Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss the years-long relationship between Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein, and how their relationship sheds light on the murky inner workings of the one percent.

Trump’s war in Iran is bringing economic chaos and suffering to much of the world, but for American voters, the biggest effect is the soaring price of gasoline – and the political implications for Republicans in the midterms are clear to everyone. Meanwhile Minneapolis has shown how Americans can resist unjust and illegitimate power.

Also: The Working Families Party is organizing voters not just to win a Democratic majority in Congress but for a movement election, a historic expansion of the electorate that includes a demand for significant change. Maurice Mitchell, the party’s National Director, explains.

Writer and former U.S. Army intelligence officer Harrison Mann joins the show to talk about the U.S–Iran war and what a ground invasion could actually look like. They discuss Harrison’s resignation from the Defense Intelligence Agency over U.S. support for the Gaza genocide, his assessment of the first weeks of the conflict with Iran, internal divisions within the military and intelligence community, and the risks of shifting the rules of engagement and permissive attitudes toward civilian casualties. They then explore potential ground invasion scenarios, including special raids on nuclear facilities, the proposal to seize Kharg Island, the feasibility of occupying territory along the Strait of Hormuz, and the broader trajectory of the conflict.

Read Harrison’s piece “I Was a US Intelligence Analyst. Here's What a Ground Invasion of Iran Could Look Like.”

Sign Win Without War's petition to Congress against spending more taxpayer dollars on the Iran war via an upcoming supplemental funding bill.

Former Nation editor Don Guttenplan is now bringing municipal politics to the magazine

with a weekly column tracking the progress of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. I spoke to Don

about how Mamdani is balancing pragmatism and principles as he deals with policing,

Donald Trump and a tough budget.

Jo and Charlotte turn their attention to Nobel Laureate Kenzaburo Oe’s mindblowing A Personal Matter and Troubled Lands: Stories of Mexico and Cuba, a collection translated by Langston Hughes, before they’re joined by Gothic-literature-loving writer-of-all-modes Nicholas Russell, who puts the spotlight on Algernon Blackwood’s unsettling preoccupation with mysterious forces in the natural world.

Nicholas Russell is a writer and critic from Las Vegas. His work has been featured in McSweeney's, The Baffler, Conjunctions, The Nation, and Orion, among other publications. He's a long-time bookseller, a contributing writer at Defector, and managing editor at Still Alive magazine. His debut novel Observer will be published by Ecco at HarperCollins on September 15th.

Please consider supporting our work on Patreon, where you can access additional materials and send us your guest and book coverage requests! Books discussed on all seasons of the podcast are aggregated here on Bookshop. Questions and comments can be directed to readingwriterspod at gmail dot com. Outro music by Marty Sulkow and Joe Valle.

Charlotte Shane’s most recent book is An Honest Woman. Her essay newsletter, Meant For You, can be subscribed to or read online for free, and her social media handle is @charoshane.

Jo Livingstone is a writer who teaches at Pratt Institute.

We’re putting out, what, an episode a day at this point? But the news roundup must go on. This week: In the Iran war, casualty and displacement figures rise across Iran and Lebanon (1:20), Iran mines and threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz (4:31), Iranian officials threaten to expand the war by targeting financial institutions across the Gulf (7:47), and new supreme leader Mustafa Khomeini delivers his first address (10:27); in Gaza, aid shortages deepen as food supplies run low (16:01); escalating drone warfare hits markets, towns, and civilian targets in Sudan (17:19); in Mali, the U.S. moves to restore counterterrorism cooperation and reconnaissance flights with the ruling junta (22:20); new warnings of conflict emerge in Ethiopia’s Tigray region (24:51); Nepal’s Rastriya Swatantra Party secures a landslide victory in the latest elections (28:26); in Ukraine, the UN accuses Russia of committing a crime against humanity through the forced transfer of Ukrainian children (30:07); far-right politician José Antonio Kast takes office as president of Chile following the end of Gabriel Boric’s term (31:31); in Haiti, human rights groups warn about civilian harm from an expanding drone campaign targeting gangs in Port-au-Prince (34:05); and in these United States, investigations into the Minab elementary school strike raise questions about the use of AI-assisted targeting in U.S. military operations (35:41), plus Donald Trump hosts the first “Shield of the Americas” summit at his Doral resort (39:44).

Paris Marx is joined by Gita Jackson to discuss why the left’s hatred of AI is justified, why a different approach to technology is necessary, and how they’re reassessing their own relationships with digital tech.

Gita Jackson is a co-founder of Aftermath.

Derek welcomes back legal scholar Maryam Jamshidi to discuss the legal aspect of the U.S.–Israel war on Iran. They talk about the administration’s shifting legal justifications, why the administration’s claims about Iranian threats and nuclear weapons fail under international law, the legal limits of self-defense, how the conflict fits within the laws of war, and the broader humanitarian and political consequences of the war for Iranian civilians and the country’s future.