halftheanswer

Half the Answer #16: Palestine in Context

Caitlin M. Green, Trent R. Nelson, Y. L. Al-Sheikh

08 Jun 2025 — 1 min read

Trent and Caitlin talk to Layla al-Sheikh, who provides the history and context of the establishment of the Israeli state on Palestinian land, the many displacements and violent ethnic cleansings of the last century in that region, and the evolving relationships of the surrounding nations with the United States.

Half the Answer can be heard on Spotify, on Apple, on YouTube, on Amazon, and elsewhere via its RSS feed.

Resources:

Theodore Herzl https://britannica.com/biography/Theodor-Herzl

Nakba https://un.org/unispal/about-the-nakba/

The Disinherited: Journal of a Palestinian Exile https://monthlyreview.org/product/disinherited/

Dear Palestine https://sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/dear-palestine

Said on the Oslo Accords https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Edward-Said-·-The-Morning-After-·-LRB-21-October-1993.pdf

US as “Israel’s Lawyer” https://aljazeera.com/news/2011/1/24/israels-lawyer-revisited

America and Iran https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/59417/america-and-iran-by-john-ghazvinian/

Brokers of Deceit: How the US Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East https://beacon.org/Brokers-of-Deceit-P1029.aspx

Image of Dead Sea: https://openverse.org/image/collection?source=flickr&creator=trialsanderrors

Read more

Neon Liberalism #29: Immigration and Terror

Neon Liberalism #29: Immigration and Terror

Amidst escalating ICE raids, lawless deportations, and the horror of CECOT, immigration has moved to the center of American politics. Join Samantha and guest Adam Gurri, editor-in-chief of Liberal Currents, as we talk about the ground truth: policing immigrants requires restricting the freedoms of citizens. Authoritarianism for the out-group inevitably

The History of Successful Liberal Reform

The History of Successful Liberal Reform

When elites feared the system would fall apart entirely, they accepted reform.

The Far Right Canon

The Far Right Canon

The radical right has its own canon of intellectuals—aristocratic, resentful, and a profound challenge to liberal philosophy.

Neon Liberalism #28: Has Feminism Run Out of Steam?

Neon Liberalism #28: Has Feminism Run Out of Steam?

Join Samantha and guest Talia Bhatt as they discuss the state of feminism under Trump II, the enduring relevance of radical feminist ideas, and the uses and abuses of intersectionality in contemporary leftist thought. Neon Liberalism can be heard on Spotify, on Apple, on YouTube, on Amazon, and elsewhere via