Candlesticks Always Make a Nice Gift

This week on Bombshell we talk with Mieke Eoyang about, well, basically everything. We take a rapid fire tour of political dramas in Zimbabwe, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon. Stop for a bit to bask in the crazy sunshine of Turkish plots and then return to the United States just to ask: Exactly how many troops do we have overseas? Then just for kicks, we debate what a lawful order for a nuclear first strike would look like. We wrap up with Mieke's Twitter conversation with John Cusack and Erin's dream for a Master and Commander sequel.

Episode Reading

• Ben Freeman and Mieke Eoyang, "Public Opinion and Narrowing the Security Gap in 2016," Third Way
• Sisonke Msimang, "The Fall of Africa's Most Hated First Lady," New York Times
• Von Marcus Gatzke and Marlies Uken, "Relax, Germany Is Not Facing a State Crisis," Zeit Online
• Andreas Rinke and Madeline Chambers, "Merkel's CDU agrees to pursue grand coalition in Germany," Reuters
• Marwa Eltagouri, "What we've learned about the North Korean soldier whose daring escape was caught on video," Washington Post
• Erin Cunningham and Louisa Loveluck, "Hezbollah, on the rise in Lebanon, fends off Saudi Arabia," Washington Post
• Thomas L. Friedman, "Saudi Arabia's Arab Spring, at Last," New York Times
• Borzou Daragahi, "Saudi Arabia Has Shaken Up The Middle East - This Is How," BuzzFeed News
• Reuters Staff, "Turkey has completed purchase of Russian missile defense: defense minister," Reuters
• Alex Horton, "The Pentagon struggles to provide accurate numbers for deployed troops," Washington Post
• Luis Martinez, "Thousands more US military service members in Iraq and Syria than believed," ABC News
• Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal, "The Uncounted," New York Times Magazine
• Michael Barbaro, "Targeting ISIS, and Killing Civilians," New York Times, 'The Daily'
• Karoun Demirjian, "Trump's nuclear authority divides senators alarmed by his 'volatile' behavior," Washington Post
• Stewart Baker, Jim Lewis, and Brian Egan, "Interview with Mieke Eoyang and Jamil Jaffer," Steptoe, The Cyberlaw Podcast
• Chris Evangelista, "'Master and Commander' Sequel Still A Possibility, Says Russell Crowe," Slash Film
• Disney-Pixar, "Incredibles 2 Official Teaser Trailer," Disney-Pixar