Radio Free Mike

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comElizabeth Crane just published two collections of stories on the same day, a new one, called THAT MIGHT NOT MEAN WHAT YOU THINK, and her first book, from 2003, WHEN THE MESSENGER IS HOT, in a reprint from Triquarterly Books. I’m a fan of her memoir about a broken marriage called THIS STORY WILL CHANGE, and we talk about the similarities between that book and her new short fiction, but also the horrors of dating apps, and what to call her slightly frantic first-person stories.Upgrade to a paid subscription to Radio Free MikePlatforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:That May Not Mean What You Think, by Elizabeth CraneWhen the Messenger is Hot, by Elizabeth CraneThis Story Will Change, a memoir by Elizabeth CraneElizabeth’s website“Breakdown” by Tom Pettyradio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Andrea Pitzer is a journalist and author of three books, including One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, which follows the modern development of irregular prisons beginning in the 1890s, when the Spanish Empire first tried to corral Cuban revolutionaries using new technology that included factory-produced barbed wire. We talk about Hitler, as well as Stalin, and I ask her to grade the United States’ new plan for warehouse-style “detention camps” on a historical curve. Her assessment isn’t good.Upgrade to a paid subscription to Radio Free MikePlatforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:One Long Night, by Andrea PitzerAndrea’s website Sweetness and Blood, by Michael Scott Moore — nominally about surfing, but it has a section on Indonesia’s detention camps and an interview with the novelist Pramodya Ananta Toer “Somali pirates gave me toothpast and soap,” the viral tweetradio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe

Thomas Blubacher is a Swiss theater director and author on theatrical subjects who’s published a new book about European emigrés in Los Angeles called Weimar Under the Palms. Many of the artists who fled Hitler in the ’30s and ’40s — including Lion Feuchtwanger and Thomas Mann, Helene Weigel and Bertolt Brecht — came to the West Coast for the studio paychecks and the sunshine. They contributed in sometimes invisible ways to the culture of California, but found something besides pure political freedom.There should be more from me on this topic in the near future. But this is a name-dropping episode, so you’ll find an index of names at the bottom of this email.MEANWHILE don’t forget about our beach-noir reading this Thursday, March 26, 2026, at the Hermosa Beach Museum. A new Kelp Books anthology called The Savage Waves of Spring will be launched into the stratosphere, and Mike will read from a story.It’s free, but reserve a seat. Space is limited, and these evenings are popular. If you’re in California, consider a trip to the watery fringe of L.A., and if not, order the anthology at your favorite bookstore, online or otherwise. Or straight from Kelp.Upgrade to a paid subscription to Radio Free MikePlatforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:Weimar Under the Palms, by Thomas BlubacherThomas’ biography in EnglishA link to his new novel, Aufgelöst, in GermanSweetness and Blood, by Michael Scott Moore, for more on surfing in Bali in the 1930sradio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.An index of names in Episode 30:Friedrich W. Murnau, directorWalter Spies, painter and musicianBerthold Viertel, directorSalka Viertel, screenwriter and actressEmil JanningsErnst Lubitsch, directorCharlie ChaplinVicki Baum, author and screenwriterLion Feuchtwanger, authorMarta Feuchtwanger, authorBertolt Brecht, playwrightHelene Weigel, actress and cabaret singerThomas Mann, authorGreta Garbo, actressChristopher Isherwood, authorAldous Huxley, authorFritz Lang, directorArnold Schönberg, composer This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comTom Jennings, an award-winning filmmaker for PBS Frontline, has a new documentary on the The New Yorker site called Rovina’s Choice, about a South Sudanese woman whose children lived in a refugee camp in Kenya, malnourished but surviving, until food aid had to be cut last year.The film shows the human effects of Trump’s sudden, wholesale destruction of USAID. The foreign-aid organization had sent poverty and disaster relief all over the world for over sixty years — including to East Africa, a place I know something about.Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:Rovina’s Choice, directed by Tom JenningsDirect link to the film on YouTubeTom’s bio on FrontlineThe Desert and the Sea, by Michael Scott Mooreradio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comAdam Skolnick is a journalist and author who’s written his first novel, American Tiger, about a large cat on the loose in the hills around Simi Valley, California. It’s loosely based on a real event Adam covered for the LA Weekly, once upon a time, but it also centers on a smart and over-imaginative girl who wants the tiger to survive. We talk about wri…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comDeborah Kapchan is an American folklorist and ethnographer who’s written a new memoir, Taking Leave, about her complicated relationship with three different major religions: Judaism and Christianity, which formed her as a kid in New York, as well as Sufi Islam, which intrigued her during a phase of her life in Morocco. I was interested in this book in part because Somalia is also a Sufi nation, at least on the surface, and like my book Taking Leave ends in a rejection of tribalism.Resources:Taking Leave, by Deborah KapchanDeborah’s websiteGnawa music, as recorded by Paul BowlesThe Desert and the Sea, by Michael Scott Mooreradio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comKenneth R. Rosen has spent a great deal of time above the Arctic Circle, and his new book POLAR WAR covers the great-game politics of territory that may not be covered in floating ice or permafrost in the foreseeable future. We talk about the reasons Trump wants Greenland; the moment in 2007 when Russia claimed the watery North Pole by planting an unusual flag; and the ways in which China may or may not be a “near-Arctic state.” Get in touch if you need help with Substack’s billing platform — a few subscribers were bucked off unexpectedly at the end of the year — and in the meantime please support Radio Free Mike by upgrading to a paid subscription. Holiday rates are available!Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:Polar War, by Kenneth R. RosenKen’s other books, including Bulletproof Vest, about the Iraq WarSome Thoughts on the Purchase of Greenland, an essay by Mike from last February, somehow still relevant North to the Future, a Radio Free Mike interview on the Alaskan Arctic with Ben Weissenbach radio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comMo Ogronik is a documentary and feature filmmaker who teaches at NYU, and her first novel GULF is a stark and laconically written story of five women whose lives intertwine in the Middle East, from as far away as the Philippines but centered near the Arabian Gulf. We talk about class differences in the that part of the world, human trafficking, some differences between writing and filmmaking, and a great deal about craft in fiction, especially the difficulties of plotting a multi-voiced novel. Resources:Gulf, by Mo OgrodnikMo’s bio at NYU’s Tisch School “The Ghost of Reem Island,” an essay by Mo at The Paris Review, on the story that gave rise to the novel radio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comJonathan Lethem is the award-winning author of Motherless Brooklyn, which became a film with Ed Norton, and Fortress of Solitude, which got turned into an off-Broadway musical. He’s just published a career collection of short stories from the early nineties to the present, titled A Different Kind of Tension, after a Buzzcocks song. We talk about the tension in his work between the real and the surreal, about talking animals — including a show-biz crab in one good story — and, well, a lot about Franz Kafka. Resources:A Different Kind of Tension, by Jonathan LethemJonathan Lethem’s website “The Beggar King,” a short story narrated by a cat, by Michael Scott Mooreradio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comBen Weissenbach is a young writer from California who recently spent a lot of time adventuring through cold and isolated parts of Alaska. His book North to the Future takes a look at migrating forests, melting glaciers, and thawing permafrost to examine the effects of climate change in a place where the climate has changed the most — in Alaska the average temperature has risen more than twice as fast as the global average since about 1970. It’s also about a “digital native” of the twenty-first century learning how to look at the real world — a sort of analog coming-of-age — and it just won a National Outdoor Book Award.Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:North to the Future, by Ben WeissenbachComing into the Country, by John McPheeRadio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comFrancisco Cantú wrote THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER about working for the Border Patrol — and quitting — between 2008 and 2012. He grew up in Arizona, so the border’s been on his mind for most of his life, but his complicated relationship wtih government work, and the agency itself, gives him a strong perspective for a memoir. We talk about his career, about mission creep for migration enforcement under Trump, and about changes in cross-border traffic since about 2006.Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Pocketcasts, etc.Resources:The Line Becomes a River (2018), by Francisco CantúFrancisco’s websiteMike’s recent border coverageRadio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comBrian Klaas is an American political scientist who works at University College London and writes essays for The Atlantic. His most recent book is Fluke, a study of chaos and random chance, but we’ll concentrate on a title of Brian’s from 2022 called Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How it Changes Us, which deals with the wide variety of corruptions in a modern politics, the conditions that allow them to thrive, and how they might be starved of both water and light.Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Pocketcasts, etc.Resources:Corruptible, by Brian KlaasFluke, by Brian Klaas“The Other Side of Deportation,” an essay by Mike about the border, Trump, and Third World–style corruptionA podcast by Brian, featuring Mike and several other guests on kidnappings and ransomRadio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Tom Zoellner won a National Book Critics’ Circle award for ISLAND ON FIRE, about the uprising in Jamaica that led to the end of slavery within the British Empire. His new book, THE ROAD WAS FULL OF THORNS, argues that an improvised legal theory during the American Civil War — about slaves as “contraband” — led straight to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. President Lincoln at first just wanted to keep the Union together; the South wanted to preserve the “peculiar institution”; but a single incident at Fort Monroe in northern Virginia would change Lincoln’s mind, as well as American history.Tom Zoellner is a journalist, essayist, and historian who also teaches at Chapman College in California, and edits at the Los Angeles Review of Books. This episode is free for all subscribers.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Pocketcasts, etc.Resources:The Road Was Full of Thorns, by Tom ZoellnerIsland on Fire, by Tom ZoellnerA Safeway in Arizona, by Tom Zoellner — about political violence in AmericaThanks for reading Radio Free Mike! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comSonia Kennebeck is the director of a 2023 documentary called REALITY WINNER, about the whistleblower who released evidence of a Russian hacking attempt during the 2016 US presidential election. Reality was arrested by the FBI during Trump’s first term for leaking a classified document to The Intercept, a news site, and the Department of Justice came down on her using the Espionage Act. The case is interesting again because of a tendency to whitewash the interference story since Trump got re-elected.Sonia is also the director of NATIONAL BIRD, a 2016 documentary about U.S. Air Force drones, as well as a short New York Times Op-Doc about my own case in Somalia.Resources: Reality Winner websiteNational Bird, Sonia’s film about the drone warFrom Journalist to Hostage, Sonia’s short film about MikeRadio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comRoger Carstens’ first job at the State Department covered Austin Tice’s strange disappearance in Syria. Austin, a former Marine, had been kidnapped in 2012 as a journalist covering the Syrian civil war. When Damascus fell on December 8, 2024, the prisons began to empty, and there was some hope that Austin might be found. Roger talks about the search for him in late December; about the evidence of Austin’s escape attempt in 2012 or ’13, and what the chances are now of finding him alive.Roger served as SPEHA under two presidents — a Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs — so we talk about his role at the State Department for the first few minutes of the show. He was re-hired by President Biden after his appointment by President Trump, and he’s been a fine example of consistent, nonpartisan hostage policy under the newish framework designed by President Obama.Resources:The family of Austin Tice, their official websiteThe Unforgotten, Mike’s essay about Austin for New Lines, republished on Radio Free MikePart 3 of a very good Economist podcast about Austin’s caseRadio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comSaumya Roy started writing about the waste-pickers of Mumbai after a major fire started on its largest “garbage mountain” in 2016. By then she had already met a number of waste-pickers and -traders through a micro-loan NGO she ran with her father. Her book Castaway Mountain is a fascinating portrait of the economy of garbage, as well as the slum established on the edge of Mumbai’s notorious Deonar landfill — on purpose — as a feckless answer to homelessness, especially after the city grew into an international business hub in the 1970s.Saumya has written for Forbes India, Mint, Outlook, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and Bloomberg News, among other publications. She co-founded and ran the Vandana Foundation to support the livelihoods of Mumbai’s poorest micro entrepreneurs by giving small, low-interest loans.Resources: Castaway Mountain, by Saumya RoyThe UK edition is called Mountain TalesNPR “Books We Love,” 2021: Castaway MountainA picture from space of the 2016 fire:Radio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comMark Sarvas is the author of three novels and the founding editor of a well-known literary blog called The Elegant Variation. His new novel, @UGMan, is a short and slightly strange book about an asocial, divorced, but extremely online character who hates almost everything except The Beatles. The character’s Twitter handle is a direct reference to Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground, and he shares some modern paranoia with his 19th-century forebear.Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Pocketcasts, etc.Resources:@UGMan, by Mark SarvasMemento Park, by Mark SarvasHarry, Revised, by Mark SarvasThe Elegant Variation, a literary blogRadio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Laurence Norman has covered Iran’s nuclear program for the Wall Street Journal for over a decade, and for almost as long I’ve admired his pieces. He’s a Berlin-based journalist, measured and smart, not easy to fool, and (crucially) he knows what he doesn’t know — which is almost our entire topic of conversation in Episode 14. What did the US and Israel destroy in June? And what, if anything, did the attacks have to do with October 7? We spoke on July 2, 2025, which is important because the story’s in constant motion. And because I’m on the road, there were audio issues: for a few minutes you can hear some nice Bach violin rehearsals in the background.Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Pocketcasts, etc.Violin credit: Paul FestaResources:All of Laurence’s pieces at the Wall Street JournalSince our converation, IAEA inspectors have left Iran, which could change the calculus about a regional war. A timeline of Iran’s nuclear program from the Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsMore basics, and a map, from CNNSome terms we didn’t explain during the interview:The IAEA is the International Atomic Energy Agency, or “the UN’s Atomic Agency.” NPT is the non-proliferation treaty which binds members to nuclear inspections by the IAEA. JCPOA is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or the inspections agreement that forged with Iran before Trump’s first term.Radio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe

Khuê Phạm’s first novel Brothers and Ghosts deals with a Vietnamese family scattered across three continents, from Saigon to Germany to Southern California. It was translated last year from German into English, and it’s met with a great deal of critical praise, including from Ocean Vuong, who called it “a groundbreaking work in German literature.” On the podcast we talk about the Vietnamese diaspora in Berlin and Orange County, about our mutual friends who translated the novel, and about why it might be too controversial for a translation into Vietnamese. The brothers in question are called Sơn and Minh, and the narrator’s name is Kiều. Fair warning: Khuê’s audio wanders in and out a little. Engineers at Radio Free Mike have worked furiously to mitigate the problem, but if her sound seems to fade sometimes we promise it will come back in a matter of seconds.Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Pocketcasts, etc.Resources:Brothers and Ghosts, by Khue PhamA review of Brothers and Ghosts, NPRMike’s visit to Cambodia to visit some former-hostage friends, in The New YorkerKhue interviews Michael about pirates, Die ZeitThe Desert and the Sea, by Michael Scott MooreRadio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe

Jessa Crispin’s new book, What Is Wrong With Men, studies American masculinity through a close reading of Michael Douglas’ movie roles from the mid-’80s through the late ’90s. The son of Kirk Douglas, who played Spartacus and Ulysses in the mid-20th century, Michael Douglas arguably dramatized the crisis of American men after the Sixties, because his characters are so startled by what they find sitting across from them at the dinner table. Jessa’s a sharp-tongued critic and nonfiction writer who runs the arts & commentary website The Culture We Deserve. She originated one of the first online book blogs, called Bookslut, in the early 2000s; she’s a feminist as well as a critic of feminists, and her new book is not just fun, but also a rigorous exploration of the economic aspects of the “masculinity crisis” and what Jessa calls the Zombie Patriarchy.Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:What is Wrong With Men, by Jessa CrispinMy Three Dads, by Jessa CrispinBookslut is Dead, Long Live Bookslut, a commemorative essay on LitHub“The Rushdie Narrative,” Mike’s piece about Salman Rushdie on The Culture We DeserveMichael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone (1985):At the bottom of this page you may see Jessa’s Substack bio, which is Bartlebyesque and reads “no thank you.”Radio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe

Thad Ziolkowski is a poet, novelist, and memoirist who has written a fascinating book about surfing and addiction called The Drop. He’s no stranger to difficult themes, and I have a feature in the current issue of The Surfers Journal (issue 34.2) that explores not just trauma and surfing, not just Somalia and my father’s suicide, but also the Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation, a fabulous group in the Los Angeles South Bay that has pioneered ocean therapy in the U.S. I knew Jimmy in high school; Thad and I have both written about the Foundation. So we talk about the water that keeps us afloat. Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Podcast Addict, PocketcastsResources:The Drop, by Thad ZiolkowskiOn a Wave, by Thad Ziolkowski“Blue Antidote,” by Michael Scott Moore, in Issue 34.2 of The Surfers Journal — not online, but the whole issue is terrificThe Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation (JMMF)Radio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comMeghan Daum is a an essayist and author who lives in L.A. but lost her home in the Eaton Fire in January. She also has a new book out called THE CATASTROPHE HOUR. She insists the title is a coincidence, because she named the book before the fires started. We talk about the fires, being “problematized,” and about Ezra Pound’s basic standards for writing in the age of under-edited writing platforms. You can also listen in real time while Mike discovers a decent segue sound for this podcast. We’re just making it up as we go here, folks.Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Pocketcasts Resources:The Catastrophe Hour, by Meghan DaumThe ABC of Reading, by Ezra PoundFirst mention of “woke” in America, during a live version of “Scottsboro Boys,” by Leadbelly. Perfectly good usage. Radio Free Mike (original website) Radio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comMark Sundeen is an accomplished novelist and essayist, author of The Man Who Quit Money, a bestselling biography of Daniel Suelo, who sold all his things to live in a Utah cave. Now Mark has published a collection of similar nonfiction portraits of people who inhabit the American West, the drifters and dreamers who once populated L.A. and San Francisco before those cities got too expensive. His book, Delusions + Grandeur, also turns out to be a chronicle of American masculinity in the age of Trump. Mark and I were both slightly disaffected teenagers in an L.A. beach town back in the day, so the conversation moves everywhere. We talk about Alta California before 1849, the Standing Rock protests in 2016, and Jack London’s adventures as a famous-but-somehow-obscure American writer. Oh, plus his contributions to surfing. Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Podcast Addict, PocketcastsResources:Delusions and Grandeur, by Mark SundeenThe Man Who Quit Money, by Mark SundeenA BBC video on the man who quit money, also by MarkSweetness and Blood, Mike’s peripatetic history of surfingRadio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Antoine Wilson is the author of three fine novels, including The Interloper and Panorama City, and his latest book, Mouth to Mouth, is about a man who rescuscitates a stranger on the beach in Santa Monica, but afterwards can’t resist intruding on the saved man’s life. We talk about the unreliable nature of narrative, but for the first ten minutes we also discuss the L.A. wildfires and surfing, so if you don’t want to hear about that please skip to 9:30, where you can hear Antoine explain the personal sources of Mouth to Mouth, if he can be trusted. We chat about writers we like (W.G. Sebald, Patrick Modiano), and, at the end, some bonus material — tips for young writers!Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Podcast Addict, PocketcastsResources:Mouth to Mouth, by Antoine WilsonAn essay by Antoine on “the pleasures of the teetering stack,” at LitHubAntoine’s websiteRadio Free Mike website (off Substack)Radio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comJeanne Carstensen was in Greece as a reporter for The World when an overfilled boat chugging across a narrow part of the Aegean foundered and sank. The disaster brought the island of Lesbos together, in part because its residents remembered even older surges of migration, including the one caused by the Greco-Turkish War in 1922. Now she’s written a compelling and humane book about the disaster from as many points of view as possible — Greek, Syrian, Afghan, Iraqi, Turkish; her own — and it’s a stark reminder that people are still dying on the water. We talk about the nature of human smuggling on the edges of Europe and, finally, its effect on EU politics. Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Podcast Addict, PocketcastsResources:A Greek Tragedy, by Jeanne Carstensen“A Lethal Farce in the Aegean Sea,” one of Jeanne’s first reports on the story“The Libyan Coast Guard is Not What it Seems,” by Michael Scott Moore, a reported essay from the central Mediterranean Radio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comPeter Theroux has started to publish a two-volume memoir about his career in US intelligence. He’s an excellent writer, from a family of them — his brothers are Paul and Alexander — and In Obscura describes his government work in the Middle East and suburban Washington with a sharp sense of detail and a lively sense of humor. Peter also describes Syria with so much obvious affection that I thought it might be interesting to hear from him about the old Ba’athist regime that fell in December, as well as the unreadable Islamist who’s now in charge. Upgrade to a paid subscription, and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Podcast Addict, PocketcastsRadio Free Mike original websiteResources:In Obscura, by Peter TherouxTranslating L.A., by Peter TherouxSandstorms, by Peter Theroux

