Psychic Militancy

I was so excited that Indie Nile, who you might already know from his spectacular YouTube channel, joined me for this livestream. He and I had the chance to sit down on his show over a year ago, and we got to continue the conversation after so much time and so many monumental events have unfolded. We were particularly excited to discuss how we maintain our ability to refuse the fragmentation that is forced upon us by the violence of Zionism and imperialism, especially in Lebanon and Palestine. We had a LOT to cover and we both were ready to dive in, so make sure you tune in!

Indie Nile is a Palestinian/Lebanese theater maker, drag artist & popular YouTuber based in Amsterdam. He is known for his thought-provoking yet highly entertaining pieces that blend pop culture & politics with psychology hence the moniker "drag therapist". Indie was nominated for the 2025 Podium Prijs, the Netherland's most prestigious performing arts prize. His debut theater show, "How 2 Prepare 4 Love" won the top jury prize at Amsterdam Fringe Festival in 2022 before touring the Netherlands, Europe & the US. Prior to his journey in theater, Indie worked as a documentary filmmaker after graduating from the New York Film Academy.

Don't forget to subscribe to both of our YouTube channels: https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy & https://www.youtube.com/@dragtherapy

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You can find us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod

I am releasing this out of order (again!) because it was an urgent and special episode with a dedicated fundraiser for youth in south Lebanon, especially those in schools. Mostafa is a dear comrade on the ground in Lebanon—he gives us updates on what is happening, mutual aid efforts, and his own work with youth in the South. Please consider giving whatever amount you're able to today!

Shout out to our awesome comrades Hibr Falastin (check them out on IG @hibrfalastin and follow their work if you haven't already!) who are teaming up with us for the fundraiser. Please send them your donations via Venmo @arianabazlamit with a ☀️ emoji. *All raised funds go directly to the kids in Lebanon!*

‼️IMP‼️ Guidelines for sending via Venmo:

•Increments of $500 or less

•"Friends and Family," NOT "Goods and Services"

•Note: ☀️

For those outside the USA, you can use Whish and send directly to: Mostafa Soueid at (+961) 76-726-762

OR use Taptap send and send to Mostafa's Whish account Mostafa Soueid (delivery method "wallet") at (+961) 76-726-762. If you use Taptap Send: https://www.taptapsend.com/en make sure you use their first free $20 to send that extra amount on them!

Mostafa Soueid is a child psychologist based in Lebanon whose work focuses on psychosocial support for children and adolescents affected by displacement, conflict, and instability. He works with young people from South Lebanon, Palestinian and Syrian refugee camps, and Gaza, developing psychosocial support activities that strengthen communal solidarity. His work seeks to expand approaches to psychological support beyond the clinical setting and develop practices that are more responsive to Arab-majority contexts. He holds a Master's degree in Psychology from the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in Qatar, where he completed his practicum training with children and adolescents aged 6–18.

Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel, like our videos to disrupt the overlords and their monopoly on content, AND, if you're feeling really adventurous and want a psychic militancy infusion in between episodes, consider becoming a paying patron at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

Find us on IG at: @psychicmilitancypod

I am was joined for this livestream by militant comrade Arlene Eisen--and let me tell you how excited I was!! Arlene has sooo much knowledge, both historical and practicel, and also from and for the current moment. Arlene and I discussed her incredible book, In the Worldwide Family of Militant Women, and something that is/was on both of our minds: Cuba. Arlene's book documents her long history being involved in militant struggle and revolutionary movements--so we definitely dove in there, but also into so much more.

Inspired by the Black and Vietnamese liberation movements, Arlene has been a militant in the struggle against imperialism since the 1960's-- first as a protester facing tear gas and later as a teacher and writer. She edited The Movement newspaper, and was a leading voice in the anti-imperialist women's movement of the 1970's. For the next half century, she joined the anti-apartheid movement, the movement for justice in Palestine, including the olive harvest in the West Bank, the struggle for the right to return to New Orleans after Katrina, the movements against fascist U.S. police and their deputized militias and against the holocaust in Gaza---always standing in solidarity with national liberation struggles both inside and outside the U.S. Empire. To support herself and her two sons, she worked as a sociology and women's studies lecturer, machinist, journalist and public health expert. During the first ten years of her children's lives, she was on welfare. Arlene Eisen is the author of the influential study, Operation Ghetto Storm, first published by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. She is also the author of two books on Vietnamese Women. All are available on her website, https://ArleneEisen.org

Find Arlene's book here from Iskra books here: https://www.iskrabooks.org/books/p/worldwide-family

Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy

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For pre-releases and exclusive content, consider becoming a paying member at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

I am releasing this audio out of order because it is an urgent call to action and support! Hala Sabbah, our incredible comrade from the Sameer Project joined me on this urgent livestream to give us a report back about their work, what's happening, and most importantly, what we all need to do to uplift their continued interventions and struggle. To support the most urgent needs funded via the Sameer Project, please consider giving what you can here: https://chuffed.org/project/help-us-deliver-vital-aid-to-gaza-families-in-need And joining their substack here: https://substack.com/@thesameerproject Hala Sabbah is Palestinian based in Spain. She has been an activist for 15 years and cofounded The Sameer Project in 2024. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy For pre-releases and bonus content, consider becoming a paying patron at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy Also follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod

We are baaaaaaaack with our very popular TGT spin-off, TGT-The Musical with Nora, who, yes, we still all love. This time we were joined by our dear comrade Maura Finkelstein, who, let's face it, we also ALL love. As always, a surprise singing comrade appearance is in store. Join us as we talk resistance, how to continue sustaining ourselves for the long struggle, and so much more.

