This episode features Part one of an interview I conducted with Kwame Anthony Appiah on March 29, 2025. Anthony is an author, intellectual, philosopher and writer. He writes The Ethicist column for the New York Times and he is a professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University. Anthony has written several books including Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science, The Ethics of Identity, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, Lines of Descent: W.E.B. Dubois and the Emergency of Identity, and The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen. He also co-authored Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race with Amy Gutmann and The Dictionary of Global Culture with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In our interview Anthony shares why the idea of Western civilization is at best a source of confusion, and at worst an obstacle to solving some of our biggest political problems. He discusses how intellectually, Islam and Christianity are tightly connected by their shared interest in the Abrahamic faith and Aristotle, how democracy is possible everywhere but not guaranteed anywhere, and how examples of religious toleration and religious intolerance exist both in so-called Western countries and countries outside the West. Anthony shares how Confucius's view of education was more democratic than Plato and Aristotle, how Aristotle doesn't belong to the West but to anyone who chooses to read him, and how the line from Plato and Aristotle goes just as much through Baghdad as it does through Paris.

This episode is meant to raise awareness and call for more international action to assist and empower the Rohingya, a ethnic Muslim minority whose ancestral home is the Rakhine State, a western state in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The Rohingya have faced years of discrimination and repression in Burma and are not among the 135 ethnic groups recognized in the country despite being able to trace Rohingya history in the country to the eighth century. Instead they are viewed as foreign migrants from Bangladesh. In August 2017, a genocidal assault by the Myanmar military killed 6,700 Rohingya and led to the exodus of 750,000 to neighboring Bangladesh. Today, more than a million Rohingya live in the Bangladeshi refugee camps and those remaining in Burma continue to face violence and persecution from Myanmar's army and the ethnic Arakan Army, a powerful resistance army that controls much of the Rakhine State. The lack of opportunities in the refugee camps and the Rakhine State has led some refugees to take dangerous sea routes in search of a better life in other countries. Some of these expeditions have ended in tragedy, with 427 Rohingya perishing at sea in May 2025. The Rohingya deserve better and the international community needs to take a stronger role in making sure the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh receive more opportunities and hope. They also must do more to ensure the conditions in the Rakhine State are conducive for the Rohingya to make a safe and voluntary return to their ancestral homeland.

This episode features an interview I recorded with documentary photographer Simone Rudolphi on August 9, 2024. Simone discussed her time interning for renowned photographer, writer and activist Shahidul Alam in Bangladesh. Simone shared her thoughts on the student-led Monsoon Revolution that ended the 15-year autocratic rule of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. She also discusses how she came to see Alam and others in Bangladesh as kindred spirits and how the so-called Western world still dictates too much of global policy. Rudolphi touches on the origins of discontent that led to the revolution that ousted Sheikh Hasina, and how distorted framing in the Global North can lead people in Europe and the United States to misunderstand the revolution. She also talks about how blanket terms like violent protests failed to accurately convey what was happening in Bangladesh during the revolution including when state forces where using firearms against unarmed student protesters. Rudolphi also briefly touches on the Far-Right Riots in Britain in August 2024.

This episode was recorded on May 4, 2025, and it features an interview I conducted with writer, author and intellectual Michael Walzer on September 8, 2024. Michael discusses his views on the war in Gaza, and his critique of human rights organizations and prominent individuals who have accused the Israeli government of apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and within its borders. Michael also discusses the origins of the rise of the Israeli Far Right and the decline of the Israeli Left, and why recent events offer a window of opportunity for the Left to regain a foothold in Israeli politics. Michael and I also discuss the history of within-group disagreement in the Zionist movement regarding how Zionism should be interpreted and lived out in people's actual lives. Michael and I also discuss whether US military aid to Israel should ever be suspended or conditioned because of Israel's occupation of Gaza. I also share my position on the the war in Gaza including why I consider the Israeli government's actions to be genocide. I also discuss the importance of opposing this genocide, while also strongly denouncing both actual antisemitism -- it is on the rise which should disturb us all --and the weaponization of antisemitism by bad-faith actors within the US and Israeli governments.

This is an interview I conducted with veteran journalist Bill Weinberg on April 23, 2025. Bill is an author, journalist and blogger. He is the author of Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico and War on the Land: Ecology and Politics in Central America. His work has been published in the The Progressive, In These Times, Al Jazeera, NACLA Report on the Americas, Miami Herald and Indian Country Today. Bill is the host of the CounterVortex podcast and he runs the CounterVortex blog and news service. CounterVortex is one of my favorite podcasts and it has often been my go-to source when I want to learn about the nuances of events happening in places like Burma, Burkina Faso, Mali, Gaza, Ukraine, Somalia or Venezuela. In this episode, Bill and I discuss the most consequential aspects of the increasingly authoritarian Trump government including the current and future human costs of cutting foreign aid and dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID) if foreign aid is not restored, the crackdown on free speech, the denial of due process and the Trump's administration's use of a notorious prison in El Salvador as an unconstitutional answer to it's strategy of mass deportations. Bill also discusses why he considers Trump an illegitimate president, and the potential of anti-Trump protests that have broken out around the country. Bill and I also discuss the genocide in Gaza, and the potential of anti-Hamas and anti-Netanyahu protests that have occurred in Gaza and Israel. We also discuss how the weaponization of antisemitism by the Trump administration is hypocritical and distracts from actual antisemitism while also suppressing free speech.

Bill Weinberg adds: "Contrary to what I imply at 33 minutes, no student activists have been abducted to El Salvador, of course.... Just the accused gang-bangers. Student activists have been abducted, but not to El Salvador (thank goodness!)"

I hope everyone enjoys the show.

This episode features an interview I conducted with Maryam Namazie that was recorded on September 17, 2024. Maryam is an Iranian-born human rights activist, free speech advocate, women's rights activist and blogger. She is the spokesperson of One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Muslims in Britain. In our we talk about how the term The West can obscure more than illuminate how to understand the world, and how the term can be used to divide people and create an Us versus Them framework that serves the identify politics practiced by Far Right Nationalists. She discusses how Identity Politics problematically treats people of the same religion, skin color or ethnicity as homogenous, instead of as heterogeneous groups full of within-group differences and disagreements. Maryam also discusses how anti-Westism is used by patriarchal and authoritarian forces in so-called non-Western countries to suppress and demonize those challenging their rule. She discusses her opposition to blasphemy laws, and how people can oppose patriarchal forces within minority communities while also opposing ugly anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric practiced by Far Right Forces in the Europe. Maryam also talks about the legacy of the Women Life Freedom Movement in Iran that was launched in September 2022, and she discusses the Far Right protests in Britain in August 2024, and how she was heartened by the much larger counterprotests opposing the Far Right, welcoming refugees and opposing racism.

This podcast includes my thoughts about why small acts of empathy and compassion combined with nonviolent protest are key to pushing back against the cruelty and nihilism of the Trump administration.

This podcast is about the Rwanda-backed rebel group M23's seizure of Goma -- the largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo -- on January 27, 2025. It discusses the origins of M23 and the humanitarian disaster created by the fighting between the rebel group and the Congolese army and its local allied militias. The podcast also features criticism of Rwanda's role in supporting the rebel group. Fidel Bwanangela, human rights activists and humanitarian worker, shares his thoughts on the conflict. The conflict in the DRC has for too long suffered from a deficit of international attention and news coverage despite the ongoing fighting and suffering in the country in the last 30 plus years. The DRC's robust and brave activists and activist groups have also not received adequate attention. The country's citizen need and deserve more international attention and media coverage. Moreover, the crimes of M23, the Congolese military and human-rights abusing militias should not be allowed to be committed with impunity.

In Part 2 of my interview Pervez Hoodbhoy, he discusses and proposes solutions to some of Pakistan's biggest problems including settling the Kashmir issue with India, the need for education reform, and creating a more egalitarian environment in the country. Pervez is a media commentator, author, nuclear physicist and Pakistani intellectual. This interview was originally conducted on July 21, 2024.

In this episode, author, media commentator, intellectual and nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy discusses thebiggest problemsfacing Pakistan, and how religious persecution and the exploitation of the general public is built into the country's political system. He also traces the rise of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan, the similarities between the popular jailed former Prime MinisterImran Khan and President Donald Trump, and how Khan'seducation policies are one of the worst legacies leftover from his time in power. He also discusses how the importance of Pakistan has decreased in the eyes of U.S. foreign policy makers and why he thinks this is a good thing. This interview was conducted on July 21, 2024.

