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In Russia there’s a revolving door between prisons and the frontlines. What began as a Wanger program is now official: the Kremlin will pardon nearly any crime if the convict agrees to serve on the front lines in Ukraine. After a six month stint at war, murderers and rapists are free to return to the scene of the crime. Some come home to kill again.

On this episode of Angry Planet, New York Times journalist Milana Mazaeva is here to talk about what happens to Russian communities when criminals return to them after going to war. The first half of the conversation covers the articles and details harrowing stories of Russian murderers who became soldiers who became murderers again.

The latter half of the episode is about how hard it is to report from Russia right now, the incredible games of telephone Mazaeva plays to get the stories she does, and what’s lost when you can’t visit the place you’re reporting on.

Pardoned for Serving in Ukraine, They Return to Russia to Kill Again

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Luke Paxton and Han Lee know a good cause when they see one. When Russia invades Ukraine in 2022, the American vets know what they need to do. Their time in Afghanistan has given them the skills to help fight a war and the moral clarity needed to know when a cause is just.

But are they going to fight in Ukraine for the right reason? Do Ukrainians want them there? And does either matter when bombs are dropping all over the country?

On this episode of Angry Planet, author Matt Gallagher returns to the podcast to talk about his novel Daybreak. It’s the story of Paxton and Lee as they travel to Ukraine to fight. It’s a work of fiction that strikes at deeper emotional truths about the conflict. It’s also pieced together from Gallagher’s own experiences in Ukraine, some of which wouldn’t fit neatly into a work of journalistic non-fiction.

• What fiction can do that non-fiction can’t.
• Exploring Lviv’s mystical toy barter alley.
• The contractually required Joan Didion quote.
• Why Ukrainians are suspicious of Americans who say “I want to help.”
• The structure of a Daybreak movie.
• Recorded 4/23/24

Go here to buy Daybreak.

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The war between Israel and Hamas, which began on Oct. 7 when terrorists overran the Gaza frontier and killed more than 1,200 Israelis, is now more than six months old. More than 100 Israeli hostages are still being held in Gaza.

Israel, in return, has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, with two thirds of that number likely to be civilians, including women and children. There are negotiations for a ceasefire going on—at least sporadically—but Dan Perry, former Associated Press bureau chief in the region, says that Hamas isn't playing by the same rules as Israel, or anyone else.

Hamas, according to Perry, welcomes the deaths of Palestinian civilians. Anyone and everyone can be a martyr for Hamas's cause, which is not peace, but a complete destruction of Israel. Whoever must be sacrificed in the process, well, other people's live are a price Hamas is willing to pay.

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A successful TV adaptation of the Fallout video game franchise has everyone excited about the post-apocalypse again so we thought it was a good time to finally do a bonus episode we’ve been threatening for a long time.

Cultural critic, journalist, and YouTuber Noah Caldwell-Gervais comes on this episode of Angry Planet to discuss all things Fallout. It’s a long episode, we dive into a lot of topics including

• Jason’s globe from 1937
• The peculiar pleasure of vacuum tube technology
• Cold War memories
• The anxiety of worrying about dying in a nuclear blast
• West Coast vs East Coast Fallout
• In defense of Fallout 76
• Power armor and Soviet Tanks
• Vault-Tec the ultimate villain
• 
  

Full spoiler warning for all of the Fallout video games and the entire TV show.

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Go here to listen to Face-Off

Jane Perlez is a veteran foreign correspondent, the former Bejing Bureau Chief for The New York Times, and host of the new podcast “Face-Off.” She’s on Angry Planet today to talk to us about the show and her experiences reporting on China. “Face-Off” is all about America’s complicated relationship with China. Perlez says she started the show because she was tired of the hysterical conversations she hears about Beijing in Washington.

In this episode we learn …

• Why On the Beach is Perlez’s favorite nuclear war movie.

• What it’s like to visit China for the first time at the height of the Cultural Revolution.

• What “Communism” means in a country with a growing bourgeoisie.

• What it takes for someone to lead China.

When Mao and Khrushchev Went Swimming

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Violence thrives in countries where political solutions to conflict have failed. On this episode of Angry Planet, Jeffsky Poincy comes on the show to walk us through the origins of Haiti’s gang problems and lay out the complicated history that gave rise to them.

Poincy, who is Haitian, is a program manager at PartnersGlobal, an NGO that helps foster democratic conflict resolution. Poincy’s perspective on the violence in Haiti is that it will require complicated and lengthy political solutions. The gangs thrive, he says, because of their place in a complicated transnational criminal network. It’s a local problem that requires local solutions. A thousand Kenyan soldiers on the ground in the devastated country won’t provide long term relief. Real political change will.

Recorded 4/5/24

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• Recorded 4/4/24

The U.S. State Department has been working hard to get Americans out of Haiti. The island nation’s government is in shambles and gangs run much of the urban center of Port-au-Prince. Haitians have struggled for hundreds of years at the hands of gangs, brutal authoritarian dictators, and colonial rule. One of its biggest problems has always been its nearest Imperial neighbor: America.

On this episode of Angry Planet, we get America’s side of the story. Keith Mines is the Vice President for Latin America at U.S. Institute of Peace. If you’ve never heard of the USIP, you aren’t alone. As Mines says in the show, it is bad at branding. Part of a Congressional initiative from 1984, the USIP was founded to pursue peaceful resolutions to worldwide conflict.

Mines has a storied career of government service. He’s worked for the State Department and been all across the world. His unique point of view gives listeners a window into the mind of a member of the U.S. political establishment. Mines has a deep knowledge of Haiti and a deeper understanding of how badly America has screwed up its efforts to help.

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Yemen has become a battlefield of technological firsts. The Houthis have turned the Red Sea into a proving ground for Iranian weapons, and Tehran is learning what works and what doesn’t. It’s become a place where the Khamenei and his crew can test new technologies and new strategies. It’s a win for Iran and a win for the Houthis in the short-term, but missiles on their own don’t win wars.

On this bonus episode of Angry Planet, Fabian Hinz of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London comes on to tell us about the technological capabilities of the Houthis.

Recorded on 3/21/24

• A quick and dirty history of the Houthi movement
• Its mysterious founder
• Jason learns about lasers
• Matthew learns about Manhattan allergies

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