Radio War Nerd EP #570 — Rock Bottom-less: 2025 In Review

I'm an microbio undergrad studying G. lamblia (or G. Intestinalis,... or G. duodenalis) over at a Uni lab and they're nasty but kinda cute buggers! They're also really weird because they have a bunch of unique proteins and stuff, because they need 'em to swim around exceptionally well in the guts of mammals (8 tails!) and "grasp" onto the villi in the intestines with their "ventral disc". They just reproduce like CRAZY over a few days/weeks, but they're easily wiped out with anti-parasitics. Outside the body, they simply encyst to brave the elements and enter another unfortunate victim. The "trophozoite" (free swimming) is the one in the picture, and are only present in the gut because they're quite weak. Anyways, they exclusively spread through feces so... Fun fact, most die after getting their picture taken under fluorescent microscopy, because they HATE concentrated light, and they just tumble away like a fighter plane that's been fatally struck, its a bit sad really. Sorry for the long rant, just fun to see something you vaguely know about get mentioned!

Mark. This probably won't help, but I heard a story over new years about a friends fiance, brought up in New Zealand apparently he drank NZ pond water, got intestinal parasites, got treated ... but then was told they had to return for more treatment 7 years later later when the eggs hatched... Anyway. Happy new year!

Emergency Venezuela pod?!? They must have had the inner circle on the payroll right?

Welcome back! Such a joy to hear you once again. Good luck with the purge Mark.

horrific flu + giardia from wegman’s is sooo Rochester winter 2025 coded. solidarity to everyone else in the area lmao it’s not great rn. Idk about the other hospitals, but Strong is attempting to do universal masking. Feel better Mark & family ☹️☹️☹️

I quite enjoyed the latest recitation of ailments.

Giardia from a Wegmans poke bowl? Holy shit!

Happy New Year to John, Mark, Brendan, as well as their spouses, families, and pets! And best wishes to the RWN community! It was a dire year, and 2026 promises more to come. Let’s hope for fewer parasites and blood draws, at least.

My favorite medical horror podcast

Do you guys know why missile parts are gold plated? Shelf life. Gold over nickel is the best conductive plating that doesn’t oxidize. Silver will tarnish. Tin grows tin whiskers. Tin-lead is poisonous. I know it’s a criticism of the US military’s decadent wastefulness, but there is an actual scientific reason behind the material choice.

Hope Mark recovers soon! I've read a fair bit of Orwell. I think his most interesting stuff is his war commentaries, the weekly news reports he did for the BBC world service, broadcasting to places like India during WW2, propagandizing for listeners who didn't like the war but weren't particularly keen on the British Empire either. They're very well written and fairly 'honest' as well as being a fascinating look at the war unfolding in real time but also a reminder that Orwell remained at heart a (slightly apologetic) servant of Empire which is probably why the British establishment has kept his memory alive far longer than say contemporaries like Claud Cockburn https://www.amazon.co.uk/Commentaries-Penguin-Twentieth-Century-Classics/dp/0140189092

Thanks for your insights war nerds. Onward into 2026.

I just watched this ww2tv stream on why Barbarossa failed, and it had some very interesting counterpoints to both the German generals/NATO consensus and some of the newer consensus emerging in the current secondary literature on Barbarossa than Annabelle is very familiar with I think you all should track this guy down for an interview: https://www.youtube.com/live/4QfIfVpHXNk?

It doesn't matter whether people forgive Israel or not. Public opinion is immaterial.

RWN turned into a body horror podcast so gradually I hardly even noticed.

At the interlude. I've always enjoyed them but I must say that I really dug this one. Going to listen more deeply to Mountains in 2026.

Mark took promoting the War Nerd Civil War book too far and went and got dysentery.

Look forward to To The Crows! Not the biggest Orwell fan, but enjoyed Down and Out in Paris and London. Homage to Catalonia was way good too.

I haven't listened yet, but it looks like the episode/news curse has struck again. Saudi Arabia bombed UAE material in southern Yemen issued an ultimatum demanding a full UAE withdrawal. They had no choice but to comply.

Ring of Bright Water - worth watching!

Dolan the white

Can you guys get into the latest(failed) Pentagon audit? In which something like 60% of their budget cannot be accounted for?

Regarding No Other Land, that documentary played in my local (independent) theater for probably 3 months straight. Way longer than any of the documentaries about Ukraine.

Also don't forget that trump was the first president to send lethal aid to the Ukrainians. So he can pretend all he wants but he still shares blame for the escalation.

Rule 1 of military PR: body counts are cope. Exhibit A, Vietnam, exhibit B, Biden rambling about Ukraines kill count as a "success" while everything else has failed, exhibit C, Nazi simps trying to convince themselves the 3rd Reich was actually good at warfare by hyping their body counts

I think it's almost too fitting that John suffers debilitating head injuries around the same time Mark contracts diseases that a dog would get drinking from a swamp. The dao is there for all to see, I guess

The Golden Navy stuff is so funny considering that the US has barely any shipbuilding capacity just to replace the ships that are falling apart due to age. Meanwhile China can pump out an aircraft carrier every other year lol

Unrelated to the episode- ‘Life Stinks’ by Pere Ubu featured in an episode of Tim Robinson’s very good HBO dark comedy The Chair Company. Thanks for putting us on to them last year, John and Mark!

I still think your hope that people will turn on Israel is so misplaced I can’t really say any more than I have the last six months to a year. But to quote the right wing tweeter Auron MacIntye, the side that wants to win will always beat the side that wants to be left alone. Palestine is a hill zionists will die on, and not one that anyone who matters will die on. And that will never change. People will disengage but they will not act. Let’s be clear: the left are the losers in life, for one reasons or another, who recognize they are losers and want to change the system. It’s somewhat narcissistic but mostly noble. That said, the right are also losers and the antisemitic right are the biggest losers. But they are the only people who kind of matter because of their place on Loser Mountain who will also die on this hill. So, your only hope is the dumbest of all the right and Muslim/anti-zionist left who no one cares about or listens to.

JD is like Joe Burrow returning from his foot injury. And it also kind of works because his Defense is still garbage.

Very occasionally my hypervigilance is correct and I hate it every time. So sorry, Mark. Hang in there. This fallen war-ld needs you and John intact (± a fashionable hat-dent in John's skull) EDIT: "It's this single-celled creature but it has a shell, naturally, because... God is great" had me laughing for a WHILE

Oof, I have celiac’s disease. My condolences to your cilia, Mark.

The golden fleet, lead by it’s flagship, the USS “slow moving target”

John came back like John Malkovich busting through the burning gates of the POW camp at the end of Empire of the Sun. And Mark is semi-delirious like the starving Christian Bale in the same.

Not seeing this on the RSS feed

IT WAS A JOKE I DIDN'T ACTUALLY WANT YOU TO CATCH A PARASITE

Isn’t giardia an airport?

Mark doing the citizen kane clapping gif while congratulating John on his recovery

Giardia is what will kill a puppy faster than almost anything when they’re young, pretty terrifying that you can get it from bad fish.. cheers on Gary’s recovery though