After reading his book on the war in Ukraine, you will understand the significance of this conflict as you never have before. Putin thought he could topple Kyiv in days and convinced himself Ukraine wasn't even a real country, and he could not have made a dumber decision. This is an immensely important subject and a powerful conversation, and I hope everyone listens to it.

James Verini writes for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and National Geographic, among other publications. His journalism has received a National Magazine Award and a George Polk Award. He is the author of They Will Have to Die Now, about the battle that brought down ISIS.

I say it on the podcast and will say it here: this book is seminal, heartbreaking, and a beautiful work of reporting: "The Theater: Courage and Survival in the Defining Atrocity of the Ukraine War." Get it here: https://amzn.to/44Ipitl

Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio.

Pre-order my next book, All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump, out on the 17th of September in the UK and the 22nd of September in the US: ⁠https://www.scaramucci.net/allthewrongmoves

Timestamps
0:00 James Verini Introduction
2:08 Why cover the world's most dangerous conflict zones?
3:49 Why Ukraine was more frightening than anywhere else?
5:03 The Mariupol theater, March 2022: a harrowing scene
7:41 Why covering civilians instead of soldiers became the only option?
10:51 The uncomfortable truth: most of us would be civilians, not fighters, in war
11:45 Did the Russians know what they were bombing?
15:13 Wartime propaganda and dehumanizing the enemy
16:13 Focusing on individuals, not generals
19:58 Russian brutality vs. Ukrainian resilience, four years later
24:26 Five Words
28:49 Brother-on-brother war and hope for resolution