American Prestige

Subscribe now for the full episode! Danny and Derek speak with freelance journalist Molly Longman about ⁠her piece for Wired ⁠detailing how the US military makes over $70 million annually from slot machines on overseas bases, and the implications for exploitation, addiction, and security risks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get more content! Don't forget our new series Of This World and Welcome to the Crusades! Danny and Derek Davison welcome to the program economist Glenn Loury, host of The Glenn Show, to talk about the re-release of his 1994 book Self-Censorship. They discuss the reasons he originally wrote the book, including self-censorship among intellectuals in late 1980s Eastern Europe as well as the response to Glenn's critiques of US debates on race and civil rights at the time. They then tie these themes to postwar economics, current debates about “wokeness,” discourse around Gaza, and academic freedom.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode! Danny welcomes back to the show Erik Baker, a lecturer in the history of science at Harvard, to discuss criticisms of economics as a science and touch on nuclear history. They talk about the struggle of early 20th-century economists to formalize their field, the Progressive Era desire to rationally manage society, the postwar effort to quantify economics and the role of the university therein, the paradigms structuring economics that rely too much on “experts,” the actor-network theory critique, the pitfalls of reducing complex issues to quantification and modeling, and whether there's a better way to aggregate the information economics seeks to interpret. The conversation then turns to Erik's article on the history of nuclear science. Read Erik's pieces “The History of Economics as Science Critique: Demystification and Its Limits” and “The History of Nuclear Science.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now⁠ to skip the commercials. Don't forget to check out our series ⁠"Welcome to the Crusades"⁠ and ⁠"Of This World."⁠ Danny and Derek's The Life of a Go-Go Boy album is shelved indefinitely. Meanwhile, in world news: Armenia and Azerbaijan sign a U.S.-brokered peace deal (1:35); Israel prepares for an operation in Gaza City as it continues its search for countries willing to take in expelled Palestinians (8:36); Australia announces plans to recognize Palestine (12:59); Iran hosts an IAEA representative (14:58) as European states prepare to reimpose sanctions (16:45); the Thai-Cambodian border sees two new incidents (19:34); a Sudanese military leader meets with a Trump envoy (22:08); the president of the unrecognized state of Somaliland will reportedly visit the U.S. (24:12); the DRC-M23 peace talks appear to collapse (26:47); Trump agrees to a summit with Putin, leaving Ukraine and European leaders concerned, and Russia makes a breakthrough in the Ukrainian defensive line (29:19); a preview of the upcoming Bolivian election (34:55); Trump orders military force to be used against Latin American drug cartels (38:27); and the U.S. and China agree to extend their tariff détente (40:09). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode! Danny and Derek speak with historian Chris Myers Asch about Trump's federal takeover of DC police and the deployment of the National Guard. Be sure to check out Chris's book ⁠Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mohammad Alsaafin, journalist at AJ+, returns to the program to discuss recent events concerning Palestine. He and Derek talk about journalists killed by Israel in Gaza, including Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif; the broad dehumanization of Palestinian journalists by many mainstream outlets; the planned military occupation and potential ethnic cleansing of the Strip; the use of starvation as a weapon; why certain countries are re-recognizing a Palestinian state at this moment; and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In lieu of a typical Tuesday episode this week, we are happy to present the first episode of our new miniseries with Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, ⁠Of This World.⁠ Subscribe now at the annual tier for access to this series and other AP series going forward. First, Danny Bessner speaks with Daniel about what inspired this series. In the episode itself (6:25), Daniel speaks with Carlo Invernizzi Accetti about his recent book (published in Italian) Twenty Years of Rage: From No-Globals to Trumpism. Topics include the crisis in democracy and liberalism, grievance politics, Peter Sloterdijk's concept of the modern loser, the materialist causes of modern anger, attempted remedies like populism and technocracy, and why anger can be useful. (Recorded in December 2024) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode! Derek welcomes back historian Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi for a discussion about developments in Syria under the new government, which toppled that of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. They talk about the massacres of Alawites at the beginning of this year, the non-governmental militias still operating in the country, clashes between Druze and Bedouin armed groups in the southern city of Suwayda, Israeli involvement, Syrian Democratic Forces activity in the northeast of the country and Turkey's role, and whether the government under Ahmed al-Sharaa can make a “Syria for all Syrians.” Check out Aymenn's book The Conquest of al-Andalus: a Translation of Fath al-Andalus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads. Don't forget to purchase our "Welcome to the Crusades" miniseries! The AP team will wear formal Tevas to the new White House ballroom. Otherwise, in this week's news: Danny and Derek reflect on the 80th anniversary of the US dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (1:46); in Israel-Palestine, Netanyahu announces his “full occupation” plan (8:24) as the US expands the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (13:58); the Lebanese government moves to disarm Hezbollah (16:48); the US looks to host an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace summit (20:51); Trump punishes India for purchasing Russian oil (24:20); Thailand and Cambodia agree to the deployment of ceasefire monitors (27:49); in Sudan, the RSF carries out a new atrocity (29:50) and the military accuses the United Arab Emirates of hiring mercenaries (32:37); a new report details sexual violence in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia (35:06); in Russia-Ukraine, Steve Witkoff visits Moscow ahead of a Putin-Trump meeting (37:28) as the US nevertheless plans to impose tariffs on Russia (40:34); El Salvador's legislature removes presidential term limits (41:57); and in US news, America makes a new “third country” trafficking agreement with Rwanada (43:15), the State Department starts a new program forcing travelers to pay bonds to the US government (45:23), and NASA plans to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon (46:50).  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads. Michael Albertus, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, joins the program to talk about his book Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn't, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies. The group explores notions of land from archaeological evidence thousands of years ago, the enclosure movement of the medieval era, the European mindset vs those of indigenous peoples in the era of colonization, South Africa land redistribution, gender in Canadian homesteading, how changing notions of land play into larger histories of race, the postwar of concept of “land to the tiller,” and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode! Jennifer Kavanaugh, senior fellow & director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, and Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, join the program to talk about their piece, “The Taiwan Fixation: American Strategy Shouldn't Hinge on an Unwinnable War.” The group delves into the contours of the debate around Taiwan in DC, whether there's any daylight between the two parties, strategic ambiguity and where it stands in Trump 2.0, how a decline in US hegemony in East Asia affects plans for a Taiwan intervention, and what Jennifer and Stephen recommend instead of America's current approach.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny invites Alex Aviña and Ahmad Shokr to discuss recent goings on at the American Historical Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The bi-monthly collaboration between AP and NonZero Newsletter returns. Subscribe now to AP and you'll also get a discounted membership to Nonzero! Get that Crusades series now! ⁠Part One Video⁠ 0:00 Derek and Danny plug their new Crusades series 2:55 This week's shift in Gaza discourse 11:56 The real danger Gaza poses for Israel 21:41 Does the left's rhetoric on Israel miss the mark? 32:00 Elite media's think tank problem 36:03 Is American imperialism really the problem? 39:40 Heading to Overtime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads! Don't forget to purchase our “Welcome to the Crusades” special series! Danny and Derek are monitoring the Liam Neeson-Pamela Anderson situation. Otherwise, in this week's news: a new study says most countries are exploiting groundwater aquifers at an unsustainable rate (2:26); in Israel-Palestine, another Gaza ceasefire breaks down (4:56), Israel's “humanitarian pause” has little effect on the starvation in Gaza (7:22), the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is under scrutiny (10:13), West Bank violence is once again on the rise (12:23), and several European leaders float the idea of recognizing a Palestinian state (14:11); Trump threatens to bomb Iran again (17:45); POTUS relaxes sanctions on Myanmar while considering a mineral deal (20:12), plus that country's military junta lifts the state of emergency (23:55); Thailand and Cambodia agree to a ceasefire for the moment (25:32); the Trump administration cancels interactions with Taiwan (28:32); the Sudan “quartet” meeting is cancelled after a dispute between Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (31:56); Trump shortens the deadline for Russia to end its war in Ukraine (35:01); and this week's trade news includes the US reaching deals with the EU and South Korea (38:09), imposing a 25% tariff plus “penalties” on India (41:16), hitting Brazil with a 50% tariff (43:14), plus Trump suggesting no future deal with Canada (46:01), and a deal with China remaining in limbo (47:32). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads. Great Power Week continues here at American Prestige as historian Michael Brenes joins the show to talk about how prolonged competition with China threatens democracy, peace, and prosperity. They compare Biden and Trump's respective approaches to China, whether the national security establishment is trying to manufacture an existential threat out of The People's Republic, whether there is any national interest in a new Cold War, the degradation in American leaders, why rivalry is bad economically, erodes American society's social fabric, and leads to violence, and alternatives to the great power framework.      Read his book on the matter (co-authored with AP regular Van Jackson), The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy. Don't miss the companion episode with Stacie Goddard from Sunday, “The Era of Great Power Competition.”  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Derek speak with Stacie Goddard, the Betty Freyhof Johnson '44 Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College, about her piece for Foreign Affairs, “The Rise and Fall of Great-Power Competition.” They discuss the “great powers” of today, the shift from liberal hegemony to great power competition, Trump's disposal of multilateralism and Biden following suit, the era of the Concert of Europe, US postwar hegemony, the rhetoric around China that became entrenched during the Obama administration, the foreign policy blob's aversion to tradeoffs, the framework of of coercion, competition, and collusion, financialized capitalism and declining societies, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prestigeheads: Today we bring you a very special episode from our friends over at the Quincy Institute's Always at War show, which can be found here and on all podcast apps. Check it out! In this episode of Always at War, hosts Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan are joined by American Prestige's Daniel Bessner to discuss how Americans have come to understand — and however begrudgingly, accept — the costs and consequences of our nation's military empire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads. Don't forget to buy our “Welcome to the Crusades” miniseries! Danny and Derek also rail against the war pigs, but lack the heavy riffs. This week: the International Court of Justice rules that wealthy nations must take action on climate change or bear responsibility (1:20); clashes escalate on the Thai-Cambodian border (4:08); a ceasefire holds in Syria's Suwayda province after clashes between Druze and Bedouin groups (9:06); in Israel-Palestine, Gaza's starvation reaches catastrophic levels (13:19) as ceasefire talks barely limp along (16:23); Iran is reengaging with the International Atomic Energy Agency (20:49); the Democratic Republic of the Congo and M23 militant group sign a declaration of intent (23:05); in Ukraine, a new round of peace talks achieves little (25:24) while Zelensky responds to protests over corruption (28:27); Venezuela, the US, and El Salvador carry out a prisoner exchange amid accusations of torture (31:38); the Japan House of Councillors holds an election while PM Ishiba looks likely to resign (33:32); and Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia make trade deals (36:10). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get more content. Hugh Wilford, professor of history at California State University, Long Beach, is back on the program to conclude the discussion of his book The CIA: An Imperial History. In this episode they talk about figures like Edward Lansdale and James Angleton, “regime maintenance,” counterinsurgency, the agency's use of publicity, the effect of the War on Terror on the CIA, and more. Listen to Part 1 here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode! Danny welcomes back to the show Erich Schwartzel, reporter at the Wall Street Journal, for a conversation about the film industry connection between the US and China. They start in the mid-90s as China's economy opens up, how distribution in China of US films opened more windows of profit earning, US studios' self-censorship, the soft power aspect of the relationship, the role of American experts in the construction of the Chinese film industry, the souring of US-China film relations in the late 2010s, and more.       Be sure to check out Erich's book Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get all of our content! Derek is in the shop for maintenance, so Danny presents the news with the Quincy Institute's Alex Jordan. This week: Israel bombs the Syrian Defense Ministry in Damascus (0:39) as Netanyahu's corruption trial carries on (7:05), plus US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee condemns settlers killing a US citizen (10:24), and the Hague Group coalition meets in Bogota to decide how to hold Israel accountable for its crimes (16:02); the saga of Trump's flip-flopping on Ukraine military aid continues (20:29); Trump announces more tariffs while affected countries struggle to make a deal with the US (28:30); the US Navy is constructing facilities to repair and maintain Philippine military vessels (33:35); the UN releases a report detailing how militant violence in Haiti has killed 5,000 people in the last 9 months (37:48); and the French army has withdrawn its last troops from Senegal (42:48).  Be sure to watch and listen to Alex and Courtney Rawlings on the Quincy Institute's Always at War podcast.         Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get all of our content! Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps, rise ‘n grind, and find your calling as we welcome historian Erik Baker to the program to talk about his book Make Your Own Job: How the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic Exhausted America. The group explores the Protestant work ethic and Jeffersonian yeoman farmer, influential figures like Henry Ford and Frederick Winslow Taylor, the seeds of entrepreneurialism in Harvard Business School, how it came to be seen as an American value during the Cold War, “entrepreneurial modernity,” postwar liberalism's failure to provide meaningful work for the professional-managerial class, self-help writers, and much more. Be sure to check out Issue Fifteen of The Drift, where Erik is a senior editor.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode. Danny and Derek welcome back to the show E. Tammy Kim, contributing writer at The New Yorker, to talk about current Korean politics as well as some domestic issues. They get into the transitional moment of America's relationship with East Asia, the changeover from President Yoon to Lee in South Korea, the effect of Trump's xenophobia on the American-Korean relationship, the gender dynamics of political culture in Korea, and how Trump's tariffs have affected that nation. They then turn to the US and the mass layoffs of the federal workforce, the effect of the “Big Beautiful Bill” on Medicaid and Medicare, the Democrats' unwillingness to seize the moment, and what it would actually take to galvanize people and enact structural change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remember that today is the last day to order our limited edition “Robo Washington Crossing the Delaware” poster! Paid subscribers get a 50% discount! AP's retirement account is entirely tied to copper, so we're not sure how long we have to do this. In this week's news: Yemen's Houthi/Ansar Allah fighters have resumed attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, sinking two (1:47); in Israel-Palestine news, Benjamin Netanyahu (on a visit to the White House) rules out a Palestinian state (4:50), ceasefire talks resume (7:56), and Israel has revealed a plan to “relocate” Gaza's population (12:34); the IDF resumes attacks on Lebanon despite a ceasefire (15:54); the ICC issues warrants for the leaders of the Taliban (18:28); Trump revisits a “burden sharing” debate with South Korea (19:59); Trump invites a group of leaders from African countries to the White House (22:54); widespread protests in Kenya leave many dead (27:03); Trump reverses course on withholding military aid to Ukraine (29:01); the UK and France discuss a “coordinated nuclear deterrent” (32:41); the US and Colombia recall envoys in an intensifying diplomatic row (35:10); Trump sets a new date for reciprocal tariffs (37:35), threatens additional tariffs on BRICS countries (39:49), and threatens a 50% tariff on Brazil for putting Jair Bolsonaro on trial (42:04); and the US traffics 8 people to South Sudan (44:55).  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now⁠ to skip the ads. ⁠Get your limited edition "Robo Washington" poster now⁠. Subscribers get a 50% discount! Economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) Mark Weisbrot joins the show to talk about economic sanctions and how they affect people's lives. They discuss the effect of sanctions on migration flows, how the PR about them targeting governments and not civilians is false, how the international financial system and dollar hegemony allow the US to sanction so freely, whether sanctions on other countries actually benefit ordinary Americans, whether tariffs can be considered a form of sanctions, and more. Check out CEPR's work for much more material on sanctions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe today to skip the ads and for access to all of our special episodes. Derek speaks with Sina Azodi, assistant professor of Middle East Politics at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University, to reflect on where things stand after the recent Iran-Israel war. They talk about the tactics used by both sides, the European, Russian, and Chinese responses, the IAEA, the future of Iran's nuclear program, the possibility of the US and Iran resuming negotiations, and the lasting effects on the relationship between Iran and its regional neighbors. Read more of Sina's work over at Foreign Policy. Don't forget to order our limited edition "Robo Washington Crossing the Delaware" poster! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode. Get your limited edition "Robo Washington" poster now. Subscribers get a 50% discount! Danny and Derek speak with writer and director Daniel Waters about the films Demolition Man and Batman Returns, both screenplays of his. They discuss the state of screenwriting now vs. when Daniel first arrived in Hollywood, the two films' criticism of the security state, Demolition Man's commentary on the stultifying effect of “political correctness” of that era, the duality of Stallone and Snipes' characters, the challenge for a writer centering an institution they're critical of, the horror of a utopia, the film's ambivalence toward violence, Batman Returns coming at the beginning of IP-driven Hollywood, Max Schrek as Mitt Romney, and the reassessment of Daniel's work in the last couple of decades. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get more content. Our news roundups are sometimes big, but never beautiful. This week: the PKK to begin its disarmament in Turkey (1:17); Iran suspends its cooperation with the IAEA (4:30), but remains open to negotiations with the US (6:53); the debate continues on how far the war set back Iran's nuclear program (9:18); in Gaza, a new ceasefire push (12:24) while journalists investigate the massacres at “humanitarian aid” sites (16:15); Russia recognizes the Talbian-led government in Afghanistan (20:20); the Constitutional Court of Thailand suspends PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra (21:57); Malaysia bans US plastic waste (23:55); Trump ramps up US airstrikes in Somalia (26:07); the DRC and Rwanda sign a peace deal (28:48); Russia makes advances in Ukraine (33:31) plus the US freezes military aid (35:46); the UN says the security situation in Haiti is worsening (37:51); and the US and China make another trade deal (39:29).  