Blood Work

2026, Week 44 There are weeks where myself and Tom go looking for an interesting news story to discuss for the week, and there are weeks when the story falls out of the sky right into our laps. And then, of course, there are the times the story crawls out of the sea, develops hind legs, marches acro

Article 1: Former Tory election candidate suspended over contract killing claims The Guardian – Oct 21, 2026 Reporting by Benn Quinn and Henry Dyer

This week, Hussein is joined by Tom and Greg from Blood Work, to talk about the 2010 film Four Lions, written and directed by Chris Morris. The boys talk about their impressions watching the film in their youth, and revisiting it as an adult, in the aftermath of the failed War on Terror. They talk a

Article 1: Ethiopia says it must defend itself against Eritrea's 'all-out invasion' Reuters – Oct 09, 2026 Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw Article 2: Eritrea asks UN to intervene in standoff with Ethiopia Reuters – Oct 10, 2026 Reporting by Reuters

2026, Week 43 Over the past few weeks, tensions have been rapidly mounting between the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea, owing to a multitude of factors. If you don’t know much about Ethiopian-Eritrean relations, that’s okay. Put it this way: You might not know much now, but if things boil over,

Gregk and Thomas mark Blood Work’s first birthday with a casual discussion about what we learned in the year 1 AS (Anno Sangui). Image: A cupcake with a single candle being lit on fire with a handgun. I mean, I don’t know, I feel like this one’s pretty self-explanatory. Blood Work is a Scam Goldin P

Hello, Blood Workers. As part of our Blood Work One-Year Anniversary celebrations, we're happy to announce our first ever Q&A session. Submit your questions, queries and inquiries (which are completely useless) via the Google Form below, and Gregk and Thomas will answer the best in a forthcoming epi

Article 1: Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed Associated Press – Oct 09, 2026 Reporting by Konstantin Toropin, Eric Tucker and Claudia Lauer

2026, Week 42 For this week’s newsletter, we’ve got some thoughts about US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s expressed desire to publicly broadcast an execution, the long history of violence, justice and spectacle in American politics, and how this latest development sits in that tableau. Pentagon say

From Gregk and Thomas, thank you for listening, enjoying and supporting the show. Here's to another blood-soaked trip around the Sun. Catch you next time.

We close out our series discussing how drone warfare advanced a new military ethics in which the lives of combatants are sacrosanct, while civilian lives are expendable. Image: A photograph on an Israeli UAV dropping grenades from the sky. Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production This episode was prod

2026, Week 41 I think it was Lenin who once said there are slow news weeks, and then there are quick news weeks, and then there are silly news weeks. Over the past few days, the United Kingdom appears to be experiencing one somewhere between the latter two categories. This story has been developing,

On January 20, 1942, a group of SS officers and mid-level bureaucrats from the ministries of the Third Reich convened at a lakeside villa. The agenda: Genocide. Image: A photograph of one of the interior corridors of 56-58 Am Wannsee (Credit: Werner Zellien) Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production Th

Article 1: Far-right activist Daniel Thomas charged over alleged dinghy slashing in Channel Thirty-seven-year-old charged with one count of criminal damage and failing to disclose his phone pin to police The Guardian – Sep 24, 2026 Reporting by Amelia Gentleman and Diane Taylor Article 2: Netanyahu

2026, Week 39 It’s been a bad week for anyone with a moral compass or semblance of a commitment to having consistent and coherent principles. In that spirit, here’s two stories about two different groups of pigs, bozos and slobs, presented in the spirit of admiration about what a wonderful and cool

We return to Grégoire Chamayou’s Theory of the Drone to meditate on sacrifice, preservation, and what happens when warrior virtue must be retooled for riskless killers. Image: A photograph of the setup of the ‘shock generator’ equipment for Stanley Milgram's famous 1960s studies on authority and obe

2026, Week 38 This week, Bloomberg published a weighty report on the cost of the US blockade on Iran—itself an outgrowth of the war which nobody wanted. We’re sharing a hefty excerpt from that report, along with some of our thoughts on where this all originated, and how predictable it was. Iran Bloc

Iran Blockade Costs Are Draining America’s Global Military Power Bloomberg – Sep 15, 2026 Reporting by Gerry Doyle, Becca Wasser (Bloomberg Economics), Jen Judson, Courtney McBride & Hayley Warren

Kelsey joins Gregk to discuss his ten-year beat covering military tech, drones and autonomous weapons and talk about emergent modes of war in the 2020s. For more from Kelsey D. Atherton: – Follow him on Bluesky – Preorder A World For All: New Visions of US Foreign Policy, out this October with OR Bo

Houthis seize key Yemeni port of Mocha in drive to take control of Red Sea coast Iran and its proxies move closer to full control of two shipping chokepoints as regional conflict widens The Guardian – Sep 10, 2026 Reporting by Patrick Wintour Americans on how 9/11 changed their lives: ‘It completely

2026, Week 37 This week, some thoughts on Ansar Allah’s rapid advance down Yemen’s western coast as they prepare to exact further costs on the US for its war of choice against Iran, followed by some brief meditations on September 11th and its consequences. Houthis seize key Yemeni port of Mocha in d

We look at Grégoire Chamayou’s groundbreaking 2015 book on Drone Warfare to examine the phenomenon of killing without vulnerability, and the troubling ethics such technologies induce. Image: An 18-year-old factory worker named Norma Jean Dougherty poses for a photograph at the Radioplane factory in

Foreign support, drones fuel Sudan war and possible war crimes, UN probe says Reuters – Sep 03, 2026 Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin Inside the 24-hour mutiny that threatened Niger's ruling junta Associated Press – Aug 31, 2026 Reporting by Chinedu Asadu Russia Turns to New-Generation Drones and All

2026, Week 36 This week, we’re coming through with some updates on the swirl of outside actors arming the conflict in Sudan; news of a thwarted coup in Niger which possibly clarifies the nature of Russia’s role in the Sahel; and a troubling technological advancement in the Russia-Ukraine War. Enjoy.

Josef enters the Zone to talk about his experience working in the U.S. State Department and discuss the quiet violence work of diplomats, administrators and functionaries. For more from Josef Burton: – Follow him on Bluesky and Twitter – Listen to his appearance on QAA discussing Iranian Monarchists

ARTICLE 1: The End of the American Middle East Iran and the Last Gasp of a Failed Order Foreign Affairs – Aug 18, 2026 Essay by Marc Lynch ARTICLE 2: The Abandoned Order Learning to Live in a Post-American World Foreign Affairs – Aug 18, 2026 Essay by Mark Leonard ARTICLE 3: Prime Minister Carney de

2026, Week 35 This week, we’ve got excerpts from two essays recently published in Foreign Affairs for you, which are striking in their candour about ‘the current situation’ and surprising in their proposed routes out. Capping it off, we briefly dwell on Mark Carney’s recent remarks about the ongoing

Article 1: Israel strikes an air base in northwest Syria to prevent Turkish troops from deploying AP – Aug 19, 2026 Reported ​by Samar Kassabali

2026, Week 34 Earlier this week, Israel carried out airstrikes on a defunct airbase in northwestern Syria, in an action both stated and perceived as aimed at Turkey. This week, we offer a little background on Israel and Turkey’s regional rivalry in the context of Syria’s civil war, and speculate on

We take another dive into the Blood Work theory zone, looking at Cameroonian postcolonial thinker Achille Mbembe’s seminal 2003 essay on the production of death as the crowning political activity of our era. Image: Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics (2019), Duke University Press Blood Work is a Scam Gold

Article 1: Turkey lays out plans for defence pact with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia Reuters – Aug 13, 2026 Reporting ​by Tuvan Gumrukcu, Editing by Huseyin Hayatsever and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Aidan Lewis

2026, Week 33 Earlier this week, three countries across the Middle East and South Asia signed a new defence pact which has several potential ramifications for the region, and indeed security arrangements around the world. This week, we’re going to discuss that announcement and why we should hope it

We explore the modern history of putting big guns on wheels, then dive into the history of Chad and its border dispute with Libya to learn how a humble pickup truck became a quintessential weapon of war. If you enjoyed this episode: – Support Blood Work via Patreon – Leave a rating or review on your

Article 1: Myanmar civil war nears a rare opening for talks as diplomacy gains ground Reuters – Aug 05, 2026 Reporting by Reuters staff and Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok, Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Saad Sayeed

2026, Week 32 This week, we’re staying in Southeast Asia, jumping just over Thailand’s north-western border to Myanmar, where the ongoing civil war between the country’s military dictatorship and numerous armed groups across the country is showing slithers of hope that a resolution might be on the h

Blood Work’s EU Correspondent joins us to discuss Europe’s sclerotic struggle to adapt to a rapidly changing world, why NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is such a freak, and what the heck actually went down in Ceuta. For more from Ciarán Dold: – Follow him on Bluesky – Listen to Corner Späti – Foll

Article 1: Al Jazeera – Jul 23, 2026 Report by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um for Reuters; Editing by David Stanway

2026, Week 31 This week, we’re moving our attention to another part of the world which has received scant attention amidst the violence unfolding elsewhere right now, but which we believe is worth knowing about all the same. For several months, the government of Thailand has been engaged in peace ta

Hussein comes on to talk about the most important film of the COVID era that isn’t Christopher Nolan’s TENET. For more from Hussein Kesvani – Listen to Ten Thousand Posts and Trashfuture – Order Vittles #3 to read his piece about how Muslim consumers have become central to the evolution of British f

2026, Week 30 This week we’re presenting a hefty excerpt from a report published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on fertiliser shortages produced by the US-Israeli war on Iran, and the looming threat of undernourishment, famine and starvation which becomes increasingly in

ARTICLE 1: Iran war: From fertilizer to food crisis? International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) – Jul 02, 2026 Report by Rob Vos

Molly from Weird Little Guys comes on to talk about the long thread connecting Confederates, Klansmen, Veterans and armed white power groups past and present. For more from Molly Conger: – Follow her on Bluesky – Listen to Weird Little Guys Image: Louis Beam attending a Klan rally in Santa Fe, Texas

Welcome to Christian Rock Summer 2026! We're kicking it off this year with an album about spiritual warfare that takes the war metaphor a bit too literally. On today's episode, Josh and Josiah were joined by Tom O'Mahony and Gregk Foley from Blood Work to discuss The Heart of War by Christian "hard

Article 1: Why We’re Dismantling the International Criminal Court The Wall Street Journal – Jul 13, 2026 Essay by Marco Rubio

2026, Week 29 This week, Donald Trump’s Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio published a brief opinion column in the Wall Street Journal. Clocking in at roughly 800 words, it’s a short and digestible piece, but it’s probably not uncharitable to characterise it as a declaratio

Article 1: A 300-year-old bonfire tradition in Northern Ireland has turned its flames on Muslims CNN – Jul 10, 2026 Reported by Kara Fox

2026, Week 28 For this week’s newsletter we’re returning to Northern Ireland to examine a recent story about alleged hate crimes being perpetrated in connection with traditional Loyalist celebrations. (I know, shocker.) On top of that, we situate these recent events in dialogue with the racist pogro

Gregk is joined by Tom and Producer Thomas to discuss whether cultural reputation laundering is really such a new phenomena, and whether anything is even being washed at all. Read Patrick Redford’s piece ‘The State of Sportswashing’ in Defector here. Read Jack Crosbie’s piece ‘The White House UFC Fi

Article 1: Army, Allied Militias, Islamist Armed Groups Commit Violations with Impunity Report by Human Rights Watch – Jun 28, 2026 If you enjoyed this episode: – Support Blood Work via Patreon – Leave a rating or review on your podcast app – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter Blood Work is