Welcome to the Lessons Lost in Time Podcast. I’m Bill Murray. Here, with a few fellow misfits and sharp minds, we’re digging through the wreckage of history—looking at how real leaders dealt with real problems when the stakes were high and the playbook was blank.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to question things, pick at the edges, and think a little deeper about why the world is the way it is and what we can do about it, then pull up a chair. Because if we want new solutions, we need to discuss old problems.
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Welcome to the Lessons Lost in Time Podcast. I’m Bill Murray. Here, with a few fellow misfits and sharp minds, we’re digging through the wreckage of history—looking at how real leaders dealt with real problems when the stakes were high and the playbook was blank.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to question things, pick at the edges, and think a little deeper about why the world is the way it is and what we can do about it, then pull up a chair. Because if we want new solutions, we need to discuss old problems.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Japan. An island chain born of fire and salt, where mountains plunge into restless seas and the air smells of cedar, smoke, and ambition. A place where beauty comes with an edge and tradition carries the weight of centuries. This is not just a country. It is a code carved into the bones of its people. From the silent discipline of the samurai to the divine winds that smashed Mongol fleets, Japan’s identity was forged in isolation and hardened by the belief that sacrifice is the highest form of honor. For generations, it guarded its shores like a temple gate. When it stepped beyond them, it came as a storm.
By the early 20th century, the Rising Sun was not content to rise. It wanted to blaze across the Pacific and claim it as its own. Pearl Harbor was not a mistake. It was a statement. A flash of steel meant to break the spine of an empire before it could even reach for a sword. And yet, precision can breed overconfidence. The same discipline that gave Japan its strength kept it from bending when the weight of war demanded it. From the jungles of New Guinea to the black sands of Iwo Jima, from the firebombed heart of Tokyo to the blinding light over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nation that had sworn never to bow found itself forced to its knees.
Today we are talking about the war that began with a war against China, then an invasion of the South Pacific and Hawaii and ended in an atomic dawn. We will look at the admirals and emperors who gambled everything, the island battles that bled armies dry, and the cultural collision between two powers that could not see the world the same way.
This is not about heroes and villains. It is about nations that believed they were chosen by history, locked in a fight where surrender was not just defeat, it was the death of the soul.
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It starts like any good story, with a promise. America, the liberator, the shining beacon. But behind that gleaming façade? The ugly truth of an empire trying to carve out a piece of the world’s pie, by any means necessary. The Philippines, caught in the middle, their fate decided by powers thousands of miles away.
The Philippine American War, 1899-1902. What started as a fight for freedom quickly spiraled into a bloody nightmare. Casualties? Over 200,000, many of them civilians. What does that sound like to you? The Indian wars, Vietnam? Iraq? Afghanistan? Sure, but it’s not just history repeating itself. It’s the same scheme, one that’s been used, rewritten, and repurposed for centuries.
But here’s the kicker: if America didn’t do it, someone else would have. Germany, Japan, or maybe Spain would have continued. The world was an empire-building machine, and we were all just cogs in the gears. So, does that matter? Is it enough to say, ‘Well, someone else would’ve done it’ and shrug it off? That question echoes into today.
If you came for a clean, heroic tale, you won’t find it here. But if you want to understand what empire looks like up close, if you’re willing to sit with the blood, the noise, and the voices we’ve tried to forget, then pull up a chair.
Because the Philippine-American War has stories it needs to tell you.
Links to further reading
The Philippine War, 1899-1902 (Modern War Studies) https://a.co/d/aYiobxx
American Soldiers Write Home https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/58/
The Philippine American War: America’s First Vietnam https://www.thecollector.com/philippine-american-war-us-first-vietnam/
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This war didn’t just redraw a map. It rewired the balance of power in Asia and set the world on a path to Pearl Harbor, the invasion of Manchuria, and today’s tensions in the Taiwan Strait. You think 1894 is ancient history? Every move China and Japan make in the Pacific right now has an echo that starts here.
China was an empire bleeding out in slow motion, clinging to tradition while foreign powers carved it up like spoils. Japan was a nation in a sprint, ripping itself into the modern age with steel, steam, and a chip on its shoulder the size of an island chain. Korea lit the match. Manchuria took the blast. The Treaty of Shimonoseki was the moment Asia’s future changed course, and the West barely noticed.
And our guest this week, COL Andy Morgado. He has spent his life in the arena where history meets strategy. Thirty years in uniform. Three tours in Iraq. Four operational deployments to Korea. From battalion command to shaping the Army’s intellectual engine at the School of Advanced Military Studies, he’s been at the center of the conversations that decide wars before they start.
This isn’t a dry history lesson. It’s the backstory to the fight that could define the 21st century. And you’ll hear it from a man who’s commanded in combat, shaped doctrine, and trained the minds who will fight the next one.
If you think you understand the Pacific, listen to this episode. If you don’t, you’ll be blindsided when the past comes roaring back.
Links
Multidomain Operations: The Pursuit of Battlefield Dominance in the 21st Century
https://www.howgatepublishing.com/product-page/mdo
The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy
https://www.amazon.com/Sino-Japanese-War-1894-1895-Perceptions-Primacy/dp/0521617456
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Russia. The land of frozen winters, boiling tempers, and a history so thick with blood, betrayal, and bombast you could bottle it and sell it as a Molotov cocktail.
This isn’t just a country. It’s a worldview forged in war, paranoia, and the long, unforgiving shadow of history. From the horsemen of the Mongol horde to the black leather coats of Stalin’s secret police, the Russian psyche has been shaped by centuries of siege. Real and imagined. Fortress mentality isn’t a strategy there. It’s a state of being.
And yet, despite the suspicion, the brutality, and the endless dance with disaster, Russia endures. Reinvents. Retaliates. Sometimes with style. Often with force. Always with purpose.
Today, we’re sitting down with Professor Mark Galeotti. Yup, that Mark Galeotti. We’re going to dig into the roots of Russian insecurity. Where it comes from. Why it matters. And how it still shapes every handshake, every airstrike, and every line drawn on a map.
We’ll trace the scars left by Napoleon’s march, Stalin’s purges, and the Cold War’s long hangover. We’ll talk about the inferiority complex that festers behind the Kremlin walls, and how history—real or rewritten—guides Moscow’s every move from Kyiv to Damascus to Washington.
This isn’t about making excuses. It’s about understanding the worldview of a nation that still thinks in terms of czars and tsars, enemies and allies, and very little in between.
So pour a drink if it’s after 11. Grab a coffee if it’s earlier. And join us as we wander the haunted corridors of Russian history, where paranoia isn’t a glitch in the system. It is the system.
Downfall: Putin, Prigozhin, and the Fight for the Future
Forged in War: A military history of Russia from its beginnings to today
https://a.co/d/3ZyL1rJ
Putin's Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine
https://a.co/d/1bcsoZG
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The Spanish American War 1898 (Part 2): The War of Empires w/ Drew Dornstadter
The sun was setting on the Spanish Empire—bloated, brittle, and running on fumes. Four hundred years of conquest and gold, galleons and God, unraveling like an old coat in a storm. And just as the curtain was falling, America showed up. Young, loud, hungry.
1898. The Spanish-American War. It lasted only four months, but it changed everything. One empire dying. Another one being born. Not with ceremony—but with guns, headlines, and a healthy dose of manifest destiny.
They said it was about liberation—Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico. Freedom from tyranny, all that jazz. But let’s be honest: it was about markets, military bases, and planting flags on islands most Americans couldn’t find on a map.
This wasn’t just about Teddy Roosevelt’s rough riders or stirring speeches in Congress. It was about sugar, about strategy, about making damn sure America wasn’t left behind in the global game of empire.
And when the dust settled, Cuba got a sort-of freedom, wrapped in American strings. Puerto Rico became a possession. But in the Philippines, things went dark fast.
Because the war didn’t end there. It morphed—into an ugly, brutal, years-long insurgency. The same U.S. troops who claimed to be liberators turned occupiers. Villages were torched. Civilians slaughtered. Concentration camps. Water torture. The same tools of empire the Spanish once used—now painted red, white, and blue.
This episode isn’t just about a short war with a big legacy. It’s about the moment the United States became an empire and Spain, well, Spain was no longer an empire.
Further Reading
The Spanish War: An American Epic... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393303047?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States https://a.co/d/4cvz3Cz
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/s/spanish-american-war-war-plans-and-impact-on-u-s-navy.html
Mornings on Horseback: The Story... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671447548?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
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Today is Sunday 15 June, just two days after Operation Rising Lion - Israel’s decisive strike against Iran that began in the early hours of June 13th, 2025. We’re going to discuss everything that I’ve been able to gather over the last 48 hours. It’s been hard figuring out fact from fiction, but I think I’m close.
The world had been holding its breath for years. Watching. Waiting. Betting on diplomacy, back channels, and fragile agreements to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions before it was too late.
But on June 13th, 2025, that waiting ended. Israel made a choice no one else had the nerve to make. With little warning, without alliance approval, without fanfare—they launched a precise, high-stakes strike deep inside Iran’s nuclear program. Targets that the world had argued over for decades turned to rubble in hours.
This wasn’t a message. It was a line drawn in concrete and fire. Deterrence didn’t just fail—it died.
Iran was blindsided. The region wasn’t. Everyone knew this moment was coming. The only mystery was the timing. In this episode, we’ll pull back the curtain on what happened, why it happened, and the far-reaching consequences still shaking capitals from Tehran to Tel Aviv to Washington.
No spin. No distance. Just the cold, hard truth.
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The Spanish American War 1898: The War of Empires w/ Drew Dornstadter
The sun was setting on the Spanish Empire—bloated, brittle, and running on fumes. Four hundred years of conquest and gold, galleons and God, unraveling like an old coat in a storm. And just as the curtain was falling, America showed up. Young, loud, hungry.
1898. The Spanish-American War. It lasted only four months, but it changed everything. One empire dying. Another one being born. Not with ceremony—but with guns, headlines, and a healthy dose of manifest destiny.
They said it was about liberation—Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico. Freedom from tyranny, all that jazz. But let’s be honest: it was about markets, military bases, and planting flags on islands most Americans couldn’t find on a map.
This wasn’t just about Teddy Roosevelt’s rough riders or stirring speeches in Congress. It was about sugar, about strategy, about making damn sure America wasn’t left behind in the global game of empire.
And when the dust settled, Cuba got a sort-of freedom, wrapped in American strings. Puerto Rico became a possession. But in the Philippines, things went dark fast.
Because the war didn’t end there. It morphed—into an ugly, brutal, years-long insurgency. The same U.S. troops who claimed to be liberators turned occupiers. Villages were torched. Civilians slaughtered. Concentration camps. Water torture. The same tools of empire the Spanish once used—now painted red, white, and blue.
This episode isn’t just about a short war with a big legacy. It’s about the moment the United States became an empire and Spain, well, Spain was no longer an empire.
Further Reading
The Spanish War: An American Epic... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393303047?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States https://a.co/d/4cvz3Cz
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/s/spanish-american-war-war-plans-and-impact-on-u-s-navy.html
Mornings on Horseback: The Story... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671447548?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
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How do nations keep going—through war, peace, and all the mess in between? They tell stories. About glory. About sacrifice. About who they are, and who they think they are. These stories build will, shape identity, and sometimes, keep people holding on long after logic would tell them to quit.
I’m sitting down with my friend Nikki Dean—a sharp mind and a PhD candidate who knows a thing or two about the power of narrative. We’re digging into how countries craft myths, stitch together identities, and use stories to turn chaos into meaning. Even when the facts fall short, the story keeps marching on.
Dig Deeper
The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative (Cambridge Introductions to Literature) https://a.co/d/cxaDjc7
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317138927_How_to_Win_Wars_The_Role_of_the_War_Narrative
https://verfassungsblog.de/russias-war-against-ukraine-and-the-battle-of-narratives/
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You can smell the history here before you see it—dust, diesel, sweat, jasmine. It hangs in the air like a ghost that never got the memo to move on. Welcome to the Indian subcontinent: where time doesn’t just pass—it accumulates. And nowhere is that more brutally obvious than in the story of Partition and the fall out that still rains over the people in both India and Pakistan.
In 1947, a line was drawn—quickly, carelessly, and with the kind of arrogance only empires can afford. The British walked out, and what they left behind was not two nations, but a wound. India and Pakistan were born, not with celebration, but with slaughter, exile, and trauma passed down like a family heirloom.
But this story isn’t just about that catastrophic moment. It’s about everything that’s followed. The wars. The proxy conflicts. Kashmir. Kargil. The nuclear standoff. Terror attacks in Mumbai, soldiers in Siachen, political theater in Delhi and Islamabad—and the quiet, daily lives caught in between.
