Angry Planet
Angry Planet is a podcast that features conversations about conflict on an angry planet. It is created, produced, and hosted by Matthew Gault and Jason Fields. The show covers topics related to war, geopolitics, and global tensions. Support for the show is available through Acast.
Episodes
Navigating Reality and War During the Age of AI Propaganda
On the morning of April 21, Trump posted an image of eight women on Truth Social, claimed they were Iranian dissidents set to be executed, and demanded that Tehran release them. Detractors, and several Iranian sources, claimed the women were AI-generated. A day later Trump claimed the women would no longer be executed and that he’d saved them.The truth is that the women are real and many are still
Christianity Shaped North Korea’s Cult of Personality
Kim Song Ju, the man who would become Kim Il Sung, was born to devout Presbyterian parents. Billy Graham’s wife was born to christian missionaries in China and went to high school in Pyongyang. American protestants once spread the gospel in northwest Korea and found fertile ground for their gospel message. Kim listened, learned, and used those teachings to shape a cult of personality that rules No
Making the Case America Was Winning in Iran
Recorded March 24, 2026. Subscribe at angryplanetpod.com to hear episodes first and commercial free.Last week an article published in Al Jazeera by an academic at the University of Doha in Qatar proposed something that felt crazy to some western war watchers: America and Israel’s strategy in Iran is working.On this episode of Angry Planet, author Muhanad Seloom is here to explain his position. Sel
Neutralizing Iran’s Nuclear Material During a War Is ‘Nearly Mission Impossible’
America went to war in Iran, we’re told, because the idea of the country developing nuclear weapons was intolerable. Nukes are complicated and technical weapons that require scientists and experts to build, maintain, and manage. Highly enriched uranium (HEU) is core to the design and unless all of Iran’s HEU is accounted for the threat of it becoming a nuclear power will linger.So what would it ta
The ‘AI as Nuclear Weapons’ Obsession
AI enthusiasts love to say that the technology is as revolutionary and important as nuclear weapons. Even the Trump administration has adopted the metaphor. The President and the Department of Energy have repeatedly referred to the development of AI in the US as “Manhattan Project 2.0.”But is the buildout of LLMs and machine learning systems really as important as the development of the atom bomb?
A Killer True Crime Fandom & Islamic State’s Digital Caliphate
Things have gotten very surreal in the dark corners of the internet. AI-generated prophets are preaching jihad in Facebook groups, Minecraft servers host digital caliphates, and school shooting fandoms gather to study their heroes and plot how to up beat their score. It’s a double bill on this episode of Angry Planet as two experts from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a nonprofit that
When Americans Became ‘Splendid Liberators’
America spent most of the 19th century at war with itself. It conquered its western expanse then collapsed into civil war. Once the North beat the South, partisan politics consumed the country for a generation. A string of assassinations, progressive firebrands, and civil service reforms burned people out on domestic politics and a bored and febrile nation began to search for meaning beyond its bo
Puffins, Zyn, and ‘Polar War’
Greenland fever has faded for now but it will return. The world’s polar region, you see, is pretty damn important. As the planet heats and the ice melts, what was once an impassible warren of ice and snow has become a geopolitical opportunity.On today’s Angry Planet, we host journalist Kenneth R. Rosen who just published the book Polar War. He’s spent the past few years among the ice and snow, emb
Online Culture Is the Whole Culture
There was a time, just before the pandemic, when folks would say “Twitter isn’t real life” as a means of dismissing the horrors of social media. This was a cope, a way to ignore the worst political and cultural actors who now dominate our psychic landscape. Now those people are in charge and they’ve manifested Twitter into real life in a way previously thought impossible.The White House is posting
How We Thought the First Year Would Go
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comOn January 28, 2025, I sat down with Aram Shabanian to talk about how we thought the first year of the Trump administration would go. I put the audio in a vault and didn’t listen to it until now.We focused on geopolitics and the American military and our hit rate for predictions was about fifty percent. Domestically, it’s been muc
On Spectacles of Cruelty
On the last Angry Planet of 2025, novelist and Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay returns to reflect on a year of spectacle and cruelty.Between the Pentagon’s boat strikes and the administration’s constant barrage of grotesque memes, it feels like America is a crueler and cruder place. For better and worse, the Presidency sets a moral standard for the country and Trump has lowered that standard. Klay
Google’s Former CEO Is Dancing in Ukraine
Earlier this year journalist Ben Makuch caught a glimpse of Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, dancing at a club in Kyiv. It was a surreal moment, a snapshot of a tragic war that the West thinks is defining the future of conflict. Tech executives have flocked to Ukraine, courting the country in an attempt to get at a resource more precious than gold: data. Makuch was just there and has writte
‘Capitalism Is a Series of Regime Changes’
Another week and another Angry Planet about the horrifying systems that rule our lives.Is there a depressive theme running through the work right now? Possibly. I promise we’ll soon replace it with rage.This week on the show we have Sven Beckert to talk about his new book Capitalism: A Global History. Beckert is a professor of history at Harvard and his tome is an attempt to capture the entire his
The US Government’s AI Grand Bargain
The White House is portraying the race to adopt AI as an existential crisis. It’s the next Manhattan Project, they say, a technology so important it will require an unprecedented build out of energy infrastructure and massive data centers. But the Manhattan Project was a government-led technological drive whereas AI is led by salesmen and corporations.What could possibly go wrong?On this episode o
Deadwood: The Town that Made the Wild West
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThis week on Angry Planet we’re taking a break from the horrors of the present to explore horrors of a past distant enough now that they’re entertaining. But then, America found those horrors pretty entertaining at the time, too. Even when it was still a thriving community and a going concern, the town of Deadwood, South Dakota, w
Learning to Love the Stagnant Order
Is your Empire feeling less than fresh? Does it feel like the modern world’s best days are behind it? Do conquest and global power politics not hit as good as they used to? Welcome to the Age of Stagnation, a time when the fruits of the Industrial Revolution can be enjoyed but not replicated.It’s making us all a little crazy, especially world leaders. With us today on the show is Michael Beckley,
‘Goliath’s Curse’ and the Surprising Benefits of Societal Collapse
We’re obsessed with apocalypses, big and small. We fantasize about what the future might look like after the fall of society and fear the coming tribulation. Rome fretted about decline until its end. Stories of the Sea Peoples terrified the monarchs of the Late Bronze Age. During the 30 Years’ War, Europeans imagined Armageddon had finally begun.But a funny thing happens after the collapse: things
Yes, US Strikes On Alleged Drug Traffickers Are Illegal. That Won’t Stop Them
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThis week on Angry Planet we have returning guest and former judge advocate Dan Maurer. The last time he was on the show, Maurer walked us through the consequences of a Supreme Court ruling that asked the question: is it illegal for the President to order SEAL Team Six to kill people? It was a surreal question that now feels more
Vanessa Guillén and the Importance of Speaking Up
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe episode is about Vanessa Guillén, a US soldier who was murdered at Fort Hood in 2020. She also experienced sexual harassment while in the military. I spoke with ABC Special Correspondent John Quiñones about his new podcast, Vanished. It’s a good podcast that covers Guillén’s case in-depth and highlights the reforms the Pentago
Assassinations Are Shitposts Now
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comPolitical assassins often have incoherent politics and Tyler Robinson is no different. The young man who killed Charlie Kirk inscribed the shell casings of his bullets with obscure memes that say less about what he believed and more about where he spent time online. Robinson isn’t alone. Earlier this year the Annunciation Church s
The War On Terror on Drugs
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comOn September 2, 2025 the United States escalated its decades long War on Drugs with a tactic borrowed from the War on Terror. It used a drone to blow up a boat it said was full of drugs then said the 11 people killed in the strike were terrorists.Is this legal? Does that matter?On this week’s Angry Planet, journalist Mike LaSusa o
Traveling America’s ‘Murderland’
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe Pacific Northwest is known for its startling natural beauty, precocious rainfall, and propensity to birth serial killers. Why? Caroline Fraser has a theory and it’s a good one.This week on Angry Planet, Fraser takes us on a journey through the American past and into the dark heart of the PNW. Her new book Murderland weaves tog
After Xi
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comAll things move towards their end, even seemingly omnipotent political leaders, and authoritarian systems are shaped by the question of succession long before the leader dies. Xi Jinping is 72 years old and the Chinese Communist Party has started to consider what comes next. Those conversations are shaping the political reality of
Does the U.S. Need an Independent Cyber Force?
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comIf the internet is a battlefield, does that mean the United States needs a new military force to dominate it?On this episode of Angry Planet, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Edward Charles Cardon and former House Armed Services Committee staffer Joshua Stiefel make the case for spinning off the Cyber Force into an independent
Hunting Nazis Online With Canadian Journalists
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comJournalists and Nazis have changed a lot in the years since the end of World War II; journalists are on the outs while Nazis are having a bit of a moment. Across the U.S. and Canada, avowed fascists have committed murder, attempted to destroy the power grid, and actively recruit online and in person. As these extremists work to hi
How Many Nukes Does It Take to Win a War? (Trick Question)
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe world is living with a Cold War hangover. The logic of deterrence, which dominates the minds of the people who plan nuclear wars, means that America must have enough nuclear weapons to credibly threaten to destroy the world should someone launch nukes at it. That thinking led to a world with tens of thousands of nuclear weapon
A History of the Iranian Nuclear Program
Sometimes it’s good to back up and ask the basic questions: How do we know Iran was even developing nuclear weapons?On this episode of the show, the Arms Control Wonk Jeffrey Lewis walks us through the history of the Iranian nuclear (weapons and energy) program. It’s got it all: diplomacy, assassinations, cowardly politicians, and uranium fever.Lewis is a professor at the Middlebury Institute, mem
Talking With the Military Ethics Professor Who Resigned in Protest
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comPauline Shanks Kaurin PhD. was, until recently, the Stockdale Chair for Professional Military Ethics at the U.S. Naval War College. She’d been there since 2018, teaching philosophy and ethics to U.S. military officers and the occasional civilian. Then came Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and marching orders she said stifled academic f
The Iran Strikes Beg the Question: What Is Airpower For?
You can’t win a war with airpower alone, despite what the U.S. Air Force will tell you. For more than 100 years, the masters of the air have promised that military and political objectives can be achieved if you just let them drop enough bombs.It’s a theory that’s been tested, and fallen short, many times. Operation Midnight Hammer, the Trump administration’s use of 14 GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance P
Libya, China, and the Outlaw Ocean
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe ocean is vast, beautiful, and lawless. Thousands of miles from any coast, power belongs to those who seize it.On this episode of Angry Planet, journalist Ian Urbina stops by to discuss the Outlaw Ocean Project and the second season of its incredible podcast. Urbina and his team of investigative journalists are telling stories
Silicon Valley Wants ‘More Everything Forever’
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe futures of the past have curdled into the nightmares of the present. The richest and most powerful people the world has ever known want to colonize mars, live forever, and digitize human consciousness. To make these technological miracles come to pass, they say, will require people to dramatically change the way they live and
America’s Favorite Gunfighters and the Birth of the Old West
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comAmerica loves the Western. Stories about frontier towns, outlaws and lawmen, and—most of all—killing. How did the myth and legend of the gunfighter come to permeate the U.S.? Were there rules to gunfights? How did you become famous by killing people? Did Texas, yes Texas, make all this possible?We’ll answer those questions in this
The Horror of AI Generals Making Command Decisions
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comPalantir, Anduril and a suite of other Tolkien-inspired tech nightmares want to integrate artificial intelligence into every aspect of the U.S. military. Both companies have software suites they’re pitching as agents that will help make command decisions during combat. An AI general, if you will.Yes, that’s a terrible idea.On this
America’s Pivot to the Pacific
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe Pentagon has been trying to pivot to the Pacific for years now. Under President Donald Trump 2.0, who is focused on China, it just might happen. It’s a complicated body of water with dozens of players and a bloody history. One where Beijing is increasingly asserting itself.Here to walk us through some of it is Angry Planet pro
India and Pakistan: Nuclear Neighbors on the Brink
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comRecorded 5/7/25India and Pakistan have been unhappy neighbors since 1947 and Britain’s decolonization of the subcontinent. They’ve fought four wars and there have been countless skirmishes. As Indian jets streak over Pakistani skies and that Muslim nation threatens retaliation, it’s unclear if this is war or just another blip betw
Donald Trump Wants to Divide Up the World With His ‘Friends’
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comGreat power competition has gotten old for President Donald Trump—never one for a fair fight. He’s looking for a little great power collusion instead, dividing the world with his best buds, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. This kind of thing isn’t new, though, Stacie Goddard, a professor at Wellesley, tells us, in fact it’s the 1800
