Radio War Nerd

Recorded: July 18, 2025 Dr. Dolan and Ames take timeout from their collapsing defenses against microbial invaders to discuss Stephen Miller's larval waffendweebery, the Jolani regime's Sunni supremacist war on Druze and Alawites, Israel's bead on Turkey, Ukraine assassinations wars... Total time: 1:

Recorded: May 13, 2025 The PKK (Kurdish Workers Party) voted to end their 40-year insurgency for a Kurdish homeland in Turkey. We look back at the party's origins in the 1970s, its leader Abdullah Ocalan, and the many betrayals of the Kurds. Music interlude by Brendon Anderegg. Check out music from

Recorded: May 23, 2023 We talk 108th Rochester Regiment Civil War reenactments, end of the endless Battle of Bakhmut, GUR-trained & US armed neo-Nazis invading Belgorod...and then some cheerful news for a change, this time out of Ireland... *Civil War funday fotos Total time: 1:35:57 Direct link to

Guest: Joshua Landis, Director of Center for Middle East Studies Recorded: December 9, 2022 The war in Ukraine has sucked all the west's attention away from other wars around the world, including the Syria war, which was once the star of the NATO thinktank world. Dr. Joshua Landis is of the few west

Guest: Ryan Gingeras, historian & professor In Part 2 of our interview with historian Ryan Gingeras on the final years of the Ottoman Empire [Part 1/EP #355 here], we discuss the Ottoman catastrophes in World War One, the Armenian Genocide, surrender in 1918, and the transformation of the Ottoman re

Guest: Ryan Gingeras, historian & professor We've been wanting to dive into Turkish history for awhile now, since so many stories we cover lead back to the Ottomans or Turkey. Historian Ryan Gingeras walks us through the brutal, humiliating & violent last years of the Ottoman Empire. In part 1, we b

We talk to analyst Samuel Bendett about the rapidly evolving drone warfare in the Ukraine-Russia war. Guest: Samuel Bendett, Researcher at The Center for Naval Analyses Recorded: October 21, 2022 We talk to Samuel Bendett, who researches Russian drone & AI capabilities, about the rapidly evolving dr

Recorded: September 15, 2022 We wrap up our RWN series on Turkey's 1974 invasion of Cyprus (EP #337, #339). This episode, Kissinger takes control of the Empire during the chaos of Watergate, making the world an even shittier place than ever — greenlighting the Greek junta's coup against Makarios, an

Recorded: July 21, 2022 "If two fish are fighting in the water, an Englishman was there" In part 2 of our series on Turkey's 1974 invasion of Cyprus (part 1: EP #337), we start with the sham independence constitution forced on Cyprus by the departing Brits ensuring sectarian strife and British bases

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: Joshua Landis, Director of Center for Middle East Studies & blogger Recorded: January 25, 2022 Our monthly World Of Wars looks at two wars: the phony Russia-Ukraine war that NATO & western media is screaming about...and the grim, real ongoing war in Syria, which NATO and the western media don

Recorded: December 21, 2021 Looking back at another miserable year in humanity's oldest profession. The War Nerd & Ames discuss the Ethiopia-Tigray conflict, Afghanistan, Cold War sequels & the end-of-the-year Russia/Ukraine hysteria. Thanks to the mighty RWN community for making the show happen, we

Guest: Lindsey Snell, journalist Recorded: February 3, 2021 We talk to investigative journalist Lindsey Snell about what it was like to be kidnapped by Al Qaeda's Syria franchise, Jabhat al-Nusra/HTS, and her reporting on Turkey's wars in Artsakh, Libya and Syria. Follow Lindsey on Twitter. Check ou

Recorded: December 11, 2020 The War Nerd and Ames discuss Biblical slaughter, Vietnam War Syndrome in Bay Area public schools, and we respond to some of the questions and comments made in the glorious Radio War Nerd community. Total time: 1:34:02 Direct link to this episode's mp3 here

