In this episode of FMEP’s Occupied Thoughts podcast, FMEP President Lara Friedman speaks with historian and author Dr. Assal Rad about the media’s role in the Gaza genocide, and about her newly-published book on this topic, Don’t Say Palestine: How the Media Manufactured Consent for Genocide (Vintage, 2026).
Dr. Assal Rad is a historian of Middle East history and a Nonresident Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC and DAWN. She has a PhD in History from the University of California, Irvine. She works on research and writing related to U.S. foreign policy issues, the Middle East, contemporary Iran, and Israel/Palestine. Her writing can be seen in Newsweek, The Independent, Foreign Policy and more, and she has appeared as a commentator on BBC World, Al Jazeera, CNN, and NPR. In addition to her new book, Assal is also the author of: The State of Resistance: Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Follow Assal on X/Twitter: @AssalRad and IG: @AssalRad_
FMEP has had the honor of hosting Dr. Rad previously on the Occupied Thoughts podcast – see:
- 3/13/25: Gaza Genocide, Disinformation, and the Death of Truth (ft. Dr. Assal Rad and Professor Marc Owen Jones)
- 2/29/24: How Mainstream Media Collaborates with Israel’s War on Gaza (ft. Dr. Assal Rad)