Danny and Derek talk to Simon Ball, professor of international history and politics at the University of Leeds, about the history of political assassination in the modern era.
US President John F; Kennedy on November 22, 1963, the day he was assassinated. (Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)
Danny and Derek welcome Simon Ball, a professor of international history and politics at the University of Leeds, to the show for a discussion about the history of political assassination in the modern era. They talk about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, political killing as a tool of statecraft, assassination and British imperial rule, its use by Western powers during World War II, the CIA and Cold War assassination programs, the JFK assassination and its surrounding conspiracy theories, the investigations of the 1970s and Gerald Ford’s ban on the practice, the rise of counter-assassination security, and the strategic limits of assassination.
Be sure to grab a copy of Simon’s book Death to Order: A Modern History of Assassination.
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Danny and Derek talk with Noam Scheiber, New York Times reporter and author, about the radicalization of American college graduates. They discuss a Starbucks union campaign, underemployment among recent grads, the Taylorization of white-collar jobs, AI, corporate fixation on labor costs, the “con” of college for millennials, and the collapse of meritocracy.
Buy your copy of Noam’s book on the subject, Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class.
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Daniel BessnerTwitterDaniel Bessner is a historian of US foreign relations and is the author of, among other books, Imperialist Realism.
Derek DavisonDerek 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.