Word Food: Yoghurt & Moonlight

Pushback Talks Season 9 is here with "Word Food"!

This season, Fredrik & Leilani return with their signature bite-sized episodes: sharp, surprising, 15-minute explorations of the words that shape our world. Each week, they pick a single word (or two) and unpack how its simple surface hides deeper social, political, and economic realities.

Think of it as thought-provoking “intellectual snacking” – quick enough for your commute, rich enough to shift how you see power, privilege, and the systems around us.

This week’s episode:

Yoghurt: A food that brings Leilani fond memories of her dad. A conversation about heritage, culture and human kindness. The things we carry within us despite borders and occupiers. 

Moonlight: The recent moon landing has put a new light on the celestial body although Fredrik and Leilani have grown tired of the big powers propaganda. Instead they reflect on what happens to us when we get to admire true beauty.

New episodes drop every week.

Make this your ritual for keeping your curiosity – and your resistance – alive!

Transcript

Fredrik Gertten 0:02

I'm Fredrik Gertten, and I'm the filmmaker.

Leilani Farha 0:05

And I'm Leilani Farha, and I'm the advocate.

Fredrik Gertten 0:09

My sweetest advocate of all. I mean, there was a time in history when I had a lot of lawyers in my life, and most of them have left my life, but you are my the last advocate I have surrounding me, and I'm happy that it was just you.

Leilani Farha 0:24

The last standing lawyer.

Fredrik Gertten 0:27

Exactly. This is uh the pushback talks, and we are back uh with our word food. We do this because we don't have time to do anything else. Because um you, my friend, has been writing a book.

Leilani Farha 0:40

I have written a book.

Fredrik Gertten 0:43

There it is, and now it's out, it's left your hands.

Leilani Farha 0:46

It's uh left my hands, it's in the hands of the copy editor.

Fredrik Gertten 0:50

Is the title secret?

Leilani Farha 0:52

It's a secret, it will be announced in early June.

Fredrik Gertten 0:56

Uh-oh, friends, I don't know the title. Uh that our friend, the advocate, she is very secretive. But I'm I'm I'm looking forward to read. I hope you I can get a signed copy.

Leilani Farha 1:07

Oh, absolutely. I want the big heart. Embossed, a big heart. Yes. Yeah.

Fredrik Gertten 1:13

Okay, looking forward. And so, are you ready to play with some words again to see if our brains are still uh functioning?

Leilani Farha 1:23

You know, I'm not ready, but I'm willing to give it a try. My brain is so full of things at the moment. I'm still decompressing from having written the book, and I have a house renovation going on which clutters the mind with dust and debris and noise. So bear with me, Frederick. I might not be as sharp as always.

Fredrik Gertten 1:46

It's afternoon here in Malmo, Sweden, but in Canada it's still morning. So I will give you a morning word. Are you ready? Yes. Yogurt.

Leilani Farha 1:57

Yogurt. I love yogurt, and yogurt is, you know, part of my culture. It's a big part of my culture. So I eat a lot of yogurt and real yogurt, not that crap with sugar in it and vanilla and chocolate and raspberry. No. Balkan style. I love the Balkan style or the Greek yogurt, thick, thick yogurt that's tart. It's a lovely way to start a day with some fruits, a little bit of Greek honey, because you know, I spent a lot of time in Greece. And of course, yogurt is full of protein, which is good for you. It's in my opinion, it settles the stomach. Yeah, yogurt is my friend. When I travel, I eat a lot of yogurt, make sure, you know, probiotics, make sure my stomach is good. Yeah.

Fredrik Gertten 2:48

Do you know where the word the word comes from? No. It's Ottoman Turkish, of course. So it's it's close to your roots.

Leilani Farha 2:56

Of course, absolutely.

Fredrik Gertten 2:58

And it's uh it's kind of mentioned in yogurt texts from before like the year thousand in old Turkey. And then in in Lebanon, you can order labne. Oh I eat Lebne every day, which is then strained yogurt, so it's a bit thicker, like the Greek. Yeah, much thicker. And then they say that Lebne is the name of Lebanon, so it's there is a whole country named after your breakfast dish. How do you feel about that?

Leilani Farha 3:29

I feel great about that. And I have these very special breakfasts with my father, who is 91, and he makes Lebanese breakfast, and I go over sometimes on a Friday morning, and he spreads out. He he makes his own yogurt and then he makes his own Lebna, and then he makes his own Zatar, and we get this beautiful what we call Arabic bread, which people call pita. And we have, and he puts fresh vegetables, cucumbers, mint, tomatoes, he spreads it out. It's very beautiful, and we share breakfast together in Lebna. So yeah.

Fredrik Gertten 4:12

And your father's family had lands in Lebanon and in Palestine. So it was like in I actually I guess it's in this region where Israel is now kind of uh destroying every single home and destroying the villages.

Leilani Farha 4:30

Absolutely. Yes, southern Lebanon. That's where we're from. That's where our family home is still. Uh the home has been there for more than 400 years. So talking about entitlement, it's interesting that Israel says that this is greater Israel when our family has been there for more than 400 years. I have been trying to figure out which side of this occupation line Israel has created, this yellow line, and it's basically occupation, illegal under international law. And I'm trying to find out which side of the line our village is on, because I have asked my relatives who are there, and they say no, we're on the other side of the line, not occupied. But I saw a video yesterday that made it look like we were on the occupied side. So um our family fled. So of course they're not there to witness it, they're up in the mountains.

Fredrik Gertten 5:23

Um very scary. Yeah, yeah. I as I told you, I I was in the south of Lebanon many years ago when they were kicking out the Palestinians from the south. And uh so it's really beautiful, it's it's very beautiful, the villages, and and then I then I was thinking of the roots of of yogurt on these hills, these green hills.

Leilani Farha 5:48

When I was in the West Bank in Palestine, in this area called Area C, but it's really called uh Massa Fariata, uh, I was up on a mountain side and stopped in a village, and I saw uh some women and young children um making a yogurt, a cheese. I actually can't remember the name of it. It's in it's very it's dried, dried uh yogurt, more dried than Lebna, and they make it in these balls. And I have a picture of this boy, a beautiful picture of a Palestinian boy eating this yogurt ball. Um, one of our listeners will tell us uh what it's called.

Fredrik Gertten 6:30

It's slipping my mind right now, but um, I have a beautiful memory from south of Lebanon. I was out there shooting for Swedish TV, but I had a Lebanese TV crew, and the fighting started to get intense, and they told me, You go and wait behind that wall, because we know this better than you. And I was sitting there in in front of a house, and an old lady came out with a big tray with coffee, and she was serving us coffee in the middle of this. And for me, that's kind of uh the memory of humanity that's always tried to stay human in the in this kind of the worst of situations.

Leilani Farha 7:14

Absolutely.

Fredrik Gertten 7:15

So that's made me love uh the south of Lebanon even more. That's a small story about your hurt in my mind.

Leilani Farha 7:25

I love it.

Fredrik Gertten 7:25

And I thought it was a good start for you.

Leilani Farha 7:27

It's a good start, it being the morning. Well, funnily enough, I have a word for you that's the opposite of morning. It's for the evening. Well, yeah, it's for the evening. And the word is are you ready, Frederick?

Fredrik Gertten 7:44

Uh yes.

Leilani Farha 7:46

Moonlight.

Fredrik Gertten 7:49

Moonlight. Oh, that's nice. I yeah, I I I love moonlight. Of course, I live in a city, so but but the moon is very strong. And uh where I l I live by um Market Square, and of course, in the nights, it's it's uh an empty space. There is a space where you can go out and you can see the moon, the full moon. Nice, but it's also there's been some moments of this blood moon, uh, you know, and I would I've been biking around the city to say, where can I see it the best? And I found uh crossover the railroads, and I was standing there, and there were other people gathering, nice, you know, in the in the evening, and to to to also see the red moon coming up, and everybody was like applauding when it came. So it there is some magic out there. I know a lot of people have been touched by this latest uh moon adventure of uh astronauts going up there, yes, Artemis. Yeah, and then I and and there is some, of course, also some beauty in that, but this time I've I stayed off because I'm a little bit fed up with propaganda from the the evil part of the superpower. So even if because I know there was also a Canadian astronaut up there, so I mean, so it's yeah, I'm like you. Yeah, it might be really good people up there, so I I don't really want to take it on them, but it's uh they're probably scientists and they're really interesting to to advance human knowledge, even if they're part in some kind of propaganda show, yeah. Whatever. But moonlight is good, and the opposite is also very interesting.

