Return to Bandung (#39) – From Minneapolis to Iran w/ Nick Estes
***Producer’s note: Reposting an episode Nick recorded with Return to Bandung***
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 (https://www.versobooks.com/products/600-our-history-is-the-future) (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 (https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/) , as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock (https://www.culture-shock.xyz/) .
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:
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Become a paid Substack subscriber (http://www.culture-shock.xyz/subscribe)
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Buy Me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/returntobandung)
Sources and helpful links:
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Nick Estes — Our History Is the Future:Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (https://www.versobooks.com/products/600-our-history-is-the-future?srsltid=AfmBOoqbTfgW_VGJ-ZSW9TawP28N2wjKjzRRP4pNCVvKkb0ZP-aZ0r2K) (Verso Books, 2019)
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Pranay Somayajula — Fighting for the future in occupied Minneapolis (The Drift newsletter (https://newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/fighting-for-the-future-in-occupied) , January 2026)
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Minnesota 15 Anti-Repression Committee website (https://minnesota15.org/)
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Return to Bandung episode with Nick Estes on Indigenous resistance in North America (https://www.returntobandung.com/episodes/indigenous-resistance-north-america) (February 2025)
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Adam Serwer — Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/the-neighbors-defending-minnesota-from-ice/685769/) (The Atlantic, January 2026)
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The Red Nation Podcast episode with Nick Estes and Jimmy Patiño on Red, Black, and Brown Power in the Twin Cities (https://open.spotify.com/episode/4JhDOL82eFoxKjtPTNXHaC) (August 2024)
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Benjamin Prostine — “‘Communal Sensibility’: the Minneapolis Mass Strikes of 1934 and Today” (https://lawcha.org/2026/03/18/communal-sensibility-the-minneapolis-mass-strikes-of-1934-and-today/) (Labor and Working-Class History Association, March 2026)
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Nick Estes — Transcript of remarks at January 23 ‘ICE Out of Minnesota’ rally (https://www.weavenews.org/stories/2026/1/24/tear-down-that-fort-nick-estes-on-minnesotas-resistance-and-responsibility) (January 2026)
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Amelia Schafer — Former Native American concentration camp lies beneath current immigration detention center (https://ictnews.org/news/former-native-american-concentration-camp-lies-beneath-current-immigration-detention-center/) (ICT News, January 2026)
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Nick Estes — US Imperialism is an Indian War (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19436149.2025.2576343) (Middle East Critique, October 2025)
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Return to Bandung episode with Guillaume Long on Trump’s revival of the Monroe Doctrine (https://www.returntobandung.com/episodes/trump-revival-monroe-doctrine) (January 2026)
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Return to Bandung episode with Julian Go on the imperial boomerang (https://www.returntobandung.com/episodes/imperial-boomerang) (February 2025)
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The Red Nation Podcast episode with Charisse Burden-Stelly on the imperial slingshot (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-LBlnQz7CI) (February 2026)
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Ken Klippenstein — ICE Unloads (https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/ice-unloads) (Substack…
@Mhm5213
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 pm
https://youtu.be/HeIXjNZcFBM?is=mz-rzCXQb6MRR7p3
1848 Nick!
@JasmineSeason-j4i
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 pm
❤❤❤❤❤
@JasmineSeason-j4i
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Mr. Estes; You're Back ! 🌺💐🦋
@ReelNotFake
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 pm
I think trump kidnapped Maduro because he knew he's gonna go to foreverwar on Iran for Miriam adelson & needed Venezuela's oil
@End_Colonial_Epstein_Regimes
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Return to Bandung(a great find thankyou) and Red Nation is a must listen, great chat showing greater context for your real experience with white occupation factions and anxieties. Still kidnapping native children, a colonial european practice that still goes on worldwide to continue theft. Now we have whites running all the way from occupied Turtle Island here to Aotearoa, not to help Native Sovereignty but to make it all about their own comforts again, and the white american leftists are colonial too stealing slogans to create their own separate power blocs. God it is the continuation of 'The Indian Wars' isn't it. That bs of co-opting native slogans to build dog parks over graves is just so vile and colonial criminal, they breed that racism and entitlement in to colonials everywhere. The moment of Maori and others who protested against Dakota Pipeline here was real, and still is, the allies are worldwide. What is missing is an articulation of State Change of the usa colony to a plan like you've proposed, but it needs to be public to ignite peoples dreams and visions. None of the white colonial leftists are promoting this or any state change plan. They are conditioned or comfortable?
@gundersons1
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Great discussion & insights, thank you
@alexanderleuchte5132
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 pm
The song is "Dead Horse" by WEEDRAT
@RoyJoseph-io8fu
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Incredible podcast! 🙂 Nick and Pranay’s thoughts are so well appreciated, and we really are glad to hear them! Thank you all so much! A fantastic episode 🫂❤️🩹
@alexanderleuchte5132
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Imperial RIcochet
is it from the Imperial Apache Attack Helikopter or a Tomahawk thrown by Pete Hegseth?
@samflores602
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 pm
What's the solution
@DavidPerez-lm9nj
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Excellent discussion, thank you to our speakers for sharing your time and analysis with us.
@williamreely3455
August 12, 2026 at 2:25 pm
Great talk and great reflections on Metro Surge. ❤️✊
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