About this episode

Mehdi and Wajahat Ali discuss the importance of immigrants in America while addressing various political and social issues.

Mehdi and Wajahat Ali have been friends for almost two decades. And just like with any good friend, there's a lot the two don't agree on, from who they think the best Bond actor is to whether there are alliances the left can make with the far-right on Israel. But one thing they do stand together on is just how vital immigrants are to America. In fact, it's the premise of Waj's memoir , Go Back to Where You Came From, which he calls both a "love letter to a country that doesn't love us back" and a "warning to a country about what happens when you go against the immigrants." Waj discusses his experience growing up as the child of Pakistani immigrants and Mehdi chimes in with his experience being an immigrant to the U.S. They also talk about America at 250 and the dueling 4th of July speeches between Zohran Mamdani (very good!) and Donald Trump (very bad!). "There were MAGA people on the mall who told journalists that it was 'liberals in the weather service' trying to ruin the Trump speech on Saturday night," Mehdi says. "They literally see the storm destroying the sets and they're like, 'We don't believe the liberals in the weather service.'" Waj says. "It's a cult, man." In this…

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