UNAPOLOGETIC with Ashfaaq Carim

Laleh Khalili is a professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter and the author of Sinews of War and Trade and Extractive Capitalism. She is also Iranian-American, with family members displaced by the current war, a scholar with both the expertise and the personal stakes to speak to this moment with rare authority.

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Ashfaaq Carim sits down with Khalili to understand what the US-Israeli war on Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz actually means, not for markets, but for people. They discuss who is winning and who is losing, how Iran has used commercial disruption as a weapon, the deep colonial history that produced this crisis, Israel's periphery strategy and its long alliance with Iran before 1979, and why an empire in decline is always the most dangerous version of itself.

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.

Cenk Uygur, founder of The Young Turks, was banned from entering the UK hours before this conversation - blocked by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood for criticising Israel.

We speak to him live about what his ban indicates about the West's accelerating collapse, how governments are criminalising dissent on behalf of a foreign state, and whether the freedoms the West claims to stand for are already slipping away.

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, we sit down with Daniel Trilling - journalist and author of If We Tolerate This: How the British Establishment Made the Far Right Respectable.

We discuss who is actually responsible for the rise of the far right and how dangerous the global far right rise could be for freedoms across the globe.

From Trump's assault on democratic institutions to Orban gutting Hungary's free press, Modi's rise during a period of extraordinary economic growth to Reform's promises of a British ICE - Trilling maps a global pattern of far right movements exploiting the failures of a governing class that never saw it coming, or simply didn't care.

In the UK, he traces how David Cameron opened the door, Rishi Sunak presided over the ruins, and Keir Starmer arrived without a plan - leaving Nigel Farage as the unlikely beneficiary of decades of establishment failure.

Could Farage be the next prime minister? What would a Reform government actually look like? And can any of this be stopped?

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim

UNAPOLOGETIC spoke to Errol Musk, father of Elon Musk, and the result is a conversation is an interesting foray into where ideology is formed and where it is inherited.

Errol traces his journey from post-war poverty to building a life of considerable wealth and takes credit for funding the very first company Elon and Kimball started in 1995.

But it is his views on race, politics and identity that are likely to stay with you longest and defines the conversation.

He reflects on post-apartheid South Africa in terms that invite direct challenge, describing the country under a black government as being "in a terrible state" and expressing views on land, farming and black economic capability that are difficult to swallow and that are challenged directly throughout.

On Tommy Robinson, Errol is equally direct. He defends the Musk family's financial support for Robinson's legal fees, calls him "a political prisoner," compares him to Mandela, a comparison that is contested at length, and suggests he will "very likely, very possibly one day" be prime minister of England. His views on immigration lead to a metaphor that, once heard, is difficult to forget.

We also put to Errol the words Elon himself has used to describe his father, "a terrible human being" who has done "every crime you can possibly think of," and take some time to examine how their relationship has evolved over the years, from the early decades in which Errol was the provider, to where things stand today.

Draw your own conclusions.

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim

"Palestinians are just the canvas upon which the Jewish psychodrama takes place."

Simone Zimmerman, co-founder of IfNotNow and subject of the documentary Israelism, joins UNAPOLOGETIC to examine how Israel's genocide in Gaza has reshaped Jewish identity and politics.

Simone traces her own journey from committed Zionist to anti-Zionist activist, describing the personal and communal ruptures that followed. She argues that the decades-long fusion of Zionism with Judaism has been a catastrophe for Jewish life globally, and that Israel's genocide has made liberal Zionism untenable.

The conversation also tackles the growing anti-Israel voices within MAGA - and why, despite tactical overlaps on ending military aid, figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens represent a fundamentally different and dangerous political project that the pro-Palestinian movement should not mistake for solidarity.

Drawing on Palestinian writer Tariq Baconi, Zimmerman makes a stark argument: that for too much of the Jewish establishment, "Palestinians are just the canvas upon which the Jewish psychodrama takes place."

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.

In this episode of Unapologetic, Hassan Ahmadian, political scientist at the University of Tehran, argues that US-Israeli aggression may inadvertently bring Iran, Turkey and the Arab world closer together.

Ahmadian explains why Iran views every negotiation with Washington through the lens of betrayal, and why Tehran sees caving to Trump and Netanyahu as a worse outcome than war itself. He also explains how control of the Strait of Hormuz has handed Iran a card that no amount of US military hardware can easily beat.

The conversation covers how Iran actually makes its biggest decisions, especially now after its former leadership has been decapitated, the long and complicated relationship between Iran and the Arab world, and what Israel's drift towards extremism ultimately means for its own survival and how their persistent violence is showing all the actors in the region why they need to look to each other for stability.

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.

"If you go to China, you'll never ever see the world in the same way again. Never."

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Martin Jacques, author of the million-copy bestseller When China Rules the World, makes the case that China has already eclipsed the United States as the world's leading power, and that the West still fundamentally doesn't understand why.

This episode explores China's identity as a civilisation-state, the century of humiliation, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Xinjiang question, the decline of American hegemony, Trump's failing strategy against China, and why Jacques believes the future global order will be built around China and the Global South

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, we speak to Mohsen Kadivar - Iranian scholar, Shia mujtahid, dissident cleric, and former political prisoner - about the Islamic Republic, its origins, and its contradictions.

Kadivar offers a rare insider critique of Iran: opposing US imperialism and Israeli aggression, while also challenging the authoritarianism of the Islamic Republic from within Shia theology itself. He traces his own journey - arrested under both the Shah and the Islamic Republic - and explains how the revolutionary promise of freedom, democracy, and justice was only partially realised.

We explore the theory of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurist), how it reshaped Iran’s political system, and why Kadivar argues it is only one interpretation among many within Islamic thought. He also reflects on elections, reform movements, repression, and the limits of political freedom in Iran today.

Throughout the conversation, Kadivar builds a compelling case for why Muslims - in both majority and minority contexts - should embrace democracy as the most just and viable form of governance for themselves and others.

This is conversation takes a deep look into how power, religion, personalities and competing visions of destiny have interacted to make Iran, Iran.

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Norman Finkelstein unpacks the aftermath of the US–Iran war, beginning with the ceasefire and what it actually reveals about both sides. He argues there was no clear victory, before tracing the deeper roots of US strategy toward Iran over decades.

The conversation explores Donald Trump’s highly personalised decision-making, the role Israel played in tipping the balance, and why expectations of regime collapse inside Iran failed.

Finkelstein also examines the broader consequences: the collapse of legal norms around war, the destruction unfolding in Lebanon, and Iran’s justification for its response under international law.

In the final stretch, the discussion turns to Trump’s political base, the rise of alternative media voices, and what this moment reveals about power, propaganda, and global order.

Norman’s forthcoming book is Gaza’s Gravediggers: An Inquiry into Corruption in High Places (OR Books, 2026) https://orbooks.com/catalog/gazas-gravediggers/

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, historian Abdallah Marouf connects the dots between the closure of Al-Aqsa, Israel’s ultra-right, Pete Hegseth, the dangerously expanding war in Iran, and the belief in a coming Messiah.

He explains how a once-marginal religious Zionist movement now holds real political power in Israel, and how its vision of rebuilding the Temple and hastening the Messiah is shaping events on the ground.

We explore the closure of Al-Aqsa, the rise of extremist factions, divisions within Israeli society, and the role of US evangelicals in reinforcing these ideas.

Marouf breaks down competing Jewish interpretations of the Messiah, the red heifer, and the Temple Mount, and why some believe a world war may be necessary to trigger the end times.