The Un-Diplomatic Podcast

Van Jackson

Global power politics, for the people. Hosted by Van Jackson, Julia Gledhill, and Matt Duss. The views expressed are theirs alone (not those of any institution or employer).

  1. DEC 8

    Netflix’s Marines (2025) w/ Sam Carliner | Bang-Bang Podcast Crossover | Ep. 275

    Free episode crossover with The Bang-Bang Podcast! Van Jackson and Lyle Rubin are joined by returning guest Sam Carliner to take on Marines, Netflix’s new 250th-anniversary docuseries, an unmistakable propaganda piece (it’s literally featured on the official Marine Corps website) that nonetheless reveals more candor than the institution intended. Directed by Chelsea Yarnell, whose style veers into Riefenstahl-lite, the series moves through the familiar mythology: Marines as the “meanest, baddest motherfuckers,” war as manhood, China as the next “bloody” proving ground. But between the clichés, something truer keeps slipping out. The Marines themselves come across not as caricatures but as young people grasping for purpose. Some raised amid violence, poverty, absent fathers, and broken homes; others from supportive families, following beloved relatives into the Corps, seeking adventure, education benefits, or what they sincerely understand as patriotic duty. Some speak with chilling bravado about killing; others struggle openly with faith, family, and the sense that combat is the only place they’ll ever feel whole. A sniper mourns the disbanding of scout-sniper platoons as if losing a piece of himself. A Huey pilot wonders how to make “non-emotional decisions” when his whole life has been shaped by emotion, and a mother tries to bless a choice she privately cannot support. And despite itself, the series also exposes the machinery surrounding them. Deployments that make no sense. A surreal shipboard announcement about Yemen, where Houthi attacks are called “unprovoked” with no mention of the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza driving them, all delivered in a breezy “Good morning, Team America” tone. Marines saddled with the weight of great-power delusions they never chose. The political culture is bankrupt, but the individuals inside it are often heartbreakingly earnest. That tension, between Yarnell’s promo frame and the unfiltered vulnerability of the people she films, turns Marines into something worthwhile. Even in its worst moments, the series forces a deeper question: What happens when a society offering so little to its young men teaches them that violence is the only stable form of meaning? Subscribe to The Bang-Bang Podcast: https://www.bangbangpod.com Further ReadingUSMC press release on the docuseries Sam’s Substack The Rivalry Peril by Van and Michael Brenes Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body by Lyle Gangsters of Capitalism by Jonathan M. Katz War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges

    1h 27m
  2. NOV 14

    The Geopolitics of Jeffrey Epstein and Hegemonic Decline w/ Jeet Heer | Ep. 271

    In this crossover episode with The Time of Monsters--a podcast of The Nation Magazine--Jeet Heer and Van Jackson discuss the worldmaking of Jeffrey Epstein and the complicity of America's entire ruling class in his crimes, from Larry Summers and Leon Panetta to Trump himself. Thousands of leaked emails reported by DropSite News have revealed something about Jeffrey Epstein that few people realized: He was one of the world's preeminent geopoliticians during the unipolar moment, and that's not a good thing. We now know that Epstein actively promoted the interests of the global far right; worked with Israeli security services to export the tools of oppression to the Global South; helped strengthen Russia's oligarchy and deal intimately with Putin; lobbied to bomb Iran and kill the Iran nuclear deal; secured the US and Russian removal of chemical weapons from Syria FOR Israel; and capitalized on the global instability caused in part by US foreign policy. Epstein's work as a geopolitician reveals a dark side to American hegemony not previously known or seen. It's one giant case study of Naomi Klein's disaster-capitalism thesis.  Subscribe to The Time of Monsters Podcast: https://www.thenation.com/content/time-of-monsters/  Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/  Watch Un-Diplomatic Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@un-diplomaticpodcast  Catch Un-Diplomatic on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/undiplomaticpodcast  Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the individuals and not of any institutions.

    45 min
4.7
out of 5
67 Ratings

About

Global power politics, for the people. Hosted by Van Jackson, Julia Gledhill, and Matt Duss. The views expressed are theirs alone (not those of any institution or employer).

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