Two years after our conversation with Waad al-Kateab about the desperate plight of Syrian refugees, we return to have a very different conversation.

Less than a week after the dramatic and unexpected collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal reign, Syrians are beginning to dream once again of a future they believed had died.

Waad al-Kateab and her family had settled in the UK, though they continued to fight to speak on behalf of refugees and the Syrian revolution which they refused to give up on no matter how bleak the situation seemed.

In her Oscar-nominated film ‘For Sama’, al-Kateab documented the last days of her city of Aleppo, besieged by Assad’s forces for five years and reduced to rubble. 

Today, she counts the days until she can return to her childhood home.

This week on the Big Picture Podcast, Waad al-Kateab invites us to her home to talk about her dream of a new Syria, her fears and trepidations about what comes next, and revealing her real name for the first time.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and any guests you'd like us to have on our show. Reach us by email at [email protected] or find us on instagram @BigPictureMee.

You can also watch all our episodes on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMyaP73Ho1ySj3cO0OSOHZAOgD1WTDixG

Has Donald Trump peeled back the veil on the toxicity of America?

What will his second term mean for Israel, Palestine and the pursuit of justice?

This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we welcome back Norman Finkelstein, political scientist, author and legal scholar, to talk about the aftermath of the US elections, Israel’s war in Gaza and shifting tactics of the Palestine movement.

Finkelstein has spent his career chronicling in excruciating detail the Israel-Palestine conflict from the perspective of international law, and feels that much of the conversation has framed it the wrong way. It’s not that Israel is betraying the laws of war, it’s actually “following the logic of genocide”.

His most recent book ‘I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get To It’ took a surprising turn, scrutinising the prevalence of identity politics and cancel culture, which Finkelstein argues has undermined movements for justice and left the space open for malicious actors.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and any guests you'd like us to have on our show. Reach us by email at [email protected] or find us on instagram @BigPictureMee.

You can also watch all our episodes on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMyaP73Ho1ySj3cO0OSOHZAOgD1WTDixG

What is the link between Zionism, capitalism and the American empire?

Fresh off the back of a deeply toxic, all consuming US election - one in which the issue of Palestine and the war in Gaza was largely ignored - we examine what it means to survive a system intent on silencing and marginalising dissenting voices.

Despite the key role the Biden Administration has played in arming and supporting Israel, a position opposed by the majority of Americans, few political voices were interested in challenging or even speaking about this policy.

A policy which mirrors the US’ own bloody history of colonialism, empire and exploitation. An environment in which voices who challenge the status quo 

This week on The Big Picture Podcast, Mohamed Hassan sits down with human rights attorney, legal scholar and professor at Rutgers University Noura Erakat.

Erakat is one of the boldest and most precise Palestinian-American voices in the public eye, and says despite speaking for years about the legal rights of Palestinians, she has always been sceptical of the law.

In October she wrote a piece for The Nation titled ‘Nothing Will Ever Be The Same’, in which she says a year of genocide in Gaza has changed her as a person, as a Palestinian and as a legal scholar.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and any guests you'd like us to have on our show. Reach us by email at [email protected] or find us on instagram @BigPictureMee.

You can also watch all our episodes on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMyaP73Ho1ySj3cO0OSOHZAOgD1WTDixG

Can Zionism survive the current war in Gaza?

Israeli historian Ilan Pappé believes it can’t. In fact, he argues that the liberation of Palestine is an inevitability.

Pappé is the author of 24 books on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and most recently published two books: ‘Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic’ and ‘A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict’.

This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we sit down with Ilan Pappé to talk about where the Zionist project originates, why it embraced settler colonialism and why he believes it will ultimately fail to achieve its goals.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and any guests you'd like us to have on our show. Reach us by email at [email protected] or find us on instagram @BigPictureMee.

You can also watch all our episodes on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMyaP73Ho1ySj3cO0OSOHZAOgD1WTDixG

Before the formation of the Israeli Defence Forces in 1948, there were three underground Zionist militias - The Haganah, the Irgun and the Lehi.

They differed in tactics and beliefs, and at times fought with each other - but together they terrorised Palestinian villages and executed bombings and assassinations against the British to force them to give up control of the land.

They blew up hotels in Jerusalem, embassies in Europe and assassinated a UN mediator.

After Israel was officiated as a state - the three militias would create the IDF - and their leaders would go on to form Israel’s government, become politicians, ambassadors and Prime Ministers.

And their dark history would be forgotten. 

This week on The Big Picture, we unpack that history.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and any guests you'd like us to have on our show. Reach us by email at [email protected] or find us on instagram @BigPictureMee.

You can also watch all our episodes on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMyaP73Ho1ySj3cO0OSOHZAOgD1WTDixG

Can Kamala Harris defeat Donald Trump without ending the war in Gaza?

That could be up to a handful of key swing states, including Michigan, home to 150,000 Arab-American voters. 

This is a community that has never had a political voice in Washington, that is, until now. A group of activists, community organisers and political insiders have come together to galvanise the anger around Gaza and force the Democrats to pay attention.

That birthed the Uncommitted National Movement.

This week on The Big Picture Podcast, my name is Mohamed Hassan and today I’m joined by the founder of the Uncommitted Movement, Abbas Alawieh.

In 2021, Alawieh became chief-of-staff for Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush. After October 7, he helped start a movement to withhold a vote for Joe Biden at the Democratic Primary in Michigan over his stance on Gaza, resulting in over 100,000 people voting ‘Uncommitted’ on their ballot papers.

