Afleveringen

  • Axis of Empire w/ Dr. Afshin Matin-Asgari

    Axis of Empire w/ Dr. Afshin Matin-Asgari

    · Blood Work

    This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

    Gregk speaks to the author of a new book on US-Iran relations to place the two countries’ braided history in its proper context and make sense of
 how we got here.

    Axis of Empire: A History of US-Iran Relations is out now, available from Verso

    Image: A photograph of a large anti-USA mural painted on the side of a residential apartment block in downtown Tehran

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: VetClaims.AI

    For this week’s newsletter, we present four articles which collectively paint an interesting picture of our current conjecture, beginning with the text of Iran’s fourteen-point MoU with the US, running through the UFC spectacle at the White House, and concluding with an excellent recently-published interview with Alberto Toscano.

  • An Orchestral Conductor of Violence: The Veiled Prophet w/ Devin O'Shea

    An Orchestral Conductor of Violence: The Veiled Prophet w/ Devin O'Shea

    · Blood Work

    Devin joins Gregk to talk about his book The Veiled Prophet: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggle for St. Louis. It’s a conversation that goes some places.

    The Veiled Prophet: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggle for St. Louis comes out on June 23, 2026, published by Haymarket Books.

    Pre-order now:

    – Haymarket Books (US)

    – Blackwell’s (UK)

    Follow Devin O’Shea:

    – on Bluesky and

    – on Instagram

    – and check out his Spotify playlist of 90s Mall Music

    Image: Painting of the first 1878 Veiled Prophet, St. Louis Chief of Police Colonel John Priest, wielding a silver police baton. Priest, a prominent realtor and civic leader, appears “in robes of his office as Grand Oracle.” (Source: Missouri Historical Society)

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Right on CueALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

    This week we are, of course, going to speak about the violence which erupted on the streets of Belfast this week, and provide some commentary on how this sordid saga not only bears the mark of those fascists from Britain’s past whom we covered at length, but has plenty to say about the ones currently walking among us — even plugging themselves into the very architecture of the British state apparatus itself.

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  • Genghis Tron: Signal Fire w/ Michael Sochynsky

    Genghis Tron: Signal Fire w/ Michael Sochynsky

    · Blood Work

    Genghis Tron’s keyboardist and programmer joins us to talk about the band’s new record and making despair-laden music in a collapsing world.

    GENGHIS TRON: SIGNAL FIRE — OUT NOW.

    STREAM HERE

    PHYSICAL COPIES & MERCH AVAILABLE VIA:

    – Bandcamp

    – Relapse Records

    – Rough Trade (UK)

    – Shirt Killer

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

  • Combat 18, Part 4: Ladageddon w/ Gareth Watkins

    Combat 18, Part 4: Ladageddon w/ Gareth Watkins

    · Blood Work

    This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

    Our story of Britain’s most infamous neo-nazi terror gang concludes with a Harlow Night of the Long Knives and a final, desperate attempt to kick off and claim the race war.

    Follow Gareth Watkins on BlueskyListen to the Death // Sentence podcast

    Image: A man walks past a burning barricade during the Oldham riots in 2001.

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    For more:

    – Support Blood Work via Patreon

    – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Lather, Rinse, RepeatALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOFor this week’s newsletter, we take a look at Nigel Farage’s cynical, exploitative response to the Henry Nowak murder case, and the shameful role our political, media and civic elites play in legitimising and affirming right-wing outrage with the hopes of shoring up their own power.

  • Warp & Weft: Afghan War Rugs

    Warp & Weft: Afghan War Rugs

    · Blood Work

    We explore the cultural history of rug-weaving in Afghanistan, and how decades of war caused that country’s craft and conditions into a morbid reciprocity.

    If you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Super Smash TVALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOThis week, some light entertainment for you, in the form of recent developments surrounding the Trump administration’s planned UFC fight on the White House lawn as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

    Sources:

    Afghan Rug Shop, ‘80cm x 60cm Fall of Afghanistan War Rug’, Afghan Rug Shop

    Naman P. Ahuja (2019), ‘War Rugs’, Marg Publications, available via academia.edu

    Max Allen (2008), ‘Battleground: War Rugs from Afghanistan’, Textile Museum of Canada, available via archive.org

    Rachel Edman (2020), ‘An introduction to War Rugs’, MacGuffin Magazine, available via Rachel Edman

    Bettina GrĂ€f (2023), ‘Drone Rugs: Knotted Images as a Reminder of the Cruel Global Present’, Suzanna in the Bath. Essays on Middle East Studies and Public Discourse, available via academia.edu

    Impart (2025), ‘Afghan War Rugs’, Impart

    Nigel Lendon and Tim Bonyhady, Rugs of War (Wordpress)

    RespectableLawyer (2018), ‘THREAD: Afghan War Rugs and the Lossy Compression of Cultural Coding’, Twitter/X, available via Threadreader and archive.today

    Ron O’Callaghan (2003), ‘Afghan War Rugs: A Sub-group With Iranian Influence’, Rug Review, available via archive.today

    Kevin Sudeith, WarRug.com

    Brian Spooner (2011), ‘Afghan Wars, Oriental Carpets, and Globalization’, Expedition (53:1), available at Penn Museum

    Pamela D. Toler (2021), ‘How Afghanistan’s “Rugs of War” Helped Its Citizens Tell the Story of Conflict’, Historynet

    Kelly Wilson (2014), ‘Afghan War Rugs’, Art Amongst War: Visual Culture in Afghanistan, 1979-2014 (Exhibition Booklet), The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) Art Gallery, available via academia.edu

    Image: A high quality example of a typical 9/11 war rug, woven and knotted by hand in the aftermath of the 2002 US invasion of Afghanistan

  • Combat 18, Part 3: Crisis of Ladsculinity w/ Gareth Watkins

    Combat 18, Part 3: Crisis of Ladsculinity w/ Gareth Watkins

    · Blood Work

    This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

    Gareth returns to continue our history of ‘90s Britain’s most notorious neo-nazi gang, recounting the time Will Browning convinced a Scandinavian to mail a package bomb to an Olympic swimmer.

    Image: Thomas Nakaba marching at a far-right rally in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the 1990s.

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    For more:

    – Support Blood Work via Patreon

    – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Protecting the OrganismALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOThis week we’ve got a recent report from the BBC regarding activities by a para-state political organisation in Russia which appears to be assuming ever greater policing and security prerogatives within that state amidst the exceptional situation of the war on Ukraine – and becoming further radicalised and emboldened in the process.

  • Do Your Own Research: Conspiracy, Paranoia & the Drive to Violence w/ Julian Feeld

    Do Your Own Research: Conspiracy, Paranoia & the Drive to Violence w/ Julian Feeld

    · Blood Work

    Do Your Own Research: Conspiracy, Paranoia & the Drive to Violence w/ Julian Feeld

    Julian and Gregk discuss the history of conspiracy, lone wolves, mass psychoses, and his new show SUPER STRUCTURE on the power of propaganda, political repression & revolutionary struggle.

    If you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    Image: ‘Pizzagate’ gunman Edgar Maddison Welch being apprehended by police shortly after storming the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington D.C. on December 4, 2016. (Sathi Soma/AP)

    Follow Julian Feeld on Instagram

    Learn more about SUPER STRUCTURE at their website

    or follow the show on Instagram

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Before the LawALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOThis week, Gregk presents three separate news stories which each communicate different but interrelated ideas about the relation between law and violence, particularly in our present conjuncture.

  • Valley of Malls: Post-Fordist Cities & Political Repression, Part Two

    Valley of Malls: Post-Fordist Cities & Political Repression, Part Two

    · Blood Work

    This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

    We conclude our two-parter with a story that runs through Lewis Powell, Times Square, 9/11 and Occupy, and concludes by considering a vanguard of neoliberal authoritarianism: The Olympics.

    Image: An interior shot of the amusement park at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    For more:

    – Support Blood Work via Patreon

    – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Cóndor Dos, Águila MoribundaALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOFor this week’s newsletter, we’ve got two news stories for you, which are separate, but which are nonetheless connected in a strange, poetic way. Collectively, we think they say something about the current condition of US empire, and what happens when imperial ambitions extend beyond even empire’s grasp.

  • Mean Streets: Post-Fordist Cities & Political Repression, Part One

    Mean Streets: Post-Fordist Cities & Political Repression, Part One

    · Blood Work

    In the first of a two-parter, we trace the evolution of the modern city from industrialisation to the 1970s, when a trio of crises laid the foundation for an anti-political backlash

    If you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    Image: A photograph taken on Leyden Street, London, during the 1979 ‘Winter of Discontent’ (Source: Maurice Hibberd/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Even in Death, They Will Still Degrade YouALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOFor this week’s newsletter, Gregk uses a resurfaced comment by filmmaker Joe Russo from 2023 to provide some commentary on the modern AI craze and the historical ties between technology, pornography, and violence.

    Sources:

    Robert A. Beauregard (2006), When America Became Suburban

    Jordan T. Camp & Christina Heatherton [eds.] (2016), Policing the PlanetL Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter

    Peter Eisinger (2000), ‘The Politics of Bread and Circuses: Building the City for the Visitor Class’, Urban Affairs Review [35:3]

    Antonio Gramsci (1971), Selections from the Prison Notebooks

    Stuart Hall et al (1978), Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order

    Margaret Kohn (2004), Brave New Neighborhoods: The Privatisation of Public Space

    Mark Neocleous (2021), A Critical Theory of Police Power

    Paul A. Passavant (2021), Policing Protest: The Post-Democratic State and the Figure of Black Insurrection

  • Intermezzo: Extraction/Consequences

    Intermezzo: Extraction/Consequences

    · Blood Work

    This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

    Gregk and Thomas pause to reflect on some of the topics covered since they last spoke, and meditate on recent events.

    Image: A still from Werner Herzog’s 1992 documentary Lessons of Darkness

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    For more:

    – Support Blood Work via Patreon

    – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Look What They Made Us DoALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOFor this week’s newsletter, we use a recent piece from The New Republic to question America’s flailing attempts to disentangle itself from a war of its own making – in narrative, if not in actuality.

  • This is How You Kill Them: Genocide w/ Joe Kassabian

    This is How You Kill Them: Genocide w/ Joe Kassabian

    · Blood Work

    Joe and Gregk use Gregory Stanton’s ‘Ten Stages of Genocide’ to discuss the tactics & techniques states deploy to legitimise and perpetrate mass murder.

    Image: Remains of victims of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide retrieved from a mass grave in Huye District in January, 2024.

    Follow Joe Kassabian on Bluesky

    Listen to Lions Led by Donkeys

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Blue DanubeALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOFor this week’s newsletter, enjoy some brief thoughts on the election results which rolled out of Hungary last week, and what it might mean for that country and Europe now that the American right’s favourite lap-dog is hitting the skids.

    Sources:

    Gregory Stanton (1996), ‘Ten Stages of Genocide’, available at Genocide Watch

  • In So Many Words [PREVIEW]

    In So Many Words [PREVIEW]

    · Blood Work

    This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

    We take a foray into the world of euphemisms, turns-of-phrase and the disingenuous world of militarese

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    For more:

    – Support Blood Work via Patreon

    – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Stupid GamesALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOFor this week’s newsletter, we offered some commentary on the (then ongoing) peace talks between the US and Iran in Islamabad, some surrounding issues, and predictions on the course those talks might take. (News moves fast these days.)

  • Mona Lisas: Female Suicide Bombers

    Mona Lisas: Female Suicide Bombers

    · Blood Work

    We look at the history of women’s participation in suicide bombing attacks and how society has tried to make sense of women who carry out the most extreme political act of all.

    If you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: If You Want Blood
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOFor this week’s newsletter, we take a look at a recent essay by Iranian diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif in Foreign Affairs and provide some commentary on what he gets right and why, and also why neither Washington nor Tehran are likely to listen to him.

    Sources:

    BBC, ‘UK Fire girl still defiant’, BBC

    Burku Pinar Alacoc (2018), ‘Femme Fatale: The Lethality of Female Suicide Bombers’, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

    Mia Bloom (2007), ‘Female suicide bombers’, Daedalus

    John Campbell (2020), ‘Women, Boko Haram and Suicide Bombings’, Council on Foreign Relations

    Paige Whaley Eager (2008), From Freedom Fighters to Terrorists: Women and Political Violence

    Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Associaton (FFI-LEHI), ‘Raskin, Fania – Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Association’

    Jordan Galehan (2019), ‘Instruments of Violence: Female suicide bombers of Boko Haram’, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice

    Audrey Gillan (17 Feb 1999), ‘'We came here not to get out alive. We're ready for anything'’, The Guardian

    Bilal Tawfiq Hamamra (2018), ‘Witness and martyrdom: Palestinian female martyrs’ video-testimonies’, Journal for Cultural Research

    Vesna Markovic (2019), ‘Suicide Squad: Boko Haram’s Use of the Female Suicide Bomber’, Justice, Law, and Public Safety Studies Department Faculty Articles

    Tanya Narozhna and W. Andy Knight (2016), Female Suicide Bombings: A Critical Gender Approach

    Al Chukwuma Okoli, ‘Gender and Terror: Boko Haram and the Abuse of Women in Nigeria’, available at Georgetown Journal of International Affairs

