Radio War Nerd

Guest: Dr. Christopher Phelps, associate professor U. Nottingham & author Recorded: December 11, 2018For non-subscribers, here is a 25+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode #161 on the original Populism of the late-19th c. America, the myths about the original populists, and the hollowing out of the meaning of populism in current mainstream usage. The word "populism" gets thrown around a lot today in the mainstream press, usually meant as a pejorative to describe far-right reactionary, anti-democratic politics that threaten the so-called "liberal order." But "populism" at its root—"of the people"—is just a synonym for "democracy." Populism has a concrete historical origin & meaning that's completely at odds with the current abused usage of the same word. This episode, the War Nerd and Ames talk to intellectual historian Christopher Phelps to sort out myths from facts, and what the word means today in Europe and in the official US media. Throughout the discussion, we reference Lawrence Goodwyn's classic book: "The Populist Moment".  Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 161 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...  Read Christopher Phelps' books Radicals In America: The U.S. Left since the Second World War and Young Sidney Hook: Marxist and Pragmatist. Check out his articles in The Nationand Jacobin.

Guests: Harun Maruf & Dan Joseph, authors & journalists Recorded: November 27, 2018For non-subscribers, here is a 30+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode 158 on Somalia and the Al-Shabaab jihadist insurgency, with Harun Maruf and Dan Joseph, co-authors of a new book "Inside Al-Shabaab: The Secret History of Al Qaeda's Most Powerful Ally" . . . Maruf and Joseph take us back through Somali history, explaining how clan structure works in an otherwise homogenous society; how Somalia had traditionally been one of the most stable regions in Africa; who the Islamic Courts were; and how the key figures who founded the radical Al Qaeda offshoot, Al-Shabaab, played a very long game with roots in the Soviet-Afghanistan War mujahideen . . . Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 158 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...  Buy their book "Inside Al-Shabaab: The Secret History of Al Qaeda's Most Powerful Ally." Harun Maruf is senior editor of VOA's Somalia service; Dan Joseph is editor of VOA's Africa desk. Follow Harun Maruf on Twitter. Follow Dan Joseph on Twitter. 

Guest: Brian Mier, editor Brasil WireRecorded: October 23, 2018 For non-subscribers, here is a 25+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode 154 on Brazil's military dictatorship & its recent elections, with Brian Mier of Brasil Wire . . . Mier walks us through Brazil's political history of the past 70 years, the military dictatorship that ruled from 1964-85, and Brazil's most important political figures from Getúlio Vargas and João Goulart, to urban guerrilla leader Carlos Marighella and Brazilian dictator Humberto Castelo Branco, to contemporary figures like Lulu and Dilma Rousseff . . . Later in our interview, Brian explains how the "impeachment" removal of Brazil's center-left president Dilma Rousseff was actually a coup not dissimilar from previous Brazil military coups, and how the key weapon in this coup, Brazil's "Operation Car Wash" corruption investigation, got a lot of help from the usual suspects in Washington DC . . . Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 154 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...  Read Brian Mier's work at BrasilWire. Follow BrasilWire on Twitter 

Guest: Max Abrahms, author & Assistant Professor at Northeastern U Recorded: October 14, 2018For non-subscribers, here is a 25+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode 153 with Max Abrahms. In this episode, the War Nerd talks to terrorism expert Max Abrahms about his new book, "Rules For Rebels: The Science of Victory in Militant History" - a study of various rebel groups in different contexts that boils down strategies that work, versus strategies that are proven failures. Abrahms also talks to us about his early career in the Washington DC think-tank world during the leadup to the Iraq War. We also discuss some of Max's controversial articles on the Syrian war, Syrian refugees, and all the comfortably-employed pundits who got ISIS disastrously wrong. Great, wide-ranging interview. . . Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 153 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...  Buy Max Abrahms' new book "Rules For Rebels: The Science of Victory in Militant History"by Oxford University Press. And follow @MaxAbrams on Twitter.

Guest: Carl Zha, podcaster Recorded September 14, 2018For non-subscribers, here is a 20+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode 149 with Carl Zha on recent stories about China forcing millions of Uyghurs into reeducation camps — and the recovered history of Xinjiang's demographic and political history over the past two decades . . . Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 149 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...  

Guest: Stephen Kinzer, author & Senior Fellow Recorded September 7, 2018For non-subscribers, here is a 20+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode 148 with Stephen Kinzer on the Spanish-American War. Kinzer is the author of perhaps the only good book on that crummy war: "The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain and the Birth of American Empire". In this RWN episode, Kinzer helps the War Nerd recover the incredible  lost history of the Spanish-American War. Teddy Roosevelt's gang would be considered fascist psychopaths today, and Twain said as much at the time. But the real lost story is the brutal Philippines Insurgency that followed the war, and the incredible debates in the US between imperialists and anti-imperialists that went on at the time, before it was a sure thing that the US was going full neocon imperialist. Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 148 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...  Buy Stephen Kinzer's book "True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain & the Birth of American Empire" & read his articles on his blog. Follow Kinzer on Twitter. Stephen Kinzer is Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.

Guest: Isa Blumi, author and professor Recorded August 28, 2018By popular demand from our subscribers, we're reposting free for the public our important interview with Isa Blumi on the Yemen war's little-reported deep causes — political, financial, imperialist — and the high-stakes Gulf Clan politics driving the Yemen slaughter. Blumi explains the murky political and strategic rivalries between the major Gulf states — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE — and how they've bankrolled American political clans and media figures to their advantage. Great deep dive analysis you won't hear anywhere else. This open free repost of RWN Episode 147 comes to you courtesy of our Radio War Nerd subscribers, who make our weekly podcast possible. Freedom isn't free, and neither is Radio War Nerd...Sign up here on the patreon page for the Radio War Nerd podcast, the newsletter, the RSS feed, and more... Buy Isa Blumi's book "Destroying Yemen: What Chaos in Arabia Tells Us About The World".Follow Isa Blumi on Twitter 

Guest: Isa Blumi, author and professor Recorded August 28, 2018For non-subscribers, here is a 20+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode 147 with Isa Blumi, author of "Destroying Yemen: What Chaos in Arabia Tells Us About the World" about the Yemen war's little-reported deep causes: political, financial, imperialist. Blumi explains the murky political and strategic differences between Qatar, Saudis and UAE, their own bought-off political and media figures in the US and UK, and their various influences on the Yemen wars and on how the West is reporting (and not reporting) on the Yemen war. Great deep dive analysis you won't hear anywhere else . . . Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 147 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...  Buy Isa Blumi's book "Destroying Yemen: What Chaos in Arabia Tells Us About The World". Follow Isa Blumi on Twitter 

Recorded April 5, 2018Guest: Nasser Arrabyee, Yemeni journalist & documentary producerRWN subscribers asked us to repost our interview with Nasser Arrabyee free and open to the public, because his story—the story of the US-backed Saudi war on his country Yemen, needs to be heard. Nasser spoke to us from his bomb-damaged home in the capital Sanaa, about the world's worst humanitarian crisis — a man-made artificial famine causing  over 1 million cholera victims, in a war fully backed and armed by the US and the western powers. A war that the western press corps and human rights community seems remarkably uninterested in reporting. Meanwhile, Yemen's Houthi rebels, based largely in the north and west of the country, have made mincemeat of the Saudis. Nassar explains what the war looks and feels like from inside the killing zone, and why the Houthis have broad-based support...This open free repost of episode 128's featured interview comes courtesy of our Radio War Nerd subscribers, who make our weekly podcast possible. Freedom isn't free, and neither is Radio War Nerd...Sign up here on the patreon page for the Radio War Nerd podcast, the newsletter, the RSS feed, and more... Follow Nassar Arrabyee on Twitter, read his blog and articles.

For non-subscribers, here is a 20+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode 123 with Patrick Kasprik, a combat medic volunteer who served with the Syrian Kurdish YPG in 2016. Our interview with Kasprik was too good for one episode, so we recorded a second part about his experiences after the Battle of Manbij through his imprisonment in Iraq . . . You can Patrick and his combat medic team with the YPG in the excellent 2-part documentary film "The Volunteers" on DirectTV...Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 121 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...  

Recorded February 4, 2018Guest: Yasha Levine, author & journalist We're reposting a free unlocked version of our interview with Yasha Levine on his new book "Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet" . . . Levine dives deep into the origins of the Internet, designed by Pentagon researchers to create an all-seeing counterinsurgency weapon in wars abroad, and against protest movements home in the USA. Fifty years ago, student radicals protested the early Internet as a Big Brother weapon of oppression; today, young "radicals" in the Internet Freedom movement promote this Pentagon weapon as a force for liberation and revolution against the same Big Brother state. Levine explains how these paradoxes came to be—and why Snowden's revelations about government spying on the Internet revealed not a bug in the system that can be "fixed", but rather the whole purpose of the Internet system from the start. Grim, hopeless & fascinating. This open free repost of episode 120 comes courtesy of our Radio War Nerd subscribers, who make our weekly podcast possible. Freedom isn't free, and neither is Radio War Nerd...Sign up here on the patreon page for the Radio War Nerd podcast, the newsletter, the RSS feed, and more...Buy Yasha Levine's book "Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet"

Guest: Yasha Levine, author & journalist Recorded February 4, 2018For non-subscribers, here is a 25+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode 120 with Yasha Levine talking about his new book, "Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet", in which we dive deep into the Internet's origins in Pentagon counterinsurgency programs.  Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 120 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...  Buy Yasha Levine's book "Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet"and check out his book tour! 

Guest: Joshua Landis, Director of Center for Middle East Studies & editor of Syria Comment blogRecorded January 23, 2018For non-subscribers, here is a 25+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode 118 with Joshua Landis trying to make sense of Turkey's invasion of Syria's Afrin province, US strategy in the region, and the nature of sectarian warfare . . . Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 118 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...  Check out Joshua Landis' excellent blog Syria Comment and follow him on Twitter @joshua_landis for the latest on Syria & the region.

Guest: Nima Shirazi, journalist and podcaster Recorded January 14, 2018For non-subscribers, here is a 25+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode 117 with Nima Shirazi to make sense of recent Iran protests, Iranian politics, western media hacks & the weird, sick MeK cult that's become the darling of corrupt Washington DC interventionists.Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 117 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...  Check out Nima Shirazi's podcast Citations Needed at Patreon. Nima is editor at Mufta.org.

For non-subscribers, here is a 25+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode 110 on Washington's "Russian disinformation" panics, both today and during the Cold War . . . We discuss the meaning and history of "disinformation warfare" and go over some examples of how disinformation has been used, both by the Soviets and by the US, and how Reagan's "disinformation warriors" decimated their hapless Soviet disinformation rivals with the shooting down of KAL 007 . . . We also talk about some of the, ahem, colorful Cold War disinformation commanders, such as Reagan's  "supreme commander of disinformation" Charles Z. Wick — previously known as the producer/writer of the film "Snow White and the Three Stooges"...Would you like to know more? Subscribe to Radio War Nerd here on our patreon page, to listen to the entire episode 110 and all previous locked episodes. Depending on your pledge, you can also get our downloadable RSS feed for your podcast app, the Radio War Nerd Newsletter, Show Notes and more...