Radio War Nerd

Guest: Annibale Recorded: October 1, 2025 While the War Nerd recovers on IR, we begin our series on the largest military offensive in history, Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. And who better to lead us through the slaughter than RWN special correspo

Guest: Stephen Rabe, historian Recorded: March 18, 2024 We talk to historian Stephen Rabe to recover the lost history of how the CIA wage a dirty war in Guyana, using US labor unions to pit the country's blacks against Indians, wrecking the country for decades to make sure that its popular leftist p

Guest: Dr Jeremy Rich, professor Recorded: August 31, 2023 We talk to Dr Jeremy Rich about Gabon's history from French colonialism up to the recent coup Gabon overthrowing the Bongo dynasty. Dr Rich also shares his personal experiences in Gabon in the 1990s up through his strange gig as an election

Recorded: August 14, 2023 Niger is one of the poorest countries on earth, one of the most NATO-militarized in Africa & conveniently for some, among the hardest to obtain reliable info on. We look at everything from US military bases to the media-State Dept cant about saving Niger's soi-disant democr

Guest: Sopo Japaridze, labor activist & podcaster Recorded: March 10, 2023 We talk to Georgia-based labor activist Sopo Japaridze about the recent mass protests, backed by the West, against proposed new laws to regulate foreign-funded NGOs. We also discuss the sorry state of post-Soviet politics in

Recorded: August 24, 2022 On the 75th anniversary of the British-designed bloodbath known as the Indian Partition, the War Nerd & Ames recover the British Empire's central role in one of the bloodiest and most tragic events of the 20th century. First: We look at two recent assassinations: the car-bo

Recorded: July 8, 2022 Yes, Virginia, before Russia invaded Ukraine there was another European country that was invaded and carved up by a more powerful military — the year was 1974, the victim was Cyprus, and the invader was Turkey, NATO's second largest military, backed by the US. In part 1 of our

Guest: João Santos Recorded: May 11, 2022 April 25th was the 48th anniversary of Portugal's Carnation Revolution, when junior officers overthrew the crypto-fascist dictatorship, inadvertently setting off a popular leftist revolution. In part 1, we discuss the background to the revolution, and the ev

Recorded: October 12, 2021 The Nobel Prize for Lit just went to a Zanzibar-born writer, Abdulrazak Gurnah. Not exactly Africa's most exciting writer, but the occasion called for an episode on the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution, which for a few months that year created a Cold War freakout in Washington and

Guest: Max Blumenthal, author, journalist, podcaster Originally recorded: May 25, 2021 By popular demand from our subscribers, we're reposting free & unlocked our latest interview with journalist Max Blumenthal about the latest Israel-Gaza war in the context of Israel's years-long wars on Gaza & Pal

Guest: Max Blumenthal, author, journalist, podcaster Recorded: May 25, 2021 We talk to friend of RWN Max Blumenthal about the latest Israel-Gaza war in the context of Israel's years-long wars on Gaza & Palestinians, late-stage Zionism, and the manufactured postwar "anti-Semitism" hysteria sweeping A

Recorded: April 22, 2021 News that Chad president Idriss Déby was killed in battle got us thinking: it's time to talk about Chad, which is practically synonymous with technicals. Maps: *Chad cities & provinces *Chad topography Total time: 1:32:00 Direct link to this episode's mp3 here

Guest: Cliff Simons, historian Recorded: March 15, 2021 We talk to military historian Cliff Simons about the New Zealand Wars of the 19th century, pitting British settlers against the native Maori peoples. Map of battles (*from Cliff's book Soldiers, Scouts & Spies): Buy Cliff Simons' book Soldiers,

Guest: Annibale Recorded: November 28, 2020 The War Nerd closes out November with an episode on the Italo-Turkish War in Libya on the eve of World War I. First, we discuss the latest pandemic news out of Italy... At 25:33 - Annibale explains the background to the Italo-Turkish war over Libya, the wa

Guest: Prof. Henry Reynolds, historian Recorded: September 22, 2020 First: the Nerd and Ames discuss seasons & Belfast murals... At 15:45 - Prof. Henry Reynolds joins us from Tasmania to explain both Australia's Frontier wars against the Aborigines, and also the forgetting of that war in the context

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: James McDougall, author & professor Recorded: September 24, 2019 Judging by subscriber requests over the years, you can't call yourself a true war nerd podcast until you've covered the famous France-Algeria War of the 1950s. Lucky for us, we're joined by Oxford U. history professor James McDo

Guest: Nelson Denis, writer & filmmaker Recorded: September 10, 2019 "Alvaro, are we invisible?"—Puerto Rico's remarkable independence leader Pedro Albizu Campos said this to one of his comrades during the failed 1950 rebellion against US rule. For some strange reason, Americans know more about hist

Guest: Chika Oduah, journalist Recorded: August 19, 2019 We talk to Nigerian-American journalist Chika Oduah about her travels to Boko Haram's strongholds in Nigeria's far northeast, about the politics of Nigeria's north-south divide, and the lost history of the Biafra rebellion and its legacy. Chec