Radio War Nerd

Guest: TP Huang Originally recorded: May 14, 2026 We're reposting unlocked our discussion with TP Huang on China's military strategy and hardware, Taiwan, Thucydides Trap, the Hellscape Strategy and more... Subscribe to TP Huang's substack. Follow TP Huang on Twitter. Would you like to know more? Th

Guest: TP Huang Recorded: May 14, 2026 We talk to TP Huang about China's military strategy and hardware, Taiwan, Thucydides Trap, the Hellscape Strategy and more... Subscribe to TP Huang's substack. Follow TP Huang on Twitter. Total time: 1:29:37 Direct link to this episode's mp3 here * Buy & review

Guest: Annibale Recorded: July 26, 2025 The War Nerd is back, along with our old friend Annibale for our series on the Battles of Nomonhan (Khalkhin Gol) on the eve of WWII, the most consequential battles you've never heard of. This episode, Annibale provides background on Japan's politics and milit

Guest: Trita Parsi Recorded: February 5, 2024 We talk to Trita Parsi about Washington's unhealthy obsession with Iran, what it means to be an Iran-backed Iraqi militia group & the absurdity of Late American Empire. Read Trita's articles at Responsible Statecraft. Follow Trita on Twitter (formerly kn

Recorded: April 11, 2023 The War Nerd & Ames catch up on current war-related events: toothaches, border crossings, Taibbi's humiliating thrashings, peace outbreak in Yemen, US diplomacy fails, the never-ending Bakhmut battle & more... Total time: 1:29:20 Direct link to this episode's mp3 here

Guest: Andrew Cockburn, Harpers magazine Recorded: January 26, 2023 We talk to Andrew Cockburn about the DoD's tragicomic budget as it nears the magical 1,000,000,000,000 mark, to the accompaniment of crickets from our media-political "watchdogs". Subscribe to Andrew's substack Spoils Of War. Buy An

Guest: Carl Zha, podcaster Recorded: November 19, 2021 In part 3 of our RWN series on the first US-China Cold War, guest Carl Zha of the Silk & Steel podcast recovers the lost history of the US-backed KMT units forced over the border from southern China into northern Burma, where they set up what wo

Guest: Carl Zha, podcaster Recorded: October 28, 2021 In part 2 of our series on the First China-US Cold War, we look at a handful of significant — and bloody — battles in the weeks and months after Mao's Communists took control of mainland China: The Battle of Kinmen, off the coast of China's south

Guest: Carl Zha, podcaster Recorded: October 26, 2021 The War Nerd welcomes back RWN legend Carl Zha for a new series on the First China-US Cold War, because we're all in the sequel whether we like it or not. In this introductory episode, Carl looks at US-China relations going way back to the Boston

Recorded: August 31, 2021 The War Nerd and Ames try to answer the two most important questions about IS-K that no one seems interested in asking, or answering: Which interests bankrolled IS-K, and what strategic purpose(s) does IS-K serve? We reference Antonio Giustozzi's excellent book "The Islamic

Guest: Anatol Lieven, author Recorded: August 11, 2021 We talk to author Anatol Lieven, who first reported on Afghanistan back in the late 1980s, about the the shocking speed of the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, and the collapse of US-backed Afghanistan regime. At 58:40 - the Nerd & Ames discus

Recorded: July 6, 2021 20 years ago, the US Pentagon and its media cheerleaders were celebrating "victory" over the Taliban in Afghanistan. Today, the US is hastily abandoning the last of its bases, while the Taliban is routing US-backed Afghan National Army forces. The War Nerd and Ames discuss the

Guest: The Fakir Recorded: June 2, 2021 In part II in our 2-part series on the 1971 Bangladesh genocide & wars, RWN guest The Fakir takes us from the first months of the genocide in Operation Searchlight in spring 1971, up through the war between India and Pakistan in December 1971 that led to the c

Guest: The Fakir Recorded: May 29, 2021 This is the 50th anniversary of the forgotten genocide in Bangladesh in 1971 , carried out by the US-backed dictator of Pakistan to crush Bangladesh's popular democratic autonomy movement back when Bangladesh was a province of Pakistan known as "East Pakistan.

Recorded: April 13, 2021 The War Nerd returns to the Motherland to discuss the latest in war news: Afghanistan withdrawal announcement, China and "overdemonization", and further observations on late imperial dementia... Check out the new Radio War Nerd Merch store here! Total time: 1:38:34 Direct li

Guest: Richard Kim, historian Recorded: March 21, 2021 We're joined by RWN guest Richard Kim to tell us about the Tang Dynasty's wars in the 7th-c. on Korea's three kingdoms: Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla. In this episode, Richard picks up where he left off in RWN episode #87 with the Sui Dynasty's di

Guest: Gabriel Ernst, journalist Recorded: March 3, 2021 We discuss Myanmar's numerous ethnic militias & civil wars, some of which have been raging for over half a century, with guest "Gabriel Ernst" who has spent years researching and writing about the region. First: taking up a commenter's challen

Recorded: February 23, 2021 We look at the latest developments in the New Cold Wars fronts: the Russian Front, where Amnesty International de-listed jailed opposition activist Alexey Navalny from its hallowed "prisoner of conscience" pantheon; and the China Front, where an Evangelical loon named Dr.

Guest: Davide Melia, writer & researcher Recorded: July 28, 2020 Yunnan-based David Melia tells the incredibly story of the Panthay Rebellion, led by local Hui (Han Muslims) in mid-19th century Yunnan province. The story is almost too cinematic, starting with the leader of the rebellion, the amazing

Guests: TheseLongWars + Aditya Recorded: June 19, 2020 First, we talk to RWN Pakistan bureau chief TheseLongWars about the history of China-Pakistan relations—a subject that has received very little attention in the Anglo-American world. At 1:33:20 - we're joined again by our South Asia investigatio

Guest: Vincent Bevins, journalist & author Recorded: May 15, 2020 The 1965 anticommunist holocaust in Indonesia killed somewhere between 500,000 and 2 million, though we don't know the actual figure, for reasons we discuss—and it was fully supported by the US Embassy and Washington. Why do we know s

Recorded: January 26, 2020 BANGKOK— With the recent death of Oman's longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos, the War Nerd and Ames recover the little known history of Oman, British colonial rule, and the forgotten leftist Dhofar Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. But first: At 08:18 Ames quickly reviews Sam Me

Guest: Carl Zha, podcaster Recorded: October 7, 2019 By popular demand, Radio War Nerd presents at long last a 2-part show on Genghis (Chingiz) Khan, the greatest conqueror of all time. With RWN guest & favorite Carl Zha calling in from Bali, here is part one: starting with the history of the Mongol

Guest: Carl Zha, podcaster Recorded September 14, 2018 For non-subscribers, here is a 20+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode 149 with Carl Zha on recent stories about China forcing millions of Uyghurs into reeducation camps — and the recovered history of Xinjiang's demographic and political hi

Guest: Richard Kim, historian The wars on the Korean peninsula in the 1590s involving Japan against Korea and China may be the finest war narrative ever. For some reason nobody in the Anglosphere knows about these massive epochal wars in East Asia—Richard Kim joins the War Nerd to correct this, and

Guest: Richard Kim The War Nerd talks to fellow War Nerd Richard Kim about the early 7th C China invasions of Korea under the Sui Dynasty — wars that have become a source of hot debate recently between Chinese war nerds and Korean war nerds . . . These wars include some of the largest battles of pre