It’s about how a line on a map became a wall in the mind. How identity got weaponized. And how peace is talked about like a dream, but rarely pursued like a plan.
This episode, we’re not picking sides. We’re picking through the rubble. Through memory and myth, war and nationalism, and the strange, painful familiarity of two nations that still can’t look each other in the eye without flinching.
Because history didn’t end in 1947. In South Asia, it’s still being written—with fire, ink, and the silence of those who never made it home
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How do Russians think about strategy and international relations and how does it shape the way Russia sees warfare, peace, and everything in between?
I hope you’re ready to join me and my new friend and expert, Dr. Ofer Fridman, as we dive into the core of Russian military thinking and how the lessons of perpetual conflict, dominance in the information space, and the use of all instruments of power apply to our world today.
Books by Dr. Ofer Fridman to better understand Russian thinking
Strategiya: The Foundations of the Russian Art of Strategy https://a.co/d/2JfIi3i
Russian "Hybrid Warfare": Resurgence and Politicization https://a.co/d/es7NU1w
Deciphering Russian Enigma: In 15 Questions and 30 Answers https://a.co/d/1LW3ZVi
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What lessons can we uncover from a short Russian War against a democratic neighbor and former soviet republic?
I hope you're ready to join me and my close friend, Colonel Chad Ramskugler, in discussing the Russo-Georgian War of 2008 and how the lessons of alliances, preparing for war, and quick execution apply to us today.
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What lessons can we uncover from a Russian War that turned defeat into victory?
I hope you’re ready to join me and my close friend, Anthony Benedosso, in discussing the Second Chechen War and how the lessons of phase zero operations, controlling the narrative, and proxy warfare apply to us today.
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What lessons can we uncover from a Russian border war following the end of the Cold War?
I hope you’re ready to join me and my close friend Anthony Benedosso in discussing the First Chechen War and how the lessons of phase zero operations, controlling the narrative, and proxy warfare apply to us today.
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What lessons can we uncover from previous United States expansion experiments that can shed some light on why and how the US might acquire the sovereign territory of the Panama Canal from Panama and Greenland from Denmark?
I hope you're ready to join me for today’s episode to discuss how the lessons of strategic timing, leveraging long-term potential, clear objectives, and diplomatic finesse apply to us today.
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What lessons can we uncover from the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 that the Syrian Rebels used to take down the Assad regime in Syria?
I hope you're ready to join me for a special episode to discuss how the lessons of:
1.The Shifting Role of Outside Powers, 2.Uniting Old Enemies Against a Common Foe, 3. Financial Incentives and Undermining Assad’s Forces, 4. Breaking Ties with Extremism and 5. Breaking the Enemy’s Will apply to us today.
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What lessons can we uncover from a preemptive war that displaced one enemy, only to replace it with a more complex and dangerous enemy?
I hope you're ready to join me and my friend Dr. Grant Martin in discussing the 1982 South Lebanon War and how the lessons of groupthink, false control of war, and narrative apply to us today.
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What lessons can we learn from Cold War deterrence theory that can blunt Iran's influence in the Middle East?
I hope you're ready to join me and my new friend and expert Dr. Carter Malkasian in discussing how a new approach to deterrence in the Middle East applies to us today.
America’s Crisis in Deterrence, Foreign Affairs Article
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/americas-crisis-deterrence
Link to Dr. Carter Malkasian’s Works
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What lessons can we learn from a surprise attack over 51 years ago that maximized emerging technology but still failed?
I hope you’re ready to join me and my friend Aaron Ritzema in discussing the 1973 Yom Kippur War and how the lessons of warnings and indicators, cognitive bias, and technology and tactics apply to us today.
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What lessons can we glean from that past that shed some light on the future of Hamas and Hezbollah?
I hope you're ready to join me for a special bonus episode to discuss how the lessons of decentralized leadership, popular support, and strong political integration and adaptability apply to Hamas and Hezbollah today.
Great article - must read
The Tamil Tigers Were Completely Crushed. Is Hamas Next?
Ajai Sahni, Foreign Policy article
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/10/30/tamil-tigers-hamas-gaza-sinwar-survive/
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What lessons can we glean from that past that can shed some light on President Zelensky’s Victory Plan for Ukraine?
I hope you're ready to join me for a special episode to discuss how the lessons of having strong and committed allies, foreign investment, and being in a place of strength at the negotiation table apply to Ukraine today.
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