Just for the strategy nerds, sharing a free preview of the Bang-Bang Podcast episode covering Ender’s Game, the 2013 film adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s classic sci-fi novel of the same name. Neither achieving box office nor critical success, the movie still evokes a wide range of reactions. Especially when it comes to its ambiguous relationship to the original text. Van and Lyle have fellow vet and strategist Alexander McCoy on the show to debate their competing reads. Along the way, they come to agree that certain insights gleaned from the cinematic rendering might be at odds with Card’s politics. Ranging from the ultimate lovelessness of war to the emptiness of any strategy unharnessed from justice and peace.

Subscribe to the Bang-Bang Podcast for the full episode and more: https://www.bangbangpod.com

Alex on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexandermccoy.bsky.social

“A Primer on Orson Scott Card and the Ender’s Game Controversy,” by Anna Silman

The Internationalists, by Alexander Ward

“The Great Humbling,” by David Klion

“Four Futures,” By Peter Frase

Strategy and Conscience, by Anatol Rapaport

What is the role of crypto and AI in the new American oligarchy? What does it mean that Mark Zuckerberg has declared a re-embrace of "politics?" And what do Palantir, Anduril, and the new defense-industrial cartel have to do with everything from domestic governance to World War III and the "future of war?" All that and more in Van Jackson's chat with Max Read.

Subscribe to Max's ReadMax newsletter: https://maxread.substack.com

Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/

Catch Un-Diplomatic on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/undiplomaticpodcast

Stephen Wertheim joins as a guest in the Un-Diplomatic Podcast’s special livestream edition. He discusses two of his latest pieces, in the Financial Times and Global Asia magazine respectively. The chat includes thoughts about NATO in Asia, the unreliability of US commitments, how the Democratic Party has ceded peace narratives to Trump, and the romantic views of US power that leads European and Asian powers to think they're free-riding when they're really setting themselves up for a trap.

"It’s time for Europe’s magical thinking on defence to end": https://on.ft.com/4iSWlkf

"Asia Should Encourage ‘Trump the Peacemaker’": https://www.globalasia.org/v19no4/cover/asia-should-encourage-trump-the-peacemaker_stephen-wertheim

Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/

Catch Un-Diplomatic on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/undiplomaticpodcast

Dumpster fire episode live-streamed on Twitch. Military Primacy is Anti-LGBTQ | US Sanctions on Spain for Opposing Genocide? | Israeli Beeper Terrorism | Your National Security Career is a Joke | Amazon’s Anti-Worker Brutality | USCENTCOM Bombing Yemen | Korea’s Fortune-Telling Shaman Coup Plotter | Ukraine-War Conspiracy Theory | Economic Anxiety and the Racist Right | Avocado Toast Beats Cereal

Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/

Follow Un-Diplomatic on Twitch to get notifications for livestreams: https://www.twitch.tv/undiplomaticpodcast

This live episode streamed on the Un-Diplomatic Podcast’s new Twitch channel, critiquing a think tank report about nuclear escalation in a conflict with China over Taiwan.

Twitch Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/undiplomaticpodcast

Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com

Stream on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/live/7N3IFWdqb2g?si=LX7vwVg1XNpB3_3v

The report: https://www.csis.org/events/confronting-armageddon-wargaming-nuclear-deterrence-and-its-failures-us-china-conflict-over

Checking in on the dumpster fire that is world politics.

Trump’s threat to annex Canada expands to Mexico (!).

Australia’s sphere of influence absorbs Nauru.

The South Korean right has been begging for a crisis with North Korea—here’s why.

JD Vance and Trump take on the Syria question.

A Biden China hand wants us to support Trump on China (!).

JD Vance, Political Realignment, and Syria

At first glance, Australia’s new treaty with Nauru seems to be a win-win. But questions remain

‘He loves to divide and conquer’: Canada and Mexico brace for second Trump term

After Assad: Q&A From Damascus

The Trump Administration’s China Challenge

Checking in on the dumpster fire that is world politics.

South Korea’s president declares martial law in what is clearly an attempted self-coup.

Trump threatens to annex Canada.

Trump threatens 100% tariffs on BRICS nations for a non-existent alternative currency.

New Zealand’s Labour Party declares its independent foreign policy.

Let them eat nuclear subs—Americans are struggling while the White House tries to add $7.3 billion to the defense budget for nuclear-powered submarines.

Sh*tting BRICS: Trump, Dollar Primacy, and Multipolarity

Burger King and Popeyes franchises fined for child labor law violations

South Korea’s Conservative Government Is Cracking Down on the Country’s Militant Labor Unions

Release: A Labour Government will not join AUKUS

Julia, Matt, and Van convened for a mailbag episode to answer all the questions you sent in. Is Korea Asia’s hottest flashpoint? What concerns us about Trump’s political appointees? What do we say when someone claims that Trump is “antiwar?” How should we understand the rise of ethnonationalism, and how can we beat it? What does a democratically accountable foreign policy look like?

All that and more!