Blood Work

We explore the cultural history of rug-weaving in Afghanistan, and how decades of war caused that country’s craft and conditions into a morbid reciprocity.

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Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Super Smash TV

Sources:

Afghan Rug Shop, ‘80cm x 60cm Fall of Afghanistan War Rug’, Afghan Rug Shop

Naman P. Ahuja (2019), ‘War Rugs’, Marg Publications, available via academia.edu

Max Allen (2008), ‘Battleground: War Rugs from Afghanistan’, Textile Museum of Canada, available via archive.org

Rachel Edman (2020), ‘An introduction to War Rugs’, MacGuffin Magazine, available via Rachel Edman

Bettina Gräf (2023), ‘Drone Rugs: Knotted Images as a Reminder of the Cruel Global Present’, Suzanna in the Bath. Essays on Middle East Studies and Public Discourse, available via academia.edu

Impart (2025), ‘Afghan War Rugs’, Impart

Nigel Lendon and Tim Bonyhady, Rugs of War (Wordpress)

RespectableLawyer (2018), ‘THREAD: Afghan War Rugs and the Lossy Compression of Cultural Coding’, Twitter/X, available via Threadreader and archive.today

Ron O’Callaghan (2003), ‘Afghan War Rugs: A Sub-group With Iranian Influence’, Rug Review, available via archive.today

Kevin Sudeith, WarRug.com

Brian Spooner (2011), ‘Afghan Wars, Oriental Carpets, and Globalization’, Expedition (53:1), available at Penn Museum

Pamela D. Toler (2021), ‘How Afghanistan’s “Rugs of War” Helped Its Citizens Tell the Story of Conflict’, Historynet

Kelly Wilson (2014), ‘Afghan War Rugs’, Art Amongst War: Visual Culture in Afghanistan, 1979-2014 (Exhibition Booklet), The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) Art Gallery, available via academia.edu

Image: A high quality example of a typical 9/11 war rug, woven and knotted by hand in the aftermath of the 2002 US invasion of Afghanistan

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

Gareth returns to continue our history of ‘90s Britain’s most notorious neo-nazi gang, recounting the time Will Browning convinced a Scandinavian to mail a package bomb to an Olympic swimmer.

Image: Thomas Nakaba marching at a far-right rally in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the 1990s.

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production

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Do Your Own Research: Conspiracy, Paranoia & the Drive to Violence w/ Julian Feeld

Julian and Gregk discuss the history of conspiracy, lone wolves, mass psychoses, and his new show SUPER STRUCTURE on the power of propaganda, political repression & revolutionary struggle.

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Image: ‘Pizzagate’ gunman Edgar Maddison Welch being apprehended by police shortly after storming the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington D.C. on December 4, 2016. (Sathi Soma/AP)

Follow Julian Feeld on Instagram

Learn more about SUPER STRUCTURE at their website

or follow the show on Instagram

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

We conclude our two-parter with a story that runs through Lewis Powell, Times Square, 9/11 and Occupy, and concludes by considering a vanguard of neoliberal authoritarianism: The Olympics.

Image: An interior shot of the amusement park at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production

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In the first of a two-parter, we trace the evolution of the modern city from industrialisation to the 1970s, when a trio of crises laid the foundation for an anti-political backlash

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Image: A photograph taken on Leyden Street, London, during the 1979 ‘Winter of Discontent’ (Source: Maurice Hibberd/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Even in Death, They Will Still Degrade You

Sources:

Robert A. Beauregard (2006), When America Became Suburban

Jordan T. Camp & Christina Heatherton [eds.] (2016), Policing the PlanetL Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter

Peter Eisinger (2000), ‘The Politics of Bread and Circuses: Building the City for the Visitor Class’, Urban Affairs Review [35:3]

Antonio Gramsci (1971), Selections from the Prison Notebooks

Stuart Hall et al (1978), Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order

Margaret Kohn (2004), Brave New Neighborhoods: The Privatisation of Public Space

Mark Neocleous (2021), A Critical Theory of Police Power

Paul A. Passavant (2021), Policing Protest: The Post-Democratic State and the Figure of Black Insurrection

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

Gregk and Thomas pause to reflect on some of the topics covered since they last spoke, and meditate on recent events.

Image: A still from Werner Herzog’s 1992 documentary Lessons of Darkness

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production

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THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Look What They Made Us Do

Joe and Gregk use Gregory Stanton’s ‘Ten Stages of Genocide’ to discuss the tactics & techniques states deploy to legitimise and perpetrate mass murder.

Image: Remains of victims of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide retrieved from a mass grave in Huye District in January, 2024.

Follow Joe Kassabian on Bluesky

Listen to Lions Led by Donkeys

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Blue Danube

Sources:

Gregory Stanton (1996), ‘Ten Stages of Genocide’, available at Genocide Watch

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

We take a foray into the world of euphemisms, turns-of-phrase and the disingenuous world of militarese

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production

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We look at the history of women’s participation in suicide bombing attacks and how society has tried to make sense of women who carry out the most extreme political act of all.

If you enjoyed this episode:

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: If You Want Blood…

Sources:

BBC, ‘UK Fire girl still defiant’, BBC

Burku Pinar Alacoc (2018), ‘Femme Fatale: The Lethality of Female Suicide Bombers’, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

Mia Bloom (2007), ‘Female suicide bombers’, Daedalus

John Campbell (2020), ‘Women, Boko Haram and Suicide Bombings’, Council on Foreign Relations

Paige Whaley Eager (2008), From Freedom Fighters to Terrorists: Women and Political Violence

Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Associaton (FFI-LEHI), ‘Raskin, Fania – Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Association’

Jordan Galehan (2019), ‘Instruments of Violence: Female suicide bombers of Boko Haram’, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice

Audrey Gillan (17 Feb 1999), ‘'We came here not to get out alive. We're ready for anything'’, The Guardian

Bilal Tawfiq Hamamra (2018), ‘Witness and martyrdom: Palestinian female martyrs’ video-testimonies’, Journal for Cultural Research

Vesna Markovic (2019), ‘Suicide Squad: Boko Haram’s Use of the Female Suicide Bomber’, Justice, Law, and Public Safety Studies Department Faculty Articles

Tanya Narozhna and W. Andy Knight (2016), Female Suicide Bombings: A Critical Gender Approach

Al Chukwuma Okoli, ‘Gender and Terror: Boko Haram and the Abuse of Women in Nigeria’, available at Georgetown Journal of International Affairs

Ann Preesman (2021), ‘Female Suicide Bombers: An Uncomfortable Truth’, available at King’s College, London

Leandra Bathal Serrano (2024), ‘Female Suicide Bombers As A Security Threat: Towards A More Comprehensive And Inclusive Approach’, available at European Student Think Tank

Keren Wang (2025), ‘Boko Haram’s Strategic Use of Female Suicide Bombers: Where Women Have No Choices’, Politics and Security Governance

Image: A photograph of Sana’a Mehaidli, 16, a Lebanese woman who became the first female suicide bomber in 1985.

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

In the conclusion to our series, we look at what happened when the Soviet Union collapsed, and the rifles it had been making for over four decades started leaking out into a rapidly changing world.

Image: A screencap from a video dated June, 2001, showing al-Qaeda militants wielding Kalashnikov rifles at al-Farouq training camp, Kandahar, Afghanistan

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production

For more:

– Support Blood Work via Patreon

– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter