Episode 531 Promo - Should We 'Let Zohran Cook'? (w/ Ross Barkan & Nerdeen Kiswani)
Bad Faith
Bad Faith
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
New York Magazine columnist and longtime knower of Zohran Mamdani, Ross Barkan, returns to Bad Faith alongside first time guest, Palestinian activist and founder of Within our Lifetime Nerdeen Kiswani, to discuss recent controversies around mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani following his historical win in New York. Why did Mamdani weigh in on Chi Ossé's potential primary against Hakeem Jefferies instead of sitting it out? If the DSA is concerned about divided resources, why didhe argue that now is not the right "time" for a primary on principle, and why did he go on to endorse Jefferies as Speaker of the House? What's the logic behind keeping Jessica Tisch on board -- especially after the recent ICE activity in NYC? And is Zohran's strategy of giving statements appealing to "both sides" -- criticizing an Israeli settler recruiting event at a NY synagogue while also discouraging protests outside of it -- a successful strategy, or does it simply serve to frustrate everyone?
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Produced by Armand Aviram.
Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What concerns me in addition to this Tish question is the fact that, you know, he said he's pledging to do 800% more support or funding, a funding pledge for anti-hate crime prevention around, you mentioned anti-Semitism specifically when it comes to that. |
| 0:15.2 | And also, Brianna, you're also in the legal field. |
| 0:17.7 | We know that these grants, what they really do is criminalize anti-Zionists organizing. |
| 0:23.3 | I mean, who tracks anti-Semitic hate crimes, groups like the ADL, groups that count saying |
| 0:28.5 | free Palestine as an anti-Semitic incident, groups that count Palestine protests as an anti-Semitic |
| 0:34.9 | incident. Right now, there's a 20-year-old Palestinian in federal |
| 0:38.9 | prison in MDC in Sunset Park, you know, not too far from Bay Ridge, who is sentenced for |
| 0:44.4 | essentially what having bar fights with Zionists, having little street skirmishes, who |
| 0:49.9 | was sentenced on a hate crime charge. And I think in totality with keeping Tish on, I think that |
| 0:55.8 | ultimately is going to repress people further and pull people away from organizing and from |
| 1:02.0 | protesting because they're literally fearing for their lives. They're fearing for their bodies. |
| 1:06.4 | You know, I've been arrested many times by the NYPD since October 2023. |
| 1:11.6 | Prior to that, really not that much, maybe one or two times for protesting. |
| 1:16.7 | And never have the charges ever stuck. |
| 1:18.8 | I've never been convicted of anything. |
| 1:20.2 | The cop never shows up. |
| 1:21.3 | It's always dismissed. |
| 1:22.3 | It's always an ACD. |
| 1:23.3 | But the punishment is really petered out with their physical abuse of my body. |
| 1:28.4 | That's what's happened to our community. |
| 1:30.3 | And I think this is going to continue the chilling of our speech, of our protests, |
| 1:35.4 | because we're not really seeing change in the NYPD when it comes to the Zionist commissioner. |
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