Episodios

  • Bonus - Is Economics a Science? w/ Erik Baker

    Bonus - Is Economics a Science? w/ Erik Baker
    Aug 17 2025
    Subscribe now for the full episode! Danny welcomes back to the show Erik Baker, a lecturer in the history of science at Harvard, to discuss criticisms of economics as a science and touch on nuclear history. They talk about the struggle of early 20th-century economists to formalize their field, the Progressive Era desire to rationally manage society, the postwar effort to quantify economics and the role of the university therein, the paradigms structuring economics that rely too much on “experts,” the actor-network theory critique, the pitfalls of reducing complex issues to quantification and modeling, and whether there’s a better way to aggregate the information economics seeks to interpret. The conversation then turns to Erik’s article on the history of nuclear science. Read Erik’s pieces “The History of Economics as Science Critique: Demystification and Its Limits” and “The History of Nuclear Science.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    9 m
  • News - Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Deal, Israel Seeks Country to Expel Palestinians, Upcoming Russia-Ukraine Summit

    News - Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Deal, Israel Seeks Country to Expel Palestinians, Upcoming Russia-Ukraine Summit
    Aug 15 2025
    Subscribe now⁠ to skip the commercials. Don't forget to check out our series ⁠"Welcome to the Crusades"⁠ and ⁠"Of This World."⁠ Danny and Derek’s The Life of a Go-Go Boy album is shelved indefinitely. Meanwhile, in world news: Armenia and Azerbaijan sign a U.S.-brokered peace deal (1:35); Israel prepares for an operation in Gaza City as it continues its search for countries willing to take in expelled Palestinians (8:36); Australia announces plans to recognize Palestine (12:59); Iran hosts an IAEA representative (14:58) as European states prepare to reimpose sanctions (16:45); the Thai-Cambodian border sees two new incidents (19:34); a Sudanese military leader meets with a Trump envoy (22:08); the president of the unrecognized state of Somaliland will reportedly visit the U.S. (24:12); the DRC-M23 peace talks appear to collapse (26:47); Trump agrees to a summit with Putin, leaving Ukraine and European leaders concerned, and Russia makes a breakthrough in the Ukrainian defensive line (29:19); a preview of the upcoming Bolivian election (34:55); Trump orders military force to be used against Latin American drug cartels (38:27); and the U.S. and China agree to extend their tariff détente (40:09). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    46 m
  • Special - Federal Takeover of Washington DC Police w/ Chris Myers Asch (Preview)

    Special - Federal Takeover of Washington DC Police w/ Chris Myers Asch (Preview)
    Aug 14 2025
    Subscribe now for the full episode! Danny and Derek speak with historian Chris Myers Asch about Trump's federal takeover of DC police and the deployment of the National Guard. Be sure to check out Chris's book ⁠Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    8 m
  • Special - The Murder of Anas al-Sharif and Gaza’s Future w/ Mohammad Alsaafin

    Special - The Murder of Anas al-Sharif and Gaza’s Future w/ Mohammad Alsaafin
    Aug 12 2025
    Mohammad Alsaafin, journalist at AJ+, returns to the program to discuss recent events concerning Palestine. He and Derek talk about journalists killed by Israel in Gaza, including Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif; the broad dehumanization of Palestinian journalists by many mainstream outlets; the planned military occupation and potential ethnic cleansing of the Strip; the use of starvation as a weapon; why certain countries are re-recognizing a Palestinian state at this moment; and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    56 m
  • Of This World: Politics in the Era of Rage w/ Carlo Invernizzi Accetti

    Of This World: Politics in the Era of Rage w/ Carlo Invernizzi Accetti
    Aug 11 2025
    In lieu of a typical Tuesday episode this week, we are happy to present the first episode of our new miniseries with Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, ⁠Of This World.⁠ Subscribe now at the annual tier for access to this series and other AP series going forward. First, Danny Bessner speaks with Daniel about what inspired this series. In the episode itself (6:25), Daniel speaks with Carlo Invernizzi Accetti about his recent book (published in Italian) Twenty Years of Rage: From No-Globals to Trumpism. Topics include the crisis in democracy and liberalism, grievance politics, Peter Sloterdijk's concept of the modern loser, the materialist causes of modern anger, attempted remedies like populism and technocracy, and why anger can be useful. (Recorded in December 2024) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    50 m
  • Bonus - The First Months of Post-Assad Syria w/ Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi (Preview)

    Bonus - The First Months of Post-Assad Syria w/ Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi (Preview)
    Aug 10 2025
    Subscribe now for the full episode! Derek welcomes back historian Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi for a discussion about developments in Syria under the new government, which toppled that of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. They talk about the massacres of Alawites at the beginning of this year, the non-governmental militias still operating in the country, clashes between Druze and Bedouin armed groups in the southern city of Suwayda, Israeli involvement, Syrian Democratic Forces activity in the northeast of the country and Turkey’s role, and whether the government under Ahmed al-Sharaa can make a “Syria for all Syrians.” Check out Aymenn's book The Conquest of al-Andalus: a Translation of Fath al-Andalus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    9 m
  • News - Lebanon Moves to Disarm Hezbollah, Netanyahu Announces Gaza Occupation, 80th Anniversary of Atomic Bombing in Hiroshima

    News - Lebanon Moves to Disarm Hezbollah, Netanyahu Announces Gaza Occupation, 80th Anniversary of Atomic Bombing in Hiroshima
    Aug 8 2025
    Subscribe now to skip the ads. Don't forget to purchase our "Welcome to the Crusades" miniseries! The AP team will wear formal Tevas to the new White House ballroom. Otherwise, in this week’s news: Danny and Derek reflect on the 80th anniversary of the US dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (1:46); in Israel-Palestine, Netanyahu announces his “full occupation” plan (8:24) as the US expands the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (13:58); the Lebanese government moves to disarm Hezbollah (16:48); the US looks to host an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace summit (20:51); Trump punishes India for purchasing Russian oil (24:20); Thailand and Cambodia agree to the deployment of ceasefire monitors (27:49); in Sudan, the RSF carries out a new atrocity (29:50) and the military accuses the United Arab Emirates of hiring mercenaries (32:37); a new report details sexual violence in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia (35:06); in Russia-Ukraine, Steve Witkoff visits Moscow ahead of a Putin-Trump meeting (37:28) as the US nevertheless plans to impose tariffs on Russia (40:34); El Salvador’s legislature removes presidential term limits (41:57); and in US news, America makes a new “third country” trafficking agreement with Rwanada (43:15), the State Department starts a new program forcing travelers to pay bonds to the US government (45:23), and NASA plans to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon (46:50). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    51 m
  • E221 - Land Power w/ Michael Albertus

    E221 - Land Power w/ Michael Albertus
    Aug 5 2025
    Subscribe now to skip the ads. Michael Albertus, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, joins the program to talk about his book Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies. The group explores notions of land from archaeological evidence thousands of years ago, the enclosure movement of the medieval era, the European mindset vs those of indigenous peoples in the era of colonization, South Africa land redistribution, gender in Canadian homesteading, how changing notions of land play into larger histories of race, the postwar of concept of “land to the tiller,” and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    54 m