JIM WEBB PODCAST

Thanks to our channel sponsor: ExpatMoney.com/Jim. - get your free Plan B report today. Supporting our sponsors, supports the show. Download your free guide today. ExpatMoney.com/Jim A free country does not feel free when your boss can read your mail, search your home at 2 a.m., and decide what your preacher is allowed to say. We sit down with Darryl Cooper, also known as Martyr Made, to trace the...

The fastest way to misunderstand the US-Iran escalation is to treat it like a single “strike and response” story. What we’re watching is a collision between agreements that got shredded, a choke point that can’t be ignored, and an energy system that runs on specifics most of us never learned. Larry Johnson joins us to lay out how a memorandum of understanding supposedly limited threats and militar...

Trump goes back to Iran with the kind of rhetoric that turns diplomacy into debris, then piles on with strikes and threats that make the MOU look functionally dead. We break down how you get from “negotiations” to escalation in a single news cycle, why the Strait of Hormuz is the economic tripwire hiding in plain sight, and how sanctions policy can boomerang into higher oil prices and political pa...

Something big is happening in American politics, and you can feel it in the weird places first: a World Cup officiating firestorm, a Senate succession rumor mill, and a younger electorate that no longer trusts either party to deliver. We start with Robert Barnes breaking down Team USA’s run, the Balogun red card reversal, and why “fixing an injustice” matters more than defending broken procedure,...

Netanyahu is coming to Washington, and the timing is almost too perfect: Israel is staring down a brutal fall election, the Gaza war keeps poisoning U.S. politics, and reports say Netanyahu’s government is prepared to defy Israel’s own Supreme Court. That is not just a legal fight. To us, it reads like a stress test for institutions, media control, and what happens when leaders decide the rules on...

Today we're celebrating **America's 250th** by taking a short break from our regular live program to reflect on the ideas, debates, and history that continue to shape our republic. In this special **Best of The Jim Webb Podcast**, we've assembled some of our favorite conversations and moments from recent episodes. These clips explore America's founding principles, war and peace, fo...

Nuclear risk is back in the headlines, but the scariest part is how casually powerful people talk about “testing limits.” We sit down with Scott Horton to unpack why the Ukraine war keeps inching toward wider conflict, how drone strikes and long range weapons blur lines, and why the old mutually assured destruction mindset has been dangerously inverted. When deterrence becomes a dare instead of a...

Bobby Bonita Day is supposed to be a fun sports meme, but we use it to highlight a darker kind of deferred payment: the long-term cost of a political system run by leaders who are well past the point of accountability. We start with the newly released 911 audio tied to Mitch McConnell’s medical emergency and ask the blunt question that everyone dances around: what happens when the people shaping U...

The “no meeting scheduled” headline sounds small until you trace what it’s sitting on top of: a disputed MOU, a live-fire exchange around the Strait of Hormuz, and a U.S. posture that may be more exit than escalation. Larry Johnson joins me to walk through why Iran says it never asked for direct talks, how transit protocols are being enforced on the water, and why public claims of leverage do not...

Something doesn’t add up in the way Iran is explained to Americans and when the headlines shift from airstrikes to “talks are back on” in the span of a weekend, the confusion only gets worse. I’m joined by journalist Patrick Henningsen, who brings rare on the ground context from Iran just before the bombing, to unpack what ordinary Iranians debate, how they view U.S. politics, and why the usual bl...

“Socialism” and “unions” didn’t start as online punchlines. For a lot of American workers in the late 1800s, they were the language of getting fed, staying alive, and pushing back when companies and the state treated human beings like expendable parts. We sit down with Darryl Cooper to trace how the United States changed so fast that people went from expecting independence and ownership to realizi...

A 250-foot “triumphal arch” planted between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery sounds like a design fight, but we think it exposes a much more dangerous habit: skipping the constitutional process and daring Congress to do something about it. Jim Webb sits down with his father, Jim Webb, decorated Marine, former Senator, and former Secretary of the Navy, to trace how a single monu...

A top general abruptly retires, and the story quickly turns into a bigger question we cannot dodge: why does the US military punish small mistakes fast, but let senior leaders skate after disasters? We sit down with Doug MacGregor to sort through the Donahue news, the bureaucracy problem, and the culture of promotion that can reward influence over outcomes. If you’ve been searching for a clear con...

Getting sanctioned by the EU is one thing. Getting sanctioned without being shown real evidence is another. I sit down with Colonel Jacques Baud, a former Swiss intelligence officer and NATO advisor, to unpack how he ended up on an EU sanctions list that blocks access to banking and travel while he lives in Brussels. He walks us through what his lawyers found when they demanded the EU’s supporting...

“We’re going to bomb Moscow” used to sound like an unthinkable nightmare. Now it shows up as a headline and barely registers. That’s where we start, because once taboos break, they don’t magically come back and the consequences ripple from Ukraine to Iran to US domestic politics. I’m joined by Alex Christoforou (The Duran) to sort through what’s actually happening behind the noise and what the inc...

A ceasefire gets announced, and then the bombs keep falling. That contradiction kicks off a blunt conversation with Darryl Cooper about the Middle East, Israel and Hezbollah, and why the United States no longer gets to “allow” outcomes in the Iran war like it’s flipping a switch. We walk through what it means when a war ends without the military objectives we started with, and why that kind of fai...

A “peace deal” is about to take effect, yet Israel is still carrying out combat operations in Lebanon and openly talking about expanded buffer zones. We walk through why that detail changes everything for Iran, why Lebanon is treated as inseparable from the broader conflict, and how a ceasefire without enforcement quickly turns into a prelude to escalation. If you’re trying to figure out whether t...

A “deal” doesn’t mean much if nobody can even agree on what’s in it. We sit down with Larry Johnson to sort through the growing confusion around the Iran memorandum of understanding, including reports of competing versions, rumored electronic signatures, and the single line that seems to matter most: an immediate, comprehensive ceasefire that includes Lebanon. Then we ask the uncomfortable questio...

A ceasefire can be announced in minutes and collapse in seconds, so we slow down and ask the only question that matters: is the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding actually enforceable, or is it a pause that buys time while the Israel Lebanon conflict keeps burning? I walk through why Iran is treating Lebanon as the make-or-break condition, why the Strait of Hormuz staying constrained is real le...

The market popped on a promise: a Trump-brokered Iran agreement that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz and ease a global energy squeeze. But when a headline lands right before futures reopen, I can’t help asking whether we’re seeing diplomacy or gamesmanship. Oil prices, the Nikkei, and US stocks all react instantly, even though the public still has almost no verified detail from the US side about...

Lebanon isn’t a side quest, it’s the pressure point that can keep a US Iran war simmering for years. We sit down with journalist and geopolitical analyst Patrick Henningson, founder of 21st Century Wire, to unpack why Lebanon remains under covered, why the framing around Hezbollah is so politically useful in Washington, and why that framing can make diplomacy feel “impossible” by design. We break...

“We’ll negotiate with bombs” is the kind of line that should stop you cold, especially when it’s paired with fresh strikes on Iran and talk of ground troops. We sit down with Dan McKnight, founder of Bring Our Troops Home and a longtime Marine, Army, and National Guard veteran, to unpack what this moment says about U.S. foreign policy and why the constant recycling of “imminent threats” and instan...

Checkout our sponsor: KillerInstinctCoffee.com A lot of people use “populism” like a slur, but the older American meaning is blunt and practical: the will of the people pushing back on concentrated power. Darrell Cooper joins me to map that fight across US history, starting with Andrew Jackson as the first true national populist figure and asking why he still triggers strong reactions today. We ta...

The fastest way to understand American power is to watch where it mysteriously stops. We start with Trump’s constant “deal with Iran is coming” talk, his public back-and-forth over Netanyahu, and the recurring promise that a ceasefire is always just days away. Then we ask the uncomfortable question out loud: if Israel is a US-backed client state that depends on American money, weapons, and diploma...

Thanks to our channel sponsor, KillerInstinctCoffee.com. Grab some great coffee today! A foreign ally allegedly spying at the highest levels, a ceasefire track that keeps getting derailed, and Washington looking like it cannot steer its own policy. That’s the knot we try to untangle with returning guest Robert Barnes as we react to reporting about a Defense Intelligence Agency leak on Israeli esp...