September 30, 2026
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Danny and Derek welcome Simon Ball, professor of international history and politics at the University of Leeds, to the show for a discussion about the history of political assassination in the modern era. They talk about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, political killing as a tool of statecraft, assassination and British imperial rule, its use by Western powers during World War II, the CIA and Cold War assassination programs, the JFK assassination and its surrounding conspiracies, the investigations of the 1970s and Gerald Ford’s ban on the practice, the rise of counter-assassination security, and the strategic limits of assassination.
Be sure to grab a copy of Simon’s book Death to Order: A Modern History of Assassination.
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