On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with two guests about Israel’s actions against Palestinians and now Iran. First, we’re joined by scholar Elizabeth Minnich who explains her philosophical study of banality and her new book, The Evil of Banality: On the Life and Death Importance of Thinking.

Studying under Hannah Arendt, Minnich watched the public’s confused reception of Arendt’s concept of the “banality of evil.” It was hard for people to accept that mundane actions could be monstrous. So Minnich strove to expand the definition of banality.

Now, Minnich defines banality as the ordinary with the life sucked out of it, and her book lays out the ways that banality enables evil. We’re seeing this in our society as law firms take hush money from Trump, and small things like careerism and greed add up to real harm. 

They also discuss the role of education in making people critical or hateful thinkers, Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, and “enclosure of thought.” 

Next, we’re joined by Sam Husseini to discuss Israel’s attacks on Iran, nuclear contamination risks, and how Trump’s actions regarding Israel are accelerating the establishment.

Sam Husseini is an independent journalist currently writing on Substack. He has written extensively about Palestine and international law, nuclear threats, and other issues.

Elizabeth Minnich received her doctorate from the New School under the direction of Hannah Arendt. Following twenty-five years as a Core Professor in the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the Union Institute, she now divides her time between Charlotte, NC, where she is professor of moral philosophy at Queens University, and Washington, DC, where she is a Senior Scholar at the Association of American Colleges and Universities. She is the author of Transforming Knowledge, Thought Work: Thinking, Action, and the Fate of the World, and co-author of The Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy.

Featured image: a map of Israel and Iran via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 1.0).

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