Today is Sunday 15 June, just two days after Operation Rising Lion - Israel’s decisive strike against Iran that began in the early hours of June 13th, 2025. We’re going to discuss everything that I’ve been able to gather over the last 48 hours. It’s been hard figuring out fact from fiction, but I think I’m close.

The world had been holding its breath for years. Watching. Waiting. Betting on diplomacy, back channels, and fragile agreements to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions before it was too late.

But on June 13th, 2025, that waiting ended. Israel made a choice no one else had the nerve to make. With little warning, without alliance approval, without fanfare—they launched a precise, high-stakes strike deep inside Iran’s nuclear program. Targets that the world had argued over for decades turned to rubble in hours.

This wasn’t a message. It was a line drawn in concrete and fire. Deterrence didn’t just fail—it died.

Iran was blindsided. The region wasn’t. Everyone knew this moment was coming. The only mystery was the timing. In this episode, we’ll pull back the curtain on what happened, why it happened, and the far-reaching consequences still shaking capitals from Tehran to Tel Aviv to Washington.

No spin. No distance. Just the cold, hard truth.

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The Spanish American War 1898: The War of Empires w/ Drew Dornstadter

The sun was setting on the Spanish Empire—bloated, brittle, and running on fumes. Four hundred years of conquest and gold, galleons and God, unraveling like an old coat in a storm. And just as the curtain was falling, America showed up. Young, loud, hungry.

1898. The Spanish-American War. It lasted only four months, but it changed everything. One empire dying. Another one being born. Not with ceremony—but with guns, headlines, and a healthy dose of manifest destiny.

They said it was about liberation—Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico. Freedom from tyranny, all that jazz. But let’s be honest: it was about markets, military bases, and planting flags on islands most Americans couldn’t find on a map.

This wasn’t just about Teddy Roosevelt’s rough riders or stirring speeches in Congress. It was about sugar, about strategy, about making damn sure America wasn’t left behind in the global game of empire.

And when the dust settled, Cuba got a sort-of freedom, wrapped in American strings. Puerto Rico became a possession. But in the Philippines, things went dark fast.

Because the war didn’t end there. It morphed—into an ugly, brutal, years-long insurgency. The same U.S. troops who claimed to be liberators turned occupiers. Villages were torched. Civilians slaughtered. Concentration camps. Water torture. The same tools of empire the Spanish once used—now painted red, white, and blue.

This episode isn’t just about a short war with a big legacy. It’s about the moment the United States became an empire and Spain, well, Spain was no longer an empire.

Further Reading

The Spanish War: An American Epic... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393303047?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States https://a.co/d/4cvz3Cz

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/s/spanish-american-war-war-plans-and-impact-on-u-s-navy.html

Mornings on Horseback: The Story... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671447548?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

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How do nations keep going—through war, peace, and all the mess in between? They tell stories. About glory. About sacrifice. About who they are, and who they think they are. These stories build will, shape identity, and sometimes, keep people holding on long after logic would tell them to quit.

I’m sitting down with my friend Nikki Dean—a sharp mind and a PhD candidate who knows a thing or two about the power of narrative. We’re digging into how countries craft myths, stitch together identities, and use stories to turn chaos into meaning. Even when the facts fall short, the story keeps marching on.

Dig Deeper

The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative (Cambridge Introductions to Literature) https://a.co/d/cxaDjc7

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317138927_How_to_Win_Wars_The_Role_of_the_War_Narrative

https://verfassungsblog.de/russias-war-against-ukraine-and-the-battle-of-narratives/

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