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PODCAST

The Cosmopolicast

Claire Berlinski

Our occasional podcast with any guest who catches our attention, treating all topics of global interest--politics, science, art, literature, technology, history, and more. claireberlinski.substack.com

news news commentary

All Episodes

2:00

Judith Levy phones in from Israel

The Cosmopolicast ·

2026/03/04

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claireberlinski.substack.comJudith Levy is a dear friend of mine who lives in Israel. Years ago, I wrote about our friendship in a book review, which you can read here:I met Judith Wrubel in 1991 at Oxford University, where we were both graduate students in international relations. We became friends walking back to Balliol College each week, along the leafy Banbury Road, from a seminar at St. Antony’s College on the international

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3:27

The Ukraine and Iran Symposium

The Cosmopolicast ·

2026/03/03

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claireberlinski.substack.comThe symposium with Vladislav was a fantastic. But the video that resulted was, again, way longer than anyone could reasonably be expected to watch. It was longer, I think, than I can even upload. I’d been trying for 24 hours to upload an edited version, without success. The system only relented when I cut it down by another half hour. I just don’t have three more days keep editing this to perfection, and

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39:52

An epochal bloodletting in Iran

The Cosmopolicast ·

2026/01/14

Here’s the promised conversation with Shay. It’s grim. For those of you who don’t listen to podcasts, a transcript is below.Updates* US withdrawing troops from key Middle East bases as precaution, American official says* Iranians arrive in Turkey through border gate as crackdown persists. The US issues a warning for citizens to evacuate Iran as protests intensify, with many Iranians seeking refuge in Turkey, crossing the Kapikoy border gate into Van Province.* Iranian Justice Minister labels “anyone

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44:09

Trump supports the Iranian protesters

The Cosmopolicast ·

2026/01/02

For a change—a big change—Donald Trump has said something that has me standing and applauding: I pray to God he means it. The Iranian people have yearned to hear those words for so very long. All hell is breaking loose in Iran as a result—so he’d better damned well mean it. Earlier today, Amit Segal wrote:… regimes fall because of guns and the people who hold them. In Iran, there’s more than one armed force—alongside the Revolutionary Guard stands the Iranian army. In Jerusalem, talk of a possible

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1:49

Indecent Proposals

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/12/01

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claireberlinski.substack.comFrom Dan’s show notes:In the latest Critical Conditions podcast, Claire Berlinski and I concluded that there are moments in history when the absurd stops being funny—when corruption becomes so open, so shameless, so contemptuous of both law and reason that public indifference becomes a second scandal. That is the feeling one gets reading the recent Wall Street Journal investigation into the real motives behind

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2:02

THE INVISIBLE FRONT

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/11/23

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claireberlinski.substack.comAlex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She now lives in Brussels and writes, on Substack, about foreign influence operations:I’ve spent the last several years screaming from the rooftops about the corrosive effects of foreign influence operations on democratic societies. Now, I’ve decided to put all that information into a newsletter

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40:19

A Bleak Week for Ukraine

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/11/19

August 1968The Ogre does what ogres can,Deeds quite impossible for Man,But one prize is beyond his reach,The Ogre cannot master Speech:About a subjugated plain,Among its desperate and slain,The Ogre stalks with hands on hips,While drivel gushes from his lips.—WH AudenBelgium has suddenly gone wobbly about seizing Russia’s frozen assets, spooked by the thought of Russian lawyers. Pokrovst will fall imminently. The Kremlin is dismantling Ukraine’s electrical grid as the winter arrives. A sprawling

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29:29

The Weak, with Josh Rosenberg

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/11/09

(Note: This is not Critical Conditions with Dan Perry. I just can’t figure out how to get rid of that logo.)Recently, I had an exchange with our subscriber Josh Rosenberg—who on Substack goes by the name Josh of Arc, and writes at Sic Semper Tyrannis—about the use of violence in resisting authoritarianism. You’ll remember his essay, Force and Freedom: Contemplating the Unthinkable, in which he argues that those opposing Trump have become dangerously alienated from the fundamental fact of political

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19:27

The Madman Orders Nuclear Tests

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/10/30

From Dan’s notes:In today’s episode of Critical Conditions, Claire and I discussed what may be the most terrifying decision of the Trump presidency: his plan to resume nuclear testing. We’ve seen recklessness before—the gutting of USAID, the tariff tantrums against allies—but this one feels like a threshold moment. As Claire said at the start, “This is life or death.”She began by recalling that the United States signed, though never ratified, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty back in 1996

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1:58

Madness in the Americas

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/10/27

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claireberlinski.substack.comFrom Dan’s notes: In this week’s episode, Claire and I turned our gaze westward—from the familiar storms in Europe and the Middle East to the gathering tempests across the Americas. What we found was an unsettling picture: saber-rattling, delusion, and a mounting sense that reality itself has become an expendable tool of power.We began in the Caribbean,

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2:21

Hey, is that really Putin?

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/10/25

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claireberlinski.substack.comChris Alexander, whose Substack I recommend with the highest enthusiasm, joined the Canadian foreign service in 1991. He spent six years at the Canadian embassy in Moscow: He was the deputy head of mission during the first three years of Putin’s presidency. He’s also the former Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, a former Parliamentary Secretary for National Defense, a former Canadian Conservative

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19:53

Ukraine, Gaza, Hungary and the East Wing

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/10/24

I’m so sorry: I meant to post this last night, but fell asleep while writing the show notes. (I don’t know why everyone goes on about the importance of not looking at screens before bedtime: I fall asleep in front of mine all the time.) Here’s the article Dan wrote for The Forward:There was no sign that the US understands what it will actually take to bring Hamas to heel.Vance, Witkoff and Kushner’s rhetoric was managerial, not martial. It conveyed commitment without urgency. The measured tones

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18:14

What next in Gaza?

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/10/20

Dan and I decided to turn parts of our ME201 discussion yesterday into today’s podcast, so you’ll hear a few voices from the class asking questions. Supposedly, the ceasefire is now back on. Amit Segal is another great journalist to follow; he writes:It’s Monday, October 20, and the strikes in Gaza have stopped, the ceasefire has been renewed, and humanitarian aid has resumed—and Israel is also preparing to receive a hostage’s body from Hamas tonight. So, does that mean yesterday’s strikes in Gaza

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26:57

Did the Left create the Trump disaster?

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/09/26

Here are the show notes Dan wrote, which I liked better than mine, so I copied them. Thanks, Dan!In this installment Claire and I take on a reader’s challenge: surely, the left cannot be blamed for the rise of Donald Trump! Fair question. And yet, as we unpack over the course of this episode, the excesses of the progressive wing did play a role in birthing Trump, if only by driving many in the middle into his camp.We explore how Democrats miscalculated their supposed national majority, ignoring the

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1:09

Russia's Revenge and Afghanistan's Misery

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/09/02

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claireberlinski.substack.comThis is not, actually, an episode of Critical Conditions. It’s a regular Cosmopolicast. But I haven’t yet figured out how to separate the two.In this episode, former Canadian diplomat Chris Alexander and I discuss Russia’s post-Soviet trajectory, the rise of Vladimir Putin, and the West’s repeated misjudgments in dealing with Moscow. We discuss the endu…

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43:59

How did the media get so sloppy?

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/08/21

Dan Perry led the AP’s coverage of Israel and the Middle East—from Pakistan through north Africa—for most of the 2010s. Before that, he led Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean for AP. He also served as the Foreign Press Association chairman in Jerusalem during the Second Intifada. He now writes at Ask Questions Later. I thought he’d be a good person to talk to about a question one of our ME201 students asked: Why does the media keep getting things wrong? I’ve written about this before—in fact, I’ve

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104:08

Bibi's Bad Idea

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/08/10

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency session today (it’s now Sunday in Paris) to discuss the Israeli security cabinet’s approval of a plan to seize Gaza City. The hostages’ families have called for a general strike over the decision. I spoke to Vivian Bercovici and Judith Deborah Levy to ask how they feel about this. In short: not good. It’s a long podcast—we had a lot to talk about—so I’ve posted a transcript below if you’re in a hurry. * Bucking IDF warnings, security cabinet approves

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105:13

Sergei and the Westminster Spy Ring

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/05/14

While I’m at it, here’s the conversation you missed with Sergei Cristo. He’s the hero of the podcast Sergei and the Westminster Spy Ring, in which he offered evidence of a spy ring operating at the heart of the British establishment.I apologize for how long it took me to put this up. My computer wasn’t able to handle a file this big, so I couldn’t get it down from the cloud. Every time I tried, it crashed my computer. I finally broke down and bought a new computer. (It was time. My old computer had

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135:51

India, Pakistan, and Kashmir

The Cosmopolicast ·

2025/05/14

For those of you who missed it, here’s the conversation we had on Sunday with Vivek and Raja Muneeb. Here’s an AI summary of the conversation—it’s remarkably accurate:Pakistan’s Nuclear Threat and ImplicationsThe meeting involved a discussion about the potential threat of Pakistan's nuclear weapons and the implications of their use. The participants discussed the possibility of Pakistan using nuclear weapons as a bluff and the potential consequences of such an action. They also touched on the issue

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1:23

Why can't US learn from experience?

The Cosmopolicast ·

2024/10/04

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit claireberlinski.substack.comMy friend Ariel Cohen joined us today from Netanya, where he’s celebrating the holidays. A political analyst, Ariel focuses on Russia, Eurasia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and energy policy. Obviously, we had a lot to talk about. We spoke about a question that’s maddening me: Why can’t the people who make our foreign policy learn from experience? W…

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