Guest: Yasha Levine, author & journalist Recorded March 18, 2018 We know far too little about the extraordinary & savage story of how 15th-16th century Portugal "pushed faster and farther across the world than any people in history" despite being a relatively poor, barren strip of the Iberian peninsula . . . We discuss some of the larger-than-sci-fi characters like Da Gama, Almeida, Albuquerque, Magellan — the deadly voyages, and battles at Cochin, Diu, Hormuz . . . At 1:55:10 — War News: Afrin fell to Turkey. East Ghouta largely conquered . . . Comparing stories on Yemen vs stories on Aleppo or Ghouta . . . At 2:26:40 — Yasha Levine joins us to talk about the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook election scandal, which just happens to be the subject of his new book "Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet" . . .