Return to Bandung Ep. 39 - From Minneapolis to Iran

feat. special guest Nick Estes!

Aug 06, 2026

Episode 39 of the Return to Bandung podcast is out now! Listen below, and read on for more information about my guest and today’s topic:

The Return to Bandung podcast, along with the writing that I publish on culture shock, is a political education project and a labor of love. To support this important work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today! Paid subscribers get access to the entire culture shock archive, as well as a typewritten physical newsletter in the mail each month :)

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About this episode:

In this episode, I’m joined by returning guest Nick Estes—associate professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, cofounder of The Red Nation, and author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (Verso Books, 2019)—to discuss last winter’s federal occupation of Minnesota during the Trump Administration’s ‘Operation Metro Surge.’ In this wide-ranging conversation, we attempt to complicate the artificial distinction between the ‘domestic’ and ‘foreign’ spheres, instead situating the fascist violence of Metro Surge within a larger context of both settler-colonial violence in the United States and escalating global aggression by the decaying American empire.

About the show:

Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock.

Support Return to Bandung:

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution:

Sources and helpful links: