This week, a Quinta-less Alan and Scott welcomed Lawfare's dynamic associate editor duo, Katherine Pompilio and Hyemin Han, on to the show to talk through the week's big national security news stories, including:

• “Going Full Cleve.” Last week, former President Donald Trump announced his intention to once again run for president—in spite of the Republicans’ weak showing in the midterm elections and his own impending legal troubles. What does Trump’s announcement mean for 2024 and after? 
• “A Mueller Mulligan?” Trump’s announcement that he was once again running for president in turn led Attorney General Merrick Garland to make his own announcement last Friday: that he was appointing another Special Counsel to take over the investigations into Trump’s interference in the 2020 election results and mishandling of classified records. Was this the right move? How will the Special Counsel’s appointment impact the investigations—and Trump’s political future?
• “Pyongyanking Our Chain.” North Korea has launched a new ICBM that it claims can deliver nuclear weapons anywhere in the United States. Should this threat be taken seriously or is it a bluff? And is the Biden administration doing enough to respond?

For object lessons, Alan shared the tale of Lawfare's biggest animal fan, Katherine's African Grey parrot Moby. Scott passed along the late Michael Gerson's essay on dropping his youngest son off at college as a wonderful meditation on parenthood. Katherine shared her passion for soft jazz, and recommended the album "Ethiopics, Vol. 4: Ethio Jazz 1969-1974" as a great dive into Ethiopia's own early 1970s jazz scene. And Hyemin endorsed a show she recently took in at the Brooklyn Academy of Music: "Trojan Women," which beautifully translated a Greek tragedy through the Korean storytelling form of pansori.

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