Blood Work

We close out our series discussing how drone warfare advanced a new military ethics in which the lives of combatants are sacrosanct, while civilian lives are expendable.

Image: A photograph on an Israeli UAV dropping grenades from the sky.

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

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

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Van Life
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
This week, we attempted to provide a neat summary of events which unfolded at RAF Fairford (Difficulty: Expert), and provided some general commentary on how politicians, police and the press have handled themselves.

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

On January 20, 1942, a group of SS officers and mid-level bureaucrats from the ministries of the Third Reich convened at a lakeside villa. The agenda: Genocide.

Image: A photograph of one of the interior corridors of 56-58 Am Wannsee (Credit: Werner Zellien)

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

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

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Bozo Time
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
It was a bad week for anyone with a moral compass or semblance of a commitment to having consistent and coherent principles. In that spirit, we came through with two stories about two different groups of pigs, bozos and slobs, presented in the spirit of admiration about what a wonderful and cool world we have built, here, on this planet, together.

We return to Grégoire Chamayou’s Theory of the Drone to meditate on sacrifice, preservation, and what happens when warrior virtue must be retooled for riskless killers.

Image: A photograph of the setup of the ‘shock generator’ equipment for Stanley Milgram's famous 1960s studies on authority and obedience. (Source: Stanley Milgram Papers (MS 1406). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library)

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

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

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: The Jean Claude Van Damme Military Academy for Attention Deficit Presidents
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
This week, Bloomberg published a weighty report on the cost of the US blockade on Iran—itself an outgrowth of the war which nobody wanted. We’re sharing a hefty excerpt from that report, along with some of our thoughts on where this all originated, and how predictable it was.

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

Kelsey joins Gregk to discuss his ten-year beat covering military tech, drones and autonomous weapons and talk about emergent modes of war in the 2020s.

For more from Kelsey D. Atherton:
– Follow him on Bluesky
– Preorder A World For All: New Visions of US Foreign Policy, out this October with OR Books
– Check out the Center for International Policy (CIP)

Image: The remnants of a commercial quadcopter drone manufactured by Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI) shot down with an anti-drone laser produced by Raytheon. (Courtesy of Kelsey Atherton)

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

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

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: The Road Not Taken
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
This week, some thoughts on Ansar Allah’s rapid advance down Yemen’s western coast as they prepare to exact further costs on the US for its war of choice against Iran, followed by some brief meditations on September 11th and its consequences.

We look at Grégoire Chamayou’s groundbreaking 2015 book on Drone Warfare to examine the phenomenon of killing without vulnerability, and the troubling ethics such technologies induce.

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: An 18-year-old factory worker named Norma Jean Dougherty poses for a photograph at the Radioplane factory in Burback, Califorina, in 1944. Shortly after, she would achieve international stardom under the stage name ‘Marilyn Monroe’.

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Supply & Demand
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

This week, we’re coming through with some updates on the swirl of outside actors arming the conflict in Sudan; news of a thwarted coup in Niger which possibly clarifies the nature of Russia’s role in the Sahel; and a troubling technological advancement in the Russia-Ukraine War. Enjoy.