American Prestige

Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Mohammad Alsaafin, journalist at AJ+, to talk about the ceasefire in Gaza. They go into detail about the ceasefire itself, the reaction in Gaza, the respective roles of the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration, what the ruling body might look like in Gaza following this, the implications for normalization with Israel, and more. Read Mohammad's piece on the ceasefire for The Nation, "We Have a Ceasefire Deal, but This Isn't the End". For an ad-free experience, immediate access to all specials, and lots of more bonus content, subscribe now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Derek welcome back to the program historian Daniel Immerwahr to talk about his piece “All That Is Solid Bursts into Flame: Capitalism and Fire in the Nineteenth-Century United States”. They delve into the general significance of fire in American and Western European history, “hot and cold capitalism”, fire as a way to obfuscate history, seminal fires in the American psyche, economic incumbents vs insurgents, great American fortunes and their relationship to fire, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ussama Makdisi, May Ziadeh Chair in Palestinian and Arab Studies and professor of history at UC Berkeley, speaks with Danny about the American Historical Society's decision to veto the resolution opposing Israeli scholasticide in Gaza. Subscribe now for an ad-free experience and lots of extra content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Derek with your pre-Shabbat news roundup. This week: the terms and concerns of the Gaza ceasefire (0:30); Lebanon elects Nawaf Salam as its new PM (8:02); worries arise over foreign fighters in Syria's new administration (12:21); in Sudan, the military takes Wad Madani, leading to reprisal killings (14:40); Somalia and Ethiopia agree to restore full relations (18:59); the TikTok saga continues (21:28); President Yoon of South Korea is finally arrested (23:55); in Russia-Ukraine, the US issues new sanctions (26:27) and Russia makes more advances (29:11); the US removes Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list (30:57); and Danny and Derek bid farewell to Joseph Robinette Biden (32:55). Subscribe now for an ad-free experience and more content, including our in-depth special on the Gaza ceasefire! Take a look at journalist Sam Hosseini confronting Antony Blinken. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Mohammad Alsaafin, journalist at AJ+, to talk about the ceasefire in Gaza. They go into detail about the ceasefire itself, the reaction in Gaza, the respective roles of the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration, what the ruling body might look like in Gaza following this, the implications for normalization with Israel, and more. Read Mohammad's piece on the ceasefire for The Nation, "We Have a Ceasefire Deal, but This Isn't the End". Subscribe now for the full episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Udi Greenberg, associate professor of history at Dartmouth, is back on the podcast to talk about the state of politics within Israel. They discuss the major factors driving domestic politics, the ruling coalition, ultra-Orthodox military exemption, the “centrist” faction, Yoav Gallant, the politics around national security, Israeli media narratives about Gaza, resettling the Strip, and more. Subscribe now for bonus episodes and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Derek welcome back Lyle Jeremy Rubin, veteran of the war in Afghanistan, host of the Bang-Bang podcast, and author of the memoir Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body: A Marine's Unbecoming, to talk about the January 1 attacks allegedly perpetrated by two former American servicemen. They discuss the attacks themselves (one in New Orleans and one in Las Vegas), the manifesto from the New Orleans attack, domestic violence, the ideologies at play, and more. Subscribe now for the full episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt, associate professor of history at California State University, Stanislaus, is back to conclude the series on his book The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq. The group delves into the the aftermath of the 1963 coups, American narratives that formed around the Middle East in light of "petro dollar Christianity", President Abdul Salam Arif, the founding of the Iraq National Oil Company, the Ba'athist return in the 1968 17 July Revolution, and the state of play in US-Iraqi relations in the 1970s. Subscribe now for the full episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The bi-monthly collaboration between AP and Nonzero Newsletter continues! Our dear paid subscribers also get access to the additional "Overtime" conversation and a discounted membership to Nonzero, so subscribe now for that and much more content! Video 0:00 The NonZero-American Prestige punk-rock crossover continues 1:49 Is it time to freak out about Trump? 9:06 Are international norms eroding? 21:16 Jimmy Carter's legacy 28:38 Heading to Overtime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Derek return to the newsroom for the first time in 2025! This week: the transition process continues in Syria (1:48) as the US government beginning relations with the new Syrian leadership (7:11), but fighting continues between Turkey and the SDF (10:25); in Lebanon, the IDF faces a withdrawal deadline (13:48) and the parliament finally elects a new president (15:46); yet more Gaza ceasefire talks are underway (19:37); the downing of a civilian aircraft strains Azerbaijan-Russia relations (22:54); Afghanistan and Pakistan exchange cross-border fire (26:05); South Korea is still trying to arrest impeached president Yoon while the interim president is also impeached (27:55); the Biden administration determines that the RSF is committing genocide in Sudan (31:13); as a new Ukrainian offensive is underway in Kursk (33:49), the Russians continue advancing in eastern Ukraine (35:36); Austria looks to be getting a far-right government (37:21); Justin Trudeau resigns as prime minister of Canada (40:21); and Donald Trump appears to warm up to the idea of conquering everything (43:12). To help support people in LA: Los Angeles Tenants Union A comprehensive list of mutual aid resources Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Derek speak with journalist Hamilton Nolan about the current LA fires, how we contend with climate change under capitalism, the prospect for labor organizing to help move things in a more sustainable direction, and more. More of Hamilton's work: Read Hamilton's piece "Lifeboat Capitalism". Also take a look at his book The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor. Follow him on Bluesky. To help support people in LA: Los Angeles Tenants Union A comprehensive list of mutual aid resources Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Derek speak with Colette Shade, who just released her debut collection of essays Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was). They discuss the fine line between ordinary nostalgia and lamenting the decline in material conditions, the advent of the internet and how it shaped a generation, how the millenials who grew up with the promise of the 90s compare with Gen Z and Alpha, the reality of globalization, how 9/11 magnified some of the more unfortunate trends of the 90s, the '08 recession, and more. Subscribe now for ad-free episodes and much more content! Go to Colette's website for more of her work and more information on her upcoming live appearances! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt, associate professor of history at California State University, Stanislaus, joins Derek to continue the series on his book The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq. This episode delves into the February 1963 coup, Abdul-Karim Qasim and his ideology, the US role in the coup itself, the tenuous Nasserist-Ba'athist coalition, the subsequent November 1963 coup, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Derek speak with Ryan Grim of Drop Site News and Yann Philippin of the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) about Drop Site's story on revelations about the US government being the largest funder of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the journalistic organization working with outlets to bring to light such stories as the Panama Papers or the Pandora Papers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny welcomes back to the program Van Jackson, senior lecturer in international relations at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, to explore grand strategy and a progressive foreign policy to make a more just and stable world. They discuss where grand strategy falls in the fields of political science and international relations, dominant grand strategies like offshore balancing, neoliberal institutionalism, and anti-hegemonism, how these strategies relate to what's happening in DC, and more. Grab a copy of Van's book Grand Strategies of the Left: The Foreign Policy of Progressive Worldmaking. Subscribe now and support the pod!

Danny and Derek welcome back to the podcast historian Michael Franczak to talk about the political career of Jimmy Carter. Topics include the his aspirations upon becoming president, the Trilateral Commission, human rights, Iran, and more. Subscribe now for the full episode!

Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt, associate professor of history at California State University, Stanislaus, to continue the series on his book The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq. This episode picks up in WWII, exploring how that conflict changed the West's relationship with oil, building anti-British sentiment in Iraq, how that country became a higher priority after Iran began asserting itself in the 1950s, the 1958 officers' coup and how it compares with that of Nasser's in Egypt, and more into the early 1960s. Subscribe now for the full episode!

Danny once again chats with television writer and producer Justin Boyd, this time to examine Stanley Kubrick's 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut. Besides its holiday setting, the two discuss the film's place in Kubrick's oeuvre, its standing as an "end of history" piece of art, Kubrick as a true "20th century man", the Austro-Hungarian setting of the source novella vs. the dreamlike New York of the adaptation, and more. Subscribe now for the full episode!

Danny and Derek welcome back to the podcast Eleanor Janega, medieval historian, author, and broadcaster, to get down to brass tacks: What is Christmas? They discuss its practice in early and medieval Christian societies, mummers' plays and gambling, Saint Nicholas providing dowries and resurrecting boys killed for their meat, the post-Reformation treatment of Christmas, and more. Subscribe at Supporting Cast! Grab a copy of Eleanor's book The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society.

Danny and Derek speak with Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt, associate professor of history at California State University, Stanislaus, for the first episode in our series on his book The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq. In this episode, they lay the groundwork of 20th century Iraq, covering the Hashemite monarchy, sectarianism and the country and the role of Western actors, the Iraqi Petroleum Company, the origins of the communist movement in Iraq, Rashid Ali and anti-British movements, and more until World War II.

Jake Werner, acting director of the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute, is back on the program, this time to talk about the current state of US-China relations and where they might be heading under Trump 2.0. They talk about the Biden administration's bimodal approach of collaborating with China while trying to threaten it, the regional alliance structure, how Trump appears to be positioning himself toward China in his new administration, how the US might navigate trade upheaval given the lack of domestic manufacturing, consumption and climate change, and more. Don't forget to listen to our episode on Jake's brief "A Program for Progressive China Policy".

Our last roundup before the holidays, but stay tuned for other fun AP programming! This week: in Palestine-Israel, yet more Gaza ceasefire talks (1:16) and two new reports on Israeli conduct in the Strip (6:37); in Syria, reports of reprisal attacks (12:02), the US fails to broker a Turkey-SDF ceasefire (16:07), and Israel occupies the country's south (20:24); Russia appears to have moved military assets from Ukraine to Libya (23:16); the RSF carries out more attacks in Sudan's Al-Fashir (26:57); South Korea's Yoon is impeached again (28:05); in Russia-Ukraine, a prominent Russian general is assassinated (30:30), Russian forces close in on Pokrovsk (32:31), and Zelenskyy is in Brussels to talk peacekeepers (34:36); and a New Cold War update featuring the US and China extending a research agreement (37:03), a US naval vessel docking in Cambodia (38:10), and the Trump FP team targeting China (40:43).

Danny speaks with Andrew deWaard, assistant professor of media and popular culture at UC San Diego, about his book Derivative Media: How Wall Street Devours Culture. The two discuss how the falling rate of profit shapes the modern media landscape, the increased drive toward consolidation in entertainment companies, the big movers like private equity firms, hedge funds, asset managers, and venture capitalists, artists' limited ability to defend themselves, the rise of IP, and more.

Danny and Derek speak with Rachel Kleinfeld, senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, about her recent article co-authored with Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, "How to Prevent Political Violence". They explore different types of political violence, the connection between online threats and real life action, the rise of political violence in the US since 2015, "violence entrepreneurs", polarization, the role of ideology, and more. Subscribe now for the full episode! Note: This interview was recorded December 3, 2024, i.e. one day before UHC CEO Brian Thompson was shot. Recommended reading: Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality by Renee DiResta

The news roundup is once again delivered to your temporal lobe. This week: 2024 is officially the hottest year on record (0:57), particularly because the Arctic is no longer a carbon sink, but rather a net carbon emitter (2:40); regarding the situation in Syria, an update on the political transition (5:16), renewed fighting between the SDF and Turkish proxies (10:56), and Israel makes a land grab for an extended "buffer zone" (15:01); in Israel-Palestine, Hamas makes a major ceasefire concession (18:22); rebels in Myanmar seize the Bangladesh border (21:29) while other factions call for a ceasefire (22:51); President Yoon of South Korea survives his first impeachment vote and chaos ensues (24:30); Ethiopia and Somalia strike a deal to settle their recent tensions (30:14); in Russia-Ukraine, Trump's demand for a ceasefire panics Zelenskyy (33:22); Romania's constitutional court annuls the first round of its presidential election (37:14); an armed group commits a massacre in Haiti (40:25); and the Biden administration is building migrant detention facilities (42:00). Subscribe today and check out our in-depth specials on stories from this week: South Korea, Martial Law, and President Yoon w/ Eun A Jo The Fall of Bashar Al-Assad w/ Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

Danny and Derek speak with Jeff Stein, White House economics reporter for The Washington Post, about his series on US sanctions for the Post, "The Money War". They talk about the function of economic sanctions for the US and how that's changed over time, broader cases like Iran to targeted ones like Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg, how sanctions can "disconnect" war from the public, the humanitarian impact, and more. Subscribe now at Supporting Cast! Also check out Jeff's podcast on John Brown, American Carnage. And be sure to take a look at Jeff's work in "The Money War": Part I: How 4 U.S. presidents unleashed economic warfare across the globe Part II: Sanctions crushed Syria's elite. So they built a zombie economy fueled by drugs. Part III: Trump White House was warned sanctions on Venezuela could fuel migration Part IV: Washington targeted 'corrupt' mines. Workers paid the greatest price. Part V: A new Washington influence industry is making millions from sanctions Part VI: How a Russian oligarch's $90 million megayacht landed in US custody

Derek once again speaks with translator and historian Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, this time to break down the ousting of Bashar Al-Assad from power in Syria. They discuss why the regime collapsed so quickly after this particular offensive, the armed groups at play, what this means for Syrian civilians, how support from outside actors factors into things, what kind of polity might emerge, and more. Subscribe now for the full episode. Check out Aymenn's forthcoming The Conquest of al-Andalus: a Translation of Fatḥ al-Andalus.

Danny and Derek welcome back to the show Ben Fong of Arizona State University for the second part of their discussion about his book Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge. In this episode, they explore psychedelic drugs and their journey from CIA attempts at mind control to modern biohacking, the bourgeois, neoliberal drug of cocaine, the cultural connotations of its powder form vs crack, marijuana and the "green rush", and the quick fix of both using drugs and attempts at suppressing their usage. Check out more of Ben's work at his Substack on labor and logistics, On the Seams.

Danny and Derek once again combine powers to find that they have none. This week: an update on the "ceasefire" in Lebanon (0:29); the situation in Syria progresses as rebels take Hama (4:38); in Israel-Palestine, Amnesty accuses Israel of genocide (12:34) as parties make another push for a ceasefire (14:27); South Korea's President Yoon (briefly) declares martial law (17:05); the Zamzam displacement camp is shelled in Sudan (19:59); Chad's government breaks a military agreement with France (21:46); in Ukraine, Zelenskyy broaches territorial concessions, but demands NATO membership in return (24:53); the Barnier government in France falls in a no confidence vote (27:49); NATO makes a new push to ramp up defense spending amidst concerns over sabotage (30:48); and President Biden makes his first (and last) trip to Africa (34:21). Be sure to check out our special on South Korea with Eun A Jo.

Danny and Derek welcome to the podcast Eun A Jo to talk about this week's events in South Korea, where President Yoon declared martial law after accusing the opposition of “anti-state activities”. They discuss why Yoon made this move, the mobilization of Koreans against the attempted coup, regional responses, the imminent vote on Yoon's impeachment, and more. Eun A is an Edelson Fellow in international security at Dartmouth College's Dickey Center for International Understanding and an incoming assistant professor of government at William and Mary. She works on questions of memory, democracy, and peace in East Asia, with a focus on South Korea and Taiwan. Check out Eun A's explainer of the events.

Derek is joined by translator and historian Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi to take a closer look at the past week's events in Syria. They delve into groups like Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, Turkey's role and its current goals, the timing of the offensive, the quick seizure of Aleppo, the mood on the ground, and more. Check out Aymenn's forthcoming The Conquest of al-Andalus: a Translation of Fatḥ al-Andalus.

Danny and Derek welcome to the show Ben Fong of Arizona State University for a two-part discussion of his book Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge. In this episode, the group covers everything from coffee to opiates to antidepressants, how they interact with capitalist society, the CIA, commodity fetishism, licit vs. illicit as distinct from legal vs. illegal, and more. Check out more of Ben's work at his Substack on labor and logistics, On the Seams.

Danny and Derek update everyone on this week's advance by rebel factions in northwestern Syria wherein they took control of Aleppo.

Danny and Derek are back with Patrick Wyman, host of the Tides of History podcast and author of The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World, for the second part of their discussion about Ridley Scott's Gladiator films. This episode explores father-son relationships, Numidia, why the original film outshines the sequel and most depictions of Rome since, the military campaigns depicted in the movies, different types of gladiators, the Praetorian Guard, treacherous personal trainers, and more. Subscribe now for the full episode! Read Patrick's piece for Slate, "The Case for Gladiator II". Be warned, this is full of spoilers.

It's our bi-annual mailbag episode, where Producer Jake presents listener questions to Danny and Derek. Among the topics of this edition: If hierarchy is inevitable in human societies, how does status not based on wealth work? What would a US weapons embargo on Israel look like? Has neoliberal atomization led to a decline in the popularity of bands? What are Derek's bird feeding tips? Subscribe now for benefits like mailbag submissions, weekly bonus episodes, and our new Discord server! Speaking of the Discord, listeners have formed a book club that sends the following message: "PrestigeHeads are organizing a book club for AP subscribers around military historian Donald Stoker's 2024 book Purpose and Power: U.S. Grand Strategy from the Revolutionary Era to the Present. It will likely be a critical reading given Stoker's affiliations and ideology, but the book should provide ample fodder for discussion. The plan is to read at most 50 pages a week and have ongoing discussions on the AP Discord for each chapter. We have people on board to read the introduction and first chapter by Friday, December 6th."

Danny and Derek welcome David Silverman, professor of Native American, Colonial American, and American racial history at George Washington University, for a discussion of the historical Thanksgiving holiday. They get into the origin and proliferation of the holiday's myth, the historical Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony, the Wampanoag Indians, their culture, politics, and relationship with the English settlers, who and what the holiday serves in modern America, and more. Be sure to grab a copy of David's book This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving! Originally published November 22, 2022

Danny and Derek update us with what we need to know about Israel's ceasefire deal with Hezbollah. Subscribe now for the full episode.

Anton Jäger, historian of political thought, returns to the program to speak with Danny about "the big picture" in the wake of the US election. They discuss the crisis of liberalism, the state of the left, where capital is in its own historical cycle, how the reactions to this election compare with that of 2016, hyperpolitics, empire, the view from Europe, and more. Read Anton's latest piece in New Left Review, "Hyperpolitics in America". Further reading: Adam Tooze, "The Democrats' Defeat", The London Review of Books Subscribe now and listen to our episode with Anton on hyperpolitics from last year.

Patrick Wyman, host of the Tides of History podcast and author of The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World, is back on the program, this time to talk about Ridley Scott's Gladiator films. In this first part of the conversation, they largely focus on Gladiator II, delving into the actual historical merit of the movie, the figures it depicts, both films' commentary on modern masculinity vs the reality of ancient Rome, the political economy of gladiators, Ridley Scott's Orientalism, beast fights, differences in how the two movies portray ideas of democracy, and more. Subscribe now for the full episode! Read Patrick's piece for Slate, "The Case for Gladiator II". Be warned, this is full of spoilers.

One more news episode before us Yankees have a holiday. Note: Although we will not have a news roundup next week, we'll have other new content. This week: In Israel-Palestine, the ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant (0:56) and the US vetoes another ceasefire resolution (6:11); US envoy Amos Hochstein is working on a ceasefire in Lebanon (8:50); in Sri Lanka, the leftist coalition wins a parliamentary majority (12:26); in Sudan, the RSF commits new atrocities (14:12) and Russia vetoes a ceasefire (16:33); in Russia-Ukraine, Biden gives Ukraine permission to use long-range US weapons in Russia (18:29), while Reuters reports that Putin is open to peace negotiations (23:19); the US recognizes opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez as president of Venezuela (24:55); a new armed group wreaks violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti (27:09); and we have a New Cold War update featuring the final Biden-Xi meeting (29:10) and Biden's last G20 summit (31:06). Subscribe now for more content and features! Watch the new documentary from Al-Jazeera's Fault Lines program, "All That Remains", which follows a 13-year-old amputee from Gaza named Leyan as she seeks treatment in the United States.

Abby Mullen, assistant professor at the US Naval Academy, joins the program to talk about her book To Fix a National Character: The United States in the First Barbary War, 1800–1805. The group explores the conflict, American geopolitics in its infancy, the Barbary States and piracy committed on their behalf at the time, how US naval expeditions in an era without a global network of bases functioned, the myth of the war in "The Marines' Hymn", and more.

Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this time to talk about foreign policy and the election. They discuss the professionalization of the Democrats, the Harris campaign's decision to ally themselves with the likes of the Cheney family, national security FP, Trump as the "peace candidate", how defense spending might exceed $1 trillion going forward, the fate of Ukraine, Israel/Palestine/Lebanon, and more. Subscribe now for the full episode and more content! Grab a copy of Stephen's book Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy.

It's another edition of the bi-monthly collaboration between AP and Nonzero Newsletter continues! For the full version of this episode, subscribe now at Supporting Cast, where you'll also get a discounted subscription for Nonzero Newsletter! Part one video 0:00 Another high-synergy, brilliant collaboration 1:15 Is Elon our first true oligarch?  9:57 Trump assembles his Justice League of hawks 16:29 Biden's awful foreign policy team 21:25 Trump's plan to purge the military  33:06 Will Trump go full-on authoritarian? 40:21 Left-wing capitalists—and a discount offer

Your weekly news roundup from two happy warriors. This week: struggles at the UN COP29 climate change conference (1:48), not the least of which is the incoming climate denier president of the US (5:45); in Israel-Palestine, the US shockingly doesn't follow through on its 30-day humanitarian aid deadline (7:57), Trump appointments signal imminent formal annexation of Palestinian territories (12:24), and Qatar withdraws from ceasefire talks (16:48); in Lebanon, Israel is working on a ceasefire as a "gift" for Trump (18:33); Xi and Biden to meet in China (21:35); the Japanese government survives a confirmation vote (23: 45); a new report on horrifying death toll figures in the Sudan war (25:48); in Russia-Ukraine, Russia pushers to retake Kursk (28:01) while Europe and Ukraine show new flexibility to exchange land for a peace deal (30:25); Germany prepares for a snap election in February in the wake of the government coalition collapsing (32:38); in Haiti, the transitional council fires the PM (34:44) while the US bans flights there (36:15); and Trump announces a number of new appointments for his second term (37:35). Subscribe now at Supporting Cast for more content like our election-related specials: The 2024 US Presidential Election The U.S. Presidential Election, the Latino Vote, and the Deportation Regime w/ Alexander Aviña What Would Secretary of State Marco Rubio Look Like? w/ Steven Cohen