Why An Empire Eats
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comConquest is back baby! Eastern Europe, Taiwan, Greenland, Canada? It’s all on the table—and maybe up for grabs. Here to help us sort through this new age of empire building is University of Chicago political scientist Michael Albertus.As always, climate changeWhither Canada?The coming Canadian century“Territorial ambitions sometim
Erdogan’s Path to Pure Authoritarianism
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comTurkey’s president has grabbed a bit more power for himself with the recent arrest of the mayor of Istanbul. The mayor was thought to be one of the few politicians who could challenge Erdogan.Steven Cook will take us through it.Talking about authoritarians is one of the things we do here, so strap in for another tale of turmoil on
Immigration Policy As Defense Policy
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comSpecial 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
Life Inside Wagner Before and After Prigozhin
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comFor 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
The Cult of Rationalism in Silicon Valley
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
How Israel Is Using Microsoft AI to Pick Targets in Gaza
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe 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 mistake
Welcome to the Nerd Reich
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comWe’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 e
The American Iron Dome Is an Expensive Boondoggle That Won’t Work
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comPresident 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 defens
The End of U.S. Soft Power
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comU.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
Lost Episode: ‘Goodbye Globalization: The Return of a Divided World’
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe pros and cons of globalizationThe end of trust in the global systemWhat was behind the WTO protests of the 1990sHow 1999's WTO Protests Influenced the Policing of Protests TodayChina, China, ChinaThe Covid shockWhite goods?And we have to talk about McDonald’sHow sanctions created the multipolar world“There’s no trust between t
Pete Hegseth and the Surreal World of the Civ-Mil Divide With Phil Klay
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comBetween 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 dome
‘Putin’s Revenge.’ Lucian Kim on Why Russia Invaded Ukraine
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comIt’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 i
Syria, Authoritarianism, and U.S. Politics
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThis 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 SyriaWhen people hoped Bashar al-Assad would change SyriaWhat a real totalitarian state feels likeThe nightmare that follows the collapse of a dictatorshipOnce again, the ugly legacy of colonial
A Crash Course on Indian Assassinations and ISIS in Canada
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThis 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
U.S. Defense Contractors Are Using ‘Battle Tested in Ukraine’ As a Marketing Label
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 developersThe Western image of the Ukrainian drone operatorOpen source is kingThe decentralized nature of Ukrainia
North Korea and Russia—A Very Special Relationship
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comNorth 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 Demo
Don't Fall for Donald the Dove
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comThe 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 metaphor1931 or 1939?America’s allies know it’s all on them nowNorth Korea in UkraineWho gets a nuke first?Mu
A Calm Conversation About Israeli Settlements and Blame vs Responsibility
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comWARNING: 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 w
Stephanie Baker on ‘Punishing Putin’
Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comHow’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 worksThe nuclear
King Arthur at the End of the World
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
Yaakov Katz on Israel's Invasion Of Lebanon
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.Thi
Tracer Burnout and Growing Up in the U.S. Military
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 ab
Angry Planet's Resident Zionist Reckons With the Brutal Reality of Arab Life in Israel
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
Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Assassinations
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 peopl
Doomsday Machines With Nuclear Historian Alex Wellserstein
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 ICBMsMatthew confuses Camus and SartreFood poisoning as practice for the radical acceptance of death and s
How Silicon Valley Seduced the Pentagon
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
On Presidential Assassins and the RNC With Rick Perlstein
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,” M
So What Happens to SEAL Team 6 If They Do Assassinations for the President?
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
The Hard Limits of Cyber War and Subversion Operations
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 Maschmeye
Inside the Congressional Nuclear Bunker
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 th
TEASER: Getting Away With Murder in Texas
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
How to Count Nuclear Weapons
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
TEASER: Checking In On the Online Nazis With Jason Wilson
Sign up at angryplanetpod.com to get instant access to the full episode.A direct link to the episode on Substack.American politics was bizarre in 2016. Alt-right figures dominated many news cycles and shared pictures of cartoon frogs online. A lot of those personalities, like Baked Alaska and Richard Spencer, flamed out and vanished from the scene. But there’s always money to be made and
The FBI’s Chat App and the Biggest Sting Operation In History
International criminal organizations are more concerned about message security than the average citizen. The end-to-end encryption of WhatsApp or Signal is great, but drug traffickers are looking for a little extra. Enter services like Anom, EncroChat, Sky, and Phantom Secure— discrete messaging services that charged big bucks and promised criminals a chat experience free from the prying eyes of l
Ships: America Doesn't Build Them Like It Used To (Or at All)
A lot goes into keeping a navy afloat. There’s ship husbanding, maintenance, and buckets of haze gray. The U.S. used to be good at this, but it hasn’t been on an active war-footing for a long time and the manufacturing base that created its massive navy has seen better days. So what happens if there’s a war and America doesn’t have enough welders, let alone drydocks, to build out its fleets?Gil Ba
TEASER: The Case for World War III Breaking Out This Summer
Sign up at angryplanetpod.com to get instant access to the full episode.A direct link to the episode on Substack.The big picture in Europe doesn’t look good. Russia is moving to encircle key cities in Ukraine and is shaking its nuclear saber at the West. Ukraine’s nearest neighbors are, understandably, concerned about Moscow’s aggression and militarizing at an alarming rate. This summer,
The Horrors Behind Your Frozen Shrimp
Americans love shrimp. They love it so much they don’t think too hard about where it comes from—or the virtual slaves who are farming them. Joshua Farinella doesn’t have that luxury.A few years ago, Farinella took a job working for a shrimp production company in India. The money they were paying would set his family up for a long time to come, but what he saw when he landed in the country made him
TEASER: Russian Murderers Who Go to War and Come Home to Kill Again
Sign up at angryplanetpod.com to get instant access to the full episode.A direct link to the episode on Substack.In Russia there’s a revolving door between prisons and the frontlines. What began as a Wanger program is now official: the Kremlin will pardon nearly any crime if the convict agrees to serve on the front lines in Ukraine. After a six month stint at war, murderers and rapists a
Americans in Ukraine Looking for ‘Daybreak’
Luke Paxton and Han Lee know a good cause when they see one. When Russia invades Ukraine in 2022, the American vets know what they need to do. Their time in Afghanistan has given them the skills to help fight a war and the moral clarity needed to know when a cause is just.But are they going to fight in Ukraine for the right reason? Do Ukrainians want them there? And does either matter when bombs a
An Insider's Critique of Israel
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
TEASER: Crawl Out Through the ‘Fallout’
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
What Happens to the World When China and the U.S. ‘Face Off’?
Go here to listen to Face-OffJane 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 th
The Origins of Haiti’s Gangs and What Comes Next
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 perspect
TEASER: Haiti. Life in Empire's Shadow
Sign up at angryplanetpod.com to get instant access to the full episode.Recorded 4/4/24The 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
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