Featuring

Tommy Marcus is the creator of the viral Instagram account Quentin Quarantino. He set out to create a meme page during the pandemic, but has since used his Instagram fame to raise more than $30 million for humanitarian causes. He was aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla carrying aid to Palestinians when they were arrested by Israeli naval forces. Tommy and his fellow Jewish-American friend David Adler were singled out and forced to be filmed with Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir when the convoy was intercepted. Tommy spent 5 days in an Israeli prison and returned home to Los Angeles.

Anne Thompson is Vice President of Strategic Communications at M+R where she helps non-profit advocacy groups run issue campaigns. Previously she was inhouse at MoveOn, the National Employment Law Project and the Obama 2012 re-election campaign. She has also worked in media, producing for MSNBC and Quilting Point Productions.

Bassam Haddad (Host) is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Executive Producer of Status Podcast Channel and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding The Syrian Tragedy: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).