Podcast / American Prestige / Feb 18, 2026

Inside the American War Machine—With Ben Freeman and William Hartung

Derek and Danny are joined by Bill Hartung and Ben Freeman to discuss the system that drives permanent war for the United States.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Inside the American War Machine w/ Ben Freeman and William Hartung | American Prestige
byThe Nation Magazine

Derek and Danny are joined by Bill Hartung and Ben Freeman to discuss the system that drives permanent war for the United States. They talk about the growth of the Pentagon budget and the bipartisan politics of defense spending; the U.S. dominating the global arms trade and the prevalence of U.S. weapons around the world; the rise of defense tech companies and the relationship between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon; the structure of defense lobbying, foreign government lobbying for arms sales, and how contractors benefit; think tank funding, Pentagon involvement in Hollywood and gaming; and public opinion, the national debt, and whether structural change is possible.

Read their book The Trillion Dollar War Machine.

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Derek and Danny are joined by Bill Hartung and Ben Freeman to discuss the system that drives permanent war for the United States.

They talk about the growth of the Pentagon budget and the bipartisan politics of defense spending; the US’s dominating the global arms trade and the prevalence of US weapons around the world; the rise of defense tech companies and the relationship between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon; the structure of defense lobbying, foreign government lobbying for arms sales, and how contractors benefit; think tank funding; Pentagon involvement in Hollywood and gaming; and public opinion, the national debt, and whether structural change is possible.

Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

The Biden Administration’s Complicity in Gaza w/ Akbar Shahid Ahmed / American Prestige
byThe Nation Magazine

Danny and Derek welcome back Akbar Shahid Ahmed, Diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Sun and author of Crossing the Red Line: Biden, His Advisors, and Israel’s War on Gaza, to talk about the Biden administration’s role in enabling the genocide in Gaza. They discuss the conditions in the Strip as of the current day; Biden’s small inner circle of Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and Brett McGurk; Jack Lew’s role of ambassador and the dubious war crime review process he implemented; the Rafah red line and its immediate collapse after Israel invaded; and the Democratic Party’s domestic political miscalculations heading into 2024 and 2028.  

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Daniel Bessner

Daniel Bessner is a historian of US foreign relations and is the author of, among other books, Imperialist Realism.

Derek Davison

Derek Davison is a writer and analyst specializing in international affairs and US foreign policy. He is the publisher of the Foreign Exchanges newsletter, cohost of the American Prestige podcast, and former editor of LobeLog.

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