The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer

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

Writing in Foreign Policy, Matt Duss argues that Donald Trump’s rush to war is both stupid and illegal. It is also wildly unpopular with the public. But he also observes that congress has been reluctant to challenge Trump’s policy, although some progressives have now forced the issue to a vote. Matt is a frequent guest of the show and foreign policy expert. I talked to him about the dangers of a new war and also the larger systematic problems of the imperial presidency. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Kovensky has written an essay on the Trump administration’s use of anti-terrorism law to target political groups it doesn’t like. In that piece, Kovensky notes, "Across the country, federal prosecutors are upgrading what would have been routine prosecutions into terrorism cases when they involve people President Trump has cast as his political enemies. It represents a dramatic departure from how the Justice Department has historically used the federal material support for terrorism statute. For decades, counterterrorism prosecutors have largely reserved the statute — 2339A — for the kinds of audacious plots that wreak real, lasting damage or whose ambition forms the stuff of movie screenplays." I spoke to Kovensky about his essay and the history and politics of this dangerous legal innovation. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Donald Trump is sending over what he calls “a massive Armada” to Iran with the promises to do a reprise of his quick attack on Venezuela that ended with the kidnapping of president Nicolás Maduro. Trump claims that “like with Venezuela, it is, ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission.” But will a war with Iran really be so simple? To look at the prospects for war and the larger politics driving the conflict, I spoke with Amir Handjani of The Quincy Institute. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made headlines at Davos with a much-noticed speech where he candidly acknowledged that the US led alliance system created in World War II was coming to an end. Carney called for middle powers such as Canada and its European allies to give up the illusion that a US led world is still viable and instead try to create new institutions to preserve their values and their sovereignty. I talked to Canadian journalist Stephen Maher, who has written a biography of Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau, about the far-reaching implications of this speech. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Iran is facing upheavals at home and abroad. For more than two decades, the Islamic republic has faced waves of protests from citizens demanding a more democratic society. Over the past two weeks, these protests have erupted with a new ferocity and are being met with violent repression. Meanwhile, the Israeli government is pushing the United States to renew bombing Iran, a military objective now being given the guise of a humanitarian mission. To discuss the turmoil in Iran and place it in the larger context of regional instability and competing visions of the future of the Middle East, I spoke with Annelle Sheline, a research fellow at The Quincy Institute who studies the region. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Norman Podhoretz, one of the founding fathers of neoconservatism, died on December 16 at age 95. His legacy is a complex one, since in recent decades neoconservatism has been supplanted in many ways by American First conservatism. But many aspects of Podhoretz’s influence still play a shaping role on right. I take up Podhoretz’s career with David Klion (who wrote an obituary for the pundit for The Nation) and the historian Ronnie Grinberg, who had discussed Podhoretz in her book Write Like a Man. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Trump administration has released a new National Security Strategy that is a marked shift not only from earlier administrations but also Trump’s first term in office. While the new policy statement eschews the goal of global hegemony, it promotes culture war in Europe by promising support of anti-immigration political parties, economic rivalry in Asia with China, and a renewal of US military hegemony in the Western hemisphere. To survey this document and Trump’s often contradictory foreign policy, I spoke to frequent guest of the show Stephen Wertheim, who is American Statecraft senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Only a few years ago, European elites were patting themselves on the back for fending off the tide of right-wing anti-system parties (often styled as populists). But recent polls in France, Germany and the United Kingdom show that that the far right is once again gaining traction, thanks in no small part centrist governments that have demoralized the population and legitimized xenophobia. David Broder, author of Mussolini's Grandchildren and European editor of Jacobin, wrote a wide-ranging essay on this for The New York Times. I spoke to David about both the dismal decisions of mainstream parties and also possible alternatives. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The famed economist Larry Summers, not for the first time, finds himself the center of a scandal. He’s had to take a leave from Harvard, where he teaches, because of embarrassing emails he had with his late friend Jeffrey Epstein. I talked to economic journalist and Nation contributor Doug Henwood, a long-time Summers watcher, about the career of this controversial and influential figure. Summers has been one of the most influential policy makers of his era, serving as Treasury Secretary and President of Harvard. He has also embodied the major intellectual and political limitations of the ruling class. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The scandal around Jeffrey Epstein, who trafficked and abused children and died in a prison cell in 2019, has never gone away. It continues to explode now that House Democrats have released thousands of emails from Epstein and his cronies. But while the political class and mainstream media are understandably focused on the sex scandal, another dimension of the scandal goes uncovered except by independent media outlets such as Drop Site: Epstein’s deep ties to the national security state. I talked to international relations scholar Van Jackson about this crucial part of the story. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Much has been written about how the Israel/Palestine conflict is dividing the left, but the same is true of the right. Tucker Carlson’s interview with the antisemitic critic of Israel Nick Fuentes has created an intense debate on the right about anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, currently playing itself out in turmoil at the Heritage Foundation. I spoke with the historian David Austin Walsh, whose book Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Right provides a crucial background for this story. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Donald Trump claims he wants to be the peace president and has even lobbied for a Nobel Peace Prize. But his foreign policy has been wildly contradictory. While the United States is clearly retrenching from many parts of the world, violence against hemispheric neighbors is increasing. I talked to Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, for a wide-ranging discussion on why American hegemony is declining but also why the push for retrenchment hasn’t gone far enough. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On Friday, the self-styled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth announced the US was sending an aircraft carrier to bolster its attacks on Venezuelan boats (which the Trump administration alleges, without evidence, are trafficking drugs). I spoke to international relations scholar Van Jackson (whose work can be found here) about the motives for this new war as well as the muted opposition to it from Democrats. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The fragile ceasefire negotiated between Israel and Hamas hasn’t ended the violence, but it has for now lessened it. But even if the ceasefire holds, the need for a political solution to Palestinian dispossession remains. To discuss the issue of accountability, I spoke to Yousef Munayyer, who is the head of the Palestine/Israel Program and Senior Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC. We talked about how the shocking events of the last two years have shifted global public opinion, including in the United States. Both parties are heading towards a long- delayed debate about the value of the US/Israel relation. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Few movies have ever been as timely as Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film One Battle After Another, which traces the battle between revolutionary resistance groups trying to protect immigrants and an authoritarian government run by racists. There are scenes from the movie that feel like they are being played out right now on the streets of Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland. Although it presents a stylized version of reality, the film raises important questions about different strategies of resistance. David Klion, a frequent guest, wrote about the movie for The New Republic. David and I talked about the film, its roots in actual history but also variance with that history as well as its relationship with the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Donald Trump has plunged the nation into another government shutdown. I spoke with my Nation colleague Chris Lehmann about the larger political stakes. We take up Trump’s shifting rhetoric, which has started with false and racist claims about undocumented immigrants receiving benefits and now seems to be about gloating over austerity. We also take up the Democratic party response, and the way the base of the party has forced the leadership to take a stronger stance. Chris’ article on the shutdown can be found here. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The United States continues to be roiled by political violence, with the recent shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas coming hot on the heels of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and a school shooting in Colorado committed by a neo-Nazi. Some of the best reporting on these events has been done by Ken Klippenstein for his Substack. I spoke with Ken about what he’s discovered when he interviewed those who knew the alleged shooters, how his findings go against the simplistic partisan interpretations offered by both the left and right, as well as the dangerous ways the Trump administration is using the shootings for a crackdown on civil liberties. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Bari Weiss, founder and editor of The Free Press, has often been profiled in the media, but usually in a superficial way that focuses on her personality and disputes with fellow journalists. She is currently on the cusp of great power, reportedly working on a deal to sell The Free Press and take a senior position at CBS. David Klion, Nation columnist and frequent guest on the podcast, has written an exceptionally trenchant analysis for The Guardian of Weiss’s politics and the way they align with the Trump administration’s war on critical voices. I was pleased to talk to David about Weiss’s career and how she has used her influence as an ideological enforcer, one that has the support of many wealthy patrons and powerful political allies. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Matt Duss, vice-president of the Center for International Policy, wrote an excellent review for The Nation of Bob Woodward’s book War, which is a celebration of Joe Biden as a foreign policy sage. Duss is rightly skeptical of the book. We discuss Biden’s actual record on Ukraine and especially Gaza. Matt’s essay on this topic for Foreign Policy is also worth reading. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy