Video Games, War, and Capitalism—With Adam Ganser and Michael Swaim
On this episode of the American Prestige podcast, a discussion on the confluence of history, US foreign policy, and capitalism in video games.

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
J D Vance said it most clearly: for the Trump people, “The universities are the enemy.” That’s why Trump is cutting billions of federal funding and making impossible demands that threaten dozens of universities. But universities have begun to resist. Michael Roth comments– he's president of Wesleyan, and was the first university president to speak out against Trump’s attacks.
Also: Trump is not the worst president when it comes to constitutional rights and civil liberties; Woodrow Wilson was worse. Adam Hochschild explains why – starting with jailing thousands of people whose only crime was speaking out against the president. Adam’s most recent book is 'American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis.'
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A competitor plays Call of Duty Advanced Warfare during the Electronic Sports World Cup in Paris.
(Alain Jocard / AFP via Getty Images)From action-packed blockbusters to contemplative indies, video games have portrayed politics and violence in myriad ways.
On this episode of the American Prestige podcast, Danny and Derek sit down with Adam Ganser and Michael Swaim of the 1Upsmanship podcast to discuss the confluence of history, US foreign policy, and capitalism in video games. The group broaches topics like the implicit politics of first-person shooters, the capitalist logic in games based on survival and growth, the portrayal of governments in different series, and how far developers can go to portray the reality of war in a game.
Check out more of Adam and Michael’s work at their Small Beans podcast network.

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
On this episode of American Prestige, we once again speak with Mohammad Alsaafin, journalist at AJ+, this time to talk about where things stand in Gaza and the West Bank. We discuss the collapse of the January ceasefire, the blockade on Gaza aid, the push for outright ethnic cleansing in Gaza, what country would be willing to aid Israel in that effort, what it would mean for Hamas to disarm, Israel taking the same approach to Jenin and its environs in the West Bank as Gaza, and more.
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