Leilani Farha 9:36

What's the opposite of moonlight?

Fredrik Gertten 9:39

When there is no moon. Oh and the evenings got even darker. Yes, yes, and that's that can be also very beautiful. And then you see the first the new moon coming up, which like it's like the Turkish flag.

Leilani Farha 9:54

Yes. For better or for worse, talking about yogurt, talking about yogurt and darkness.

Fredrik Gertten 10:02

Okay, yeah, uh it wasn't Erdogan who invented the Turkish flag.

Leilani Farha 10:07

So no, fair, true.

Fredrik Gertten 10:09

So don't we shouldn't put Erdogan's face on the moon. No, it's not his it's not the moon's fault that Erdogan exists. Can I put it like that?

Leilani Farha 10:19

Yes, you can. I find it interesting. The reason I came with moonlight was because it had gives such a different feeling. Even when I say the word moonlight, it's I feel romantic and it feels peaceful and and calm. And then when I think of this moon landing and Artemis that feels technical and kind of male and in its ad in its kind of adventure and not romantic to me at all. I know that people who engage in space travel and want to do space travel maybe do have a romanticism. I don't know. But for me, they are very different. One is very technical seeming and you know, science, and about, as you say, it's a kind of it's a kind of propaganda. And then I think of Moonlight, and I think of Van Morrison's song, and it just Wasn't there a film also with Cher at some point, a long time ago? Yeah, absolutely. Moonstruck. In fact, it's one of my sister's favorite, Juliana's favorite movie. Moonstruck. She's so good in that.

Fredrik Gertten 11:27

I remember actually going to date for with that film a long time ago.

Leilani Farha 11:32

Right. It's yes.

Fredrik Gertten 11:33

It worked, it worked really good. Date movie.

Leilani Farha 11:37

I love it. So with Nicolas Cage before he was a bit strange. Well, maybe he was strange in that movie. It was so they were so good.

Fredrik Gertten 11:46

I don't know if it's a good film. I I haven't seen it again, but it I just remember that I at that time I enjoyed it. Yes, yes, and and I'm I I'm also I can also be quite romantic. And and there is something with the moon that when we get touched by by beauty, we we feel humble and we feel good in some way. Yeah, and we feel like we we are a part of something greater than us. I I like that. So long live the moonlight.

Leilani Farha 12:18

Yeah, there's so much moon iconography, etc. Moon River, there's that song, Moon River. Yeah, nice. You can sing more if you want. No, you really don't want to hear me sing. No.

Fredrik Gertten 12:33

Okay, we started off a new word food. That's not bad.

Kirsten McRae 12:37

Not bad.

Fredrik Gertten 12:37

And and uh you are sweet listeners out there. Please uh comment, tell your friends, subscribe to the podcast. Uh I mean, all those kind of things that helps uh so other people can can find pushback talks.

Leilani Farha 12:53

I think we recently got a new Patreon, didn't we?

Fredrik Gertten 12:56

We did, yeah, and we love, I mean, you can you can't imagine how how happy we feel when people decide to support us.

Leilani Farha 13:06

Absolutely.

Fredrik Gertten 13:07

There is a cost connected to make podcasts because it's not only us talking, that's the cheap part.

Leilani Farha 13:14

Yes.

Fredrik Gertten 13:15

Uh, but it's there is a technical work in behind the scenes that it's takes some time, and of course, we also have to pay money to be on this platform and to publish and all that. So help is good, and um we live in a time in history where uh culture and and political work is uh totally underfinanced, so we are under a lot of pressure in the film world and the cultural world is really, really tough. And I know also for your work, it's tougher than ever to get funding. Help us, and we will get some more energy out of that. That's that's all.

Leilani Farha 13:52

That's all.

Fredrik Gertten 13:53

See you soon, Leilani.

Leilani Farha 13:55

See you later.

Kirsten McRae 14:00

Pushback talks is produced by WG Film. To support the podcast, become a patron by going to patreon.com slash pushback talks. Follow us on social media at make underscore the shift and push underscore the film. Or check out our websites makeshift.org, pushthefilm.com, or breaking socialfilm.com