Blood Work

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon. Gregk speaks to the author of a new book on US-Iran relations to place the two countries’ braided history in its proper context and make sense of… how we got here. Axis of Empire: A History of US-Iran Relations is out now, available from Verso Image: A photograph of a large anti-USA mural painted on the side of a residential apartment block in downtown Tehran Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: VetClaims.AI For this week’s newsletter, we present four articles which collectively paint an interesting picture of our current conjecture, beginning with the text of Iran’s fourteen-point MoU with the US, running through the UFC spectacle at the White House, and concluding with an excellent recently-published interview with Alberto Toscano.

Genghis Tron’s keyboardist and programmer joins us to talk about the band’s new record and making despair-laden music in a collapsing world. GENGHIS TRON: SIGNAL FIRE — OUT NOW. STREAM HERE PHYSICAL COPIES & MERCH AVAILABLE VIA: – Bandcamp – Relapse Records – Rough Trade (UK) – Shirt Killer Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

We explore the cultural history of rug-weaving in Afghanistan, and how decades of war caused that country’s craft and conditions into a morbid reciprocity. If you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Super Smash TVALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOThis week, some light entertainment for you, in the form of recent developments surrounding the Trump administration’s planned UFC fight on the White House lawn as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations. Sources: Afghan Rug Shop, ‘80cm x 60cm Fall of Afghanistan War Rug’, Afghan Rug Shop Naman P. Ahuja (2019), ‘War Rugs’, Marg Publications, available via academia.edu Max Allen (2008), ‘Battleground: War Rugs from Afghanistan’, Textile Museum of Canada, available via archive.org Rachel Edman (2020), ‘An introduction to War Rugs’, MacGuffin Magazine, available via Rachel Edman Bettina Gräf (2023), ‘Drone Rugs: Knotted Images as a Reminder of the Cruel Global Present’, Suzanna in the Bath. Essays on Middle East Studies and Public Discourse, available via academia.edu Impart (2025), ‘Afghan War Rugs’, Impart Nigel Lendon and Tim Bonyhady, Rugs of War (Wordpress) RespectableLawyer (2018), ‘THREAD: Afghan War Rugs and the Lossy Compression of Cultural Coding’, Twitter/X, available via Threadreader and archive.today Ron O’Callaghan (2003), ‘Afghan War Rugs: A Sub-group With Iranian Influence’, Rug Review, available via archive.today Kevin Sudeith, WarRug.com Brian Spooner (2011), ‘Afghan Wars, Oriental Carpets, and Globalization’, Expedition (53:1), available at Penn Museum Pamela D. Toler (2021), ‘How Afghanistan’s “Rugs of War” Helped Its Citizens Tell the Story of Conflict’, Historynet Kelly Wilson (2014), ‘Afghan War Rugs’, Art Amongst War: Visual Culture in Afghanistan, 1979-2014 (Exhibition Booklet), The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) Art Gallery, available via academia.edu Image: A high quality example of a typical 9/11 war rug, woven and knotted by hand in the aftermath of the 2002 US invasion of Afghanistan

Do Your Own Research: Conspiracy, Paranoia & the Drive to Violence w/ Julian Feeld Julian and Gregk discuss the history of conspiracy, lone wolves, mass psychoses, and his new show SUPER STRUCTURE on the power of propaganda, political repression & revolutionary struggle. If you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter Image: ‘Pizzagate’ gunman Edgar Maddison Welch being apprehended by police shortly after storming the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington D.C. on December 4, 2016. (Sathi Soma/AP) Follow Julian Feeld on Instagram Learn more about SUPER STRUCTURE at their website or follow the show on Instagram Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Before the LawALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOThis week, Gregk presents three separate news stories which each communicate different but interrelated ideas about the relation between law and violence, particularly in our present conjuncture.

In the first of a two-parter, we trace the evolution of the modern city from industrialisation to the 1970s, when a trio of crises laid the foundation for an anti-political backlash If you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter Image: A photograph taken on Leyden Street, London, during the 1979 ‘Winter of Discontent’ (Source: Maurice Hibberd/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Even in Death, They Will Still Degrade YouALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOFor this week’s newsletter, Gregk uses a resurfaced comment by filmmaker Joe Russo from 2023 to provide some commentary on the modern AI craze and the historical ties between technology, pornography, and violence. Sources: Robert A. Beauregard (2006), When America Became Suburban Jordan T. Camp & Christina Heatherton [eds.] (2016), Policing the PlanetL Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter Peter Eisinger (2000), ‘The Politics of Bread and Circuses: Building the City for the Visitor Class’, Urban Affairs Review [35:3] Antonio Gramsci (1971), Selections from the Prison Notebooks Stuart Hall et al (1978), Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order Margaret Kohn (2004), Brave New Neighborhoods: The Privatisation of Public Space Mark Neocleous (2021), A Critical Theory of Police Power Paul A. Passavant (2021), Policing Protest: The Post-Democratic State and the Figure of Black Insurrection

Joe and Gregk use Gregory Stanton’s ‘Ten Stages of Genocide’ to discuss the tactics & techniques states deploy to legitimise and perpetrate mass murder. Image: Remains of victims of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide retrieved from a mass grave in Huye District in January, 2024. Follow Joe Kassabian on Bluesky Listen to Lions Led by Donkeys Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Blue DanubeALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOFor this week’s newsletter, enjoy some brief thoughts on the election results which rolled out of Hungary last week, and what it might mean for that country and Europe now that the American right’s favourite lap-dog is hitting the skids. Sources: Gregory Stanton (1996), ‘Ten Stages of Genocide’, available at Genocide Watch

We look at the history of women’s participation in suicide bombing attacks and how society has tried to make sense of women who carry out the most extreme political act of all. If you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: If You Want Blood…ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOFor this week’s newsletter, we take a look at a recent essay by Iranian diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif in Foreign Affairs and provide some commentary on what he gets right and why, and also why neither Washington nor Tehran are likely to listen to him. Sources: BBC, ‘UK Fire girl still defiant’, BBC Burku Pinar Alacoc (2018), ‘Femme Fatale: The Lethality of Female Suicide Bombers’, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism Mia Bloom (2007), ‘Female suicide bombers’, Daedalus John Campbell (2020), ‘Women, Boko Haram and Suicide Bombings’, Council on Foreign Relations Paige Whaley Eager (2008), From Freedom Fighters to Terrorists: Women and Political Violence Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Associaton (FFI-LEHI), ‘Raskin, Fania – Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Association’ Jordan Galehan (2019), ‘Instruments of Violence: Female suicide bombers of Boko Haram’, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice Audrey Gillan (17 Feb 1999), ‘'We came here not to get out alive. We're ready for anything'’, The Guardian Bilal Tawfiq Hamamra (2018), ‘Witness and martyrdom: Palestinian female martyrs’ video-testimonies’, Journal for Cultural Research Vesna Markovic (2019), ‘Suicide Squad: Boko Haram’s Use of the Female Suicide Bomber’, Justice, Law, and Public Safety Studies Department Faculty Articles Tanya Narozhna and W. Andy Knight (2016), Female Suicide Bombings: A Critical Gender Approach Al Chukwuma Okoli, ‘Gender and Terror: Boko Haram and the Abuse of Women in Nigeria’, available at Georgetown Journal of International Affairs Ann Preesman (2021), ‘Female Suicide Bombers: An Uncomfortable Truth’, available at King’s College, London G. Julie Rajan (2011), Women Suicide Bombers: Narratives of Violence Leandra Bathal Serrano (2024), ‘Female Suicide Bombers As A Security Threat: Towards A More Comprehensive And Inclusive Approach’, available at European Student Think Tank Keren Wang (2025), ‘Boko Haram’s Strategic Use of Female Suicide Bombers: Where Women Have No Choices’, Politics and Security Governance Image: A photograph of Sana’a Mehaidli, 16, a Lebanese woman who became the first female suicide bomber in 1985.

Gareth and Rocz join Gregk to account for the many crimes of modernity’s slow, silent killers – engineers, technicians, and urban planners. Follow Gareth and Rocz on Bluesky Watch Well There’s Your Problem on YouTube Watch RailNatter on YouTube Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: The PendulumALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOThis week, we’ve got two stories about different pendulum swings in the political world, and the people attempting to ride the wave and come out unscathed. They’re stories about elites in political media, and so there are no winners, only losers. But spare a thought for them, won’t you? Or don’t. They're all reprehensible. Image: An overhead photograph of the ‘Futurama’ diorama presented at the 1939 World’s Fair created by Norman Bel Geddes with sponsorship from General Motors [GM].

We trace the evolution of international arms transfers from mercantilism to the modern era, and the perverse incentives produced by the symbiosis of private enterprise and state imperatives in arms production. Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Killstreak InboundALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOInspired by the Pentagon’s recent deployment of computer game graphics to promote its illegal bombardment of Iran, producer Thomas takes a longer view at the relationship between the United States military and the video games industry. Sources: Amnesty International (June 1995), ‘RWANDA: Arming the Perpetrators of the Genocide’, available at Amnesty.org Jonathan Beatty and S. C. Gwynne (1993), The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart Of BCCI Steve Boggan (Nov. 23, 1996), ‘Bloody trade that fuels Rwanda's war (Operation Insecticide), available at The Independent Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 George Cryle (2003), Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History Owen Greene and Nicholas Marsh (eds.) (2012), Small Arms, Crime and Conflict: Global Governance and the Threat of Armed Violence Nicholas Kotarski (2018), ‘Whose Monster? A Study in the Rise to Power of al Qaeda and the Taliban’, History Theses, 47 Keith Krause (1992), Arms and the State: Patterns of Military Production and Trade Mamello Mosiana, Hennie van Vuuren and Daniel Ford (Nov. 13, 2024), ‘Unaccountable 00040 | Willem ‘Ters’ Ehlers – apartheid’s secretary turned genocide arms dealer’, available at Open Secrets John U. Nef (1950), War and Human Progress: An Essay on the Rise of Industrial Civilization Robert Pear (Apr. 18, 1988), ‘Arming Afghan Guerrillas: A Huge Effort Led by U.S.’, available at The New York Times(archived) Frederic S. Pearson (1994), The Global Spread of Arms: Political Economy of Economic Security Peter Dale Scott (2007), The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America William Shawcross (1988), The Shah’s Last Ride Stockholm International Peace Research Institute [SIPRI] (2010), ‘End-User Certificates: Improving Standards to Prevent Diversion’, available at SIPRI Stockholm International Peace Research Institute [SIPRI] (2024), ‘The SIPRI Top 100 Arms-Producing and Military Services Companies, 2024’, available at SIPRI Rachel Stohl and Suzette Grillot (2009), The International Arms Trade Joe Stork (Nov. 1, 1995), ‘The Middle East Arms Bazaar After the Gulf War’, available at Middle East Research and Information Project Andrew T. H. Tan (ed.) (2010), The Global Arms Trade: A Handbook Adam Tooze (Mar. 23, 2023), ‘Chartbook 204: Iraq’s economic impasse twenty years after the invasion’, available at Chartbook | Adam Tooze Mark Townsend (Oct. 28, 2025), ‘UK military equipment used by militia accused of genocide found in Sudan, UN told’, available at The Guardian Matt Wells (Feb. 10, 2000), ‘Arms firm linked to Rwandan army chief’, available at The Guardian Brian Wood and Johan Peleman (2000), The Arms Fixers. Controlling the Brokers and Shipping Agents Image: Soldiers patrol outside of Goma International Airport in North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo (2022)

