| Blowback | |
| Language: | American English |
| Updates: | Annually |
| Length: | 30-60 Minutes |
| Num Seasons: | 5 |
| Num Episodes: | 50 |
| Began: | March 16, 2020 |
Blowback is a podcast about American history and foreign policy hosted by Noah Kulwin and Brendan James, former producer, and frequent guest of Chapo Trap House.[1] [2]
The first season of the show was a ten part series dedicated to the Iraq War.[3] Throughout the show audio clips from MSNBC and CNN and readings of news reports are provided as well as satirical skits performed by H. Jon Benjamin.[4] The second season of the show focuses on U.S. intervention before and after the Cuban revolution, and includes more interviews with those who experienced the events discussed first hand.[5] The third season of the show released in July 2022 and covers the events surrounding the Korean War.[6] The fourth season of the show began its release in August 2023, discussing the American involvement in Afghanistan, touching on subjects which mainly focus on Operation Cyclone and its consequences. Season five released in September 2024 and covers the United States bombing campaign in Cambodia known as Operation Menu, the subsequent rise of the Khmer Rouge and the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea.[7]
While focused on the Iraq War, season 1 begins by examining the early relationship between the United States and Iraq. This includes the United States support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War. In an interview with Gizmodo when asked about the reasons for the United States invasion of Iraq James responded "to what extent the war was to profit off of a newly acquired Iraqi oil industry is a more of an interesting question. It certainly was the main reason why we targeted Iraq, not even just with the Iraq War in 2003 but in 1991. The reason that Iraq could even be in the position to piss America off was because we had made friends with it due to its status as a strong oil producer and its strategic position against Iran, another very strong oil producer".[8]
James announced a fourth season on his Twitter account in December 2022, to be released in Summer 2023. Season four covers Operation Cyclone and its consequences, including the creation of al-Qaeda and the September 11, 2001 attacks. [9]
According to Vince Mancini of UPROXX and Derek Robertson of Politico, Blowback was "painstakingly researched" and didactic in its approach, "bombarding the listener with the host's sturm-und-drang argument about the Iraq War as a portal to hell that directly caused our modern-day political ills".[10] [11] In a comparison of Blowback and Slow Burn, Slate's podcast about the Iraq War, Derek Robertson of Politico described Blowback as "an unapologetically left-wing re-examination of the war’s many causes and ongoing effects". Jake Greenberg of Podcast Review wrote that "Blowback is an excellent piece of history, one that documents the misadventures, deceits, and war crimes" of the Iraq War.[12] Podcast Review called the topic of the second season "a tremendous fit for James and Kulwin's style".[13] In a review from Jacobin, Blowback is described as being "thoroughly contextualized, fully explained, blow-by-blow account of how and why the United States government ginned up a case for war in Iraq — all the junk intelligence, media manipulation, and diplomatic arm-twisting — and what happened when our military got there."
Boing Boing praised season 2, saying "James and Kulwin demonstrate diligent and expansive research, compiling audio interviews and newspaper reports from that time, consulting existing historical monographs, as well as contemporary interviews with participants that shed light on new information as well as complicating the inherited narratives about these wars."[14]
In a review for season 3, James Greig wrote in Jacobin that "Blowback, while interested in excavating history, is ultimately about how these events and strategies still shape politics today and continue to determine which countries the United States positions as villains."[15] Jake Cole, writing for Hyperallergic, emphasizes this, "The voluminous background detail and interest in the far-reaching impacts of foreign policy could easily lend itself to conspiracy-minded extemporization, but James and Kulwin never make an assertion not backed up by considerable evidence. This also armors them against potential backlash to their openly leftist bias.[16]