Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.

Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.

On tonight's program, we've all gone to look for America on the political stage and the theatre one.

Matthew Barsen's been Washington's ambassador to Britain since 2013,

and he's been talking to me about the headaches of global reach,

dealing with the Russia-Ukraine crisis,

and the exercising question of putting boots on the ground in Iraq.

We're not going to make this a ground war with our troops again,

because we could keep a lid on it for a while,

but that's not sustainable.

We'll eventually have to come home.

And if we haven't had those local security forces built up,

their capabilities built up, it won't last.

More from Ambassador Barsen on the present challenges

and his historical interest in a wartime predecessor shortly.

But first, one of the most distinctive theatrical voices

dissecting the contradictions, hypocrisies,

and sheer oddities of masculinity for 40 years

has been David Mamet.

In the vein of Harold Pinter,

just a mention of his name conjures up his syncopated speech rhythms, street-smart diction, and a nagging undertone of deceit.

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