Blowback
Blowback·Hosted by Brendan James and Noah Kulwin·80 episodes
A podcast about the American Empire.
Why listen
Blowback turns modern U.S. foreign policy into tightly produced, season-long audio history, with each season unpacking one conflict from the ground up. It combines archival texture, narration, dark humor, and a sharp anti-imperial point of view, so listeners get both the story and the political machinery behind it. It is especially good for people who like history podcasts that challenge official narratives and reward listening in order.
Series(6)
Episodes
A preview of Blowback's new mini-series: No Daylight. A three-part study of the turbulent times in the U.S.-Israel relationship, you can receive exclusive access to it by signing up here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Cold War ends. Apartheid falls. But Savimbi's war continues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The fate of southern Africa is decided at Cuito Cuanavale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Reagan Doctrine puts Angola in the crosshairs as aid to UNITA is uncorked. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Reagan arrives, emboldening South Africa and Savimbi. The MPLA hangs on. Cuba recommits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Carter goes Cold Warrior. Savimbi visits Washington. Angola loses a founding father. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The MPLA and Jimmy Carter struggle to find their footing. Jonas Savimbi licks his wounds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
South Africa invades. Cuba intervenes. Angola becomes independent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What lies ahead for Blowback in 2026? A mini-series on Israel and America, a comic book, our seventh season and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Angolan anti-colonial rebels challenge Portugal. Cuba brings its revolution to Africa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A look into the Portuguese empire in southern Africa and the stirrings of nationalism in Angola. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
An introduction to and overview of our sixth season: the story of Angola, Cuba, and apartheid South Africa's Cold War showdown.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
New episodes drop September 22. This season, Cuba sends an army to defend newly independent Angola from the combined forces of apartheid South Africa, the CIA, and one of the most infamous warlords of Africa.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Wounded but not destroyed, Cambodia staggers into the 21st century.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Vietnam ends Democratic Kampuchea and the US backs the Khmer Rouge.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Khmer Rouge horrors spiral toward conflict with an ex-comrade: Vietnam.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cambodia slips into darkness, as the Khmer Rouge seize the country.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The short-lived reign of the Khmer Republic; the end of Nixon.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
One Cambodian coup, two US invasions and an unlikely American friend: China.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nixon and Kissinger put Cambodia on the menu.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sihanouk struggles to keep Cambodia out of LBJ's war in Vietnam.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Indochina rises up, the French Empire ends, the Cold War begins.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A prelude and a primer to this season's story: the tragedy of Cambodia.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Donald Trump cuts a deal with the Taliban — and America begins its withdrawal.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Obama administration promises victory in ‘The Good War.’Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
America runs its war in Afghanistan on the cheap — and subcontracts to crooks, kingpins, and gangsters.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Bush administration unleashes the first war of the 21st century.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Afghan jihad spreads to Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The warlord years, and the rise of the Taliban.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Operation Cyclone whips through Afghanistan — until a deal is finally struck.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The USSR invades, and the Safari Club kicks things up a notch.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The build-up to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Welcome to Season 4: Afghanistan.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The armistice in Korea is supposed to be temporary. But a peace treaty never comes. As decades roll on, the war becomes permanent.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Stalemate on the battlefield does not stop the United States from obliterating North Korea.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
President Truman and his “Big General in the Far East” enter their final standoff over the war.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The US threatens to cross the Yalu. The Chinese leadership debates its options in Korea.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gen. MacArthur executes his revenge.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With a rightwing, US-backed klepto-case to his South, Kim Il-Sung bets the house.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The war before the war on a self-reliant island off South Korea.Soundtrack: https://open.spotify.com/album/4e9hkmGdDhycmgcGKe3bF0?si=d97_H1fvS5CV84ZvcEhZqQAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
After a flash of hope post-WWII Korea is divided into North and South.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A pocket-sized history of the Korean peninsula, the upstart US and Japanese empires, and World War II.Soundtrack: https://open.spotify.com/album/4e9hkmGdDhycmgcGKe3bF0?si=d97_H1fvS5CV84ZvcEhZqQAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A new season, a new story: The Korean War. To listen to the rest of season 3 right now, visit www.blowback.showAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The third season of Blowback — the story of the Korean War — arrives July 2022. Pre-order and listening details at https://blowback.supportingcast.fmAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Guests Helen Yaffe, José Pertierra and Marta Núñez Sarmiento discuss the protests in Cuba during July 2021. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A rundown of the Cuban revolution's foreign policy in Africa with guest, Cuban diplomat Oscar Oramas-Oliva. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Noah talks with José Pertierra, a Cuban-American immigration attorney who has long tangled with right-wing Miami Cubans in the media and in court. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Guest Bill Corbett (Mystery Science Theater 3000, Rifftrax) and Brendan hang out and talk about some bad Cuba movies.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A discussion of Operation Peter Pan with Prof. Nelson Valdes, with a detour into Hungary, 1956. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A brief overview of how American nuclear weapons strategy ran parallel to the story in our main narrative.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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