Introducing ‘Aftershock: The War on Terror’

Introducing ‘Aftershock: The War on Terror’

Author: The London Review of Books November 15, 2025 Duration: 3:57
After 9/11, George W. Bush launched a global War on Terror. What followed was an unprecedented expansion of American power, from Guantánamo Bay to drone strikes, mass surveillance to the weaponisation of the financial system. Asked when it would end, Vice-President Dick Cheney replied: ‘Not in our lifetime.’ Two decades later, we’re still living in its shadow. Aftershock: The War on Terror is a new six-part podcast from the London Review of Books. Daniel Soar, a senior editor at the paper, revisits the magazine’s coverage and reflects on the ways 9/11 has changed the world we live in. First episode coming 20 November. Find the series in: Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/f16f79 Spotify: https://lrb.me/eb54a6 Or wherever you get your podcasts.

Each week, The LRB Podcast extends the long-form, inquisitive spirit of the London Review of Books into a conversational format. Hosts Thomas Jones and Malin Hay guide discussions that delve into the essays and ideas animating Europe’s leading magazine of culture and ideas, creating a space where complex thoughts on society, art, history, and literature are explored with depth and clarity. The rhythm of the podcast includes a dedicated fortnightly episode, ‘On Politics,’ hosted by James Butler, which sharpens the focus on the political forces and theories shaping our current moment. Listening feels like joining a nuanced, ongoing conversation where arguments are carefully constructed and perspectives are challenged. It’s a natural companion for anyone who believes that understanding the world requires patience, critical thinking, and engaging dialogue. The podcast doesn’t offer quick takes but rather thoughtful excavations of the week’s most compelling cultural and intellectual questions, mirroring the publication’s commitment to serious and elegant prose. This is where written criticism finds its voice, allowing listeners to immerse themselves in the debates that define our time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The LRB Podcast
Podcast Episodes
Pollution and Other Serial Killers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:14
Between the 1960s and the turn of the century, an astonishingly large number of serial killers grew up or operated in America’s Pacific Northwest. Caroline Fraser’s book Murderland, reviewed in the LRB by James Lasdun, a…
On Politics: Do bond markets and the Bank of England run Britain? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:30
Andy Burnham recently said that the government is ‘in hock to the bond markets’, and the political turbulence of the past few years, not least the downfall of Liz Truss following her ‘mini-budget’, would seem to back thi…
Extinction, Fast and Slow [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:45
One of the difficulties in thinking about extinction, as Lorraine Daston argued in her recent review of Vanished by Sadiah Qureshi, is ‘the challenge of scale: the mismatch between our decades and centuries and the Earth…
On Politics: The Online Right (and Left) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:00
For the best part of a decade, a new type of anti-systemic, nationalist politics has been emerging from different corners of the online world. In Britain, this has united with older forms of cultural conservatism to prop…
Lessons from the Peace Process [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:48
Adam is joined by Robert Malley to discuss the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and the long history of the peace process, in which Malley has been involved on behalf of several US administrations. They also talk abou…
Why should we listen to Amanda Knox? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:48
It's nearly eighteen years since Amanda Knox was arrested on suspicion of murdering her housemate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, and more than ten since she was finally exonerated of the crime. She has just written her sec…
On Politics: The Death of the Conservative Party? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:22
In its nearly two hundred years of existence the Conservative Party has survived through a combination of protean adaptability and ruthlessness, not least in its willingness to change leaders. Yet under its present leade…
How to Write Like Elmore Leonard [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:15
Elmore Leonard ‘did more with less than any crime writer I can think of’ J. Robert Lennon wrote in the latest issue of the LRB. Leonard was born in New Orleans in 1925 and by the time he died in 2013 had published over f…
On Politics: Labour's Problems [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:07
When Keir Starmer brought Labour back to government last year with a majority of 174, many talked about two or even three terms in power. But over fourteen months the prime minister has run into numerous problems, losing…
Selling the Manosphere [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:59
The manosphere, Emily Witt writes in a recent piece for the LRB, is the ‘online network of male supremacist websites, influencers and YouTube channels’ whose popularity has exploded in the last fifteen years. Perceiving…