The Travelers Podcast with Brother Ali · Travelers Media

Aamer Rahman Returns!

·1 hr 18 min·5 clips

A 10-city Muslim charity tour became, for Brother Ali, the worst experience of his life.

Brother Ali opens the episode from Uskudar, on Istanbul’s Asian side. He says he has just released Brother Minister Volume 2, the Uskudar Sessions. The neighborhood has been home for him and his family over the last five years. He talks about it as a place of healing, not just a setting. His two youngest daughters, he says, have only known it as home. He also notes that the project was produced entirely by him. The artwork came from Tony DeMuro, whose work he found after following him on Instagram. That personal setup matters because the conversation starts from lived place before it opens into political argument. From there, the talk moves into questions of allyship. The episode spends time on how people respond when Palestine enters the conversation. Norman Finkelstein becomes a major reference point. Brother Ali says he did not know him before the current round of attention around Gaza and Palestine. They talk about his books and the price he has paid for his politics. The Holocaust Industry comes up as part of that history. Gaza’s Grave Diggers comes up too. The conversation also moves through Chris Hedges, Saul Williams, and Tarik Ali. That opens into a broader argument about an older radical left. Identity politics, safe spaces, and the value of debate all get tested in that frame. The exchange does not smooth over its disagreements. It lets admiration and critique sit together. That is part of the episode’s shape. It keeps coming back to what it means to speak honestly and still stay in relationship. Brother Ali closes with the familiar point that constructive disagreement is welcome, but ugly argument is not.

As heard by us

A patient, morally serious conversation about Palestine, conscience, and public witness.

The hour starts in Uskudar on Istanbul's Asian side, with Brother Ali's family life there and the project he says he released into that setting.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You get a slow, candid talk that moves from Brother Ali's Istanbul life to Palestine and radical politics.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Travelers Podcast with Brother Ali