American Prestige in 2022

The year in review from the AP gang!

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:

The History of the Kurds w/ Djene Bajalan

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:

We Talk to Chomsky w/ Noam Chomsky

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:

The History of Vietnam w/ Sean Fear

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:

Cuba's American History w/ Ada Ferrer

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:

A History of Modern Palestine w/ Rashid Khalidi

We were joined by Tim Nunan of the Free University of Berlin for another epic, ten-part (well, technically 11 part) series on Afghanistan:

The History of Afghanistan w/ Tim Nunan

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:

Bonus - The History of the IRA, Ep. 1: The Easter Rising of 1916 w/ Daniel Finn

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:

The History of Taiwan w/ James Lin

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:

The Currency of Politics w/ Stefan Eich

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:

Lessons of Guerrero w/ Alexander Aviña

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:

Queer Germany w/ Samuel Huneke

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:

Making the Republic of Vietnam w/ Nu-Anh Tran

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:

Understanding Modern Iran w/ Assal Rad and Pouya Alimagham

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:

E60 - For Might and Right, Ep. 1 w/ Michael Brenes

E68 - For Might and Right, Ep. 2 w/ Michael Brenes

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:

E64 - The Triumph of Broken Promises, Ep. 1 w/ Fritz Bartel

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