Check out Danny and Derek’s recent appearance on the Michael & Us podcast talking about Barry Levinson’s 1997 satire Wag the Dog. In Barry Levinson and David Mamet's WAG THE DOG (1997), a political spin-doctor teams with a movie producer to fake a war and save an incumbent president. You've heard of manufacturing consent, but to what extent can Hollywood and Washington manufacture reality? Subscribe to Michael & Us! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com Danny and Derek welcome to the podcast J.W. Mason, associate professor of economics at John Jay College and fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, to help us make sense of the last several days of volatility in global markets and whether it’s time to “crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside.”

Matthew Guariglia, senior policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and visiting scholar of history at Emory University, joins the program for a two-part discussion on the history of policing in New York City. They explore NY policing as a case study for how the state studies people in order to inform policy, its initial function in the mid-19th century, the largely Irish and German makeup of the force at the time, the force’s interaction with different communities, how gender and...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com Danny and Derek once again speak with Aziz Rana, the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., professor of law and government at Boston College, this time to conclude the series on Americans’ relationship with the Constitution. This episode explores how economic transformations affected attempts at constitutional reform in the 70s, the rise of originalism, judge…

Danny and Derek continue to insist that you be informed. This week: Israel’s assassinations of Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and Fuad Shukr of Hezbollah (1:02); a mini-New Cold War update featuring Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin in East Asia (9:31); Sudan comes close to engaging in ceasefire talks before collapsing at the last minute (12:30); a ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s conflict with M23 (14:58); a large prisoner swap between Russia and the US (17:10); fallout from this...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com Danny and Derek welcome back to the podcast Alejandro Velasco, associate professor of modern Latin America at New York University, to discuss this week’s presidential election in Venezuela, the results of which have prompted allegations of fraud and corruption by the opposition. Further reading: * Alejandro’s book Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com Danny and Derek break down what we know about Israel’s killing of Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas as he visited Iran, as well as its drone strike on Fuad Shukr of Hezbollah in Beirut.

Danny and Derek welcome to the pod Maria Sengovaya, senior fellow at the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, to talk about her book When Left Moves Right: The Decline of the Left and the Rise of the Populist Right in Postcommunist Europe. The explore what changed for the working class in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism, cases of the Left...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com Victoria Jackson, Arizona State University sports historian and Great Game Lab co-director, joins the program to teach Danny and Derek a bit about the modern Olympic Games. They discuss the 1896 revival and the character of the early modern Games, how the event’s popularity exploded in the 1960s, banning countries from the games, the effect of the Olymp…

On the eve of the XXXIII Olympiad, the world remains complicated. This week: Joe Biden suspends his 2024 presidential campaign (0:32); in Palestine/Israel news, Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a fawning US Congress (2:26), the ICJ rules on the legality of Israel’s occupation (6:13), the IDF shrinks the “protected zone” around Khan Younis in Gaza (9:13), China brokers a Palestinian “national unity” agreement (11:19); Houthi/Ansar Allah carry out a drone strike on Tel Aviv (13:48); in Bangladesh,...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com The bi-monthly collaboration between AP and Nonzero Newsletter continues! Paid subscribers get a discounted membership to Nonzero— just scroll below the paywall near the bottom of the description, where you’ll also find the video for the Overtime segment. 0:00 The Nonzero-American Prestige all-star team1:49 Why didn’t the Trump shooting matter more?6:52 What anti-Trump historians get wrong17:41 Why...

Danny and Derek welcome back to the podcast Laila Al-Arian, executive producer of Fault Lines on Al Jazeera English, to talk about the program’s recent documentary "The Night Won't End: Biden’s War on Gaza," which she also co-wrote. They discuss how the film’s crew was able to make the film despite the immense logistical challenges, the choice to focus on three particular families in Gaza, the content of the film itself, and more. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this...

Natasha Wheatley, assistant professor of history at Princeton, sits down with Danny and Derek to talk about the transformation of the Habsburg Empire from a multinational collection of polities to discrete nation-states and how this century of radical change informs our ideas of sovereignty and the subsequent international order. The discussion explores the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, how the Empire navigated emerging nationalisms in the late 19th century compared with the Ottoman...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com Aziz Rana, the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., professor of law and government at Boston College, once again joins Danny and Derek to continue the discussion about Americans’ relationship with the Constitution. The conversation picks up in the postwar period, exploring how the document became an economic document as well as a political one, the rise of …

Danny and Derek are back with a news update after two weeks, and it appears that events continued to transpire despite their absence. This week: in Gaza, another round of fledgling ceasefire talks (0:35), the Knesset officially rejects Palestinian statehood (6:05), The Lancet journal publishes a study on the likely number of Palestinian casualties thus far (10:30), Haaretz publishes a piece about the Hannibal Doctrine’s use on 10/7 (14:07), and Biden’s “aid pier” is officially kaput (17:27);...

Danny and Derek sit down with Emily Conroy-Krutz, historian of nineteenth-century America specializing in the global history of the early American republic, to talk about the volume she co-edited with Michael Blaakman and Noelani Arista, The Early Imperial Republic: From the American Revolution to the U.S.–Mexican War. They explore the delineation of empire vs. republic vs. nation-state, challenging the narrative of 1898 being America’s imperial turn, settler colonialism and the dispossession...

It’s the second and final news-less week for AP as the team is on its annual podcast whitewater rafting retreat. In the meantime, please enjoy this unlocked episode covering Biden’s policy on Palestine/Israel. Danny and Derek speak with Jonathan Guyer, contributing editor at The American Prospect, about the piece he recently wrote for the magazine on Biden’s ideological commitment to Israel and his administration’s handling of the current crisis. The group discusses his obstinacy in changing...

Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Aziz Rana, the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., professor of law and government at Boston College, for a multi-part discussion about how Americans came to revere the Constitution and the worldwide implications. In this episode, the group discusses the latest Supreme Court ruling as of the recording date (Trump v. Anderson), how America’s treatment of its constitution compares with those of other nations, the Constitution’s development in the...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com Danny and Derek once again welcome to the program Michael Brenes, co-director of the Brady-Johnson program in grand strategy at Yale University and publisher of Warfare and Welfare, this time to talk about his article with William D. Hartung in The New Republic, “A.I. Won’t Transform War. It’ll Only Make Venture Capitalists Richer.” The group discusses …

In the first of two consecutive non-news Friday releases, Danny sits down for another rigorous academic exchange, this time with David Austin Walsh, historian at Yale’s program for the study of antisemitism and author of Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Right. The two dig into the big issues broached by the book, including the “right-wing popular front” opposed to socialism, communism, and New Deal liberalism, the nature of conservatism vs fascism, figures from Pat...

Happy July 4th to American Prestigeheads and patriots holding citizenship elsewhere. Please enjoy this unlocked episode, and a gentle reminder that tomorrow will be another interview given the absence of our news sage, Derek, from the pod for the next two weeks. Danny and Derek welcome to the podcast Matthew Kruer, assistant professor of history at the University of Chicago, to discuss his essay “Indigenous Subjecthood and White Populism in British America”. The discussion focuses on the...

Danny and Derek speak welcome to the program Marc-William Palen, senior lecturer in history at the University of Exeter, for a discussion on his book Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World. They delve into 19th century liberal radicalism and anti-slavery trade policies, how Marx and early socialists approached free trade, the role of consumption, where feminists and Christian pacifists fell on the matter, the advent of neoliberalism, “free” vs “preferred” trade, and more. ...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com Danny and Derek welcome back Sam Lebovic, professor of history at George Mason University, for the second part of their discussion on the Espionage Act of 1917 and its use over the years. The group picks things up in the postwar era, exploring how the advent of the national security state and Cold War influenced America’s use of the Act, the Pentagon Pa…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com Danny and Derek speak with Bret Gustafson, professor of sociocultural anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, about the failed coup attempt in Bolivia this week: who were the players, what transpired, and what happens now. Be sure to check out Bret’s book Bolivia in the Age of Gas.

Yesterday was Debate Night in America, today we see the results. This week: in Palestine/Israel, a grim Save the Children report on Gaza (0:30), Netanyahu again rebuffs a ceasefire and suggests a new phase of the operation (2:41), a new court ruling on ultra-Orthodox Jews’ conscription (7:14), and Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich again pushes West Bank annexation (10:17); Lebanon is still on edge as the US—while hosting Israeli minister of defence Yoav Gallant—warns Hezbollah that it...