Angry Planet

Matthew Gault and Jason Fields

Conversations about conflict on an angry planet. Created, produced, and hosted by Matthew Gault and Jason Fields 781951 Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 13 MAR

    The ‘AI as Nuclear Weapons’ Obsession

    AI enthusiasts love to say that the technology is as revolutionary and important as nuclear weapons. Even the Trump administration has adopted the metaphor. The President and the Department of Energy have repeatedly referred to the development of AI in the US as “Manhattan Project 2.0.” But is the buildout of LLMs and machine learning systems really as important as the development of the atom bomb? And what are the lessons from the atomic age that AI scientists should then learn? Do we need an AI Non Proliferation Treaty? An AI International Atomic Energy Agency? On this episode of Angry Planet, Ankit Panda comes on to talk about the uses and limitations of the “AI as nuclear weapons” metaphor. Panda is an expert in nukes and a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He’s been sharing his extended thoughts on the AI-nuclear connection at his Nukesletter Substack. Stanislav PetrovAI as nuclear weaponsWhy nuclear weapons resonate with people in the AI fieldThe Strategic Air Command storyThat time we spilled nuclear material all over Greenland and SpainNNSA and AnthropicAI as the next Manhattan ProjectA massive infrastructure projectFissile material as siliconWhat’s the AI version of an NPT and IAEA?AI and nuclear are both dual useOn AI wintersWhat AI is actually being used for, what it might be used forThe socialization around AI will change. AI Arms and Influence: Frontier Models Exhibit Sophisticated Reasoning in Simulated Nuclear Crisis Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 h 3 min

  2. 4 MAR

    A Killer True Crime Fandom & Islamic State’s Digital Caliphate

    Things have gotten very surreal in the dark corners of the internet. AI-generated prophets are preaching jihad in Facebook groups, Minecraft servers host digital caliphates, and school shooting fandoms gather to study their heroes and plot how to up beat their score. It’s a double bill on this episode of Angry Planet as two experts from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a nonprofit that studies and works to mitigate violent extremists, discuss the brave new world of online-born violence. First up is Milo Comerford, the co-author of a study about nihilistic violence. Then we’ve got Moustafa Ayad to talk about how the Islamic State is circumventing bans and pushing its message on social media. Staying sane on the internetViolence without ideologyThe Comm764True Crime CommunitySaints CultureWhen fandom becomes a killingAn aesthetics driven movementOnline and offline have mergedModeration is impossibleYou don’t have to hand it to ISISBroken text postingCopyright strikes and the Islamic StateFacebook professional as the gold standardAI resurrects dead influencersJihad influencersEven IS is obsessed with the Epstein filesVirtual caliphates in Roblox and Minecraft“We must be careful about what we pretend to be.”Once again, it all comes back to 4chanSaying nice things about twitter dot com Beyond Extremism ‘The Comm’: The Group Linked to a Nationwide Swatting Rampage How the True Crime Community generates its own killers Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 h 22 min

  3. 20 FEB

    When Americans Became ‘Splendid Liberators’

    America spent most of the 19th century at war with itself. It conquered its western expanse then collapsed into civil war. Once the North beat the South, partisan politics consumed the country for a generation. A string of assassinations, progressive firebrands, and civil service reforms burned people out on domestic politics and a bored and febrile nation began to search for meaning beyond its borders. It noticed the Spanish Empire was awfully close. In Splendid Liberators, award winning journalist Joe Jackson chronicles the beginning of the American myth of the “good war.” He’s on the show today to talk to us about Teddy Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and a general who lay in state at the Alamo. Recurring patterns in American historyRoscoe Conkling jumpscareRemnants of the Spanish-American War in South CarolinaWhat did liberty mean in the 19th century?Clara Barton, Leonard Wood and the dual American personalityThe first modern concentration campsThe Battleship of MaineWhen Congress used to fight, physicallyDrones won’t win a warThe US in the Philippines‘The water cure’American historians facing reality in the PhilippinesTeddy, finallyLaying in state at the Alamo Buy Splendid Liberators A Defense of General Funston Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 h 5 min

  4. 6 FEB

    Puffins, Zyn, and ‘Polar War’

    Greenland fever has faded for now but it will return. The world’s polar region, you see, is pretty damn important. As the planet heats and the ice melts, what was once an impassible warren of ice and snow has become a geopolitical opportunity. On today’s Angry Planet, we host journalist Kenneth R. Rosen who just published the book Polar War. He’s spent the past few years among the ice and snow, embedding with troops, yearning for snus, and smoking cigarettes with morticians in the long dark. Rosen knows what makes the Arctic so important and can see the truths that undergird the obsession with Greenland. Getting bombastic and angry about Greenland“We already have Greenland”How is Turkey “near Arctic?”The Greenland obsession as proof of climate changeWhat makes a good Arctic forceAccession to NATOServicing subs in the ArcticTrying to embed on a nuclear submarineMispronouncing place namesThe most powerful navy in the world doesn’t have an icebreakerSpies in the polar regions“It should have been an article.”Smoking under a tree in the darkSnus vs ZynThe death drive of the penguin Buy Polar War: Submarines, Spies, and the Struggle for Power in a Melting Arctic US Army Poorly Prepared for Arctic Operations: Finnish Troops Forced Them to Surrender During Exercises in Norway Can we just appreciate the fact State secrets were just leaked on this sub? Life Aboard a Nuclear Submarine as the US Responds to Threats Around the Globe Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    56 min

  5. 30 ENE

    Online Culture Is the Whole Culture

    There was a time, just before the pandemic, when folks would say “Twitter isn’t real life” as a means of dismissing the horrors of social media. This was a cope, a way to ignore the worst political and cultural actors who now dominate our psychic landscape. Now those people are in charge and they’ve manifested Twitter into real life in a way previously thought impossible. The White House is posting Stardew Valley memes about whole milk. A Customs and Border Patrol official is asking people if they’re triggered when they respond with empathy to the murder of a woman. Laura Loomer, one of the most online gargoyles to ever live, is a serious policy player in administration. The Secretary of War has a video game tattoo. How did we get here? Michael Senters, a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech, is here to explain how online culture became the culture. It’s all for the postsA YouTuber comes to townWhat, exactly, does it mean to be terminally online?The right goes all in on identity politicsThe pandemic drove us all crazyTurns out the post-modernists were correctPosting yourself into a different form or realitySurvival tips for the extremely onlineDepraved art and Hearts of Iron IVDeus Vult?Video games as propagandaWe should have been harder on the online NazisJohn Romero will make you his bitchA brief history of Something AwfulFighting the performance regime How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch Six Prosecutors Quit Over Push to Investigate ICE Shooting Victim’s Widow Do you have stairs in your house? Fuck You And Die: An Oral History of Something Awful Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 h 25 min

  6. 16 ENE

    How We Thought the First Year Would Go

    Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com On January 28, 2025, I sat down with Aram Shabanian to talk about how we thought the first year of the Trump administration would go. I put the audio in a vault and didn’t listen to it until now. We focused on geopolitics and the American military and our hit rate for predictions was about fifty percent. Domestically, it’s been much worse than I expected. Abroad it’s been much weirder than I expected. The bit about America seeking violence though? Right now that feels spot on. Hegseth’s reforms got worse for women (vindicated)Conscription is not back (wrong)The yearning for violence when the gloves come off (vindicated)All the episodes that weren’t producedSicarioifciation continues apaceThe bigger problem was that people felt badThe dangers of boredom“Drugs won the war on drugs and then looted the armories.”Against burning it all downGreenland is still on the tableThe ceasefire didn’t last and war did not spread to Europe (wrong)Elon Musk is out (vindicated)X is still around, but it IS producing on-demand CSAM (wrong?)WWIII and mass riots didn’t happen (wrong)Martin O’Malley 2028? The Cult of Sicario Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 h 3 min

  7. 9 ENE

    On Spectacles of Cruelty

    On the last Angry Planet of 2025, novelist and Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay returns to reflect on a year of spectacle and cruelty. Between the Pentagon’s boat strikes and the administration’s constant barrage of grotesque memes, it feels like America is a crueler and cruder place. For better and worse, the Presidency sets a moral standard for the country and Trump has lowered that standard. Klay wrote about all this in a piece at The New York Times and he’s here with us today to talk through it. “It’s too easy to condemn.”The project is spectacles of cruelty“You’re not supposed to be joining a gang of thugs.”What is this doing to us as a nation?The lust for cruelty and dominationKlay’s review of Hegseth’s first yearWar vs. Defense“Read long things.”Living in the Hell of opinionsEnding on a high note What Trump Is Really Doing With His Boat Strikes Trump Admin’s Racist Halo Memes Are ‘A New Level of Dehumanization of Immigrants’ Trump has accused boat crews of being narco-terrorists. The truth, AP found, is more nuanced Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    53 min

  8. 19/12/2025

    Google’s Former CEO Is Dancing in Ukraine

    Earlier this year journalist Ben Makuch caught a glimpse of Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, dancing at a club in Kyiv. It was a surreal moment, a snapshot of a tragic war that the West thinks is defining the future of conflict. Tech executives have flocked to Ukraine, courting the country in an attempt to get at a resource more precious than gold: data. Makuch was just there and has written about what he saw for The New Republic and he’s on the show today to talk about it. Some light smoking banterBen’s timelineGoogle’s CEO dancing in a bar in KyivUkraine as laboratory for war techThe JSOC era is overIn defense of the majestic American turkeyThe great America vs China speculationWar, cheaperOn the actual frontlineWheat fields of fiber optic lineThe buzz of the droneLife in the bloodlandsThe human suffering of living in UkraineFPV-made propaganda“Never underestimate human innovation when it comes to killing other humans.”What’s Erik Prince doing in Ukraine? New York Times on Military Reform The Medieval—and Highly Effective—Tactics of the Ukrainian Protests Who Is St. Javelin and Why Is She a Symbol of the War in Ukraine? ‘Cope Cages’ on Busted Tanks Are a Symbol of Russia’s Military Failures ‘Unauthorized’ Edit to Ukraine’s Frontline Maps Point to Polymarket’s War Betting Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 h 9 min
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Conversations about conflict on an angry planet. Created, produced, and hosted by Matthew Gault and Jason Fields 781951 Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Información

  • Creador
    Matthew Gault and Jason Fields
  • Años de actividad
    2015 - 2026
  • Episodios
    496
  • Clasificación
    Explícito
  • Copyright
    © War College LLC
  • Mostrar sitio web
    Angry Planet

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