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This episode was produced in collaboration with Ten Thousand Posts This week, Hussein is joined by Tom and Greg from Blood Work, to talk about the 2010 film Four Lions, written and directed by Chris Morris. The boys talk about their impressions watching the film in their youth, and revisiting it as an adult, in the aftermath of the failed War on Terror. They talk about the film as a reflection on ageing and mid-life crises, a satire on the concept of the “good Muslim”, and how the film foreshadowed what vigilante extremism would look like in the future.  Listen and subscribe to BLOOD WORK: https://www.patreon.com/cw/BloodWorkShow Follow Greg on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/gregk.co.uk Follow Tom on Bluesky:  https://bsky.app/profile/scamgoldin.bsky.social ------- LEBANON AID LINKS Here are some fundraisers to support collective rebuilding and survival efforts on the ground in Lebanon. -Beit El-Baraka started out as a food bank, but has grown to help people afford rent, cover their essentials, and live with dignity.  https://beitelbaraka.org/donate-directly/ or donate in general https://beitelbaraka.org/donate-now/ -LiveLove was a charity for a number of other matters, but since 2024 has been solely comitted to helping people displaced by Israeli attacks. https://livelove.org/donate -Lebanese Food Bank supports displaced and impoverished people https://lebanesefoodbank.org/take-action/donate/ Solar Powered Lebanon is an initiative to restore people's power using solar panels, since larger infrastructure is at constant risk of attack. https://fundahope.com/en/campaigns/solar-powered-lebanon ----- PALESTINE AID LINKS These are some general links you can support collective efforts with! -The Palestinian Communist Youth Union is doing a food and water effort, and is part of the official communist party of Palestine https://www.gofundme.com/f/to-preserve-whats-left-of-humanity-global-solidarity -Water is Life, a water distribution project in North Gaza affiliated with an Indigenous American organization and the Freedom Flotilla https://www.waterislifegaza.org/ -Vegetable Distribution Fund, which secured and delivers fresh veg, affiliated with Freedom Flotilla also https://www.instagram.com/linking/fundraiser?fundraiser_id=1102739514947848 ----- PHOEBE ALERT Okay, now that we have your attention; check out her Substack Here! Check out Masters of our Domain with Milo and Patrick, here! -------- Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

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 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 Article 1: Ethiopia says it must defend itself against Eritrea's 'all-out invasion' Reuters – Oct 09, 2026 Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw Article 2: Eritrea asks UN to intervene in standoff with Ethiopia Reuters – Oct 10, 2026 Reporting by Reuters

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon. Gregk and Thomas mark Blood Work’s first birthday with a casual discussion about what we learned in the year 1 AS (Anno Sangui). Image: A cupcake with a single candle being lit on fire with a handgun. I mean, I don’t know, I feel like this one’s pretty self-explanatory. 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: Look at Me ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO For this week’s newsletter, we’ve got some thoughts about US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s expressed desire to publicly broadcast an execution, the long history of violence, justice and spectacle in American politics, and how this latest development sits in that tableau.

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.

Josef enters the Zone to talk about his experience working in the U.S. State Department and discuss the quiet violence work of diplomats, administrators and functionaries. For more from Josef Burton: – Follow him on Bluesky and Twitter – Listen to his appearance on QAA discussing Iranian Monarchists – Read his 2023 essay ‘Impolite Society’ in The Baffler Image: A photo of the exterior of the Writers’ Building in Kolkata, originally built as an office for junior clerks in the East India Company and which served as the effective seat of British power on the Indian subcontinent. 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: Crack-up ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO This week, we’ve got excerpts from two essays recently published in Foreign Affairs for you, which are striking in their candour about ‘the current situation’ and surprising in their proposed routes out. Capping it off, we briefly dwell on Mark Carney’s recent remarks about the ongoing US-Canada trade war.

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.   Josef enters the Zone to talk about his experience working in the U.S. State Department and discuss the quiet violence work of diplomats, administrators and functionaries.   For more from Josef Burton: – Follow him on Bluesky and Twitter – Listen to his appearance on QAA discussing Iranian Monarchists – Read his 2023 essay ‘Impolite Society’ in The Baffler   Image: A photo of the exterior of the Writers’ Building in Kolkata, originally built as an office for junior clerks in the East India Company and which served as the effective seat of British power on the Indian subcontinent.   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: Crack-up ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO This week, we’ve got excerpts from two essays recently published in Foreign Affairs for you, which are striking in their candour about ‘the current situation’ and surprising in their proposed routes out. Capping it off, we briefly dwell on Mark Carney’s recent remarks about the ongoing US-Canada trade war.

The girls from No Gods No Mayors swing by to talk about mayoral megalomania and the evolution of the violence inherent to municipal politics. Listen to No Gods No Mayors For more from Mattie Lubchansky: – Read Simplicity – Read Boys Weekend – Listen to Temporal Culture War For more from Riley Quinn: – Listen to Trashfuture – Listen to Trouble in River City 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: Former Mayor of New York City Eric Adams holding a picture of a gun.   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: Power Trip ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO Last week, Israel carried out airstrikes on a defunct airbase in northwestern Syria, in an action both stated and perceived as aimed at Turkey. We offer a little background on Israel and Turkey’s regional rivalry in the context of Syria’s civil war, and speculate on how Israel’s actions might have another target in their sights: Turkey’s NATO membership.

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.   We take another dive into the Blood Work theory zone, looking at Cameroonian postcolonial thinker Achille Mbembe’s seminal 2003 essay on the production of death as the crowning political activity of our era.   Image: Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics (2019), Duke University Press   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: Time to Hedge ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO Last week, three countries across the Middle East and South Asia signed a new defence pact which has several potential ramifications for the region, and indeed security arrangements around the world. This week, we’re going to discuss that announcement and why we should hope it never has to be worth more than the paper it’s printed on. Because if it does, things could get silly.

We explore the modern history of putting big guns on wheels, then dive into the history of Chad and its border dispute with Libya to learn how a humble pickup truck became a quintessential weapon of war. 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 Nigerien military convoy on a counter-terrorism patrol in the Sahara Desert (UNICEF) 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: Tatmadaw’s Shiny Happy People Committee for Lo-Fi Beats to Study To ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO This week, we’re in Southeast Asia, jumping just over Thailand’s north-western border to Myanmar, where the ongoing civil war between the country’s military dictatorship and numerous armed groups across the country is showing slithers of hope that a resolution might be on the horizon, nestled amidst a morass of repression and violence which has persisted, practically uninterrupted, for over sixty years. Sources: Mario J. Azevedo (1998), Roots of Violence: A History of War in Chad BBC News (July, 2006), ‘Profile: Chad's Hissene Habre’, available at BBC News Antony Beevor (2006), The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 Michelle L. Burgis (2009), Boundaries of Discourse in the International Court of Justice: Mapping Arguments in Arab Territorial Disputes Carla Chahrour (October, 2020), ‘The arrival of Toyota in Saudi Arabia’, available at Arab News Japan Michael Ellmer (April, 2021), ‘The Great Toyota War: Birthplace of the Technical’, available at Grey Dynamics Human Rights Watch (September, 2005), ‘“Africa's Pinochet” Faces Extradition and Trial for Crimes Against Humanity’, available at Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (June, 2016), ‘Enabling a Dictator: The United States and Chad’s Hissène Habré 1982-1990’, available at Human Rights Watch Frank Jacobs (November, 2011), ‘The World’s Largest Sandbox’, The New York Times, available at The New York Times Archive Roy May (1988), ‘Internal Dimensions of Warfare in Chad’, Cambridge Antropology (13:2), pp. 17-27 Jack Mulcaire (February, 2014), ‘The Pickup Truck Era of Warfare’, available at War on the Rocks Le Monde (March, 1987), ‘TCHAD: le conflit avec la Libye Les nouvelles inquiétudes de Paris et de N'Djamena’, available at archive.today Le Monde (March, 1987), ‘TCHAD: N'Djamena affirme que 1 269 soldats libyens ont été tués à Ouadi-Doum’, available at archive.today Leigh Neville (2018), Technicals: Non-Standard Tactical Vehicles from the Great Toyota War to Modern Special Forces Lodi News-Sentinel (April, 1987), ‘How Libya lost the battle for Wadi Doum’, available via Google News Los Angeles Times (April, 1987), ‘Chad Troops Used Pickup Trucks to Foil Libyan Tanks’, available at Los Angeles Times Archives LRDG, Long Range Desert Group, available at lrdg.hedgewisch.net Michael Maren (1997), The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity Sam C. Nolutshungu (1996), Limits of Anarchy: Intervention and State Formation in Chad Pierre Péan (March, 2001), ‘Les preuves trafiquées du terrorisme libyen’, Le Monde Diplomatique, available at archive.today Bryan Perret (April, 1979), ‘Ford Model T Patrol Car’, Airfix Magazine, available at Landships II Kenneth M. Pollack (2002), Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991 Kenneth M. Pollack (2019), Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness Nathaniel K. Powell (2021), France’s Wars in Chad: Military Intervention and Decolonization in Africa Reuters (March, 1987), ‘Chad is Said to Capture Strategic Air Base’, The New York Times, available via archive.today Geoff Simons (2003), Libya and the West: From Independence to Lockerbie Ravi Somaiya (October, 2010), ‘Why Rebel Groups Love the Toyota Hilux’, available at Newsweek Chandra Lekha Sriram (February, 2013), ‘“Africa’s Pinochet” or the beginning of “Africa’s solutions”?’, available at Al Jazeera Toyota Global, ‘75 Years of Toyota: Vehicle Lineage’, available at Toyota Global Toyota Industries, ‘The Story of Sakichi Toyoda’ available at Toyota Industries Simon Whistler (March, 2026), ‘The Great Toyota War: How Chad Won a War with Pickup Trucks’, available at War Fronts Luc Wiesman (August, 2025), ‘How The Humble Toyota Hilux Became The World’s Most Deadly Warzone Vehicles’, available at DMARGE Ignacio Yárnoz (2018), ‘Toyota wars and the next generation in counter insurgency strategies’, available at Universidad de Navarra Global Affairs and Strategic Studies

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.   Blood Work’s EU Correspondent joins us to discuss Europe’s sclerotic struggle to adapt to a rapidly changing world, why NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is such a freak, and what the heck actually went down in Ceuta.   For more from Ciarán Dold: – Follow him on Bluesky – Listen to Corner Späti – Follow CS on Instagram – Visit operationglad.io   Image: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte   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: Southern Discomfort ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO For this week’s newsletter, we offer a brief overview of some of the violences plaguing the border regions of Thailand before taking a closer look at the twenty-year Malay separatist insurgency which has claimed thousands of lives in the country’s ‘Deep South’.

Hussein comes on to talk about the most important film of the COVID era that isn’t Christopher Nolan’s TENET. For more from Hussein Kesvani – Listen to Ten Thousand Posts and Trashfuture – Order Vittles #3 to read his piece about how Muslim consumers have become central to the evolution of British food culture – Follow Hussein on Bluesky 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 image from a Japanese promotional poster for the film Eddington, depicting a cowboy hat fashioned out of tin foil.   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: Collateral Famine ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO This week we presenting a report published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on fertiliser shortages produced by the US-Israeli war on Iran, and the looming threat of undernourishment, famine and starvation which is becoming increasingly inevitable the longer Trump’s disastrous war drags on.