Behind the Bastards
Behind the Bastards

Part Two: Radovan Karadžić: The Genocidal Dictator Who Became a New-Age Guru

September 24, 2026

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5 min read

Part Two: Radovan Karadžić: The Genocidal Dictator Who Became a New-Age Guru

After serving time for white-collar crimes and possibly informing on friends for the Yugoslav regime, Radovan Karadžić entered politics through an unlikely door: the Green Party. In the late 1980s, as Yugoslavia began experimenting with democracy, the Greens became a holding place for counterculture—environmentalists, folk medicine enthusiasts, and anti-communist dissidents. Karadžić participated in protests like covering acacia tree limbs with plastic bags, and his interest in traditional remedies and spiritual beliefs about nature was rooted in Serbian identity. But in a failing communist state, belief in alternative medicine was also political. As a 2009 New York Times article explained, "In communist Yugoslavia, alternative medicine was suppressed along with all anti-science superstitions, including the Serbian Orthodox Church. In Serbia, then the politics of alternative medicine became a haven for right wing anti-communists."

From Green Party to Ethnonationalist Party

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (06:13) **Radovan Karadžić at the Start of Part Two** - Robert and Jamie recap where Karadžić left off: a disgraced psychiatrist, white-collar criminal, and possible informant for the regime.
  • 2 (10:19) **Karadžić's Green Party Activism and Folk Medicine** - Karadžić participates in environmental protests and bonds with fellow Greens over traditional folk medicine and anti-communist sentiment.
  • 3 (13:54) **From Green Party to Serbian Nationalism** - Karadžić begins gathering Serbian nationalists, realizing the Green Party won't serve their ambitions, and they become increasingly ethnonationalist and violent.
  • 4 (15:28) **The Rise of the SDA and Karadžić's Propaganda** - In 1990, Bosnian Muslims form the SDA, a secular pro-independence party, which Karadžić falsely labels as a militant Islamic party to stoke fear.
  • 5 (17:49) **Critique of Jessica Stern's Book and the Islamist Fighter Question** - Robert expresses issues with Stern's biography, which he says falls for Karadžić's spell and doesn't push back on his framing of the SDS as Islamist.
  • 6 (21:53) **Karadžić's Radicalization and the Seizure of Power** - After Bosnia's 1990 elections, Karadžić gives public speeches warning of an Islamic threat, and the SDS militias, armed by the Yugoslav military, seize land and declare the Republika Srpska.
  • 7 (41:54) **The Language of a Genocidal Psychiatrist** - A psychiatric journal analyzes Karadžić's speeches, finding a grandiose, mythical language of blood, soil, and sacrifice, as he casts himself as a healer of the Serbian nation.

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Guests on this episode

Show Notes

We conclude the harrowing story of Radovan Karadžić with his war crimes and third act as an energy healer.

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