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Radio War Nerd EP #627 — Malaysian Arachnopreneurs, War Updates + Valerian's Lesson (Patreon)

Published:
2026-08-05 02:34:05
Edited:
2026-08-07 00:52:19
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Recorded: August 3, 2026

The War Nerd calls in from Kuala Lumpur on his ongoing odyssey to Auckland. We discuss Iran & Ukraine wars plus some ancient history of wars on Persians that went very badly.

John's new essay collection, To The Crows, is now for sale! We'll be making the ebook version available to subscribers.

Total time: 39:13Direct link to this episode's mp3 here

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Subscribe to Radio War Nerd at patreon.com/radiowarnerd

Sound production by Telescope Audio

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Comments

Martin

I’m not optimistic. Elite opposition are all feckless losers and in a mirror of the Israeli opposition just think that “the war” is being managed poorly. Nothing is going to change until the rubber hits the road for the US economy (and then it’ll be too late). That means the AI bubble popping and the strategic reserve being totally exhausted. Literally sucking Venezuela dry and then moving on to the next place like a vampire while the rest of the world moves on from this ridiculous and backwards way of powering their societies.

Miko

Hearing the various historical humiliations now I'd like an episode exclusively on more hubris, defeats, and consequences. A good time will be had by all.

John Waaben

I just learned that executions by elephants used to happen so there’s gotta be an errant prince that passed that way

Madeleine Peterson

when Mark said 'hyperpower' i was reminded about Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero, which opens with a short song of that name. it's a concept album, about a warning sent back thru time, about America going fascist and aliens wiping us off the planet

Joe S.

I honestly don't understand why people are so obsessed with the whole Rome vs. Persia thing. The Romans beat the Persians a bunch of times, sometimes the Persians won. So what? What exactly is that supposed to prove? America isn't Rome. Persia isn't Iran.

Avtomatt

People love to shoehorn modern events into historical ones, and vice versa.

Kyle Erickson

Feeling the same as Mark on the US public’s acceptance of dead soldiers. I’ve been thinking, if this war goes long and becomes a high-casualty infantry slugfest, Russia is providing a workable model on how to get people to enlist: paying them a ton of money. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were $200k/year infantry contracts to go fight in Iran.

Doug Cartel

Movies (predicably) keep showing the opposite of how reality works - in the war movies, especially the ones about fictional wars, there's always some throwaway line like "the politicians were weak pussies who wasted time negotiating while REAL MEN were out killing bad guys" but then when a real war starts the politicians are the ones screaming for blood while the guys who actually have to kill and die are the ones asking for calmer heads to make the decisions

Doug Cartel

Another smug asshole who spent his dying years acting as a footstool was Biyezid II for Tamarlan, if memory serves, but don't quote me on that Point is, the human footstool is an old profession

CR (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-07 15:00 ARACHNOpreneurs. Ah. I thought you were going to talk about those Network State shitheads whose campus got raided for harboring illegals in Malaysia so the founder went on X and demanded a sit down with the PM or else they’d pull out from Malaysia (the horrors!). That could be an interesting topic, since the network state is tied to ALL our “friends” in AI and tech and NGOs and …
2026-08-05 22:02 ARACHNOpreneurs. Ah. I thought you were going to talk about those AI Network State shitheads whose campus got raided for harboring illegals in Malaysia so the founder went on X and demanded a sit down with the PM or else they’d pull out from Malaysia (the horrors!). That could be an interesting topic, since the network state is tied to ALL our “friends” in AI and tech and NGOs and …

ARACHNOpreneurs. Ah. I thought you were going to talk about those AI Network State shitheads whose campus got raided for harboring illegals in Malaysia so the founder went on X and demanded a sit down with the PM or else they’d pull out from Malaysia (the horrors!). That could be an interesting topic, since the network state is tied to ALL our “friends” in AI and tech and NGOs and …

JoR

Regarding casualties. There’s a significant minority of the public that is very pro war. Most of maga, maybe 20-25%? They do not even remotely think they’re “losing” but at the most surface level way possible. It is embarrassing, like mark said. Their only points are “FINISH THE JOB” (they’re about to win) and , point two, “at least Americans aren’t dying”. I think it’s implied that, if Americans are dying, why the hell won’t we put boots on the ground? Haha . This population would take tens of thousands of casualties if it meant “beating the IRGC”

JoR

I agree that Trump won’t capitulate. But it isn’t just his ego (which is important(. Could ANY US leader capitulate and survive? As you both have said over 11 years, Iran is enemy #1. It’s bipartisan, and unlike Russia or even North Korea, the public lived through like a decade of humiliation caused by Iran. So even if Trump crokes tomorrow , would any replacement do anything differently? I think Vance would act similarly

Brendan Garcia

The way Trump dropped “cannot have a nuclear weapon” into his rant as a complete non sequitur, makes him sound not so much blackmailed as MK-ultra’d. I’m sure it’s just his dementia, but either way, it’s very strange, and very unsettling.

Dave in KS

I have not ordered To The Crows yet, but it dawned on me in both the description and timeline that John's fantastic essays critiquing the writings of James Frey are included here. Those essays on Frey was my first exposure to John's work. Those essays were hilarious, epic, and very much on point.

CR

Constantinople stood for another 249 years after the Fourth Crusaders sacked it. The people have given up, but the U.S. will be around for a long time, propped up ironically by its enemies as the Sick Man of the World like when the Ottoman Empire was the Sick Man of Europe in its sixth century.

Larry Dimes

Apparently Nixon's whole 'Mad Bomber', Operation Giant Lance thing in October 1969 was an attempt to deter the Soviet Union from nuking China. It's what led to Nixon and Mao shaking hands and I know the Chinese still consider Nixon's move a big favor he did for them. Not that I'm a Nixon fan by any means. I've always wondered if the Democrats hadn't let Nixon and Kissinger get away with sabotaging the Vietnam peace talks during the 68' election, thus getting Nixon into the White House, if China and the Soviet Union would have obliterated each other in 1969-1970. I can't see 1969 era Democrats wanting to offer Mao a lifeline. It would have been a radically different back half of the 20th century for sure.

a clash of purple

So who will our Ataturk be? I guess in English we'd call him, uh, "Americadaddy" or something like that.

a clash of purple

Fossil fuels are not "ridiculous and backwards." There are lots of things that we need them for that aren't easily replaced by anything else. That's one of the dilemmas we face as a civilization. We can definitely reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. But how much? I donno. Without aggressive international action to transfer to a more renewable infrastructure (which would include paying countries like Iran and Russia to cut down on extraction and exports), global consumption is unlikely to drop by more than 5 or 10% in the foreseeable future. Like, climate scientists are just giving up. The science is done. The numbers are available for anyone who wants to see them. Everyone knows the danger. The challenge now is getting rid of those elites who are ideologically committed to human extinction.

Sam Zeng

I need John's take on Nolan's Odyssey

RT

This is such an important point on paying hydrocarbon producers to keep carbon-based fuel un-extracted and in the ground and should be obvious to followers of this show how politically untenable such a proposal would be to the current nato elite. We are living through collapse, just at variable rates depending on what section of the world you’re in

Aditya V

Zelensky does what EU tells him to do... The attacks on sea of azov shipping were done per EU's orders even though it would invite backlash on UA shipping. For EU what matters is Russia weakening. Zelensky is not his own man

Kiel Cone

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy LMFAO

Terry Dunk

Especially among America's enormous prison population

Ellen Harold

Wasn’t the Persian victory final, as far as the Romans were concerned?

CR

Who knows? We’ll be long dead by then