The No Kings 3 protests this Saturday are going to be big – maybe the biggest day of protest in American history. Leah Greenberg, co-founder and co-director of Indivisible, will explain—starting with the plans for St. Paul, site of the day's flagship event.

Also: Trump has renewed his year-long campaign against universities that have been resisting his authoritarian rule - he’s focused his attacks on the most prestigious private university, Harvard, and the most prestigious public university, UCLA, suing each of them in the past week for – “antisemitism.” David Myers, who teaches Jewish history at UCLA, comments

Danny and Derek welcome back to the show historian Udi Greenberg to talk about Israeli public opinion, politics, and its strategy vis-à-vis the war with Iran. They discuss the overwhelming public support for military operations, the underlying strategic consensus across Israeli politics prioritizing military dominance over negotiation, the absence of meaningful debate over a two-state solution or Palestinian sovereignty, the stability of Israeli domestic political divisions despite the war, how media and military messaging shapes public perception, and the relationship between Israeli strategy and continued U.S. support.

Don't forget to mark your calendars for our series Marx Prestige, coming March 31.

The US/Israel war against Iran has been devastating to many US allies, both in the Middle

East and the wider world. It could easily lead to a Global Depression. Even before the

war, Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute noted that countries such as Qatar and

Saudi Arabia had good reason to wean themselves away from a close reliance on the

US. I talked to Annelle about the current state of the war and why it will only intensify

the alienation of traditional US allies.

Charlotte puzzles over who exactly wrote Brighton Rock before Jo shares a newfound fascination with big machines, spurred in part by Don Gillmor’s On Oil. A conversation with the preternaturally wise Rayne Fisher-Quann starts with Iris Owens' After Claude, then opens up into a rousing feminist seminar on Margery Kempe, sexual obsession, and women’s humor of past and present.

Rayne Fisher-Quann is a Brooklyn-based writer. Her blog is called Internet Princess, and her first book, COMPLEX FEMALE CHARACTER, is forthcoming from Knopf.

Please consider supporting our work on Patreon, where you can access additional materials and send us your guest and book coverage requests! Books discussed on all seasons of the podcast are aggregated here on Bookshop. Questions and comments can be directed to readingwriterspod at gmail dot com. Outro music by Marty Sulkow and Joe Valle.

Charlotte Shane’s most recent book is An Honest Woman. Her essay newsletter, Meant For You, can be subscribed to or read online for free, and her social media handle is @charoshane.

Jo Livingstone is a writer who teaches at Pratt Institute.

To support the show, navigate to https://www.patreon.com/ReadingWriters

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).

Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss the years-long relationship between Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein, and how their relationship sheds light on the murky inner workings of the one percent.

Trump’s war in Iran is bringing economic chaos and suffering to much of the world, but for American voters, the biggest effect is the soaring price of gasoline – and the political implications for Republicans in the midterms are clear to everyone. Meanwhile Minneapolis has shown how Americans can resist unjust and illegitimate power.

Also: The Working Families Party is organizing voters not just to win a Democratic majority in Congress but for a movement election, a historic expansion of the electorate that includes a demand for significant change. Maurice Mitchell, the party’s National Director, explains.

Writer and former U.S. Army intelligence officer Harrison Mann joins the show to talk about the U.S–Iran war and what a ground invasion could actually look like. They discuss Harrison’s resignation from the Defense Intelligence Agency over U.S. support for the Gaza genocide, his assessment of the first weeks of the conflict with Iran, internal divisions within the military and intelligence community, and the risks of shifting the rules of engagement and permissive attitudes toward civilian casualties. They then explore potential ground invasion scenarios, including special raids on nuclear facilities, the proposal to seize Kharg Island, the feasibility of occupying territory along the Strait of Hormuz, and the broader trajectory of the conflict.

Read Harrison’s piece “I Was a US Intelligence Analyst. Here's What a Ground Invasion of Iran Could Look Like.”

Sign Win Without War's petition to Congress against spending more taxpayer dollars on the Iran war via an upcoming supplemental funding bill.