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Between the idea and the reality falls the shadow. Marine Corps veteran J.D. Vance will soon be vice president. Pete Hegseth, a man with a Crusader Kings tattoo who doesn’t want women to serve in combat roles, is probably going to be confirmed as secretary of defense. Over New Years, two members of the U.S. military committed domestic terror attacks.

Today on Angry Planet we get into the highs and lows of the American military with Marine Corps vet and author Phil Klay. 

• What are the limits of amoral pragmatism?
• “Most troops are opposed to murder.”
• A rant about Crusader Kings.
• Vance’s view.
• Trump, Hegseth and the Honor of the American Military
• Asking Pete Hegseth how many pushups he can do during a confirmation hearing
• The Cult of ‘Sicario’
• Anguish and Anger From the Navy SEALs Who Turned In Edward Gallagher
• Sen. Ted Cruz insulted a ‘woke, emasculated’ U.S. Army ad. Angry veterans fired back.

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It’s hard to read the mind of a dictator, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying.

When Russian President invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, there were a million columns, videos and podcasts explaining “the real reason” for such a “crazy” move.

Well, anyone who tells the story from February 2022 is missing decades of Russian interference in Ukraine, with low points coming during the Orange Revolution of 2005 and then in 2014. The Euromaidan protests ended with the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych and Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

But what made Putin take that next step eight years later?

Lucian Kim is a journalist with vast experience in the region, working in Berlin and as NPR’s bureau chief in Moscow. If you can trust anyone to know what brought the world to war, it’s him—hell, he wrote a book on the subject: Putin’s Revenge: Why Russia Invaded Ukraine.

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This week on Angry Planet writer David Faris joins us to talk about his time in Syria and life in America.

• David’s travels from Lebanon to Syria
• When people hoped Bashar al-Assad would change Syria
• What a real totalitarian state feels like
• The nightmare that follows the collapse of a dictatorship
• Once again, the ugly legacy of colonialism rears its head
• The post-Assad players
• After 15 years, everyone is tired of war
• Turning to domestic politics
• Don’t panic
• “Trump will govern very corruptly.”
• Talking politics with children
• The Trump Cinematic Universe
• “We need billionaires to fight billionaires.”
• The collapse of the liberal intelligentsia

The McDonald’s bombing in Beirut

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This week Angry Planet turns its attention to Canada. Global News investigative journalist Stewart Bell joins us to walk through his two latest pieces and give Matthew a crash course on Canadian history. What do outlaw motorcycle gangs, extrajudicial assassinations, an Indian separatist movement, and a resurgent Islamic State all have in common?

Canada.

Bell is here to explain it all.

• The pros and cons of extremists recruiting on social media
• Are you talking to a fed?
• Remembering Air India Flight 182 or Matthew learns Canadian history
• The Khalistan movement
• What makes a 14-year-old interested in Islamic State?
• Eric Hoffer on what makes a True Believer
• Spreading ideologies with an answering machine
• The budding new era of political violence
• Visas as a tool of foreign interference
• Using gangs to assassinate your political enemies
• The ups and downs of hiring biker gangs for intelligence work
• India’s superpower glow up

ISIS arrests are spiking in Canada and youths are driving the resurgence

Investigation: Visas have become an Indian foreign interference tool

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On today’s episode, I talked to Kollen Post about how and why Silicon Valley markets their drones as “battle tested in Ukraine.” We recorded it on Thanksgiving, Jason was busy spending time with his family, and Post and I went down some weird philosophical rabbit holes.

• Impromptu drone developers
• The Western image of the Ukrainian drone operator
• Open source is king
• The decentralized nature of Ukrainian society
• Fundraising for war
• The ignorance of the American people
• Trump’s promise: You can forget it
• Americans want to be heroes
• Palmer Luckey is selling drone piece loot crates
• iPhone vs. Linux
• Jamming with Github
• Onshoring the drone manufacturing process

‘Battle-tested in Ukraine’ — How US drone makers turned Ukraine into a tagline to sell west

Ukraine’s drones have a reputation for low cost. Buntar Aerospace wants to make them boutique

How Palantir Is Using AI in Ukraine

The Anduril merch store

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North Korean troops are fighting alongside Russian ones in Ukraine. Bringing the two together hasn’t all gone smoothly. There are language barriers, cultural barriers, and a whole lot of Russian territory to recover. The results have been mixed, but the partnership points to a deepening of the special relationship between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation.

On this episode of Angry Planet, Jenny Town is here to explain the deepening ties between Russia and North Korea. Town is a Senior Fellow and Director at the Stimson center and writes at 38 North.