Danny and Derek speak with Steven Cohen, PhD candidate in history, working on drug war political economy in the Americas, about what we might see if, as expected, Marco Rubio is named as secretary of state in the new Trump administration. Subscribe now for the full episode!

Historian Benji Rolsky speaks with Danny about how others in their profession have thought about the far right, a subset of history which has expanded greatly in the last decade or so. They explore how the study of the far right might be "broken", anti-fundamentalism, Christian nationalism, the episodic nature of this field, and how Trump might have changed the historiography. Read Benji's piece "Why the Study of the Right is Broken": Part 1 and Part 2. Also check out his book The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left: Politics, Television, and Popular Culture in the 1970s and Beyond. Subscribe to the show for more episodes and content!

This is a re-post of an special episode we did for subscribers on Wednesday, November 6. Subscribe now for immediate access to breaking news specials and much more content. Danny and Derek jump on the mic to break down Donald Trump's decisive election victory. Topics include the crisis of liberalism, the end of the road for the Democrats' status quo, what Trump and Vance mean for American foreign policy, the Boomers and members of the Silent Generation holding onto power, and the profound alienation of our time.

Danny and Derek chat with Simon Willmetts, associate professor of intelligence studies at Leiden University, about his recent piece for Diplomatic History, "The CIA and Time Magazine: Journalistic Ethics and Newsroom Dissent". The group discusses the subfield of intelligence history, public awareness of intelligence organizations, why the scope Time and Life magazines in the mid-20th century and why the CIA would want to collude with such publications, the development of journalistic ethics in light of journalistic connections with the national security state, and more. Further reading: George Herkin, The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington Kathryn McGarr, City of Newsmen: Public Lies and Professional Secrets in Cold War Washington Hugh Wilford, The CIA: An Imperial History Subscribe now for the full episode!

Heads of state come and go, but not all of them make the news roundup with Danny and Derek. This week: in Palestine-Israel, Netanyahu fires defense minister Gallant (0:57), a leak scandal involving Netanyahu's office (6:36), an update on the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza (8:52), and the IDF appears to admit to committing ethnic cleansing (13:05); in Lebanon, the ceasefire push collapses (15:39), the IDF looks to create a "buffer zone" (17:46), and the Washington Post reports that Israeli evacuation warnings are misleading civilians (19:31); in Iran, Supreme Leader Khamenei threatens an attack on Israel (27:19); a new report details the mistreatment of migrant workers in Arabian Gulf states (30:35); the DPRK/North Korea conducts a new ICBM test (33:09); new RSF massacres in Sudan (36:41); in Russia-Ukraine, North Korean soldiers join combat operations (38:35), future concerns in the US about how the war will be conducted under Trump (41:38), and Russia floats the possibility of ending the war (44:36); the German government collapses (46:59); and in Bolivia, protesters supporting former president Evo Morales pause roadblocks amid clashes with the police (49:54). Subscribe now for more content, including our two post-election specials: Special - The 2024 US Presidential Election Special - The U.S. Presidential Election, the Latino Vote, and the Deportation Regime w/ Alexander Aviña

Alexander Aviña, associate professor of history at Arizona State University, joins Danny and Derek to talk about narratives forming around the election regarding a Latino shift to the right, Biden and Trump's respective records on the border, whether Trump will be able to carry out his threats of mass deportation, right-wing anti-migrant rhetoric vs. businesses that depend on that labor force, and more. Subscribe now for the full episode!

Danny and Derek jump on the mic to break down Donald Trump's decisive election victory. Topics include the crisis of liberalism, the end of the road for the Democrats' status quo, what Trump and Vance mean for American foreign policy, the Boomers and members of the Silent Generation holding onto power, and the profound alienation of our time. Subscribe now for the full episode! When you subscribe now, you'll get access to the AP Discord to connect with fellow subscribers and members of the AP team.