The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer

Why Big Oil Wants to Splinter Canada w/ Nora Loreto 31.05.2026 39min

The issue of Canada’s national unity is heading towards the ballot box as Alberta is having a referendum on the issue of separatism. I spoke with Canadian journalist Nora Loreto about the background to this dispute, the backing the referendum is receiving from right wing US political actors such as Steve Bannon and lobbyists connected to the oil industry. The discussion also takes up the role of Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is using the crisis to push a neoliberal agenda. For more commentary by Nora, you can go to the podcast Sandy and Nora Talk Politics, which is found here.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Crackdown in Bahrain w/ Aamer 24.05.2026 36min

The US/Israel war against Iran is not only a conflict between states but also within states. This is most visible in Gulf states such as Bahrain, which are technically US allies but where wide swaths of the population are against the war. The new website North South Notes published an enlightening article on this topic by Kareema Abbas and Aamer (two writers who are working under pseudonyms). I spoke with Aamer about the crackdown on dissent in Bahrain as well as the wider regional politics that have been enflamed by the war. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The CIA’s Assassination Campaign in Mexico w/ Alexander Aviña 17.05.2026 41min

CNN is reporting that the CIA has been actively engaged in assassination campaigns in Mexico targeting alleged members of drug cartels. While both the CIA and the Mexican government have denied these allegations, there is clear evidence of an escalating war in the country that destabilize the government. I spoke with Alexander Aviña, a historian at Arizona State University, about the CIA’s activities in the context of the Trump administration’s wider assertion of imperial dominance over the Western hemisphere. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

What Jeffrey Epstein Taught Peter Thiel and Steve Bannon w/ Branko Marcetic 10.05.2026 38min

The late Jeffrey Epstein was friends with all sorts of elite figures in the US and many other countries. This extensive network is now sometimes described as “the Epstein class.” The question is, was this class held together merely by the opportunistic trading of favors or did it have a coherent worldview and agenda?Branko Marcetic has written a series of articles in Jacobin that clarify this issue by looking at relationships Epstein had with the billionaire Peter Thiel and the political operative Steve Bannon. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The End of American Global Power? W/ Anusar Farooqui 26.04.2026 40min

The conflict in the Middle East is currently in an intermittent holding action with an extended ceasefire but no diplomatic breakthrough. To assess where things are going, I sat down with the foreign policy analyst Anusar Farooqui, who runs an excellent substack called Policy Tensor and posts on Twitter here. We discussed the resiliency and growing stature of Iran, as well as the signs that unipolar US hegemony is coming to an end, to be replaced by a multipolar world. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Palestine and the Iran War w/ Yousef Munayyer 19.04.2026 36min

As negotiations proceed in ending the Iran War, the question of the relationship between the US and Israel becomes more salient. I spoke with Middle East expert Yousef Munayyer on the agenda of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose interest in a securing his country’s hegemony in the region is now in conflict with efforts to end the war.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Origins of the Imperial Presidency w/ David Sirota 29.03.2026 38min

As millions of Americans protest Donald Trump under the slogan of “No Kings,” it is worth asking how the nation ended up with such an authoritarian president. David Sirota and the team at the Lever have provided a great answer to this question in their new podcast series Master Plan: The Kingmakers, which looks at the revival of the Imperial Presidency after the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s. I talked to David about the history uncovered in this podcast and why Trump is merely a symptom of a much deeper problem. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

After Iran War, Can America Still Be Trusted? w/ Annelle Sheline 22.03.2026 39min

The US/Israel war against Iran has been devastating to many US allies, both in the MiddleEast and the wider world. It could easily lead to a Global Depression. Even before thewar, Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute noted that countries such as Qatar andSaudi Arabia had good reason to wean themselves away from a close reliance on theUS. I talked to Annelle about the current state of the war and why it will only intensifythe alienation of traditional US allies.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

How is Mamdani Doing? w/ Don Guttenplan 16.03.2026 41min

Former Nation editor Don Guttenplan is now bringing municipal politics to the magazinewith a weekly column tracking the progress of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. I spoke to Donabout how Mamdani is balancing pragmatism and principles as he deals with policing,Donald Trump and a tough budget.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Stopping the Iran War w/ Emma Ashford 08.03.2026 40min

The US/Israel War against Iran is shaping out to be a much bigger mess than expectedeven by critics. As it turns into a regional conflict that has embroiled more than a dozennations, are there any possible ways Donald Trump can be forced to pull back. I spokewith international affairs scholar Emma Ashford of the Stimson Center about the warand paths to peace.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Imperial Presidency and the Iran War w/ Matt Duss 01.03.2026 40min

Writing in Foreign Policy, Matt Duss argues that Donald Trump’s rush to war is bothstupid and illegal. It is also wildly unpopular with the public. But he also observes thatcongress has been reluctant to challenge Trump’s policy, although some progressiveshave now forced the issue to a vote. Matt is a frequent guest of the show and foreignpolicy expert. I talked to him about the dangers of a new war and also the largersystematic problems of the imperial presidency.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Trump is Using Terrorist Charges to Wage Political War w/ Josh Kovensky 08.02.2026 35min

Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Kovensky has written an essay on the Trumpadministration’s use of anti-terrorism law to target political groups it doesn’t like.In that piece, Kovensky notes,"Across the country, federal prosecutors are upgrading what would have been routineprosecutions into terrorism cases when they involve people President Trump has cast as hispolitical enemies.It represents a dramatic departure from how the Justice Department has historically used thefederal material support for terrorism statute. For decades, counterterrorism prosecutors havelargely reserved the statute — 2339A — for the kinds of audacious plots that wreak real, lastingdamage or whose ambition forms the stuff of movie screenplays."I spoke to Kovensky about his essay and the history and politics of this dangerous legalinnovation.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

War Clouds Over Iran w/ Amir Handjani 01.02.2026 36min

Donald Trump is sending over what he calls “a massive Armada” to Iran with thepromises to do a reprise of his quick attack on Venezuela that ended with thekidnapping of president Nicolás Maduro. Trump claims that “like withVenezuela, it is, ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission.” But will awar with Iran really be so simple? To look at the prospects for war and thelarger politics driving the conflict, I spoke with Amir Handjani of The QuincyInstitute.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Mark Carney Proclaims the End of American Hegemony w/ Stephen Maher 25.01.2026 39min

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made headlines at Davos with a much-noticed speechwhere he candidly acknowledged that the US led alliance system created in World War II wascoming to an end. Carney called for middle powers such as Canada and its European allies togive up the illusion that a US led world is still viable and instead try to create new institutions topreserve their values and their sovereignty. I talked to Canadian journalist Stephen Maher, whohas written a biography of Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau, about the far-reachingimplications of this speech.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Bombing Iran Won’t Help the Protestors w/ Annelle Sheline 16.01.2026 41min

Iran is facing upheavals at home and abroad. For more than two decades, the Islamic republichas faced waves of protests from citizens demanding a more democratic society. Over the pasttwo weeks, these protests have erupted with a new ferocity and are being met with violentrepression. Meanwhile, the Israeli government is pushing the United States to renew bombingIran, a military objective now being given the guise of a humanitarian mission. To discuss theturmoil in Iran and place it in the larger context of regional instability and competing visions ofthe future of the Middle East, I spoke with Annelle Sheline, a research fellow at The QuincyInstitute who studies the region.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Living Legacy of Norman Podhoretz w/ David Klion and Ronnie Grinberg 22.12.2025 52min

Norman Podhoretz, one of the founding fathers of neoconservatism, died on December 16 atage 95. His legacy is a complex one, since in recent decades neoconservatism has beensupplanted in many ways by American First conservatism. But many aspects of Podhoretz’sinfluence still play a shaping role on right. I take up Podhoretz’s career with David Klion (whowrote an obituary for the pundit for The Nation) and the historian Ronnie Grinberg, who haddiscussed Podhoretz in her book Write Like a Man.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Trump’s Global Culture War w/ Stephen Wertheim 14.12.2025 38min

The Trump administration has released a new National Security Strategy that is a marked shiftnot only from earlier administrations but also Trump’s first term in office. While the new policystatement eschews the goal of global hegemony, it promotes culture war in Europe bypromising support of anti-immigration political parties, economic rivalry in Asia with China, anda renewal of US military hegemony in the Western hemisphere. To survey this document andTrump’s often contradictory foreign policy, I spoke to frequent guest of the show StephenWertheim, who is American Statecraft senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for InternationalPeace.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Rise of the Far Right in Europe w/ David Broder 07.12.2025 44min

Only a few years ago, European elites were patting themselves on the back for fending off thetide of right-wing anti-system parties (often styled as populists). But recent polls in France,Germany and the United Kingdom show that that the far right is once again gaining traction,thanks in no small part centrist governments that have demoralized the population andlegitimized xenophobia. David Broder, author of Mussolini's Grandchildren and European editorof Jacobin, wrote a wide-ranging essay on this for The New York Times. I spoke to David aboutboth the dismal decisions of mainstream parties and also possible alternatives.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Age of Larry Summers and Jeffrey Epstein w/ Doug Henwood 23.11.2025 42min

The famed economist Larry Summers, not for the first time, finds himself the center of ascandal. He’s had to take a leave from Harvard, where he teaches, because of embarrassingemails he had with his late friend Jeffrey Epstein.I talked to economic journalist and Nation contributor Doug Henwood, a long-time Summerswatcher, about the career of this controversial and influential figure. Summers has been one ofthe most influential policy makers of his era, serving as Treasury Secretary and President ofHarvard. He has also embodied the major intellectual and political limitations of the ruling class.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jeffrey Epstein and the American Empire w/ Van Jackson 16.11.2025 41min

The scandal around Jeffrey Epstein, who trafficked and abused children and died in a prison cellin 2019, has never gone away. It continues to explode now that House Democrats havereleased thousands of emails from Epstein and his cronies. But while the political class andmainstream media are understandably focused on the sex scandal, another dimension of thescandal goes uncovered except by independent media outlets such as Drop Site: Epstein’s deepties to the national security state. I talked to international relations scholar Van Jackson aboutthis crucial part of the story.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy