To kick off Zeteo’s “Bold and Unfiltered” 1-Year Anniversary Tour, we thought it might be fun to turn the tables on Mehdi.
How well would he do in the hot seat? How does the tough interviewer fare when he’s the interviewee? And what brave soul is ready to challenge the man who usually does the challenging?
That would be award-winning British journalist and presenter, Sangita Myska. Sangita is a long-standing radio host who made headlines last year when she abruptly left her post with British broadcaster LBC shortly after a challenging interview she did with an Israeli government spokesperson.
“I did learn and read everything I can about this man [Mehdi],” Sangita told the live audience in London. “And what I discovered was, even the people that hate Mehdi Hasan… Even those people agree that he is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the very best political interviewers of our generation.” She then proceeded to put Mehdi through his paces – including a pretty intense rapid-fire section.
“You are very much part of the media elites, aren't you?”
“How can you possibly call yourself a credible organization if you do not remain impartial?”
“How are you going to prevent yourself, or certainly the perception of yourselves at Zeteo, as becoming the left-wing version of Fox News?”
Sangita kept the challenging questions coming across the course of the night, even asking Mehdi about his early life, his time interning under (then magazine editor and later UK Prime Minister) Boris Johnson (yes, that happened), Zeteo and its future, and so much more.
It isn’t just Sangita who had her questions ready to go, but an eager London audience of hundreds too, and some of their questions weren’t softballs either.
If you’re interested in joining us at our DC event, here’s more about that one. And stay tuned for announcements related to events in Los Angeles and Toronto!
Paid subscribers can watch the full interview above to hear Mehdi defend his claim of being an “insider/outsider,” his pick of Bollywood heroes, and the one hypothetical question that made him go silent.
Free subscribers can watch a 10-minute preview. Do consider becoming a paid subscriber to support the work we’re doing and to watch all of our content, paywall-free.
In case you missed it, here is our live taping of ‘Two Outspoken’ with Owen Jones in London that same evening:
