Libsyn Directory

Red Cows and Religious Extremists, with Bassem & Mehdi

Release Date: 05/23/2024

‘They Make Genocide Jokes’ - Israeli Comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi on Racism, Zionism, and Palestinian Liberation

We're Not Kidding with Mehdi & Friends

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit Noam Shuster-Eliassi is what some people might call a ‘unicorn’. She’s an anti-Zionist, Jewish-Iranian Israeli who speaks fluent Arabic and grew up in a tiny village in Israel called the ‘Oasis of Peace’, where Jews and Palestinians choose to live together. And while she started a career in diplomacy with a stint at the United Nations trying to bring pea…

‘Israel’s Sugar Daddy’ – Mehdi and Bassem on Trump, Kimmel, Mamdani, and Two Years of Genocide

We're Not Kidding with Mehdi & Friends

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit It’s been six months since Mehdi and Bassem Youssef last recorded an episode of ‘We’re Not Kidding’, so needless to say they had a lot to catch up on. And what better place to host their reunion than ArabCon 2025 in Dearborn, Michigan? During this very special LIVE taping, the duo get candid about the Trump administration’s recent attacks on free speech, the potential of a Zohran Mamdani victory in New York City, and how much the world has changed (and sadly not changed) since Israel began its genocide in Gaza almost...

‘Ethno-Nationalist, Hard-Right Whackjobs’ - Nish Kumar on Fascism, Starmer, and Being Both Brown and English

We're Not Kidding with Mehdi & Friends

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit They first bonded over their of Nando’s — now Mehdi and UK comedian Nish Kumar reunite to talk about their shared contempt for the Trump administration. The two sat down in Washington DC to discuss UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous visits to the White House and the childish behavior of US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Mehdi and Nish also weigh in on the current debate raging in the UK over who gets to claim ‘English’ identity. Is Rishi Sunak...

Taking On the Tech Oligarchs, with Taylor Lorenz

We're Not Kidding with Mehdi & Friends

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit ‘We’re Not Kidding’ is back! After a not-very-relaxing holiday break, Mehdi is joined by tech and online culture journalist ( !) Taylor Lorenz to discuss the new age of American oligarchy. Trump is back in office and his inauguration was a star-studded showcase of spineless tech billionaires. Mehdi and Taylor also unpack the dumbfounding blunder of Democrats’ TikTok ban, why private ownership of social media platforms by “red-pilled billionaires” is actually BAD for free speech, the MAGAfication of Elon Musk,...

"Holy Sh*t, We're Being Lied To": Huda Kattan, CEO of Huda Beauty, Speaks Out

We're Not Kidding with Mehdi & Friends

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit If you’ve followed Mehdi’s career, you know he’s interviewed heads of state, members of Congress, homicidal mercenaries, and even terrorists. But this may be Mehdi’s most intimidating guest yet — Huda Kattan — the superstar beauty influencer, activist, reality TV show host, and founder and CEO of international beauty brand 'Huda Beauty'. Funnily enough, Huda was also nervous to sit down with one of her personal role models. Huda opens up to Mehdi about growing up in Tennessee and the moment she realized that US media...

The One Where Hasan Minhaj Meets Mehdi Hasan

We're Not Kidding with Mehdi & Friends

Hasan Minhaj and Mehdi Hasan don’t just share a common brown name… actually, that may be all they have in common. One loves to debate, the other avoids it like the plague. One is obsessed (sorry, Mehdi) with Twitter, the other avoids it like the plague. And one knew months ago that Trump was going to win, and with record levels of Black and Brown support. They also talked about Joe Rogan and diagnosing what’s the matter with men these days, pseudo-intellectualism, Hasan’s latest Netflix special - including the perplexities and paradoxes of “Beigistan”, and yes, the whole ‘Daily...

‘Election Anxiety’ and Fears of a ‘Civil War’, with Nick Offerman

We're Not Kidding with Mehdi & Friends

It’s less than a week until the 2024 US presidential election and who better to discuss the government with than ‘Parks and Rec’ star and comedian Nick Offerman. The last time Mehdi spoke with Nick about current events was back in May 2021, right before Nick was to testify before Congress about the Covid-19 vaccine. More recently, Nick released a couple of to encourage Americans to vote for Kamala Harris and defeat Donald Trump (hopefully) forever. Mehdi and Nick rant about the Donald Trump x Elon Musk teamup and the influence of corporate money on our media and politics. "The...

Bassem Youssef, Unlike You’ve Ever Seen Him, on Hope, Despair, and A Year of Genocide

We're Not Kidding with Mehdi & Friends

If you’ve been tuning into Zeteo’s flagship podcast, ‘We’re Not Kidding’ for the last six months, you’re going to find this one is a very special episode. Bassem Youssef returns to WNK for an intimate and heartfelt conversation – one unlike you’ve ever seen on this show. It’s also a version of Bassem none of us, including Mehdi, have ever seen before. “I’m from a very, very, very deep point of desperation,” he tells Mehdi backstage at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre in downtown Toronto. The two met up for this special recording right before Bassem...

A Palestinian and a Jew Walk Into a Podcast - Sammy Obeid & Matt Lieb Reflect on the Oct. 7 Anniversary

We're Not Kidding with Mehdi & Friends

In the latest episode of ‘We’re Not Kidding’, Mehdi is joined by comedians and to discuss the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas and Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza that followed. Matt, a Jewish-American, and Sammy, a Palestinian-American, share their personal experiences over the past year, including how they’ve managed to maintain their sense of humor through a year of intense violence and tragedy. SUBSCRIBE TO ZETEO TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT AND UNFILTERED JOURNALISM: WATCH, LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE TO ‘WE’RE NOT KIDDING’ ON SUBSTACK: FIND ZETEO: Twitter: ...

Make Nando’s, Not War - with Nish Kumar

We're Not Kidding with Mehdi & Friends

In the latest episode of ‘We’re Not Kidding’, Mehdi’s in London (again!) and this time chatting with the Nando’s-loving comedian and host of ‘Pod Save the UK’ Nish Kumar. We promise you will laugh – and maybe even cry of laughter. Nish and Mehdi lead with that - their shared love of Nando’s - and how, as Nish describes, it’s the only thing uniting a fragmented British society right now. The two also get deep into what that fragmented society looks like: the far-right, racist-fueled riots that took hold of the country this summer where more than 1,000 people were...

More Episodes

Bassem Youssef is back with Mehdi to co-host the third episode of ‘We’re Not Kidding.’ They talk about the religious extremists, from the illegal settlements in the West Bank to the hallways of the U.S. Congress, who are trying to bring about the end of times - as well as a bunch of red cows that wield a lot of spiritual power. And they disagree on a few things too.

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