Nora Barrows-Friedman is an associate editor at The Electronic Intifada and has been a reporter and broadcaster focusing on Palestine for more than 20 years. She is the author of "In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine."

Maura Finkelstein is a writer and anthropologist. Her first book, The Archive of Loss: Lively Ruination in Mill Land Mumbai, was published by Duke University Press in 2019. Her anti-Zionist writing has been published by Allegra Lab, The Scottish Left review, The New Arab, The Markaz Review, Mondoweiss, Middle East Eye, and Al Jazeera. She is currently working on a book about Hillel International and a history of Zionist repression on US college and university campuses.

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Hi everyone! Releasing a little snippet of our bonus episode where me and Sina laugh about all the things that go into this show and how we got here--and, of course, much more. If you want to hear the entire thing and some special Lara & Sina analysis, please consider supporting the show at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

Thank you, as always, for all your support!

This is a special episode release (out of order, yes!) to commemorate Tufan al-Aqsa, continued and fierce resistance in Palestine, Libnan, Yemen and across the region, as a direct result of the Resistance's Oct. 7, 2023 political intention to disrupt Zionist foreclosure on Palestinian life and life-making.

Fady Joudah joins me on the show for the firs time. I've been wanting to have him on for a while and this seems to not only be the perfect day, but also, we get to talk about his beautiful new book, EXHIBIT G, which is it's very own experience. If you haven't yet picked it up, you can from Milkweed Editions.

Fady Joudah is the author of […], a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and Exhibit G. His other poetic works include: The Earth in the Attic; Alight; Textu, a book-long sequence of short poems whose meter is based on cellphone character count; Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance; and Tethered to Stars. He has translated several collections of poetry from the Arabic and is the co-editor and co-founder of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. He was a winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition and has received the Jackson Poetry Prize, a PEN award, a Banipal/Times Literary Supplement prize from the UK, the Griffin Poetry Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Arab American Book Award. He lives in Houston, with his wife and kids, where he practices internal medicine.

Fady will be giving the Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture, titled, "Notes on Solidarity, on October 15 at 7pm local time and tickets can be found here: https://mosaicrooms.org/edward-w-said-lecture-2026

Don't forget to follow us on IG at: @psychicmilitancypod and make sure subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy

For pre-releases and bonus content, consider supporting us as a paying member at patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

I was SO excited to have a dear comrade and incredible filmmaker and professor Mtume Gant on the show for the first time! If you don't know him already from his incredible art, his new film, The Hand that Feeds, or from his co-hosting of The Imperial 80s with our comrade Jared Ware of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE! I was so happy to continue our conversation from his podcast, Within Our Gates, linked below. We explored the ways that cinema and cinematic practices recreate a social order intent on stabilizing imperialism and racial capitalism, get into his new film, and his new writing—let me tell you how excited I am to delve into this!! And, maybe, just maybe, psychoanalysis, of course, the good (ahem, Fanon), the bad, and the seriously hideous.

Mtume Gant is a Filmmaker/Artist, Political Theorist and Educator. He is the director of several films, most recently The Hand that Feeds and an Assistant Professor of Film at Purchase College. He is the host of Within Our Gates podcast where he looks at cinema and the arts from a materialist perspective, as well as the co-host of The Imperial 80's YouTube series, an anti-imperialist analysis of 80's cinema. He is currently finishing his first book The Three Cinemas, a guide book on how to use the frameworks of Third Cinema as a tool for revolutionary analysis and practice.

Find Mtume's podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/within-our-gates/id1793170342

Don't forget to subscribe to your YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy

And for pre-releases and bonus ontent, including maaaaaybe an upcoming reading group, consider becoming a paying Patron member at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

Find us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod

I am releasing this episode out of order because it is an urgent report back from our Palestinian siblings from Al-Mughayyir, one of the Palestinian villages in the West Bank that is incurring increasing state and settler violence (one and the same, we know). Their testimony is moving, as it traces the ongoing asphyxiation of their village, the longstanding policies of attacks on life and life-making, including the ability for folks to sustain their lives through farming, the intrusions on intimate spaces of life, as well as their ongoing resistance and refusals to disappear from the land.

Danyal Masoud is a certified spiritual and life coach with a Master's degree in Marriage and Family Counseling and a Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences. For more than 22 years, her work has centered around children, youth, women, and families, with a deep passion for helping people grow emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. Follow her on IG at: @danyal_pali @danyal.masoud

Hana Masud, MA, PhD is a Palestinian scholar and educator working at the intersection of critical psychology, decolonial inquiry, and social justice scholarship. She co-authored and implemented CURCUM's Trees: A Decolonial Healing Guide for Palestinian Community Health Workers, including training and supervising community health workers in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, and co-edited the special issue Coloniality Unplugged: Cosmologies and Terrains of the Dark Matter in the Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice (2022). She is also a co-founder of the Project Laban Collective, an emerging diasporic community space for relational care, community knowledge, critical consciousness, organizing, and explorations of sanctuary and world-making.

Amin Al-Zaghoul has served as the head of the Al-Mughayyir Village Council for the past nine years. During his tenure, he has been arrested twice, his home has been raided more than ten times, and his sons have been arrested on more than three occasions. Most recently, his son Jihad Al-Zaghoul was arrested two days ago and remains in detention. He has not yet been released.

I joined my dear comrade Nick Estes from the Red Nation podcast (follow them here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRedNation) and we got to use my book as a springboard to talk about a wide range of issues--I really loved this conversation and always feel fortified after being in conversation with Nick.

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