This is the audio version of my recent essay about antisemitism. Read more

This is part 10 of our current series on the history of slavery and the causes of the US Civil War. Enjoy. Read more

This is part 9 of our current series on the history of slavery and the causes of the US Civil War. Enjoy. Read more

I was interviewed by Academic Agent, who let me rant about Ukraine, Israel, China, and US foreign policy in general. Check it out. Subscribe now The Martyr Made Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Hi everybody. This is a short Easter message I put together a year or two ago. It's been up on the Martyr Made Substack - which you should all go subscribe to at your earliest convenience - but I thought I'd release it here for everyone. I hope everyone had a blessed week, and that you have a blessed day. Happy Easter.…

Hi everybody. This is the same short Easter message I released a year or two ago. There are a lot more subscribers now than there were then, so I thought I’d repost it for everyone. I hope you all had a blessed week, and have a blessed day. Happy Easter. The Martyr Made Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my…

*Note on the audio version: I’ve been getting over a cold, so if my voice is a little funky, that’s why.* Subscribe now A decade after the Virginia colony was founded, its investors had every reason to suspect they’d sunk their money into a lost cause. Martial law and work gangs got the colony through the difficult early years when bare survival wa…

Hi everyone. I did an interview spot on The Jesse Kelly Show today, as part of a series he’s doing on the First World War. I figured since I had already written down some notes to prep for the interview, I might as well write it up for you guys. The next slavery installment will be out in the next day or two. The First World War was, in many ways, …

I took an hour off from working on the next slavery essay to have a chat with podcaster J. Burden about the thorny issues mentioned in the title. Check it out: The Martyr Made Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.…

Hi everybody. Sorry this one took longer than usual to get out. About a week ago I babysat the festering buckets of disease my friend calls children, and was down for the count for a while. If it shows on the audio, I’m sorry about that, but I’m on the upswing, so have no fear for the future. That’s right, all you FREE SUBSCRIBERS looking at this p…

Spain and Portugal in the 15th century don’t get the attention they deserve in Anglo-American histories of the West. Their relatively early decline, and the eventual rise of their enemies - first the Dutch, then the English - relegated the Latins to the Introduction chapter of many history books, but the scope and daring of their accomplishments ha…

Hi everyone. Here’s the audio version of the latest installment in our series about the history of slavery and the leadup to the US Civil War. From now on (starting with the next essay, which will be around in a day or two), I will be releasing these audio versions at the same time as the essay itself. That should make some of you guys happy. Thank…

Hey guys. This is the audio version of the most recent installment of the series about the history of slavery and the leadup to the US Civil War. Don’t forget to go to iTunes, or Spotify, or whatever you use to listen to podcasts and give Martyr Made two thumbs up, or five stars, or whatever. Thanks! Read more…

Hey everybody. Here’s the audio version of the most recent installment of the current series on the history of slavery and the leadup to the US Civil War. The next installment just needs a few finishing touches, and will be along in a day or two. Thanks again for everything. Read more

Hi everyone. Here is a talk I gave about Nietzsche and Dostoevsky at the first inaugural Novitate Conference in Washington, DC. Novitate was created by Luke Burgis to explore and celebrate the work of French scholar René Girard. Luke is the author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life. Please support the podcast by subscribing to…

Hi everybody. This is the audio version of a six-part essay series called Blacks and Jews. I wrote it for my Substack a while back, so if it sounds like I’m reading instead of speaking naturally, it’s because in this case I am. I decided to release this to everyone on the main feed because, in light of the recent uproar and brewing Democratic Party…

Jocko and Darryl welcome Saagar Enjeti, co-host of Breaking Points w/Krystal Ball, to discuss how the changes in the media environment have transformed the nature of American democracy.

I’m re-uploading all the podcasts from a new hosting service, so I thought I’d go ahead and put the full Epstein series up while I was at it. This series deals with some very dark material. It is not for listening with kids in the car or where other people can hear it at work. If you appreciate this podcast, please consider helping to support it by…

This episode will cover the period from 1948 – the year of Israeli independence and the Palestinian Nakba – to the Lebanon War of 1982. It is not meant to be a thorough history of that period, as Fear & Loathing was of the pre-1948 period – to do that justice would require another ten episodes, not just one. This one has a narrower focus. The story…

Jocko and Darryl discuss the different perspectives of the Israelis and Palestinians, and whether peace is possible.

