The Nation Podcasts

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Espionage and Empire in the Cold War w/ Alfred McCoy | American Prestige Mar 10, 2026

Show notes

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 Peaceby Paul Thomas Chamberlin.

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Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein w/ Tim Schwab | Tech Won't Save Us Mar 09, 2026

Show notes

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 Billionaire

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Stopping the Iran War w/ Emma Ashford | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer Mar 08, 2026

Show notes

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.

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Special - War in the Gulf and the Global Economy w/ Esfandyar Batmanghelidj | American Prestige Mar 07, 2026

Show notes

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.”

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Tethered to Life: Maya Binyam on Joy Williams’ “The Excursion” | Reading Writers Mar 07, 2026

Show notes

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.

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Iran War Widens, Afghanistan–Pakistan Fighting, New U.S. Operation in Ecuador | American Prestige Mar 06, 2026

Show notes

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.

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Trump’s Attacks on Voting, and on Iran / Start Making Sense Mar 04, 2026

Show notes

After Senate Democrats block the SAVE act, Trump is likely to declare a national security emergency – claiming China could interfere in the midterms – as a basis for restricting voting. David Cole comments; he’s former legal director of the ACLU.

Also: Congress must challenge Trump’s war on Iran and assert its constitutional duty to take up War Powers resolutions and assert its primacy over matters of war and peace. John Nichols explains.

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Iran and the End of Restraint w/ Trita Parsi and Akbar Shahid Ahmed | American Prestige Mar 03, 2026

Show notes

Danny and Derek are back with a two-part episode on the war with Iran. First, they speak with Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute about the Trump administration’s decision to go to war, the belief that assassinating Ayatollah Khamenei would cause the regime to implode, the structure and failure of pre-war negotiations, the influence of Israeli officials and hawks, the potential for sending in ground troops, and the impact on Iranian society. They then speak with Akbar Shahid Ahmed, Senior Diplomatic Correspondent at HuffPost, about the erosion of rules of engagement, the alignment of U.S. and Israeli military strategy, congressional inaction, compliant allies, and whether any realistic off-ramps remain.

Read Akbar’s piece “Trump Says He Brought 'Justice' To Iran. His War Boosts Fears The U.S. Has Gone Rogue.”

Keep up with Quincy’s work at Responsible Statecraft and Always at War.

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The Imperial Presidency and the Iran War w/ Matt Duss | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer Mar 01, 2026

Show notes

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.

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Deeply Heterosexual: Jamie Hood on Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook | Reading Writers Feb 28, 2026

Show notes

Jo takes us on a whirlwind tour of their recent reading, including Mary Helen Washington’s Paule Marshall: A Writer’s Life, and Charlotte explains why Susanna Moore’s In the Cut is one of the most thrilling novels she’s ever encountered. Then, the profoundly thoughtful Jamie Hood joins to explore the many boyfriends and political disappointments of Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook.

Jamie Hood is the author, most recently, of Trauma Plot: A Life, the hybrid pandemic diary how to be a good girl, the semi-monthly, Proust-infused newsletter, regards, marcel, and a book of love poems, forthcoming in 2026. She has written extensively on books, feminism, #MeToo, and other political matters for many publications, some of them even prestigious. She lives in Brooklyn.

Please consider supporting our work on Patreon, where you can access additional materials and send us your guest and book coverage requests! 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.

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