Derek is monitoring The Situation, so Always at War’s Alex Jordan is back to deliver the news with Danny. This week: Trump extends the Iran war without an exit plan (4:02); the U.S. weighs a commando raid to seize Iranian uranium (10:04); Iran threatens U.S. companies after striking a Kuwaiti tanker (13:17); the Hormuz closure drives shortages and price shocks across the global economy (18:43); Europe sees NATO tensions rise as France blocks U.S. overflights and Trump threatens Ukraine aid (22:20); Israel deepens its occupation of southern Lebanon and kills UN peacekeepers (26:42); in Gaza, the Board of Peace proposes faction disarmament before reconstruction (29:28); Israel passes a race-based death penalty law for Palestinians (32:07); a Russian tanker reaches Cuba with oil despite the U.S. blockade (34:17); the U.S. and China prepare a summit amid wider global tensions (36:39); in Sudan, the RSF seizes Kermuk in Blue Nile state (39:13); South Sudan’s peace process collapses as elections lose credibility (40:14); and the UK cuts aid to Africa to fund higher defense spending (41:55).

Don’t forget to check out our new miniseries, Marx Prestige. New episodes out weekly!

Paris Marx is joined by Sam Biddle to discuss what it means for data centers to become targets in a war, and how Silicon Valley is aiding the US war against Iran.

Sam Biddle is a technology journalist at The Intercept.

We’re still thinking about No Kings 3 day on Saturday: 8 million people. 3,300 events. ‘No Kings’ protests in almost every city and town in the country. 100 towns in Texas alone had No Kings protests! It was the largest single-day nonviolent protest in American history. John Nichols analyzes the possibilities for what comes next.

Also: No one expected that revoking the constitutional right to abortion would wind up expanding access to it. But ever since the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision in 2022 allowed more than a dozen states to ban abortion outright, the number of abortions in this country has actually risen every year. How did that happen? Amy Littlefield explains; her new book is Killers of Roe: My investigation into the mysterious death of abortion rights.

In lieu of a standard episode today, we are premiering the first episode of ⁠Marx Prestige⁠, a series where Danny, Derek, and historian Andrew Hartman discuss Karl Marx and how the philosophy and politics he created shaped and reshaped the United States.

⁠Subscribe now⁠ at the annual tier for free access to series like this one!

In this first episode of Marx Prestige, Danny, Derek, and Andrew Hartman talk about how Karl Marx understood the United States as a testing ground for capitalism and democratic development in the nineteenth century. They delve into the reception history approach to Marx in America, Marx’s early views on American democracy and capitalism, his writings on the Civil War and slavery, the transition in Marx’s thought from philosophy to political economy, Reconstruction and its limits, early American interpretations of Marx, and the emergence of Marxism in the late nineteenth century.

Be sure to check out Andrew's Book ⁠⁠⁠Karl Marx in America⁠⁠⁠.

Welcome to Fighting Fascism, a new podcast hosted by The Nation.

Long-time political organizers Aaron Regunberg and Jonathan Smucker, and their normie friend Matt DaSilva, discuss the history of fascist takeovers, the conditions enabling them, and the resistance movements that have defeated them, to find lessons for today’s fights against Trump, MAGA, and the growing threat of modern authoritarianism. Want to piss off fascists? This is the podcast for you.

In the first episode, Aaron, Matt, and Jonathan are joined by Astra Taylor, author of End Times Fascism, and Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, for a big picture conversation about what it means to fight fascism in this historical moment. Topics include popular resistance to ICE, tensions between “radical” and “normie” mobilization, how much we all hate AI, and why it shouldn’t actually be that hard to build a majoritarian coalition around the idea that like 25 creepy pedophiles shouldn’t own literally everything on the planet.

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.

In the Season 3 finale, Jo sells Charlotte on Alan Warner’s “amazingly textured” Movern Callar, which leads the hosts to reflect on some of the season’s recurring themes. They’re then joined by the radically reflective William C. Anderson, who explains how the Buddhism transmitted in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Zen Battlest, a commentary on the teachings of Master Linji, informed his political development.

William C. Anderson is a writer and activist from Birmingham, Alabama. His work has appeared in The Guardian, MTV, British Journal of Photography, Logic(s) Magazine, and Prism, where he’s a monthly columnist. He is the author of The Nation on No Map (AK Press 2021) and co-author of As Black as Resistance (AK Press 2018). He’s also the co-founder of Offshoot Journal and provides creative direction as a producer of the Black Autonomy Podcast. His writings have been included in the anthologies, Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? (Haymarket 2016) and No Selves to Defend (Mariame Kaba 2014).

Please consider supporting our work on Patreon, where you can access additional materials and send us your guest (and book!) coverage requests. Questions and kind comments can be directed to readingwriterspod at gmail dot com.

Charlotte Shane’s most recent book is An Honest Woman. Her essay newsletter, Meant For You, can be subscribed to or read online for free. Her social media handle is @charoshane.

Jo Livingstone is a writer who teaches at Pratt Institute.

To support the show, navigate to https://www.patreon.com/ReadingWriters

Just a reminder: there was too much Iran news to fit into this episode, so we gave it a standalone special you can find here. Otherwise, this week around the world: in Israel-Palestine, the Gaza Board of Peace negotiates a Hamas disarmament agreement (1:54) while the West Bank sees settler violence surge around Nablus (3:35); Pakistan resumes its war with Afghanistan after the Eid ceasefire expires (7:09); Trump reschedules his China trip for May (8:26); in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, RSF and SPLM-N militants seize Kormuk as Chad boosts its border military presence after Sudan spillover violence (11:19); in Ukraine, Russia launches a massive drone barrage as a new offensive begins (14:14), the United States ties security guarantees for Ukraine to territorial concessions (16:04), and Russia reportedly offers to end support for Iran in exchange for the U.S. ends support for Ukraine (19:00); Denmark’s snap election leaves Mette Frederiksen weakened, but still in contention to govern (21:46); Raul Castro joins Cuba’s talks with the United States (23:55); in Ecuador, a U.S.-backed operation reportedly destroys a dairy farm instead of a drug camp (27:12); the UN General Assembly condemns the transatlantic slave trade, the United States votes no (29:56); Trump pays TotalEnergies to halt East Coast wind projects (31:22).

Be sure to check out our new series premiering Tuesday, Marx Prestige. Listen to the trailer here.