• Initial reactions to the “ICBM attack” in Ukraine

• The special relationship between Russia and North Korea

• The growing anti-western sphere of influence

• What the North Korean military is doing in Ukraine

• 100,00 more North Korean troops in Ukraine?

• Is Kim Jong Un preparing for war?

• North Korea’s brand new uranium enrichment photos.

• What would it take for South Korea to get a nuclear weapon?

• Making use of the Kaesong Industrial Complex

Is Kim Jong Un Preparing for War?

First Look at North Korea’s Uranium Enrichment Capabilities

Kaesong Industrial Complex: A Tortured History and Uncertain Future

Quick Take: North Korea’s Coverage of Russian War Against Ukraine

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The planet isn’t going to get any less angry.

This week, Aram Shabanian comes on the show again to help us work through what the next Trump presidency may mean for America, Europe, and the rest of the world.

• Matthew’s hippie metaphor
• 1931 or 1939?
• America’s allies know it’s all on them now
• North Korea in Ukraine
• Who gets a nuke first?
• Musk diplomacy
• A 50% chance of nuclear war is too high
• Minuteman III’s for sale
• Don’t turn inward
• The future of news
• Call of the Hat Man

Elon Musk joined Trump's call with Zelenskyy

Musk joined a phone call between Trump and a Serbian leader

The Donkey Kong painting

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WARNING: This episode contains nuance in the discussion of subjects usually left to screaming and violence!

This week we get into a bunch of stuff around Israel that we normally avoid. Settlements. Blame versus responsibility. The definition of colonialism. The social media posts of IDF soldiers. It’s a calm, nuanced conversation with Shaiel Ben-Ephraim. No, really.

• Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace
• Why no one talks about what comes next
• Israel loses Matthew
• America and Israel’s “special relationship”
• When Bush (senior) stood up to Israel
• Going down the colonialism rabbit hole
• The social media output of IDF soldiers on the ground in Gaza and Lebanon
• “There’s terrible things they’re not taping.”
• Explaining Ben-Gvir and Smotrich
• How right wingers paralyze the Israeli government
• Israel is eyeing settlements in the West Bank, Gaza, and Lebanon which is, in fact, colonialism
• The difference between blame and responsibility
• The episode is not anti-Israel, so save your letters and phone calls.

Shaiel Ben-Ephraim Explains Israel 

The History Of The Land Of Israel Podcast

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How’s that sanctions regime working out for the U.S. and Russia? This week on the show, we have Stephanie Baker, a senior writer at Bloomberg, to try to answer the question. She just published Punishing Putin, a book all about it.

• What’s a Russian oligarch like in person?
• How America’s sanction regime against Russia works
• The nuclear warfare of it all
• Do Putin’s “red lines” mean anything?
• The complex nature of the world’s oil economy
• What are the limits of economic power?
• Where are the semiconductors coming from?
• What western technology tell us about Russia’s war machines
• RT
• Worshiping World War II
• This is the end of globalization
• The war doesn’t end without the end of Putin
• What to do with Russia’s bank reserves?
• Hungary?

He Had 5 Followers on YouTube. It Landed Him in Jail, Where He Died.

Go here to buy Punishing Putin

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Do you ever feel you’re living in a world where all the good stuff happened to the previous generation? Does it seem like America’s best days are behind it? Were you born into an empire just as it began to collapse?

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We’d like to tell you about King Arthur.

The story of Arthur has been told hundreds of times in everything from song to story to movie. That makes it a pretty big deal when someone can tell the story of the ancient British king with freshness and originality.

Lev Grossman, author of the well-known The Magicians series, has done just that with The Bright Sword. While the characters may be familiar in large part, Sword will still keep you guessing all the way through.

Angry Planet got a chance to speak with Grossman who shared insights into the book, how it was written and Arthur himself. Take a listen.

• “These stories about a lost golden age are a way of processing grief…grief, not over an apocalypse, but over massive change…I think that’s what stories like King Arthur are about.”
• We can’t stop talking about Station 11 for some reason
• Yes, Excalibur is the best Arthur adaptation
• Why the fay are important
• Radical social change and the apocalypse

Buy The Bright Sword here.

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Israel is at war-again. Adversaries include Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

But behind all three is one enemy at the center of this web of violence: Iran.

Is this war the one where Israel and Iran finally confront each other directly? The missiles launched by the ayatollahs say yes, but what will the Jewish state do in return.

This week we look at a fight that could bring a whole world into war, with Yaakov Katz as our guide. He’s a former editor of the Jerusalem Post, and chronicler of modern combat in the Middle East.

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