Podcast

Narrated by: Peter L. Bergen
Dec 10 2024
Length: 34 mins

American Presidents have been addicted to international sanctions for much of the modern era, as a way to influence the behavior of other countries. Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Syria – all have been subject to U.S. sanctions over the past four decades. But these regimes remain as defiant of U.S. geostrategic goals as ever. This week we explore Russian yacht snatching, the impact of sanctions on the Iranian people, and how a once-obscure office inside the Treasury Department ended up putting a chokehold on national economies all over the world.

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Dec 3 2024
Length: 40 mins

In recent years, several high-profile abuses of power have fractured public trust in police and created a false tension between police accountability and public safety. But somewhere between a blanket defense of the police and “defund the police” lie effective solutions. Peter talks with three thoughtful, accomplished people who have worn the badge to find out what they’ve learned about what is broken in American policing, how to fix it, and whether some types of police work might be better left to someone else. (This episode contains strong language.)

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Narrated by: Peter L. Bergen
Nov 26 2024
Length: 39 mins

The FBI has had a cozy relationship with Hollywood since the days of the Bureau’s first director, J. Edgar Hoover, working behind the scenes with filmmakers to burnish its image. We explore how the collaboration actually works, how extensive it is, and whether moviegoers are getting spoon-fed a sugar-coated version of the truth.

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Declaring something a matter of “national security” is a great way to get people to take it seriously — and Congress to fund it. After all, what matters more than keeping the United States and its citizens safe from foreign attack? But what about the economic security of the citizenry? Or their health? President Franklin Delano Roosevelt thought those should be included too — and that if the government didn’t prioritize them as national security issues, Americans might begin to look to autocrats to provide for their well-being. Was FDR right?

Narrated by: Peter L. Bergen
Nov 19 2024
Length: 35 mins

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Narrated by: Peter L. Bergen
Nov 12 2024
Length: 45 mins

After instigating violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, the alt-right movement seemed to crumble — but journalist Elle Reeve, who’s been talking with them for years, says that doesn’t mean their ideas have gone away. She says that their extremist ideology is actually on the rise — and has spread from the darkest corners of the internet to the heart of American politics.

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Oct 29 2024
Justin Roebuck, a county clerk in the swing state of Michigan, has a license plate that says ‘’I voted.” Roebuck first began volunteering as an election worker at age 16. Now, he oversees the election process in Ottawa County. But not everyone in his county shares his faith in the voting system. Like election officials all around the United States, he’s gotten accustomed to a high degree of skepticism about his integrity — and the elections he oversees. And he’s on a mission to restore the trust that’s been lost. So how did trust break down? And what’s at stake if it can’t be restored in a place like Ottawa County?

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Oct 22 2024
One year ago, Maine experienced the worst mass shooting in its history. It turned out many people and institutions had known for months before that the shooter, Robert Card, was in a mental health crisis and heavily armed. One friend even alerted authorities that Card might “snap and commit a mass shooting.” Despite that knowledge — and the state’s “yellow flag” gun law — 18 people were killed. Emotional testimony from an official investigation reveals the failures in a system designed to prevent this kind of violence — and how they might be avoided in the future.

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By: Peter L. Bergen

Oct 15 2024
Length: 38 mins
Podcast

For almost 40 years, Tom Blanton and the National Security Archive have used the Freedom of Information Act to dislodge and declassify U.S. government secrets, from Cold War backchannels to intelligence failures in the Middle East. Blanton’s “archival activism” is about seeing the full picture, in hopes that policy makers — and the American public — can learn from past blunders. Oh, and they unearthed the backstory behind that famous picture of President Nixon and Elvis Presley in the Oval Office.

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Oct 8 2024

The moon landing was faked; 9/11 was an inside job — conspiracy theories like these seem to surround most major events now, even when the facts have been well-established for years. These beliefs make plenty of headlines. There have also been some high-profile cases of violence being committed by people espousing conspiracy theories. So why do people believe in conspiracy theories and when do they actually pose a threat?

Go to audible.com/news where you’ll find Peter Bergen’s recommendations for other news, journalism and nonfiction listening.

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Oct 1 2024

Ronald Reagan campaigned on a slogan to “Make America Great Again” and ushered in a new era of conservatism in America. That was more than forty years ago, and his Republican Party today looks very different with Donald Trump at its helm. Does the Reagan legend — a tax cutting, government shrinking, Cold War winning optimist — stand up to close scrutiny? And how did Reaganism pave the way for Trumpism? This week’s guest is Max Boot, who’s just written an authoritative, wide-ranging biography of the 40th President of the United States.

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