Radio War Nerd

Guest: Michael Woldemariam Recorded: October 15, 2026 The war in the Horn that we've been anticipating with dread has broken out. We talk to professor Michael Woldemariam, an expert in Horn of Africa wars and security at U. Maryland, to discuss the historical context of this war, the differences bet

Recorded: April 23, 2024 Roundup of the latest war news: Protests against Israel's war on Gaza; Myanmar junta's shrinking territory; Ethiopia fracturing; and Ukraine's demographic crisis. Maps & Graphs *New York Times map & article here*Ukraine males by age *Ukraine fertility rate Music interlude by

Guest: Ann Neumann, journalist Recorded: February 17, 2023 We talk to Ann Neumann, one of the few journalists to report from Ethiopia on the ongoing war against Tigray, which has resulted in at least 600,000 civilian deaths, mostly in Tigray, as well as revenge atrocities in border regions south-sou

Recorded: December 20, 2022 The War Nerd & Ames look back on the year in wars that was 2022, and consider how a failed regime-change movement in Belarus influenced Putin's cockamamie Ukraine war plan. Total time: 1:39:51 Direct link to this episode's mp3 here

Guest: Brian Train, war board game developer Recorded: September 21, 2022 Risk is required playing for any budding war nerd. But real war board-gamers move on to the hard stuff. We talk to Brian Train, developer of dozens of war board games over 3 decades, specializing in gaming counter-insurgencies

Guest: Ben Aris, editor BNE IntelliNews Originally recorded: July 13, 2022 We're reposting our interview with Ben Aris on the economic war side of the Ukraine war, plus our discussion on the Ethiopia wars — made possible by the mighty War Nerd Legion. First, we update the latest from Ethiopia's insu

Guest: Ben Aris, editor BNE IntelliNews Recorded: July 13, 2022 First, we update the latest from Ethiopia's insurgencies in Tigray and Oromia...then we discuss some of the latest grim war news out of Ukraine & consider the not-so-deeper meaning of NPR's attempt at historical war analogy + the Kagan

Recorded: June 10, 2022 The War Nerd and Ames discuss the latest grim news out of Ukraine, where the war isn't going the way the West intended...after the break, we look at Ethiopia's artificial famine strategy in Tigray, quietly memory-holed in the western media-foreign policy world. ***RWN IN NYC!

Recorded: May 20, 2022 The War Nerd & Ames catch up on the latest news in the wretched world of wars. First: SUV Death Stars & garbage plates... Then at 13:48 — World of Wars, starting with the latest out of Ethiopia/Tigray...Ukraine & Russia's ugly way of war gaining some ugly battlefield success..

Recorded: November 10, 2021 The War Nerd and Ames catch up on current war events: the hot war in Ethiopia, and the latest cold war follies as the Steele Dossier/Russiagate edifice continues it long slow collapse. Total time: 1:28:57 Direct link to this episode's mp3 here

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: June 23, 2021 The War Nerd & Ames do a roundup of the latest in wars: Tigray genocide & insurgency; British-Russia Black Sea kerfuffle; postwar elections in Armenia; Imran Khan & China; Khashoggi's Saudi assassins trained by Cerberus Capital subsidiary under US State Dept program; Afghanis

Recorded: January 28, 2021 We take a break from historical war stories to make some sense of the miserable present tense: war & repression in Ethiopia's Tigray province; Team Biden & imperial stagnation; and the recent unrest in Russia over Alexei Navalny's arrest. Total time: 1:35:04 Direct link to

Recorded: November 24, 2020 First: the War Nerd survives snorkeling in the Irish Sea in search of his octopus teacher... At 11:22 - we look at the rapidly-developing war in Ethiopia between federal forces led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed, and the powerful Tigrayan TPLF forces in the north.