Episode

Civil Servant Dons Body Armor

Podcast
American Diplomat
Published
Aug 20, 2026
Duration seconds
2285
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://americandiplomat.libsyn.com/civil-servant-dons-body-armor
Audio
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/americandiplomat/Ken_Handelman_Afghanistan_Aug_2026.mp3?dest-id=590599
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/american-diplomat-9204/episodes/civil-servant-dons-body-armor
Markdown
/podcast/american-diplomat-9204/civil-servant-dons-body-armor.md

Actions

  • POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/american-diplomat-9204/episodes/civil-servant-dons-body-armor/transcription-requests
    Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
  • GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/american-diplomat-9204/civil-servant-dons-body-armor.md
    Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

In the second of our short series on Afghanistan five years after the US exit, Ken Handelman, former senior civil servant in the Department of Defense, reflects on the beauty, the weirdness and the tragedy of our 20 years in that country. What three institutions' failings led him to believe that it was time to leave? Listen and find out.