BONUS Radio War Nerd EP #640 — Brazil Elections & US Subversion, feat. Brian Mier
Guest: Brian Mier
Recorded: October 1, 2026
Brazil-based journalist Brian Mier returns to RWN to talk about Brazil's upcoming presidential elections, corruption scandals, Bolsonaro's 2023 coup plot and his son's American-backed attempt to take power, media malpractice and more.
Check out Brian's media: his substack, De-Linking Brazil. And his new project, Panamerican Dispatch, where he publishes translations of independent Brazilian articles.
Further listening:
RWN EP #154 - Brazil's Military Dictatorship & 2018 Elections
Total time: 52:31
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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John's new essay collection, To The Crows, is available to subscribers. You can also order a hard copy on Amazon - read it, know it, review it!
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Sound production by Telescope Audio
Comments (20)
Lula Lula Lula!!!!!!!
There’s that old meme about Central American elections that’s like “third runoff: center left candidate with decent industrial policy: 49.999% v Hitler Jr 49.9999”
Excellent episode. If you guys are ever looking for other experienced regional media guests talking about recent history/current situation of the reactionary wave in Latam, I listen to the Colombia Reports podcast and those guys are fantastic. Think theyd make great guests, when I started listening to them sometimes I forgot I wasn't listening to a RWN guest episode because their style is very knowledgeable and very exasperated in a way that reminds me a lot of the tone of RWN
thanks for the tip
I get how social media could make people more stupid/misinformed but why is it necessarily making people more right-wing? (…. …. me avoiding the obvious low hanging fruit answer to this…) X is a right wing propaganda machine, sure, so is X so influential in Brazil? If it’s not just X, I don’t see Meta platforms as being so obviously rightwing, I mean, my own Instagram has become a leftist echo chamber 😅… are rightwing chambers just the default? Basically someone explain the modern world to me thanks
Would love to hear from Vincent Bevins again once the runoff dust settles
Great episode. You know what would also be a great episode? CIVIL WAR EPISODE! No better tonic for John's ailments than civil war eps.
Hope Lula comes through with a round 2 win! Brazil under Bolsonaro will likely see export taxes on diesel lifted and everyday Brazilian pump prices rocket
Never been so sad seeing my petrobras shares up 15%
Cannot believe you got through this whole episode on US attempts to destabilize Brazil without mentioning BRICS!!!! The B stands for Brazil!
Brian's time was very limited on election eve, otherwise I would've kept him for hours, BRICS being one of the many other questions I'd have for him.
WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP turns out Brazilians are retards just like Americans
Right-wingers are both stupid and evil, but I'm not sure if they're more stupid than they are evil. Though I guess some would say that stupidity and evil are the same thing. I donno.
Classic topics of radio war nerd, cia tomfoolery, 3rd world politics, and media malpractice, its really a shame john couldn't be on for this.
I was genuinely shocked to hear that Evangelicals are only 40% for Bolsanaro and almost a third are for Lula. That seems crazy to me given that Evangelicals in this country are like, 90%+ in the can for Trump and some of the most frothing reactionaries anywhere in the world.
CIA-FAILURE! Pretty sure they spread evangelism in the first place was so 80-90% voted for rightwing candidates.
me when a tepid center left candidate is attacked in USA: 😴 me when a tepid center left candidate is attacked in latin america: 😨
Great ep. Great guest. Hopefully Lula will prevail. Fucking New York Times is such a piece of shit rag publication. We all know it, but it’s important to be reminded how low these parasites are. Brazil going right-wing would be an absolute disaster. Brazil and Mexico resisting US imperialism has been one of the few bright spots as of late.
“Strongman” Lula and Sheinbaum has to be one of the stranger liberal media tropes of the last few years
Very glad you posted this. Lula has been a competent administrator 3 terms so far, hope he gets a 4th.