Podcast / The Time of Monsters / Oct 28, 2025

The Rush to War With Venezuela

On The Time of Monsters: Van Jackson on Trump’s reckless plunge into conflict in Latin America.

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 Rush to War Against Venezuela with Van Jackson | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

On Friday, the self-styled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth announced the US was sending an

aircraft carrier to bolster its attacks on Venezuelan boats (which the Trump administration

alleges, without evidence, are trafficking drugs). I spoke to international relations scholar Van

Jackson (whose work can be found here) about the motives for this new war as well as the

muted opposition to it from Democrats.

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An indigenous woman waves a Venezuelan flag during a rally to commemorate Indigenous Resistance Day on October 12, 2025 in Caracas, Venezuela.

An indigenous woman waves a Venezuelan flag during a rally to commemorate Indigenous Resistance Day, on October 12, 2025 in Caracas, Venezuela.

(Jesus Vargas / Getty Images)

On Friday, the self-styled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth announced that the US was sending an aircraft carrier to bolster its attacks on Venezuelan boats (which the Trump administration alleges, without evidence, are trafficking drugs). I spoke to international relations scholar Van Jackson (whose work can be found here) about the motives for this new war as well as the muted opposition to it from Democrats.

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The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer

The Time of Monsters podcast features Nation national-affairs correspondent Jeet Heer’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, he’ll host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.

The Rise of the Far Right in Europe w/ David Broder
byThe Nation Company LLC

Only a few years ago, European elites were patting themselves on the back for fending off the

tide of right-wing anti-system parties (often styled as populists). But recent polls in France,

Germany and the United Kingdom show that that the far right is once again gaining traction,

thanks in no small part centrist governments that have demoralized the population and

legitimized xenophobia. David Broder, author of Mussolini's Grandchildren and European editor

of Jacobin, wrote a wide-ranging essay on this for The New York Times. I spoke to David about

both the dismal decisions of mainstream parties and also possible alternatives.

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Editor and publisher, The Nation

Jeet Heer

Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The GuardianThe New Republic, and The Boston Globe.

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