American Prestige

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Danny and Derek break down the details of today's strike by Iran against the US Al-Udeid air base in Qatar.

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Danny and Derek discuss last night's attacks, what the strategy of the US was, what the strategy of Iran might be, what an invasion of Iran would look like, the US role in the Middle East, and the Axis of Resistance.

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Note: This episode was recorded Friday, June 20 in the afternoon.

Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, to talk about when and how the US will become fully involved in Israel’s war with Iran. They discuss the major interest groups within the Trump 2.0 administration, why the Iranians would continue negotiating with the US at this point, how European leaders are navigating the crisis, the war as a part of global colonial domination by the North Atlantic/Western Europe, whether Iran can see a way out of this cycle with Israel, the bogus argument of the enrichment “red line,” how other Arab states in the Gulf are responding to the conflict, and the goal of regime collapse.  

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No ChatGPT here—our em dashes are organic. This week: in the Iran-Israel war, an update on the casualties and targets (1:52), US involvement remains in question (7:45), Ayatollah Khamenei refuses to surrender (14:47), and US and Israeli intelligence agencies disagree over “evidence” of Iran pursuing a nuclear weapon (18:14); Trump quits the G7 summit early, possibly due to Israel-Iran, and later insults French president Emmanuel Macron (20:59); the IDF is still killing dozens per day in Gaza, mostly near aid sites (24:23); the US military is withdrawing from most of its bases in Syria (27:11); the Thai government might be on the verge of a collapse (29:56); the DRC and Rwanda approve a “draft” peace agreement (33:57); in Russia-Ukraine, Trump cancels a normalization meeting while shutting down a sanctions working group (36:39), and Russia carries out its deadliest strike of the year on Kyiv (37:55); Trump decides to expand his travel ban (40:14); and in a New Cold War update, a new trade détente with China does not include critical minerals for military use (42:43).

Listen to Derek’s special with Akbar Shahid Ahmed on US involvement in the Israel-Iran war.

Also be sure to download our miniseries with the crew from We’re Not So Different, Welcome to the Crusades. We have posted E1 and E2 on our feed as a free preview.

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Derek welcomes back to the program ⁠⁠Akbar Shahid Ahmed⁠⁠, Senior Diplomatic Correspondent for HuffPost, to talk about the prospect of Trump bringing the US into a war with Iran.

Akbar has written a number of articles on Israel-Iran in the last several days, including ⁠⁠"The Pro-Israel U.S. General Quietly Influencing Trump On Iran"⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠"Israel’s War On Iran Bears The Echo Of Past American Mistakes."⁠⁠

In lieu of a typical AP episode this week, we're releasing the first two episodes of our standalone miniseries on the First Crusade with the crew from We're Not So Different⁠⁠. Get the rest of the series here.

Our journey through the First Crusade starts where the Crusaders themselves did: in western Europe with Pope Urban II and the Council of Clermont. We discuss conditions in Latin Christendom in the late 11th century, what prompted the Pope’s call for Crusade, and how it was received by European nobles.

We've released the first two episodes of our standalone miniseries with the folks from ⁠We're Not So Different⁠⁠⁠. Get the rest of the episodes ⁠here⁠!

The expedition begins to take shape. We continue to explore the fallout from Pope Urban II’s call for Crusade at the Council of Clermont, as lords from across France prepare to set off. We look especially at the Normans under Bohemond of Taranto, who will play an outsized role in the campaign to come and whose conquest of Sicily offers some insight into how that campaign would be conducted.

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Danny and Derek update us on what's been going on over the past few days between Israel and Iran.

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"Top Secret" subscribers get a free one-year digital subscription to The Nation!

Danny speaks with Matt Karp, associate professor of history at Princeton, about party formation in the 1850s as well as his take on the Trump phenomenon. They explore the downfall of the Whigs and rise of the Republicans, the structure of the political parties at the beginning of the republic, the relationship of ideology and party, why we have a giant two-party system despite regional differences, mass democracy in the 19th century and today, Trump minimalists vs. maximalists, and more.   

Check out Matt’s book This Vast Southern Empire: Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy and his article on Trump for New Left Review, “Maxed Out.”

Spencer Ackerman of ⁠Forever Wars⁠ is back on the podcast to talk about the LA protests and his piece on them for Zeteo, ⁠"The Imperial Boomerang Lands in Los Angeles."⁠

You can read the "director's cut" of Spencer's piece ⁠over at Forever Wars⁠.