Derek welcomes back to the program Gönül Tol, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, and Djene Bajalan, associate professor of history at Missouri State University, to talk about leader Abdullah Öcalan’s call last week for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to disarm and disband. They talk about Öcalan’s history in this conflict, the need to manage his constituencies when announcing this ceasefire, how this fits into Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s plans, whether this move could broaden rights and protections for Kurds in Turkey, the potential implications for Syria, what this means for Kurds elsewhere in the region, and more.

Read Gönül’s book Erdoğan's War: A Strongman's Struggle at Home and in Syria.   

Listen to Djene’s radio show/podcast Talking History.

Note: this was recorded before the ceasefire was declared.

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Jesse Robertson, writer and doctoral student in history at Harvard University, sits down with Danny to talk about the history of video games and their connection with the Pentagon. They explore the history going back to 1962’s Spacewar!, the army’s turn toward creating simulations in the 1970s and SIMNET, the neoliberal turn of more private companies developing military gaming, the Doom series, figures like Michael Zyda leading the connection between the Pentagon and the digital entertainment sector, the Call of Duty series, and more.   

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Read Jesse’s piece for The Nation, “Call of Duty: Pentagon Ops”.

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Danny and Derek talk about yesterday's hostile meeting between Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in front of the media and what that might signal for the two countries' relations going forward.

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Danny and Derek, the greatest news anchors since Lennon/McCartney. This week: Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan calls for the group’s disarmament (0:32); Syria hosts a “National Dialogue” conference to work through the country’s transition (6:34); Israel and Hamas salvage a hostage deal, but the end looms on Saturday (10:07); Yoon’s impeachment trial concludes in South Korea (20:46); in Sudan, increased fighting rages around Al-Fashir (23:27), the military makes gains in the country’s south (25:13), and the RSF and military set up dueling governments (26:43); Ukraine and the US potentially agree on a minerals deal (29:42); the results of the German election (34:41); Austria’s government attempts to form a coalition (38:17); Trump ends a sanctions waiver for Venezuela (40:35); the Trump admin muses kicking Canada out of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network (42:29); the US announces tariffs on the EU, potentially Canada, and maybe even Mexico (44:20); Trump announces the “gold card” visa plan (46:45); and Trump’s attempts at a humanitarian aid blockade continue (48:45).

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William Hartung, a senior research fellow focusing on the arms industry and US military budget at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, joins the program to discuss reports that the Trump administration is planning “sweeping budget cuts” for the Pentagon. They talk about these “cuts” being more accurately termed “reinvestments” into other areas, the enormous amount of defense spending and the culture that engendered this, how the defense industry has changed in the past 20 years, actual moves that could meaningfully reduce the military budget like reducing bloated systems (F-35s, aircraft carriers) and overseas bases, whether there exists an influential constituency to support military budget cuts, and more.

Read William’s recent piece on this, “Hegseth orders 8% cut to Pentagon budget. Not so fast.”          

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Derek welcomes to the program Becca Lewis, postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Department of Communication, and Eoin Higgins, journalist and author of Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left, for a discussion about Elon Musk, his role in the new Trump administration, and how Silicon Valley has interacted with the government since the 1990s. They talk about what exactly Musk seems to be doing, how he is leveraging his new access for business interests, the precedent of unelected positions in the executive branch, the reactionary tech industry showing its true colors, the self-delusion of Silicon Valley oligarchs, the atomization of media allowing for opportunities to shape narratives around tech, and more. 

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Be sure to read Becca’s piece for The Guardian, “‘Headed for technofascism’: the rightwing roots of Silicon Valley”.

Also subscribe to listen to our series with Margaret O’Mara “The Making of Silicon Valley”.

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Danny and Derek are back with the news, but without much of a choice. This week: the US and Russia meet in Riyadh to discuss future bilateral discussions to end the war in Ukraine (0:38); Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump feud in public comments (3:38); The Daily Telegraph reports on a US mineral rights deal that Zelenskyy rejected (8:22); in Israel-Palestine news, Saturday’s hostage exchange was successful (12:55) and Hamas offers an expedited hostage release schedule (15:08); Israel decides to ignore the withdrawal deadline in Lebanon (19:32); the US State Department decides to change the wording on a fact sheet about Taiwan and China responds negatively (22:03); in South Korea, former president Yoon goes on trial (24:48); the RSF militia in Sudan attempts to form a government and controversy ensues (26:40); in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, M23 (supported by Rwanda) takes Bukavu while continuing to advance north and south (31:16); Argentinian president Milei is accused of a rug pull after the cryptocurrency he endorsed collapses (33:40); and in the United States, Trump and Musk fire National Nuclear Security Administration workers without understanding what their jobs meant (35:40), and Trump proposes cutting the defense budget (39:15).

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Danny and Derek are joined by Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, and Aslı Bâli, professor of law at Yale Law School and nonresident fellow at Quincy, to talk about the Institute’s Better Order Project, a collaboration between over 130 people from more than 40 countries creating proposals for a stable, multipolar world. They talk about the vision of moving beyond the current “rules-based” order in favor of an inclusive, global one rooted in international law, the major variables around which the project’s proposals and reforms are organized, how to address great powers prioritizing short-term, political thinking, the atmosphere in the worlds of think tanks, nonprofits, and elite law as we begin Trump 2.0, how these communities have been reckoning with the US policy on Gaza, and more.

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Danny and Derek speak with Matthew Ellis, professor of literature and film at Portland State University, about how to understand the right in this particular moment. They talk about Elon Musk’s infamous Roman salute at Trump’s inauguration, how the right engages with these symbols, media literacy among liberals and the left, the business model around outrage, the end of mass culture, Trump’s rhetorical similarities to fascists, lost opportunities to reform liberalism over the last 20 years, and more.

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Danny and Derek reveal their true faces. This week: Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agree to start bilateral peace talks for the war in Ukraine (1:05), with anticipated fallout for the latter nation (6:17); Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth makes some frank comments on Europe, Ukraine, and NATO (8:06); an update on the situation in Israel-Palestine, including Hamas threatening to delay the next hostage release over Israeli transgressions (12:06) and Trump continuing to push a US takeover of Gaza (16:53); in Lebanon, a new government is formed (21:22) and the IDF seeks to extend its occupation there (23:28); a Washington Post report suggests Israel might be planning to strike Iran (25:33); in China news, Trump reinstates a de minimis tariff exemption, but there is still no sign of a meeting with Xi Jinping (28:46); the Sudanese military is close to driving the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) out of the Khartoum region (31:20); the so-called Islamic State group appears to be on the rise in Somalia (33:36); a regional summit demands a ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo as M23 continues its advance (35:38); and back in the United States, Trump announces new steel and aluminum tariffs (39:03) in addition to presenting exciting new opportunities for corruption (40:57).

News updates will also be on our YouTube channel going forward. Check out this week’s!

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Peter Beinart speaks with Danny and Derek about his book Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, American Jews’ conception of and relationship with Israel, and how things have changed since the start of the genocide in Gaza. They explore why Peter centers being Jewish at this moment, what he’s seen happen in the Jewish community since October 7, Palestinian dehumanization among American Jews, liberal Zionism and the two-state solution, the loss of agency for Palestinians, American Jewish institutions, and more. 

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