This Is Hell!

Twenty-two years after last joining us, we welcome back Mohamad Bazzi. He discusses his latest at the Guardian, "Trump promised no wars. Now he’s a Bush-style regime change president," and "Trump’s war in Iran marks the culmination of his imperial presidency." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview in which he, "fights to wake up from a DARVOnian nightmare." Check out Mohamad's latest writing at the Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/mohamad-bazzi Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Brian Mier returns to This Is Hell! to discuss his new writing at his Substack, De-Linking Brazil, "30 Days in Venezuela." "Rotten History" from Renaldo Migaldi follows the interview. Check out Brian's report here: https://bmier.substack.com/p/30-days-in-venezuela Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Laleh Khalili returns to discuss her new piece at the London Review of Books, "Guns, Money and Opium." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Laleh's article here: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n03/laleh-khalili/guns-money-and-opium Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Academic and writer Timothy Mitchell joins This Is Hell! to talk about his new book his new book "The Alibi of Capital: How We Broke the Earth to Steal the Future on the Promise of a Better Tomorrow”, published by Verso Books (https://www.versobooks.com/products/3452-the-alibi-of-capital). Mitchell is the William B. Ransford Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University. His is based in the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies. We will have new installments of Rotten History and Hangover Cure. We will also be sharing your answers to this week's Question from Hell! from Patreon. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Caroline Light joins us to discuss her book, "Stand Your Ground: A History of America’s Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense." A 10th anniversary edition with a new introduction and a preface by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is now available from Beacon Press. "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Caroline's book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/815354/stand-your-ground-by-caroline-light/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Alex de Waal returns to discuss his recent writing in the series, "World War X" from the World Peace Foundation. "Rotten History" from Renaldo Migaldi follows the interview. Check out Alex's series here: https://worldpeacefoundation.org/topic/world-war-x/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Journalist and author Julie K. Brown from the Miami Herald’s Investigative Team, joins This Is Hell! to talk about her work uncovering and investigating the Epstein Files, which can be found on her Substack, jkbjournalist.substack.com, where she is still breaking new stories on the case. We will have new installments of Rotten History and Hangover Cure. We will also be sharing your answers to this week's Question from Hell! from Patreon. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Award-winning climate and environment journalist Whitney Bauck discusses her latest at the Guardian, "The criminalizing of protest and dissent has a long history in America." Our conversation will also cover her previous posts describing "How activism is tackling the US loneliness epidemic," and "How US cities are helping each other resist ICE." Checkout Whitney's recent Guardian pieces here: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/whitney-bauck Whitney currently serves as a contributing writer for the Guardian, and previously served as print editor at the climate and culture magazine Atmos.

Kim Kelly, author of, "Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor," (Atria Books) host of "Unite and Win: A Guide to Workplace Organizing" podcast at workerorganizing.org, speaks with This Is Hell! to discuss her writing at The Baffler, "A Piece of Work: The Department of Labor’s anti-immigrant turn betrays its history." Kim Kelly is a labor reporter for In These Times magazine and has been a regular labor columnist for Teen Vogue since 2018. Her writing on labor, class, politics, disability, and culture has appeared in The Nation, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Baffler, The New Republic, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and many others. Kelly has also worked as a video correspondent for More Perfect Union, The Real News Network, and Means TV. Previously, she was the heavy metal editor at Noisey, Vice’s music vertical, and helped organize the Vice union. A third-generation union member, she served three terms as an elected councilperson for the Writers Guild of America, East Council. Her first book, Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor, was published in 2022, and the young readers edition, Fight to Win! Heroes of American Labor, was published by Simon & Schuster Kids in 2025. We will have new installments of Rotten History and Hangover Cure. We will also be sharing your answers to this week's Question from Hell! from Patreon. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Nicole Foy joins us to discuss her recent reporting at ProPublica, including "We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Nicole's articles at ProPublica here: https://www.propublica.org/people/nicole-foy Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Judith Enck joins This Is Hell! to talk about the book that she recently co-authored of, "The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late”, published by The New Press. https://thenewpress.org/books/the-problem-with-plastic/?v=eb65bcceaa5f Judith is the founder and president of Beyond Plastics, whose goal is eliminating plastic pollution everywhere. In 2009, she was appointed by President Obama to serve as regional administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and served as deputy secretary for the environment in the New York Governor’s Office. She is currently a professor at Bennington College, where she teaches classes on plastic pollution. https://www.beyondplastics.org/ We will have new installments of Rotten History and Hangover Cure. We will also be sharing your answers to this week's Question from Hell! from Patreon. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Historian Alfred McCoy joins us to discuss his new book, "Cold War on Five Continents: A Global History of Empire and Espionage" from Haymarket Books. "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Alfred's book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2631-cold-war-on-five-continents Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Clara E. Mattei, a professor of economics at The University of Tulsa. She is the Founding President of FREE—the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation (https://www.freefreeforum.org/)—and the author of "The Capital Order”, which was praised by The Financial Times as one of the ten best economics books of 2022 and has been translated into over a dozen languages. Clara joins This Is Hell! to talk about her new book, "Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention”, by Simon & Shuster. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Escape-from-Capitalism/Clara-E-Mattei/9781668085141 We will have new installments of Rotten History and Hangover Cure. We will also be sharing your answers to this week's Question from Hell! from Patreon. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Séamus Malekafzali returns to discuss his recent piece at The Nation, "The Assassination That Paved the Way for Trump’s Venezuela Attack: How Trump’s illegal 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani—and the West’s indifferent response—laid the groundwork for the brazen abduction of Nicolás Maduro." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Séamus' article here: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/trump-soleimani-venezuela-maduro/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Maureen Tkacik makes her debut on This Is Hell! to talk about her new investigative piece for American Prospect, “The Narco Terrorist Elite”, which goes into how narco terrorists have historically operated with right wing Latin American dictatorships and US imperialism and how Marco Rubio’s recent actions within the Trump administration might become a new version of Iran-Contra. https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/ We will have new installments of Rotten History and Hangover Cure. We will also be sharing your answers to this week's Question from Hell! from Patreon. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Terence Keel returns to discuss his new book from Beacon Press, "The Coroner's Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Terence's book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790545/the-coroners-silence-by-terence-keel/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Sarah Lazare returns to This Is Hell! to talk about her new In These Times piece “They Worked Underground in the Uranium Mines. They've Been Surrounded by Death Ever Since”. Sarah investigates how the uranium industry left a trail of sickness and loss through Navajo territory while President Trump is pushing for another mining boom. We will have new installments of Rotten History and Hangover Cure. We will also be sharing your answers to this week's Question from Hell! from Patreon. Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Daniel Trilling returns to discuss his new Equator piece, "Inside the BBC’s Gaza Fiasco: How the world’s most trusted media organisation fell apart." Check out Daniel's article here: https://www.equator.org/articles/inside-the-bbc-s-gaza-fiasco Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Quincy Institute scholars William Hartung and Ben Freeman join us to discuss their new book from Bold Type Books, "The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out William and Ben's book here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/william-d-hartung/the-trillion-dollar-war-machine/9781645030638/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Professor Emeritus and pro footballer Michael Oriard joins us to discuss his new book from University of North Carolina Press, "Sanctioned Savagery: A History of Violence in American Football." "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview. Check out Michael's book here: https://uncpress.org/9781469690667/sanctioned-savagery/ Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.