Return to Bandung (#39) - From Minneapolis to Iran w/ Nick Estes

***Producer's note:  Reposting an episode Nick recorded with Return to Bandung***

In this episode, I’m joined by returning guest Nick Estes—associate professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, cofounder of The Red Nation, and author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance(Verso Books, 2019)—to discuss last winter’s federal occupation of Minnesota during the Trump Administration’s ‘Operation Metro Surge.’ In this wide-ranging conversation, we attempt to complicate the artificial distinction between the ‘domestic’ and ‘foreign’ spheres, instead situating the fascist violence of Metro Surge within a larger context of both settler-colonial violence in the United States and escalating global aggression by the decaying American empire.

About the show:

Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock.

Support Return to Bandung:

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution:

• Become a paid Substack subscriber

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Sources and helpful links:

• Nick Estes — ⁠Our History Is the Future:Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance⁠ (Verso Books, 2019)

• Pranay Somayajula — Fighting for the future in occupied Minneapolis (The Drift newsletter, January 2026)

• Minnesota 15 Anti-Repression Committee website

• Return to Bandung episode with Nick Estes on Indigenous resistance in North America (February 2025)

• Adam Serwer — Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong (The Atlantic, January 2026)

• The Red Nation Podcast episode with Nick Estes and Jimmy Patiño on Red, Black, and Brown Power in the Twin Cities (August 2024)

• Benjamin Prostine — “‘Communal Sensibility’: the Minneapolis Mass Strikes of 1934 and Today” (Labor and Working-Class History Association, March 2026)

• Nick Estes — Transcript of remarks at January 23 ‘ICE Out of Minnesota’ rally (January 2026)

• Amelia Schafer — Former Native American concentration camp lies beneath current immigration detention center (ICT News, January 2026)

• Nick Estes — US Imperialism is an Indian War (Middle East Critique, October 2025)

• Return to Bandung episode with Guillaume Long on Trump’s revival of the Monroe Doctrine (January 2026)

• Return to Bandung episode with Julian Go on the imperial boomerang (February 2025)

• The Red Nation Podcast episode with Charisse Burden-Stelly on the imperial slingshot (February 2026)

• Ken Klippenstein — ICE Unloads (Substack post, January 2026)

• George Jackson — Blood in My Eye (Black Classic Press, 1990)

Social links:

Return to Bandung:

• Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠

• Instagram: instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠

Pranay Somayajula:

• Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠

• Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠

• Website: pranaysomayajula.com/⁠

• Substack: ⁠culture-shock.xyz/⁠

Nick Estes:

• Twitter: twitter.com/nickwestes

• Substack: nickestes.substack.com/

The Red Nation

• Website: www.therednation.org/

• Twitter: twitter.com/The_Red_Nation

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/therednationmovement

• YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/TheRedNation