This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by returning guest Freddy Martinez, and Nathan "Nash" Sheard. Freddy is currently a policy analyst with the nonpartisan government accountability coalition Open The Government. Nash is an associate director of community organizing at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Freddy and Nash bring us up to speed on the explosive investigative report from the New York Times on the elusive facial recognition vendor, Clearview AI, which has scraped some three billion images for its database from social media platforms and sold them to law enforcement agencies for just $2,000 a month. We also explore the ways in which our personal information is being commodified and then sold back to as a part of wider surveillance capitalism; everything from the hottest security technology, like Ring, to software like Photoshop and everyday phone applications.

With help from Nash and Freddy, we unpack the feasibility of privacy legislation and how law enforcement organizations, like ICE, still manage to find legal ways to mine databases and use facial recognition technology with help from the world's leading tech giants including Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.

Finally, we learn about active campaigns like the ACLU's "Press Pause" initiative that intend to help control the surge of facial recognition software and why an outright ban on this technology may be the safest way to protect our privacy.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by Nima Shirazi is a NYC-based media critic and political analyst who edits the English-language Middle East news outlet Muftah and cohosts the podcast Citations Needed with friend of the show Adam Johnson. After sharing some choice tidbits about his formative years and political trajectory, Nima unpacks the ongoing saga surrounding the Iranian government’s accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner during its military operation in retaliation for the Trump administration’s Jan. 3 killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani.

The gang then discusses the fallout from Soleimani’s assassination, including the latest push for regime change and a rundown of the reactions from leading Democratic presidential candidates. Nima runs the gamut from growing up growing up as an Iranian American and rooting for the Iron Sheik, to the media’s demonization of Soleimani and branding of the Islamic Republic as a terrorist state, to a fresh wave of repression here at home, like the detention of Iranians (including US citizens) at the border as well as Facebook removing pro-Soleimani posts from Instagram under the pretense that they violate US sanctions.

You can follow Nima on Twitter @WideAsleepNima, keep up with his latest work on his website and over at Citations Needed.

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This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined once again by Current Affairs editor-in-chief Nathan J. Robinson. Nathan is also a PhD student at Harvard University, a columnist for the Guardian, and author of the new book Why You Should Be a Socialist. After filling listeners in on what he’s been up to since his first appearance on the show, Nathan lays out his pitch in the book and a recent article for NBC News to readers who might be socialists, but don’t know it yet. 

Then the gang takes a deep dive into the political phenomenon of Pete Buttigieg, revisiting Nathan’s magnum opus on Buttigieg from early in his candidacy and expanding on it to cover his tenure as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, his consulting work for McKinsey & Company, his military service in Afghanistan, and his catastrophic record on racial issues. Finally, Nathan takes stock of the Buttigieg campaign’s momentum going forward and shares his take on the state of play in the Democratic primary. 

You can follow Nathan on Twitter @NathanJRobinson, read his work over on the Current Affairs website and pick up Why You Should Be a Socialist wherever books are still sold.

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!