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American Prestige HQ continues to roll the dice on iceberg lettuce. In this week’s news: Iranian strikes kill four U.S. service members in Jordan and Iraq, and the Pentagon conceals dozens of additional casualties (2:09); Trump threatens to hit an Iranian nuclear facility and warns of attacks on civilian infrastructure (6:32); the Houthis blockade Saudi Arabia and strike two oil tankers in the Red Sea (14:20); the U.S. and Saudi Arabia announce a civilian nuclear deal (18:23); in Lebanon, the IDF begins a “pilot” withdrawal from three southern villages (23:48); Hamas elects Khalil al-Hayya as its new political leader (25:48); Ebola deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo top 1,000 (27:44); the Trump administration considers military action against jihadists in Mali (30:09); Volodymyr Zelenskyy fires Ukraine's top general, Oleksandr Syrskyi (32:29); Andy Burnham becomes prime minister of the United Kingdom (35:17); Trump imposes new tariffs on Brazil and Canada (36:53); and the State Department releases a report that names Cuba a top security threat (40:46).

Don’t forget to watch a replay of last night’s livestream with special guest Alex Aviña.

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Danny and Derek speak with historian Andrew Preston about the origins and development of the American national security state as we know it. They discuss the original meaning of “national security” in the early days of the republic; the idea of free security; the New Deal and the relationship between social security and national security; World War II, the Cold War, and the expansion of the security state; liberalism and American empire; and what national security looks like moving forward.

Be sure to grab a copy of Andrew’s book on the subject, Total Defense: The New Deal and the Invention of National Security.

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Danny speaks with writer Ann Manov about the right’s attempts to reshape the humanities and the crisis facing American higher education. They discuss Republican-backed civics programs, the Great Books model, falling academic standards, campus culture wars, the bleak prospects for students, the economics of higher education, and AI’s impact on the future of universities.

Read Ann's piece for Harper's, ⁠"Republican Machines."⁠

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Canada’s wildfires rage on, so Danny and Derek are here to be your breath of fresh air. This week’s news: In Iran, the U.S. reimposes its blockade and intensifies strikes (2:04), Trump announces and then backs off a Hormuz toll (5:44), and the White House issues threats of further escalation (9:17); in Yemen, the Houthis/Ansar Allah and Saudi Arabia trade strikes (13:37) as the former might become involved in the Iran war (16:28); Lebanese-Israeli talks talks wrap up, but progress is uncertain (17:45); in Israel, a date is set for an election (19:18), plus the ethnic cleansing in Gaza is given a new euphemism (21:15); Southeast Asian countries appear to normalize relations with Myanmar (22:23); the U.S. touts a “new” peace plan for Sudan (24:13); the Ebola outbreak in the DRC continues and may be much larger than official figures suggest (26:35); Zelenskyy replaces Ukraine’s prime minister and defense minister (29:43); Andy Burnham is to become the UK’s PM (33:32), plus a UK-EU deal on Gibraltar is reached (35:22); Marco Rubio is reportedly running Venezuela as a U.S. viceroy (36:34); the U.S. is attempting to destroy the ICC (38:35) as it also takes aim at “left-wing terrorism” (41:23); and a Pew poll finds China more popular than the U.S. for the first time (43:01).

⁠Watch last night’s weekly livestream⁠ if you missed it.

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Danny and Derek welcome to the show journalist and author Robert Wright to talk about the potential and pitfalls of the AI revolution. They discuss how neural networks learn, the differences between predictive and generative AI, machine consciousness, job displacement, the environmental costs of data centers, how capitalism is shaping the AI race, and the need for international regulation.

Read Robert’s new book The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning.

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Danny and Derek welcome to the show historian Matt Avery Sutton to talk about evangelical support for Donald Trump and the power of the religious right in U.S. politics. They discuss Trump as a religious figure, the religious right’s ascendance, race and abortion in Republican politics, Christian apocalypticism, fears of the Antichrist, conservative Catholic converts, Christian Zionism, and whether an alliance with Trump will weaken the evangelical movement.

Read Matt’s book Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity.

Note: This episode was recorded May 15, 2026.

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Danny and Derek’s FIFA officiating careers have been tragically cut short since Javier Milei’s checks started bouncing. In this week’s news: the NATO summit ends on a high note (4:46); in Iran, new fighting erupts as Trump declares the end of the ceasefire (12:01), plus estimates of the war’s cost increase (16:49); in Gaza, Hamas dissolves its government (18:22) as the Board of Peace prepares a “humanitarian zone” (20:37); Trump appears ready to sell Turkey F-35s (23:47); Syria is officially removed from the state sponsors of terrorism list (28:17); in Sudan, civilians flee fighting in El Obeid (29:32); rebels coordinate a new joint offensive in Mali (33:00); the U.S. licenses domestic Patriot missile production in Ukraine (34:18); Roberto Sanchez concedes the Peruvian presidential election (38:15); Colombia’s presidential transition breaks down (39:09); and the U.S. drops the “Indo-Pacific” construct (40:14), prompting strategic discussions on the future of America’s position in the Pacific (45:23).

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The AP-NonZero collaboration continues!

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0:00 Sneak peek: Danny finds flaw in Bob’s AI book

1:18 Is the Iran war fully back on?

5:59 What the war means for the future of US power

18:52 The problem with blaming Bibi

23:09 The push to intertwine the US and Israeli militaries

35:09 What’s Israel’s endgame for the Palestinians?

39:27 The Gulf States’ new reality

45:20 Iran’s plans for the Strait of Hormuz

51:54 Bob’s pitch to Derek—and his other pitch to listeners

⁠Watch it on YouTube⁠.

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Danny and Derek are joined by Jake Nabel, Tombros early career professor of classical studies and assistant professor of classics and ancient Mediterranean studies at Penn State, to talk about Roman-Parthian relations in antiquity. The group discusses the geopolitical landscape of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, the rise of the Parthian Empire and the Arsacid dynasty following the fall of the Achaemenids and Alexander the Great, and the inherent challenges of relying on Greco-Roman historiography. They also delve into how Iranian and Armenian sources reshape our understanding of the period, the deep cultural misunderstanding between Roman hostage-taking and Parthian cliental fosterage, the cultural barriers preventing intermarriage, and the modern Iranian reception of pre-Islamic empires, including contemporary parallels to Reza Pahlavi.

Read Jake’s book The Arsacids of Rome: Misunderstanding in Roman-Parthian Relations.

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Danny and Derek are joined by Curt Mills, executive director of the American Conservative, and Andrew Day, senior editor of the American Conservative, to talk about the potential for a left-right anti-war alliance. The group discusses the ongoing war with Iran and its impact on U.S.-China relations, the future of the MAGA movement and whether Donald Trump might take an off-ramp to end the conflict, and structural realities surrounding capitalism, financialization, and the AI-driven deindustrialization of white-collar work. They also touch on the Israel lobby's influence on American foreign policy, the rhetoric of right-wing figures like Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, culture war divides surrounding the COVID-19 response, and whether a cross-partisan coalition against the foreign policy establishment is actually viable in Congress.

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Danny and Derek are joined by historian Andrew Shankman to talk about the road to U.S. independence from Great Britain. They discuss differences between Spanish and British colonization strategies, the intellectual and philosophical origins of the American Revolution, the Stamp Act crisis, distinctions in racial conceptions between the American colonies and the West Indies, key revolutionary figures, the early American republic, the unique economic situation of Boston and Massachusetts, and post-revolution relations with Britain and indigenous peoples.  

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