Shows / The Axis
The Axis
The Axis is a weekly podcast that explores the shifting balance of global power. From Washington to Moscow, Beijing to New Delhi, each episode dissects the strategies, rivalries, and alliances shaping our world. Blending clear analysis with accessible language, The Axis connects breaking news with long-term geopolitical trends, helping listeners understand not just what is happening, but why it matters.
Episodes
The AxisHow Long Will the Trump-Putin Affair Last?
Trump believes personal diplomacy and economic deals can bring Putin closer to peace. Putin may see the same relationship very differently: as an opportunity…
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¿El problema son las instituciones? ¿O es la confianza?
¿El problema son las instituciones?¿O es la confianza? Descripción La crisis de las AFP va mucho más allá de una mala decisión financiera. Expone un problema…
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How Close Is Stupidity to Pragmatism?
When does pragmatism become stupidity? Donald Trump’s decision to ease sanctions and purchase Russian diesel may look like a practical response to soaring fuel…
The AxisLa amenaza para Kast no es la izquierda: son las expectativas que lo llevaron al poder
José Antonio Kast llegó al poder prometiendo orden, seguridad y eficacia. Pero la encuesta La Cosa Nostra de agosto de 2026 sugiere que el principal desafío de…
The AxisCuando el protector parece mortal: Trump y el futuro de la nueva derecha latinoamericana
¿Qué ocurre cuando un movimiento político que creía que la historia avanzaba en su dirección descubre que su protector puede ser políticamente mortal? Una…
The AxisTake Out: When the Fear of Losing Becomes a Fantasy of Disappearance
What happens when the fear of losing becomes so intense that the political opponent is no longer someone to defeat, but someone to remove? Trump’s remark about…
The AxisThe Empire as a spider Web: Words, power, and American Decline
The American empire has long appeared solid: military bases, alliances, aircraft carriers, financial power, technological reach. But perhaps its real structure…
The AxisAmerica Leaves Iraq. Is the Empire Really Leaving?
After more than two decades, the last U.S. forces have left Iraq. But does the departure of American soldiers really mean the end of American power in the…
The AxisEl espejismo de 1982: Argentina, Washington y el nuevo tablero del extremo sur
Argentina está fortaleciendo su vínculo con Estados Unidos, reduciendo su dependencia de Chile y reactivando con más fuerza la cuestión de las Malvinas. Pero…
The AxisMultipolaridad Afuera, Alineamiento Hemisférico en Casa
Chile habla de multipolaridad, soberanía y autonomía estratégica en Naciones Unidas, pero al mismo tiempo se incorpora al Escudo de las Américas, una…
The AxisWhen Power Breaks the Mirror
What happens when power encounters a reflection it does not like? Trump’s confrontation with the press and his confrontation with Iran are radically different…
The AxisIs Trump a socialist?
Donald Trump has spent years attacking socialism. Yet his government intervenes in prices, protects industries, acquires stakes in private companies, uses…
The AxisGolden Taps, Muddy Water
What if the monuments, gold, AI fantasies and politics of fear surrounding Donald Trump are not signs of strength, but ways of covering weakness? In “Golden…
The AxisMadness or Incompetence?
Is Donald Trump's foreign policy madness, incompetence—or something deeper? As the United States struggles to convert military superiority over Iran into a…
The AxisBlondes, Nukes and Decadence
What do Alfred Hitchcock’s blondes, Natalie Harp, Donald Trump, and tactical nuclear weapons have in common? Blondes, Nukes and Decadence explores a strange…
The AxisWhen Friendship Becomes Personal: Trump and the End of the American Alliance System
Donald Trump’s warm relationship with Kim Jong Un, combined with his increasingly hostile treatment of traditional U.S. allies, reveals something deeper than…
The AxisShould We Worry About Donald Trump?
Donald Trump may be one of the most disruptive figures in modern American politics—but what if he is not the real problem? This analysis looks beyond Trump to…
The AxisWhen a Billionaire Becomes a Symbol
Is Elon Musk really the story, or is he simply the latest symbol of a civilization searching for certainty? Inspired by a recent New York Times opinion video…
The AxisThe Last Romans of America
When empires begin to decline, their elites do not always try to save them. More often, they protect their wealth, negotiate with emerging powers and prepare…
The AxisTrump and the Death Drive
Is Donald Trump simply an incompetent president, or does his politics follow a deeper and more destructive logic? Through Freud’s concept of the death drive…
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The Iranian Mirror
In “The Iranian Mirror: Trump’s War Against His Own Reflection,” The Axis examines the war against Iran as more than a military confrontation. Iran has become…
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The World Without a Centre
The wars in Ukraine and the Persian Gulf appear to be separate conflicts, but what if they share the same underlying reality? In this episode of The Axis, we…
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America at 250: A Love Letter to a Wounded Republic
A tribute to the United States on its 250th anniversary: not a sentimental celebration, but a symbolic reflection on a wounded republic. This episode explores…
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The Strait That Became a State: Hormuz, Iran, and the New Geography of Power
In this episode of The Axis, we look at the deeper lesson of the Iran war: the rise of Hormuz as a political actor. The Strait of Hormuz is no longer just a…
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The Architecture of Fear: Why the U.S.–Iran “Truce” Is Not Really a Truce
In this episode of The Axis, we examine why the U.S.–Iran “truce” should not be understood as real peace, but as an architecture of fear.The agreement may stop…
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Who Is Symbolically Winning the Conflict in the Persian Gulf?
In this episode of The Axis, we ask a different question about the conflict in the Persian Gulf: not who is winning militarily, but who is winning…
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The Fantasy of Order: Kast’s First Public Account and the Authoritarian Desire
In his first Cuenta Pública, José Antonio Kast does more than report on the state of the nation: he constructs a political fantasy of order. Chile appears as a…
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The Empty Barrel: Oil, Iran, and the Fragile Architecture of American Power
In this episode of The Axis, we examine the U.S.–Iran oil crisis as a symptom of a deeper imperial fragility. The barrel of oil appears on market charts as a…
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The Court of Permanent Departure: Trumpism After Gabbard
This week on The Axis, we examine the symbolic meaning behind the departures of Tulsi Gabbard, Pam Bondi, and Kristi Noem from the orbit of Donald Trump…
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The War Beneath the Map: Inflation, Secret Bases, and the Collapse of Symbolic Trust
A psychoanalytic reading of the Iran war’s hidden grammar: inflation, Trump’s dismissal of Americans’ economic pain, and the reported Israeli clandestine…
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Trump Goes to Beijing: The Symbolic Value of the Xi Meeting
A symbolic reading of the upcoming Trump–Xi meeting in Beijing, where diplomacy becomes theatre and power is performed as much as negotiated. The analysis…
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The Joke, the Shot, and the War Tongue
A joke, a gunshot, and a president speaking the language of war: the Kimmel–Trump episode reveals how unstable the border between satire, symbolic injury, and…
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Signals, Symbols, and War: When Power Rewrites the Sacred
In the aftermath of the Islamabad talks, diplomacy appears to proceed even as escalation deepens. This episode explores how negotiations, symbolic acts, and…
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When God Blew the Wind—and When Drones Took the Sea
This column draws a parallel between the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the challenges faced by modern naval power in asymmetric warfare. By linking…
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Iran and the Limits of Power: When the Story Stops Holding
DescriptionA clear and accessible analysis of the Iran conflict as a political and symbolic test for Trump. The piece argues that the issue is not immediate…
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The New Chilean Administration and the Horror of Blindness
DescriptionThis column explores how governments can become trapped in their own frameworks of rationality, losing sight of the realities they claim to manage…