Scott interviews Ray McGovern about the Biden-Putin summit. It was not exactly a groundbreaking meeting, says McGovern, though Biden and Putin did agree on at least one crucial point: America and Russia must never fight a nuclear war, since the results would be beyond catastrophic. It used to be the case, McGovern explains, that nuclear-armed powers recognized the concept of mutually assured destruction, and for that reason would never have countenanced a nuclear first strike. But the Reagan...

Ray McGovern is back to talk about America's relationship with Russia. President Biden met with Putin recently, McGovern explains, which is good for Biden's stance toward Russia, and, of course, for world peace. War with Russia is sometimes held out as an actual possibility, especially over supposed acts of provocation like Russia's annexation of Crimea or the various cyberattacks of recent months. But since Russia has nuclear weapons, there's simply no world in which we could fight a full...

Scott talks to Sam Hussini about the sudden popularity of the coronavirus "lab leak" theory. For about a year straight, Husseini reminds us, anyone discussing the possibility that the coronavirus originated in a lab—even credentialed scientists—were ridiculed in the media and kicked off internet platforms for promoting conspiracy theories. Now, it's suddenly acceptable to propose that this might have been the real origin of the global pandemic of the last year. But for those who have been...

Scott interviews Annelle Sheline about her work on the war in Yemen. Sheline says that negotiating an end to the war has proven difficult, since both the UN framework and the U.S.-Saudi mentality is totally inconsistent with the situation on the ground. Neither will confront the fact that the Houthi "rebels" have actually been in control of most of the country for the last few years already, and the Hadi "government" is really a group of men in a hotel room in Saudi Arabia. Asking for...

Scott interviews Gareth Porter about his coverage of a recently-released document liberated by Daniel Ellsberg when he originally leaked the Pentagon Papers in the 1970s. This document, Porter explains, shows how in 1958 the military wanted to use tactical nuclear weapons against China over the offshore islands crisis. It was only Eisenhower's intervention that stopped the Joint Chiefs from going ahead with the plan, though ironically, it was Eisenhower's own efforts to combat the...

Scott interviews Max Blumenthal about the recent violence that has thrust Israel-Palestine into the national spotlight. On one hand, there is a growing recognition—thanks to reports from organizations like Human Rights Watch—that Israel is essentially an apartheid Jewish state with second-class Palestinian citizens. On the other hand, there has been a great deal of concern about a supposed rise in anti-semitic violence around the world, and especially in America, in response to the coverage of...

John Kiriakou discusses the case of hero whistleblower Daniel Hale, who helped expose the White House's secret drone assassination program during the Obama administration. Hale has pled guilty to one charge under the espionage act, in an effort to win the mercy of the court, but he still faces four other charges, which at the moment the Justice Department is refusing to back down from. Hale is now facing at least some time in prison, but could be given a much longer sentence, depending on how...

Scott talks to the great Tom Woods about the latest happenings in Libertarian Party politics. Scott, Tom and many other committed libertarian activists have decided to join the LP recently in an effort to re-energize the movement and spread the principles of liberty. Much of this new energy is thanks to Michael Heiss of the Mises Caucus, who's been spent the last few years organizing events with the likes of Tom and Scott, and has big things planned for the future. Discussed on the show: "The...