Joby Warrick is a national security reporter for the Washington Post and the author of The Triple Agent, Black Flags, and Red Line. He first joined us in 2019 to talk about Black Flags and the rise of ISIS. This time around, he’s gone back several decades to tell the story of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, one of the most notorious terrorists of the Cold War.

Why Carlos, and why now? We talked about the revolutionary movements during the Cold War, the emergence of international terrorism, and the strange story of how Carlos became a global celebrity. We also talked about the man behind the mythology, the role of state sponsors in terrorism, and what Carlos’s story can tell us about the evolution of political violence from the Cold War to al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Going Further & Related Episodes

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos!

Consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253

Marguerite Martin is the owner of MoveToTacoma.com, a real estate matchmaking site that helps people find homes in Tacoma. On this show, she’s also affectionately known as the “Pod Auntie” because she helped me get the podcast started. I opened this episode by thanking her for that, then we got into the considerably more complicated subject of the American housing market.

We talked about the emerging K-shaped economy and what it means for real estate, both nationally and here in Tacoma. What does a widening gap between people who are doing well economically and everyone else mean for homeownership, affordability, and the future of cities like Tacoma? Marguerite brought a useful local perspective to a much bigger economic story.

Going Further & Prior Conversation on Housing

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos!

Consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253

Eli Cranor is the author of several acclaimed crime novels, including Don’t Know Tough, Ozark Dogs, and Broiler. One of the most distinctive voices in Southern noir, Cranor writes novels that deliver compelling crime stories while using them to explore larger questions about class, labor, family, and power in contemporary America.

In this episode, his second appearance on the show, we discuss Broiler, a novel set in northwest Arkansas amid the state’s sprawling poultry industry. While the book unfolds as a gripping crime thriller, it is equally a story about immigration, labor, economic inequality, and the human cost of an industry built on relentless efficiency. 

Along the way, Eli also discusses why each of his novels has expanded beyond his own lived experience and how the processing plant itself became one of the story’s central antagonists. 

Going Further & Related Episodes

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos! 

Consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

Drones have fundamentally changed the economics of warfare. For much of the Global War on Terror, the US enjoyed an overwhelming technological advantage, using drones for surveillance and targeted strikes with little fear that adversaries could respond in kind. That era is over.

Faine Greenwood is a journalist, researcher, and one of the country’s leading experts on drone technology and policy. Rather than approaching drones solely as military hardware, Faine studies how they are reshaping disaster response, public safety, surveillance, privacy, and increasingly, modern warfare. Their work has appeared in WIRED, Slate, and The Atlantic.

In this conversation, we discussed how the war in Ukraine has transformed military doctrine, why inexpensive commercial drones have become some of the most important weapons on the battlefield, and what it means when technologies once reserved for the world’s most powerful militaries become available to almost anyone.

Shout out to @antiheirarchist.bsky.social for matchmaking this episode.

Going Further & Related Episodes

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos! 

Consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

Brandi Buchman is the Law & Justice Reporter for HuffPost and has spent years covering the January 6 attack on the Capitol, its aftermath, and the prosecutions that followed. Few journalists have devoted more time to reporting on the investigations, trials, and convictions that emerged from that day.

Brandi first joined the podcast in 2023 for a conversation about the seditious conspiracy convictions of leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. This week, she returns to discuss the pardons of approximately sixteen hundred January 6 offenders, what those pardons mean for the rule of law, and what they tell us about the current state of American democracy.

This conversation is, in many ways, a continuation of one that began on the Interchangeable White Ladies podcast with Noelle Cook, author of The Conspiracists. That discussion explored the social and political forces that drew ordinary Americans into conspiracy movements and ultimately toward January 6. If you enjoy this episode, I strongly recommend giving that conversation a listen as well.

Going Further & Related Episodes

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos! 

Consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

Jordan Harper is among the best working writers of our time. 

Last year, Harper joined the podcast ahead of the release of the film adaptation of his novel She Rides Shotgun. This week he returned to discuss A Violent Masterpiece, his newest novel and, in my view, his best work yet.

Harper writes crime fiction in the tradition of Elmore Leonard and James Ellroy, but filtered through the absurdity of contemporary America. In a moment where reality often feels more ridiculous than satire, A Violent Masterpiece explores the intersections of Hollywood, internet culture, wealth, power, and corruption in LA.

The LA in the book is simultaneously dystopic and immediately familiar.

In this conversation, we discuss the novel, Harper’s influences, the ways his work is shaped by his experiences in Hollywood, social media’s corrosive effect on public life, and why contemporary America can be such fertile ground for noir fiction.

Going Further & Related Episodes

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos! 

Consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

Grant Wahl’s untimely passing in 2022 left a gaping hole in the global soccer community, and particularly in US journalism when it comes to speaking truth about FIFA. Grant was a champion for human rights and human dignity, and he spent much of his career exposing the places where FIFA fell short on both.

One person who, in my view, has stepped into part of that space is Charlie Boehm, national writer for Major League Soccer.

With the 2026 World Cup approaching, I reached out to Charlie to discuss some of the biggest issues facing the tournament, including:

You can follow Charlie on Bluesky, and find his work at MLSsoccer.com and, more recently, Sounder at Heart.

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos! 

Consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

This week, for the first time, I’m sitting down for an episode with a current student. I’ll call her “T” since, as we all know, people on the internet can be strange. T is a Palestinian-American senior, raised in Texas, who has spent the past three years in the Bowling Dojo, taking Global Studies, US Government and Politics, and Comparative Government and Politics.

Her entire political life has unfolded in the era of Trump-era politics, so I invited her on to share her perspective on the corporate media environment, American political institutions, meme culture, and what it feels like to be heading to college in what she described as an emerging fascist state.

She’s got a great future ahead of her and I think her perspective is worth sharing ad taking seriously. T is headed to a Big Ten university this fall to study business.

Going Further & Related Episodes

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos! 

Consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

This is our third special episode discussing the US war on Iran and the wider regional complications. 

Here are the headlines from the episode:

This conversation refers to events on or before Friday, April 3, 2026, 10:00pm, Thai Standard Time.

Going Further & Related Episodes

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos! 

Consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member

This is our second special episode discussing the US war on Iran and the wider regional complications. 

On Friday, we departed Abu Dhabi for Thailand. We’ll be living out of our backpacks until it is deemed safe to return to the UAE.

Here are the headlines from the episode:

Going Further & Related Episodes

Subscribe to my newsletter, Takes & Typos! 

Consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member