Angry Planet

Go here to listen to Face-OffJane Perlez is a veteran foreign correspondent, the former Bejing Bureau Chief for The New York Times, and host of the new podcast “Face-Off.” She’s on Angry Planet today to talk to us about the show and her experiences reporting on China. “Face-Off” is all about America’s complicated relationship with China. Perlez says she started the show because she was tired of the hysterical conversations she hears about Beijing in Washington.In this episode we learn …Why On the Beach is Perlez’s favorite nuclear war movie.What it’s like to visit China for the first time at the height of the Cultural Revolution.What “Communism” means in a country with a growing bourgeoisie.What it takes for someone to lead China.When Mao and Khrushchev Went Swimming

Violence thrives in countries where political solutions to conflict have failed. On this episode of Angry Planet, Jeffsky Poincy comes on the show to walk us through the origins of Haiti’s gang problems and lay out the complicated history that gave rise to them.Poincy, who is Haitian, is a program manager at PartnersGlobal, an NGO that helps foster democratic conflict resolution. Poincy’s perspective on the violence in Haiti is that it will require complicated and lengthy political solutions. The gangs thrive, he says, because of their place in a complicated transnational criminal network. It’s a local problem that requires local solutions. A thousand Kenyan soldiers on the ground in the devastated country won’t provide long term relief. Real political change will.Recorded 4/5/24Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.

Sign up at angryplanetpod.com to get instant access to the full episode.Recorded 4/4/24The U.S. State Department has been working hard to get Americans out of Haiti. The island nation’s government is in shambles and gangs run much of the urban center of Port-au-Prince. Haitians have struggled for hundreds of years at the hands of gangs, brutal authoritarian dictators, and colonial rule. One of its biggest problems has always been its nearest Imperial neighbor: America.On this episode of Angry Planet, we get America’s side of the story. Keith Mines is the Vice President for Latin America at U.S. Institute of Peace. If you’ve never heard of the USIP, you aren’t alone. As Mines says in the show, it is bad at branding. Part of a Congressional initiative from 1984, the USIP was founded to pursue peaceful resolutions to worldwide conflict.Mines has a storied career of government service. He’s worked for the State Department and been all across the world. His unique point of view gives listeners a window into the mind of a member of the U.S. political establishment. Mines has a deep knowledge of Haiti and a deeper understanding of how badly America has screwed up its efforts to help.

Yemen has become a battlefield of technological firsts. The Houthis have turned the Red Sea into a proving ground for Iranian weapons, and Tehran is learning what works and what doesn’t. It’s become a place where the Khamenei and his crew can test new technologies and new strategies. It’s a win for Iran and a win for the Houthis in the short-term, but missiles on their own don’t win wars.On this bonus episode of Angry Planet, Fabian Hinz of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London comes on to tell us about the technological capabilities of the Houthis.Recorded on 3/21/24A quick and dirty history of the Houthi movementIts mysterious founderJason learns about lasersMatthew learns about Manhattan allergies

Defense contractors and governments can run a thousand simulations, but the data they get will never be as good as what’s generated on a battlefield. When Russia invaded Ukraine, tech companies saw an opportunity. A land war in Europe presented a unique chance to test cutting-edge technologies. That’s why, a few months after the 2022 invasion, Palantir CEO Alex Karp drove into the capital to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. TIME Senior Correspondent Vera Bergengruen is here on Angry Planet to tell the story. She traveled to Ukraine herself to see how tech companies have turned the country into a test bed for AI and other advanced technologies. As the war grinds on, Kyiv is singing the praises of the companies that help keep it safe. But wars aren’t forever and what becomes of some of the more invasive technology like facial recognition when the fighting stops?How Tech Giants Turned Ukraine Into an AI War LabA Palantir-published tech demo

Sign up at angryplanetpod.com to get instant access to the full episode.Writing, even fiction writing, about war provides a clear-eyed and honest view of conflict that the best movies and television shows can’t replicate. Civilians and soldiers on all sides of conflicts have always turned to poetry and prose to express feelings that are hard to articulate any other way. On March 10, the literary magazine Guernica published a personal essay from British-Israeli writer Joannna Chen about the Israel-Hamas War. After a backlash to the essay that came from both inside and out, Guernica pulled the piece.“Guernica regrets having published this piece and has retracted it. A more fulsome explanation will follow,” the literary magazine published in place of the essay. As of this writing, that more fulsome explanation has not arrived.On this bonus episode of Angry Planet, author, journalist, and veteran Matt Galagher comes on to the show to walk us through the Guernica dustup and the importance of war writing. He talks to us about his recent trips to Ukraine, his relationship with the literary world, and his new novel: Daybreak. In Daybreak, Gallagher tells the story of American veterans who travel to Ukraine looking to fight a war that isn’t their own.Recorded on 3/14/24“From the Edges of a Broken World,” republished by Washington Monthly. “Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War” by George OrwellBuy Daybreak here.

The U.S. is spending $2 trillion to overhaul its nuclear weapons. China is building ICBM silos in the desert. Russia has spent the last ten years talking about its fancy new nukes. After decades of drawdown, the world’s great powers are reversing course and rebuilding their nuclear arsenals. We have forgotten the power and terror of these weapons.W.J. Hennigan of The New York Times wants the world to remember. On this episode of Angry Planet, Hennigan discusses the Time’s new series: At the Brink. He’s spent the last year interviewing experts about the threat of nuclear war. His reporting asks its reader to imagine the unimaginable.Nuclear War Is Called Unimaginable. In Fact, It’s Not Imagined Enough.How America Made Nuclear War the President's Decision

It's easy to say the words "two-state solution" between Israel and the Palestinians, but as Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations explains, there are plenty of reasons why there hasn't been one so far. We also take another look at "moral" war in a tight space. What's the difference between collateral damage and a war crime? And has world opinion turned permanently against Israel? We also talk to Steven about his upcoming book, The End of Ambition: American's Past, Present, and Future in the Middle East.Recorded 3/8/24.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe

Since the middle of December, a U.S.-led coalition has been trading munitions with Houthis in Yemen. The day after Christmas, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower began participating in strikes against targets along the coast. It hasn’t left since and the conflict between a group of international allies and the Houthis has continued.On this episode of Angry Planet, former fighter pilot and current YouTuber Ward Carroll sits down to walk us through the ins and outs of Operation Prosperity Guardian. The conversation was recorded on February 20, 2023, and as Carroll predicted, the conflict remained remarkably static in the weeks that followed.That changed on March 5, when a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile struck the M/V True Confidence, killing three. Did the Houthis Cut Internet Cables in the Red Sea?The fighter pilots hunting Houthi drones over the Red SeaWard’s initial thoughts on the "ace" Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe