This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com Noam Shuster-Eliassi is what some people might call a ‘unicorn’. She’s an anti-Zionist, Jewish-Iranian Israeli who speaks fluent Arabic and grew up in a tiny village in Israel called the ‘Oasis of Peace’, where Jews and Palestinians choose to live together. And while she started a career in diplomacy with a stint at the United Nations trying to bring pea…...
Dec 09, 2025•40 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com On the day after Zohran Mamdani’s historic election win, what better ‘We’re Not Kidding’ guest could we ask for than New York City icon Ilana Glazer? The Jewish-American comedian, activist, and ‘Broad City’ creator joined Mehdi in midtown Manhattan to talk about what Mamdani’s victory means for the future of US politics. The two also discuss the recent failures of the Democratic party and whether Mamdani’s win has the power ...
Nov 07, 2025•45 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com If you were a fan of the HBO series ‘Succession’ — then do we have a treat for you. On this new episode of ‘We’re Not Kidding’, Mehdi is joined by Iranian-American actor Arian Moayed who played the scene-stealing character Stewy Hosseini on the hit HBO show. Mehdi and Arian unpack the ways our reality mirrors the fictional world of ‘Succession’, like how pro-Israel billionaire Larry Ellison, the world’s second richest man, i...
Oct 14, 2025•49 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com It’s been six months since Mehdi and Bassem Youssef last recorded an episode of ‘We’re Not Kidding’, so needless to say they had a lot to catch up on. And what better place to host their reunion than ArabCon 2025 in Dearborn, Michigan? During this very special LIVE taping, the duo get candid about the Trump administration’s recent attacks on free speech, the potential of a Zohran Mamdani victory in New York City, and how muc...
Sep 30, 2025•1 hr 4 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com SPOILER ALERT: This episode includes plot details for the TV series ‘Andor’. On this week’s ‘We’re Not Kidding’, Mehdi once again gets to do his two favorite things: have a substantive conversation about politics and fanboy on nerd culture. That’s because this week’s guest is award-winning Irish actor Denise Gough, who came to prominence on the ‘Star Wars’ TV series ‘Andor’ playing an intelligence officer in service of the f...
Sep 22, 2025•46 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com On this week’s ‘We’re Not Kidding’ Mehdi sits down with an actual superhero. No, not the Incredible Hulk from Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’ — he’s a pretend super hero. The real-life superhero we’re referring to this week is the award-winning Hollywood actor and activist Mark Ruffalo . For over two decades, Mark has been one of the most politically courageous actors in Hollywood, having spoken out against the fracking industry, US...
Sep 15, 2025•53 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com Mehdi is joined by Palestinian-Lebanese-American singer-songwriter-rapper Anees to talk about his activism on Gaza and his belief in the power of music to influence politics.Anees tells Mehdi about his winding career path of going to law school, passing the bar exam, and delivering pizzas for 10 years. After getting his big break during an Instagram livestream with superstar Justin Bieber, Anees made the leap from up-and-com...
Aug 18, 2025•38 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com In the last 20 years, Middle Eastern representation in American culture has gone from absolutely horrendous to… somewhat decent. Instead of TV shows like ‘24’ and ‘Homeland’, we now have ‘Ramy’ and ‘Mo’. But before ANY of that, there was Iranian-American comedian Maz Jobrani , this week’s co-host of ‘We’re Not Kidding’, who has been paving the way for Middle Eastern comics since the late 90s. In this heartfelt conversation, ...
Jul 14, 2025•50 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com Last week, Mehdi and Zeteo concluded our five-city tour, so we obviously had to end with a special LIVE taping of ‘We’re Not Kidding’ and audience Q&A with returning co-host Alana Hadid — an activist, designer, and Creative Director of the Palestinian film company Watermelon Pictures . Mehdi and Alana also discuss Israel’s now 20 month-long genocide in Gaza and the worsening humanitarian conditions on the ground, includi...
Jun 24, 2025•1 hr
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com Since the launch of ‘We’re Not Kidding’, Mehdi has sat down with some of the most multi-talented multi-hyphenates working in entertainment and media. But few wear as many caps as this week’s guest co-host, Yasmin Elhady — a Libyan-Egyptian-American standup comedian, lawyer, and co-host of the popular Hulu TV series ‘Muslim Matchmaker’. But before she was a famous TV host, Yasmin tells Mehdi about her experience as a Muslim i...
Jun 11, 2025•44 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com It’s been almost four months (!) of Donald Trump’s second term and it’s become nearly impossible to keep track of the president’s unhinged behavior. Fortunately, Mehdi and political analyst Molly Jong-Fast, host of the ‘Fast Politics’ podcast, take on the task of rounding up Trump’s most insane recent moments on this week’s ‘We’re Not Kidding’. They also call out the media for its lax coverage of Trump’s mental state and pos...
May 15, 2025•34 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com It’s been one whole year since the launch of ‘We’re Not Kidding’, and for our anniversary episode Mehdi is joined by comedian and internet superstar Gianmarco Soresi. As a half-Italian, half-Jewish comedian, Gianmarco has become famous for the viral social media clips of his standup comedy, as well as his outspoken criticism of Israel. He and Mehdi unpack how the silencing of pro-Palestine voices can contribute to rising ant...
Apr 25, 2025•44 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com On this week’s ‘We’re Not Kidding’, Mehdi is joined by award-winning actor, activist, and Zeteo contributor Cynthia Nixon for an impassioned conversation about rising fascism under Donald Trump and the lawlessness of ICE, which Cynthia calls a “terrorist agency.” Mehdi and Cynthia unpack Trump’s assault on US higher education, the ‘disappearings’ of international student activists, and the lack of opposition from the Democra...
Apr 09, 2025•42 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com It’s been almost two months since Mehdi and Bassem co-hosted ‘We’re Not Kidding’ together and A LOT has happened since then. As two naturalized US citizens, Mehdi and Bassem co-host again, starting off the conversation discussing the Trump administration’s arrests of international residents in the US who dare to criticize Israel. The two also discuss Israel breaking the ceasefire deal (Bassem compares Israel to ex you keep e...
Mar 28, 2025•41 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com They first bonded over their shared love of Nando’s — now Mehdi and UK comedian Nish Kumar reunite to talk about their shared contempt for the Trump administration. The two sat down in Washington DC to discuss UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous visits to the White House and the childish behavior of US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Mehdi and Nish also w...
Mar 17, 2025•45 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com Live from New York — it’s ‘We’re Not Kidding’! This past week, Mehdi traveled to the ‘On Air Fest’ in Brooklyn for a very special LIVE taping of ‘WNK’ with award-winning sports journalist and broadcaster Jemele Hill. You may remember Jemele from the first Trump administration, when political ‘nepo baby’ and then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called for ESPN to fire Jemele for calling Donald Trump a white...
Feb 27, 2025•48 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com Mehdi is once again joined by ‘We’re Not Kidding’ powerhouse Bassem Youssef for a raw and honest conversation about the state of the world. To steal a phrase from MAGA Republicans speaking about Donald Trump — “Daddy is home.” Mehdi and Bassem unpack the first few weeks of Trump’s second term, including the escalating violence in the West Bank occurring during the “fake” Gaza ceasefire. The two also debate whether the US emp...
Feb 07, 2025•35 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com ‘We’re Not Kidding’ is back! After a not-very-relaxing holiday break, Mehdi is joined by tech and online culture journalist ( and new Zeteo contributor !) Taylor Lorenz to discuss the new age of American oligarchy. Trump is back in office and his inauguration was a star-studded showcase of spineless tech billionaires. Mehdi and Taylor also unpack the dumbfounding blunder of Democrats’ TikTok ban, why private ownership of soc...
Jan 24, 2025•40 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com If you’ve followed Mehdi’s career, you know he’s interviewed heads of state, members of Congress, homicidal mercenaries, and even terrorists. But this may be Mehdi’s most intimidating guest yet — Huda Kattan — the superstar beauty influencer, activist, reality TV show host, and founder and CEO of international beauty brand 'Huda Beauty'. Funnily enough, Huda was also nervous to sit down with one of her personal role models. ...
Dec 20, 2024•40 min
Hasan Minhaj and Mehdi Hasan don’t just share a common brown name… actually, that may be all they have in common. One loves to debate, the other avoids it like the plague. One is obsessed ( sorry, Mehdi ) with Twitter, the other avoids it like the plague. And one knew months ago that Trump was going to win, and with record levels of Black and Brown support. They also talked about Joe Rogan and diagnosing what’s the matter with men these days, pseudo-intellectualism, Hasan’s latest Netflix specia...
Nov 25, 2024•50 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com Following the (depressing) results of the 2024 US presidential election, Mehdi is joined by comedians Amanda Seales and Francesca Fiorentini for a (funny) post-post-mortem on Democrats’ historic shellacking. They discuss the Harris campaign’s many mistakes, from cozying up to Republican neocons, to abandoning Bernie Sanders-style populism, to inexplicably hiding their only cool person, Tim Walz. “Let's stop taking these less...
Nov 14, 2024•39 min
It’s less than a week until the 2024 US presidential election and who better to discuss the government with than ‘Parks and Rec’ star and comedian Nick Offerman. The last time Mehdi spoke with Nick about current events was back in May 2021, right before Nick was to testify before Congress about the Covid-19 vaccine. More recently, Nick released a couple of comedic songs to encourage Americans to vote for Kamala Harris and defeat Donald Trump (hopefully) forever. Mehdi and Nick rant about the Don...
Nov 01, 2024•36 min
If you’ve been tuning into Zeteo’s flagship podcast, ‘We’re Not Kidding’ for the last six months, you’re going to find this one is a very special episode. Bassem Youssef returns to WNK for an intimate and heartfelt conversation – one unlike you’ve ever seen on this show. It’s also a version of Bassem none of us, including Mehdi, have ever seen before. “ I’m from a very, very, very deep point of desperation ,” he tells Mehdi backstage at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre in downtown Toro...
Oct 24, 2024•36 min
In the latest episode of ‘We’re Not Kidding’, Mehdi is joined by comedians Matt Lieb and Sammy Obeid to discuss the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas and Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza that followed. Matt, a Jewish-American, and Sammy, a Palestinian-American, share their personal experiences over the past year, including how they’ve managed to maintain their sense of humor through a year of intense violence and tragedy. SUBSCRIBE TO ZETEO TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT AND UNFILTE...
Oct 10, 2024•48 min
In the latest episode of ‘We’re Not Kidding’, Mehdi’s in London (again!) and this time chatting with the Nando’s-loving comedian and host of ‘Pod Save the UK’ Nish Kumar. We promise you will laugh – and maybe even cry of laughter. Nish and Mehdi lead with that - their shared love of Nando’s - and how, as Nish describes, it’s the only thing uniting a fragmented British society right now. The two also get deep into what that fragmented society looks like: the far-right, racist-fueled riots that to...
Sep 26, 2024•55 min
Mehdi is joined by Oscar-winning actor and producer Riz Ahmed for a high school reunion (yes, they went to school together back in London in the 1990s!) and catch up on life, work, and how the world has changed for brown folks since their childhood. They talk about Riz’s journey as an actor — from playing stereotypical roles to now creating his own work and championing the work of up-and-coming filmmakers. “Representation within a broken system doesn't necessarily get us anywhere.” Riz tells Meh...
Sep 12, 2024•46 min
‘We’re Not Kidding’ will be taking a break during the month of August, but will return in September with new episodes and a very special guest host - check out Mehdi’s announcement video for a sneak peak! ‘We’re Not Kidding’ launched just a few months ago, and has already had hundreds of thousands of people watch and listen, six amazing guest hosts, and a live show in DC in front of a studio audience with Zeteo’s paid subscribers. If you haven’t had the chance yet, consider becoming a paid subsc...
Aug 08, 2024•3 min
On this week’s special LIVE episode of ‘We’re Not Kidding,’ filmed in front of a studio audience in the Washington DC area, Mehdi is joined by activist, influencer and fashion designer Alana Hadid, who has been one of the most vocal advocates for the people of Gaza over the past nine months. Alana’s family is arguably the most famous Palestinian family on Earth, and the Hadids have received a ton of backlash - and a lot of threats - due to their outspoken criticisms of Israel’s genocidal campaig...
Jul 23, 2024•1 hr 4 min
On this week’s episode of ‘We’re Not Kidding,’ Mehdi travels to London to speak with U.S. comedian, writer, and actor Rob Delaney, who has lived in the UK for the last 10 years. In this powerful, wide-ranging, and at times emotional conversation, Rob speaks with Mehdi about how the tragic loss of his 2 year-old son in 2018 drove him to speak out against Israel’s brutal assault on Palestinian children. “What I do not have in common with the people in Gaza,” Rob tells Mehdi, “is once my baby died,...
Jul 11, 2024•44 min
On this week’s bonus episode of ‘We’re Not Kidding,’ Bassem Youssef joins Mehdi for an honest and critical conversation about Oct. 7, and the avalanche of Israeli propaganda and lies that followed Hamas’ deadly attack. Bassem and Mehdi discuss and debunk a number of lies and distortions about the events on the day, from Israel’s controversial “Hannibal directive,” which led to the Israeli military killing a number of its own citizens, to the the now infamous “40 beheaded babies” and “babies in o...
Jul 02, 2024•1 hr