Soraya Simi was hand-picked by Angela Madsen to direct a film about her last major ocean-rowing voyage, a solo attempt to row from L.A. to Honolulu in 2020. Angela was a professional ocean rower and paraplegic, an Olympic gold medalist, a Guinness world-record holder in several categories, and a former U.S. Marine. Soraya’s new film about the ill-fated voyage is named after Angela’s fiberglass boat, THE ROW OF LIFE, and the story behind the film is almost as tense and tough as its subject. We talk about the ocean, the indie filmmaking business, and those big-wave surfers at Nazaré.Upgrade to a paid subscription if you like the podcast!Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTubeResources:ROW OF LIFE upcoming scheduleSoraya Simi’s websiteMike’s book on surfing, Sweetness and BloodRadio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comAmerican journalist Jacob Kushner is the author of a fine new(ish) book about a series of crimes by a neo-Nazi gang in Germany called LOOK AWAY: A True Story of Murders, Bombings, and a Far-Right Campaign to Rid Germany of Immigrants. I was still at Spiegel Online when the cops closed in on the “National Socialist Underground,” as the group was called, and arrested a woman called Beate Zschäpe. Her partners — both named Uwe — destroyed themselves in fiery Wagnerian fashion. Jacob talks to me about this weird story as well as the German elections coming up this weekend, and, yes, Elon Musk’s Nazi salute.Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube Resources:Website for Jacob’s book, Look Away, or White Terror in the UKJacob’s feature about the AfD in BerlinMike’s essay, “Was Hitler a Man of the Left?”, basically a review of Liberal Fascism by Jonah GoldbergMike’s essay “The Lying Press,” about Elon Musk and propaganda minister Joseph GoebbelsNotes by Elon Musk’s former colleague on that Nazi salute.Radio Free Mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comIn 2022 the Sundance Film Festival accepted, but then cancelled, Meg Smaker’s documentary about Guantánamo inmates and other accused terrorists living in a rehabilitation center in Saudi Arabia. Meg swears JIHAD REHAB will come out, under a new title, in 2025. We talk about that and a bunch of other things, including pirates, boxing, the California wildfires, adventures in Arabic, and chewing khat in New York bodegas. Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Podcast home page: https://michaelscottmoore.substack.com/podcastResources:“Cowardice at Sundance,” The Atlantic, by Graeme Wood“Sundance Liked Her Documentary on Terrorism Until It Didn’t,” The New York Times, by Michael Powell“Why Filmmakers Have Had a Problem with ‘Jihad Rehab’ for years,” IDA websiteWebsite for the film now called “Unredacted”

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comJason and his wife Yegi were both foreign correspondents in Tehran when members of the Revolutionary Guard knocked on their door in 2014. The Guards hauled them to jail, and Jason, who holds two passports, was accused of spying for the United States. The Iranian government held a sham trial and kept him in the notorious Evin Prison for about a year and a half. Jason and Michael talk about the nature of the Islamic Republic, about captive life, and about H.R. 9495, a House bill that could destroy American nonprofits through a simple, unfounded accusation of “terrorist funding.”The U.S. has laws to stop terrorist funding; but this bill started life as a wholesome idea by Jason to make a returning hostage’s life a little easier. He explains the history of H.R. 9495 — and his opinion of the different bill now making its way through Congress — in the paid version of the podcast.Upgrade to a paid subscription and listen to the whole episode.Resources:Mike’s essay on Salman Rushdie and Iran Jason’s memoir PRISONER, from Harper Collins

David Rohde, National Security editor for NBC News, author of Where Tyranny Begins, talks about Donald Trump and his war against the Justice Department and the FBI. His meticulously reported book argues that Trump trashed a number of Watergate-era norms in Washington, which allowed him to organize something far worse than Watergate on January 6, 2021. David also talks about being held hostage by the Taliban in 2007-08, but overall this first episode of Radio Free Mike is a dispassionate review of Trump’s first term: we review the Story So Far. Link to full episode on Substack: https://michaelscottmoore.substack.com/publish/post/153594742Resources:Where Tyranny Begins, by David RohdeA Rope and a Prayer, by David Rohde and Kristen MulvihillTwo Treatises of Government (1689) by John Locke “Wherever law ends, Tyranny begins . . . Is it reasonable that the eldest brother, because he has the greatest part of his father’s estate, should thereby have a right to take away any of his younger brothers’ portions? Or that a rich man, who possessed a whole country, should from thence have a right to seize, when he pleased, the cottage and garden of his poor neighbour?” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe

Announcing a new podcast called Radio Free Mike. Episodes will be audio-only, available on your favorite podcast platforms or through a link to Substack, which we’ll send out every two weeks or so. Full episodes are for paid subscribers, but free previews are for everyone. Join us if you can, and Happy New Year..Full website: http://radiofreemike.net/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe