Podcaster Mahsa Di Placito Talks To Us About The Situation In The Middle East

Mahsa Di Placito is host of one of our favourite podcasts, the Have You Heard About podcast, which delves into provocative and candid conversations that will change the way you think about pop culture. She’s also a mom of three girls, whose family immigrated to Canada from Iran in the 1980s. We chatted with Mahsa, a Vancouverite, to get her thoughts on the current situation in the Middle East. —Vita Daily

Hi Mahsa. Please tell us a bit about yourself to start.

Hello! I live in Vancouver and am a mom to three girls. I host a pop culture podcast called Have You Heard About… that combines my background in communications with my lifelong love of pop culture. The show covers topics that are currently capturing the public conscious: everything from momfluencing to Taylor Swift, to interviews with notable journalists and public figures.

How do you use your platform to impact those who follow you?

Surprisingly, I would say it’s the other way around. The podcast has an Instagram page, which I try to use in a dynamic way. I pay attention to what’s pinging the cultural zeitgeist; sometimes it’s a TV show, interesting book or something happening in the celeb ecosphere. While I suppose it can be seen as “light,“’“ we try to look at the bigger picture of why something matters and dig deep. After all, popular culture IS culture, and what we’re collectively interested in tends to reflect what’s happening in society back at us. I will occasionally prompt followers by asking what they want to learn more about. Or, I may share an article I find interesting and let it grow from there. I find the best shows grow from the online community and tend to come together organically. In terms of impact, I use the Instagram prompts and comments as a main component of research for the podcast, so I can expand on what people are thinking about in a way that breaks in down with a unique and entertaining point of view.

What is your take on current global situations/what is occurring in the Middle East? How does it make you feel, as a Canadian, a mother and an immigrant?

Like most everyone else I know, I feel a sense of helplessness and quite honestly, despair. The situation in Gaza is dire, and with 75 per cent of their population under 25 years old, the fatalities for children alone will be immense. From my safety net in Canada, the least I could do is learn about the situation, do lots of reading from credible sources, and educate myself. It’s easy to chalk it up as, “It’s too complicated,“’“ relying on what is being shared on social media, which is often inaccurate or heavily biased. It’s not black and white. You can support Palestinians and not support Hamas, you can support the Israeli people and not agree with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s destruction of Gaza. We can hold more than one thing to be true at once, though the discord online says differently.

As a creative is it difficult to go about “business as usual” at the moment? Any thoughts around managing that?

Most definitely! Partly because it seems so trivial to be talking pop culture when the world feels like it’s on fire, and partly because what you see on the news could only be described as utter devastation. Actually, I had stopped podcasting for quite some time after Mahsa Amini was killed in Iran last year. My family immigrated here from Iran in the 1980s and it felt silly to podcast when there was a revolution happening in Iran. When I posted my latest podcast on the Big Business of Taylor Swift, I was immediately met with a few messages along the lines of, “Who cares—there is so much else happening in the world right now!” Totally and completely fair. I also received messages from people who welcomed the break. We’re inundated with information all day long, from traditional news media to social media feeds and fyp. And of course, the more of the same content we’re consuming, the more the algorithm shows it to us. I’m a big believer in staying informed and being responsible for educating yourself on world events, not looking to influencers to do it for you! I also believe it’s okay to take a break once in a while. This moment in history coincides with having the most access to information all the time, and we’re probably not built to absorb it so consistently.

Have you made any observations around social media in the past few days? Has the response been appropriate? And, in your opinion, does it really matter what happens on social?

For better or worse, social media is so engrained in our every day lives that whether we like it or not, it matters. Our attention spans are shorter, so how we consume news is often through social’s in quick clips or posts that may not carry the same journalistic integrity as traditional news mediums. This informs us, shapes our views, and the algorithm reinforces what we think by feeding us more of the same. On the plus side, news travels so much quicker with social media, with constant updates and on the ground reporting from civilians that gives a very real perspective. I’ve seen a lot of divisiveness, inaccurate news being shared and then reposted and spread, and a general sense of fear around posting about Israel/Gaza. Nobody wants to say the ‘wrong’ thing for fear of being called out as anti-semitic, anti-Muslim, racist, ignorant … and the list goes on.

Any advice/words/insight for those reading who feel removed, personally, from the situation, but wish to gain more knowledge/understanding?

Yes, read credible news sources as a starting point and pay attention. Inevitably you will get some news off social media, but if you want breadth and a deeper understanding, read the news! It’s tough because even credible news sources can have inaccuracies and bias depending on the news source, so look for credible sources and eyewitness accounts, for example. If you live on social media like many of us do, I really like @sharonsaysso, @fridaythings, @_publicthought, @oncanadaproject for a balanced perspective.

Have you heard of any good/effective ways to help at the moment?

• Doctors Without Borders – Providing urgent humanitarian aid in times of crisis
• Oxfam – Delivering critical assistance for families in Gaza once safe
• The International Committee of the Red Cross – Supports victims of armed conflict and crisis
• UNICEF – On the ground in Gaza delivering immediate support
• Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance – Nonprofit dedicated to children’s rights in the Middle East
• The Jewish Agency for Israel – Fund to provide immediate financial assistance to victims and families
• Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund – Provides medical and humanitarian relief with a presence in Gaza

Lastly, please check on your Israeli, Jewish, and Palestinian friends, if only to let them know you’re thinking of them.