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode and access to all news specials. Derek welcomes back to the show Jason Stearns, associate professor at Simon Fraser University and author of The War That Doesn't Say Its Name: The Unending Conflict in the Congo, to talk about the state of play between the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as well as the ceasefire between the DRC and Rwanda. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get more content! Get our "Welcome to the Crusades" miniseries! Derek welcomes back to the show Dalia Hatuqa, a journalist specializing in Israeli/Palestinian affairs and regional Middle East issues, to talk about the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. They recap what has been happening to Palestinians in Gaza while the world was distracted by Israel's war with Iran, discuss the lost generations of Gazan children, the massacres at “aid distribution centers,” increased home demolitions and settler violence in the West Bank, the current relationships of the Palestinian Authority and Jordanian government with Israel, the regional dynamics after the recent war with Iran, and what Netanyahu's next move might be. Read Dalia's piece from March in The Guardian, “For Palestinians, this was never a ceasefire.”       Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode. Don't forget to purchase our “Welcome to the Crusades” series before the price increases next week. Subscribers get a 25% discount! Richard Beck, senior writer at n+1 and author of Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life, joins the program to talk about the rise of interest in studying the far right since 2016. They discuss liberal critics' focus on the fascistic style of the current right, how the recent “rise” of the right is more of a political dealignment occurring in both parties, whether Trump has an ideology and the role of ideas in the Trump administration, the pitfalls of trying to cohere such an incoherent figure, the effect of long election cycles on liberal commentators, and whether Trump is just a symptom of a political rupture that can't be reduced to a single figure.     Read Richard's piece in n+1, “Fret, Hedge, React: On reading the right.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don't forget to purchase our “Welcome to the Crusades” series before the price increases next week. Paid AP subscribers get a 20% discount, so subscribe today! Danny and Derek broadcast from an undisclosed resort location. This week: an update on the conflict with Iran, including the ceasefire (2:34), Trump's disagreement with US intelligence assessments (5:25), the status of the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities and material (10:15), and the potential for new US-Iran talks (15:46); with the latest conflict with Iran on hold, there are now questions whether Netanyahu will finally come to the negotiating table over Gaza (18:22); the 2025 NATO summit was held and addressed topics like a 5% defense spending minimum, while members states ingratiated themselves with Donald Trump, and the latter held a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy (22:09); China is taking new steps on curbing fentanyl (32:37); and the Supreme Court gives the Trump administration the green light to send migrants to unaffiliated third countries (34:58).  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode and access to all of our breaking news specials. Investigative journalist Eli Clifton is back on the show, this time to share his thoughts on Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York's Democratic mayoral primary. Eli also just got back from Iran and analyzes where things stand amid a tenuous ceasefire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get more content. Ben Freeman and Nick Cleveland-Stout from the Quincy Institute join the program to talk about their Think Tank Funding Tracker, a repository that tracks funding from foreign governments, the U.S. government, and Pentagon contractors to the top 50 think tanks in the United States over the past five years. The group discusses think tanks' role in the “military-intellectual” complex, what specific foreign funders like the UAE and UK might be looking to influence, why certain governments like Ukraine and China gave little to no money, the lack of transparency among individuals working in sectors like journalism and government who also work with think tanks, the utilization (and under-utilization) of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, how to restructure the order so that expertise isn't limited to these kinds of institutions, and how to make think tanks more democratically accountable in the meantime.  Read the Quincy Institute's brief on their project, “Big Ideas and Big Money: Think Tank Funding in America.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for all breaking news specials and commercial-free content. Danny and Derek break down the details of today's strike by Iran against the US Al-Udeid air base in Qatar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode. Danny and Derek discuss last night's attacks, what the strategy of the US was, what the strategy of Iran might be, what an invasion of Iran would look like, the US role in the Middle East, and the Axis of Resistance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode and much more content. Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, to talk about when and how the US will become fully involved in Israel's war with Iran. They discuss the major interest groups within the Trump 2.0 administration, why the Iranians would continue negotiating with the US at this point, how European leaders are navigating the crisis, the war as a part of global colonial domination by the North Atlantic/Western Europe, whether Iran can see a way out of this cycle with Israel, the bogus argument of the enrichment “red line,” how other Arab states in the Gulf are responding to the conflict, and the goal of regime collapse.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get more content. No ChatGPT here—our em dashes are organic. This week: in the Iran-Israel war, an update on the casualties and targets (1:52), US involvement remains in question (7:45), Ayatollah Khamenei refuses to surrender (14:47), and US and Israeli intelligence agencies disagree over “evidence” of Iran pursuing a nuclear weapon (18:14); Trump quits the G7 summit early, possibly due to Israel-Iran, and later insults French president Emmanuel Macron (20:59); the IDF is still killing dozens per day in Gaza, mostly near aid sites (24:23); the US military is withdrawing from most of its bases in Syria (27:11); the Thai government might be on the verge of a collapse (29:56); the DRC and Rwanda approve a “draft” peace agreement (33:57); in Russia-Ukraine, Trump cancels a normalization meeting while shutting down a sanctions working group (36:39), and Russia carries out its deadliest strike of the year on Kyiv (37:55); Trump decides to expand his travel ban (40:14); and in a New Cold War update, a new trade détente with China does not include critical minerals for military use (42:43). Listen to Derek's special with Akbar Shahid Ahmed on US involvement in the Israel-Iran war. Also be sure to download our miniseries with the crew from We're Not So Different, Welcome to the Crusades. We have posted E1 and E2 on our feed as a free preview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for an ad-free experience and access to all breaking news specials. Derek welcomes back to the program ⁠⁠Akbar Shahid Ahmed⁠⁠, Senior Diplomatic Correspondent for HuffPost, to talk about the prospect of Trump bringing the US into a war with Iran. Akbar has written a number of articles on Israel-Iran in the last several days, including ⁠⁠"The Pro-Israel U.S. General Quietly Influencing Trump On Iran"⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠"Israel's War On Iran Bears The Echo Of Past American Mistakes."⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In lieu of a typical AP episode this week, we're releasing the first two episodes of our standalone miniseries on the First Crusade with the crew from We're Not So Different⁠⁠. Get the rest of the series here. Our journey through the First Crusade starts where the Crusaders themselves did: in western Europe with Pope Urban II and the Council of Clermont. We discuss conditions in Latin Christendom in the late 11th century, what prompted the Pope's call for Crusade, and how it was received by European nobles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've released the first two episodes of our standalone miniseries with the folks from ⁠We're Not So Different⁠⁠⁠. Get the rest of the episodes ⁠here⁠! The expedition begins to take shape. We continue to explore the fallout from Pope Urban II's call for Crusade at the Council of Clermont, as lords from across France prepare to set off. We look especially at the Normans under Bohemond of Taranto, who will play an outsized role in the campaign to come and whose conquest of Sicily offers some insight into how that campaign would be conducted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the full episode and access to all breaking news specials, subscribe now. Danny and Derek update us on what's been going on over the past few days between Israel and Iran. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode. "Top Secret" subscribers get a free one-year digital subscription to The Nation! Danny speaks with Matt Karp, associate professor of history at Princeton, about party formation in the 1850s as well as his take on the Trump phenomenon. They explore the downfall of the Whigs and rise of the Republicans, the structure of the political parties at the beginning of the republic, the relationship of ideology and party, why we have a giant two-party system despite regional differences, mass democracy in the 19th century and today, Trump minimalists vs. maximalists, and more.    Check out Matt's book This Vast Southern Empire: Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy and his article on Trump for New Left Review, “Maxed Out.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spencer Ackerman of ⁠Forever Wars⁠ is back on the podcast to talk about the LA protests and his piece on them for Zeteo, ⁠"The Imperial Boomerang Lands in Los Angeles."