This episode will feature an interview I conducted with my friend Hayley Rauzi on June 9, 2024. During the interview, Hayley talks about refugee policies in my home state of Iowa and in the United States in general. Hayley has worked for a number of refugee organizations in the state of Iowa including the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) and the Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy and Resource Center (EMBARC). Hayley and I discuss the challenges facing refugee organizations and the people they serve, how rising nationalism and xenophobia has effected refugee organizations, and how ordinary citizens can support refugee-friendly policies and refugee organizations. Hayley also debunks negative myths and stereotypes about refugees. I thought this was a timely subject with Donald Trump returning to the White House on January 20, 2025. During his first presidency, the Trump administration pushed anti-refugee policies including a travel ban that was particularly hostile to refugees from Muslim-majority countries. In fiscal year 2017, Trump lowered the refugee admissions ceiling from 110, 000 (set under President Barack Obama's administration) to 50,000. The Trump administration continued to decrease the maximum number of refugees allowed to be admitted into the country in the following years. It lowered the refugee admissions ceiling to 45,000 in 2018; 30,000 in 2019; and 18,000 in 2020. The Trump administration also used fear-mongering to inaccurately paint refugees from certain countries as terrorist threats. While it is understandable that people are focused on Trump's promise to support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, we also shouldn't forget to be ready to oppose the future president if he tries to push anti-refugee policies that are similar to the ones he promoted during his first term in office.

This episode of the Deep Dive features Part 2 of my interview with Maria Gonzalez-Alvarez, which was conducted on July 4, 2024. Maria is a community organizer for the Des Moines-based Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice and the co-founder of Immigrant Allies of Marshalltown, Iowa. Marshalltown is a racial and ethnically diverse town of about 28,000. Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice (MMJ) is a state-wide, membership-based legal service and advocacy organization led by immigrants and refugees. Immigrant Allies in Marshalltown is an organization that seeks to empower undocumented immigrants and strengthen the local community through education, advocacy, events, actions and collaboration. Maria and I and examined how certain politicians have used fearmongering rhetoric to push an immigration agenda that is hostile to undocumented immigrants. We also look at how some politicians have weaponized individual crimes by people who happen to be undocumented to otherize and demonize undocumented immigrants as a whole. I wanted to this interview with Maria to encourage people to not let the immigration debate be hijacked by those pushing the politics of fear over the politics of compassion and reasonable dialogue.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to carry out mass deportations when he returns to the White House in January 2025. Trump has already nominated immigration hardliners like Stephen Miller, Tom Homan and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to be part of his administration. Homan, who will serve as the Trump administrations border czar, has been called the architect of Trump's family separation policy, which led to more than 5,500 children being separated from their parents at the border. More than 1,000 of these children still have not been reunified with their parents. Miller, who will serve as President-elect Trump's deputy chief of staff and Homeland Security Advisor ,was a lead author of some of Trump's most controversial immigration policies including zero-tolerance policies that led to families being separated from their children at the border. Noem, whom Trump has chosen to be his Homeland Security Secretary, voiced support for Trump's Muslim ban in 2017, opposed allowing Afghan refugees settling in South Dakota after the U.S. military's withdrawal from Afghanistan, and personally supported Texas Gov. Rick Scott using razor wire to fortify Texas' southern border. She even went as far as telling Fox News she would personally drive to Texas to provide Scott with more wire. Given Trump's ugly rhetoric and extreme anti-immigrant policies, I thought this would be a good time to focus on groups who already have experience working with and advocating for undocumented immigrants. This is Part 1 of an interview I conducted with Maria Gonzalez-Alvarez on July 4, 2024. Maria is a co-founder of Immigrant Allies in Marshalltown. Marshalltown is an ethnically and racially diverse city of about 28,000 people in the state of Iowa. Immigrant Allies' formation was in response to a raid on the Swift & Company meatpacking plant in Marshalltown in December of 2006. The raid resulted in 90 workers being arrested and taken to Camp Dodge, a National Guard facility in Johnston, Iowa. Maria's mom was among those arrested, but she fought her case and was later released. Maria reports her mom is currently a resident who is applying for U.S. citizenship. After 72 hours, the arrested workers being held at the National Guard facility were either deported or taken to out-of-state federal detention centers. Five other Swift plants were raided by ICE on the same day and 1, 282 workers were arrested. At that time, it marked the largest immigration raid in U.S. history.

