Around The Empire

Around The Empire is an independent foreign-policy interview show with a strong anti-interventionist center of gravity. It favors long conversations over polished segments. Joanne Leon speaks with guests and panels about the practical machinery behind war, diplomacy, sanctions, censorship, and public consent. Ukraine is a major recurring subject, especially NATO support, Russian demands, battlefield logistics, proxy-war language, weapons flows, intelligence support, and the danger of nuclear escalation. China is another constant pressure point. Episodes trace the escalation ladder around Taiwan, great-power competition, the new Cold War frame, and the way Washington politics can reward confrontation even when the public is uneasy. The show also spends time on Iraq, the JCPOA, U.S. leverage over oil money, Afghanistan, Korea, Russia, and the political aftershocks of pandemic-era restrictions. Its guests bring a mix of reporting, analysis, commentary, and activist media work. The format is roomy. A conversation can move from troop levels to sanctions, from diplomatic channels to media bans, from a protest billboard for Assange to the difficulty of ordinary travel under strained relations. Around The Empire is not built for listeners who want tidy consensus. It works through disagreement in real time, including moments when participants test moral claims about invasion, civilian violence, law, and retaliation. The show is often skeptical of official explanations and hostile to casual escalation. It also pays attention to the information environment around war, including censorship, suppression, platform bans, and the sudden acceptability of ideas once treated as forbidden. The tone is serious but informal. Panelists joke, interrupt, correct each other, and pull the discussion back to specifics. The result feels closer to a working foreign-policy salon than a scripted news program. Its value lies in patience, institutional memory, and a willingness to follow uncomfortable implications. Around The Empire suits listeners who want geopolitical argument with names, timelines, incentives, and consequences kept in view.