Gary Brecher is a character imagined by American writer Dr. John Dolan. Brecher was invented in 2002 as a smart, unhappy data-entry clerk in Fresno, California. Under that pseudonym, John began to write “the War Nerd” column for the Exile, a satirical Moscow-based newspaper that was destined to be shut down by the Kremlin some years later. Since 2015 he has co-hosted the podcast "Radio War Nerd", with Mark Ames. He also writes the podcast's subscriber newsletter.