War College

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comJournalists and Nazis have changed a lot in the years since the end of World War II; journalists are on the outs while Nazis are having a bit of a moment. Across the U.S. and Canada, avowed fascists have committed murder, attempted to destroy the power grid, and actively recruit online and in person. As these extremists work to hide their identity, journalists and law enforcement use advanced tech to expose them. But at what cost?On this episode of Angry Planet, Jordan Pearson of the CBC’s visual investigations unit talks us through how he and his co-workers use open source intelligence to expose fascists. We also discuss the ethical struggles that come with using the tools of the surveillance state to track them down.Nazis hiding their facesExercise as a path to fascismWhat’s the public concern?Hate speech in Canada vs AmericaHow a journalist decides when to unmask a fascistWhen a journalist uses facial recognition and leaked data in the pub

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe world is living with a Cold War hangover. The logic of deterrence, which dominates the minds of the people who plan nuclear wars, means that America must have enough nuclear weapons to credibly threaten to destroy the world should someone launch nukes at it. That thinking led to a world with tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, and that was just when the U.S. had the Soviet Union to think about. Now it’s facing the twin threats of Russia and China. Does that mean America needs twice the nukes to handle twice the threats?Some in the Pentagon seem to think so, and the world is embarking on a radical and expensive nuclear build up the likes of which it hasn’t seen in a generation.What if there’s another way? James Acton is here to pitch us on a world where Optimal Deterrence does not mean spending trillions of dollars on new world-ending weapons just to make sure everyone else doesn’t use theirs.Acton is a co-director of the Carnegie Endowm

Sometimes it’s good to back up and ask the basic questions: How do we know Iran was even developing nuclear weapons?On this episode of the show, the Arms Control Wonk Jeffrey Lewis walks us through the history of the Iranian nuclear (weapons and energy) program. It’s got it all: diplomacy, assassinations, cowardly politicians, and uranium fever.Lewis is a professor at the Middlebury Institute, member of the National Academies Committee on International Security and Arms Control, and former member of the State Department's International Security Advisory Board. He knows the tale well and he’s here to tell it straight.Damning the strikes with faint praise.“The hard part of a nuclear weapon is not the explodey part.”Making a nuclear weapon is a solved problem.The Iran-Iraq war and the origins of Iran’s nuclear weapons programThe ladders of Natanz, how they cascade downEnergy programs are always bigger than weapons programs.Unmasking the International Atomic Energy AgencyIsrael’s war on the programHow to enrich u

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comPauline Shanks Kaurin PhD. was, until recently, the Stockdale Chair for Professional Military Ethics at the U.S. Naval War College. She’d been there since 2018, teaching philosophy and ethics to U.S. military officers and the occasional civilian. Then came Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and marching orders she said stifled academic freedom.So she resigned.On this episode of Angry Planet, Pauline talks us through her decision and tells us what she saw from the inside of one of the U.S. military’s most lauded academic institutions as the new administration seeks to restrict what’s taught in the classroom.Disclosures and caveats“A moral dilemma I couldn’t resolve”On ObedienceAdmiral James Stockdale“We’re all in vacation mode.”“The snitch line”Purging books, telling professors what not to talk about“I don’t want to be on Fox News”It happened fastSuggestions of pulling manuscripts at the editorWhat happens to a military that isn’t taught honor and et

You can’t win a war with airpower alone, despite what the U.S. Air Force will tell you. For more than 100 years, the masters of the air have promised that military and political objectives can be achieved if you just let them drop enough bombs.It’s a theory that’s been tested, and fallen short, many times. Operation Midnight Hammer, the Trump administration’s use of 14 GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrators on Iranian nuclear sites, is just the latest test. The promise is that this has set back Iran’s nuclear program (it probably has) but Israel is hoping for much more—regime change in the Islamic Republic.Time will tell, but I’m not betting on it.On this episode of Angry Planet we zoom out and talk about the strategy behind airpower in the 21st century. Robert Farley, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Kentucky, is on the show today to give us his thoughts on the Iran strikes, airpower in general, and the lessons to be learned from watching the war in Ukraine.Should we abolish the independent Air Force?W

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe ocean is vast, beautiful, and lawless. Thousands of miles from any coast, power belongs to those who seize it.On this episode of Angry Planet, journalist Ian Urbina stops by to discuss the Outlaw Ocean Project and the second season of its incredible podcast. Urbina and his team of investigative journalists are telling stories about human rights, labor, and the environment on the vast swaths of the planet covered in water.The hidden cost of the seafood supply chainWhy the ocean is such a lawless place“Crimes at the intersection of environment and human rights.”Libya is “hell on earth” for migrantsAliou’s journey to LibyaHow Europe enables Libyan militias to police its bordersThe migration to slavery pipelineA team of journalists at gunpointLife on a Chinese squid fishing vesselLow tech and high tech reporting gets the job done“That is what life is like in that niche of hell.”Listen to the Outlaw Ocean PodcastInside a migrant detention cent

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe futures of the past have curdled into the nightmares of the present. The richest and most powerful people the world has ever known want to colonize mars, live forever, and digitize human consciousness. To make these technological miracles come to pass, they say, will require people to dramatically change the way they live and work. Will it be worth it? Does science even say it’s possible?On this Angry Planet, astrophysicist and author Adam Becker joins us to explain all the problems with Silicon Valley’s dreams of the future. It’s not a short list. Much of the tech, and even the physics, don’t work the way techno-utopians say it does. Some of the people hawking robot slaves and immortality are chasing the impossible for tragic personal reasons. Others are just trying to sell you something. It’s all the subject of Becker’s new book: More Everything Forever.ShareFranics Fukuyama and the end of everything“Death is the ultimate limit, the ult

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comAmerica loves the Western. Stories about frontier towns, outlaws and lawmen, and—most of all—killing. How did the myth and legend of the gunfighter come to permeate the U.S.? Were there rules to gunfights? How did you become famous by killing people? Did Texas, yes Texas, make all this possible?We’ll answer those questions in this episode of the show as we discuss the new book The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild. It’s the work of returning guest (and Texan) Bryan Burrough.Texas is both the West and the SouthWhat made Texas so violentWhat, exactly, is a gunfighter?The rules of the duel“Boys, I’m killed”How to win friends while killin’ people“What is more equalizing than a man alone with a gun?”Olive, Isom PrenticeHistoriography of the gunfighterModern bank robbers are boringThe cattle business is the perfect vehicle for violenceThe future belongs ... to pirates?Buy The Gunfighters from an independent bookstore or from AmazonSupport t

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comPalantir, Anduril and a suite of other Tolkien-inspired tech nightmares want to integrate artificial intelligence into every aspect of the U.S. military. Both companies have software suites they’re pitching as agents that will help make command decisions during combat. An AI general, if you will.Yes, that’s a terrible idea.On this episode of Angry Planet, Cameron Hunter and Bleddyn Bowen will tell us why. Hunter is a researcher at the University of Copenhagen and Bowen is a professor of Astropolitics at Durham University. They’ve just written a paper that skewers the idea that AI will ever be able to make command decisions.The narrow definition of AIThe folly of the AI generalThe games AI can’t win“Targeting things is a command decision”The IDF’s use of Microsoft’s use of AI systems“The enemy gets a vote”Killing more doesn’t mean winning moreAmerican military as a “glass tank”Matthew gets lost in a rant“They don’t even have an animal’s intell

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe Pentagon has been trying to pivot to the Pacific for years now. Under President Donald Trump 2.0, who is focused on China, it just might happen. It’s a complicated body of water with dozens of players and a bloody history. One where Beijing is increasingly asserting itself.Here to walk us through some of it is Angry Planet producer and Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Kevin Knodell. He’s just back from the Philippines where he spent two weeks reporting on a joint exercise between the U.S. and its allies in the Pacific.BalikatanTraining exercises as signallingHow 40 years of Balikatan tells the story of U.S.-Philippines relations“There are definitely some places where it is about the fish.”The Chinese Maritime MilitiaDuterte vs Marcos in 2025Why America doesn’t understand ChinaRussia’s imperial history in the Pacific (Kevin misspoke here, it’s Fort Elizabeth not Fort Alexandria)Why people like Pete HegsethThe Nine-Dash lineThe century of

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comRecorded 5/7/25India and Pakistan have been unhappy neighbors since 1947 and Britain’s decolonization of the subcontinent. They’ve fought four wars and there have been countless skirmishes. As Indian jets streak over Pakistani skies and that Muslim nation threatens retaliation, it’s unclear if this is war or just another blip between nations that plain don’t like each other.Joining us is Sushant Singh, a man with a background that includes academic, journalist and 20-year veteran in the Indian army. He’s written an article on the situation in Foreign Affairs, and brings us up to date.The state of play on the morning of May 7thThe Pahalgam attack‘The Switzerland of India’Matthew almost gets everyone into a lot of troubleHow Pakistan creates instability in KashmirThe entire history of the conflict between India and Pakistan in about five minutesChina’s looming presence‘These are non-escaltory strikes’Comparing the militariesGetting into the nuc

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comGreat power competition has gotten old for President Donald Trump—never one for a fair fight. He’s looking for a little great power collusion instead, dividing the world with his best buds, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. This kind of thing isn’t new, though, Stacie Goddard, a professor at Wellesley, tells us, in fact it’s the 1800s on repeat. Well, look how that turned out… World War I, anybody?BTW, check out her terrific article on this in Foreign Affairs magazine.Welcome to the Concert of EuropeThe post-Napoleon partyA taxonomy of aspirational GermansRetvrnStrong men, weak worldGovernment by MafiaWhat becomes of the “middle powers”?The era of aging dictatorsThe long breakdownEmpire without ickinessTurns out might does, in fact, make rightThe Rise and Fall of Great-Power CompetitionThe Concert of EuropeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comConquest is back baby! Eastern Europe, Taiwan, Greenland, Canada? It’s all on the table—and maybe up for grabs. Here to help us sort through this new age of empire building is University of Chicago political scientist Michael Albertus.As always, climate changeWhither Canada?The coming Canadian century“Territorial ambitions sometimes bite back”The biggest caveats ever uttered on the show“An empire eats”The stories nations tell themselves“Getting more America”Picking the winners and losersA little optimism at the endHow land confers powerThose Were The DaysThe false promise of abundanceThe Coming Age of Territorial ExpansionLand Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of SocietiesSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comTurkey’s president has grabbed a bit more power for himself with the recent arrest of the mayor of Istanbul. The mayor was thought to be one of the few politicians who could challenge Erdogan.Steven Cook will take us through it.Talking about authoritarians is one of the things we do here, so strap in for another tale of turmoil on an angry planet.Shilling for kagi.com“Competitive authoritarianism”Negotiating with the Kurdistan Workers’ PartyHow to court the Kurdish vote while killing KurdsA stable of failsons“The Turkish Marc Andreessen”Why Erdogan hates PennsylvaniaDisproving McDonald’s Diplomacy, once againLeveling a park to build a mallHow Erdogan processed the Arab Spring“Fools, knaves, and rubes”—Oh my!Turkey Can’t Live With, or Without, ErdoganUkraine Has Written a Folk Song About Its DroneTurkey and Israel are becoming deadly rivals in SyriaSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comSpecial for our international listeners, did you know you can now buy a pathway to U.S. citizenship for the low, low price of $5 million sent directly to the U.S. treasury? For decades America’s immigration policies were a boon to its national defense. No one has better intelligence on a rival country than a fleeing dissident with firsthand knowledge.Times have changed.Gil Guerra of the Niskanen Center is here to talk all about those changes. It’s an episode packed with bizarre anecdotes and interesting tidbits about how America runs now. You’ll learn why evangelical Christians are turning their back on refugees, why China won’t accept deportation flights, and how to navigate the Darien Gap using short form video posts.Immigration is a foreign policy toolDissident refugees as a strategic winWhat we know about how the “Gold Card” will work“You simply can’t create greencards out of nowhere.”How Mexico uses immigration to get concessions from th

