Dr Seth Anziska an American historian living in London. He is the Mohamed S. Farsi-Polonsky Lecturer in Jewish-Muslim Relations at University College London and a visiting fellow at the U.S./Middle East Project. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Policy, and Haaretz, and He is the author of Preventing Palestine: A Political History from Camp David to Oslo

In this episode, Seth talks about his orthodox Jewish upbringing, the role of historical records in understanding ourselves, and why powerless populations often lose access to their past through lack of archives or reliance on oral history. He discusses why he resists commenting on every controversy, the “noble dream” of objectivity, and why he is an academic willing to be open about his personal story.