The Nation Podcasts

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).Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Tom Stevenson analyzes the latest news and long-term prospects of Trump's Iran war, for both Iran and the US. Tom is a contributing editor for the London Review of Books, where he writes about, among other things, politics in the Mideast.Also: what news are people getting these days, and where are they getting it? Especially the people we call “news avoidant” & “low information” voters--the ones we want to vote for Democrats in November: what are the big stories for them? Tara McGowan explains-- she’s founder and CEO of Courier Newsroom, a digital media company that operates a network of local news outlets.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Danny and Derek speak with historian Alfred McCoy about how the Cold War operated as a global conflict influenced by decolonization, covert action, and geopolitical strategy. They discuss the role of individual intelligence operatives as “men on the spot”; Cold War rivalry and the collapse of European empires; how conflicts across Asia, Africa, and Latin America produced much of the war’s violence; the development of U.S. containment strategy and covert action institutions; and Iran as flashpoint in Cold War and post-Cold War geopolitics, and how Alfred interprets these conflicts through a lens of imperial decline and strategic chokepoints like the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz.Buy Alfred’s book Cold War on Five Continents!Reading recommendation: The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace by Paul Thomas Chamberlin.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Paris Marx is joined by Tim Schwab to discuss the evolving story of Bill Gates and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the issues that arise from allowing billionaires to use philanthropy to push personal political agendas and launder their reputations.Tim Schwab is the author of The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good BillionaireAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The US/Israel War against Iran is shaping out to be a much bigger mess than expectedeven by critics. As it turns into a regional conflict that has embroiled more than a dozennations, are there any possible ways Donald Trump can be forced to pull back. I spokewith international affairs scholar Emma Ashford of the Stimson Center about the warand paths to peace.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Derek welcomes back Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, founder and CEO of the Bourse and Bazaar Foundation and professor at Johns Hopkins University, to discuss the economic consequences of the Iran war and its implications for the Gulf and the global economy. They discuss Iran’s strikes on Gulf infrastructure, disruptions to shipping and energy routes through the Strait of Hormuz, risks to logistics hubs like Dubai and Doha, rising oil prices, the vulnerability of global supply chains, and the potential long-term economic impact of the conflict on the Gulf.Read Esfandyar’s article in Foreign Policy, “The Iran War Is Jeopardizing the Entire Global Economy.”Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Charlotte and Jo go deep on jealousy, self-hatred, love, and vulnerability in a conversation that touches on A Separate Peace, The Go-Between, Beowulf, and more. Then the canny and intrepid Maya Binyam joins for a discussion about the category of little girlhood, ambiguity in fiction, and female desire.Maya Binyam is the author of Hangman. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. She is a 2025 - 2026 Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. 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. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We don’t have whatever they were giving JFK to power through the Cuban Missile Crisis, but we’re keeping up here. This week’s news: in the Iran War, the U.S. prepares to use Kurdish proxy forces against the Islamic Republic (1:26) while offering shifting timelines and contradictory explanations for the war (6:32), plus Iran searches for a new supreme leader (11:54); Hezbollah launches rockets into Israel after months of being bombarded, so Israel escalates its strikes across Lebanon (16:24); Afghanistan and Pakistan exchange airstrikes and artillery fire as fighting along their border displaces tens of thousands (19:26); Turkey considers reentering the F-35 program as part of new energy negotiations with the U.S. (22:56); Nepal holds a major election following last year’s protests (26:40); fighting intensifies in Sudan’s Kordofan and Blue Nile regions (28:05); M23 launches drone strikes deeper into the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the United States sanctions Rwandan military officials (31:56); a Russian LNG tanker is sunk in the Mediterranean amid suspicions of Ukrainian involvement (34:40); France proposes expanding its nuclear umbrella over Europe (38:01); the U.S. launches a new military operation targeting drug cartels in Ecuador (40:20); Congress strikes down legislation that would halt the Iran war (41:46); and the Trump administration moves ahead with new global tariffs while the courts order billions in refunds for the last batch that were struck down (44:41).Grab a copy of Danny and Michael Brenes’ edited volume Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency. Use the discount code BESSNER26.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy