American Prestige

Grab your flight suit, aviators, and baby oil: Will Menaker is in the house. The host of the Chapo Trap House podcast joins Danny and Derek for a discussion of the classic action flick Top Gun. The crew discusses Vietnam Syndrome, the lost trope of the fighter pilot, Tony Scott, and homoeroticism, as all three hosts revisit what may be the most “California” film franchise to date.

Danny and Derek welcome Lauren Turek, associate professor of history at Trinity University, to discuss the influence of evangelical Christians on US foreign policy throughout the country’s history. They touch on the contentious definition of what an “evangelical” is, prominent thinkers in the evangelical tradition, the gender dynamics of evangelical organizing, the effect on evangelicals on human rights discourse, and more...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Danny and Derek welcome Jeremy Friedman, Marvin Bower associate professor at Harvard Business School, for a discussion about the Sino-Soviet split. They talk about the early days of the revolutionary states’ relationship, the differences in their ideologies, the external forces shaping each nation’s trajectory, the heyday of their cooperation, and the beginning of the fissure in the mid-1950s...

Merry Christmas! Danny and Derek speak with the historian Terri Blom Crocker to discuss the famous Christmas Truce of 1914, when soldiers in World War I made various agreements to  cede fighting. We talk about the reality of the various truces and how the truce has been memorialized and remembered since 1914.

Please find Terri's book here! 

Season’s greetings! It’s the jolliest of episodes: The News Roundup. This week: Netanyahu forms a government in Israel, the Taliban bans women from university in Afghanistan, fears of a COVID wave in China, election results and a possible coup in Fiji, elections in Tunisia, a Russia-Ukraine update, Sweden-Turkey extradition, a Peru update, and Brandon Biden makes a profit on oil sales...

Danny and Derek welcome back Alexander Aviña, associate professor of history at Arizona State University, for a discussion focusing on the career of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) of Mexico. They touch on his unsuccessful bids for president, the MORENA party, the current Mexican political culture, his relationship to neoliberalism, his administration’s foreign policy, COVID response, and more...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Danny and Derek welcome back Samuel Huneke, assistant professor of history at George Mason University, to discuss his book States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany...

When not slinging NFTs featuring Producer Jake’s likeness, Danny and Derek give you one thing: The News. This week: ongoing protests in Peru (1:41), constitutional struggles in Chile (6:34), tensions in northern Kosovo (9:27), the mayor of Istanbul is convicted of insulting public officials in Turkey (13:45), a Ukraine update (16:47), the US-Africa Leaders Summit in DC (19:45), and Bernie caves on the Yemen war powers resolution (23:08)...

Danny and Derek welcome back Greg Brew, AP’s resident “oil man” and postdoctoral fellow at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, to discuss oil: the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems. They touch on the markets for oil beyond gasoline, international legal structures around the commodity, its effect on US foreign policy, emerging oil markets, the current Russian price cap, and more...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for Prestigeheads: The Mighty Mailbag. Producer Jake tees up subscribers’ questions, theories, and prompts, and Danny and Derek knock them all out of the park (mixing sports metaphors, blah blah). Thanks to everyone who participated!