Immigrant Allies, which was founded in 2010, has worked to empower undocumented immigrants while also strengthening the local community through a focus on education, advocacy, events, action and collaboration. Since the interview was conducted, Maria also has taken a position as a community organizer for Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice. MMJ is a state-wide legal service and advocacy organization led by immigrant and refugee voices and their allies. Maria reports MMJ is seeking financial support to expand its team and provide additional training opportunities. It welcomes donations and volunteers who share the organization's vision. In our interview, Maria discusses the origins of Immigrant Allies, shares her past experiences as an undocumented immigrant (she is now a resident in the process of becoming an American citizen), highlights Immigrant Allies' accomplishments, dispels myths about undocumented workers, talks about how immigrants have helped fuel economic growth in Marshalltown, and shares her views on what reforms could make the immigration system easier to navigate for people wanting to come to the United States.

This monologue is meant to highlight and support the inspiring social movements that exist in Sudan especially the youth-driven Neighborhood Resistance Committees that helped lead to the ouster of long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, putting an end to his 30-year rule. The Neighborhood Resistance Committees are local resistance committees comprising hundreds of neighborhood groups drawn from all socioeconomic classes and ethnic backgrounds. Members of these neighborhood committees also have taken brave risks to provide humanitarian aid to people in conflict-stricken communities caught in the middle of the Sudan's brutal civil war between between two warring generals. The bravery and inspiring examples of direct democracy by the resistance committees and other decentralized mutual aid networks, farmers unions and trade unions shouldn't be forgotten because of the man-made humanitarian emergency in the country. Sudan's civil war began in April 2023 when the Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces tried to seize power. The RSF is the reconstituted version of the notorious JanJaweed. Instead of disbanding the JanJaweed after it was complicit in government-backed crimes against humanity and possibly genocide in Darfur two decades ago, Omar al-Bashir's organized remnants of the group to safeguard his rule against any potential coups by members of the military. Bashir officially recognized the RSF as a fighting force in 2017. The fighting that broke out between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed forces in April 2023 stemmed from disagreements between RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, and the country's de facto leaders General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan about the RSF being integrated into the national army. The fighting between the two armed factions has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. On November 1, The United Nations office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that about 26 million people have acute hunger in Sudan with 755,000 facing catastrophic hunger conditions. Save The Children reports that the more than two million babies that have been born since the fighting started in April are at risk because of a decimated health care system and crisis levels of hunger. It reports more than 80 percent of the hospitals in the worst affected regions have closed and two out of three people don't have access to essential healthcare services. Before the fighting started, Sudan already had one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, according to the United Nations. On a positive note, OCHA reported in its report on November 14, 2024, that Sudanese authorities decided to continue to allow the delivery of aid through the Adre border crossing point from Chad to Darfur. The UN's Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Clementine Nkweta-Salami called the Adre Border crossing a critical lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Sudanese citizens. This is a welcome change from other instances when warring factions have blocked the delivery of food, medicine and other essential supplies and attacked health facilities, ambulances and health care workers.

The UAE, a U.S. ally in the Middle East, has emerged as one of the RSF's biggest supporters in its war with the SAF despite the group being a serial human rights offender guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly genocide. The UAE's support for the RSF stems from agricultural and gold interests in the African country along with a goal to expand it's influence and control in the Middle East and Africa. Progressives and other human-rights minded folks should demand the U.S. suspend military support for the UAE until it stops supporting the RSF. We should also continue to support and highlight Sudan's inspiring pro-democracy forces who offer the potential for a brighter future for the country and an impressive example of grassroots democracy from below for the world.

In this episode, I talk with Joa LaVille, co-founder of Immigrant Allies in Marshalltown, Iowa. Marshalltown has a population of about 28,000 people including a large Latino population that has enriched the city with restaurants, shops and other important contributions. I had the privilege to call Marshalltown home for five years. This interview was conducted on June 10, 2024. Joa and I discuss how Immigrant Allies advocates for undocumented workers, forges relationships with other local community immigrants and educates people about a complex topic that is often treated as a binary, black and white issue. She also talked about how Immigrant Allies uses stories of people's lived experiences to win hearts and minds of those who may have inaccurate or distorted beliefs about undocumented immigrants. Joa also shares how undocumented immigrants and their families, friends and allies in Marshalltown have been impacted by rise in xenophobic rhetoric deployed by irresponsible political officials, harsh immigration laws and a broke immigration system that is extremely difficult to navigate. I think this interview is especially important given Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election and his dishonest, shameless, fact-deprived and reckless fearmongering about undocumented immigrants. Immigrant allies shows how local organizations can empower undocumented workers while simultaneously strengthening the local community in small-town America. May we all follow their example.

