{"podcast":{"title":"If You're Listening","slug":"if-you-re-listening-232515","podcast_index_feed_id":232515,"rss_url":"https://www.abc.net.au/feeds/9593214/podcast.xml","website_url":"https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/if-youre-listening/","image_url":"https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/0b00910f69470533fe28ab472d099166.jpg?src","author":"ABC Australia","episode_count":250,"summary":"The world is on fire. There's a coup. Inflation is through the roof, and AI is taking our jobs. What does it all mean? Each week, Matt Bevan explains the biggest story in world news while hiding in his basement from assassins and authoritarian regimes. Recent episodes include an exploration of the relationship between India and China, a closer look at the Saudi Arabian city of NEOM, the conflict in the Middle East, the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, and Ukraine's incursions into Vladimir Putin's Russia. Matt Bevan draws connections between stories from the past and the events of the present to help listeners understand world news and international affairs. The podcast also features series about big moments in world news; previous series have focused on the United States presidential election, the United Kingdom's 14 years of Conservative Party leadership, Donald Trump's relationship with Russia, Donald Trump's presidency and promise to Make America Great Again, the Mueller Report, Vladimir Putin's scheme to destroy western democracies, how the relationship between Australia and China came to the verge of collapse, and Australia's turbulent history with clima…","last_synced_at":"2026-09-12T04:23:07.571960+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/if-you-re-listening-232515"},"episode":{"title":"Will Trump's weird obsession break the US Navy?","slug":"will-trump-s-weird-obsession-break-the-us-navy","published_at":"2026-08-26T15:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/if-you-re-listening-232515/will-trump-s-weird-obsession-break-the-us-navy","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/if-you-re-listening-232515","url":"https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/if-youre-listening/will-trump-s-weird-obsession-break-the-us-navy-/107079638","audio_url":"https://mediacore-live-production.akamaized.net/audio/02/ns/Z/t9.mp3","summary":"Sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln have spent more than 250 consecutive days at sea without a single port call, a new US Navy record. Leaked photos show broken toilets and meals of mystery mush, the result of being trapped on the wrong side of Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. But the real story is much bigger. The Navy's next-generation carriers were built around untested electromagnetic catapults that took over a decade and billions more than planned to get working, contributing to a shipbuilding backlog linked to a spike in sailor suicides. Now Donald Trump, who's long hated electric catapults, wants to switch back to old-fashioned steam, a call engineers say could make the mess a whole lot worse. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app . Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq","meta_description":"Sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln have spent more than 250 consecutive days at sea without a single port call, a new US Navy record. Leaked photos show b…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1710,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/if-you-re-listening-232515/episodes/will-trump-s-weird-obsession-break-the-us-navy/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/if-you-re-listening-232515/will-trump-s-weird-obsession-break-the-us-navy.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}