Disorder

The morning after the 2026 US midterms, Jason Pack and Jane Kinninmont reunite for an emergency episode of Disorder to celebrate what Jason calls the greatest victory for American democracy in his lifetime. The predicted blue wave has become a blue tsunami, with Democrats making extraordinary gains in traditionally Republican territory, from Texas to South Carolina. Trump has even accepted the res...

In honour of the 2026 midterms, Jason is joined by Beau Breslin, Skidmore College political scientist and author of ‘A Constitution for the Living’, to ask a rather awkward question: what if America’s political dysfunction isn’t just about Trump, polarization or bad politicians — but the unintended consequences of the Constitution itself? From Jefferson’s argument for rewriting the Constitution ev...

Jason and Jane are back with your questions — and an encouragingly modest agenda: saving centrism, standing by Ukraine, surviving the US midterms, tackling climate change and keeping the Red Sea open. Is anti-incumbency a symptom of a broken social contract? Can democracies outlast Putin without American leadership? And is a protest movement without a concrete demand doomed to achieve nothing? We...

As right-wing populist and far-right parties see a major rise across Europe, Nigel Farage is one of the most consequential politicians of our time.   He may be the UK’s next Prime Minister.  Investigative journalist, and best-selling author, John Sweeney is a thorn in Nigel Farage’s side. He is the Reform UK correspondent of the Nerve. He has covered wars, revolutions and disorder in a hundred cou...

From tear gassing student protestors in France to Britain’s chaotic party conferences with their controversial motions, Jason and Jane ask whether Western democracies can still deliver anything positive for the next generation. They take on Labour’s spending promises, the Tory’s bizzarre tax cut pledges, the Greens’ Zionism is Racism controversy and the growing power of bond markets over elected g...

Jason is joined by former Kentucky congressional candidate Erin Petrie, board member of Bourbon Women and active DAR member, to dissect the ideological clash at the heart of the American left. They discuss whether progressive slogans like "abolish ICE" drive moderate voters into Trumpism, how Citizens United and billionaire donors have created a pay-to-play system and why politicians in Wa...

What exactly is “War Putinism” — and how long can it survive? Jason is joined by Russia expert Mark Galeotti, host of In Moscow’s Shadows , to get inside the increasingly militarised, kleptocratic system Putin has built. They discuss Russia’s recent Duma elections, whether the war economy is devouring Russia’s future, how corruption changes when elites stop believing the system will last forever,...

This is a story about an Israeli and a Palestinian who refuse to give up. Instead, they teach us that “Peace is an action”. Rejecting revenge and rage, Aziz offers an image that stays with us: anger is like nuclear power. It can destroy, or it can light a path. This is a conversation about what it takes to choose the latter, and what the rest of us might do next. Maoz Inon's parents were kille...

Four and a half years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin hasn’t won. But Russia hasn’t been isolated either. In this episode of Disorder latest, Jason is joined by Russia expert Hanna Notte, author of We Shall Outlast Them: Putin’s Global Campaign to Defeat the West , to explore how the Ukraine war has become the organising principle of Russian foreign policy — and a much wider s...

It’s our favourite time of the month: listener questions time! Jason and Jane tackle migration and assimilation, the rise of the AfD and neo-populism, and what Keir Starmer’s legacy tells us about the failure of technocratic politics to offer a compelling vision of the future. Then: is AI going to destroy humanity — or merely our jobs and our sanity? Could agentic AI military systems create their...

Twenty-five years after 9/11, did America respond to an attack on the Western Order by inadvertently helping to disorder that Order itself? Jason is joined by Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Ben Hodges, former Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe, to look back at 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan and the collapse of NATO allies trust in the USA—and forward to how Ukraine can win and the defence of Europe. Hodges argues t...

A great power battle is emerging between Russia, China and Washington… and Europe teeters on the edge of all three. Could this break up the union? And is the European reliance on America over? To find out, Jason is joined by author and Director of the Moynihan Center of European Studies at Syracuse University, Glyn Morgan. His latest book The Rise and Fall of American Europe charts the rise and fa...

