The war between Israel and Hamas, which began on Oct. 7 when terrorists overran the Gaza frontier and killed more than 1,200 Israelis, is now more than six months old. More than 100 Israeli hostages are still being held in Gaza. Israel, in return, has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, with two thirds of that number likely to be civilians, including women and children. There are negotiations for a ceasefire going on—at least sporadically—but Dan Perry, former Associated Press bureau chief in ...
Apr 22, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sign up at angryplanetpod.com to get instant access to the full episode. A direct link to the episode on Substack . A successful TV adaptation of the Fallout video game franchise has everyone excited about the post-apocalypse again so we thought it was a good time to finally do a bonus episode we’ve been threatening for a long time. Cultural critic, journalist, and YouTuber Noah Caldwell-Gervais comes on this episode of Angry Planet to discuss all things Fallout. It’s a long episode, we dive int...
Apr 19, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Go here to listen to Face-Off Jane Perlez is a veteran foreign correspondent, the former Bejing Bureau Chief for The New York Times , and host of the new podcast “Face-Off.” She’s on Angry Planet today to talk to us about the show and her experiences reporting on China. “Face-Off” is all about America’s complicated relationship with China. Perlez says she started the show because she was tired of the hysterical conversations she hears about Beijing in Washington. In this episode we learn … Why O...
Apr 12, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Violence thrives in countries where political solutions to conflict have failed. On this episode of Angry Planet, Jeffsky Poincy comes on the show to walk us through the origins of Haiti’s gang problems and lay out the complicated history that gave rise to them. Poincy, who is Haitian, is a program manager at PartnersGlobal, an NGO that helps foster democratic conflict resolution. Poincy’s perspective on the violence in Haiti is that it will require complicated and lengthy political solutions. T...
Apr 10, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sign up at angryplanetpod.com to get instant access to the full episode. Recorded 4/4/24 The U.S. State Department has been working hard to get Americans out of Haiti. The island nation’s government is in shambles and gangs run much of the urban center of Port-au-Prince. Haitians have struggled for hundreds of years at the hands of gangs, brutal authoritarian dictators, and colonial rule. One of its biggest problems has always been its nearest Imperial neighbor: America. On this episode of Angry...
Apr 08, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Yemen has become a battlefield of technological firsts. The Houthis have turned the Red Sea into a proving ground for Iranian weapons, and Tehran is learning what works and what doesn’t. It’s become a place where the Khamenei and his crew can test new technologies and new strategies. It’s a win for Iran and a win for the Houthis in the short-term, but missiles on their own don’t win wars. On this bonus episode of Angry Planet, Fabian Hinz of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in L...
Mar 29, 2024•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Defense contractors and governments can run a thousand simulations, but the data they get will never be as good as what’s generated on a battlefield. When Russia invaded Ukraine, tech companies saw an opportunity. A land war in Europe presented a unique chance to test cutting-edge technologies. That’s why, a few months after the 2022 invasion, Palantir CEO Alex Karp drove into the capital to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. TIME Senior Correspondent Vera Bergengruen is her...
Mar 26, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sign up at angryplanetpod.com to get instant access to the full episode. Writing, even fiction writing, about war provides a clear-eyed and honest view of conflict that the best movies and television shows can’t replicate. Civilians and soldiers on all sides of conflicts have always turned to poetry and prose to express feelings that are hard to articulate any other way. On March 10, the literary magazine Guernica published a personal essay from British-Israeli writer Joannna Chen about th...
Mar 20, 2024•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast The U.S. is spending $2 trillion to overhaul its nuclear weapons. China is building ICBM silos in the desert. Russia has spent the last ten years talking about its fancy new nukes. After decades of drawdown, the world’s great powers are reversing course and rebuilding their nuclear arsenals. We have forgotten the power and terror of these weapons. W.J. Hennigan of The New York Times wants the world to remember. On this episode of Angry Planet, Hennigan discusses the Time’s new series: At t...
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's easy to say the words "two-state solution" between Israel and the Palestinians, but as Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations explains, there are plenty of reasons why there hasn't been one so far. We also take another look at "moral" war in a tight space. What's the difference between collateral damage and a war crime? And has world opinion turned permanently against Israel? We also talk to Steven about his upcoming book, The End of Ambition: American's Past, Prese...
Mar 13, 2024•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Since the middle of December, a U.S.-led coalition has been trading munitions with Houthis in Yemen. The day after Christmas, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower began participating in strikes against targets along the coast. It hasn’t left since and the conflict between a group of international allies and the Houthis has continued. On this episode of Angry Planet, former fighter pilot and current YouTuber Ward Carroll sits down to walk us through the ins and outs of Operation Prosperity Guardian. The conv...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast One of the persistent themes of Angry Planet has been that smaller countries in the spheres of influence of great powers have far greater control over their destinies than it would appear. If the recent fighting in the Middle East has taught us anything, it’s that local partners have plans of their own and it’s impossible for a patron to have complete control over what happens on the ground. On this episode of Angry Planet, Barbara Elias of Bowdoin College comes on to make the case for retiring ...
Feb 29, 2024•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Retired Colonel John Spencer, who is a combat veteran who now teaches at West Point, joins Matthew and Jason for a second time. This time we're not talking about how to carry out urban warfare, but we're looking at how you fight morally under impossible circumstances. John recently wrote a piece for Newsweek (Jason's day job), making the controversial case that the Israelis are doing more than any other modern military to limit civilian casualties. You can see if he's persuasive for yo...
Feb 15, 2024•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Oil makes the world go ‘round, for now. But rare earth minerals such as lithium are increasingly in demand and, as a result, the source of conflict. With us on the show today is Reuters journalist Ernest Scheyder. His new book The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives explores the new resource war that’s sucking in community activists, titans of industry, and global superpowers. Scheyder’s work at Reuters The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Pow...
Jan 30, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Joining your faithful Angry Planet crew this week are Rose Gottemoeller and Michael Ryan , both national security experts and both with a strong view that the war in Ukraine can still be won. And they'll even tell you how, if you listen to this week's show. You can read more of their thoughts in Foreign Policy: Ukraine Has a Pathway to Victory Angry Planet has a Substack ! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict. https://angryp...
Jan 25, 2024•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Vice News reporter Any Hayward spent the better part of the last year in Russia reporting on the domestic situation there. His work has appeared in various segments on Vice’s website, but he’s got a new documentary coming out on the anniversary of fullscale invasion called Warped by War . Hayward is here to walk us through what he saw, who he talked to, and the unique dangers of reporting in Putin’s Russia as a foreign journalist. The Vice YouTube channel is here . Warped by War will be availabl...
Jan 16, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the new year at Angry Planet. For the last 100 years, American defense policy has been aided by elaborate war games. SIGMA, the Cold War Game, and the Millenium Challenge are just some of the most famous. Sometimes these games are played with dice and boards, other times they’re purely electronic. Why do we do this, when did we start, and what does it all mean? More importantly, how do we make sure the board games don’t play us? Here to answer those questions is Director of the Hoover...
Jan 09, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast When President Dwight David Eisenhower left the stage as president of the United States in 1961, he warned of the military-industrial complex he was leaving behind. Sounds ominous, right? And that complex has had 60 years to harden in place since Eisenhower’s farewell address. But what is the military-industrial complex? Is it a war-mongering machine out to kill us all at a profit? Is it a bunch of old boys networking to sell $700 hammers to the Pentagon through no-bid deals? Was Eisenhower over...
Dec 15, 2023•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Forty years ago, a made for TV movie aired on ABC that changed the world. It was called The Day After , and it depicted life in Kansas and Missouri after a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. More than 100 million people watched it when it aired. One of them was president Ronald Reagan. “I ran the tape of the movie ABC is running on the air Nov. 20. It’s called “The Day After.” It has Lawrence Kansas wiped out in a nuclear war with Russia. It is powerfully done—all $7 mil. worth. It’s very e...
Dec 04, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Here’s an episode for anyone who thinks art can’t change the world. Tom Clancy topped the best seller charts for decades. He’s so popular that even his death couldn’t stop sales, and the flow of new products. Books, TV shows, movies, and video games all bear his name. But Clancy wasn’t just a popular author—he was also a geopolitical player. On the show this week is writer Matt Farwell, creator of the The Hunt For Tom Clancy substack. Farwell’s unique blend of memoir, history, and critique casts...
