Who better to help him and viewers make sense of it all than Zeteo contributor Naomi Klein – who authored the New York Times best-selling book, Doppleganger, which explores conspiracy theory culture and the forces that are driving real conspiracies (like the Epstein files). Yes, some conspiracies are indeed genuine!

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In this first ‘Unshocked’ episode of 2026, Naomi and Mehdi talk about how people come to believe conspiracy theories, and discuss what the latest Epstein file revelations say about power and wealth, and of course, the people named in it. The conversation is insightful, impassioned, and wide-ranging, and tackles how the left should deal with conspiracy theories.

A few of the topics they cover include:

• The difference between real conspiratorial plots and “conspiracy grifters” like Alex Jones and Candace Owens

• Steve Bannon’s use of faux conspiracy theories to distract from the revelations about his own involvement with Epstein

• “The conspiracy that is capitalism”

• Epstein’s relationships with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel

• What Epstein represented to the “Davos class” (“He could let them act on their impunity.”)

Naomi also manages to offer viewers hope. “What they [the Epstein class] fear most is these mass movements leading eventually to some kind of accountability. I think we should actually give them what they’re afraid of.”

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Paid subscribers can watch the entire 35-minute conversation between Mehdi and Naomi. Free subscribers can watch a 4-minute preview. Consider upgrading to a paid subscription today to support the work Zeteo does, and to never hit a paywall again.

And, if you like this conversation, then good news: ‘Unshocked’ is finally back for 2026! Be on the lookout for more episodes from Naomi and Mehdi coming your way soon, as they pull viewers “out of shock” through analysis, facts, and history.

You can also listen to ‘Unshocked’ wherever you get your podcasts.

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In this second part of Zeteo’s live ‘Unshocked,’ Dr. Yasser Khan – a Canadian ophthalmologist and plastic surgeon who has traveled twice to Gaza since October 7, 2023 – describes to Mehdi and Naomi how Israel’s humanitarian assault on Gaza has turned injuries and disabilities in Gaza into, “a death sentence.”

“It was horrific, the most horrific things that I've ever seen,” Khan says to Mehdi and Naomi, when asked about his first visit to the Strip.

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In the interview, Dr. Khan shares the stories of his many patients, the vast majority of whom he says were women and children.

“I had a 14-year-old girl that had bilateral globe ruptures, shrapnel to her eyes, eyeballs, and they were shattered. And she's blind with no family, because many of them, most of them are orphans,” Khan says to Mehdi and Naomi. “That's a death-sentence, because with no infrastructure, with constant bombardment, with famine, no electricity, fuel, water, no family, how are you going to survive?”

Dr. Khan also discusses how upon returning from Gaza, many of his colleagues in the medical field refused to believe such stories, with some even going out of their way to tell him that, “‘he’s done nothing to be a hero.’”

“After that, I had to face a lot of issues… at a hospital level, at university level, they did collate to come after me, accusing me of various things, which they never proved,” Khan says.

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Paid subscribers can watch the full interview. Dr. Khan explains how he came to the conclusion that what he was seeing in Gaza was indeed a genocide and why he takes so much inspiration from the people in Gaza. Mehdi, Naomi, and Dr. Khan also take questions from a live audience.

Free subscribers can watch a 2-minute preview. To watch it in full, consider upgrading to a paid subscription. You can also make a donation to us here, your small help goes a very long way.

Also, if you are interested in learning more about Israel’s assault on Gaza’s healthcare system, check out Zeteo’s most recently acquired documentary, ‘Gaza: Doctors Under Attack.’

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Albanese has spent the past week facing major backlash from corporate America, the pro-Israel lobby, and even the Trump administration, which has called for Albanese’s removal and is also reportedly preparing to place sanctions on her.

In this episode of ‘Unshocked,’ Naomi Klein brings on Albanese to discuss her key findings, what Klein describes as “an economy that is booming off of annihilation.” As Klein explains, Israel is known as a startup nation. And the tech part of Israel's economy is central to why the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has boomed since the October 7th attacks. But there is a dark side that needs to be discussed.

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“Israel has used the Palestinians to experiment technologies from military surveillance to the agribusiness industry,” Albanese says. “And these explain why in the past 20 months, why Israel transitioned from an economy of occupation to an economy of genocide.”

Klein and Albanese also bring up US tech company Palantir, which has openly embraced its partnership with Israel. Palantir CEO Alex Karp has responded to criticism of the company’s technology killing Palestinians by saying, “mostly terrorists, that’s true.”

“The fact that these people have the nerve to state that shows the level of impunity that they know [they] enjoy,” Albanese tells Klein.

Klein asks Albanese about the Trump administration’s call for the UN secretary-general to remove Albanese from her position as special rapporteur for human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, describing her as “threatening.”

“It's not me, it's international law that represents a threat,” says Albanese.

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Unless noted, Zeteo reached out to the companies mentioned in the discussion and did not receive responses before publication. Zeteo was unable to reach HD Hyundai, but the company told the BBC it was "not involved in the matter in question nor any related sales.” Separately, Volvo told the BBC it believes Albanese’s report is based on "insufficient and partly incorrect information” and that "there is unfortunately a limit to how much control or influence we can have on how and where our products are used during their lifetime".

–

Paid subscribers can watch the full episode to hear Albanese respond to attacks against her, along with her and Klein discussing the role of Israel’s tourism industry in enabling its genocide, Trump’s plan to takeover Gaza, and the media’s complicity in Israel’s genocide.

Free subscribers can watch a 6-minute preview. To watch the full conversation, consider upgrading to a paid subscription and supporting the work we’re doing at Zeteo.

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In this special live recording of ‘Unshocked,’ Mehdi and Naomi come together to do their first ever in-person episode in front of an audience of nearly a thousand people – most of them Zeteo subscribers like yourself! Their wide-ranging conversation takes place in Toronto as a part of Zeteo’s one-year anniversary tour.

“Canada loves you… but do you love Canada?” Naomi asks Mehdi.

During this first part of the two-part conversation, Naomi asks Mehdi to discuss the state of the US amid Trump’s immigration raids and deployment of the national guard in LA.

“Do we have to talk about the US?” Mehdi asks. “It's very depressing.”

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“What Trump and MAGA have done is also bring back that kind of white supremacist fringe into the mainstream. That is what's driving, that is animating all these raids, that's what's animating LA,” he says.

Mehdi and Naomi also discuss Israel’s ongoing and escalating assault on Gaza.

“How is it possible that a people who suffered a genocide could be committing a genocide?” Naomi asks. “I can't answer that question without understanding how trauma has been systematically weaponized by an ethnostate, and that Zionism is the ideology that turned trauma into a supremacist weapon.”

Mehdi and Naomi take questions from the audience, including about Canada’s response to Trump’s trade war, how they each find hope, ethnonationalism, and even Israeli strikes on Iran – which began during the recording.

Paid subscribers can watch the full conversation. Free subscribers can watch the first 15-minutes of the conversation. To watch it in full, consider upgrading to a paid subscription. You can also make a donation to us here, your small help goes a very long way.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where Mehdi and Naomi interview acclaimed Canadian doctor Yasser Khan, who received a standing ovation and brought people to tears describing his volunteer work with Palestinians trying to survive Israel’s assault on the ground Gaza.

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In this special episode of Unshocked, Rula joins Naomi Klein to discuss her new book, out in Europe and in Italian only (for now), “Genocidio: Quello Che Rimane Di Noi Nell'era Neo-Imperiale” (Genocide: What Is Left of Us in the Neo-Imperial Era). Rula’s book delves into Israel’s attacks on the United Nations, the Western media’s handling of the war, and her childhood experience of growing up in a Jerusalem orphanage.

Rula wrote this book, she explains, because "Our memory is not written in history books. Our memories are written in refugee camps, on the walls and the streets... What remains of us in this moment is to document this history."

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Rula and Naomi also discuss what her book says about Europe’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza, and how it is intertwined with the crimes those countries committed during the Holocaust.

“Europe tries to cleanse its guilt for genocide by offering blanket support to Israel and Zionism and that requires the dehumanization of Palestinians, which then leads to the ongoing genocide now,” Naomi says to Rula.

“Not only are governments complicit – the Western media establishment created the consent, sadly, for genocide,” Rula says to Naomi.

Paid subscribers can watch the full timely conversation between Rula and Naomi, including how people in Europe have reacted to Rula’s book so far.

Free subscribers can watch a 12-minute preview. To watch the full conversation, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.

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You can find the book, in Italian, on various European sites, such as here or here.

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In this special episode of ‘Unshocked,’ Naomi is joined by tech analyst, journalist, and author Paris Marx to break down the dangers behind Silicon Valley’s push for an AI-centered world, including for the environment, education, and democracy.

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In this fascinating and revealing conversation, the two explain how this push for AI-adoption plays into tech billionaire Elon Musk’s operations at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where leaders are pursuing an “AI-first” strategy.

“All those federal workers getting sent home with zero notice? All those researchers who lost their federal funding? All those aid workers? To the extent that there is a plan, it seems to be to replace them with chatbots,” Naomi says to Paris.

“I think you can see very clearly…this increasing relationship between Silicon Valley and say the Heritage Foundation and these really right-wing groups that have a desire to remake the American government, to really gut a lot of the social spending and those aspects of the U.S. government,” Paris says to Naomi.

The two also discuss how the Trump administration has reportedly been using AI to assist with the deportation of pro-Palestine students, and how Silicon Valley is increasingly looking towards the US military-industrial complex as an opportunity for profit.

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“They're moving more and more into openly being an arm of the defense or security state,” Naomi says to Paris.

“There's a clear desire to reframe how the United States sees national security in this moment, and to make sure that it is linked up to what Silicon Valley is doing,” Paris says to Naomi.

Paid subscribers can watch the full conversation to hear Naomi and Paris discuss the environmental impacts of AI, how its adoption in the government could impact people who rely on government benefits, and why it’s undermining democracy.

Free subscribers can watch a 12-minute preview. To watch the full conversation, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.

To hear more from Paris Marx, check out his Substack page, “Disconnect.”

You can also listen to ‘Unshocked’ wherever you get your podcasts:

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‘Unshocked’ is a monthly conversation with acclaimed author and activist Naomi Klein, where she pulls viewers ‘out of shock’ through analysis, facts, and history.

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“It's kind of a mafia polar world that is shaping up,” Naomi tells Mehdi. “Some people want to argue that this is all just about Trump being Putin's stooge. I think it's much more about a common theory of power – about might makes right.”

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“It’s something I worry about,” Mehdi explains, “The US and the UK… have allowed Israel basically to burn down the Geneva Conventions, international humanitarian law as we know it. The response to that can't just be, ‘Well, okay, everyone gets to do that now.’ I mean, that's a great rhetorical flourish in a debate, but actually, you don't want China doing that to Taiwan. You don't want Russia doing that in Ukraine.”

Naomi also points out the limits of the international humanitarian order, how they were “rigged from the start to provide a veto to major powers”, and the two go on to discuss Trump’s trade war with Canada and his repeated calls to annex Naomi’s home country.

“It's not just being annexed by America, as you say,” Mehdi says. “It's Trump's America. It’s not Obama's America that's trying to annex you. It’s Donald Trump's America, term two.”

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Watch the full interview above to also hear why the rest of the world is responding to Trump with more militarism and how the climate crisis is an essential player in these conversations.

Free subscribers can watch a 9-minute preview of the episode. To access the full interview, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.

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‘Unshocked’ is a monthly conversation with acclaimed author and activist Naomi Klein, where she and Mehdi pull viewers ‘out of shock’ through analysis, facts, and history.

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“They're sending that fear through every institution. And, of course, with the shocking immigration raids, it is a very tangible fear,” Naomi says to Mehdi. “It's designed to make you curl up in a ball and give up.”

“It is about numbing us. It is about making the public not be able to keep up, journalists not be able to keep up,” Mehdi says to Naomi.

In the conversation, Mehdi and Naomi also discuss why Trump and the tech oligarchs that surround him are not worried about “burning down” social programs, healthcare, the environment, or US institutions.

“The billionaires who he's [Trump] really serving… their wealth really does protect them,” Naomi says to Mehdi. “I personally believe that Trump knows that the climate crisis is real. He sort of has to because Mar-a-Lago is very vulnerable. But… they've all calculated that they're going to be fine.”

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The two also discuss Trump’s call for the US to pursue “manifest destiny into the stars,” and how Silicon Valley’s obsession with space plays into Trump’s destructive actions.

“I think space is really just a kind of clunky metaphor for what they're doing down here, which is building their escape hatches,” Naomi says to Mehdi.

“They don't care what happens in the long run because – as you say – they've written off the planet, they've written off society. They're all about their bottom line,” Mehdi says to Naomi.

Watch the full conversation above to hear about the use of ‘shock and awe’ during the Iraq War, Democrats' failure to be a trusted messenger, and how the message of Naomi’s book, “The Shock Doctrine,” can be used to take people out of the shock Trump has put them into.

Free subscribers can watch a 9-minute preview of the episode. To access the full interview, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.

You can also listen to ‘Unshocked’ wherever you get your podcasts:

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‘Unshocked’ is a monthly conversation with acclaimed author and activist Naomi Klein, where she and Mehdi pull viewers ‘out of shock’ through analysis, facts, and history.

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“When a call like that is made – especially when the call is to comply with international humanitarian law, the rules that we have all supposedly already agreed to – I think there's a moral responsibility to rise to that call,” Naomi tells Mehdi. 

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As a part of Climate Week, the BDS Movement is focusing their energy on a target environmental activists like Naomi have been calling out for years: Chevron. The company is Israel’s largest supplier of energy, which not only includes power to the Israeli government, but also to Israeli military bases. 

“[Chevron] is entangled with Israel's military machinery. It operates and partially owns Israel's largest gas fields offshore. It's gotten very rich off of these fields… but the Israeli government takes a big piece of that, so gets hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue directly from Chevron,” Naomi explains. 

Mehdi and Naomi also get into why the BDS Movement gets so much backlash in the United States; why Israel “gets a special pass” despite the US having a long history of sanctions; and they address the charges of anti-Semitism against BDS. They also discuss recent gains of the movement. 

Watch this deep-dive episode above. You can also listen to ‘Unshocked’ wherever you get your podcasts:

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‘Unshocked’ is a monthly conversation with acclaimed author and activist Naomi Klein, where she and Mehdi pull viewers ‘out of shock’ through analysis, facts, and history.

Watch the full conversation above. 

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Last week at the Democratic National Convention, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris claimed to be “working around the clock” with President Joe Biden to secure a ceasefire deal. However, what she failed to mention was how her administration’s unwavering support for Israel has not only enabled their horrific assault on Gaza, but has also allowed Israel to sabotage the ceasefire negotiations and delay the release of their own hostages.

“It's Netanyahu who has been moving the goalposts. It's Netanyahu who came along when we were so close to a deal…then says, ‘Oh, no, no, no, we're going to keep the Philadelphi corridor. We're going to keep the Netzarim corridor,’” Mehdi says. “These are two parts of Gaza that even the Egyptian government says cannot be part of any deal.”

Meanwhile, Naomi calls out the “international charade” that has come from these endless negotiations, as US officials continue to falsely promise that a deal is almost done and Hamas is the only block on it.

