Matt Lieb is a person who grew on me over time. Years ago I used to absolutely hate his personality and humor. I didn’t hate him because that would be kinda ridiculous, but his comedy and podcast appearances were a “skip that one” for me.

But, then he did that Sopranos rewatch podcast and The Wire one (ended recently). And it was pretty good. I finally came to appreciate his cringe-inducing style of humor. Sometimes I still cringe for real with no humor, but, that’s ok.

I think what really really took me from “maybe this guy is ok” to actively liking him was BEFORE Oct 7 he told a story about his trip to Israel for “birthright.” He was a huge lib, in his 20s, kinda old for “birthright” but he went anyway. I won’t butcher the story any further, but basically it’s the same story you hear from thousands of “liberal Zionist” Jews, mostly European and American, who travel to Israel. The ones who are repulsed and/or weirded out by the experience. They see the cult mentality and know instantly “oh, this is some freak shit…” And ever since that trip he says he’s been more and more anti Zionist up until today.

So, I knew Matt’s story before Oct 7 and when the attack happened I was listening carefully to his words on his (at the time) The Wire rewatch pod. I listen to it just for fun/something to do that isn’t causing my blood pressure to skyrocket and have [federal agent] thoughts constantly. You could tell he was bursting at the seams to just scream “Israel is gonna do (and then is doing) a genocide!” He veered off into the topic a couple times, clearly at the discomfort, but I don’t believe disagreement from, his cohost/friend Vince. And I’m not here to shittalk Vince. I think he broadly agrees totally with Matt, he’s just scared to speak as loudly. He’s not Jewish so he can’t wear that thin shield and he works in Hollywood with a fuckload of insane Zionists. I can only wish he was more outspoken, but I also fully understand why he’s scared.

That clear tension drove Matt to break off on his own and make the “Bad Hasbara” podcast. He’s since teamed up with his now-apparent cohost (it didn’t start that way) Daniel Maté, brother of Aaron and son of Gabor Maté. The pod’s only been around like 6 months or so, but it’s pretty good for a more lighthearted, dark-comedy approach to the genocide and the occupation of Palestine broadly. The Matés are all empathetic in a very compelling way. Daniel definitely takes after his father in that way. If you’ve ever listened to Gabor speak, it’s very obvious where Daniel gets it from. They make a good pairing between Matt’s goofy cringe-comedy and Daniel’s somber, dark mood broken up by him also engaging in some cringey (and sometimes good) “dad” joke humor.

Two flawed men who are openly admitting their past flaws and mistakes regarding Zionism, to varying degrees of course, and they have on good guests a lot for Matt to make cringe.