We begin our history of the most famous firearm of all time with a prologue: Because in order to understand how we got here, you gotta understand where we came from. Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Little Marco’s Big SpeechALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOThis week, we discuss the thinly-veiled white nationalist vision laid out by Marco Rubio in his Munich Security Conference speech. But first, we provide a little background on the man himself and what it means that a man like that would be giving such a speech—because this might be one of those cases where the medium is the message. Sources: C. J. Chivers (2010), The Gun: The Story of the AK-47 Larry Kahaner (2008), AK-47: The Weapon that Changed the Face of War Chris McNab (2001), The AK-47 Image: The American-British entrepreneur Hiram Maxim posing with his eponymous Maxim Gun.

Prompted by a meditation on mercenaries, Gregk consults the henchest man in ancient history to discuss ancient forms of violence work and whether our current conjuncture is really a rupture, or more a return to form.Follow Patrick Wyman on BlueskyListen to Past LivesListen to Tides of HistoryBlood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter Image: A group of unidentified mercenaries operating in Gaza, 2025. THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: WEST MIAMI ANTISOCIAL CLUBALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO For this week’s newsletter, we situate the United States’ latest wave of aggression against Cuba within the longer histories of the the twentieth and nineteenth centuries, stripping back the various narratives the western hemisphere’s imperial master has layered, like wallpaper, over its designs on Cuba over decades.

Gareth and Gregk discuss what happens when a group of football hooligans decide to elevate their violent bloodlust into a fully-fledged political movement. (Spoiler: Bad, stupid things.)Follow Gareth Watkins on Bluesky Read his recent article, “Has Ukip Gone Full Nazi?” in The New StatesmanRead his excellent essay, “AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism” in New SocialistListen to the Death // Sentence podcast Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT KobelIf you enjoyed this episode:– Support Blood Work via Patreon– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: OLD WORLD BRB, NEW WORLD AFKALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOThis week, we took a look at Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent address at Davos in which he declared the end of the ‘rules-based international order’ (while conceding this had always been US hegemony draped in a convenient fiction) plus recent developments regarding Trump’s grotesque Board of Peace foundation, and provide some thoughts on where we now stand, how we got there, and who walked us there, step by step. Sources: Nick Lowles (2014 [2001]), White Riot: The Violent Story of Combat 18

Gregk speaks to the award-winning national security journalist Spencer Ackerman about the long shadows of 9/11 and the War on Terror, how America’s response to those events contributed to its current condition, the media’s role in justifying and legitimating state violence, and much more.Spencer Ackerman is a national security journalist whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Wired, The Nation, Zeteo and many other publications, and whose career has spanned almost the entirety of the Global War on Terror. In 2014, he shared the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for his work at The Guardian on Edward Snowden’s disclosures surrounding the NSA’s global surveillance programme. In 2021, he published Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump. He also recently wrote a ten-issue run on IRON MAN for Marvel Comics, currently available in two trade paperbacks. His latest book is The Torture and Deliverance of Majid Khan: A Father, A Son and the War on Terror, forthcoming from Penguin. Spencer is also the founder and proprietor of FOREVER WARS, an ongoing chronicle, investigation and interrogation of the continuities, departures and permutations of the War on Terror If you enjoyed this episode: – Support Blood Work via Patreon – Leave a rating or review on your podcast app – Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter Blood Work is a Scam Goldin ProductionThis episode was produced by Thomas O’MahonyOur theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis TronOur artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE – DEI-Codi For this week’s newsletter, Gregk shares some of his thoughts on the extra-judicial killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 7, 2026, and reflects on the homologies between the Trump administration’s paramilitaries and the death squads that operated in Central and South America during the latter half of the twentieth century – in many cases backed, trained and coordinated by the United States. Image: U.S. Military Police guard detainees within Camp X-Ray at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 2002. (Shane T. McCoy/U.S. Navy/Getty Images)