⁠ You can read the "director's cut" of Spencer's piece ⁠over at Forever Wars⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode and no ads. Danny and Derek speak with ⁠Séamus Malekafzali⁠ about Israel's strike on Iran, Iran's response and attack on Israel, U.S. and geostrategy, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for an ad-free experience and more content. "Top Secret" subscribers get a complimentary one-year digital subscription to The Nation! Danny and Derek are everyday people who still believe in you. This week: the AUKUS security partnership is under review at the Pentagon (1:47); the IAEA rebukes Iran, nuclear negotiations are going nowhere, and Trump is evacuating nonessential personnel from the Middle East (5:14); in Israel-Palestine, Israeli soldiers continue to gun down people at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites as Hamas kills several GHF workers (10:24), the IDF appears to be shielding at least one ISIS-linked gang in the Strip (13:21), the IDF intercepts the “Freedom Flotilla” (15:39), and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee declares the “two-state solution” dead (17:43); the UK and several states sanction far-right Israeli politicians Ben-Gvir and Smotrich (19:00); South Korea ceases propaganda broadcasts across the DMZ with North Korea (21:06); Sudan's military loses border outposts after an alleged attack by Libyan forces (22:55); the Russian military advances into another Ukrainian province (25:15); the Polish government survives a no-confidence vote (26:40); member states of NATO strive to hit Trump's 5% defense spending demand (27:28); the Trump administration is creating an “Office of Remigration” at the State Department (29:08); and in a New Cold War update, the US and China appear to have reached a trade deal (31:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode and access to all breaking news specials. Spencer Ackerman of ⁠Forever Wars⁠ is back on the podcast to talk about the LA protests and his piece on them for Zeteo, ⁠"The Imperial Boomerang Lands in Los Angeles."⁠ You can read the "director's cut" of Spencer's piece ⁠over at Forever Wars⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For an ad-free experience and much more content, subscribe now. Subscribers at the "Top Secret" tier get a one-year digital subscription to The Nation! In this week's episode, Danny speaks with journalist Ross Benes about his book 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times. They discuss the connection between the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and “trash culture”, what makes the instantiation of reality TV in 1999 unique and how early reality shows foreshadowed modern politics, how Beanie Babies were akin to “stock investments” for working class and lower middle class people, Pokémon as a pure distillation of unrestrained capitalism, and the other features of that moment that predicted American life as we now know it.  If you enjoyed this episode, listen to our discussion with Colette Shade, “Y2K: The Future That Never Was”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode and much more content. "Top Secret" subscribers get a free one-year digital subscription to The Nation! Danny and Derek welcome back to the program AP Mexico desk Alexander Aviña, associate professor of Latin American history in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University, this time to reflect on Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum several months into her term. They talk about how she has both continued and diverged from the work begun by her Morena predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the current organization of the Mexican political economy and how that shapes the challenges she faces, her ambitious “Plan México” to reduce poverty and inequality, her goals of state-led industrial policy focusing on renewables and green tech, how she is contending with the Mexican elite, her relationship with other Latin American countries, and the dynamic between her and (an apparently enthralled) Donald Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for an ad-free experience and much more content. The "Top Secret" tier gets you the show plus a one-year digital subscription to The Nation! We're sorry to say that we're professionals, and Danny and Derek's falling-out will be behind closed doors. In this week's news: in Russia-Ukraine, Ukraine launches a massive drone strike and bombs several bridges (0:41), peace talks in Istanbul make little progress (5:43), and Donald Trump speaks to Vladimir Putin (7:51); in Israel-Palestine, more massacres are carried out at aid centers as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation suspends operations (13:04), the US vetoes another UN ceasefire resolution (16:49), and ceasefire talks remain frozen (18:31); a new IAEA report suggests Iran pursued undisclosed nuclear experimentation (21:11), and Khamenei trashes the United States' proposed response (24:30); Trump lashes out at China and has a phone call with Xi (27:37); left-leaning Lee Jae-myung wins South Korea's presidential election (30:01); meanwhile, right-wing historian Karol Nawrocki is Poland's new president (31:44); the Dutch government collapses (33:36); the UN discovers bodies at militia sites in Tripoli, Libya (36:16); the UK recognizes Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara (38:02); and Donald Trump announces a new travel ban (40:46).   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for an ad-free experience. Subscribers at the "Top Secret" tier get a one-year digital subscription to the Nation! Danny and Derek welcome to the program author Eva Payne to talk about her book Empire of Purity: The History of Americans' Global War on Prostitution. They discuss American sexual exceptionalism, the legal definition of “prostitution” vs modern conceptions of sex work, the late 19th century new abolition movement and racial hierarchies therein, how Americans interfaced with state-regulated prostitution systems in places like India and the Philippines, the sexual imagery used in justifying US aims in the Spanish-American War, the notion of “white slavery” in sex work, prostitution control in World War I and how it affected things domestically after that conflict, eugenic thinking around prostitution reform, and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices