Turbulence

Matthew Petti joins us to discuss the crack-up within the Republican Party’s base over Gaza, Netanyahu’s plan to wind down US military aid, and what the US’s performance in the Iran War portends for the future of great power conflict.

Check out Matthew’s latest piece, published on Drop Site, here. You can read some of the other pieces mentioned in the interview here and here.

Matthew Petti is an assistant editor at Reason who covers U.S. national security policy and its interactions with American society and domestic politics. He has previously reported for the BBC (in Persian and English), The Intercept, The Daily Beast, New Lines, Responsible Statecraft, Middle East Eye, and The National Interest, among other publications.

You can find him on Substack and on X/Twitter.

Please consider donating to families in need in Gaza: here, here, or here.

We’re committed to independence and will never run ads or take money from institutions. That means Turbulence is entirely listener-funded.

For $5 a month, paid subscribers gain access to weekly news analysis bonus episodes, where we respond to events as they unfold, follow up on previous discussions, and draw connections across the conflicts shaping our world.

Most importantly, paid subscriptions make it possible for us to keep doing this work independently, week after week.

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Theme: Eye for an Eye, Haram (2017)

Art: Vivek Venkatraman

We discuss the unravelling of the US-Iran MOU, the dissolution of Hamas’s civilian governing body in Gaza, Turkiye’s status in NATO, Rahm Emanuel’s Tel Aviv speech, and Mamdani’s persecution of the NYC Italian community.

We’re committed to independence and will never run ads or take money from institutions. That means Turbulence is entirely listener-fund…

Nasser Elamine joins us to discuss the framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, Hezbollah’s military reemergence, the unity of fronts strategy, and how regional states are responding to the rapidly shifting global order.

Works mentioned: Interim Contours, Hezbollah’s Gamble.

Nasser Elamine is a senior editor at Al-Quds Al-Arabi, a pan-Arab daily based in London, and a writer/researcher focusing on Middle Eastern geopolitics.

You can find him on X/Twitter here and on Instagram here.

We’re committed to independence and will never run ads or take money from institutions. That means Turbulence is entirely listener-funded.

For $5 a month, paid subscribers gain access to weekly news analysis bonus episodes, where we respond to events as they unfold, follow up on previous discussions, and draw connections across the conflicts shaping our world.

Most importantly, paid subscriptions make it possible for us to keep doing this work independently, week after week.

Subscribe today at turbulencepod.substack.com

Follow along on Twitter/X and Instagram @turbulence_pod

Theme: Eye for an Eye, Haram (2017)

Art: Vivek Venkatraman

We are joined by Noah and Brendan to discuss the evolution of US foreign policy since World War II, the extent to which Trump marks a decline in American power, and lessons they have learned across six seasons of Blowback.

Works mentioned: The Yankee and Cowboy War; The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000.

Our Anti-4th of July Sale is live. For this week only (ending July 7th), you'll get 20% off both monthly and annual subscriptions. If you choose an annual plan, you'll also receive our usual $5 annual discount, giving you a full year of Turbulence at our lowest price. If you've enjoyed listening over the past eight months and you're in a position to support our work, your subscription helps us keep this show independent and sustainable.

We’re committed to independence and will never run ads or take money from institutions. That means Turbulence is entirely listener-funded.

For $5 a month, paid subscribers gain access to weekly news analysis bonus episodes, where we respond to events as they unfold, follow up on previous discussions, and draw connections across the conflicts shaping our world.

Most importantly, paid subscriptions make it possible for us to keep doing this work independently, week after week.

Subscribe today at turbulencepod.substack.com

Follow along on Twitter/X and Instagram @turbulence_pod

Theme: Eye for an Eye, Haram (2017)

Art: Vivek Venkatraman

Noah Kulwin and Brendan James of Blowback join us to discuss their new mini-series on the history of the US-Israel relationship, how the Cold War turned into the War on Terror, and the current moment of tension over the Iran war.

Blowback’s first-ever mini-series, No Daylight, is available now for Blowback subscribers.

This is part one of a two-part conversation with Noah and Brendan. In part two, they reflect on the broader arc of the American century and what they have learned across six seasons of Blowback. Part two will be released on July 3rd, exclusively for Turbulence’s paid subscribers.

Our Anti-4th of July Sale is live. For this week only, you'll get 20% off both monthly and annual subscriptions. If you choose an annual plan, you'll also receive our usual $5 annual discount, giving you a full year of Turbulence at our lowest price. If you've enjoyed listening over the past eight months and you're in a position to support our work, your subscription helps us keep this show independent and sustainable.

Brendan James is a writer, musician, and former producer of the hit podcast Chapo Trap House. Noah Kulwin is a reporter and editor who has written for The New York Times, New York, The Drift, Jewish Currents, and elsewhere. Together, they host the political history podcast Blowback.

Works mentioned: Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict; High Noon in Washington: The Shootout over the Loan Guarantees; Our American Israel: The Story of an Entangled Alliance; Containing Arab Nationalism: The Eisenhower Doctrine and the Middle East.

We’re committed to independence and will never run ads or take money from institutions. That means Turbulence is entirely listener-funded.

For $5 a month, paid subscribers gain access to weekly news analysis bonus episodes, where we respond to events as they unfold, follow up on previous discussions, and draw connections across the conflicts shaping our world.

Most importantly, paid subscriptions make it possible for us to keep doing this work independently, week after week.

Subscribe today at turbulencepod.substack.com

Follow along on Twitter/X and Instagram @turbulence_pod

Theme: Eye for an Eye, Haram (2017)

Art: Vivek Venkatraman

We discuss the passing of our dear friend Alan, a deconfliction mechanism in Lebanon, Israeli troop deployments to Somaliland, the victories of DSA-backed candidates in New York, the repression of anti-ICE protestors in Texas, and Séamus breaks his silence on Ice Cream Truck-Gate.

We’re committed to independence and will never run ads or take money from institutions. That means Turbulence is entirely listener-funded.

For $5 a month, paid subscribers gain access to weekly news analysis bonus episodes, where we respond to events as they unfold, follow up on previous discussions, and draw connections across the conflicts shaping our world.

Most importantly, paid subscriptions make it possible for us to keep doing this work independently, week after week.

Subscribe today at turbulencepod.substack.com

Follow along on Twitter/X and Instagram @turbulence_pod

Theme: Eye for an Eye, Haram (2017)

Art: Vivek Venkatraman

Torkil Lauesen joins us to discuss the political economy of imperialism and trade, Arghiri Emmanuel’s theory of unequal exchange, political action in the imperial core, his years in prison, and the current geopolitical moment of hegemonic transition.

Works mentioned: Unequal Exchange: Past, Present, and Future; Unequal Exchange.

Torkil Lauesen is a communist writer. In 1969 he joined a Maoist cadre organization based in Copenhagen, Denmark. It specialized in undercover material support work for liberation movements in The Third World. Besides this it provided political schooling and study groups analysing the world system for developing their strategy and praxis. This work continued for nearly 20 years until their cover was blown in 1989. He turned the years in prison into a long field study, writing a master thesis in political science about the prison system. After being released, he continued anti-imperialist activism and took up writing for publishing in an effort to pass on their experience. He is a member of anti-imperialist net and a board member of the Arghiri Emmanuel Association.

We’re committed to independence and will never run ads or take money from institutions. That means Turbulence is entirely listener-funded.

For $5 a month, paid subscribers gain access to weekly news analysis bonus episodes, where we respond to events as they unfold, follow up on previous discussions, and draw connections across the conflicts shaping our world.

Most importantly, paid subscriptions make it possible for us to keep doing this work independently, week after week.

Subscribe today at turbulencepod.substack.com

Follow along on Twitter/X and Instagram @turbulence_pod

Theme: Eye for an Eye, Haram (2017)

Art: Vivek Venkatraman

In this special extended bonus episode, we go point by point through the Memorandum of Understanding to end the Iran War. We also survey some of the most charming reactions from US and Israel officials and media figures.

We’re committed to independence and will never run ads or take money from institutions. That means Turbulence is entirely listener-fund…

Gerald Horne joins us to discuss writing history from below, whether the legacy of 1776 can be redeemed, settler colonialism as an analytic frame, the US’s Suez moment in Iran, and the challenges of contemporary left electoralism.

Works mentioned: The Counter-Revolution of 1776; The Capital of Slavery; The Counter-Revolution of 1836; Armed Struggle?; Abolition Democracy; Banquo’s Ghost; Comparative Settler Colonialism: Slavery & Indigenous Dispossession in the U.S. and Canada, the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia (forthcoming).

Dr. Gerald Horne is the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. He has written over 40 books dealing with the confluence of African American History, Communist History, the struggle for liberation, internationalism, imperialism, colonialism, racism, white supremacy, and fascism.

We’re committed to independence and will never run ads or take money from institutions. That means Turbulence is entirely listener-funded.

For $5 a month, paid subscribers gain access to weekly news analysis bonus episodes, where we respond to events as they unfold, follow up on previous discussions, and draw connections across the conflicts shaping our world.

Most importantly, paid subscriptions make it possible for us to keep doing this work independently, week after week.

Subscribe today at turbulencepod.substack.com

Follow along on Twitter/X and Instagram @turbulence_pod

Theme: Eye for an Eye, Haram (2017)

Art: Vivek Venkatraman

We discuss the return of war to the Persian Gulf, negotiations over an MOU, “dark transits” through Hormuz, a proposed Syrian invasion of Lebanon, Graham Platner’s whole deal, and what the trainwreck at CBS News says about the US-Israel relationship.

We’re committed to independence and will never run ads or take money from institutions. That means Turbulence is entirely listener-funded.

For $5 a month, paid subscribers gain access to weekly news analysis bonus episodes, where we respond to events as they unfold, follow up on previous discussions, and draw connections across the conflicts shaping our world.

Most importantly, paid subscriptions make it possible for us to keep doing this work independently, week after week.

Subscribe today at turbulencepod.substack.com

Follow along on Twitter/X and Instagram @turbulence_pod

Theme: Eye for an Eye, Haram (2017)

Art: Vivek Venkatraman