Dr. William Lafi Youmans & Jason Osder: Inside ‘Who Killed Alex Odeh?’ | Sumud Podcast w/ Dr. Ed Hasan

In this episode of the Sumud Podcast, we sit down with Dr. William Youmans and Jason Osder, co-directors of the documentary Who Killed Alex Odeh?, for a powerful conversation about Palestinian American history, political violence, unanswered questions, and the fight for justice. Alex Odeh was a Palestinian American activist and community organizer whose life was cut short by a bombing in 1985. More than four decades later, his killing remains officially unresolved, leaving his family and community without the answers and accountability they deserve. William and Jason discuss the investigation behind their documentary, the evidence uncovered over years of research, and the unanswered questions surrounding the case. They examine the history of attacks against Arab American activists, the role of political extremism, and how political interests, institutional bias, and unequal treatment can shape the pursuit of justice. The conversation also explores how Alex's story connects to the broader history of Palestinian advocacy, the pressure activists face when speaking out, and the importance of preserving stories that have been overlooked or forgotten. Who killed Alex Odeh? And what does the failure to resolve his case reveal about whose lives are valued, whose stories are remembered, and whose families are left waiting for justice?

William Lafi Youmans is an associate professor in residence at Northwestern University in Qatar. He is broadly interested in questions of transnationalism, power and communication, with his primary research interests focusing on global news, media industries, technology, law, and politics. His other areas of research interest include media law, Middle East politics, and Arab American studies. Youmans is the author of Unlikely Audience: Al Jazeera's Struggle in America (Oxford UP), which examines Al Jazeera’s efforts to gain a share of the news market in the United States. He has been quoted in articles in Salon, Washington Post, Newsweek, Variety, and The New York Times, among others. He was a guest on radio and television programs, such as NPR, Headline News, Al Jazeera English, and ARD. He has published in the Washington Post, Middle East Report, and Nieman Journalism Lab. He is currently working on two long-term projects. The first is a documentary film about Alex Odeh, a Palestinian American activist who was assassinated in Orange County, CA, in 1985. The crime is unsolved and still haunts the local community to this day. The second is a major video archive he is building of Arab American TV, a program that ran out of Los Angeles from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.

Jason is a long-time media educator, producer, and instructional author with a background in documentary, social sciences, and education theory. He joined the faculty of the School of Media and Public Affairs in January 2007 to teach Introduction to Digital Media, a required course for journalism and political communications majors. His teaching also includes documentary theory and production and online journalism techniques. Jason Osder is the director of the award-winning documentary LET THE FIRE BURN about the 1985 confrontation between the group MOVE and the Philadelphia police that claimed the lives of eleven people. Supported in part by the Sundance Institute, LET THE FIRE BURN premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival where it won the best editing in a documentary award and a jury special mention for best new documentary director. The film went on to play over fifty film festivals around the world and be nominated for over a dozen awards. It won the best editing prize at the Montreal International Documentary Festival, the International Documentary Association Creative Recognition Prize in Editing, the Cinema Eye Honor for Editing, and the Independent Spirit Truer than Fiction Award. Currently, Jason is working on films supported by PBS and The Sundance Institute.

In this conversation, we explore
→ Who Alex Odeh was and his legacy as a Palestinian American activist and community organizer
→ The 1985 bombing that took Alex's life and why the case remains unresolved
→ The making of Who Killed Alex Odeh? and the evidence uncovered through years of research
→ The history of political extremism and attacks targeting Arab American activists
→ How political interests, institutional bias, and unequal treatment can obstruct accountability
→ The connection between Alex's story, Palestinian advocacy, and the pressure to remain silent
→ Why preserving overlooked histories matters in the ongoing fight for justice

Director: Dr. Ed Hasan | 2026