Radio Reversal Podcast

Welcome to the third meeting of the 2032 NOlympics Committee! In this episode, join Anna & Nat on an excursion to Ibis Island where they give a talk on fascism & olympics fatalism, and how we can resist it. We dig back into the concept of Event Capture that we've been exploring over the past few weeks, this time introducing the concept of "narrative capture" or "future capture" - the way that the storytelling and political discourses around the Olympics serve to fuel fascism, launder settler colonialism and obscure more radical possibilities for the city.

G'day friends and welcome to the second official meeting of the Brisbane NOlympics Committee! In this episode, Anna and Nat are continuing the conversation from our first NOlympics show to consider why exactly the Olympics is such a bad proposition for host cities (and what we could still be doing about it!) We pick up on John Rennie Short's theory of "event capture" to express the many and varied ways that these kinds of mega events work to reorganise the city around the needs and interests of global capital rather than local people, focusing in particular on the idea of "legal capture", and the way that the ordinary "checks and balances", accountability mechanisms and development approval processes get waved during mega events because of the manufactured urgency of the event deadline.

Towards the end of the show, we also introduce the idea of "narrative capture" to consider how mega events work by reinvigorating and operationalizing repressive forms of nationalism; and how this goes hand in hand with rising fascism and new forms of colonialism and colonial violence. If you're interested in this concept, stick around for the next episode of the podcast where we share a talk we gave at a protest action at Barrambin, so-called victoria park, which digs further into the way that the Olympics functions to foreclose more radical possibilities for the city and to stoke the flames of fascism in the here and now.

In this episode of the Radio Reversal podcast, Han is in the studio with acclaimed Australian-British concert pianist Jayson Gillham for a broad-ranging chat about arts, censorship, and Jayson's new collaboration, Music for Two Pianos. Jayson is returning to Australian stages from next week, performing at QPAC Wednesday, 22 July, alongside his friend Palestinian-Jordanian pianist Iyad Sughayer. We chat about this concert program, and about the importance of being your whole self and standing up for what is right, even in the face of repression and censorship. Jayson reflects a bit on his recent experiences challenging creative censorship after his performances with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra were cancelled after Jayson made comments in support of Palestine.

For our listeners in Magan-djin, so-called brisbane, it's not too late to see Jayson and Iyad perform! There are still tickets available for their show at QPAC on Wednesday 22nd July - get yourself along if you can!

In this episode of Radio Reversal we share two recent interviews from our broadcast program which each speak to the ways that Palestinian free speech and political expression is being censored and constrained at the present moment. First up, we hear from Rouba Rayan, a Palestinian lawyer and human rights advocate who is an organiser with Justice for Palestine Magan-djin and a legal observer with Action Ready Qld. Rouba talks us through the current attempts to challenge the legal validity of the new "prohibited expression" laws in queensland which criminalise two Palestinian liberation expressions: "from the river to the sea" and "globalise the intifada." Rouba talks about some of the legal arguments against this legislation, and why these legal challenges are an important part of the broader struggle against political censorship and silencing of Palestinian speech. In the second part of the episode, we catch up with friend of Radio Reversal Dr. Jordy Silverstein to talk a bit about the current Royal Commission into Anti-semitism and social cohesion. Jordy is an anti-zionist Jewish activist and organiser and a historian of Jewish history in so-called australia. She talks about how the structure of the Royal Commission forecloses any discussion of anti-semitism experienced by anti-zionist Jews, and accepts the controversial conflation of zionism and Judaism.

This week on the Radio Reversal podcast, Marissa and Han catch up with trade unionist, trans justice organiser and pro-Palestine protester Dana Endelmanis. Dana was one of 7 people arrested in Queensland under the new "prohibited expression" offence in the Queensland Criminal Code during Justice for Palestine Magan-djin's Six Words for a Free Palestine protest last weekend. Dana and the other arrestees were detained, questioned and subjected to the everyday violence of policing, all for the terrible crime of uttering the phrase "From the River ...the Sea." In this conversation, Dana talks to us about her decision to participate in the protest despite knowing the likelihood of arrest, why it's important that we refuse to obey these absurd laws, and what her experiences in the watch house revealed about the everyday impacts of intensifying fascist law-making for trans people, activists, unionists and anyone committed to refusing unjust laws.

In this episode, Nat & Anna discuss the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, and why being a host city is, overwhelmingly, a bad thing for the city and a worse thing for a city's poorer and more marginalised inhabitants. We draw on John Rennie Short's idea of "event capture" to look at the ways hosting a mega-event redirects urban processes (further!) away from more just modes of planning and transformation, the ways mega-events drive further dispossession of First Nations Peoples and displace poorer residents, and the ways even fairly limited checks and balances around social and environmental protections, and transparency and accountability in the planning and governance system get dodged, or overriden. All in service of an event that will cost billions and that will not even break even.

This episode kicks off a new investigative series for us - the NOlympics Committee - digging into the extensive evidence base for why hosting the Olympics is bad for cities. We'll be exploring the history and politics of the Olympics, the narratives that are used to justify and legitimise this kind of public spending, and the relationship between these kinds of mega-events and other forms of oppression, dispossession and exploitation.

In this episode, Anna catches up with friend and fellow 4zzz radio producer Belle to talk about disability justice, the NDIS, and Belle's experiences navigating a diagnosis of bipolar. Belle talks us through her experiences with bipolar and psychosis. She talks a bit about disability justice and the intersection between the health system and carceral logics, as well as the importance of access to (potentially) life-saving systems like the NDIS.

If you want to hear more from Belle, check out her radio program Only Human, which airs live on 4zzz 102.1fm on Sundays, from 12-1pm and on Zed Digital on Tuesdays from 6-7pm. It is produced for and by disabled folks and centres disability justice, disabled and queer artists, and so much more. It's a brilliant show, so be sure to check it out for more from Belle!

In this episode, Anna shares an interview from the Radio Reversal archives with the incredible Dr. Samah Jabr - د. سماح جبر, recorded during her 2025 tour of so-called australia. Dr Samah Jabr is a Palestinian Jerusalemite psychiatrist, psychotherapist and writer, and former Head of the Mental Health Unit in the Ministry of Health, Palestine. She has written columns about the psychological consequences of the Israeli occupation in Palestine since the 2000s. Inspired by anticolonial psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, her areas of interest include mental health, colonialism and universal human rights. In this interview, Anna speaks with Dr Jabr about the specific impacts of colonial violence and trauma, the inadequacy of mainstream western psychiatric approaches to understanding those impacts, and the issues in rendering deliberately inflicted collective trauma in the terms of individual illness or pathology. They also discuss what healing from colonial violence can look like, and the importance of agency and collective and community-based processes.

Dr Samah Jabr also spoke with Anna a bit about her new book, "Radiance in Pain and Resilience: The global reverberation of Palestinian historical trauma" which you should absolutely check out. This collection of essays draws on Dr Jabr's years of experience working at the intersection of mental health and struggles for liberation. You can find links to the book and further details at radioreversal.org where you can also subscribe to the Radio Reversal podcast to make sure you never miss an episode!

In this episode, Anna brings you an interview with Mununjahli poet Maria Van Neerven to discuss her new poetry collection "Two Tongues." We chat to Maria about this collection, and consider some of the questions it asks about the role of language in colonial occupation and anti-colonial resistance. In the face of the ongoing attempts by the queensland state government to prohibit political expression and prevent truth-telling in this moment, we consider the political imperative to make art, to write poetry, to refuse to be silenced. A riveting conversation with a brilliant poet: don't miss it!

In this episode, we return to an interview from a few weeks ago with our wonderful friend and comrade Sam Woripa Watson about their decision to join the Global Sumud Flotilla. Sam is are a Birri Gubba and Wangeriburra activist and film-maker who grew up in the Brisbane Black movement here in Magan-djin. Sam is an active organiser and agitator for Indigenous justice and land back (both here in so-called australia, and across the globe). For over a decade, Sam has been a crucial part of Brisbane Black organising for land back and Indigenous justice, and an important part of the Justice for Palestine Magan-djin coalition. Sam also played an important role in local organising against engineering firm Ferra Engineering, who supply parts for the F-35 bombers used by the Israeli Occupation Forces against the people of Gaza.

Most recently, Sam joined hundreds of other activists, health care workers, lawyers, human rights activists, writers, film-makers, and community workers on board a flotilla of vessels that set sail from Italy, aiming to deliver both much-needed humanitarian aid and global media attention to the people of Gaza.

When Sam recorded their responses to my questions for this interview, they were in Italy waiting to embark on the flotilla mission. In the weeks since this interview first aired, Sam's vessel was intercepted by the Israeli Occupation Forces and Sam and his comrades were taken hostage by the Israeli government. They suffered significant abuse at the hands of the Israeli government, including physical and psychological torture, sexual assault and withholding of food, water, sleep, and adequate shelter. Sam was released after almost 4 days in custody, and spoke to Darumbal and South Sea Islander journalist and writer Amy McQuire for Black Justice Journalism about that experience. You can read the full account here: https://www.blackwitness.com/p/this-is-the-most-violent-experience

In this episode of the podcast, I take us back to Sam's initial optimism and excitement about participating in the flotilla. We reflect on the role of these kinds of movements and why they are important in continuing to escalate the global movement for Palestinian liberation. In the second part of this podcast I also share a short interview I recorded with Subhi Awad, one of the spokespeople for the Global Sumud Flotilla here in so-called australia. I spoke to Subhi after we heard the news that Sam's vessel had been intercepted by the IOF and that he had been taken into detention.

Over the coming weeks we'll continue sharing updates from Sam and his comrades as they return home, so keep your ears open for more on this story!