In this episode of Centre Stage, political philosopher and historian Roy Casagranda delivers a sharp analysis of the US. He explains why the US is increasingly relying on military and economic coercion, and why the global landscape today feels eerily like the “1930s 2.0”. 

In the UK, the new Green Party leader Zack Polanski is emerging as a charismatic, bold, and unapologetic political force. His outspoken stance against the Gaza genocide and his proposal to impose steep taxes on the wealthy has made him a star in British politics — rattling both Labour and Conservative establishments, and rising in the polls. He talks to Mehdi Hasan and paid Zeteo subscribers in an exclusive live Q&A town hall on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, Gaza, immigration, what he thinks about being compared to Zohran Mamdani, and more.

On the rise of the UK establishment parroting the far-right’s racist and Islamophobic views, Polanski tells Mehdi: “It’s phenomenally dangerous, and Islamophobia is rife in our society. And I say this as a Jewish man, there’s only been five Jewish leaders of a British political party in the last hundred years, so I obviously take anti-Semitism really seriously.” However, he adds, the UK government and media’s “constant conflation” of British Jews with Israelis “does make me feel less safe as a Jewish person, because I look at what Netanyahu and Gallant do.”