Podcasts

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  May 3, 2026: Murky Signals From Moscow

  May 3, 2026: Murky Signals From Moscow Last week, Vladimir Putin held a 90-minute phone call with Donald Trump, ostensibly to express concern over a recent assassination attempt and to revive the “spirit of Anchorage.” Yet for all the warm headlines, Russian state media’s coverage of the call and other top news stories has been

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  Strategic Implications of the Iran War (w/ Nikolas Gvosdev)

  Strategic Implications of the Iran War (w/ Nikolas Gvosdev) Two months into the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, the conflict shows no signs of imminent resolution, with both sides convinced that time is on their side. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has rattled global energy markets, but neither Washington nor Tehran appears ready to

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  April 19, 2026: Turning the Screws on Europe

  April 19, 2026: Turning the Screws on Europe Is Russian state media prepping its audience for a showdown with Europe? Recent broadcasts have framed European drone factories as legitimate military targets and accused Kyiv of deliberately dragging the continent into conflict with Moscow. Beneath the rhetoric, a quietly advancing Duma law (reportedly drafted inside Putin’s

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  Rethinking Nuclear Waste: The Case for Recycling Used Fuel (w/ Christina Leggett)

  Rethinking Nuclear Waste: The Case for Recycling Used Fuel (w/ Christina Leggett) Long dismissed in the U.S. as uneconomic and proliferation-prone, the recycling of used nuclear fuel is becoming a strategic imperative the country can no longer afford to ignore. The U.S. is sitting on roughly 96,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel, the vast

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  Kurdish Politics in Theory and Practice (w/ Soran Tarkhani)

  Kurdish political parties all face a similar set of challenges in how they engage with governments, compete with local rivals, and deconflict issues with counterparts across the region. They have to find a mode of accommodation with the state to demonstrate their ability to govern responsibly, but they also need to preserve their legitimacy as

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