Hello Prestigeheads!
As 2022 comes to a close, we thought we’d take a look back at the year in American Prestige. Hopefully this will give you a chance to catch any episodes you missed and, as one last “thank you” to our 2022 contributors, another chance to check out their own books/podcasts/newsletters/etc.
The biggest thing that happened this year (to the podcast, at least) was we moved to Substack. We’d like to thank everyone who followed us during this platform switch—we really appreciate it, and literally couldn’t do it without you.
For those looking to make the leap to a paid subscription, don’t forget that we have our year-end special for annual subscriptions going through January 3, 2023.
Our first episode of 2022 was also the first episode in our “History of the Kurds” series featuring Missouri State University’s “Mean” Djene Bajalan. This one is ongoing, but so far Djene has taken us on a ride through Kurdish history from medieval times through the early years of the Republic of Turkey:
Our first 2022 bonus episode for subscribers was a two-parter featuring Noam Chomsky, in which we talked about his career and his thoughts on the contemporary role of public intellectuals:
This year saw the continuation and conclusion of our epic, eight-part series on the history of Vietnam featuring Sean Fear from the University of Leeds, with special guest appearances from the University of Connecticut’s Nu-Anh Tran (she’ll be back later) and Harvard University’s Fredrik Logevall:
Be sure to check out Sean’s Vietnam reading list!
We continued our series on Cuba with NYU’s Ada Ferrer—whose book, Cuba: An American History, won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for history:
We were extremely pleased to welcome Rashid Khalidi, of Columbia University, for a multi-part series based on his book, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine:
We were joined by Tim Nunan of the Free University of Berlin for another epic, ten-part (well, technically 11 part) series on Afghanistan:
Please check out Tim’s book, Humanitarian Invasion, and the reading list he put together to accompany our series.
We also began a new series on the history of the Irish Republican Army with Daniel Finn, author of One Man's Terrorist: A Political History of the IRA:
Daniel also helped us unpack May’s Northern Irish assembly election.
The University of Washington’s James Lin joined us to begin a series on the history of Taiwan:
We also asked James to help us understand US policy toward Taiwan and the repercussions of Nancy Pelosi’s visit.
Georgetown University’s Stefan Eich tried to improve our understanding of money with a series based on his book, The Currency of Politics: The Political Theory of Money from Aristotle to Keynes:
Judging from our respective bank accounts, it didn’t work, but given that we put all our money in crypto, we expect 2023 to be monetarily brighter than 2022.
Best friend of the pod Alexander Aviña, of Arizona State University, returned for a new series focusing on his book, Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside:
Alex also joined us in December for a discussion of the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
We welcomed Samuel Huneke of George Mason University for a discussion of queer theory followed by a series based on his book, States of Liberation: Gay Men Between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany:
The University of Connecticut’s Nu-Anh Tran returned for a series based on her book, Disunion: Anticommunist Nationalism and the Making of the Republic of Vietnam:
We’re pleased to have been joined by Assal Rad of the National Iranian American Council and MIT’s Pouya Alimagham for a series on the relationship between Iran and the US from the mid-20th century to present:
Assal and Pouya also joined us in November to offer their thoughts on the protests roiling Iran.
We began a new series featuring Yale University’s Michael Brenes that’s based on his book, For Might and Right: Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy:
Be sure to check out Michael’s new Substack newsletter, Warfare and Welfare! It’s fantastic.
Fritz Bartel of Texas A&M University kicked off a series based on his book, The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism:
Along the way we also spoke with:
Rebecca Gordon on autonomous weapons
Esfandyar Batmanghelidj on the human cost of US sanctions against Iran
Jay Caspian Kang on contemporary politics and the field of Asian-American Studies
Nicholas Mulder on the history of sanctions as a weapon of war
Anatol Lieven on the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Joshua Shifrinson on NATO expansion
Benjamin Balthasar on Jewish anti-imperialism
E. Tammy Kim on the South Korean presidential election and contemporary South Korean politics
Alejandro Velasco on Venezuela and Chavismo
Erich Schwartzel on the US film industry and its role in US-Chinese relations
Emile Chabal on French politics
Emma Ashford on the state of the Washington Blob in the early weeks of the Ukraine war
Silyane Larcher on the results of the French presidential election
Lauren Poyer on the film The Northman and on the adoption of Viking symbols by far right groups
Annelle Sheline on the politics of the UAE and the broader state of Persian Gulf affairs
Noah Tetzner on Viking history
Will Menaker on the original Top Gun
Eli Clifton on the sordid world of DC think tanks
Margaret Peacock and Erik Peterson on our first year with COVID
Lisandro Claudio on contemporary Philippine politics and the history of the Philippines
Matthew Specter on the origins and development of realism
Chelsea Szendi Schieder on the legacy of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo
Jamie Martin on the origins of the global economic governance system
Catherine Baker on Eurovision
Michael Franczak on the contemporary global economic order and its roots in the 1970s
Kevin Klyman on the role technology has played in sustaining the US empire
Omar Shakir on the Israeli war on Gaza and the history of the Gaza blockade
Aziz Rana on the development and future of Left internationalism
Maryam Jamshidi on Donald Trump’s dalliances with the Espionage Act
Daniel Immerwahr on the ideology behind Star Wars and the competing narratives around the Indigenous American historical experience
Jason Stearns on the many conflicts roiling the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
René Rojas on the results of Chile’s constitutional plebiscite
Kathryn Lamontagne on the passing of British Queen Elizabeth II
Stephen Wertheim on the fissures opening up in “progressive” foreign policy circles
Sussan Tahmasebi on Iranian protests
Paolo Gerbaudo on the results of September’s Italian general election
Benjamin Fogel on the first round of Brazil’s general election
Hamza Zafer on the early origins of Islam
Rob Karl on the history of Colombia
Greg Brew on OPEC+’s oil production cut and the basic nature of the global oil market
Katie Halper on her dismissal from The Hill
Aaron Good on the dark side of the US foreign policy establishment
Andrew Fishman and Benjamin Fogel on the second round of Brazil’s general election
Joshua Olson, David Sirota, and Kate Willett on Josh’s new podcast, The Audit, and the state of the left media ecosystem
Udi Greenberg on November’s Israeli general election
Samar Al-Bulushi on the impact the War on Terror has had on Somalia
David Silverman on the comforting myth of Thanksgiving
Jennifer Mittelstadt and Mark Wilson on the intersection between the US military and the market
Nando Vila on the 2022 Qatar World Cup
Javier Puente on the political crisis in Peru
Jeremy Friedman on the roots of the Sino-Soviet split
Lauren Turek on the role of the evangelical community in US foreign policy
Before we go, we’d just like to thank everyone for listening to the pod, sharing it, and just being part of our community.
And on that happy note, we’ll see you all again soon!
Best,
D + D + J
Happy New Year! I hope you guys will continue to do well & put out great discussions & analysis for many more years!
You guys are the best, thank you for all the intellectual - and also fun - insights you’ve offered us throughout a pretty crappy year. Happy 2023!