Danny and Derek give a news update with where the conflict stands today. Then, for paid subscribers, they speak with Rashid Khalidi (16:30), the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, about the larger implications of the war.

We’ve also unlocked our series with Rashid, A History of Modern Palestine, for the next week.

Special episode recorded midday EST, Monday, October 9, 2023

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This second episode on the current conflict in Gaza and within Israeli territory is in three parts: first, Danny and Derek give us a news update on the situation. They then speak with Haggai Matar, executive director of +972 Magazine, about his piece contextualizing yesterday’s surprise attack from Gaza (23:53). Derek then closes out the episode speakin…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Danny and Derek jump on the mic to lay out what we know so far about today’s offensive launched by Hamas from Gaza into Israeli territory (within the 1948 borders).

Recorded midday EST, Saturday, October 7, 2023

Derek is Rocky, while Danny is Mickey, that is to say, there’s news. This week: in a climate update, it was the hottest September on record (0:31); a suicide bombing (claimed by the PKK) rocks Turkey’s capital of Ankara, leading to retaliatory airstrikes (2:00); the U.S. freezes aid to Egypt amid the Bob Menendez indictment (4:05); more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians flee the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave of Azerbaijan (6:11); Pakistan orders over 4 million undocumented persons, particularly Afghans, to leave (9:22); signs point to the DPRK making moves to reclaim weapons-grade plutonium from the reactor at their Yongbyon complex (11:34); Mali’s junta government continues to struggle with the rebel group Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) (13:03); reports emerge that the Niger junta government might be open to talks with ECOWAS and making the transition to civilian rule (15:19); tensions flare up between Kosovo and Serbia (17:02); a Ukraine update featuring questions about the reliability of certain foreign aid while Russia reportedly tests a nuclear-powered cruise missile (19:46); a schism in Bolivia’s Movement for Socialism (MAS) party (24:43); protests in support of Guatemalan president-elect Bernardo Arévalo intensify as the country’s post-election crisis continues (26:00); the U.N. gives the go-ahead for an intervention in Haiti (27:47); and the administration of U.S. president Joe “I’m Just a Humble Servant” Biden waives 26 laws to continue building a border wall in the Rio Grande Valley (29:23).

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Danny and Derek welcome Joseph MacKay, senior lecturer at the Australian National University, to talk about counterinsurgency— what it is, where it came from, and why it persists. The discussion focuses on several case studies over several centuries, using military manuals and their respective authors as a guide, to give us an idea of how counter-insurrectionary war developed and eventually took on its late twentieth and early twenty-first century forms.

Grab a copy of Joseph’s book The Counterinsurgent Imagination: A New Intellectual History: https://shorturl.at/zBCE5

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Derek and Danny sit down with Rachel Nolan, assistant professor at Boston University, to discuss the 2023 Guatemalan presidential election and its aftermath. They discuss the country’s recent history, the opponents’ respective political movements, the victory of the Semilla party’s Bernardo Arévalo, the contested result, who stands to gain from blocking…

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Danny and Derek conclude their discussion with Lyle Jeremy Rubin, veteran of the war in Afghanistan and author of the memoir Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body: A Marine’s Unbecoming. We’ve reached the point of Lyle’s deployment to Afghanistan, with the conversation touching on his work as a signals intelligence officer, how his personal politics evolved…

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Ken Klippenstein, reporter for The Intercept and of his eponymous newsletter, returns to the podcast to help lay out what exactly Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey has been accused of doing, what we know so far (including accepting gold bars and pursuing high-level Egyptian contacts), and what the implications are.

Check out Ken’s latest piece in The …

Derek telepathically (and verbally) delivers Danny the news. This week: Antarctic sea ice breaks record lows (0:39); Saudi Arabia and Israel move forward with their normalization agreement, which includes a Saudi nuclear program (1:57); the U.S.-Iran prisoner swap is completed (6:05); an update on the humanitarian crisis in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave of Azebaijan (8:02); a diplomatic spat between Canada and India over the latter carrying out an apparent assassination on Canadian soil (10:25); the DPRK releases the U.S. soldier who crossed the border from South Korea (12:40); France announces its withdrawal from Niger (15:15); a Ukraine update featuring attacks on Crimea and new tanks supplied by the U.S. (17:38); Colombia moves ahead with a six-month ceasefire with the with the National Liberation Army (ELN) (23:52); a New Cold War update featuring a potential Biden-Xi meeting (25:48) and America hosts the second U.S.-Pacific Island Forum (PIF) Summit (27:20); and Bob Menendez, of the great State of New Jersey, is charged with a number of bribery offenses (29:27).

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Danny and Derek chat with Lyle Jeremy Rubin, veteran of the war in Afghanistan and author of the memoir Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body: A Marine’s Unbecoming. In this first part, they get into Lyle’s origins in Connecticut, how he became enamored with rightwing media, the galvinizing impact of 9/11, what exactly one learns at bootcamp in 2006, the culture among his peers and superiors, and more through the end of his training.

Be sure to grab a copy of Lyle’s book!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com