Statelessness, but make it funny

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mo Amer is the creator and star of the hit Netflix comedy series Mo. It's a first-of-its kind Palestinian-American sitcom with a fraught plot line about the American immigration system and the hope to return, at least for a visit, to his family's homeland. We talk to Mo Amer what it’s like to make a show so centered on the real facts of his own life, and to be thrust into the role of spokesperson for Palestinian-Americans at this particular moment.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theshmit.org.
0:14.6	Just a heads up, this episode contains a salty language, which means it's going to be some cousin, and contains some spoilers for the Netflix comedy Moe.
0:23.9	What's good?
0:24.8	You're listening to Code Switch.
0:26.6	I'm Gene Demby.
0:28.6	All right, y'all, I'm going to start with a spoiler.
0:31.0	Consider yourselves warned, okay?
0:32.7	When the first season of the critically acclaimed Netflix comedy, Mo ends, its main character, Mo Najjar, who is a Palestinian refugee, who's been living in the U.S. for decades, is being chased by some bad people who think he stole something from them.
0:46.8	And to make this all worse, he somehow found himself on the wrong side of the border.
0:53.4	I'm in Mexico.
0:55.2	New Mexico?
0:56.1	No, not New Mexico.
0:57.5	Old Mexico.
0:58.8	Like, for real, for real, Mexico.
1:00.4	Across the border, Mexico?
1:02.0	What are you doing in Mexico?
1:03.5	I was chasing these olive trees.
1:05.6	And Nick came with me and we got trapped.
1:07.8	And yeah, I know, I know.
1:09.3	Wrong side of the border.
1:10.6	That's a very loaded expression.
1:12.6	But in the case of Mo, it's fitting because his being there is a huge problem. Like for starters,
	...

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