Blowback

Brendan and Noah drag the Iraq War out of America’s memory hole to see how it shaped our hellworld today. Meet the rogues’ gallery of George W. Bush’s administration and Saddam Hussein’s family. Featuring special guests James Adomian and H. Jon Benjamin.

In this first bonus episode, Noah talks to author and journalist Dahr Jamail, one of the few journalists who covered the occupation of Iraq, on the ground, without being embedded with the US military or its allies. Dahr is the author of “Beyond the Green Zone,” “The Will To Resist,” and “The Mass Destruction of Iraq.”

Brendan and Noah survey the underwhelming landscape of Iraq War cinema with special guest Matt Christman. They dissect both Hollywood's hits and flops — neither of which were very good — and recommend very few flicks worth watching.

Author Naomi Klein joins us to discuss the American exploitation-fest in Iraq, her own experience coming up during the Bush years, the rehabilitation of the Bush administration, and its continuities with the Trump gang.

Interviews with history professor Michelle Chase and Cuban scholar Marta Nuñez Sarmiento.

We talk to activists and historians about Cuba, black radicalism, and how the Revolution attacked the problem of racism.

Guest Luna Olavarria-Gallegos explains how the US government infiltrated and co-opted the hip-hop scene in Cuba.

A brief overview of how American nuclear weapons strategy ran parallel to the story in our main narrative.

A discussion of Operation Peter Pan with Prof. Nelson Valdes, with a detour into Hungary, 1956.

Guest Bill Corbett (Mystery Science Theater 3000, Rifftrax) and Brendan hang out and talk about some bad Cuba movies.

Noah talks with José Pertierra, a Cuban-American immigration attorney who has long tangled with right-wing Miami Cubans in the media and in court.

A rundown of the Cuban revolution's foreign policy in Africa with guest, Cuban diplomat Oscar Oramas-Oliva.

Guests Helen Yaffe, José Pertierra and Marta Núñez Sarmiento discuss the protests in Cuba during July 2021.

Guatemala: an origin story, inspiration, and cautionary tale just a few hundred miles from our main story.