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Pod Save the World: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Glenda Silva
“Pod Save America” cohost Tommy Vietor thought foreign policy was boring and complicated until he got the education of a lifetime working for President Obama’s National Security Council. On “Pod Save the World,” he and former deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes break down the latest global developments and bring you behind the scenes with the people who were there. New episodes every Wednesday. To get access to extended ad-free Pod Save The World episodes, sign up to be a Friends of the Pod member at crooked.com/friends
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- Yesterday1h 48m
Lindsey Graham's Bloody Legacy
Trump welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to the White House on the same day as Lindsey Graham’s funeral, a MAGA nut does a wild U-turn on Ukraine, and the freakout over Chinese Artificial Intelligence intensifies.This week Tommy and Ben cover…Trump hits pause on the Iran war after two weeks of nightly bombing amid concerns about dwindling stockpiles of US air defense interceptors, while the Pentagon goes to disgraceful new lengths to hide the casualties and costs of the war. Then Lindsey Graham gets the equivalent of a state funeral in Washington but almost no real coverage or accounting of his bloody foreign policy record. MAGA influencer Laura Loomer goes to Ukraine in the middle of a head-spinning shift from Ukraine hater to supporter. China rolls out new, cheaper AI models, while the US government refuses to regulate the industry. Finally: The Cockroach Movement notches a rare win from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the US extracts money and political concessions in Venezuela, Trump considers starting a new war in Mali, and Europe reels from historic heatwaves and wildfires. Then, Ben speaks to David Remnick, Editor of The New Yorker, about his recent profile of Gadi Eisenkot, Benjamin Netanyahu’s leading challenger for the Israeli premiership and Remnick’s observations of Israel over his decades of reporting there.For a transcript of this show, email the episode title to transcripts@crooked.com
- 1 weeks ago1h 31m
Pentagon Covers Up Iran War Casualties
More US casualties in the war with Iran, the State Department's new neo-McCarthy Cuba blacklist, and the UK gets a new Prime Minister while CPAC Great Britain flops.Tommy and Ben discuss reports that the Pentagon has been covering up the full extent of casualties associated with the war with Iran, the impact of the Houthi rebels potentially getting involved in the conflict, and Trump’s threat to bomb a new Iranian nuclear site. The State Department released a new report blaming everything Marco Rubio doesn’t like on Cuba, and the guys read it* so you don’t have to! (*skimmed it) Then they discuss the national security risk from prediction markets, Trump’s decision to slap new tariffs on Canada as its forests burn, and new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s first days in office. Finally, the guys take you to the first CPAC Great Britain, and discuss Count Binface’s deep-space bid to defeat Nigel Farage. Then Tommy speaks to Oleksiy Sorokin, Deputy Chief Editor for the Kyiv Independent, about the latest barrage of Russian ballistic missile strikes and protests in Ukraine over Zelensky’s military staffing decisions.For a transcript of this show, email transcripts@crooked.com
- 1 weeks ago1h 8m
Trump's Delusional Election Rant
In this special episode of Pod Save the World, Tommy and Ben speak in front of a live audience at the Aspen Security Forum.First, Trump delivers a rambling speech on election security that offers no new evidence, overstates the threat from China, and is laying the groundwork for Republicans to question the validity of the midterm elections. Then the guys turn their attention to the foreign policy establishment itself, taking on some of the more eyebrow-raising statements from fellow panelists at the forum — including Condoleezza Rice — and making the case that the blob needs to reckon seriously with its own failures: on regime change, on ignoring public opinion, and on dismissing anti-war voices rather than engaging with them. They also lay out their vision for reimagining American foreign policy, including more transparency around Washington think tanks, stronger lobbying disclosure rules, a bigger State Department, a smaller defense budget, and returning more war-making responsibility to Congress. Then in the second half, Ben and Tommy sit down with Annalena Baerbock, President of the United Nations General Assembly, to discuss the UN's near-total absence from negotiations in today's major conflicts, what meaningful reform of the institution would actually look like, and how alarmed the world should be about the rise of Germany's far-right AfD party.For a transcript of this episode, email transcripts@crooked.com
- 2 weeks ago1h 34m
Forever War (Trump's Version)
Tommy and Ben are back with a week of war, drama over an international bridge, and an angry Norwegian World Cup fan.First up, the guys say farewell to the ceasefire between Iran and the US, hello to a new forever war, and analyze how a rushed, sloppily worded agreement negotiated by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff collapsed. The New York Times reveals the details of Israel's embarrassing failed plot to install former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran's new president, including a fake climate conference in Budapest and a Mossad extraction plan. Trump is using questions about the new Qatari gifted Air Force One to attack reporters and a $4.7 billion bridge connecting Detroit to Canada is at the center of another Trump corruption story. In Venezuela, the earthquake death toll has climbed to nearly 4,500, and reporting confirms that Marco Rubio is essentially running the country from Washington. A Cambridge University study reveals that Boko Haram fighters have been using AI chatbots to design explosives and plan attacks. After the NATO summit in Turkey, President Erdogan gave every leader a vintage pistol with live ammo as a parting gift, and a single Norwegian man calls out the historical inaccuracies of the row by World Cup fans. Then Ben speaks to Congressman Ro Khanna about his trip to the West Bank and his detention by Israeli settlers.For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast, episode title, and episode date.
- 3 weeks ago1h 4m
Trump Bullies FIFA, NATO
Tommy is joined by guest host Mehdi Hasan to walk through a packed week of World Cup controversy, a NATO summit, and Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral in Iran.First, they discuss the international reaction to President Trump’s interference in the World Cup to get the US team’s red card suspended and all the ways that corruption is endemic to FIFA. Then Trump heads to Ankara for the NATO summit, and the guys dig into what is actually at stake—from Trump's demand that allies spend 5% of GDP on defense to reports to a Wall Street Journal deep dive on European leaders holding a “therapy session” about their strained relationship with America. Then there's Trump's bromance with Turkish President and NATO Summit host Tayyip Erdogan and the push to sell F-35s to Turkey despite a Congressional ban. In Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei's week-long funeral ceremonies are drawing tens of thousands of mourners to the streets of Tehran; in the UK, Nigel Farage resigns from Parliament to trigger a by-election he plans to immediately run in again, and in France, a Paris appeals court has cleared the far right leader Marine Le Pen's run for president.For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com.
- 4 weeks ago1h 31m
Keeping Up With the Korruption in Kazakhstan
Tommy and Ben talk through a week that includes US and Iranian airstrikes, a peace agreement, a Supreme Court double-header, and the French debate about air conditioning.First up, Israel and Lebanon have signed a 14-point peace agreement in Washington, but people on both sides question whether the deal will ever be implemented, and some in Lebanon fear that it could actually be a recipe for civil war. Meanwhile, the US ceasefire with Iran has produced a week of airstrikes and fighting over what was actually agreed to. Then a brazen new example of corruption combines a mining deal with Kazakhstan, the sons of both President Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and $1.6 billion in federal funding. Then the guys dig into how Supreme Court rulings on the preservation of birthright citizenship and the gutting of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians will impact American foreign policy. They also cover the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela and the impact on the interim government, the debate within France over air conditioning while Europe bakes under a historic heat wave, and the most devastating World Cup losses so far this tournament. Then Tommy speaks to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof about Elon Musk’s brazen lie that “nobody died” as the result of Musk and DOGE “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”For Friends of the Pod, the boys answer listener questions about how live audiences influence political speeches. They also recount some of their tougher culinary experiences while on diplomatic clock.Buy Ben’s book All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches and subscribe to his Substack here. For a transcript of this episode of Pod Save the World, please email transcripts@crooked.com
- Jun 24, 20261h 28m
Starmer Brexits
This week Tommy and Ben catch up on the latest in Iran negotiations, react to Keir Starmer’s resignation, and continue to celebrate World Cup fandom.First they walk through the text of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding — because now it’s clear why Trump didn't want anyone to see it. The guys break down everything Iran got, including sanctions relief and billions in unfrozen assets, compared to the very vague assurances the US received that Iran won't build a nuclear weapon and will keep the Strait of Hormuz open. Then they go over the latest negotiations in Switzerland, disagreements over what was agreed to, and why the war in Lebanon remains the biggest threat to its success. Across the pond, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced his resignation after Andy Burnham's decisive by-election win, setting up the UK to have its seventh prime minister in ten years. The guys also dive into Israel's increasingly close and diplomatically fraught relationship with Somaliland, and Colombia's razor-thin runoff election, which was won by a right-wing candidate who calls himself “El Tigre.” And finally, the World Cup remains an absolute joy — Ben and Tommy go over some of their favorite moments like underdog Cape Verde holding Spain and Uruguay to draws, Scottish fans taking over Boston and Miami, and Uzbek fans riding into a Houston stadium on horseback. At the end of the show, Ben speaks to Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub about the Cockroach Movement in India, and how the war with Iran has spilled over into the country’s politics.For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast, episode title, and episode date.Buy Ben’s book All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches and subscribe to his Substack here.
- Jun 17, 20261h 32m
How Bad Is Trump’s Iran Deal?
Tommy and Ben are back with a week of bad deals, high-stakes elections, and World Cup joy.The US and Iran have agreed to a deal to end the war, but the Trump administration has refused to release the text to anyone — so the guys parse through what we think we know. The short version: it's a pretty good deal for Iran that meets almost none of the goals Trump set out before the war started, and the nuclear issue hasn’t even been touched yet. Then the guys question if Netanyahu will do something to torpedo the whole thing with his continued war against Lebanon. In England, a special election could reshape British politics and set up a direct challenge to Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Meanwhile, a spate of developments across England, Italy, France, and Switzerland signal increasing growth for far-right movements in Europe. In Trump world, there’s both good and very bad news: Trump backed down on installing Bill Pulte as Director of National Intelligence after bipartisan pushback, and the dismantling of USAID continues to have devastating real-world consequences. And finally, with the World Cup in full swing, Tommy and Ben take a moment to enjoy the fans, from Scots drinking their way across, to Mexican and Korean fans bonding over tequila, and Nigerian fans flying all the way to Mexico just to root against South Africa. At the end of the show, Tommy speaks to CNN’s Senior International Correspondent Frederik Pleitgen, about what he saw and heard on his latest reporting trip on the ground in Iran.Buy Ben’s book All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches and subscribe to his Substack here.For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast, episode title, and episode date.
About Pod Save the World
“Pod Save America” cohost Tommy Vietor thought foreign policy was boring and complicated until he got the education of a lifetime working for President Obama’s National Security Council. On “Pod Save the World,” he and former deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes break down the latest global developments and bring you behind the scenes with the people who were there. New episodes every Wednesday. To get access to extended ad-free Pod Save The World episodes, sign up to be a Friends of the Pod member at crooked.com/friends
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