American Prestige Podcast By Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison cover art

American Prestige

American Prestige

By: Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison
Listen for free

A podcast from Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison that provides listeners with everything they need to know about what’s going on in the world. americanprestige.supportingcast.fmAmerican Prestige Political Science Politics & Government World
Episodes
  • Bonus - AI Targeting in Modern War w/ Sam Biddle (Preview)

    Bonus - AI Targeting in Modern War w/ Sam Biddle (Preview)
    Mar 22 2026
    Subscribe now for the full episode. Danny and Derek speak with Sam Biddle of The Intercept about the role of AI in modern warfare, including the current Iran conflict. They talk about Palantir’s Maven system, LLMs in target selection, the use of Claude in airstrike planning, the integration of drone, satellite, and intelligence data, the acceleration of targeting and strike decisions, large-scale target lists, risks from outdated or misinterpreted intelligence, the limits of human review in the kill chain, and the absence of meaningful guardrails on this technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show more Show less
    11 mins
  • Special - Iran War: Strait of Hormuz, Regional Escalation, Casualty Figures (Preview)

    Special - Iran War: Strait of Hormuz, Regional Escalation, Casualty Figures (Preview)
    Mar 20 2026
    Subscribe now for the full episode and access to all of our specials. Danny and Derek give an update on the conflict in Iran. They talk about the overall state of the war, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, casualty figures across multiple countries, the prospect of a ground invasion, the state of Iran’s leadership, the strike on South Pars and its effects on Gulf energy infrastructure, Iran’s attacks on Israel, Israeli public support for the war, and polling on American support for the intervention. Watch our video exclusive with Samuel Moyn about Jürgen Habermas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show more Show less
    6 mins
  • News - Iran Assassinations Escalate, Israel Invades Southern Lebanon, U.S. Pressures Zambia Over Aid for Minerals

    News - Iran Assassinations Escalate, Israel Invades Southern Lebanon, U.S. Pressures Zambia Over Aid for Minerals
    Mar 20 2026
    Subscribe now to skip the ads and get all of our episodes. Derek wore his Fitbit to a CIA black site, both exposing the security state and meeting his daily step goal. This week’s news: in the Iran war, Israel assassinates Ali Larijani and other senior Iranian officials (1:15), U.S. allies refuse Trump’s demand that they help reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force (5:41), and the Pentagon seeks roughly $200 billion for the war (8:32) as it considers new deployments to the region (13:27); in southern Lebanon, the IDF begins its ground invasion (14:41); Israel continues killing people in Gaza during the supposed ceasefire while Rafah reopens for medical evacuations after pressure from Hamas (17:31); Afghanistan and Pakistan agree to a five-day Eid ceasefire (21:30) as the two countries dispute the circumstances Pakistani airstrike in Kabul (22:57); Trump postpones his planned trip to China as the Iran war consumes Washington’s attention (25:22); in Sudan, the RSF retakes the strategic town of Bara (27:39); the Trump administration reportedly threatens to cut PEPFAR and other health aid to Zambia unless it gets favorable mineral concessions (29:37); Russia increases its support for Tehran with drone tactics, technology, and possible intelligence sharing (33:45); the United States reopens its embassy in Venezuela as normalization moves ahead (37:11), plus Delcy Rodríguez replaces Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino with intelligence chief Gustavo González López (38:21); and Trump pressures Cuba’s leadership amid a grid collapse and reports of U.S. talks about political change (40:24). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show more Show less
    49 mins
All stars
Most relevant
I've been struggling to understand evangelicals in politics and American foreign policies. This episode was a very helpful beginning . Thank you!

This busted a personal nagging mystery!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Derek really shows as always how much he knows about current events in nearly every region.

In addition, I really liked Bessner's question about Kazakhstan vs. popular protest in the modern age of state militarization. If you guys ever found scholars that focus on this topic broadly world-wide or in other regions, I think they would make for really good interviews.

Valuable Foreign Policy Perspective as always

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.