Barak Swarttz - YouTuber & Activist | The Truth About Israel They Don't Want You to Know

Success Story with Scott D. Clary

Success Story Media

How To, Business, Education, Self-improvement

4.6 • 326 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 179 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

➡️ Join 321,000 people who read my free weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.scottdclary.com ➡️ Like The Podcast? Leave A Rating: https://ratethispodcast.com/successstory Barak Swarttz is an American-Israeli elite performance coach, speaker, and content creator with a 225K YouTube following who has trained over 20 NBA and WNBA players, including Israeli stars Deni Avdija and Omri Caspi. Forged through career-ending injuries including a torn ACL and fractured vertebrae, his "Gain Resilience In Time" (GRIT) philosophy embodies the mental fortitude that defines his advocacy work. Reaching millions monthly, Barak uses his platform to deliver what academics praise as one of the most nuanced perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, leveraging basketball as a universal language to bridge cultural divides, combat antisemitism, and inspire truth-driven dialogue across college campuses and global audiences. ➡️ Show Links https://www.instagram.com/otherbarak/ https://x.com/otherbarak/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/barakswarttz/ ➡️ Podcast Sponsors Hubspot - https://hubspot.com/ ShipStation - https://www.shipstation.com/ (Code: SuccessStory) Square - https://square.com/go/success SurveyMonkey - https://www.surveymonkey.com/scott Monarch Money - https://www.monarchmoney.com (Code: Success) Claude - https://claude.ai/success Incogni - https://incogni.com/success (Code: Success) Huel - https://huel.com/scott (Code: scott) NetSuite — https://netsuite.com/scottclary/ Indeed - https://indeed.com/clary ➡️ Talking Points 00:00 – Intro 01:39 – What Burak Really Does 02:54 – Basketball Meets Advocacy 14:45 – Is Social Media Dividing Us? 21:42 – Burak’s Origins 27:12 – Walking Away from Basketball 33:38 – Moving to Israel Without Serving 44:47 – Sponsor Break 47:31 – Changing Minds on Israel 59:20 – Does the World Hate Israel? 1:16:50 – The Genocide Question 1:32:34 – Why Israel Gets Zero Empathy 1:54:57 – Sponsor Break 1:57:28 – How Self-Work Changed His Debates 2:27:33 – Why Politics Defines Identity 2:35:22 – Burak’s Source of Optimism 2:42:12 – Conflict Before Global Change 2:50:20 – The One Lesson for His Future Kids

Transcript

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0:00.0	How's the business going?
0:01.1	We're busier than ever, but struggling to get the staff we need. Recruiting can be such a distraction. We gave Job Centre Plus a try, and they've really helped us out. Really? Yeah. It was dead easy. We got our own employer advisor, Julie, who helped advertise our jobs, shortlisted candidates for us and letters interview at the Job Centre. We've hired some great people, and Job Centre Plus really took the hassle out of it, And there was no fee.
0:23.0	Brilliant. That's straight on my to-do list. you at the job center. We've hired some great people and Job Center Plus really took the hassle
0:21.1	out of it and there was no fee. Brilliant. That's straight on my to-do list. Find out more at
0:25.9	business.gov.com.uk slash recruit. Eligibility criteria apply. I have tried to think about
0:31.6	reverse engineering that idea of bringing people to Israel and bringing Israel to people. If you
0:37.2	want to talk about the complexities
0:39.3	of the Middle East, you have to create a safe space in order to do so. And when you just say,
0:43.9	come to Israel, you're inviting somebody that already doesn't believe you. They don't feel safe
0:48.1	with you. And you haven't even created a safe space to have these tough conversations.
0:51.3	He used to dream of pro basketball. Then he broke his back and his ACL.
0:55.0	Most people would stop. He didn't. Barack Swartz traded the court for the camera from training NBA
0:59.8	athletes in Israel to building a YouTube channel that bridges sport and storytelling. He turned
1:04.5	adversity into action. I try to stay away from the word influencer because there's been an abuse
1:09.6	taken towards the word just because people label
1:12.8	influencers fake so I try to think of myself as key person of influence trying to use storytelling
1:18.5	to positively impact conversations around the world that I true and dear to me at first I found
1:23.5	being a basketball player as a liability coming into the space of the Middle East,
1:28.3	throughout my process of trying to, my message in who I am, I found it to be probably the
1:32.8	best asset because basketball and culture and sports in who I am helps humanize the
1:37.4	conversation a little bit.
1:38.5	His message, resilience isn't optional.
	...

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