaning and nature of Christian Zionism, Melani's own insight after growing up an evangelical in North Carolina, how she learned about Israel before discovering the question of Palestine, the diversity within the evangelical movement, the different ways American evangelicals are Zionist, the significance of the evident generational fracture over Palestine, and her sense of the indictment of American liberalism over its denial of the Gaza genocide.

Date of recording: Oct 13, 2025.

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X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii

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The brothers welcome Mandy Turner, a senior researcher with Security in Context, to discuss the world of think tanks, how they operate as hegemony factories, and the divergence between public opinion and elites on the Gaza genocide

Check out her article, "Hegemony factories or independent thinkers? Western think tanks on Israel and Palestine after October 7"

Date of recording: Sept 16, 2025.

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The brothers discuss the "ceasefire" in Gaza, the Trump plan, and the potential contradictions between Israel and its partners and enablers.

Date of recording: Oct 21, 2025.

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**Producer's note: This episode was marred by technical problems and connection issues. Apologies for the sound quality**

The brothers welcome the Canadian-Palestinian lawyer and former negotiator Diana Buttu (@dianabuttu) to the show to discuss the ceasefire in Gaza and the context of the Trump-branded "peace plan" for Gaza and its historical antecedents and possible outcomes.

Date of recording: Oct 9, 2025.

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The brothers welcome their father, Samir Makdisi, Professor Emeritus at the American University of Beirut, to the show. They discuss the significance of Makdisi Street—the street itself!— in Beirut's cultural history, the social and political location of Ras Beirut in the larger context of Beirut and Lebanon itself, student movements in the 1950s and 1960s, the gradual consolidation of a sectarian political culture in Lebanon and the many forms of resistance to it, and the transformations in Beirut and Lebanon since the onset of the Lebanese war in 1975. They also discuss the history of their own family in relation to Makdisi Street, Ras Beirut, Beirut and Lebanon, in addition to Palestine and the Arab world more generally.

This episode was recorded live and produced by Layla Makdisi.

Date of recording: August 8, 2025.

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***Producer's note: This is a preview of the latest bonus episode. Sign up on Patreon for as little as $5 a month to access this and other great bonus content.***

The brothers get together for a spirited debate on the age-old question: Is Israel a proxy of the US?

Date of recording: Sept 9, 2025.

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