On September 12, 2001, the day after the fall of the Twin Towers, WABC-AM in New York City recruited John Batchelor to go on the air until Osama bin Laden was either killed or captured. John has been on ever since, offering insightful commentary on such issues as the war on terrorism, the presidency, the national and global economies, and defending our civilization. On March 12, 2003, one week before the attack on Iraq, ABC Radio Networks invited John to bring his expertise to syndication. Since then John has reached out nationwide, focusing his concerns on a world at war.
The John Batchelor Show is an essential tool for understanding the new order in the 21st Century. The world is now facing a dangerous and fanatical enemy determined to destroy Western civilization on both political and military fronts. In this, the first great ideological battle of the new millennium, it is imperative to know the major players and the theaters in which they operate.
The John Batchelor Show features a multitude of distinctive elements. John's themes cover every detail - from military battles, presidential campaigns, planetary exploration, and Hollywood politicos to his own international travel. John has broadcast from many corners of the world and in his program he calls out to all points, including New York, Jerusalem, Des Moines, Kazakhstan, Orlando, Manchester, Morocco, Boston, Taipei, Washington, and Baghdad.
John is a veteran novelist, author of seven political romances as well as a short history of the Republican Party. Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in 1948, John attended Lower Merion High School and Princeton University. In 1976 he was graduated from Union Theological Seminary. John is married and has two children.
S8 Ep115: Dallas, Magpies, and Cockatoo Villains Jeremy Zakis Jeremy Zakis reports that his 11-year-old spoodle, Dallas, continues to be a friend to magpies and other birds, whose non-threatening demeanor makes them comfortable. Meanwhile, the "villain" cockatoos r
S8 Ep115: The Ashes Cricket Debate Jeremy Zakis Australia decisively won the first Ashes test by eight wickets against England in Perth. England's aggressive "Baz" batting strategy, aimed at hitting long balls, spectacularly backfired on the quick, hot pitch, resul
The Ashes Cricket Debate
Jeremy Zakis
Australia decisively won the first Ashes test by eight wickets against England in Perth. England's aggressive "Baz" batting strategy, aimed at hitting long balls, spectacularly backfired on the quick, hot pitch, resulting in the quickest English team exit in Ashes history. Australia secured the win by shifting to a conservative, defensive style of play.
1928
Jeremy Zakis
Australia decisively won the first Ashes test by eight wickets against England in Perth. England's aggressive "Baz" batting strategy, aimed at hitting long balls, spectacularly backfired on the quick, hot pitch, resulting in the quickest English team exit in Ashes history. Australia secured the win by shifting to a conservative, defensive style of play.
1928
S8 Ep115: DIY Snake Catching Classes Emerge Jeremy Zakis Due to a massive snake population boom and a forthcoming shortage of retiring professionals, a new industry offering DIY snake wrangling training has emerged in Australia. Courses, like one run by Dr. Christi
DIY Snake Catching Classes Emerge
Jeremy Zakis
Due to a massive snake population boom and a forthcoming shortage of retiring professionals, a new industry offering DIY snake wrangling training has emerged in Australia. Courses, like one run by Dr. Christina Zenck in Queensland, teach people to safely handle dangerous species, such as brown snakes, using specialized snare poles. This training is crucial because killing protected snakes is illegal.
Jeremy Zakis
Due to a massive snake population boom and a forthcoming shortage of retiring professionals, a new industry offering DIY snake wrangling training has emerged in Australia. Courses, like one run by Dr. Christina Zenck in Queensland, teach people to safely handle dangerous species, such as brown snakes, using specialized snare poles. This training is crucial because killing protected snakes is illegal.
S8 Ep115: Cyclone Fenina Headed for Darwin Jeremy Zakis Cyclone Fenina, described as a one-in-twenty-year monster with 160 mph winds and a 200-mile width, is tracking toward Darwin, Northern Territory. Evacuation advice has been issued but not a mandatory order. Af
Cyclone Fenina Headed for Darwin
Jeremy Zakis
Cyclone Fenina, described as a one-in-twenty-year monster with 160 mph winds and a 200-mile width, is tracking toward Darwin, Northern Territory. Evacuation advice has been issued but not a mandatory order. After hitting the coast, it is expected to dissipate rapidly over the sparse interior. This weather system is pushing hot, humid, stormy air down Australia's east coast, including New South Wales.
1915 DARWIN
Jeremy Zakis
Cyclone Fenina, described as a one-in-twenty-year monster with 160 mph winds and a 200-mile width, is tracking toward Darwin, Northern Territory. Evacuation advice has been issued but not a mandatory order. After hitting the coast, it is expected to dissipate rapidly over the sparse interior. This weather system is pushing hot, humid, stormy air down Australia's east coast, including New South Wales.
1915 DARWIN
S8 Ep114: The Fall of Communism: Top-Down Collapse and the Legacy of Violence in Modern Russia Professor Sean McMeekin The final segment discusses the collapse of communist regimes in 1989, contending that these regimes generally did not fall because of a rising f
- The Fall of Communism: Top-Down Collapse and the Legacy of Violence in Modern Russia
Professor Sean McMeekin
The final segment discusses the collapse of communist regimes in 1989, contending that these regimes generally did not fall because of a rising from the bottom. Instead, the collapse was largely top-down, driven by the disappearance of Soviet coercion or inside palace coups, such as the one that overthrew the Ceaușescus in Romania or the mutiny that lined the armed forces up behind Yeltsin in Russia. In modern Russia, there is a hybrid system that includes statism, control of media, and nostalgia for the Soviet period and Stalin's legacy as a "builder" and "conqueror," but it has jettisoned Lenin and full communism. The core thesis reaffirmed is that extreme violence is the predicate for the communist vision.
The final segment discusses the collapse of communist regimes in 1989, contending that these regimes generally did not fall because of a rising from the bottom. Instead, the collapse was largely top-down, driven by the disappearance of Soviet coercion or inside palace coups, such as the one that overthrew the Ceaușescus in Romania or the mutiny that lined the armed forces up behind Yeltsin in Russia. In modern Russia, there is a hybrid system that includes statism, control of media, and nostalgia for the Soviet period and Stalin's legacy as a "builder" and "conqueror," but it has jettisoned Lenin and full communism. The core thesis reaffirmed is that extreme violence is the predicate for the communist vision.
S8 Ep114: The conversation moves back to the USSR with Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 Secret Speech, which led to disruption in Eastern Europe. The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) is analyzed as an act of traditional great power politics driven by the desire to prove Soviet
The conversation moves back to the USSR with Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 Secret Speech, which led to disruption in Eastern Europe. The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) is analyzed as an act of traditional great power politics driven by the desire to prove Soviet superiority and overturn the strategic balance in intercontinental ballistic missiles. The 1979 invasion of Afghanistan is highlighted as a remarkable mistake that undermined détente and gave the United States an opportunity to pressure the USSR. Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to reform and reinvigorate Soviet communism based on a close reading of Marx and Lenin, but failed because he did not understand that the system was not popular and rested entirely on force.
S8 Ep114: The Nihilism of the Red Guards and Mao's International Maneuvers Professor Sean McMeekin
- The Nihilism of the Red Guards and Mao's International Maneuvers
Professor Sean McMeekin
This segment explores the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966) and the Red Guards, characterized by a "radical cult of youth" and a nihilistic side of communism involving the destruction of urbane, literate civilization and turning against education, books, professors, the elderly, and foreigners. During this time, there was severe tension between Moscow and Beijing in the Sino-Soviet split. Mao utilized the Soviet Union as a useful enemy to demonize and scapegoat opponents internally, while using geopolitical maneuvering—such as coziness with Romania and the eventual opening to the United States—to punch above his weight internationally.
This segment explores the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966) and the Red Guards, characterized by a "radical cult of youth" and a nihilistic side of communism involving the destruction of urbane, literate civilization and turning against education, books, professors, the elderly, and foreigners. During this time, there was severe tension between Moscow and Beijing in the Sino-Soviet split. Mao utilized the Soviet Union as a useful enemy to demonize and scapegoat opponents internally, while using geopolitical maneuvering—such as coziness with Romania and the eventual opening to the United States—to punch above his weight internationally.
S8 Ep114: The focus shifts to Mao Zedong and Chinese communism, which was highly influenced by sharp anti-imperialism and xenophobia, blending the Marxist binary struggle with resentment of foreign exploitation. After Stalin's death, Mao began to "experiment," resu
The focus shifts to Mao Zedong and Chinese communism, which was highly influenced by sharp anti-imperialism and xenophobia, blending the Marxist binary struggle with resentment of foreign exploitation. After Stalin's death, Mao began to "experiment," resulting in the Great Leap Forward, which aimed to rapidly "catch up and surpass the West" by radically overturning agriculture and simultaneously industrializing. This chaotic effort, including the collectivization of agriculture and communal organization, led to a vast famine that caused the deaths of tens of millions of people.
S8 Ep114: The discussion turns to Joseph Stalin and his relationship with the legacy of Leninism. Stalin was a more "ideologically flexible" and savvy political operator than Trotsky, who was relentlessly focused on immediate and continuous revolution. While both L
The discussion turns to Joseph Stalin and his relationship with the legacy of Leninism. Stalin was a more "ideologically flexible" and savvy political operator than Trotsky, who was relentlessly focused on immediate and continuous revolution. While both Lenin and Trotsky employed political violence, the terror under Stalin was a different phenomenon because much of it was directed at high-ranking members of the Communist Party and the secret police in the Great Purge. The purges were motivated by Stalin's paranoia and the need to find scapegoats for the regime's failure to deliver prosperity and freedom. The assassination of Trotsky in 1940 is often seen as wrapping up the Great Terror, though arrests and executions continued.
S8 Ep114: This segment addresses Vladimir Lenin's adoption of Marx's ideas, particularly the aspect of Marxism requiring political violence. Lenin's major innovation, often called "vanguardism," involved a top-down party of professional revolutionaries leading the
This segment addresses Vladimir Lenin's adoption of Marx's ideas, particularly the aspect of Marxism requiring political violence. Lenin's major innovation, often called "vanguardism," involved a top-down party of professional revolutionaries leading the workers. Inspired by Marx's reaction to the Franco-Prussian War, Lenin developed "revolutionary defeatism," which held that imperial wars between capitalist powers would create opportunities for revolution in the losing nation. This civil war would beget a "state of perennial global civil war" between the new proletarian dictatorship and non-communist countries, which Lenin explicitly advocated for as an ideal scenario, standing in tension with Marx's "emiseration thesis."