Trump copies Bush in Afghanistan and South Asia and why his new Afghan strategy will lead to more civilian killings. Harvard Professor Elizabeth Hinton, author of, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America, explains how the Johnson Administration’s War on Poverty led to increased policing […]

Today, @RafiaZakaria joins Michael (in for Sam) to talk about the intersection of war reporting and gender. How war is viewed in culture, from Katy Perry videos to Tina Fey’s “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” as frivolous adventure. Rafia’s critique of the deployment of feminism-based messaging being used in selling war reporting in her article for The Nation, “Can War Reporting […]

On today’s show journalist Rafia Zakaria (@rafiazakaria) joins us to discuss her latest piece Decolonising Education and the terror attacks on Lahore. Terror attacks in Lahore on Easter Sunday. How attacks targeted Christians, and how despite this most victims were Christians. Tension between the Pakistani government and the hardline Islamists groups regarding the national recognition of minority religious holidays. […]

National Security journalist William Arkin author of Unmanned: Drones, Data, and the Illusion of Perfect Warfare, explains the growth of the global intelligence network supporting modern warfare and spying. The global hunt for information. The shifting calculus of unmanned war. How drone warfare has made border meaningless. The “Deep State” and the Obama Administration. The Homeland Security […]

Professor Juan Cole explains how the climate crisis in Syria helped create the conditions that led to the creation of ISIL. Sea level rises and the next wave of instability in the Middle East. The importance of water in Israel/Palestine. Why Martin O’Malley’s recent comments on climate change and ISIL has provoked so much rage […]

Journalist Rafia Zakaria, author of the new book The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan, explains the role of policing gender and sex in the creation of modern Pakistan. Women’s narratives and understanding what is the Pakistani State. The complexity of Benazir Bhutto and the modern civil society movement against terrorism and government corruption in […]

Journalist Rafia Zakaria explains the brutal track record of the Taliban and ISIS in attacking women, the all female ISIS brigade that monitors women, medieval imagery, Islamic insurgencies, the Orientalist imagination and how to address global human rights systemically. Congressman Mo Brooks says there is a “war on white people” On The Fun Half: Congressman […]

On Matt & Michael Monday, Journalist Rafia Zakaria explains how why simplistic narratives of human suffering in developing countries can undermine political progress, the problems with foreign aid, the link between US foreign aid and military strategy, how women’s rights are harmed can be harmed by western advocacy, the women’s rights crisis in Pakistan and […]

Jeffrey Rosen the President of the he President And CEO of the National Constitution Center explains the depth and range of NSA spying on Europe, how the new revelations could change the legal standing of those challenging the spying programs, will the broad use of surveillance change American public opinion, why Smith V Maryland does not […]

Jacobin contributing Editor and  writer Peter Frase, explains the politics of “tech bros” in Silicon Valley, what the BART strike showed us about the ugly side of tech politics, what flexibility really means, why labor unions support innovation, Denmark’s distinct approach to flexible labor markets and why technology plutocrats are a lot like other plutocrats. […]