Angry Planet

Latest Episodes:

A Journey into the Jungles of ‘Pulp Vietnam’ Nov 19, 2020

Show notes

PULP EPIC. MALE. MAN’S ILLUSTRATED. MAN’S ADVENTURE. BRIGADE. VALOR. You’ve seen these magazines before. You either grew up with them or you’ve seen their bizarre covers online. There’s always a man with rippling muscles, sometimes he’s fighting a pack of weasels, other times he’s eying a scantily clad dame. Sometime’s there’s a Nazi, sometime’s there’s a woman in an SS uniform with a few buttons missing.

The Pulp magazines of the Cold War shaped the culture and thinking of an entire generation of men. The sons of World War II veterans learned a fantasy version of the war from lads mags and then took those fantasies with them when they rushed headlong into their own war: Vietnam.

Here to tell us all about the Pulp magazines and how they shaped our perceptions of the Cold War and Vietnam is Gregory A Daddis. Daddis is a retired Army Colonel who served in both Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He’s a professor of history and the USS Midway Chair in Modern History at San Diego State University. His new book is Pulp Vietnam: War and Gender in Cold War Men’s Adventure Magazines.

Recorded 10/29

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Fragility, War, Genocide and Climate Change Nov 05, 2020

Show notes

The phrase climate change was originally created to soft-pedal global warming. A hotter planet doesn’t sound good, but, hey, climates change all the time - from winter to summer and back again.

But it turned out to be an accurate description for what’s really going on. Deserts are drying, wet places are getting wetter. Crops are dying, and so is livestock and in some places it’s increasingly unsafe to go out during the day?

So, how is this affecting human conflict? The assumption is that climate change will make things worse, but how much worse?

To tell us, we have Stanford Professor Marshall Burke, who has studied the issue extensively and written numerous papers on the subject.

Recorded 10/22/20

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Looking for Crime in All the Wrong Places Oct 29, 2020

Show notes

Law and order, it’s one of the catchphrases of this election. Crime rates, in some cities in America, are on the rise but crime, in general, is down. But 2020 has been a chaotic year and our news feeds are filled with violent images of militant groups, protestors, riots, burning buildings, and everything in between. The sad fact is that not all crime in America is reported on in the same way, that the protest movement is overwhelmingly peaceful, but not always, and that police militarization has exacerbated all our current problems.

Here to help us untangle some of this is Danny Gold. Gold is a Pulitzer Center grantee, a documentary producer whose work has appeared in VICE Nice, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He’s also the host of the new Underworld Podcast—a series about the global criminal underworld.

Recorded 10/6/20

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TEASER: How Music Videos Explain the War Between Armenia and Azerbaijan Oct 27, 2020

Show notes

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Armenia and Azerbaijan are at war. Why? It’s complicated. What’s the nature of the conflict? That’s also very complicated. It’s so complicated, in fact, that Russia, Syria, and Turkey are all involved. And it threatens to pull in their allies, all over a war that’s been “frozen” since 1988.

Here to help us untangle all of this is Aram Shabanian, a graduate student of Non-Proliferation and Terrorism Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He also runs The Fulda Gap, a site dedicated to using OSINT to understand modern war. And he’s a member of the Armenian diaspora community in the United States.

Recorded 10/16/20
The Roots of the conflict
Nagorno-Karabakh
Why this war got so violent so fast
Extrajudicial killing
How the war was announced via a music video on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSh5tm2Hmn0
Why 2020 has been going on for at least four years
The Iran of it all
Military spending on either side
What happened when the Soviet Union ended
The regional players, explained
How this all ends

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The Man Who Navigated the End of History Oct 21, 2020

Show notes

Remember back when the Berlin Wall fell and history ended? Back when we won the Cold War and America was embraced by allies old and new, becoming the world’s only superpower. The Gulf War was fought and seemingly won.

Actually, maybe you don’t. It was the end of the 1980s, after all.

George Bush - no, not that one - stood at the center of events, and inside that center stood James A. Baker III.

To tell us about the man who ran Washington, and why he remains important, we welcome Peter Baker of the New York Times who wrote the book with his wife Susan Glasser of the New Yorker. The couple’s book, coincidentally, is called The Man Who Ran Washington.

Recorded 10/9/20
Hey, remember the 1980s?
Who was the man who ran Washington?
Foreign policy as the presidential big leagues
The nightmare of facing Jim Baker in an election
“Baker was Bush”
How to win the Iraq war only to lose it later
How to navigate the end of history
Sibling rivalry between Bush and Baker

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America Is Losing the Information War Oct 15, 2020

Show notes

Things feel surreal all the time now. We’re told that some of our favorite online personalities may just be sock puppet accounts for foreing governments. Russia, in particular, is supposedly a master at the new soft power internet based information warfare. Some people still believe that Trump is a Russian agent, the end result of a longcon forged years ago by the KGB and ushered into power by Russian trolls. Qanon, anti-vaxers, ant-maskers, shitposts, and doing it for the lulz. It can be exhausting. But understanding the myths of the modern age and how they permeate online is a key to understanding our world today.

Here to help us figure this all out is Nina Janckowicz. Janckowicz studies the intersection of democracy and technology in Central and Eastern Europe as a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in DC. She’s also the author of How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict. She’s also … a huge musical theater fan.

Recorded 10/8/20
A brief digression into musical theater
What is an information war anyway?
Russia and active measures
Why Russia is better at it than America
Ukraine and the human cost
Poland and the dangers of building a government on conspiracy
Allowing RT on American soil
The responsibility of Twitter and Facebook
Finishing up with a little Sondheim

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TEASER: The Care and Feeding of a Republic Oct 13, 2020

Show notes

Nations rise and nations fall, as do their governments. Today, some people say the United States and its treasured republican virtues stand at a crossroads.

But how can you tell? Are we dealing with the mere panic of the moment, or something worth panicking about?

To help us get a grip on what’s going on, we’re going to reach into the past, today, to see if history is repeating or just rhyming.

Joining us to help us get a grip—and we could probably all use to get grip right about now—is Patrick Wyman.

Wyman is the host of the Tides of History podcast, which looks at moments when the world changed, including recent examinations of the world’s first farmers and the effects of plague on the Roman world.

Recorded on 10/2/20
What defines a Republic anyway?
The Res publica
“Don’t quote laws to men with swords”
How the Roman republic worked
A contract with the gods
How the grain dole worked
The private sector
Why it’s so hard to maintain a Republic
How cynicism degrades the political system

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Proud Boys, the Boogaloo, and Everything in Between Oct 07, 2020

Show notes

What’s the difference between a Proud Boy and a Boogaloo Boi? Are Patriot Prayer and Patriot Front the same thing? If I wear a Hawaiian shirt while eating a bowl of Lucky Charms, does that make me a member of a far right group? How many of these tacticool bearded weirdos are there, really, and are they dangerous? If it feels like the world today is weirder, wilder, and grosser than the one in the past … I feel you. 2020 has seen an explosion of Far Right groups and if you find it hard to keep track of them all, you’re not alone.

Here to help us order and sort the Proud from the Boogaloo is Jason Wilson. Wilson is an independent journalist whose work has appeared in The Guardian and Bellingcat.

Recorded 10/1/20
What’s a proud boy?
The Proud Boys debate moment
Why Portland is the rallying point for far right groups
What the Justice Department knows and what it’s doing
Shirt movements, modern and historic
Boogaloo bois
What the numbers tell us
The John Birch Society
The Eisenhower Conspiracy

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How Reagan Made Us the Armaggedon Generation Oct 03, 2020

Show notes

America is perhaps more conservative today than it’s ever been. For some on the right, Obama, Biden and Clinton look like socialists. For people on the left, they look like moderate republicans. There’s a reason for both of those views that’s steeped in America’s recent past. U.S. culture was shaped by a suave and smooth talking President who promised we could be a beacon of hope for the world and a shining city on a hill.

Here to talk about what happened is Rick Perlstein. Perlstein is a returning guest and the author of the new book Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980. The book is, among other things, the story of how a Southern Evangelical Democrat paved the way for a divorced actor from California to ascend to the presidency and shape America’s destiny.

Recorded 9/10/20
How voters go from voting for Johnson to voting for Nixon
America’s moral reckoning, from Vietnam to Watergate
What Star Wars tells us about America today
Stable government under a crook vs unstable government under an honest man
Call of Duty: Cold War and the hero worship of Reagan
Jimmy Carter as the redeemer of America’s sins
The nightly hostage wrap up
How the Camp David Accords set the Middle East against Carter
Afghanistan as a stop on the Hippie trail
When Carter cancelled the Olympics
Nuclear debates
Rick’s Reagan impersonation
How the press and politicians misread the moment

Angry Planet has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.

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TEASER: The Military Needs Gamers Sep 30, 2020

Show notes

The Military needs gamers. Over the past few months, the U.S. Army and Navy have spent a considerable amount of time playing video games. The Pentagon is streaming on Twitch, showing up at video game tournaments, and sponsoring esports events. And it’s all in a bid to reach a younger crowd and fill out the ranks. The military is trying to meet young people where they live and, increasingly, they live online playing video games.

Is the military’s use of video games as a recruitment tool crossing the line or business as usual? To help us figure that out, we’ve got two guests today. Both returning champions.

Here to help us untangle this mess is Pauline Kaurin. Kaurin is the Stockdale Chair in Professional Military Ethics at the US Naval War College and the author of the new book On Obedience: Contrasting Philosophies for the Military Citizenry and Community.

We’ve also got Marty Skovlund Jr. Skovlund is a veteran of 1st Ranger Battalion and the Executive Editor of Coffee or Die Magazine.

Recorded 8/28/20
The long weird story of the Military going online
Activists, trolls, and AOC
Why the military is allowed to recruit at high schools
The wild questions you get working as a recruiter
Scumbag recruiters
Military service as a path to a middle class life and education

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