Jon Stewart In Awe of ‘The Island President’
Image by Wikimedia Commons
You heard about the new documentary film “The Island President” here in the Forward first. Now Jon Stewart has gotten a hold of the story. More specifically, he invited the film’s star, Mohamed Nasheed, former President of the Maldives, to appear on The Daily Show for an exclusive interview.
On April 2, Stewart questioned Nasheed about his recent forced ouster from the presidency, and about his dramatic fight to save his country from the devastating effects of climate change. Without a serious global effort to significantly cut carbon emissions, the Maldives will sink into the sea before too long.
Stewart employed his usual comedy, but he also seemed to be truly in awe of Nasheed, his struggle for democracy in the Maldives, and his tireless work to get the world to wake up to the climate crisis. Stewart humorously riffed on a few things Nasheed said — like joking about the two men’s short stature and that their being on a high floor would save them should Manhattan start sinking below sea level — but overall, it was clear that Stewart was standing aside a bit more than usual and letting Nasheed eloquently and passionately make his case.
As Stewart closed the segment, he implored people and governments to take heed of Nasheed’s warnings. “Don’t be silly,” he proclaimed to viewers, using a simple yet potent phrase Nasheed had used during their conversation.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Over 100 Chicago-area rabbis and cantors condemn Trump’s campus crackdown
-
Culture Will the next pope be good for the Jews?
-
Yiddish איבערזעצערין קאַרעד אָברײַען שרײַבט בוך וועגן די שטערן סימאָר רעכטצײַט און מרים קרעסיןTranslator Caraid O’Brien writing book on Yiddish stars Seymour Rechtseit and Miriam Kressyn
זי שטעלט אויך צונויף אַ פּאָדקאַסט מיטן בראָדװײ־אַקטיאָר האַל ראָבינסאָן אין דער ראָלע פֿון רעכטצײַט.
-
BINTEL BRIEF How do you deal with invitations from someone who drives you nuts?
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.