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According to an update on the World Health Organization website from July 27th:

"Nearly one in five children under five in Gaza city is now acutely malnourished."

Additionally: "It is not only hunger that is killing people, but also the desperate search for food. Families are being forced to risk their lives for a handful of food, often under dangerous and chaotic conditions. Since 27 May, more than 1,060 people have been killed and 7200 injured while trying to access food."

Our guest for this show is Dr. Assal Rad. Dr. Rad received her PhD in Middle Eastern History from the University of California, Irvine in 2018. Her PhD research focused on Modern Iran, with an emphasis on national identity formation, and identity in post-revolutionary Iran. She's also author of "The State of Resistance: Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran.

More recently Dr. Rad has used her platforms on Twitter and Instagram to expose and deconstruct what can only be described as institutionalized media malpractice concerning coverage of the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and regarding Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran between the 13th and 24th of June. These topics form the basis for our rather free-form conversation, where I also answer her questions about my brief detention and torture by Israeli forces in the West Bank, back in May.

For more information about Dr. Rad's academic work and public advocacy, follow her on Instagram and Twitter: @assalrad_

You can also follow me: @_mad_maddox

Other links:

Latitude Adjustment Pod.com

Youtube

Latitude Adjustment Podcast is back, after a 20-month hiatus!

As always, you can support our work on Patreon with one click!

Where have I been? Well, I'll be piecing that together for you over the next three episodes, but in short, after nearly 12 years of nonstop international travel and work I needed to take a pause and return to the US for about a year and a half, just to have a little more financial and locational stability in my life. During that time I spent a couple of years as a public high school teacher in an underserved community Houston, Texas. Not an experience that I enjoyed, but an experience that got me reconnected to many of the social, economic, and political challenges facing immigrant and minority communities in a state, and a country, that treats them with increasing contempt and hostility.

More recently I returned to the West Bank, in June, for the first time since completing my graduate research there in 2008. During my time there I was arrested by Israeli occupation police who then hooded, tortured, and attempted to interrogate me, after I had been filming the march of illegal Israeli settlers through the old town of Hebron. I'll get into that ordeal in more detail in other episodes, but you can also find videos of my arrest as well as an interview that I did on Breaking Points at my new Instagram account @_mad_maddox and at the link in my bio there.

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Dr. Mohammed Mustafa, or Dr. Mo as he's affectionately known, is an English-Australian emergency physician trainee, humanitarian, and former international athlete of Palestinian heritage. Dr. Mo, also known by his social media handle "Beast from the Middle East", is the first Palestinian to represent the United Kingdom in international rugby, having also won European titles in jiu-jitsu.

Born into a Palestinian refugee family, Dr Mo pursued medical training across Britain and Australia, driven by a profound commitment to human rights and the belief that healthcare is a fundamental right. His upbringing, shaped by resilience and displacement, has fuelled his career at the intersection of frontline healthcare and global humanitarian advocacy.

In 2024 and 2025, Dr Mo served in Gaza's Nasser and European hospitals, with RAHMA Worldwide providing critical emergency care amid escalating violence. His commitment to frontline care drew him back to Gaza once again, in March of this year with the Palestinian, Australian, and New Zealand Medical Association team, arriving just as a fragile ceasefire collapsed. His raw, live reporting from inside emergency departments brought the devastation of Israel's unrelenting genocide against the Palestinian people to millions worldwide. In addition to his work as a practicing physician, his current humanitarian efforts are focused on bringing a new, fully equipped children's hospital to Gaza.

For more information about Dr. Mo's work and public advocacy check his Instagram: @beastfromthe_middleeast

We have been wanting to bring you voices from inside Gaza since the very start of the current atrocities, but for what are obvious reasons this has proven to be extremely difficult, especially after Israel cut all communication lines and mobile phone networks in Gaza, in the prelude to their ground invasion. However, a student from our Palestine Podcast Academy, Shahd Safi, has managed to send me a series of daily audio diary entries detailing her experiences and her feelings in recent days. Shahd is from al Nuseirat Refugee camp in Central Gaza, a camp that has been subjected to repeated bombardments by Israel over the past few weeks. A Palestinian friend of mine, who invited me to his home in Nuseirat camp during my stay in Gaza, has lost nine family members to the airstrikes on the refugee camp in recent weeks. Shahd joins us from Rafah, in the South of Gaza, where she moved two years ago. However, the situation in Rafah is far from safe.

Please visit the post for this episode at LatitudeAdjustmentPod.com for links to Shahd's recent articles documenting her experiences, links to organizations (whom we personally recommend) who working to provide relief to Palestinians, and to supplemental resources for continuing your education on this subject and to aid you in your efforts to educate your communities.

You can support Latitude Adjustment Podcast by signing up to make a monthly donation to our Patreon page.