Popular Cradle

Sure, we're all breathing a massive sigh of relief after the final, but that's because the 2026 World Cup was about so much more than one player or one match. While the England v. Argentina semifinal played in the background, we spoke to organizers and football fans about how the Arab national teams fared this tournament, historical entanglements between the World Cup and fascists, and how Trump's Board of Peace uses FIFA to whitewash the crimes of Zionism.

What does it look like to forge a national identity and re-constitute a liberation movement when a people is in exile? What does it mean to organize a revolution of refugees? For our Nakba 78 episode, we discuss the unique context of Nakba to the cause of national liberation--family histories, the relationship of class, displacement, and dispossession to revolution, and the inevitability of continued resistance so long as Zionism exists.

As Palestinian political prisoners face escalations in abuse and torture in Zionist prisons, we speak to a former prisoner, Hadeel Shattara, in the second installment of our series on Palestinian prisoners. Hadeel talks to us about the conditions prisoners are currently facing, the experience of imprisonment, the achievements of the Palestinian prisoners' movement, and how prisoners lead and contribute to the national liberation struggle. 

While starvation and bombardment continue during a time of supposed ceasefire, Palestinian political prisoners are facing an aggressive escalation in abuse tactics during detention. Milena Ansari, a Palestinian attorney based in Jerusalem and an expert on Israeli prison conditions and policies applied to Palestinian prisoners, joins Popular Cradle to discuss the parallel genocide on Palestinians happening within the Zionist "legal" system.

*This episode was originally published on the "5-4" podcast in November 2025.* Rhiannon interviews two of the lawyers who represent Leqaa Kordia, the Palestinian woman who is "the last of the Columbia protesters in ICE detention." They discuss the legal procedural tricks ICE has used to keep Leqaa in custody, and what Leqaa's case means for all of us.Leqaa Kordia has now been in ICE custody for more than 11 months. In early February 2026, Leqaa was hospitalized after experiencing a seizure, but her whereabouts and condition were not given to her family or her legal team. She is now back in ICE detention, where she reported that she was chained continuously for more than 72 hours during her hospitalization. Her legal cases are ongoing. Sign the petition to FREE LEQAA KORDIA: bit.ly/freeleqaaFollow the Free Leqaa Campaign on ig: @freeleqaakordia

Trump's Board of Peace governance plan for Gaza is anything but. We discuss the ins and outs, from the $1 billion entry fee for individual Board membership, to the plan's complete lack of meaningful Palestinian participation in their own governance. Pay attention, because U.S.-led plans for Gaza are a preview for the billionaire class' vision of the future: a world full of privatized, unregulated, exploitative fiefdoms from which low-wage labor and resources are extracted for further enrichment of the few. 

Yara and Rhiannon are joined by two organizers from the AIPAC Out of U.S. Politics campaign to discuss the billionaire-funded, propaganda-pushing Israel lobby in the United States, and how the "America First" vs. "Israel First" discourse doesn't accurately capture the role AIPAC and its network play in kneecapping democracy, war-making and profiteering, and advancing both the U.S. and Israel's overlapping interests in Palestine and around the world.For more information about the AIPAC Out of U.S. Politics campaign, and to SIGN THE PETITION, go to www.aipacoutofuspolitics.comFollow the campaign on ig and X @aipacout

From Egypt to Iraq to Palestine and beyond, the U.S. war machine is the vehicle through which America de-develops, subjugates, and extracts from the global south. In this episode, Yara and Rhiannon are joined by Miriam and Taher from the PYM to discuss "America's Forever Wars in the Middle East," the four-part course they recently taught about how the United States established and maintains its position at the top of the global geopolitical hierarchy, through the lens of its war-making and profiteering in the Middle East.  You can access all four lectures and the course reading materials from "America's Forever Wars in the Middle East" for free by registering at www.peoplesforum.org/foreverwars

On the 38th anniversary of the First Intifada, a re-release of our episode on that revolutionary time period that transformed Palestinian society through both spontaneous revolt and the mass organization of a sustained uprising.

The Case Against Israel's Genocidal SoldiersIn this episode, Rhiannon interviews Jake Romm of the Hind Rajab Foundation to talk about the work HRF is doing to pursue accountability for the perpetrators of genocide in Gaza. They discuss what justice looks like after genocide, how international law can be used to isolate and disempower war criminals, and how legal accountability is one necessary step towards building a new world order where colonial genocide is a thing of the past.