This week, Jason is joined by one of his academic idols, Laura Spinney. Laura is a much-esteemed author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World, and her incredible newer book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global. PROTO tells the story of how modern Indo-European languages came into being North of the Black Sea and then traveled East—the length of the steppe, nort...

This week Jason is joined by old friend and former Disorder co-host Arthur Snell, former British diplomat, host of Behind the Lines , and author of Elemental: The New Geography of Climate Change and How We Survive It . Jason and Arthur start with the seemingly never-ending Iran war. Has Trump’s threatened “economic D-Day” achieved anything? Has it really even been implemented? Jason argues that Ir...

In this episode, we return to Simon Sebag Montefiore’s tour de force, The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East. Jason and Sebag divide the continuation of their discussion into two parts: 1) An analysis of what makes the Middle East a ‘Cauldron’ and what has the region’s role in 20th and 21st century global history been as an exporter of disorder or importer and then processor of the glo...

This week, Jason is joined by esteemed British historian and author, Simon Sebag Montefiore, to discuss his latest book, The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East. Jason and Sebag’s discussion ranges over centuries of history and ping pongs back and forth on myriad topics. It tries to make the peripheral central by putting the non-Arab, non-Sunni groups at the centre of understanding the...

Welcome to ‘Out of Order’ with Mark Lobel. A new series, in partnership with Disorder. Remarkable people, unguarded. Each month, Emmy nominated journalist Mark Lobel meets some of the world’s most interesting people to understand the moments that made them who they are; and where they see hope in our mad mad mad mad world when so much feels out of order. In his most revealing interview yet, Charle...

To celebrate Jason's 2nd place finish at the World Backgammon Championships, we're rerunning a classic episode of Disorder; centred around the game itself and the lessons it provides for the Mega Ordering community. If you didn’t hear this when it came out in July, 2025, I think you’ll enjoy checking it out now. We’ve heard about Putin bluffing. Abraham Lincoln was an accomplished poker pl...

Jason and Jane are back from their holidays – Jason celebrating making the Finals of the World Championships of Backgammon and winning the Silver Medal, and Jane reflecting on her time in Morocco. But soon as they discuss the state of the world, Disorder enters as they disagree agreeably about devolution in the UK. Plus: what can or is being done with the climate crisis, and what does Abdul El-Say...

For summer recess, we return to our favourite episodes of all time where we explain the very essence of our conception of the Enduring Disorder as a period where international institutions tend not to work and where coordinating the allies to stay on the same page about things like defence, climate change, and taxation is a tremendous challenge. The rare exception is NATO, it mostly works even if...

This week on Disorder latest, Jason is joined by Dr Florence Gaub, futurist, military strategist, and Director of the Research Division at the NATO Defense College. Florence has spent her career thinking professionally about something most of us do rather badly: systematically plan for the future.    Her book,  The Future: A User’s Guide , was a best seller in German. It is now available in Englis...

For summer recess, we return to our favourite episodes of all time where we explain the very essence of our conception of the Enduring Disorder as a period in which Disordering Neo-populists have come to power and have made the world more disorderly so they can stay in power. If you didn’t hear this when it came out on Sept 19, 2023--when we launched--I think you’ll enjoy checking it out now. Over...

This week, Jason is joined by a real life Mega-Orderer--Jamison Firestone, acclaimed lawyer, author, and activist. He witnessed firsthand Russia's descent from the promise of the Yeltsin years into the corruption and authoritarianism of Vladimir Putin's regime. Firestone was also the employer and close colleague of Sergei Magnitsky, whose death after exposing a massive tax fraud inspired t...

In this episode of Disorder latest, Jason updates on the for-ever war in Iran and the Straight of Hormuz and how the disorder we are experiencing over there is conceptually connected to the bigger concepts of the Disorder pod: the Global Enduring Disorder and the rise of the Neopopulists. He does this via a conversation on the Disinformation Detox with Nolan Higdon, which we air with our own intro...

Fresh from her trip to Ankara for the NATO Summit, Jane rejoins Jason to discuss what she learned about NATO, the mood among the allies, and why the Europeans are moving further away from Trump. Plus: Farage’s resignation and by-election, how that is connected to the Marine Le Pen court ruling in France, and then to Order the Disorder: Jason argues that we should look no further than the America’s...