Katrina vanden Heuvel--editorial director and publisher of The Nation magazine--joins Dr. Van Jackson to talk about: Europe's far right; the failure of centrist parties in the UK, France, and Germany; the trouble with European rearmament; Trump's and MAGA's effects on European politics; and the struggle of Europe's fractured left-wing political movements.

Katrina's report with Robert Borosage, "Report From Europe: The Center Does Not Hold": https://www.thenation.com/article/world/european-union-right-left-parties-democracy/

Watch The Un-Diplomatic Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@un-diplomaticpodcast

Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/

Catch Un-Diplomatic on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/undiplomaticpodcast

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the individuals and not of any institutions.

Covering the latest in the India-Pakistan military conflict and its nuclear risk; the US tentative ceasefire with the Houthis marks another lost war; why China's tech breakthroughs make arms-racing self-defeating for the US; the shape of a post-American Asia beginning to emerge; what a fascist budget looks like; why Stephen Miller is like that; the Trump administration is trying to export its "war on woke" to Stockholm, and it's failing; and more!

Watch The Un-Diplomatic Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@un-diplomaticpodcast

Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/

Catch Un-Diplomatic on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/undiplomaticpodcast

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the individuals and not of any institutions.

Free preview cross-over with the Bang-Bang Podcast. Van and Lyle kick off their Andor series with Slate culture editor Jenny G. Zhang, diving into the show’s slow-burn opening arc where imperial bootlickers, jealous love interests, and rebels in the making collide on the Outer Rim. They discuss what makes Andor—a property of the Star Wars universe—feel different than its franchise kin, from its social realism to its psychological bite. If The Battle of Algiers looms large, so does Parable of the Sower, especially the show’s landscape of authoritarian company towns and the simmering hints of a revolutionary break.

They talk about the Preox-Morlana security force as East India Company meets Blackwater, and Deputy Inspector Syril Karn as the story’s omnipresent archetype—the insecure man desperate to matter. Just like the pathetic rent-a-cops Andor is forced to kill, and the equally envious Timm Karlo, another tragic loser who dies trying to make up for his fateful angst.

History appears to turn not so much on generals and emperors, but on the choices and contradictions of broken men. Men stuck in systems they didn’t build, and whose real breaking is yet to come.

Check out the Bang-Bang Podcast and subscribe: https://www.bangbangpod.com/

Jenny’s website

Jenny on Bluesky

Jenny on Twitter

“The Andor Dilemma: Pop Culture’s Place in Leftist Strategy,” by Van Jackson

“Introducing Andor Analysed, Part 1,” by Jamie Woodcock

The Battle of Algiers Episode

Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, by Rashid Khalidi