The US-Iran-Israel War has been raging for over 3 months, and regardless of the next phase, something has fundamentally changed in the Mideast and globally. What led to the crisis? Why is the ceasefire/peace deal so fragile? How was the Strait of Hormuz transformed into such a critical point of leverage? What is the Escalation Trap, and why did the U.S. fall into it? How can we analyze the conflict within the context of the Escalation Trap? What do we need to understand about the illusion of air power? What are the escalation and de-escalation pathways? Furthermore, what are the geopolitical & economic consequences of this conflict over the short and long term? What should we expect in the next phase? We spoke to Prof. Robert Pape, the renowned political scientist & international security affairs expert, who developed the Escalation Trap framework, to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of the conflict. Part 1 of 2.

Young men today are in the middle of a crisis that has largely gone unnoticed until recently. The Netflix show "Adolescence" lifted the veil, and Louis Theroux's new "Manosphere" documentary opened up the conversation. But what is really driving the crisis and what's driving the rise of incel culture, red pill culture, popular trends like "looksmaxxing," and the manosphere in general? What's behind the male loneliness epidemic, increased depression rates and sobering socio-economic statistics? What do we need to know about incel culture – including its origin and pervasive influence? What are the perceived dynamics of the sexual marketplace as viewed through the red pill? For the first episode in our "Red Pill" mini-series, we turned to Prof. Miriam Lindner, a social and evolutionary psychologist who examines violent cognition and the dark sides of human group living – focusing on intergroup aggression, microaggressions, hate crime, and terrorist violence.

On June 17, 1971, President Nixon officially declared the "war on drugs". Now, 55 years removed, 10 presidents later, and with over $1T spent, that war is still ongoing, and demand continues to surge in line with trafficking, crime, and violence. What do we need to understand about the nature of the "war on drugs" and the organizations involved in narco- and human trafficking? Why is it important to view "cartels" as complex adaptive systems instead of cartels? What is the blindspot in the U.S. "kingpin" strategy? How is the trafficking landscape changing, and how is technology re-shaping the approach on both sides? What are we missing in the overall analysis, and how can we separate fact from fiction? Our guest is Dr. Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, a leading expert on cartels and transnational crime, and the author of Los Zetas Inc.: Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico and (forthcoming) Cartels Inc: A "New Generation" of Criminal Networks.