Explore every episode of the podcast Blowback

New episodes drop September 22. This season, Cuba sends an army to defend newly independent Angola from the combined forces of apartheid South Africa, the CIA, and one of the most infamous warlords of Africa.

Wounded but not destroyed, Cambodia staggers into the 21st century.

Vietnam ends Democratic Kampuchea and the US backs the Khmer Rouge.

Khmer Rouge horrors spiral toward conflict with an ex-comrade: Vietnam.

Cambodia slips into darkness, as the Khmer Rouge seize the country.

The short-lived reign of the Khmer Republic; the end of Nixon.

One Cambodian coup, two US invasions and an unlikely American friend: China.

Nixon and Kissinger put Cambodia on the menu.

Sihanouk struggles to keep Cambodia out of LBJ's war in Vietnam.

Indochina rises up, the French Empire ends, the Cold War begins.

A prelude and a primer to this season's story: the tragedy of Cambodia.

Donald Trump cuts a deal with the Taliban — and America begins its withdrawal.

The Obama administration promises victory in ‘The Good War.’

America runs its war in Afghanistan on the cheap — and subcontracts to crooks, kingpins, and gangsters.

The Bush administration unleashes the first war of the 21st century.

The Afghan jihad spreads to Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.

The warlord years, and the rise of the Taliban.

Operation Cyclone whips through Afghanistan — until a deal is finally struck.

The USSR invades, and the Safari Club kicks things up a notch.

The build-up to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Welcome to Season 4: Afghanistan.

The armistice in Korea is supposed to be temporary. But a peace treaty never comes. As decades roll on, the war becomes permanent.

Stalemate on the battlefield does not stop the United States from obliterating North Korea.

President Truman and his “Big General in the Far East” enter their final standoff over the war.

The US threatens to cross the Yalu. The Chinese leadership debates its options in Korea.

Gen. MacArthur executes his revenge.

With a rightwing, US-backed klepto-case to his South, Kim Il-Sung bets the house.

The war before the war on a self-reliant island off South Korea.

Soundtrack: https://open.spotify.com/album/4e9hkmGdDhycmgcGKe3bF0?si=d97_H1fvS5CV84ZvcEhZqQ

After a flash of hope post-WWII Korea is divided into North and South.

A pocket-sized history of the Korean peninsula, the upstart US and Japanese empires, and World War II.

Soundtrack: https://open.spotify.com/album/4e9hkmGdDhycmgcGKe3bF0?si=d97_H1fvS5CV84ZvcEhZqQ

A new season, a new story: The Korean War. To listen to the rest of season 3 right now, visit www.blowback.show

The third season of Blowback — the story of the Korean War — arrives July 2022. Pre-order and listening details at https://blowback.supportingcast.fm

Guests Helen Yaffe, José Pertierra and Marta Núñez Sarmiento discuss the protests in Cuba during July 2021.

A rundown of the Cuban revolution's foreign policy in Africa with guest, Cuban diplomat Oscar Oramas-Oliva.

Noah talks with José Pertierra, a Cuban-American immigration attorney who has long tangled with right-wing Miami Cubans in the media and in court.

Guest Bill Corbett (Mystery Science Theater 3000, Rifftrax) and Brendan hang out and talk about some bad Cuba movies.

A discussion of Operation Peter Pan with Prof. Nelson Valdes, with a detour into Hungary, 1956. 

A brief overview of how American nuclear weapons strategy ran parallel to the story in our main narrative.

Guest Luna Olavarria-Gallegos explains how the US government infiltrated and co-opted the hip-hop scene in Cuba.

We talk to activists and historians about Cuba, black radicalism, and how the Revolution attacked the problem of racism.

Interviews with history professor Michelle Chase and Cuban scholar Marta Nuñez Sarmiento.

Guatemala: an origin story, inspiration, and cautionary tale just a few hundred miles from our main story.

After the Kennedy assassination, US-Cuba diplomacy wanes and the embargo continues. To this day. Our story ends.

Castro, Khrushchev, and Kennedy take tentative steps toward the path of peace post-Crisis. Cuban exile groups, and their CIA sponsors, are not pleased.

The USA announces to the world there are missiles in Cuba. Fidel prepares for war. Khrushchev secretly haggles with Kennedy. Americans enjoy Betty Crocker Super Moist Cake Mix.

Fearing another American invasion — "the big one" — Soviet and Cuban leaders plot a secret response. Camelot never sees it coming.

Smarting from failure at the Bay of Pigs, the White House sets in motion a new plan to thwart the Cuban Revolution: Operation Mongoose.

The CIA and the Cuban exiles get their long-awaited shot at taking out Castro and the Revolution. The subsequent battle in Cuba sends shockwaves around the world.

JFK outmuscles Richard Nixon on Cuba and into the White House. The CIA begins training Cuban exiles in Central America for an invasion. And Fidel pays a visit to Harlem.

The Cuban Revolution takes power and the counter-revolution begins. The U.S. government, organized crime, and Cuban exiles carry out a campaign of terrorism, assassination, sabotage and psy-ops to turn back the clock.