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

Recorded: November 11, 2020 The latest Nagorno-Karabakh war for control over the Armenian region of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) ended this past Monday, November 9, with a Russian-brokered peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The deal represents a massive victory for Azerbaijan, and a shock

Guest: Lika Zakaryan, journalist Recorded: October 11, 2020 Journalist Lika Zakaryan speaks to us from under Azerbajaini bombardment in her hometown Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh (also known as "Artsakh"). Lika describes war—and life under existential threat—from a very close-up and p

Guest: Maurice Grela, game developer Recorded: September 29, 2020 Following up on our RWN episode surveying war-themed video games with Gunnar Hrafn Jónsson (EP #217), we're joined by game developer Maurice Grela to talk about how video games—specifically war gaming—are created and developed. Grela

Guest: "Cyrus", MENA researcher Recorded: June 15, 2020 Are the nationwide protests across the US anything like the Arab Spring? We spoke to MENA researcher "Cyrus", who has spent much of the past two decades in the region researching the political changes from the US invasion of Iraq up through to

Guest: Matt Kennard, journalist & co-founder Declassified UK Recorded: March 4, 2020 Since we started this show 4-1/2 years ago, over and over we've been asking in disbelief, "What happened to the Guardian?" This episode we talk to one of the best investigative journalists working today who answered

Guest: EHSANI Recorded: February 18, 2020 PORTLAND—The War Nerd returns to the Free World (free to be manhandled by Border Police jackboots, that is) to discuss the death of Charles Portis, Lebanon & Syria, and Sinn Fein's victory. 00:00 — "The fat eagle has landed": The Nerd & Ames on Portlandia &

Recorded: January 29, 2020 Guest: "Jared," pilot BANGKOK— The War Nerd thumbs his nose at the conovirus from his rental in Bangkok, Thailand, the country with the second largest death count . . . The Nerd and Ames look at current war news, from confessions of a Salvadoran dirty war commander, to war

Guest: Annibale, Italian war nerd Recorded: November 30, 2019 Here is part 2 of our series on the Venetian empire. In this episode, Annibale familiarizes us with life and politics in the Republic of Venice, a remarkably powerful, innovative & enduring city-state for much of the second millennium. On

Guests: Narin Briar & Elijah Magnier Recorded: October 23, 2019 Recorded just after Russia and Turkey announced an agreement on the dismantling of Rojava, we talked first to Kurdish-American activist Narin Briar for the Rojava perspective of this grim moment . . . At 1:05:00 we talk to longtime Midd

Guest: Carl Zha, podcaster Recorded: October 11, 2019 First, the War Nerd and Ames discuss the grim news out of Rojava as Turkish tanks and their throat-slitter jihadi proxies roll into northern Syria . . . At 25:11 — we're joined by Carl Zha for the second part of our series on Genghis Khan and the

Guest: Joey L., photographer & filmmaker Recorded: July 6, 2019 For non-subscribers, here is a 30+ minute preview of Radio War Nerd episode #189 with guest Joey Lawrence about his incredible stories & photos from his journeys to Iraqi Kurdistan & Rojava. Joey talks about his new book, "We Came From

Guest: Joey L., photographer & filmmaker Recorded: July 6, 2019 The War Nerd talks to photojournalist Joey Lawrence about his incredible stories & photos from his journeys to Iraqi Kurdistan & Rojava. Joey talks about his new book, "We Came From Fire"—a collection of his photos and reporting from th

Guest: Joshua Landis, Director of Center for Middle East Studies & blogger Recorded: September 23, 2018 From his new digs in Sicily, the War Nerd interviews Syria expert Joshua Landis (EP #118) to break down the situation in Idlib: the Russia-Turkey agreement, who the main rebel/jihadi groups are in

Guest: Gabriel Uriarte, fellow history nerd Recorded March 11, 2018 PORTUGAL—One of the big surprises in the Syrian war has been the poor performance of Turkey's military, in its 2016 incursion, and in the recent incursion into Afrin. The War Nerd talks to former Argentine journalist now living in t