The Curious Middle

Medi from Rep America was born in Southern California to parents from Iran. Like Polina, he was a Democrat for most of his life, until he left the left. We talk about the moment Medi realized the left had moved on without him, and why so many former Democrats feel like they got scammed.
Then we got into the hard stuff. Medi doesn't hold back on Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood, and why he thinks a secular Iran isn't enough. Yelena pushed back more than once. If we don't tell the Amish or Orthodox Jews to give up their identity, why say it to Muslims? And how do we criticize Islamism without making our Muslim neighbors feel like outsiders? We didn't settle it, but Yelena walked away with some clarity, and we think you will too.
We also cover the Barbary Wars, the history of slavery nobody teaches in school, what Medi grew up with in a Muslim family, and why Christianity is growing in Iran. This episode is exactly why we call ourselves The Curious Middle.
Watch this eposide on Youtube
Find Medi:
Website: https://repamerica.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RepAmerica
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/medikation

Jill Kargman grew up on the Upper East Side and still felt like an outsider there. The creator of Odd Mom Out joins us o talk about status, Instagram, October 7, and why she calls herself politically homeless. Jill explains why so many Jewish New Yorkers have already switched, why Hollywood stays quiet, and what her daughter saw on campus after October 7. Then it's rapid fire: Birkins, four-nanny families, body-altering filters, and the Upper East Side habit that tells you someone's a jerk.
We also talk about her new movie Influenced and her next project, a film based on her book Sprinkle Glitter on My Grave.
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Meet Tanya. She was born in Los Angeles to parents who left the Soviet Union as refugees in 1979. After October 7, her group of friends and her lesbian basketball league turned on her. Teammates she'd played with for years stopped talking to her. When she said she was voting for Trump, they actually banned her from team events. Her story went viral, and now she's running for West Hollywood City Council, and working for ThinkAgain
We chat about:
Losing friends in the queer community after October 7
Why Tanya believes the fight against antisemitism is being lost online
The moment she left the Democratic Party
Why the best politicians change their minds
https://highlyjewish.com
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Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thecuriousmiddlepod/
Email us: thecuriousmiddlepod@gmail.com
00:28 Born in LA to Soviet Jewish refugees
02:30 Growing up a proud Jew and Zionist
03:40 The Lambda basketball league
04:40 October 7 and the friends who turned away
06:19 Where the misinformation comes from
07:00 Fighting antisemitism online at Think Again
09:40 Moving to Iowa to campaign for Hillary
11:54 Admitting you were wrong
13:26 Coming out at 14 and refusing to tone it down
18:20 The moment she left the left
19:30 Kicked out of the league's social events
21:25 Why she's running for city council
23:40 Bike lanes, parking, and the fight over Fountain Avenue
26:16 Running as a worried resident
28:33 Who sits on the WeHo City Council now
30:32 West Hollywood's voters and the immigration debate
34:00 The Democratic Party and antisemitism
37:12 Tanya's take on the LA mayoral race
41:01 Advice for anyone running for local office
44:14 Where to find Tanya and Think Again

Father Robert Sirico shares the unlikely path that led him to the priesthood — from protesting alongside Jane Fonda to a political transformation sparked by a chance encounter with a conservative friend, who handed him Bastiat, Hayek, and Milton Friedman and unraveled everything he thought he knew. Now president emeritus of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, Father Sirico makes the moral case against socialism without abandoning genuine compassion for the poor.
 
Memorable Quotes from Reverend Sirico: 
"if you want to feed the poor, you have to be able to build a factory that makes bread." "
We must be ruthless in our pursuit of the truth always, but always gentle with people."
Advocating even a soft form of anti-Semitism is by itself renouncing Jesus Christ."
"If you want to feed the poor, you have to be able to build a factory that makes bread."
"The socialism of the early Christians said, 'all that is mine is yours.' The socialism of today says, 'all that is yours is mine.'" — Rev. Sirico, quoting Winston Churchill
Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCblDlKsPVQ&t=753s
 
Tony Sirico's Introduction of Rev. Robert A. Sirico at the Acton 20th Anniversary Dinner    • Tony Sirico's Introduction of Rev. Robert ...   ‪@actoninstitute‬

Danielle Haas spent 14 years inside Human Rights Watch editing their reports before she quit and helped found Eightrights.org, an insider-led group holding the human rights sector accountable. In this episode, she walks us through how Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and Doctors Without Borders operate with almost zero outside scrutiny, and how human rights became a civil religion for secular Westerners, complete with its own priesthood and rituals at Davos. We also get into just how much influence these NGOs hold: their reports and messaging shape mass media, academia, public policy, and the UN, and where the funding for these "neutral" organizations actually comes from. 
We discuss why Amnesty International suspended its own Israel chapter, a group of Israeli leftists who've worked there since 1964, for refusing to call the war a genocide. And we cover why Human Rights Watch called Hamas's casualty figures "reliable" with no way to verify them.