This is a monologue I recorded before Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the U.S. Presidential elections on November 5, 2024. Given the ugly and scandalously dishonest rhetoric deployed by Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and other members of the GOP about about undocumented workers, I think progressive solidarity and partnerships with undocumented workers is more important than ever. I hope you enjoy the episode and then get to work forming partnerships, creating coalitions and establishing ties of solidarity with undocumented workers and their allies.

In Part 2 of the interview I conducted with Simon Rodriguez-Porras, we discuss the importance of a consistent and principled international Left that opposes imperialism in all its forms no matter who is the perpetrator and who is the victim. Rodriguez discusses promising examples of principled international solidarity including Syrian activists supporting Palestine while also opposing Iranian and Russian imperialism in Syria, and Chinese and Tibetans supporting Palestine while also opposing Chinese repression at home and imperialism in Tibet and Hong Kong. Rodriguez also discusses elements of the anti-Nicolas Maduro Left in Venezuela and promising democratic socialist movements in Brazil, Guatemala and Argentina. This interview was conducted on June 7, 2024. Rodriguez is the author of "Why did Chavismo Fail," a writer for the New Arab, and an editor at Venezuelan Voices.org.

In this episode of the Deep Divide with Andy Heintz, I talk with Simon Rodriguez-Porras. Simon is the author of "Why Did Chavismo Fail". He also is an editor at Venezuelan voices.org and a writer for the New Arab. In the episode Rodriguez discusses what the Left and Right get wrong when analyzing the overlapping economic, political, and human rights crises that have befallen Venezuela and caused about 8 million people to flee the country over the past decade. Rodriguez offers harsh criticism of the economic and political policies of Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor the late Hugo Chavez while also criticizing American foreign policy in Venezuela. My interview with Chavez was conducted on June 6, 2024, but I thought it was important to include after Maduro was fraudulently re-elected president on July 28, 2024. The government-controlled National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner without publishing a detailed account of the results, which has been standard practice since the establishment of an electronic voting system in the country in 2004. Meanwhile, volunteers for the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia collected over 80 percent of the ballots whose results were printed and published online. The tallies showed Gonzalez receiving about 7 million votes to Maduro's 3 million. Venezuelans contested the results by taking to the streets and engaging in large, spontaneous protests including in areas that used to be strongly supportive of Hugo Chavez. Maduro's government responded with harsh repression with more than 2,000 arrested-including more than a 100 children-and 25 people killed. Rodriguez penned an excellent article about the fraudulent elections in the New Arab. In this episode, he challenges the view that Maduro and Chavez were democratic socialists while also explaining why Venezuelan economy's unhealthy dependence on oil exports didn't start with Chavez and why no government has been able to steer the country away from its oil dependency since the resource was first discovered in the country.

This is Part 2 of my interview with author and political writer Robin Yassin-Kassab. For those of you who missed the first episode, Robin is the co-author along with Leila al-Shami of of the excellent, important and deeply moving book Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War. He is also author of the novel The Road From Damascus. Robin's writings have appeared in the Guardian, The New Arab, Al Jazeera and the New Humanitarian. In this episode, Robin and I discussed common misconceptions about the Syrian revolution and why it failed to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad; how the working and middle class Syrian suburb of Daraya, known for it's delicious grapes, became a symbol of the Syrian revolution; what grassroot democratic movements from below have inspired Robin ;and why he considers himself to be anti-fascist and anti-genocide. Robin's principled support for universal rights and consistent opposition to crimes against humanity and genocide no matter who is the victim and who is the oppressor is as vital as ever in a world where global politics is too often tainted by selective outrage, intentional amnesia and double standards. This interview was conducted June 14, 2024.

Writer and author Robin Yassin-Kassab talks with me about how U.S. support for Israel in Gaza further undermines an international order already struggling under the weight of its own double standards and internal contradictions. Robin and I also discuss the perils of selective outrage and how it has undermined the principles of universalism, and led to paralysis and complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity in places like Syria and Gaza. Robin also discusses the legacy of the Syrian Revolution including some of the main figures whose courage, creativity, and decency embodied the revolution's emancipatory character and democratic potential. Robin and Leila Al-Shami are co-authors of the book Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War. Robin is the author of the novel The Road from Damascus. Robin's articles have appeared in The Guardian, The New Arab, Foreign Policy and other publications. He co-edits www.pulsemedia.org and blogs and www.qunfuz.com.