The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is long and complicated, with heroes, villains, and legitimate grievances on both sides. None of that matters now. Jocko and Darryl discuss the recent assault by Hamas in southern Israel, and the upcoming Israeli response.

The Great Migration of 1915-1960 saw over six million African Americans move from the rural South to the big cities of the North and West. It was one of the largest mass migrations in human history, and one whose consequences defined American domestic politics throughout the 20th century. But it wasn’t the first time the industrial cities of Americ…

Since Elon Musk bought Twitter, we've learned much about how thoroughly the information environment has been corrupted and manipulated by politically-motivated actors in Big Tech and the US government. Does the regime change at Twitter herald a new era, or more of the same?

As the war in Ukraine enters its eighth month, both sides are digging in for a long, hard winter. After a series of Ukrainian successes, the Russians have increased the intensity of the conflict, knocking out civilian infrastructure and calling up hundreds of thousands of reservists to throw into the mix. Jocko and Darryl discuss some of the geopol…

In August 1921, 10,000-20,000 armed coal miners marched on Mingo County, West Virginia to lift the martial law imposed there, free their jailed brethren, and avenge the assassination of one of their local heroes. At least 20,000 more wives, young boys and other civilians followed the army providing medical, logistical and other services. Before it …

Columbine. Virginia Tech. Las Vegas. Parkland. Buffalo. Uvalde. America has become the land of mass shootings. Jocko & Darryl discuss what might be behind this, and what, if anything, we can do about it. Link to Atlantic Ditch Run 800 fundraiser for veterans, via the Gary Sinise Foundation: https://donate.garysinisefoundation.org/fundraiser/3881751…

The war between Russia and Ukraine has slowed to a grinding pace. The lightning strikes attempted by Russia in the early days of fighting were blunted by a determined Ukrainian defense, and Russia consolidated & refocused its forces to battle the heavily-fortified Ukrainian positions in the eastern part of the country. Jocko and Darryl discuss what…

Hi everyone. Here is the first episode – well, the prologue – for a brand new Martyr Made series called Whose America?, on the American labor wars. This is a series I’ve been working on for a while, and a story very close to my heart. I appreciate the patience and support you guys have shown me. I have a habit of over-burdening myself until work gr…

For most of history, and in much of the world today, there were no effective police, courts, prisons, or states. People and groups protected themselves according to the law of honor immortalized as the epitaph of the Roman consul Lucius Sulla: No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full. Jocko and Darryl d…

Hey everyone. After the recent Thoughts On Ukraine episode, I thought it would be a good idea to bring someone on the show who has a different perspective. Kristaps Andrejsons is a Latvian journalist,By Darryl Cooper

Jocko and Darryl welcome special guest Scott Horton. Scott is the director of the Libertarian Institute, and the senior editor of antiwar.com. He's also an author of books such as Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan, and Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terror.

The Second World War saw all sides engage in unrestrained violence. When the war ended, the US-led Western alliance was suddenly confronted with an aggressive, powerful, and paranoid Soviet Union - a country that had already murdered tens of millions of its own people, and now possessed nuclear weapons. Jocko and Darryl discuss the early days of th…

Hey everybody. Many of you have asked for my thoughts on the crisis in Ukraine, so here they are. I re-recorded it because the audio was trash the first time around. Sorry about that. This is the kind of content I usually put on the Substack subscribers-only feed, so if you like this and can spare $5, please consider supporting the podcast by subsc…

Darryl and Jocko discuss free speech, media responsibility, information warfare, and the recent attacks on Joe Rogan.

Foundational to both American and Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War was the view that direct confrontation between the nuclear-armed superpowers must be avoided. We managed to avoid war with the Soviet Union, but today Vladimir Putin's revanchist policies seems to have US foreign policy wonks spoiling for a fight. Surely, cooler heads will …

Former Director of Central Intelligence Mike Pompeo once crowed about his time with the CIA, "We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses." Intelligence work and clandestine operations always toe the line dividing legal from illegal, and right from wrong. Sometimes that line gets blurry, and other times it is erased altogether. Bu…

What is a liberal democracy without a functional free press? The idea almost seems like a contradiction in terms. The mass media has become both more centralized and more politicized, driving us into closed silos of information and sense-making, and leading many Americans to doubt everything they don't hear from a trusted member of their own politi…

Description: The French Revolution ended the era of limited warfare, and ushered in the era of peoples' war. The Napoleonic Wars shocked Europe's great powers into a century of relatively few direct military confrontations, but those that occurred - the US Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, and the Russo-Japanese & Crimean Wars - were prelude to t…

In episode #22, we discussed the pivotal year 1917, when the United States and the Soviet Union began their entry onto the stage of global power politics, and the tide decisively turned in the First World War. In this episode, we continue our journey through the 20th century with a conversation about how The Great War ended - or did it? - and about…

Jocko and Darryl welcome Bryan Suits, host of The Dark Secret Place podcast, to discuss Chinese propaganda films, military tech, and global strategy. Bryan is a veteran of both Iraq Wars, the Bosnia peacekeeping mission, and patrolled the streets of Los Angeles during the 1992 riots as a young National Guardsman. Check out great The Dark Secret Pla…

Jocko & Darryl discuss the humiliating and catastrophic final days of the US war in Afghanistan. This episode is dedicated to the heroic efforts of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines & civilians who put their bodies on the line to help our people escape the Taliban.

There’s a quote always attributed to Winston Churchill – falsely, I think? – that goes something like, “If you’re not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by 30, you have no brain.” I’ve got a different version that I like a lot better, and it goes, “If you’re not reading Nietzsche at 20, you have no heart. But if you ha…

"There are decades when nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen." -V.I. Lenin This is the first of a series of discussions about critical years in the 20th century. As the First World War entered its 4th year, the mighty German army had the Entente powers on the ropes. But two men who started the year 1917 uninvolved with the Great…

With the longest war in American history officially set to wrap up next month, Jocko and Darryl take stock of mistakes made, missed opportunities, lessons learned, and where things stand.

In this episode, were joined by James Poulos, executive editor of American Mind, a publication of the Claremont Institute, to discuss his article on the recent testimony of Army General Mark Milley regarding the teaching of Critical Race Theory at West Point. However, we end up hardly mentioning General Milley's hearing, and instead ponder the poss…

In June 1967, Israeli aircraft, armor, and soldiers launched a massive surprise attack against the Egyptian forces of General Gamal Abdul Nasser, and changed the face of the entire Middle East. When the firing died down, the 19-year-old State of Israel had tripled in size, and brought millions of Palestinian refugees under its military control. Alt…

History is replete with examples of leaders, nations, and empires who left a trail of blood behind them. But with the Bolshevik takeover of Russia after the First World War, something new crawled from the depths of the earth onto the surface of the world. Never before had a government shown such uninhibited savagery toward its own people, during pe…

After 30 years of repression and brutality against its Armenian subjects, the Ottoman imperial government used the cover of the First World War to enact a vicious Final Solution to the Armenian question. But despite losing the war, the Ottoman officials most responsible escaped justice and lived freely under assumed identities in European capitals.…

World War 1, the Russian Civil War, the Red Terror, Holodomor, the Great Terror, World War 2, Chernobyl, state collapse, two revolutions, and another civil war. Few countries have had a tougher 100 years than Ukraine. Recent weeks have seen a buildup of forces on both sides of the border between Russia and Ukraine. Jocko and Darryl discuss the hist…

Description: As the Cold War kicked off in the late 1940s, America was rocked by revelations that hundreds of Soviet spies had somehow entrenched themselves in the highest levels of the government. When Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy took the lead in exposing them, he kicked a hornet's nest that soon swarmed and overwhelmed him. The period known…