Topics / Modern Warfare & Defense
Modern Warfare & Defense Podcasts
4 shows and 1,894 episodes sit under Modern Warfare & Defense.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, hybrid warfare, and defense policy — veteran testimony and scholarly analysis of modern conflict in the PlayNext corpus.
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The most revealing listening here moves between three distances from war: institutional analysis, operational memory, and the continuing record of military service. Audio makes those distances unusually clear. A scholar can patiently trace how power is designed, while a veteran can make the listener sit with the order in which things were seen and done.
For the broader historical frame, head up to Military History. Battles & Campaigns follows operations across periods, while World War II concentrates on that conflict and its vast archive. This page stays closer to postwar conflict, present-day defense questions, and living memory.
Strategy, institutions, and the long argument
New Books in Military History approaches defense through scholarly conversation. The pace is measured, with enough room for research questions, qualifications, and historical context to develop rather than being compressed into a quick verdict.
Its modern-defense line runs through Kristan Stoddart, "Russia's Hybrid Warfare Offensive Against the West" (de Gruyter, 2025) and Jane Vaynman, "Enemies in Agreement: Political Volatility and the Design of Arms Control" (Cambridge UP, 2026). Private intelligence appears in Lewis Sage-Passant, "Beyond States and Spies: The Security Intelligence Services of the Private Sector" (Edinburgh UP, 2024). The information side of conflict gets its own entry with Nathaniel Greenberg, "The Long War of Ideas: American Public Diplomacy in Arabic After 9/11" (Columbia UP, 2026).
This is the place to begin when the machinery around war interests you as much as combat itself. The interviews treat military history as an argument built from institutions, records, political choices, and consequences.
When testimony carries the episode
Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories has a rougher archival texture. Firsthand accounts are allowed to run long, retaining the corrections, technical language, practical details, and sudden changes in emotional temperature that come with remembered experience.
Its episode titles go directly to the speaker and setting. Life of an F/A-18 Pilot: LCDR Mike Smith and F/A-18 Pilot in Iraq: LtCol Neal Rickner make a natural pairing. Army Vet Kris Goldsmith describes photographing corpses in Iraq and his struggle with PTSD points toward a different kind of record, one in which the aftermath is named alongside the service.
Veterans Chronicles is steadier and more formally shaped. Short questions establish chronology, then hand the floor back to the veteran. Modern deployments are represented by SSG Roderick Pugh, U.S. Army Sniper, Iraq and Lt. Jason Redman, U.S. Navy SEAL, Afghanistan, Iraq.
The distinction between these two shows is partly editorial. Warriors In Their Own Words preserves the sprawl and grain of recollection; Veterans Chronicles gives testimony a clearer service-history progression. Both trust the speaker more than the narrator.
A continuing Vietnam record
Vietnam Veteran News with Mack Payne keeps a particularly narrow focus. Its numbered, subject-forward titles suit listeners who want to follow Vietnam remembrance, veterans’ recognition, and military hardware one entry at a time.
Aircraft recur in Episode 3246 — AÿThe Great Douglas A-1 Sky-raiders of Vietnam. and Episode 3239 — AÿInnovation Under Fire: The Unique Story of the F-4 Phantom ‘Chico. Commemoration appears just as plainly in Episode 3245 — AÿThe Navajo Nation Celebrated Vietnam Veterans Day. Choose it when sustained attention to the war’s veterans and legacy matters more than a broad tour of modern defense.
Where to start
For strategy and security institutions, begin with New Books in Military History and the arms-control conversation in Jane Vaynman, "Enemies in Agreement: Political Volatility and the Design of Arms Control" (Cambridge UP, 2026). For unhurried firsthand memory, choose Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories. Veterans Chronicles is the cleaner on-ramp for chronological service testimony, especially Lt. Jason Redman, U.S. Navy SEAL, Afghanistan, Iraq. Go to Vietnam Veteran News with Mack Payne for the most concentrated Vietnam-specific listening.
Featured shows below are part of the PlayNext catalog. Updated weekly.
Featured shows
4 shows, described rather than listed
Each has a written blurb stored with the page, with the role its editor gave it on this beat.
Firsthand accounts from veterans of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan — measured, testimony-led interviews.
Archival first-person narration from combat veterans, ranging from Vietnam to post-9/11 deployments.
Dedicated coverage of Vietnam veteran affairs, aircraft, Agent Orange legacy, and commemoration events.
Author interviews on modern warfare scholarship, including hybrid conflict and lessons from Ukraine.
Where to start
4 routes in, one per reader
Firsthand Iraq and Afghanistan accounts from special operations forces and combat soldiers.
Two-voice format that maps Vietnam's air war, ground combat, and POW experience in accessible sequence.
Scholarly entries on hybrid warfare, Ukraine, and modern defense doctrine from leading academic presses.
Equipment-forward episodes on Vietnam armor and the evolution of American tanks in modern warfare.
Glossary
Words this beat uses without explaining
A strategy combining conventional military force, irregular tactics, cyberattacks, and information operations — associated with contemporary Russian doctrine.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, a mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing traumatic events, common in combat veterans.
A herbicide and defoliant widely used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, linked to lasting health effects in veterans and Vietnamese civilians.
Conflict in which opposing forces differ significantly in military capability, leading the weaker side to use unconventional tactics such as guerrilla fighting or IEDs.
Military and political operations aimed at defeating an armed insurgency while addressing its underlying political and social causes.
Violations of the laws and customs of war, including deliberate targeting of civilians, use of prohibited weapons, and mistreatment of prisoners.