“I think we have to understand that this is worse than dishonest. This is part of the genocide. This allows it to unfold because if there's no pretext that it might stop, then the urgency to stop it would be greater,” Naomi tells Mehdi. 

At the Democratic National Convention last week in Chicago, the Democrats tried to rebrand themselves through promoting the message of ‘joy.’ But, as Naomi and Mehdi point out, that branding directly conflicts with Democrats’ refusal to stop all the pain and suffering that Israel is continuing to unleash on the people of Gaza. “I do think there's a cognitive dissonance here amongst grassroots Democrats.” Mehdi says. 

Paid subscribers can watch the full episode above (free subscribers get a five-minute free view); or listen to ‘Unshocked’ wherever you get your podcasts:

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‘Unshocked’ is a monthly conversation with acclaimed author and activist Naomi Klein, where she and Mehdi pull viewers ‘out of shock’ through analysis, facts, and history.

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On this week’s episode of ‘Unshocked’, Naomi Klein speaks with fellow Zeteo contributor Rula Jebreal about the alarming pro-rape riots in Israel that made international headlines earlier this week and, as Naomi put it, “the impunity that produced these shocking scenes.”

In case you missed the news, for months now, there have been leaked reports about rampant torture and rape of Palestinian prisoners at Israel’s notorious Sde Teiman detention center. Israel announced earlier this week it detained nine Israeli soldiers for questioning over the suspected rape and abuse of a Palestinian man from Gaza in the prison. But news of the investigation led to hundreds of citizens, including government ministers, protesting against the probe in support of the soldiers and their right to rape Palestinian prisoners. Angry mobs stormed Sde Teiman and another military base. 

If it sounds shocking, it is – and that’s exactly why this week’s episode of ‘Unshocked’ took on this story, to step back and talk about the bigger picture. 

“I never seen in my lifetime any entity, any regime, any soldier, or even a mob, protesting and raiding military bases, demanding or defending the right of soldiers to rape and use rape as a weapon of war,” Rula tells Naomi. “Israeli politicians are demanding to protect rapists in the name of self-defense… promoting the policy as a legitimate tool of war.”

Naomi talked about how governments use torture as a kind of propaganda. “Torture is always mass communication,” she explains, “You want people to know because it's part of how you discipline a population. You want the warning. But you also want the plausible deniability in the face of international courts. And so, there is a level of secrecy that has to coexist with that. There's a reason they released the photos from Guantanamo, right?” 

Naomi and Rula’s timely conversation discussed the use of rape as a tool of war, including October 7, the double standards from the international community when it comes to this topic, what the riots say about Israel today, and the U.S. role in all of this, especially what might be the positions of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris.

As Naomi says in the episode, “It has been very difficult to have honest conversations about sexual violence… and yet, we have to have these honest conversations.” 

Paid subscribers can watch the full episode above (free subscribers get a five-minute free view); or listen to ‘Unshocked’ wherever you get your podcasts:

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‘Unshocked’ is a monthly conversation with acclaimed author and activist Naomi Klein, where she and Mehdi pull viewers ‘out of shock’ through analysis, facts, and history.

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In New York’s 16th district, Republican donors joined with AIPAC to help defeat an outspoken critic of Israel, Jamaal Bowman, in the House Democratic primary there on Tuesday night. 

Naomi tells Mehdi on this episode of ‘Unshocked’: “I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It was a blow.” For Mehdi, “the idea that 14 or $15 million from AIPAC and the pro-Israel lobby in this district didn't play a role? Come on! That's just an insult to our intelligence.”

Over in France, as elections approach, the center right and center left have together blamed the anti-Israel far left for rising antisemitism - and given the French far right a pass in the process! There are reports that many French Jews may now vote for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally for the first time. 

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Naomi says “European politics is a world upside down,” and says it is “chilling” to think that the “charge of antisemitism is potentially going to facilitate the resurgence of fascism in Europe”. 

Although all these far-right parties are staunch supporters of Israel, Mehdi explains how “the old anti-Semitism is still very much alive and well.” A mind-boggling idea regardless of which side of the coin you choose to see it from, so mind-boggling that Mehdi says: “I feel like screaming that no one sees the obvious disconnect… these people are still anti-Semitic and they're pro-Israel. What does that tell you about them?”

What does it also say about Zionism? Mehdi and Naomi discuss Zeteo’s upcoming documentary ‘Israel’s Reel Extremism’ and Mehdi’s participation in the Munk Debate on anti-Zionism in Toronto earlier this month. 

**The full video of this episode is only available to paid subscribers.

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‘Unshocked’ is a monthly conversation between Zeteo Editor-in-Chief Mehdi Hasan and author and activist Naomi Klein, where they pull viewers ‘out of shock’ through analysis, facts, and history. 

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“It's almost a caricature of big oil. It's like a scene out of Hollywood movies,” Mehdi says, in this latest episode of ‘Unshocked.’ “You've got the presidential candidate sitting in his wedding holiday resort in Florida eating chopped steak with 20 big oil executives saying, ‘Give me $1 billion and I'll make you $100 billion.’ ”

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Since that first meeting was reported, Trump has only doubled down on his quest for big oil money, visiting Houston last week to meet with fossil-fuel execs, just days after the city suffered their own climate disaster. 

“The oil companies must have been just so stunned because they're not hurting. They are posting record profits. All of these wars are fantastic for their bottom lines,” Naomi Klein tells Mehdi. 

In their latest conversation, Mehdi and Naomi explore what’s really behind Trump’s “drill baby drill” obsession, and what it says not only about our future, but also about the right’s preoccupation with brute force, masculinity, and of course, climate denial.

“You are here on this planet, and you do have to navigate and negotiate with the force of nature, which is actually stronger than us,” Naomi said. “I think that is perceived by people like Trump as an insult to their masculinity, like the idea that nature is speaking back to them and that their worldview really is about a hierarchy where you have white men at the top.”

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Later in the conversation, Naomi went on to explain how the genocide in Gaza ties into America’s apathy towards climate disasters, a point made by Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza. 

“In October, Gustavo Petro said, this is global 1933. And he said that what they were seeing in Gaza was a glimpse of their future in the Global South,” Naomi said. “They see Gaza as part of a process of normalizing mass death, of habituating the planet to just allowing people to die.” 

‘Unshocked’ is a monthly conversation between Zeteo Editor-in-Chief Mehdi Hasan and author and activist Naomi Klein, where they pull viewers ‘out of shock’ through analysis, facts, and history. 

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Naomi also reacts to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu comparing student protesters at Columbia University to Nazis, telling Mehdi that when it comes to Netanyahu, “there is nobody more adept at exploiting Jewish trauma, historical trauma, and turning it into a political weapon for his own advantage.”

Mehdi also opens up to Naomi about why he decided to boycott the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. 

“I can't call out what Israel is doing to Palestinian journalists with American-made bombs and then go to a fun, comedy-type dinner with the President of the United States — who's not just responsible for that, but is also not even acknowledging it,” Mehdi tells Naomi. 

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In 2007, Naomi wrote The Shock Doctrine, a best-selling book that explains what happens when a national crisis throws citizens into a state of shock and how the powerful exploit those moments.

Although it may be one of her most popular books, Naomi tells Mehdi that she dreams of a day where The Shock Doctrine will no longer be relevant, where people can stay grounded even in times of chaos. 

“The idea for calling this segment ‘Unshocked’ — it's not to communicate a kind of world weariness, like nothing can shock me… It's the idea of what I'm hoping we can do together, which is yank us out of shock through analysis, facts, history, and really rooting us in reality,” Naomi explains.

Look out for ‘Unshocked’ with Naomi Klein every month, where she and Mehdi provide deeper analysis on various topics related to current events, religion, politics, ideology, and more. To sign up, click your profile icon in the top right corner of the Substack page, go to “manage subscription,” and scroll down to select.