    Ann Preesman (2021), ‘Female Suicide Bombers: An Uncomfortable Truth’, available at King’s College, London

    G. Julie Rajan (2011), Women Suicide Bombers: Narratives of Violence

    Leandra Bathal Serrano (2024), ‘Female Suicide Bombers As A Security Threat: Towards A More Comprehensive And Inclusive Approach’, available at European Student Think Tank

    Keren Wang (2025), ‘Boko Haram’s Strategic Use of Female Suicide Bombers: Where Women Have No Choices’, Politics and Security Governance

    Image: A photograph of Sana’a Mehaidli, 16, a Lebanese woman who became the first female suicide bomber in 1985.

  • Wildfire: The History of the AK-47, Part Four [PREVIEW]

    Wildfire: The History of the AK-47, Part Four [PREVIEW]

    · Blood Work

    This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

    In the conclusion to our series, we look at what happened when the Soviet Union collapsed, and the rifles it had been making for over four decades started leaking out into a rapidly changing world.

    Image: A screencap from a video dated June, 2001, showing al-Qaeda militants wielding Kalashnikov rifles at al-Farouq training camp, Kandahar, Afghanistan

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    For more:

    – Support Blood Work via Patreon

    – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: A Quiet PlaceALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOThis week, we return to the civil war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, spurred by new in-depth reporting of the RSF’s devastating siege and assault on El Fasher in October of last year.

  • The Facilitators: On Engineers w/ Gareth Dennis & Justin Roczniak

    The Facilitators: On Engineers w/ Gareth Dennis & Justin Roczniak

    · Blood Work

    Gareth and Rocz join Gregk to account for the many crimes of modernity’s slow, silent killers – engineers, technicians, and urban planners.

    Follow Gareth and Rocz on Bluesky

    Watch Well There’s Your Problem on YouTube

    Watch RailNatter on YouTube

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: The PendulumALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOThis week, we’ve got two stories about different pendulum swings in the political world, and the people attempting to ride the wave and come out unscathed. They’re stories about elites in political media, and so there are no winners, only losers. But spare a thought for them, won’t you? Or don’t. They're all reprehensible.

    Image: An overhead photograph of the ‘Futurama’ diorama presented at the 1939 World’s Fair created by Norman Bel Geddes with sponsorship from General Motors [GM].

  • Wicked Game: The History of the AK-47, Part Three [PREVIEW]

    Wicked Game: The History of the AK-47, Part Three [PREVIEW]

    · Blood Work

    This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

    As the Soviets entered the Cold War, they had a gun they could use as conduit, commodity, or currency. The US, meanwhile, hit the snooze alarm. In Vietnam, a rude awakening awaited them.

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    For more:

    – Support Blood Work via Patreon

    – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: The Stinging TreeALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOFor this week’s newsletter, we look at the long arc of US-Iran relations during the twentieth century, and place the Persian state’s current horizontal deterrence strategy against its American and Israeli aggressors in its proper historical context.

    Image: A Viet Cong soldier posing with a Type 2 AK-47 rifle during a POW exchange in 1973. (Source: SSgt. Herman Kokojan, Defence Visual Information Centre)

  • Blood Flows: Arm Transfers

    Blood Flows: Arm Transfers

    · Blood Work

    We trace the evolution of international arms transfers from mercantilism to the modern era, and the perverse incentives produced by the symbiosis of private enterprise and state imperatives in arms production.

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Killstreak InboundALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOInspired by the Pentagon’s recent deployment of computer game graphics to promote its illegal bombardment of Iran, producer Thomas takes a longer view at the relationship between the United States military and the video games industry.

    Sources:

    Amnesty International (June 1995), ‘RWANDA: Arming the Perpetrators of the Genocide’, available at Amnesty.org

    Jonathan Beatty and S. C. Gwynne (1993), The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart Of BCCI

    Steve Boggan (Nov. 23, 1996), ‘Bloody trade that fuels Rwanda's war (Operation Insecticide), available at The Independent

    Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

    George Cryle (2003), Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History

    Owen Greene and Nicholas Marsh (eds.) (2012), Small Arms, Crime and Conflict: Global Governance and the Threat of Armed Violence

    Nicholas Kotarski (2018), ‘Whose Monster? A Study in the Rise to Power of al Qaeda and the Taliban’, History Theses, 47

    Keith Krause (1992), Arms and the State: Patterns of Military Production and Trade

    Mamello Mosiana, Hennie van Vuuren and Daniel Ford (Nov. 13, 2024), ‘Unaccountable 00040 | Willem ‘Ters’ Ehlers – apartheid’s secretary turned genocide arms dealer’, available at Open Secrets

    John U. Nef (1950), War and Human Progress: An Essay on the Rise of Industrial Civilization

    Robert Pear (Apr. 18, 1988), ‘Arming Afghan Guerrillas: A Huge Effort Led by U.S.’, available at The New York Times(archived)

    Frederic S. Pearson (1994), The Global Spread of Arms: Political Economy of Economic Security

    Peter Dale Scott (2007), The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America

    William Shawcross (1988), The Shah’s Last Ride

    Stockholm International Peace Research Institute [SIPRI] (2010), ‘End-User Certificates: Improving Standards to Prevent Diversion’, available at SIPRI

    Stockholm International Peace Research Institute [SIPRI] (2024), ‘The SIPRI Top 100 Arms-Producing and Military Services Companies, 2024’, available at SIPRI

    Rachel Stohl and Suzette Grillot (2009), The International Arms Trade

    Joe Stork (Nov. 1, 1995), ‘The Middle East Arms Bazaar After the Gulf War’, available at Middle East Research and Information Project

    Andrew T. H. Tan (ed.) (2010), The Global Arms Trade: A Handbook

    Adam Tooze (Mar. 23, 2023), ‘Chartbook 204: Iraq’s economic impasse twenty years after the invasion’, available at Chartbook | Adam Tooze

    Mark Townsend (Oct. 28, 2025), ‘UK military equipment used by militia accused of genocide found in Sudan, UN told’, available at The Guardian

    Matt Wells (Feb. 10, 2000), ‘Arms firm linked to Rwandan army chief’, available at The Guardian

    Brian Wood and Johan Peleman (2000), The Arms Fixers. Controlling the Brokers and Shipping Agents

    Image: Soldiers patrol outside of Goma International Airport in North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo (2022)

  • Uncle Joe’s Insurance Policy: The History of the AK-47, Part Two [PREVIEW]

    Uncle Joe’s Insurance Policy: The History of the AK-47, Part Two [PREVIEW]

    · Blood Work

    This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

    It’s time to tell the story of Mikhail Kalashnikov, his eponymous gun, the horrors of the Eastern Front, and one of the biggest fumbles in US military history.

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    For more:

    – Support Blood Work via Patreon

    – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Pox AmericanaALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOFor this week’s newsletter, we provide a little Blood Work commentary on two morbid eruptions borne from the American imperial violence machine. Chronic and acute, all at once.

    Image: Mikhail Klashnikov posing with the AK-47 at an event commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the gun’s creation in 2007

  • Machines Infernal: The History of the AK-47, Part 1

    Machines Infernal: The History of the AK-47, Part 1

    · Blood Work

    We begin our history of the most famous firearm of all time with a prologue: Because in order to understand how we got here, you gotta understand where we came from.

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Little Marco’s Big SpeechALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOThis week, we discuss the thinly-veiled white nationalist vision laid out by Marco Rubio in his Munich Security Conference speech. But first, we provide a little background on the man himself and what it means that a man like that would be giving such a speech—because this might be one of those cases where the medium is the message.

    Sources:

    C. J. Chivers (2010), The Gun: The Story of the AK-47

    Larry Kahaner (2008), AK-47: The Weapon that Changed the Face of War

    Chris McNab (2001), The AK-47

    Image: The American-British entrepreneur Hiram Maxim posing with his eponymous Maxim Gun.

  • 24 Reasons Why w/ Josh Boerman

    24 Reasons Why w/ Josh Boerman

    · Blood Work

    This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

    Josh drops by the Blood Work studio to talk about one of the most mentally unhinged prestige TV shows of the early millennium and what it might tell us about America’s relationship with violence.Follow Josh Boerman on BlueskyListen to The Worst of All Possible WorldsListen to Ill Conceived

    Image: Jack Bauer interrogating Marie Warner in Season 2 of 24.

    Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

    For more:

    – Support Blood Work via Patreon

    – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

    THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Zombie LiberalismALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOThis week, we took a look at Nancy Pelosi's response to a question on the topic of Iran at the Munich Security Conference, examining what her answer (or non-answer) can tell us about the state of establishment liberalism as we enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century, and whether these obstinate, self-ordained standard-bearers of the liberal international order are sufficiently equipped to bring the fight to an ascendant Fascist International drawing the knives out on nearly every continent. (Bad news. Sorry.)

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