Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com Special for our international listeners, did you know you can now buy a pathway to U.S. citizenship for the low, low price of $5 million sent directly to the U.S. treasury? For decades America’s immigration policies were a boon to its national defense. No one has better intelligence on a rival country than a fleeing dissident with firsthand knowledge. Times have changed. Gil Guerra of the Niskanen Center is here to talk all abo...
Apr 11, 2025•59 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com For mercenaries, death is a business. It’s all about finding the right market. Wagner and other Russian mercenary groups have found willing markets in Africa. Journalist John Lechner spent years in Africa among the mercenaries and he’s on the show today to tell us about what he learned. Lechner tells us how Wagner’s men think the U.S. media killed Prigozhin, why every theater (or market) is different, and the training regimen o...
Apr 04, 2025•1 hr 2 min
A lot of the people designing America’s technology and close to the center of American power believe some deeply weird shit. We already talked to journalist Gil Duran about the Nerd Reich , the rise of the destructive anti-democratic ideology. In this episode, we dive into another weird section of Silicon Valley: the cult of Rationalism. Max Read, the journalist behind the Read Max Substack, is here to help us through it. Rationalism is responsible for a lot more than you might think and Read la...
Mar 25, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com The Israeli military is using AI products from Microsoft to conduct its war in Gaza. Off the shelf AI products powered by the tech company’s Azure cloud computing system and OpenAI are helping the IDF sort through data, translate Arabic, and even pick targets. But AI translations aren’t perfect and these systems often make mistakes. What happens when the consequences are life and death? Associated Press global investigative rep...
Mar 10, 2025•29 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com We’re living in a bizarre age of technofascism. The richest man who has ever lived, a man who dreams of colonizing Mars with his children , is America’s CEO. Donald Trump, the man people voted for, is just the chairman of the board. What does Elon Musk believe? Is there a playbook for DOGE? How bad are things going to get? On this episode of Angry Planet journalist Gil Duran, author of The Nerd Reich newsletter, walks us throug...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com President Donald Trump wants to build an American Iron Dome. He even signed an executive order to make it happen. It’s a terrible idea, one we’ve tried before, and one that will make America less safe. In this episode, Joseph Cirincione returns to the program to detail his personal history with complicated and costly missile defense systems. It all starts during a snowstorm in 1982 and with the High Frontier Zombie defense pitc...
Feb 19, 2025•53 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the interim head of USAID, for however much longer the agency lasts. For 60 years, the massive bureaucracy was a vehicle for American soft power abroad. Trump, Elon Musk, and all their creatures don’t like it. It might soon be gone. Nicole Widdersheim is the deputy Washington director of Human Rights Watch with a long history of humanitarian work. She’s here on Angry Planet today to walk u...
Feb 10, 2025•59 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com The pros and cons of globalization The end of trust in the global system What was behind the WTO protests of the 1990s How 1999's WTO Protests Influenced the Policing of Protests Today China, China, China The Covid shock White goods ? And we have to talk about McDonald’s How sanctions created the multipolar world “There’s no trust between the U.S., China, and Russia.” Autocrats or historical forces? Martyring Jack Ma What will ...
Jan 29, 2025•1 hr
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com Between the idea and the reality falls the shadow. Marine Corps veteran J.D. Vance will soon be vice president. Pete Hegseth, a man with a Crusader Kings tattoo who doesn’t want women to serve in combat roles, is probably going to be confirmed as secretary of defense. Over New Years, two members of the U.S. military committed domestic terror attacks. Today on Angry Planet we get into the highs and lows of the American military ...
Jan 20, 2025•57 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com It’s hard to read the mind of a dictator, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. When Russian President invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, there were a million columns, videos and podcasts explaining “the real reason” for such a “crazy” move. Well, anyone who tells the story from February 2022 is missing decades of Russian interference in Ukraine, with low points coming during the Orange Revolution of 2005 and then in 2...
Jan 13, 2025•52 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com This week on Angry Planet writer David Faris joins us to talk about his time in Syria and life in America. David’s travels from Lebanon to Syria When people hoped Bashar al-Assad would change Syria What a real totalitarian state feels like The nightmare that follows the collapse of a dictatorship Once again, the ugly legacy of colonialism rears its head The post-Assad players After 15 years, everyone is tired of war Turning to ...
Dec 23, 2024•51 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com This week Angry Planet turns its attention to Canada. Global News investigative journalist Stewart Bell joins us to walk through his two latest pieces and give Matthew a crash course on Canadian history. What do outlaw motorcycle gangs, extrajudicial assassinations, an Indian separatist movement, and a resurgent Islamic State all have in common? Canada. Bell is here to explain it all. The pros and cons of extremists recruiting ...
Dec 17, 2024•58 min
On today’s episode, I talked to Kollen Post about how and why Silicon Valley markets their drones as “battle tested in Ukraine.” We recorded it on Thanksgiving, Jason was busy spending time with his family, and Post and I went down some weird philosophical rabbit holes. Impromptu drone developers The Western image of the Ukrainian drone operator Open source is king The decentralized nature of Ukrainian society Fundraising for war The ignorance of the American people Trump’s promise: You can forg...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com North Korean troops are fighting alongside Russian ones in Ukraine. Bringing the two together hasn’t all gone smoothly. There are language barriers, cultural barriers, and a whole lot of Russian territory to recover. The results have been mixed, but the partnership points to a deepening of the special relationship between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation. On this episode of Angry Planet, Jenn...
Nov 25, 2024•1 hr
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com The planet isn’t going to get any less angry. This week, Aram Shabanian comes on the show again to help us work through what the next Trump presidency may mean for America, Europe, and the rest of the world. Matthew’s hippie metaphor 1931 or 1939? America’s allies know it’s all on them now North Korea in Ukraine Who gets a nuke first? Musk diplomacy A 50% chance of nuclear war is too high Minuteman III’s for sale Don’t turn inw...
Nov 14, 2024•1 hr
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com WARNING: This episode contains nuance in the discussion of subjects usually left to screaming and violence! This week we get into a bunch of stuff around Israel that we normally avoid. Settlements. Blame versus responsibility. The definition of colonialism. The social media posts of IDF soldiers. It’s a calm, nuanced conversation with Shaiel Ben-Ephraim. No, really. Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace Why no one talks about what ...
Nov 04, 2024•1 hr
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com How’s that sanctions regime working out for the U.S. and Russia? This week on the show, we have Stephanie Baker, a senior writer at Bloomberg, to try to answer the question. She just published Punishing Putin , a book all about it. What’s a Russian oligarch like in person? How America’s sanction regime against Russia works The nuclear warfare of it all Do Putin’s “red lines” mean anything? The complex nature of the world’s oil ...
Oct 28, 2024•58 min
Do you ever feel you’re living in a world where all the good stuff happened to the previous generation? Does it seem like America’s best days are behind it? Were you born into an empire just as it began to collapse? Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com/ We’d like to tell you about King Arthur. The story of Arthur has been told hundreds of times in everything from song to story to movie. That makes it a pretty big deal when someone can tell the story of the ancient...
Oct 17, 2024•55 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com/ Israel is at war-again. Adversaries include Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. But behind all three is one enemy at the center of this web of violence: Iran. Is this war the one where Israel and Iran finally confront each other directly? The missiles launched by the ayatollahs say yes, but what will the Jewish state do in return. This week we look at a fight that could bring a whole world into war, with Yaakov Katz as our guide...
Oct 07, 2024•47 min
The American civilian-military divide is stark. Only about 1 percent of the U.S. population has served in the military. We here at Angry Planet like to do what we can to bridge that divide and have found that the easiest way to do that … is just to talk to veterans and service members. That’s why you should listen to the podcast Tracer Burnout, a show where a pair of Army vets talk to other vets about their service. The guys at the center of it are Dan and Roger, two friends who both grew up as ...
Sep 23, 2024•1 hr 9 min
This week on the show we’re honored to have Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nathan Thrall on the show. His 2023 book, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama cuts to the heart of daily life in and around Jerusalem. In 2012, 5-year old Milad Salama was excited for a school field trip to a theme park. When his school bus hit a semi trailer, it upended the lives of everyone on the bus. What followed was a nightmare of bureaucracy that encapsulates what life is like for people living on the wrong side of...
Sep 18, 2024•56 min
Hello and welcome to another conversation about conflict on an Angry Planet. Thanks for letting us kick up our heels this August, it was a rough one. We may not have been releasing, but we WERE recording. The first episode upon our return is with terrorism and vice presidency expert Aaron Mannes. Mannes is lecturer at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and was one of the first people to use big data sets to study terrorist group behavior. These days he’s really into vice presiden...
Sep 09, 2024•58 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com/ Nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein stops by Angry Planet this week to tell us all about his new project Doomsday Machines . It’s a deep dive into the weird post-nuclear futures we’ve built in pop culture. How Warcraft orcs got ICBMs Matthew confuses Camus and Sartre Food poisoning as practice for the radical acceptance of death and suffering Is there any hope in The Road ? Alex is hung up on the cannibals The video game aesthe...
Aug 12, 2024•1 hr 16 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com/ Facing a friendly audience at an AI expo earlier this year, Palantir CEO Alex Karp let loose on a list of controversial topics. He talked about Israel, Gaza, and campus protests. “The peace activists are war activists,” Karp said . “ We are the peace activists.” Palantir, Karp’s company, is promising a bold new way to wage war using AI, one it’s testing out in Ukraine. Karp’s comments hit on an old promise. For generations, sa...
Jul 29, 2024•56 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com/ Ronald Reagan carried a gun in his briefcase when he was president. According to Edmund Morris’ pseudo-historical memoir of Reagan, Dutch , Reagan got the gun in Iowa. “It is a fact … that RR did acquire a 1934 Walther PPK .380 pocket-sized police pistol early in his stay in Des Moines and kept it lovingly the rest of his life,” Morris wrote. “He even toted it in his briefcase as president.” Reagan was obsessed with the idea t...
Jul 18, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com/ On July 1, 2024 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that American presidents have immunity for “official acts” committed while in office. In the dissent opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor raised an interesting hypothetical . “When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune.” It’s the ki...
Jul 15, 2024•1 hr 13 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com/ Influence campaigns, both subtle and unsubtle, are as old as statecraft. Agencies like the CIA, KGB, and Israel’s Mossad have all attempted to force friends and rivals to change. It doesn’t work as often as you’d think. Subversion campaigns are often so secretive that their effectiveness is hard to quantify. But Lennart Maschmeyer decided to try. Maschmeyer is on this episode of Angry Planet to tell us all about the limits of ...
Jul 02, 2024•1 hr 5 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com/ We used to build things in America, things like fallout shelters. There’s a luxury hotel on the border between Virginia and West Virginia that’s been a favorite retreat of the D.C. elite for generations. After the fall of the atom bombs in World War II, Washington commissioned an addition to the hotel: a secret fallout shelter that would house Congress in the event of a nuclear war. Matt Farwell of The Hunt for Tom Clancy is h...
Jun 24, 2024•57 min
Sign up at angryplanetpod.com to get instant access to the full episode. A direct link to the episode on Substack . Back in 2020, Daniel Perry was driving for Uber to make ends meet. He ran a red light and dove his car into a crowd at a Black Lives Matter protest. Garret Foster was there to protect the crowd and he’d brought an AK-47 along to do it. Foster, an Air Force veteran, approached Perry’s car. Perry, an Army sergeant, pulled out a pistol and killed Foster from the car and dr...
Jun 13, 2024•12 min
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com/ No one is really sure how many nuclear weapons are out there. Every number you see is a best guess. Russia and the U.S. have the most, sitting at around 5,000 each. France has just under 200, China has about 500 (and is probably building more), and North Korea has around 50. The world’s nuclear powers love to keep the details of these weapons secret, but not too secret. It’s a complex game of signaling and secrets, one that ca...
Jun 12, 2024•1 hr
