As numerous people have noted, Michael Brooks was a genuine internationalist whose knowledge and interests transcended national borders and who was able to move beyond the often-parochial élan of the American left. In a media space that all too often fails to recognize the global nature of the fight for human emancipation, Michael sought to link the disparate threads that connected activists for tenant rights and universal health care in the United States with liberation movements across the world. It is this understanding that he brought to his work both on the Majority Report, which he cohosted with Sam Seder, the Michael Brooks Show, and his Weekends broadcast with Jacobin.

Indeed, it would be no exaggeration to say that his work did not merely fill a niche in left media, but a void, serving to educate a generation of leftists in both the United States and abroad on the interconnected nature of our struggles.

I first got to know Michael after I moved to the United States in 2016, bonding over a shared interest in Middle Eastern affairs and a common experience of living in Turkey during the late 2000s. He had read my work in Jacobin and suggested that we work together in the future. Subsequently, he would invite me on both the Majority Report and the Michael Brooks Show, and we would collaborate on a number of articles, primarily for Jacobin, but also other outlets including Jadaliyya and openDemocracy.