The Field Between

This is an Ahmed solo episode, so Yasmine can't be held liable for anything said here. I listen and respond to Glenn Greenwald's take on the situation and then analyze some of Trump's rhetoric about the murder.

In this episode we thoroughly reckon with our AI futures through a comprehensive series of stories, ranging from GPT-assisted suicide to men deluding themselves into thinking they're the next Ibn Sina.

We think we lay out a pretty good case for a license requirement before people are able to operate or be exposed to AI.

Stories discussed:

• A story about a teen commtting suicide after disclosing his plans to ChatGPT
• A Pakistani content mill
• Beauty pageants
• Physics breakthroughs
• Ahmed's conversations with a Zionist
• An Islamic perspective on artificial inelligence

Lawyer and human rights advocate, Tina Al-khersan stops by to talk to us about an article she recently co-authored titled "The Colonial Order Prevails in Palestine: The Right to Self-Determination from a Third World Approach to International Law."

We talk about what it means to have self-determination, and how the post-WWII international legal order upholds colonial systems over people seeking to free themselves.

Tina also hosts a podcast, The Stories of Ourselves, in which she discovers and documents her own family's history, as well as those of immigrant and refugees.

Ahmed gives a quick update on his daytrip to Erie, PA. We mostly discuss the newly revived King of The Hill and how it compares to the original.

We talk to Julia Mason Wedgle about the Jewish Left, Anti-Zionism, and the similarities between the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and Palestinian resistance. We close out with a more lighthearted trip to Cape Cod, where Alan Dershowitz is standing up to poisonous Polish pierogis.

Mostly just yapping on this one.

It's MEGA episode to make up for the one we missed.

We also discuss the conservative meltdown over Zohran Mamdani eating with his hands.

This is a BIG BEAUTIFUL episode. We debut a new movie trailer before we discuss Mamdani's win, and speculate how the ruling class will attempt to stop him, then we discuss the Bob Vylan protest in the context of the ongoing Nakba.

Muhammad (AKA @sharghzadeh AKA @persianpoetics) joins us to discuss the insane moment, in which we find ourselves careening into a war with Iran at the behest of Israel.

In the second half of the episode we turn to a discussion of Persian culture, poetry, and influence, as well as Muhammad's recently published book, The Flame of Love, a translation of Rumi's 100 most passionate poems.

The song at the end is 'Seeb' by Simin Ghanem.