Nov 24, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast The war between Israel and Hamas shows no sign of slowing. More and more (just as was predicted on this show) sympathy for the Jewish State is drying up around the world amid horrific losses among Palestinian civilians, especially children. College campuses are flooded with students and faculty calling for the end of Israel itself. In this episode, we look into the origins of the conflict, as well as its causes, with Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign relations. Everyone's done that, though. ...
Nov 17, 2023•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week on the show we talked with Canadian-Palestinian doctor Tarek Loubani about his work as an emergency room doctor in Gaza. Loubani helped pioneer the use of 3D printers in Gaza to produce low-cost medical equipment like stethoscopes. In 2018, he was shot in the legs by the IDF while delivering medical supplies. In this wide ranging conversation, he talks about the importance of low cost medical supplies, the 3D printing revolution, and what it’s like to work in a hospital under siege. Th...
Nov 15, 2023•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast This episode was recorded on 10/10/23. Every war comes with a fog that makes it hard, if not impossible, to tell what’s going on while it’s being fought. The Israel-Hamas War is no different. What sets it apart is a digital information space rife AI generated images, perverse incentives, and outright propaganda. This week on Angry Planet we sat down with Emauel Maiberg and Joseph Cox of 404 Media come on the show to talk about covering the war’s and how the digital world has supercharged d...
Nov 06, 2023•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week’s episode is a long conversation with Joey Ayoub about Gaza, Palestine, and Israel. We cover a lot of ground and we’ve got a lot of show notes that accompany this episode. Show notes from Joey: Where the Palestinian Political Project Goes from Here “Divide and Rule”: How Israel Helped Start Hamas to Weaken Palestinian Hopes for Statehood Joey’s excellent podcast, The Fire These Times and its Patreon . Follow Joey on Mastodon. Show Notes on Robert Malley The Smear Job Inside Iran’s infl...
Oct 25, 2023•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Writing a blurb to describe a podcast episode isn't typically a difficult thing to do—between myself and Matthew, we've been writing for about 50 years—but as all things with Israel and the Palestinians, even writing a blurb is bound to offend someone. That's not our goal, but if you listen to the show, don't be surprised if there are a few things that you don't agree with, or even some that make you angry. It's in the name of the show, after all. This week we're talking about the Hamas att...
Oct 15, 2023•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Paul Rieckhoff is a veteran with a lot to say about the state of the world. He came on Angry Planet to help us understand what happened when former President Donald Trump and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley crossed paths. What does it mean to swear allegiance to the Constitution above all, rather than to any particular commander-in-chief? What do you do if that person at the top wants you to do something unlawful, and who gets to judge what is unlawf...
Oct 13, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Once a year, leaders from around the world leave their capitals behind them for a trip to the Big City, New York. What could pull these powerful men—and far fewer women—away from affairs of state? Is it the revival of Spamalot on Broadway? No, the opening is still a few weeks away. Could it be the glittering bars, restaurants, and hotels? The easy availability of the ingredients for every vice known to humanity? Is it simply the lights on Broadway? Nope. It’s the one, the only United Nations Gen...
Oct 04, 2023•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Aram Shabanian stops by this week to talk to us about the strong men of the Caucasus. We start with a deep dive into what’s going on in Armenia and Azerbaijan right now with a focus on the 1990s. Shabanian calls Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyevl, the “Saddam Hussein of the Caucasus” and comes to grip with the realpolitik of the conflict. Then we turn our attention to Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov and discuss rumors of his failing health, mixed martial arts, and how a brutal warlord became ...
Sep 25, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re taking another look at the climate here at Angry Planet. This week we’re joined by Peter Kalmus of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Talking to a scientist about how hot the planet is getting can be jarring. Kalmus, like other experts in the field, brings a sense of doom to the subject that fits perfectly in the Angry Planet cannon. Kalmus talks about dining with oil executives and shares his thoughts on How to Blow Up a Pipeline . We cover a lot of ground in this episode and we’re happy t...
Sep 18, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mysterious producer Kevin Knodell comes on to Angry Planet this week to tell us about his recent reporting trip to Maui. A timeline of the fire Playing the blame game Matthew screws up island names The politics of taro farming Yakistan The Range 12 Fire Don’t ask him about the fucking tree Our fiery future Angry Planet has a Substack ! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict. https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe Support ...
Sep 07, 2023•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
