Russia. The land of frozen winters, boiling tempers, and a history so thick with blood, betrayal, and bombast you could bottle it and sell it as a Molotov cocktail.

This isn’t just a country. It’s a worldview forged in war, paranoia, and the long, unforgiving shadow of history. From the horsemen of the Mongol horde to the black leather coats of Stalin’s secret police, the Russian psyche has been shaped by centuries of siege. Real and imagined. Fortress mentality isn’t a strategy there. It’s a state of being.

And yet, despite the suspicion, the brutality, and the endless dance with disaster, Russia endures. Reinvents. Retaliates. Sometimes with style. Often with force. Always with purpose.

Today, we’re sitting down with Professor Mark Galeotti. Yup, that Mark Galeotti. We’re going to dig into the roots of Russian insecurity. Where it comes from. Why it matters. And how it still shapes every handshake, every airstrike, and every line drawn on a map.

We’ll trace the scars left by Napoleon’s march, Stalin’s purges, and the Cold War’s long hangover. We’ll talk about the inferiority complex that festers behind the Kremlin walls, and how history—real or rewritten—guides Moscow’s every move from Kyiv to Damascus to Washington.

This isn’t about making excuses. It’s about understanding the worldview of a nation that still thinks in terms of czars and tsars, enemies and allies, and very little in between.

So pour a drink if it’s after 11. Grab a coffee if it’s earlier. And join us as we wander the haunted corridors of Russian history, where paranoia isn’t a glitch in the system. It is the system.

Downfall: Putin, Prigozhin, and the Fight for the Future

downfall:%20Putin,%20Prigozhin,%20and%20the%20fight%20for%20the%20future%20of%20Russia%20https%3A//a.co/d/1bi80vk

Forged in War: A military history of Russia from its beginnings to today

https://a.co/d/3ZyL1rJ

Putin's Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine

https://a.co/d/1bcsoZG

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The Spanish American War 1898 (Part 2): The War of Empires w/ Drew Dornstadter

The sun was setting on the Spanish Empire—bloated, brittle, and running on fumes. Four hundred years of conquest and gold, galleons and God, unraveling like an old coat in a storm. And just as the curtain was falling, America showed up. Young, loud, hungry.

1898. The Spanish-American War. It lasted only four months, but it changed everything. One empire dying. Another one being born. Not with ceremony—but with guns, headlines, and a healthy dose of manifest destiny.

They said it was about liberation—Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico. Freedom from tyranny, all that jazz. But let’s be honest: it was about markets, military bases, and planting flags on islands most Americans couldn’t find on a map.

This wasn’t just about Teddy Roosevelt’s rough riders or stirring speeches in Congress. It was about sugar, about strategy, about making damn sure America wasn’t left behind in the global game of empire.

And when the dust settled, Cuba got a sort-of freedom, wrapped in American strings. Puerto Rico became a possession. But in the Philippines, things went dark fast.

Because the war didn’t end there. It morphed—into an ugly, brutal, years-long insurgency. The same U.S. troops who claimed to be liberators turned occupiers. Villages were torched. Civilians slaughtered. Concentration camps. Water torture. The same tools of empire the Spanish once used—now painted red, white, and blue.

This episode isn’t just about a short war with a big legacy. It’s about the moment the United States became an empire and Spain, well, Spain was no longer an empire.

Further Reading

The Spanish War: An American Epic... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393303047?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States https://a.co/d/4cvz3Cz

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/s/spanish-american-war-war-plans-and-impact-on-u-s-navy.html

Mornings on Horseback: The Story... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671447548?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

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Today is Sunday 15 June, just two days after Operation Rising Lion - Israel’s decisive strike against Iran that began in the early hours of June 13th, 2025. We’re going to discuss everything that I’ve been able to gather over the last 48 hours. It’s been hard figuring out fact from fiction, but I think I’m close.

The world had been holding its breath for years. Watching. Waiting. Betting on diplomacy, back channels, and fragile agreements to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions before it was too late.

 But on June 13th, 2025, that waiting ended. Israel made a choice no one else had the nerve to make. With little warning, without alliance approval, without fanfare—they launched a precise, high-stakes strike deep inside Iran’s nuclear program. Targets that the world had argued over for decades turned to rubble in hours.

This wasn’t a message. It was a line drawn in concrete and fire. Deterrence didn’t just fail—it died.

Iran was blindsided. The region wasn’t. Everyone knew this moment was coming. The only mystery was the timing. In this episode, we’ll pull back the curtain on what happened, why it happened, and the far-reaching consequences still shaking capitals from Tehran to Tel Aviv to Washington.

No spin. No distance. Just the cold, hard truth.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Spanish American War 1898: The War of Empires w/ Drew Dornstadter

The sun was setting on the Spanish Empire—bloated, brittle, and running on fumes. Four hundred years of conquest and gold, galleons and God, unraveling like an old coat in a storm. And just as the curtain was falling, America showed up. Young, loud, hungry.

1898. The Spanish-American War. It lasted only four months, but it changed everything. One empire dying. Another one being born. Not with ceremony—but with guns, headlines, and a healthy dose of manifest destiny.

They said it was about liberation—Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico. Freedom from tyranny, all that jazz. But let’s be honest: it was about markets, military bases, and planting flags on islands most Americans couldn’t find on a map.

This wasn’t just about Teddy Roosevelt’s rough riders or stirring speeches in Congress. It was about sugar, about strategy, about making damn sure America wasn’t left behind in the global game of empire.

And when the dust settled, Cuba got a sort-of freedom, wrapped in American strings. Puerto Rico became a possession. But in the Philippines, things went dark fast.

Because the war didn’t end there. It morphed—into an ugly, brutal, years-long insurgency. The same U.S. troops who claimed to be liberators turned occupiers. Villages were torched. Civilians slaughtered. Concentration camps. Water torture. The same tools of empire the Spanish once used—now painted red, white, and blue.

This episode isn’t just about a short war with a big legacy. It’s about the moment the United States became an empire and Spain, well, Spain was no longer an empire.

Further Reading

The Spanish War: An American Epic... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393303047?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States https://a.co/d/4cvz3Cz

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/s/spanish-american-war-war-plans-and-impact-on-u-s-navy.html

Mornings on Horseback: The Story... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671447548?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do nations keep going—through war, peace, and all the mess in between? They tell stories. About glory. About sacrifice. About who they are, and who they think they are. These stories build will, shape identity, and sometimes, keep people holding on long after logic would tell them to quit.

I’m sitting down with my friend Nikki Dean—a sharp mind and a PhD candidate who knows a thing or two about the power of narrative. We’re digging into how countries craft myths, stitch together identities, and use stories to turn chaos into meaning. Even when the facts fall short, the story keeps marching on.

Dig Deeper

The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative (Cambridge Introductions to Literature) https://a.co/d/cxaDjc7

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317138927_How_to_Win_Wars_The_Role_of_the_War_Narrative

https://verfassungsblog.de/russias-war-against-ukraine-and-the-battle-of-narratives/

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 You can smell the history here before you see it—dust, diesel, sweat, jasmine. It hangs in the air like a ghost that never got the memo to move on. Welcome to the Indian subcontinent: where time doesn’t just pass—it accumulates. And nowhere is that more brutally obvious than in the story of Partition and the fall out that still rains over the people in both India and Pakistan.

In 1947, a line was drawn—quickly, carelessly, and with the kind of arrogance only empires can afford. The British walked out, and what they left behind was not two nations, but a wound. India and Pakistan were born, not with celebration, but with slaughter, exile, and trauma passed down like a family heirloom.

But this story isn’t just about that catastrophic moment. It’s about everything that’s followed. The wars. The proxy conflicts. Kashmir. Kargil. The nuclear standoff. Terror attacks in Mumbai, soldiers in Siachen, political theater in Delhi and Islamabad—and the quiet, daily lives caught in between.

It’s about how a line on a map became a wall in the mind. How identity got weaponized. And how peace is talked about like a dream, but rarely pursued like a plan.

This episode, we’re not picking sides. We’re picking through the rubble. Through memory and myth, war and nationalism, and the strange, painful familiarity of two nations that still can’t look each other in the eye without flinching.

Because history didn’t end in 1947. In South Asia, it’s still being written—with fire, ink, and the silence of those who never made it home

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How do Russians think about strategy and international relations and how does it shape the way Russia sees warfare, peace, and everything in between?

I hope you’re ready to join me and my new friend and expert, Dr. Ofer Fridman, as we dive into the core of Russian military thinking and how the lessons of perpetual conflict, dominance in the information space, and the use of all instruments of power apply to our world today.

Books by Dr. Ofer Fridman to better understand Russian thinking

Strategiya: The Foundations of the Russian Art of Strategy https://a.co/d/2JfIi3i

Russian "Hybrid Warfare": Resurgence and Politicization https://a.co/d/es7NU1w

Deciphering Russian Enigma: In 15 Questions and 30 Answers https://a.co/d/1LW3ZVi

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What lessons can we uncover from a short Russian War against a democratic neighbor and former soviet republic?

I hope you're ready to join me and my close friend, Colonel Chad Ramskugler, in discussing the Russo-Georgian War of 2008 and how the lessons of alliances, preparing for war, and quick execution apply to us today.

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What lessons can we uncover from a Russian War that turned defeat into victory? 

I hope you’re ready to join me and my close friend, Anthony Benedosso, in discussing the Second Chechen War and how the lessons of phase zero operations, controlling the narrative, and proxy warfare apply to us today.

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What lessons can we uncover from a Russian border war following the end of the Cold War? 

I hope you’re ready to join me and my close friend Anthony Benedosso in discussing the First Chechen War and how the lessons of phase zero operations, controlling the narrative, and proxy warfare apply to us today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.