Show notes
A lot of people talk about “free speech” like it’s an abstract slogan, right up until the day a reporter gets detained at an airport, a source goes silent, or donating to the “wrong” organization suddenly feels like a legal risk. Glenn Greenwald joins us for a direct conversation about what dissent looks like now, and why independent journalism keeps getting treated as a security problem instead of a democratic necessity.We dig into the post-Snowden world and the surveillance state reality that never went away: the chilling effect of constant monitoring, the way FISA power expands in practice, and how fear gets manufactured to make the privacy tradeoff feel inevitable. Glenn explains why censorship doesn’t always need formal bans when platforms, “disinformation” branding, and legal pressure can do the job more quietly, especially after the political shocks of 2016.Then we zoom out to the incentive system behind foreign policy: war profiteering, the military industrial complex, and how elites advocate conflicts they’ll never fight. We talk through the Iran war’s shaky logic, Trump’s tie to Netanyahu and Israel’s domestic politics, the Houthis and Saudi leverage, plus how Russia, Ukraine, and gas prices shape Washington’s “realism.” We close with Venezuela and how Latin America reads US intervention through an oil and power lens, not a humanitarian one.If you care about whistleblowers, the Fourth Amendment, censorship, and the true cost of war policy, this one is for you. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review. What’s the clearest sign to you that dissent is being criminalized?Chapter Markers0:04 Welcome And Guest Introduction2:12 Dissent And Independent Media Today7:47 Surveillance Fear And Self-Censorship10:00 FISA And The Privacy Tradeoff17:58 War Profits And Elite Incentives24:20 Military Service Class And Culture30:18 Iran War Planning And Silenced Dissent32:12 Netanyahu Endorsement And Iran Risks36:58 Russia Ukraine And Gas Prices42:10 Venezuela Oil And US Influence44:58 Wrap Up And Next InterviewsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy