UNAPOLOGETIC with Ashfaaq Carim

UNAPOLOGETIC spoke to Errol Musk, father of Elon Musk, and the result is a conversation is an interesting foray into where ideology is formed and where it is inherited.
Errol traces his journey from post-war poverty to building a life of considerable wealth and takes credit for funding the very first company Elon and Kimball started in 1995.
But it is his views on race, politics and identity that are likely to stay with you longest and defines the conversation.
He reflects on post-apartheid South Africa in terms that invite direct challenge, describing the country under a black government as being "in a terrible state" and expressing views on land, farming and black economic capability that are difficult to swallow and that are challenged directly throughout.
On Tommy Robinson, Errol is equally direct. He defends the Musk family's financial support for Robinson's legal fees, calls him "a political prisoner," compares him to Mandela, a comparison that is contested at length, and suggests he will "very likely, very possibly one day" be prime minister of England. His views on immigration lead to a metaphor that, once heard, is difficult to forget.
We also put to Errol the words Elon himself has used to describe his father, "a terrible human being" who has done "every crime you can possibly think of," and take some time to examine how their relationship has evolved over the years, from the early decades in which Errol was the provider, to where things stand today.
Draw your own conclusions.
UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim

"Palestinians are just the canvas upon which the Jewish psychodrama takes place."
Simone Zimmerman, co-founder of IfNotNow and subject of the documentary Israelism, joins UNAPOLOGETIC to examine how Israel's genocide in Gaza has reshaped Jewish identity and politics.
Simone traces her own journey from committed Zionist to anti-Zionist activist, describing the personal and communal ruptures that followed. She argues that the decades-long fusion of Zionism with Judaism has been a catastrophe for Jewish life globally, and that Israel's genocide has made liberal Zionism untenable.
The conversation also tackles the growing anti-Israel voices within MAGA - and why, despite tactical overlaps on ending military aid, figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens represent a fundamentally different and dangerous political project that the pro-Palestinian movement should not mistake for solidarity.
Drawing on Palestinian writer Tariq Baconi, Zimmerman makes a stark argument: that for too much of the Jewish establishment, "Palestinians are just the canvas upon which the Jewish psychodrama takes place."
UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.

In this episode of Unapologetic, Hassan Ahmadian, political scientist at the University of Tehran, argues that US-Israeli aggression may inadvertently bring Iran, Turkey and the Arab world closer together.
Ahmadian explains why Iran views every negotiation with Washington through the lens of betrayal, and why Tehran sees caving to Trump and Netanyahu as a worse outcome than war itself. He also explains how control of the Strait of Hormuz has handed Iran a card that no amount of US military hardware can easily beat.
The conversation covers how Iran actually makes its biggest decisions, especially now after its former leadership has been decapitated, the long and complicated relationship between Iran and the Arab world, and what Israel's drift towards extremism ultimately means for its own survival and how their persistent violence is showing all the actors in the region why they need to look to each other for stability.

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.

"If you go to China, you'll never ever see the world in the same way again. Never."

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Martin Jacques, author of the million-copy bestseller When China Rules the World, makes the case that China has already eclipsed the United States as the world's leading power, and that the West still fundamentally doesn't understand why.

This episode explores China's identity as a civilisation-state, the century of humiliation, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Xinjiang question, the decline of American hegemony, Trump's failing strategy against China, and why Jacques believes the future global order will be built around China and the Global South

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, we speak to Mohsen Kadivar - Iranian scholar, Shia mujtahid, dissident cleric, and former political prisoner - about the Islamic Republic, its origins, and its contradictions.
Kadivar offers a rare insider critique of Iran: opposing US imperialism and Israeli aggression, while also challenging the authoritarianism of the Islamic Republic from within Shia theology itself. He traces his own journey - arrested under both the Shah and the Islamic Republic - and explains how the revolutionary promise of freedom, democracy, and justice was only partially realised.
We explore the theory of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurist), how it reshaped Iran’s political system, and why Kadivar argues it is only one interpretation among many within Islamic thought. He also reflects on elections, reform movements, repression, and the limits of political freedom in Iran today.
Throughout the conversation, Kadivar builds a compelling case for why Muslims - in both majority and minority contexts - should embrace democracy as the most just and viable form of governance for themselves and others.
This is conversation takes a deep look into how power, religion, personalities and competing visions of destiny have interacted to make Iran, Iran.