Show overview
The John Batchelor Show has published 3,155 episodes during 2026. That works out to roughly 560 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a near-daily cadence.
Episodes typically run under ten minutes — most land between 6 min and 12 min — though episode length varies meaningfully from one episode to the next. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-US-language News show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed earlier today, with 3,155 episodes already out so far this year. Published by Audioboom.
Episodes
3,155
Started
2026
Median length
9 min
Cadence
Near-daily
From the publisher
The John Batchelor Show is a hard news-analysis radio program on current events, world history, global politics and natural sciences. Based in New York City for two decades, the show has travelled widely to report, from the Middle East to the South Caucasus to the Arabian Peninsula and East Asia.
Latest Episodes
View all 3,155 episodesS8 Ep1345: Gaius and Germanicus: The hosts close on the president's health and psyche, referencing the new book by senior New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman and her colleague, which finds the eighty-year-old relatively healthy—minor hand bruising, blood-th
Aug 24, 202617 min
S8 Ep1344: Gaius and Germanicus: Germanicus attributes these failures to a psychological myth of omnipotence that has "suckled" every post-Cold War president: George H.W. Bush dipping a toe into Somalia, Bill Clinton's cruise missile war on Serbia, Barack Obama's ta
Aug 24, 202611 min
S8 Ep1344: Gaius and Germanicus: On a rainy late summer night in 92 AD Londinium, the hosts convene in their newly expanded wine bar by the River Thames, built so retired centurions of the eighth legion—such as Strabo, who served twenty-seven years—can rest and put
Aug 24, 202621 min
S8 Ep1343: Jeff Bliss, Wildfire Report #2: The wildfire threatening Reno, Nevada—a city near the California border heavily reliant on tourism and healthcare—has exploded to nearly 100,000 acres after strong afternoon winds breached a 97% containment line. Sparked in
Aug 24, 202613 min
S8 Ep1342: Toby Wilkinson, Part Two: The Ptolemaic family's decline is driven by internal civil wars, incestuous marriages, and rising Roman influence. Highly ambitious queens like Cleopatra I and Cleopatra III emerge as central political forces. The narrative culmi
Aug 24, 202637 min
S8 Ep1342: Toby Wilkinson, author of The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra, Part One: The narrative begins with Alexander the Great's conquest of Gaza and his subsequent journey to the Siwa Oasis, where the oracle of Zeus Ammon declar
Aug 24, 202637 min
S8 Ep1341: Josh Ireland, Part Two: The focus shifts to the assassination plot in Mexico. NKVD spy Leonid Eitingon and Spanish communist Caridad Mercader recruit Caridad's son, Ramón Mercader, to eliminate Trotsky. Ramón infiltrates Trotsky's inner circle by seducing
Aug 24, 202637 min
S8 Ep1341: Josh Ireland, author of The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin's Greatest Enemy, Part One: The narrative opens with the 1936 executions of original Bolsheviks Zinoviev and Kamenev under Stalin's orders. Ireland explores the contra
Aug 24, 202637 min
S8 Ep1340: W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Part Two: The suspension of exchanges leads to massive prisoner concentrations. This is illustrated by a grueling transport to Andersonville, a Georgia camp built to relieve Richmond's strained supplies, and the Union's equally harsh
Aug 24, 202637 min
S8 Ep1340: W. Fitzhugh Brundage, author of A Fate Worse Than Hell: American Prisoners of the Civil War, Part One: The narrative begins with the January 1863 capture of the Union gunboat Isaac Smith and three Black sailors. The Confederacy's refusal to exchange these
Aug 24, 202637 min
S8 Ep1339: Jeremy Zakis, Part Two: Zakis reports on springtime in New South Wales, beginning with magpie breeding and swooping season—the start of nesting and defensive "dive-bombing" behavior, contrasted with the birds' remarkable memory and facial recognition that
Aug 23, 202613 min
S8 Ep1338: Jeremy Zakis, Part One: Zakis discusses the unprecedented 4°C Pacific anomaly—ocean warming not seen in 150 years—its disruption of global trade at the Panama Canal, and the unseasonal heavy rains hitting Sydney rather than a baking heat dome. He explains
Aug 23, 202614 min
S8 Ep1338: David K. Randall, author of The Monster's Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World, recounts the historic discovery of the Tyrannosaurus rex by pioneering paleontologist Barnum Brown. The narrative traces Brown's journey from a Kansas far
Aug 23, 202639 min
S8 Ep1337: David Shedd, author of The Great Heist: China's Epic Campaign to Steal America's Secrets, analyzes China's multi-decade campaign of intellectual property and data theft against the United States, costing up to $600 billion annually. He explains how admitt
Aug 23, 202637 min
S8 Ep1336: Dennis Sewell, Part Two: Sewell details Downing's secret diplomacy with Cardinal Mazarin, followed by his opportunistic defection to Charles II upon Cromwell's death. To secure his position under the restored monarchy, Downing orchestrated the capture and
Aug 23, 202637 min
S8 Ep1335: Dennis Sewell, author of Cromwell's Spy: From the American Colonies to the English Civil War, Part One: Sewell introduces George Downing, a brilliant Harvard graduate who rose to become Oliver Cromwell's scoutmaster general during the English Civil Wars.
Aug 23, 202637 min
S8 Ep1334: Alan Taylor, Part Two: Taylor covers post-1865 developments across the continent, focusing on Canadian confederation under John A. Macdonald, the French imperial intervention in Mexico against Benito Juárez, and the violent realities of Reconstruction und
Aug 23, 202637 min
S8 Ep1333: Alan Taylor, author of American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850–1873, Part One: Taylor examines the ideological and geopolitical conflicts of mid-19th-century North America. He profiles figures like expansionist Jane McManus Cazneau, abolitionist
Aug 23, 202637 min
S8 Ep1332: Max Boot, Part Two: Boot traces Reagan's presidency, beginning with his campaigns and the 1981 assassination attempt. It analyzes his supply-side domestic economics, foreign relations ending the Cold War with Mikhail Gorbachev, and the damaging Iran-Contr
Aug 23, 202637 min
S8 Ep1332: ### Max Boot **Book:** *Reagan: His Life and Legend* * **Part One** (*Hour One*) explores **Ronald Reagan's early life**, from a nomadic childhood shaped by an alcoholic father and an optimistic mother, to his success as a lifeguard, sports broadcaster
Aug 23, 202637 min