The WBT Podcast
The WBT Podcast
The WBT
A group of veterans and people connected to the veteran community writing and podcasting about violence and trauma. Thanks for listening. Please check out our website, featuring new fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews. Support us on Patreon if you like. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5241924
Dewaine Farria and revolutions of all colors
A conversation with USMC veteran Dewaine Farria, whose novel, Revolutions of All Colors, spans different countries and colors to explore how minority groups navigate their identities. Farria, along with host Adrian Bonenberger, discuss (among other things) the culture of Ukraine, where both spent a great deal of time.
Apr 10, 2022
54 min
Chekhov's Ward No. Six: Madness and Magic Circles
Wrath-Bearing Tree editors Mike Carson, Adrian Bonenberger, and David James sit down to discuss Chekhov's Ward No. 6, a short story about a doctor who encounters a life-changing experience when visiting a mental ward in his hospital.
Jan 20, 2022
1 hr 2 min
America's "First Principles," with Tom Ricks
Chat with Pulitzer Prize-winner Tom Ricks about his recent book "First Principles," written in order to consider the curricula and intellectual schemas on which the first four U.S. presidents based their views, and to better understand the quandary in which the U.S. finds itself today.
Jan 1, 2022
38 min
The War for the Soul of the Navy SEALS
Conversation between WBT co-host Adrian Bonenberger and New York Times Staff Writer David Philipps about Philipps' new book, "Alpha: Eddie Gallagher and the War for the Soul of the Navy SEALS." Philipps discusses researching the book, his thoughts about what led to the crisis of morality within SEAL teams, and why he believes the SEALS who reported Gallagher were the ones who ultimately won in a process that tested their integrity.
Dec 1, 2021
47 min
When Might Makes Right: practicing history through games and movies
Adrian Bonenberger talks with Bret Charles Devereaux, PhD, lecturer in UNC-Chapel Hill's department of history, about his blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantries (or "ACOUP"), and some of the more extraordinary and engaging claims he's made on it. Discussion topics include neorealism in Europa Universalis IV and Hearts of Iron IV, Victoria II, and reflections of history present in Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings.
Nov 7, 2021
1 hr 8 min
Falling Man and 9/11
Brian Castner, Adrian Bonenberger, and poet Brian Turner read and discuss Don DeLillo's "Falling Man" on the 20th anniversary of the tragedy. While the trio starts off somewhat critical of the book, through conversation they decide that the book has greater depth and they've profited from reading it — though Castner prefers DeLillo's "White Noise," with good reason.
Oct 2, 2021
56 min
Patrick Wyman's The Verge, and the fall of Kabul
The WBT podcast co-hosts Adrian Bonenberger and Michael Carson talk with podcaster, writer, and historian Patrick Wyman about his debut history book, "The Verge." The group also discusses the fall of Kabul and Afghanistan to the Taliban, which occurred on the day of the recording.
Aug 25, 2021
44 min
Exploring the Arctic with Andrea Pitzer and Brian Castner
Adrian Bonenberger is joined by Brian Castner and Andrea Pitzer to talk about their newest books. Castner's Stampede: Gold Fever and Disaster in The Klondike" looks at the gold rush in Alaska and Canada that unfolded at the end of the 19th century, while Pitzer's "Icebound: Shipwrecked at The Edge of The World" returns to the 16th century to examine a trade expedition that sought a shortcut to China via a legendary temperate north sea. Both journalists and writers decided to explore the land they were describing, in the process of writing their books.
Jul 18, 2021
45 min
For Honor: Tolstoy's great novella "Hadji Murat"
Wrath-Bearing Tree co-editors David James and Adrian Bonenberger sit down with British author and former professor Garry Craig Powell to talk about Leo Tolstoy's powerful and nearly perfect story "Hadji Murat"—how the author accomplishes his goal, and how the audience interacts with the story.
Jun 1, 2021
56 min
Inside the Pech River Valley with Wesley Morgan and "The Hardest Place"
A talk between Adrian Bonenberger of The WBT and Wesley Morgan, author of The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in the Pech Valley. The talk covers a lot of topics in Morgan's book, including the cultural feedback loop bringing movies into the military and the military into movies, how that plays out with the Taliban, units that "succeeded" with counter-insurgency or COIN versus those that did not, and many more. A wide-ranging conversation that extends far beyond the book's focus of The Pech Valley itself.
Apr 18, 2021
1 hr 10 min
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