Season four of the podcast “Blowback,” co-hosted by Brendan James and Noah Kulwin, will be released on Aug. 25.
The podcast is described as “a deeply reported, and cinematically produced, historical podcast that takes a deep look at past wars and moments in history.” Season four will turn to focus on Afghanistan, following seasons on the Iraq War, the Cuban Revolution and the Korean War.
Against the backdrop of a tense score, the stylized animated trailer, created by artist Ben Clarkson, begins by depicting scientists working with an ominous substance in a lab, testing it on mice and making bullets out of it. “I was there when the first dreams came off the assembly line. I was there when they began welding the things into their armor,” actor H. Jon Benjamin, who provides voiceover for the trailer, says in his narration. The trailer also depicts scenes with armed soldiers, oil rigs, politicians, drug use and ends on a sequence of the Twin Towers.
Co-host and producer Brendan James is co-founder and original producer of the podcast “Chapo Trap House,” which gained a cult following. Co-host Noah Kulwin is a freelance journalist who has broken stories about American technology companies and national politics. He has been published in New York Magazine, VICE News and other outlets.
James described the genesis of this season of the podcast.
“The summer of 2021 produced an odd spectacle: The withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan — and Taliban takeover that followed — in some ways appeared to wake Americans up, suddenly remind them that we had been occupying this country for 20 years. There was an interesting logic at play: As if the chaos had started that day, and all of the horrors and violence of the past twenty years had nothing to do with the images coming out of Afghanistan.
“In working backwards from that American withdrawal, questions began piling up. Was this another Vietnam? Or was it something quite different? Was Afghanistan “the good war,” overshadowed by the criminal Iraq War — or was it the foundation of the crusade that has turned the world upside down since 9/11?
“So we want to look at that trail, study the connections, the associations, the clues, that place Afghanistan in America’s crosshairs by September, 2001, and generate the scenes of chaos in Kabul, 2021. On the way we’ll meet secret agents. Soviet Commissars. Afghan warlords. Texas cowboys. Saudi oligarchs. And the people caught between them, in a 40-year war that may not yet be over.”
Season four of “Blowback” will have ten main narrative episodes and ten bonus episodes, all of which will be available to “Blowback” subscribers for $24.99. The soundtrack is created by The Great Vorelli. Previous seasons can be listened to now wherever podcasts are found.
Watch the trailer below.
