In the last few months, the western media has been reporting on large scale protests sweeping Iran against the hijab in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amimi. The protests were described by some journalists as a revolution against the Islamic Republic, and have been highlighted as a movement led by young women. Is this true? Is there a revolution? How much of this is part of a major media disinformation campaign?  We are joined by Mazda Majidi, Iranian author, journalist, and anti-war activist who has recently returned from Iran.

In this special episode, we bring you voices from CovertAction Magazine’s December 1st fundraiser event in New York City. Featuring guests like Eva Bartlett, Ben Norton, Katie Halper, Randy Credico and many more, Pushback Against Empire brought together a wide perspective of voices to celebrate the 44th year of CovertAction and to help us build for the next 44 years.

On November 19th anti-war activists across the United States and across the world launched a new multi-national grassroots movement to demand the end to the current war in Ukraine and an end to NATO expansion. With the recent bombing of Poland, the serious threat of nuclear war looms larger around the globe and U.S. imperialism continues to wage it’s own proxy war in Ukraine against Russia.

While we are still waiting for some election outcome, the results of the midterm show that the anti-democratic movement of the far right has been rejected by the majority of voters. Sean Blackmon, co-host of the daily radio show By Any Means Necessary, joins to talk about how he analyzes the results of last week’s elections and referendums. Sean shares his thoughts on how the GA Senate race got so close, the failures of the Democratic Party to excite voters, and impending threats to democracy.

Carl Zha, host of Silk and Steel Podcast, joins us to discuss the continued escalation of U.S. Cold War on China. The U.S. information war on China heats up with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s recent statement about the U.S. government’s prosecution of Chinese officials for alleged “attempts” to undermine U.S. democracy. What exactly does the U.S. hope to accomplish by indicting an official who will never stand trial?

Why is Facebook so desperate to make the Metaverse happen? Are the techno feudalists right when they say Facebook is too big to fail? With the decline of Meta, it seems a new era may be dawning in Silicon Valley as Facebook’s failed projects continue to pile up.

In this episode, we dig into the idea of the “deep state,” the supposed shadowy cabal of clandestine organizations and individuals who run the show behind the scenes, controlling the U.S. and other governments.

Katie Halper, host of the Katie Halper Show and co-host of the podcast Useful idiots, joins us today to share how she was recently fired, yes fired, from the Hill for talking about Israel. Katie recorded a segment for The Hill’s Rising defending Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib from attacks over calling Israel an apartheid state. While the Hill presents itself as a channel that opposes cancel culture and censorship, apparently this is not the case.

The elections in Brazil are underway with the first round of votes coming in; leftist candidate Lula De Silva taking 48% of the votes with far-right candidate Bolsonaro behind with 43% of votes. All eyes are on Brazil as the pink tide spreads further across Latin America. We speak with Zoe Alexandra of People’s Dispatch who is on the ground now in Brazil to share with us the mood on the ground and what the results of this first round of voting means for the leftist future in Brazil...

On September 18th 1947, the main provisions of the National Security Act of 1947 went into effect. One of these was the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, perhaps the most infamous part of the US national security state. While we pay a lot of attention these days to digital surveillance and the agencies that focus on signals intelligence like the National Security Agency and National Reconnaissance office, the CIA has and continues to play a crucial role in establishing and maintaining global US hegemony via human intelligence as well as through its covert actions, including coups, terrorism and sabotage...