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comFor mercenaries, death is a business. It’s all about finding the right market. Wagner and other Russian mercenary groups have found willing markets in Africa. Journalist John Lechner spent years in Africa among the mercenaries and he’s on the show today to tell us about what he learned.Lechner tells us how Wagner’s men think the U.S. media killed Prigozhin, why every theater (or market) is different, and the training regimen of a fresh convict recruit. It’s all in his new book Death Is Our Business: Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare.The threats change…but the mercenaries stay the same.Interlinking militant Islam and the rise of modern mercenariesRussian mercenaries before WagnerPrigozhin risingPutin’s Chef was the father of ‘Hybrid War’Wagner in Africa‘No one said mercenary life was gonna be easy.’Life inside Wagner‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.’You can’t judge intent by resultsThe Russian “royal” court

A lot of the people designing America’s technology and close to the center of American power believe some deeply weird shit. We already talked to journalist Gil Duran about the Nerd Reich, the rise of the destructive anti-democratic ideology. In this episode, we dive into another weird section of Silicon Valley: the cult of Rationalism.Max Read, the journalist behind the Read Max Substack, is here to help us through it. Rationalism is responsible for a lot more than you might think and Read lays out how it’s influenced the world we live in today and how it created the environment for a cult that’s got a body count.Defining rationalism: “Something between a movement, a community, and a self-help program.”Eliezer Yudkowsky and the dangers of AIWhat the hell is AGI?The Singleton Guide to Global GovernanceThe danger of thought experimentsAs always, follow the moneyVulgar bayesianismWhat’s a Zizian?Sith VegansAnselm: Ontological Argument for God’s ExistenceSBF and Effective AltruismREAD MAX!The Zizians and the Rat

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe Israeli military is using AI products from Microsoft to conduct its war in Gaza. Off the shelf AI products powered by the tech company’s Azure cloud computing system and OpenAI are helping the IDF sort through data, translate Arabic, and even pick targets. But AI translations aren’t perfect and these systems often make mistakes.What happens when the consequences are life and death?Associated Press global investigative reporters Garance Burke and Michael Biesecker are part of a team that broke the story about Israel’s use of Microsoft’s commercial AI in a war. They’re on the show today to help us sort through it all.Defining “AI”Off the shelf solutions for warMicrosoft Azure as war’s translator and search engine“The Israel military is one of the leading militaries in the world adopting the use of AI to assist in its war efforts. They’ve been doing this for years.”AI is picking targetsStudents to militantsAI’s mistranslationsBlaming AI for

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comWe’re living in a bizarre age of technofascism. The richest man who has ever lived, a man who dreams of colonizing Mars with his children, is America’s CEO. Donald Trump, the man people voted for, is just the chairman of the board.What does Elon Musk believe? Is there a playbook for DOGE? How bad are things going to get? On this episode of Angry Planet journalist Gil Duran, author of The Nerd Reich newsletter, walks us through what’s coming.Over on The Shatter Zone, journalist and former Angry Planet guest Robert Evans has published a document that Democratic think tanks are passing around. It gives extra context to Duran’s reporting. All the major players and themes we talk about in this episode are there: Curtis Yarvin, Nick Land, the Butterfly Effect.If you want to understand why so many federal workers are getting fired and the Silicon Valley ideology that’s infected D.C., then give us a listen.Curtis Yarvin’s unimpressive programming car

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comPresident Donald Trump wants to build an American Iron Dome. He even signed an executive order to make it happen. It’s a terrible idea, one we’ve tried before, and one that will make America less safe.In this episode, Joseph Cirincione returns to the program to detail his personal history with complicated and costly missile defense systems.It all starts during a snowstorm in 1982 and with the High FrontierZombie defense pitchesIt’s almost impossible to knock a bullet out of space with a bulletHow Israel’s Iron Dome worksSlow and hot vs fast and coldLasers don’t work, thanks TellerPitch: lasers in space. Reality: missile batteries in AlaskaThese systems only work half the time and only under perfect conditionsSpaceX contracts abound!A Pentagon Powerpoint slide enters chatJason’s Superman reverie, starring Gene Hackman as Lex LuthorHow do China and Russia react?“The enemy gets a vote.”The last arms control treatyRonald Reagan: anti-nuclear advo