American Prestige

Danny and Derek welcome back historian Greg Grandin to talk about his recent book, America, América: A New History of the New World. In this first part of the discussion, they explore how the Spanish conquest produced unprecedented violence while also starting discussions about human rights, the role of Bartolomé de las Casas and the Salamanca School, how English settlers dealt with their own brutality, and the emergence of social democracy in Latin America. They also discuss the Monroe Doctrine, the Panama Congress, and the Mexican-American War as early flashpoints in US–Latin American relations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's a preview from a podcast you might enjoy, Fiasco: Slow Burn co-creator Leon Neyfakh transports listeners into the reality of America's most pivotal historical events, bringing life to the forgotten twists and turns of the past while shedding light on the present. In his new season, Leon looks at the 2012 Benghazi attack that left four Americans dead—and the ensuing political storm, which raised questions about America's role in the world, established a playbook to weaponize attention in the social media age, and ultimately changed the course of U.S. history. Find Fiasco: Benghazi wherever you get podcasts and binge the entire season with a Pushkin plus subscription – sign up on the Fiasco Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode! Derek is joined by Giorgio Cafiero of Gulf State Analytics and Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute to take a closer look at Israel's bombing of Doha, Qatar, this week. They discuss how the strike undermines Qatar's role as mediator in Israel-Hamas negotiations, US complicity, and why Gulf leaders now view Israel, not Iran, as the region's chief destabilizer. They further explore Qatar's hosting of Hamas at America's request, the GCC's tenuous unity in the face of Israeli aggression, the domestic politics driving Netanyahu, and the risks of Israel crossing new red lines. Follow Annelle and Giorgio on Twitter/X. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get more content! While Danny remains in talks with Russia, Alex Jordan again helps Derek bring you the headlines. This week: Israel targets Hamas negotiators in a Doha strike (3:30), effectively ending ceasefire talks (8:43); the IDF orders the evacuation of Gaza City (13:11) while reports emerge that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation hired an anti-Islam biker gang for “security” (15:42); in Russia-Ukraine, Russian drones entered Polish airspace, prompting an Article 4 NATO meeting (18:36); Iran and the IAEA announce a tentative deal to resume inspections (22:41); Nepal sees mass protests over a social media ban, leading to the resignation and disappearance of its prime minister and the army being deployed in Kathmandu (25:42); Donald Trump suggests he will repair ties with India amid tariff disputes and fallout over a Russian oil deal (30:15); Japan's prime minister Ishiba resigns after electoral losses (33:23); ICE raids a Hyunda-LG plant in Georgia, detaining hundreds of South Korean workers (36:41); In Mali, JNIM militants blockade fuel routes to Bamako (42:22); France ousts yet another prime minister over austerity, with Macron appointing Sébastien Lecornu and facing mass protests (44:38); Brazil awaits a Supreme Court verdict on former president Jair Bolsonaro's coup case, and Trump threatens retaliation if he's convicted (49:26); and in these United States, the Department of Defense changes its name to the Deaprtment of War (53:34), a New York Times report reveals covert attacks on fishermen in a failed North Korea operation in 2019 (56:16), and new details emerge about last week's strike on a Venezuelan boat (62:12).  Don't forget to purchase our Welcome to the Crusades: The First Crusade miniseries!Catch Alex and Courtney Rawlings on the Quincy Institute's Always at War podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Derek recently reunited with Eleanor Janega and Luke Waters of ⁠We're Not So Different⁠ for a special mailbag episode of their cross-pod collaboration, ⁠Welcome to the Crusades: The First Crusade⁠. We have already posted ⁠Episode 1⁠ and ⁠Episode 2 ⁠in the feed, so we figured we'd give everyone the third episode to further entice you to dig into this miniseries. Enjoy! We leave the Crusaders behind temporarily to grapple with conditions in the Near East of the late 11th century. We'll discuss the emergence and disintegration of the Great Seljuk Empire in Baghdad as well as the rise of the Fatimid Caliphate in Cairo, with additional focus on the situation in Jerusalem as the Crusaders began their journey. 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. Grab the last couple of Robo Washington posters from our store! Danny and Derek break down Israel's strike on Doha, which targeted a meeting of Hamas's political leadership. They discuss the possibility of US complicity in the attack, its impact on negotiations, and what it means for Gaza and for what remains of US credibility. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get much more content! Danny and Derek welcome actor Morgan Spector (The Gilded Age, The Plot Against America) to the show for a conversation on politics, Hollywood, and capitalism. They trace his political development from the Iraq War and Obama era to Bernie Sanders and democratic socialism, discuss his documentary The Big Scary “S” Word, and reflect on how Hollywood politics skew liberal but not radical (particularly when it comes to Palestine). They also explore Spector's role as a Gilded Age robber baron, how today's tech oligarchs compare with the 19th century's builders, and the need for a new political vision in the age of financialization, AI, and the climate crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to enjoy all of our Sunday bonus episodes. Danny and Derek welcome Washington Post columnist and Wisdom of Crowds co-host Shadi Hamid to the show to discuss the shift in rhetoric and framing around the genocide in Gaza. Shadi explains why he hesitated to use the word “genocide” until this year, reflects on reactions to his Washington Post piece, and explores with Danny and Derek how language shapes mainstream debate. They further discuss the future of the Democratic Party, the absence of left institutions, and whether shifting the discourse can translate into policy given the current structure of American power. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads, get more content, and generally support us! Danny is in talks with the Kremlin to unfreeze his accounts, so Derek is joined instead by the Quincy Institute's Alex Jordan to bring you the news. This week: a new study warns that the Atlantic circulation system could collapse (2:32); Ukraine introduces AI-driven drone swarms, raising the prospect of autonomous killing machines (5:55); in Israel-Palestine, Israel declares Gaza City a “dangerous combat zone” (9:45), The Washington Post details the “Trump Riviera” plan (13:50), more European states move toward recognizing a Palestinian state (18:20), and Israel appears to be building a new nuclear reactor (24:44); the IDF assassinates the Houthi prime minister in Yemen (26:57); Indonesia sees mass protests over egregious political perks (30:25); Russia replaces the Wagner Group with the Africa Corps in the Central African Republic amid pushback (32:47); the Congo River Alliance/M23 accuses the DRC government of violating their ceasefire (36:57); lawyers sound the alarm about five men trafficked from the US to Eswatini (39:12); as Russia-Ukraine peace talks drag on, the focus shifts to “security guarantees,” with Moscow rejecting any foreign military presence in Ukraine (41:43); Donald Trump boasts about “obliterating” a Venezuelan boat that may have carried migrants instead of drugs (47:39); US appeals courts rule against Trump's tariffs and deportations (51:33); and in a New Cold War update, Xi Jinping makes a statement at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit and V-J Day military parade (54:33). Catch Alex and Courtney Rawlings on Quincy's “Always at War”!  Grab one of the last few “Robo Washington Crossing the Delaware” posters! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads. Danny and Derek welcome back to the program historian Udi Greenberg to discuss his reinterpretation of modern Christianity in The End of the Schism: Catholics, Protestants, and the Remaking of Christian Life in Europe, 1880s–1970s. They explore the alliances Catholics and Protestants forged under the pressures of fascism, the Cold War, and decolonization, and how both Christian Democracy and radical left-Christian movements were shaped as much by expedience as reconciliation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode! Danny and Derek speak with historian Stuart Schrader about the global history of American policing and how US police power has been shaped by struggles both at home and abroad. They discuss police opposition to oversight in the 1960s, the development of the Border Patrol and ICE, Joe Biden's “tough on crime” record, Trump's plan to outsource detention, the ways counterterrorism blurred into immigration enforcement, and the resistance on display in Los Angeles this summer. Read Stuart's book Badges without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads! Danny and Derek get in one last news update before Danny moves to an undisclosed American Prestige satellite campus. This week: In Israel-Palestine, the IPC formally declares a famine in Gaza (3:21), Israel bombs Nasser Hospital (6:34), and Trump hosts a White House “day after” meeting (13:25); Europe moves to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran (16:16); Trump's 50% tariff on Indian goods goes into effect (12:04); changes to de minimis rules force postal services to suspend US-bound shipments (27:23); South Korea's Lee Jae-myung visits DC and avoids the Zelensky treatment (29:45); in Sudan, RSF forces advance around Al-Fashir (33:15) as an Anne Applebaum Atlantic article sparks outrage (35:43); peace talks between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and M23 finally resume (38:36); Trump promises Ukraine continued security help, but there is still no end to the war in sight (39:50); the Danish government summons a US diplomat over Greenland (44:23); Trump might be preparing to oust Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro (47:00); and the Pentagon is interested in an AI propaganda tool (50:42). Danny on Hasan Piker's show Derek and Eleanor Jangea on The Majority Report The AP Discord Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads! Danny and Derek welcome historian Rashid Khalidi back to the program, this time to talk about Columbia University's agreement with the Trump administration. They discuss the university equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, the school bringing in outside monitors, bipartisan U.S. support for Israel despite shifting public opinion, and how donor influence and neoliberal management are both reshaping universities and eroding the humanities. They also preview Dr. Khalidi's upcoming free public lecture series on Palestinian history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now for the full episode. Danny and Derek welcome back to the show Charles Kupchan, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and professor of international affairs at Georgetown University, to talk about this week's summit in Alaska attempting to find an end to the Ukraine war. They examine Trump's chaotic Ukraine diplomacy, the future of security guarantees, whether Russia will relinquish occupied territory, the US geostrategic interest in Ukraine, America's declining global dominance, and the failures of US foreign policy expertise.  Read Charles's piece in Foreign Affairs, “Close NATO's Door to Ukraine.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe now to skip the ads and hear the full interview on the Bolivia election. Don't forget our Welcome to the Crusades and Of This World series! Derek took away Danny's iPad, so now Danny has to help with the news. This week: the great Trump-Putin summit takes place (1:39) as Zelensky visits the White House (5:44); Hamas accepts the newest ceasefire (9:39), the IDF appears to have begun its Gaza City operation (12:44), and the Israeli government approves the E1 settlement in the West Bank (15:46); Wang Yi of China visits India in a sign of improving relations, as US-India relations are worsening (18:48); the Myanmar junta schedules an election (21:49); the DRC-M23 negotiations continue to falter (23:11); the US sends warships to Venezuela (25:26); and Derek goes into detail with Olivia Arigho-Stiles about the results of the Bolivia election (27:08). Read Olivia's piece in Jacobin, “Is This the End of MAS?” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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