Michigan has historically been a battleground for Republicans and Democrats. In 2016, Trump became president after beating Hillary Clinton in the state by a margin of just 10,000 votes. Four years later, Biden swung Michigan back by 154,000 votes. 

That means for both candidates, securing the Arab-American vote could be crucial. But that relies on this community to vote as a block, and recognise the influence they can wield. So can they do it? Or will they continue to be ignored?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and any guests you'd like us to have on our show. Reach us by email at [email protected] or find us on instagram @BigPictureMee.

You can also watch all our episodes on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMyaP73Ho1ySj3cO0OSOHZAOgD1WTDixG

Does Elon Musk have too much power over how we communicate online?

Is he using that power to fuel dangerous far-right conspiracies?

This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we’re joined by Marc Owen Jones, social media analyst, author and assistant professor at Northwestern University in Doha.

Over the last few weeks, he’s been documenting the Southport anti-immigrant riots across the UK, and the link between online misinformation and the real world violence it can cause.

The riots, fueled by misinformation spread by online influencers like Tommy Robbinson, Andrew Tate and Nigel Farage, who initially blamed immigrants and Muslims for the attack, despite the suspect not belonging to either group.

The UK government pinned much of the blame on X-owner and tech-mogul Elon Musk, who was seen to engage actively in the conversation, sharing far-right memes and conspiracy theories about a ‘two tier justice system’ - accusing the British government of cracking down on free speech and being under the influence of Islamists.

Musk, who bought X in 2022 under a mandate of “protecting free speech”, has increasingly been accused of turning the platform into an unmoderated, bot-filled conspiracy den, and that he himself has become one of its worst offenders.

So are the accusations true?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and any guests you'd like us to have on our show. Reach us by email at [email protected] or find us on instagram @BigPictureMee.

You can also watch all our episodes on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMyaP73Ho1ySj3cO0OSOHZAOgD1WTDixG

What is the price tag for convincing Iran to back down?

The US is desperately trying to keep a lid on the heightened tensions in the Middle East, following Israel’s assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Hanieyeh in Iran’s capital, and the airstrike on a Beirut suburb that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the gambler and accused war criminal, seems determined to escalate tensions with Iran to the brink of war, largely to keep himself in power.

Iran, meanwhile, has made it very clear that war is the last thing it wants. But after Israel’s attack on its embassy in April that pushed it to launch hundreds of retaliatory drones as a deterrent against further attacks, Iran finds itself again in the spotlight. 

What will it decide to do?

This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we sit down with political analyst Trita Parsi to talk about what each party really wants to achieve from a confrontation, and what it would take for Iran to save face without escalating into all out war.

Paris was the founder and former president of the Iranian-American National Council and is currently the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

The frightening reality is - even if no one really wants a war - we may be just one tiny miscalculation away from a point of no return.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and any guests you'd like us to have on our show. Reach us by email at [email protected] or find us on instagram @BigPictureMee.

You can also watch all our episodes on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMyaP73Ho1ySj3cO0OSOHZAOgD1WTDixG

Two assassinations. Two capital cities. Less than 24 hours.

One struck an apartment in downtown Beirut, killing a woman and two children - targeting a Hezbollah senior commander.

Then just hours later, a strike in the heart of Tehran, assassinating Hamas’ most high profile figure, and its political chief - Ismail Hanieyah.

Israel has claimed the first attack, though not the second - at least not yet - but the reverberations are already starting to be felt - as are fears that we’re barreling towards an inevitable regional war - one that could spiral quickly out of control.

This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we sit down with award-winning Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy about the significance, and wisdom, of the two high profile assassinations.

Hanieyah’s killing in particular threatens to derail the already fragile ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, which have so far failed to put an end to a horrific 10-month war that killed more than 39,000 Palestinians and 1200 Israelis.

It also pushes the United States deeper into a corner. 

The Biden Administration has failed to pull Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the brink, but continues to supply him with weapons used against a civilian population in Gaza, while undermining attempts to hold Israel to account internationally.

Now less than 100 days before an election that could return Trump to the White House - can the US really afford to follow Israel into a war with Hezbollah - and possibly - a war with Iran?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and any guests you'd like us to have on our show. Reach us by email at [email protected] or find us on instagram @BigPictureMee.

You can also watch all our episodes on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMyaP73Ho1ySj3cO0OSOHZAOgD1WTDixG

Just days out from a historic general election expected to usher in a Labour government for the first time in 14 years - we speak to one of its most vocal and fiery MPs - Naz Shah.

Shah has been the MP for Bradford West since 2015 - after beginning her career as a carer with the NHS and a community advocate - campaigning among other things for the release of her own mother from prison.

In November, she broke ranks with the Labour Party leadership to support a call for a ceasefire in Gaza - and resigned from her position in the shadow cabinet.

She wasn’t alone - 55 other Labour MPs did the same - in one of the biggest challenges to the leadership of Keir Starmer, who’s been heavily criticised over remarks he made supporting Israeli military action.

But despite her public positions, and a long track record of speaking out for Palestine and Islamophobia - Naz Shah hasn’t evaded criticism - as calls among Muslim voters grow to boycott all Labour candidates at the upcoming general election.

This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we sit down with Shah to talk about lobbying for Palestine inside the Labour Party, why she thinks boycotting Labour is a mistake, and what it would take to push Keir Starmer in the right direction.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and any guests you'd like us to have on our show. Reach us by email at [email protected] or find us on instagram @BigPictureMee.

You can also watch all our episodes on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMyaP73Ho1ySj3cO0OSOHZAOgD1WTDixG