Angry Planet
430 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 days ago - ★★★★ - 576 ratingsConversations about conflict on an angry planet. Created, produced, and hosted by Matthew Gault and Jason Fields
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Episodes
Spartans, Confederates, and the Cult of the Loser
January 29, 2021 17:19 - 40 minutes - 32.4 MBState Houses across the country are filled with monuments to losers, traitors, and terrorists. General Robert E Lee and Benjamin Tillman are lauded alongside figures like George Washington. The reasons why are complicated, but they’re bound up in something called The Myth of the Lost Cause. If you’ve never heard of this or don’t understand why it’s so critical to understanding American history well, honey, you probably ain’t from the South. Here to help us understand what’s going on is Dr. ...
Turning QAnon QAnoff
January 22, 2021 21:30 - 32 minutes - 25.7 MBPlease blame Jason Fields for that headline. Human trafficking and modern slavery are at the top of the news in the United States in the form of the QAnon conspiracy theory. It links together Democrats, child sex trafficking and a pizza place about a mile from my house. The pizza at Comet Ping Pong is just OK, but don’t ask to see the basement. There isn’t one. QAnon is one of the more whacko things going on in this country. Today we’re going to talk about the reality of human trafficking...
Free Speech Vs. the Big Lie
January 13, 2021 21:01 - 51 minutes - 41.4 MBIt finally happened. Twitter finally suspended Trump’s account. After the capitol riots on January 6, tech companies such as Google, Apple, and Twitter took the unprecedented step of invoking their first amendment rights and removing several users from their various platforms. I just want to remind everyone that the 1958 Supreme Court Decision in NAACP v. Alabama outlined an implied part of the first amendment—that of Freedom of Association. Is this big tech censorship? Are private compani...
Democracy on the Run in Belarus
January 09, 2021 17:56 - 37 minutes - 29.7 MBSometimes referred to as Europe’s last dictator, Aleksandr Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Lukashenko, formerly in charge of a collective farm, has kept a tight grip on power and on the past. Belarus has kept Soviet symbols and economic policies long after they’ve gone out of favor elsewhere. Elections have been held regularly in the country, but have been neither free nor fair. The latest, in August 2020, is considered to be the least fai...
UNLOCKED: How 3D Printed Guns Will Rewrite Our Laws
December 24, 2020 16:53 - 53 minutes - 35.4 MBGhost guns. Untraceable weapons manufactured in the home. They’ve been with us forever, but they’ve taken on a new menace in the age of 3D printers and digital distribution. Here to walk us through the new phenomenon is Mark A Tallman. Tallman is an Assistant Professor of Homeland Security & Emergency Management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. He’s also the author of Ghost Guns. Ghost Guns is an in depth, data driven, and dare I say nerdy deep dive into homemade weapons in the post-indu...
ICYMI: The Highs and Lows of U.S. Special Operations Forces
December 16, 2020 23:46 - 1 hour - 59.8 MBAngry Planet has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict. https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe You can listen to Angry Planet on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is angryplanetpod.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/angryplanetpodcast/; and on Twitter: @angryplanetpod. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcol...
The Life and Death of Iran's Shadow Commander
December 10, 2020 21:12 - 48 minutes - 39.1 MBIf you’ve ever heard the phrase one-man wrecking crew, they might well have been talking about Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s Shadow Commander. Soleimani’s first fight was against Iraq in the war that started right after Iran’s revolution and lasted until 1988. He went on to great success fighting bandits and drug lords, eventually taking over Iran’s Quds Force - Iran’s tool for diplomacy by other means. For more than 20 years, Soleimani helped Ayatollah Khamanei project power around the region-...
The Lingering Aftertaste of Fascism
December 03, 2020 21:36 - 55 minutes - 44.6 MBWhat’s a fascist anyway? It’s a word we heard a lot over the past few years. If you’re on one side of the political debate you probably used this word earnestly. If you’re on the other side, you probably think people use it because they’re too embarrassed to call their political opponent Hitler. But it’s an important word with several very real definitions. Musolini is not Hitler is not, dare I say it, Tr0ump. But, from a certain point of view, all these men are fascists. Worth noting at t...
A Journey into the Jungles of ‘Pulp Vietnam’
November 19, 2020 03:02 - 42 minutes - 34.3 MBPULP EPIC. MALE. MAN’S ILLUSTRATED. MAN’S ADVENTURE. BRIGADE. VALOR. You’ve seen these magazines before. You either grew up with them or you’ve seen their bizarre covers online. There’s always a man with rippling muscles, sometimes he’s fighting a pack of weasels, other times he’s eying a scantily clad dame. Sometime’s there’s a Nazi, sometime’s there’s a woman in an SS uniform with a few buttons missing. The Pulp magazines of the Cold War shaped the culture and thinking of an entire genera...
Fragility, War, Genocide and Climate Change
November 05, 2020 20:25 - 33 minutes - 26.5 MBThe phrase climate change was originally created to soft-pedal global warming. A hotter planet doesn’t sound good, but, hey, climates change all the time - from winter to summer and back again. But it turned out to be an accurate description for what’s really going on. Deserts are drying, wet places are getting wetter. Crops are dying, and so is livestock and in some places it’s increasingly unsafe to go out during the day? So, how is this affecting human conflict? The assumption is that c...
Looking for Crime in All the Wrong Places
October 29, 2020 15:07 - 45 minutes - 36.3 MBLaw and order, it’s one of the catchphrases of this election. Crime rates, in some cities in America, are on the rise but crime, in general, is down. But 2020 has been a chaotic year and our news feeds are filled with violent images of militant groups, protestors, riots, burning buildings, and everything in between. The sad fact is that not all crime in America is reported on in the same way, that the protest movement is overwhelmingly peaceful, but not always, and that police militarization...
TEASER: How Music Videos Explain the War Between Armenia and Azerbaijan
October 27, 2020 21:09 - 5 minutes - 3.92 MBhttps://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe to listen Armenia and Azerbaijan are at war. Why? It’s complicated. What’s the nature of the conflict? That’s also very complicated. It’s so complicated, in fact, that Russia, Syria, and Turkey are all involved. And it threatens to pull in their allies, all over a war that’s been “frozen” since 1988. Here to help us untangle all of this is Aram Shabanian, a graduate student of Non-Proliferation and Terrorism Studies at the Middlebury Institute of ...
The Man Who Navigated the End of History
October 21, 2020 20:32 - 27 minutes - 18.9 MBRemember back when the Berlin Wall fell and history ended? Back when we won the Cold War and America was embraced by allies old and new, becoming the world’s only superpower. The Gulf War was fought and seemingly won. Actually, maybe you don’t. It was the end of the 1980s, after all. George Bush - no, not that one - stood at the center of events, and inside that center stood James A. Baker III. To tell us about the man who ran Washington, and why he remains important, we welcome Peter Bak...
America Is Losing the Information War
October 15, 2020 16:40 - 50 minutes - 40.1 MBThings feel surreal all the time now. We’re told that some of our favorite online personalities may just be sock puppet accounts for foreing governments. Russia, in particular, is supposedly a master at the new soft power internet based information warfare. Some people still believe that Trump is a Russian agent, the end result of a longcon forged years ago by the KGB and ushered into power by Russian trolls. Qanon, anti-vaxers, ant-maskers, shitposts, and doing it for the lulz. It can be ex...
TEASER: The Care and Feeding of a Republic
October 13, 2020 20:16 - 7 minutes - 5.97 MBNations rise and nations fall, as do their governments. Today, some people say the United States and its treasured republican virtues stand at a crossroads. But how can you tell? Are we dealing with the mere panic of the moment, or something worth panicking about? To help us get a grip on what’s going on, we’re going to reach into the past, today, to see if history is repeating or just rhyming. Joining us to help us get a grip—and we could probably all use to get grip right about now—is P...
TEASER: The Care and Feeding of a Republic
October 13, 2020 20:16 - 7 minutes - 5.97 MBNations rise and nations fall, as do their governments. Today, some people say the United States and its treasured republican virtues stand at a crossroads. But how can you tell? Are we dealing with the mere panic of the moment, or something worth panicking about? To help us get a grip on what’s going on, we’re going to reach into the past, today, to see if history is repeating or just rhyming. Joining us to help us get a grip—and we could probably all use to get grip right about now—is P...
Proud Boys, the Boogaloo, and Everything in Between
October 07, 2020 20:10 - 52 minutes - 42.4 MBWhat’s the difference between a Proud Boy and a Boogaloo Boi? Are Patriot Prayer and Patriot Front the same thing? If I wear a Hawaiian shirt while eating a bowl of Lucky Charms, does that make me a member of a far right group? How many of these tacticool bearded weirdos are there, really, and are they dangerous? If it feels like the world today is weirder, wilder, and grosser than the one in the past … I feel you. 2020 has seen an explosion of Far Right groups and if you find it hard to kee...
How Reagan Made Us the Armaggedon Generation
October 03, 2020 17:17 - 1 hour - 48.4 MBAmerica is perhaps more conservative today than it’s ever been. For some on the right, Obama, Biden and Clinton look like socialists. For people on the left, they look like moderate republicans. There’s a reason for both of those views that’s steeped in America’s recent past. U.S. culture was shaped by a suave and smooth talking President who promised we could be a beacon of hope for the world and a shining city on a hill. Here to talk about what happened is Rick Perlstein. Perlstein is a r...
TEASER: The Military Needs Gamers
September 30, 2020 17:53 - 6 minutes - 5.27 MBThe Military needs gamers. Over the past few months, the U.S. Army and Navy have spent a considerable amount of time playing video games. The Pentagon is streaming on Twitch, showing up at video game tournaments, and sponsoring esports events. And it’s all in a bid to reach a younger crowd and fill out the ranks. The military is trying to meet young people where they live and, increasingly, they live online playing video games. Is the military’s use of video games as a recruitment tool cros...
War, Death, and Financial Collapse in the Middle East
September 24, 2020 01:44 - 37 minutes - 30.3 MBCivil wars, proxy wars, cold wars, hot wars. Economic collapse, the collapse of civil societies and governments. Hunger, torture, disease. Many parts of the world seem to be falling apart in 2020, but even then, the Middle East is its own special case. To talk about the state of one of the world’s most turbulent regions, Steven Cook joins us. Cook is the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He recently wrote an overview fo...
What the Hell Is Going on at Fort Hood?
September 17, 2020 21:25 - 1 hour - 60.3 MBFort Hood. One of America’s largest military bases is off the long stretch of highway between Dallas and Austin. Its Commander was set to transfer out and take over command of a division at Fort Bliss, but the Army announced on Sept. 1 that wouldn’t be happening. To anyone who’s been following the news, the reasons are pretty clear. At last count, 26 soldiers have died at Fort Hood in 2020. That’s more than have died fighting in Afghanistan this year. Some have been accidents, others suicid...
TEASER: How 3D Printed Guns Will Rewrite Our Laws
September 11, 2020 20:17 - 5 minutes - 4.32 MBGhost guns. Untraceable weapons manufactured in the home. They’ve been with us forever, but they’ve taken on a new menace in the age of 3D printers and digital distribution. Here to walk us through the new phenomenon is Mark A Tallman. Tallman is an Assistant Professor of Homeland Security & Emergency Management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. He’s also the author of Ghost Guns. Ghost Guns is an in depth, data driven, and dare I say nerdy deep dive into homemade weapons in the post-indu...
Beirut Wants to do More Than Survive
September 09, 2020 20:52 - 59 minutes - 44.3 MBOn August 4, an explosion levelled a port in the Lebanese city of Beirut. Aging ammonium nitrate was the direct cause, but that the explosive fertilizer had been left for almost a decade in a storage warehouse speaks to the broader problems in Lebanon. A corrupt government, a financial crisis, a protest movement, and suffering citizens. Here to walk us through what’s going on is Blu Fiefer. Fiefer is a Lebanese performance artist who lives in Beirut who believes in signing truth to power. A...
Syria, Russia, and Iran’s Complicated Relationship
August 28, 2020 20:14 - 35 minutes - 28.2 MBHello and welcome to the final episode of War College. Don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere. We’re just becoming Angry Planet. From time to time we record things that, for whatever reason, don’t quite work. Sometimes the audio is bad. Sometimes the news cycle destroys the story. Sometimes the the very famous, big name podcast host you have on as a guest is clearly drunk and loses his end of the audio. Sometimes you find out the guest is a CIA agent who never set foot in the country he’s t...
Why the U.S. May Come Out on Top Against China
August 26, 2020 16:21 - 32 minutes - 26.1 MBGreat powers don’t always go great together, often viewing each other as rivals, if not enemies. After the Cold War, the United States was viewed as the last superpower standing. But not only has Russia and its nuclear arsenal stubbornly refused to go away, China has kept on rising. Now, people at the highest levels of government are trying to figure out whether China and the United States can play nice together, but whether the 21st will be the Chinese Century. Joining us to help understa...
What it’s Like to Spend 30 Years As a Journalist in Turkey
August 20, 2020 20:36 - 1 hour - 39.7 MBMany people may not realize, but Turkey is a relatively new country--just shy of 100 years old. It was created as a republic out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, largely by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who stuck around as president until 1938. Since then there have been elected governments, military coups and now a -- well, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reshaped the country in his own likeness - or at least how he likes. To help us make sense of it all, we’ve invited Andrew Finke...
When Mere Anarchy Was Loosed Upon Seattle
August 13, 2020 17:57 - 56 minutes - 44.9 MBThe Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, the CHAZ, the CHOP. It had many names, but from about June 8 to July 1, protesters occupied a portion of the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle Washington. A utopia to some, a nightmare to others, the CHAZ became a symbol to the left and the right. The reality on the ground, as is always the case, is far more complicated. With us today to talk about that messy reality is Nikki West. West is a freelance journalist and former Congressional staffer who lives...
Why China and India are Fighting With Clubs
August 05, 2020 22:24 - 36 minutes - 29 MBA few weeks ago, two nuclear-armed neighbors got into a fistfight. Actually, there were some clubs and other handheld weapons, too. It was bizarre and people died, more than 20 on the Indian side. The Chinese have been more coy about their numbers. To get a grip on what happened and what it means for the future, we have Maria Abi-Habib of the New York Times on the show. Abi-Habib is a South Asia correspondent who is based in India’s capital of Delhi. Recorded 7/22/20 India’s army focus H...
The Entire History of Russia in One Hour
July 29, 2020 22:35 - 53 minutes - 43.1 MBIf there’s one thing that’s always changing, it’s history. And no, we’re not talking about the Confederacy today. We’re back to one of our favorite subjects: Russia. Under the Soviet regime, history was malleable. Events appeared or disappeared like characters in a play. Stalin was a savior, he was a devil. It was all in the telling. But that urge to rewrite history goes way back in Russia, and he who controls the past controls the future, as they say. Joining us today is friend of the sho...
On the Frontlines of the Battle of Portland
July 24, 2020 20:40 - 1 hour - 86.1 MBThis episode is a special double feature. We here at War College think that the deployment of Federal officers to American cities is one of the most important stories of 2020 and we booked two different guests to discuss it. First, we speak with Robert Evans. Evans is a conflict journalist whose work has appeared in Bellingcat. His most recent article there is What You Need to Know About the Battle of Portland and is required reading on this topic. He’s also the host of the Behind the Basta...
Saying Goodbye to Afghanistan
July 22, 2020 14:18 - 36 minutes - 29.2 MBAfghanistan. U.S. troops have been leaving for years, fast, then slowly, then fast again. There is some kind of peace deal between the United States and the Taliban, but it doesn’t involve peace. The Afghan government isn’t even a party to it. Russia—which lost its own war in Afghanistan a generation ago--may have been paying the Taliban to kill U.S. troops. Soon, though, Afghanistan will ostensibly be on its own again. What’s next, aside from more war, of course. To help us understand al...
Fake Journalists Are the Latest Disinformation Twist
July 15, 2020 15:10 - 57 minutes - 46 MBLast week The Daily Beast broke some bizarre news. Several news outlets, including The Washington Examiner, RealClear Markets, and The National Interest, had been running op-eds of journalists that did not exist. AI generated photos attached to profiles and credentials that, once scrutinized, collapsed. It was a massive effort at digital propaganda and questions still remain about its provenance and purpose. Here to explain just what is going on is Marc Owen Jones. Jones is an assistant pro...
How Cocaine Fuels America’s Longest War
July 08, 2020 15:56 - 1 hour - 54 MBCocaine is the second most popular illicit drug in the world and it’s controlled by a black market regulated by violence. As America’s drug war edges close to its fiftieth birthday, there is no end in sight, the conflicts it fuels have expanded to an unprecedented scale and cocaine remains incredibly profitable. Here to talk to us about cartels and cocaine is Toby Muse. Muse is a journalist and documentarian whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, and CNN. He’s just pub...
The Robot Revolution Is Already Here
July 03, 2020 17:12 - 1 hour - 49.6 MBThis week we’re joined by P.W. Singer, co-author of Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution. The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed. Stray thoughts on the Bonus Army. The future of policing might be AI and that’s terrifying. Domestic terrorism is about to get even weirder than it already is. War has already changed. You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is warcollegepodcast.com. You can reach us on o...
European Policing From the Carabinieri to the Stasi
June 26, 2020 18:28 - 1 hour - 50 MBElisabeth Braw is a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London. RUSI is the oldest defense think tank in the world and Braw leads its Modern Deterrence program. She’s also a columnist at Foreign Policy and the host of the On the Cusp podcast. Welcoming back Jason Fields to the fold What a difference training makes Europe’s different policing styles The darkside of European policing A brief history of the Stasi You can list...
The Difference Between Obedience and Deference
June 18, 2020 19:55 - 1 hour - 50.5 MBOur guest this week is Pauline Kaurin. Kaurin is the Stockdale Chair in Professional Military Ethics at the US Naval War College and the author of the new book On Obedience: Contrasting Philosophies for the Military Citizenry and Community. What obedience means When civil disobedience is warranted The difference between difference and obedience The civl-mil divide How to re-negotiate the social contract Misreading “A Few Good Men” You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Goo...
Why These Protests Are Different Than 1968
June 05, 2020 21:21 - 59 minutes - 47.8 MBOur guest today is Rick Perlstein. Perlstein is a historian and author best known for Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. He’s also written the forthcoming Reaganland: America’s Right Turn. This is more WTO in 1999 than it is 1968 Why we don’t remember Newark Is the press doing better this time? The Jimmy Carter Crisis. How the Presidency shapes the American people. Defining Fascism You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow ...
The Rise of The Teenage Terrorist
May 29, 2020 20:48 - 52 minutes - 42.1 MBThe neo-Nazi movement can’t keep it together. After a series of high profile outings, murders, conspiracy charges, and other assorted run-ins with authorities, the leadership of the Neo-Nazi movement has gotten younger, more online, and more extreme. Here to walk us through this today is Zaron Burnett. Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL Magazine. You can listen ...
How (Not) To Plan Coup in Venezuela
May 18, 2020 21:01 - 52 minutes - 41.7 MBBellingcat’s Giancarlo Fiorella is here to walk us through what may go down in history as the dumbest attempted coup of all time. On May 3, American mercenaries and Venezuelan exiles attempted to enter the country with the goal of overthrowing the Maduro regime. It didn’t go well. The Associated Press busted your coup but you went ahead anyway? What the hell is Silvercorp USA? A contract is great, but it’s not the same as paycheck. Who brings an Airsoft rifle to a warzone? Rember Óscar ...
The Ecoterrorists Acting in "Feral Defense of Wild Nature"
May 09, 2020 16:42 - 1 hour - 52.5 MBEcoterrorism isn’t a word you hear a lot these days and it’s usually associated with groups like Greenpeace. That might be changing. In 2011, a biotechnology researcher was shot and killed in Mexico. A group called ITS took credit. "We have said it before, we act without any compassion in the feral defense of Wild Nature," reads the group’s manifesto. Is the new generation of activists using violence to save the planet or satisfy a darker, more nihilist urge? You can listen to War College ...
Stranded in Iraq During a Pandemic
April 30, 2020 17:44 - 59 minutes - 48 MBThis week on War College, producer Kevin Knodell is back in the states after an extended stay in Iraq. He walks us through his journey and the impact of the pandemic on the Middle East. You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is warcollegepodcast.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted...
What Gold Plated AK-47s Tell Us About War
April 13, 2020 17:23 - 55 minutes - 44.9 MBAs I keep saying, war has changed. It’s the recent theme of War College. And it’s not just conflict, but the way people cover conflict. Increasingly, journalists and researchers are using open source intelligence, social media, and academic disciplines such as history and anthropology to explain the complicated conflicts of the modern world. One of the groups doing that is Silah Report. “Silah Report is a non-commercial research project exploring contemporary and historical small arms & lig...
Turkey Is Turning Off Syria's Water During a Pandemic
March 28, 2020 20:07 - 29 minutes - 23.3 MBWar is about logistics. “An army marches on its stomach,” the idiom goes. Well, a populace can’t survive without water. One water station in Northeast Syria is the heart of a growing conflict between Turkish backed rebels and the local Kurdish population. As war rages in Syria and the COVID-19 pandemic begins, water is more important than ever. Here to help us figure that out is Kimberly Westenhiser. Westenhiser is a journalist, photographer and artist. Her work has appeared at The Seattle...
Dealing With Our COVID Fear and Panic
March 21, 2020 16:50 - 56 minutes - 45.2 MBThis week we're taking a moment to work through our fear, panic, and axiety. You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is warcollegepodcast.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A Military History of Metal Gear Solid
March 13, 2020 22:09 - 47 minutes - 37.8 MBWar. War never changes. Except … that’s not exactly true is it? I’d argue that war has changed demonstrably in the past two decades. It’s gotten longer, somehow less deadly, and far weirder. Also. Despite America being engaged in multiple conflicts on multiple continents … Americans are paying less attention to foreign military engagements than ever before. The current international situation, I’d say, is a bit of an anomaly. Worse, the country is fractured in a way that can be hard to und...
Space Force Is Boring
March 04, 2020 18:00 - 40 minutes - 32.1 MBSpace Force. It’s here. It’s the newest branch of the U.S. military and it’s got it’s own uniforms and a snazzy new patch that looks a lot like the emblem for the United Federation of Planets. But it’s only got one member at the moment and what, exactly, is it doing? Here to help us figure out what’s going on is Joseph Trevithick of The War Zone. You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is warcollegepodcast.com. You can reach u...
When the Allies Burned a German City to Cinders
February 21, 2020 21:24 - 43 minutes - 34.9 MBIn the closing days of World War II, the British Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force dropped more than 3,900 tons of high explosives and fire bombs on the city of Dresden. It was not, strictly, only a military target and the story of the bombing has captured the imagination of everyone who survived it and those who study the war. One of those people is Sinclair McKay. McKay is a literary critic for the Telegraph and The Spectator in the UK. His latest book is The Fire and Darkn...
When the Allies Burned a German City to Cinders
February 21, 2020 21:24 - 43 minutes - 34.9 MBIn the closing days of World War II, the British Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force dropped more than 3,900 tons of high explosives and fire bombs on the city of Dresden. It was not, strictly, only a military target and the story of the bombing has captured the imagination of everyone who survived it and those who study the war. One of those people is Sinclair McKay. McKay is a literary critic for the Telegraph and The Spectator in the UK. His latest book is The Fire and Darkn...
America’s Low Yield Nukes and the New Atomic Scare
February 14, 2020 21:47 - 34 minutes - 27.8 MBFrom the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to, probably, New START, all the old treaties are failing. Nuclear weapons are back in the public consciousness in a big way and old Cold War ideas that we once thought relegated to the dustbin of history are back. One of those are so-called low yield nuclear weapons. The U.S. Navy recently fielded some of these SLBMs for the first time on its nuclear capable submarines. Are these weapons actually a game changer? When it comes to nukes, what...
The Fight Over 5G and Chinese Spies
February 03, 2020 17:47 - 24 minutes - 19.8 MBThere’s a battle raging for the future of the internet. No, it has nothing to do with net neutrality or broadband access. This is about 5G, the shadowy world of global intelligence agencies, and a telecom giant with $108 billion in revenue that most Americans haven’t heard of. The company is Huawei, a Chinese manufacturer known the world over for its cell phones. It also makes radio arrays and is building 5G infrastructure all across the planet. Recently, the UK announced it would allow Hua...