Podcasts about arms control wonk

America aims to avoid nuclear war by relying on the principle of 'mutually assured destruction,' right? Wrong. Or at least... not officially.As today's guest — Jeffrey Lewis, founder of Arms Control Wonk and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies — explains, in its official 'OPLANs' (military operation plans), the US is committed to 'dominating' in a nuclear war with Russia. How would they do that? "That is redacted."Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in December 2022.Links to learn more, highlights, and full transcript.We invited Jeffrey to come on the show to lay out what we and our listeners are most likely to be misunderstanding about nuclear weapons, the nuclear posture of major powers, and his field as a whole, and he did not disappoint.As Jeffrey tells it, 'mutually assured destruction' was a slur used to criticise those who wanted to limit the 1960s arms buildup, and was never accepted as a matter of policy in any US administration. But isn't it still the de facto reality? Yes and no.Jeffrey is a specialist on the nuts and bolts of bureaucratic and military decision-making in real-life situations. He suspects that at the start of their term presidents get a briefing about the US' plan to prevail in a nuclear war and conclude that "it's freaking madness." They say to themselves that whatever these silly plans may say, they know a nuclear war cannot be won, so they just won't use the weapons.But Jeffrey thinks that's a big mistake. Yes, in a calm moment presidents can resist pressure from advisors and generals. But that idea of ‘winning' a nuclear war is in all the plans. Staff have been hired because they believe in those plans. It's what the generals and admirals have all prepared for.What matters is the 'not calm moment': the 3AM phone call to tell the president that ICBMs might hit the US in eight minutes — the same week Russia invades a neighbour or China invades Taiwan. Is it a false alarm? Should they retaliate before their land-based missile silos are hit? There's only minutes to decide.Jeffrey points out that in emergencies, presidents have repeatedly found themselves railroaded into actions they didn't want to take because of how information and options were processed and presented to them. In the heat of the moment, it's natural to reach for the plan you've prepared — however mad it might sound.In this spicy conversation, Jeffrey fields the most burning questions from Rob and the audience, in the process explaining:Why inter-service rivalry is one of the biggest constraints on US nuclear policyTwo times the US sabotaged nuclear nonproliferation among great powersHow his field uses jargon to exclude outsidersHow the US could prevent the revival of mass nuclear testing by the great powersWhy nuclear deterrence relies on the possibility that something might go wrongWhether 'salami tactics' render nuclear weapons ineffectiveThe time the Navy and Air Force switched views on how to wage a nuclear war, just when it would allow *them* to have the most missilesThe problems that arise when you won't talk to people you think are evilWhy missile defences are politically popular despite being strategically foolishHow open source intelligence can prevent arms racesAnd much more.Chapters:Cold open (00:00:00)Rob's intro (00:01:05)The interview begins (00:03:31)Misconceptions in the effective altruism community (00:06:24)Nuclear deterrence (00:18:18)Dishonest rituals (00:28:59)Downsides of generalist research (00:32:55)“Mutual assured destruction” (00:39:00)Budgetary considerations for competing parts of the US military (00:52:35)Where the effective altruism community can potentially add the most value (01:02:57)Gatekeeping (01:12:46)Strengths of the nuclear security community (01:16:57)Disarmament (01:27:40)Nuclear winter (01:39:36)Attacks against US allies (01:42:28)Most likely weapons to get used (01:45:53)The role of moral arguments (01:47:22)Salami tactics (01:52:43)Jeffrey's disagreements with Thomas Schelling (01:57:42)Why did it take so long to get nuclear arms agreements? (02:01:54)Detecting secret nuclear facilities (02:04:01)Where Jeffrey would give $10M in grants (02:06:28)The importance of archival research (02:11:45)Jeffrey's policy ideas (02:20:45)What should the US do regarding China? (02:27:52)What should the US do regarding Russia? (02:32:24)What should the US do regarding Taiwan? (02:36:09)Advice for people interested in working on nuclear security (02:38:06)Rob's outro (02:39:45)Producer: Keiran HarrisAudio mastering: Ben CordellTranscriptions: Katy Moore

The United States Library of Congress selected Dr. Strangelove as one of the first 25 films in the National Film Registry. As we approach the 60th anniversary of Dr. Strangelove (in Jan 2024), our live podcast panel takes a critical look at the dark comedy and reveals how the satire is uncomfortably realistic, even to this day. Using dialogue from the film as prompts, our panel explains to listeners its historical references and draws parallels to today's international diplomatic landscape.

Some questions fall far outside the scope of what governments are designed to answer. How will we explain ourselves to extraterrestrials? What can we say to warn humans 10,000 years in the future about the nuclear waste we're leaving behind? Assuming we develop the proper technology, would it be beneficial to breed glowing cats?Two decades after NASA shot a message to aliens into deep space, one of its authors joined an eclectic group of experts and went down a similar rabbit hole regarding nuclear waste. The result was one of the most outlandish, mind-bending, and heartfelt reports ever commissioned by the US government. This episode features artist Jon Lomberg, former NRDC lawyer Dan Reicher, and futurist Ted Gordon.

Fishermen dying mysteriously off the coast of Japan. Entire populations of sea animals disappearing. Despite decades of work by the international community, the high seas remain law enforcement's biggest blind spot, and the site of environmental crimes whose effects reach around the world. But some people are attempting to stop these crimes: We follow the investigations of two private-citizen sleuths, one using satellites to expose massive but previously untraceable illegal fleets, another using spycraft to infiltrate a criminal network of poachers and smugglers operating on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.This episode features Sara Mitchell, professor of political science at the University of Iowa; as well as Jaeyoon Park of Global Fishing Watch and Andrea Crosta, founder and Executive Director of Earth League International.

Take a listen to the latest season of Jeffrey Lewis's podcast, The Reason We're All Still Here Far too often, governments behave like toddlers. They're fickle. They don't like to share. And good luck getting them to pay attention to any problem that isn't directly in front of them. They like to push each other to the brink, and often do. But when they don't, it's usually because other people enter the proverbial room. Private citizens who step up and play peacemaker when their governments won't or can't. People who strive for collaboration and understanding, and sometimes end up finding it in unlikely places. Those people and the work they do, they're the reason we're all still here. This season, we'll hear from scientists, analysts, and idealists who have gone to crazy lengths just for a shot at making peace and building understanding From smoke-filled rooms in North Korea to secret labs in the Soviet Union… to the lawless seas, and even to the depths of outer space (or, at least, the conference rooms where they talk about the depths of outer space). This podcast tells the stories about the people holding us back from the brink. Hosted by ​​Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, a professor and scholar at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies on the Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies faculty. Previously, he served as Director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation and Executive Director of the Managing the Atom Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. He is the founder of ArmsControlWonk.com, a leading resource on disarmament, arms control and nonproliferation issues.   Produced by Gilded Audio and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies

In February 2020, an elite group of biosecurity experts, worried about the threat of pandemics, plays a bizarrely prescient role-playing game. They run into an age-old pattern of secrecy and mistrust, one that thwarts their efforts to ‘beat' the game. We travel back to a (real-life) period when dozens of mysterious deaths occurred in a closed Soviet city. As it turns out, hidden pieces of lung tissue help shed light on what, to this day, keeps the nations of the world from working together to fight infectious disease.

There are no international laws against littering in space, which is a shame, because individual governments love to blow things up in low-Earth orbit. The result? A crisis of ricocheting debris that goes on forever. As private industry sends an unprecedented number of satellites into orbit, security experts find themselves in a race against the clock to bring sanity (or sanitation?) to the space around us. This episode features former NASA astrophysicist Donald Kessler, Professor Mariel Borowitz of Georgia Tech, and Victoria Samson and Brian Weeden of the Secure World Foundation. 

An arms-control advocate accepts an invitation to the dacha of a hard-partying North Korean power broker. There, through a haze of smoke and propaganda, they identify some common ground and set out to test a hypothesis: That it's possible for Americans and North Koreans to work together toward peace. The result is a tense but extraordinary moment in the relationship between North Korea and the West, a rare example of collaboration that has been almost entirely lost to history.This episode features Peter Hayes and Lyuba Zarsky, co-founders of the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, and David von Hippel, an energy expert who worked with Peter in North Korea.

As the Cold War draws to a close, a group of American scientists hatches a plan to board a Soviet warship with a nuclear weapons detector to prove to their own government that the USSR is open to nuclear arms verification. Meet the guys who brought a slug of depleted uranium through security at LaGuardia Airport, sat atop a Soviet nuclear device in the Black Sea, and skinny-dipped with their counterparts from the other side of the Iron Curtain.This episode features three physicists: Tom Cochran, formerly of the NRDC; Frank von Hippel, a professor of physics at Princeton University; and Steve Fetter, a professor at the University of Maryland. 

If you're reading this, and you're not in some sort of irradiated, post-apocalyptic hellscape… well, you can thank our host Jeffrey Lewis. He studies nukes—who has them, who wants them, and how to prevent them from going off—so that we're less likely to die in a nuclear war.  The thing is, lots of people have jobs like this. They're not celebrities and they're not even politicians. They're the people looking for solutions to problems that most people haven't thought about yet, doing research that most people won't ever hear about, and, of course, writing papers that most people are never going to read. But collectively, they're making it a little less likely that war will break out, bombs will fall, and we'll all die horribly. Call them wonks, call them cranks, call them idealists…we call them the reason we're all still here.This prologue establishes what you'll hear this season: the type of international, non-governmental diplomacy that aims to keep civilization alive. Sometimes solutions are found in unlikely places… like a suitcase shop in Tehran. This episode features an unlikely friend of Dr. Lewis: Max Angerholzer, CEO of George and Barbara Bush Foundation.

Podcast: 80,000 Hours Podcast Episode: #143 – Jeffrey Lewis on the most common misconceptions about nuclear weaponsRelease date: 2022-12-29America aims to avoid nuclear war by relying on the principle of 'mutually assured destruction,' right? Wrong. Or at least... not officially. As today's guest — Jeffrey Lewis, founder of Arms Control Wonk and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies — explains, in its official 'OPLANs' (military operation plans), the US is committed to 'dominating' in a nuclear war with Russia. How would they do that? "That is redacted." Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. We invited Jeffrey to come on the show to lay out what we and our listeners are most likely to be misunderstanding about nuclear weapons, the nuclear posture of major powers, and his field as a whole, and he did not disappoint. As Jeffrey tells it, 'mutually assured destruction' was a slur used to criticise those who wanted to limit the 1960s arms buildup, and was never accepted as a matter of policy in any US administration. But isn't it still the de facto reality? Yes and no. Jeffrey is a specialist on the nuts and bolts of bureaucratic and military decision-making in real-life situations. He suspects that at the start of their term presidents get a briefing about the US' plan to prevail in a nuclear war and conclude that "it's freaking madness." They say to themselves that whatever these silly plans may say, they know a nuclear war cannot be won, so they just won't use the weapons. But Jeffrey thinks that's a big mistake. Yes, in a calm moment presidents can resist pressure from advisors and generals. But that idea of ‘winning' a nuclear war is in all the plans. Staff have been hired because they believe in those plans. It's what the generals and admirals have all prepared for. What matters is the 'not calm moment': the 3AM phone call to tell the president that ICBMs might hit the US in eight minutes — the same week Russia invades a neighbour or China invades Taiwan. Is it a false alarm? Should they retaliate before their land-based missile silos are hit? There's only minutes to decide. Jeffrey points out that in emergencies, presidents have repeatedly found themselves railroaded into actions they didn't want to take because of how information and options were processed and presented to them. In the heat of the moment, it's natural to reach for the plan you've prepared — however mad it might sound. In this spicy conversation, Jeffrey fields the most burning questions from Rob and the audience, in the process explaining: • Why inter-service rivalry is one of the biggest constraints on US nuclear policy • Two times the US sabotaged nuclear nonproliferation among great powers • How his field uses jargon to exclude outsiders • How the US could prevent the revival of mass nuclear testing by the great powers • Why nuclear deterrence relies on the possibility that something might go wrong • Whether 'salami tactics' render nuclear weapons ineffective • The time the Navy and Air Force switched views on how to wage a nuclear war, just when it would allow *them* to have the most missiles • The problems that arise when you won't talk to people you think are evil • Why missile defences are politically popular despite being strategically foolish • How open source intelligence can prevent arms races • And much more. Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world's most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80,000 Hours into your podcasting app. Producer: Keiran Harris Audio mastering: Ben Cordell Transcriptions: Katy Moore

Podcast: 80,000 Hours Podcast with Rob Wiblin (LS 52 · TOP 0.5% )Episode: #143 – Jeffrey Lewis on the most common misconceptions about nuclear weaponsRelease date: 2022-12-29America aims to avoid nuclear war by relying on the principle of 'mutually assured destruction,' right? Wrong. Or at least... not officially. As today's guest — Jeffrey Lewis, founder of Arms Control Wonk and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies — explains, in its official 'OPLANs' (military operation plans), the US is committed to 'dominating' in a nuclear war with Russia. How would they do that? "That is redacted." Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. We invited Jeffrey to come on the show to lay out what we and our listeners are most likely to be misunderstanding about nuclear weapons, the nuclear posture of major powers, and his field as a whole, and he did not disappoint. As Jeffrey tells it, 'mutually assured destruction' was a slur used to criticise those who wanted to limit the 11960s arms buildup, and was never accepted as a matter of policy in any US administration. But isn't it still the de facto reality? Yes and no. Jeffrey is a specialist on the nuts and bolts of bureaucratic and military decision-making in real-life situations. He suspects that at the start of their term presidents get a briefing about the US' plan to prevail in a nuclear war and conclude that "it's freaking madness." They say to themselves that whatever these silly plans may say, they know a nuclear war cannot be won, so they just won't use the weapons. But Jeffrey thinks that's a big mistake. Yes, in a calm moment presidents can resist pressure from advisors and generals. But that idea of ‘winning' a nuclear war is in all the plans. Staff have been hired because they believe in those plans. It's what the generals and admirals have all prepared for. What matters is the 'not calm moment': the 3AM phone call to tell the president that ICBMs might hit the US in eight minutes — the same week Russia invades a neighbour or China invades Taiwan. Is it a false alarm? Should they retaliate before their land-based missile silos are hit? There's only minutes to decide. Jeffrey points out that in emergencies, presidents have repeatedly found themselves railroaded into actions they didn't want to take because of how information and options were processed and presented to them. In the heat of the moment, it's natural to reach for the plan you've prepared — however mad it might sound. In this spicy conversation, Jeffrey fields the most burning questions from Rob and the audience, in the process explaining: • Why inter-service rivalry is one of the biggest constraints on US nuclear policy • Two times the US sabotaged nuclear nonproliferation among great powers • How his field uses jargon to exclude outsiders • How the US could prevent the revival of mass nuclear testing by the great powers • Why nuclear deterrence relies on the possibility that something might go wrong • Whether 'salami tactics' render nuclear weapons ineffective • The time the Navy and Air Force switched views on how to wage a nuclear war, just when it would allow *them* to have the most missiles • The problems that arise when you won't talk to people you think are evil • Why missile defences are politically popular despite being strategically foolish • How open source intelligence can prevent arms races • And much more. Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world's most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80,000 Hours into your podcasting app. Producer: Keiran Harris Audio mastering: Ben Cordell Transcriptions: Katy Moore

America aims to avoid nuclear war by relying on the principle of 'mutually assured destruction,' right? Wrong. Or at least... not officially. As today's guest — Jeffrey Lewis, founder of Arms Control Wonk and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies — explains, in its official 'OPLANs' (military operation plans), the US is committed to 'dominating' in a nuclear war with Russia. How would they do that? "That is redacted." Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. We invited Jeffrey to come on the show to lay out what we and our listeners are most likely to be misunderstanding about nuclear weapons, the nuclear posture of major powers, and his field as a whole, and he did not disappoint. As Jeffrey tells it, 'mutually assured destruction' was a slur used to criticise those who wanted to limit the 1960s arms buildup, and was never accepted as a matter of policy in any US administration. But isn't it still the de facto reality? Yes and no. Jeffrey is a specialist on the nuts and bolts of bureaucratic and military decision-making in real-life situations. He suspects that at the start of their term presidents get a briefing about the US' plan to prevail in a nuclear war and conclude that "it's freaking madness." They say to themselves that whatever these silly plans may say, they know a nuclear war cannot be won, so they just won't use the weapons. But Jeffrey thinks that's a big mistake. Yes, in a calm moment presidents can resist pressure from advisors and generals. But that idea of ‘winning' a nuclear war is in all the plans. Staff have been hired because they believe in those plans. It's what the generals and admirals have all prepared for. What matters is the 'not calm moment': the 3AM phone call to tell the president that ICBMs might hit the US in eight minutes — the same week Russia invades a neighbour or China invades Taiwan. Is it a false alarm? Should they retaliate before their land-based missile silos are hit? There's only minutes to decide. Jeffrey points out that in emergencies, presidents have repeatedly found themselves railroaded into actions they didn't want to take because of how information and options were processed and presented to them. In the heat of the moment, it's natural to reach for the plan you've prepared — however mad it might sound. In this spicy conversation, Jeffrey fields the most burning questions from Rob and the audience, in the process explaining: • Why inter-service rivalry is one of the biggest constraints on US nuclear policy • Two times the US sabotaged nuclear nonproliferation among great powers • How his field uses jargon to exclude outsiders • How the US could prevent the revival of mass nuclear testing by the great powers • Why nuclear deterrence relies on the possibility that something might go wrong • Whether 'salami tactics' render nuclear weapons ineffective • The time the Navy and Air Force switched views on how to wage a nuclear war, just when it would allow *them* to have the most missiles • The problems that arise when you won't talk to people you think are evil • Why missile defences are politically popular despite being strategically foolish • How open source intelligence can prevent arms races • And much more. Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world's most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80,000 Hours into your podcasting app. Producer: Keiran Harris Audio mastering: Ben Cordell Transcriptions: Katy Moore

Tyler Nighswander and Mike Nute have developed an incredible tool for detecting long-range missile and space launches by processing and visualizing ionospheric disturbances in GPS data.  In one of the most fascinating and technically complex episodes of the ACW pod, Tyler and Mike join Jeffrey to talk about their wild new open-source intelligence tool, how it works, and what it means for missile and rocket observation.    A visualization of their work can be seen here: https://twitter.com/ArmsControlWonk/status/1593452159365918722?s=20&t=hAI_EJvR8zCRMqj9u36yuw And, of course, shout out to the ACW Slack Channel, wherin Tyler and Mike started this project.  Tyler and Mike can be found on twitter at:  @tylerni7 and @michaelnute Support us over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast!

On this episode of Cyber we talk about an old technology that suddenly feels very new. The bomb. That's right, this episode is all about nuclear weapons. Thanks to Moscow's war in Ukraine and Putin's implicit and explicit threats to use them should Russian territory be threatened, everyone is afraid of nuclear weapons once again. Able Archer? Passé. Cuban Missile Crisis? Old news. These days it's all about hypersonics, tactical nukes, and even cruise missiles powered by a nuclear engine.At least that's the claim.On this episode of Cyber, the Arms Control Wonk himself, Jeffrey Lewis, comes on to answer all your burning questions about nuclear weapons. Lewis is a professor at the Middlebury Institute, a member of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, and the host of the Arms Control Wonk podcast.Stories discussed in this episode:Is There a Threat of Nuclear War with Russia? Experts Weigh In.Putin Puts Russia's Nuclear Deterrent Forces on High AlertPutin Demonstrates New Missiles With Visualization of Nukes Hitting Mar-a-LagoNuclear War Anxiety Is Back. Here's How to Manage It.We're recording CYBER live on Twitch and YouTube. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show. Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.Sign up for Motherboard's daily newsletter for a regular dose of our original reporting, plus behind-the-scenes content about our biggest stories. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Cyber we talk about an old technology that suddenly feels very new. The bomb. That's right, this episode is all about nuclear weapons. Thanks to Moscow's war in Ukraine and Putin's implicit and explicit threats to use them should Russian territory be threatened, everyone is afraid of nuclear weapons once again. Able Archer? Passé. Cuban Missile Crisis? Old news. These days it's all about hypersonics, tactical nukes, and even cruise missiles powered by a nuclear engine.At least that's the claim.On this episode of Cyber, the Arms Control Wonk himself, Jeffrey Lewis, comes on to answer all your burning questions about nuclear weapons. Lewis is a professor at the Middlebury Institute, a member of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, and the host of the Arms Control Wonk podcast.Stories discussed in this episode:Is There a Threat of Nuclear War with Russia? Experts Weigh In.Putin Puts Russia's Nuclear Deterrent Forces on High AlertPutin Demonstrates New Missiles With Visualization of Nukes Hitting Mar-a-LagoNuclear War Anxiety Is Back. Here's How to Manage It.We're recording CYBER live on Twitch and YouTube. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show. Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.Sign up for Motherboard's daily newsletter for a regular dose of our original reporting, plus behind-the-scenes content about our biggest stories. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Machiavelli in the Ivory Tower, hosts Sarah and Hanna are joined by Jeffrey Lewis, Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS). Jeffrey is also the founder of Arms Control Wonk, the leading blog and podcast on arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation. Today's discussion topics include: the implications of Russia's war against Ukraine and China's growing nuclear arsenal on the concept of nuclear deterrence; the ways forward in dealing with Iran's nuclear program; the challenges to arms control posed by disinformation; the reasons why individuals matter in all of this; And much more.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: I'm interviewing sometimes EA critic Jeffrey Lewis (AKA Arms Control Wonk) about what we get right and wrong when it comes to nuclear weapons and nuclear security. What should I ask him?, published by Robert Wiblin on August 26, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Next week for The 80,000 Hours Podcast I'm interviewing Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) on the topic of what the effective altruism community gets wrong/right about nuclear weapons & security. What should I ask him? Note he said this in a recent episode of his show: By the way we have a second problem that arises which I think the book 'Wizards of Armageddon' helps explain: this is why our field can't get any money. Because it's extremely hard to explain to people who are not already deep in this field how these deterrence concepts work because they don't get it. I mean, if you look at any of the work that the EA community does on nuclear risk... It's as misguided as the Strategic Air Command's original, you know, approach to nuclear weapons. And you would need an entire RAND-size outreach effort... I mean some people have tried to do this. If you look at Peter Scoblic — who I think is fundamentally a member of that community — he wrote a really nice piece responding to some of the not-great effective altruism assessments of nuclear risk in Ukraine. So I don't want to criticise the entire community. But I experienced this at a cocktail party. Once I start talking about nuclear weapons and deterrence if they don't do this stuff full time the popular ideas they have about it... Well first off they might be super bored. But if they're willing to listen the popular ideas they have about it are so misguided that it becomes impossible to make enough progress in a reasonable time. And that's death when you're asking someone to write you a big cheque. That's much harder than "Hi I want to buy some mosquito nets to reduce malaria deaths". That's really straightforward. But this... this is really complex. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.

Jeffrey Lewis is a Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and one of the most influential people in the Open Source Intelligence Community. He is also the host of the "Arms Control Wonk" podcast.--- Episode Sponsor: Element84Dan Pilone's appearance on the podcast---About Jeffrey:- Twitter- LinkedInShownotes:Dino BrugioniSeeing the Secrets Growing the LeadersHawkEye 360 GPS InterferenceYandex changing the borders on mapsJeffrey's Tweet announcing the invasion of Ukraine an hour before it happenedJeffrey's podcast: Arms Control WonkBooks & Podcast Recommendations:The Mapmakers by John Noble WilfordThe Essentials of SAR: A Conceptual View of Synthetic Aperture Radar and Its Remarkable Capabilities by Thomas AgerBBC Witness HistoryTimestamps:00:00 Introduction 02:42 Conversation begins: Jeffrey is an Open Spy 05:05 The appeal of doing Intelligence Analysis in Public 09:36 Jeffrey's OSINT early days: the War in Irak 16:49 An example of 'bad OSINT' 20:49 The Tricky Nature of Confirmation Bias 25:05 How an OSINT Story Starts 28:10 Being Right, or at least Wrong for the Right Reasons 30:30 Reputation in reporting, especially in the Open 35:55 Monitoring for news 39:26 Machine Learning in OSINT 41:37 The Difficult Yet Informative Nature of Synthetic Aperture Radar 47:58 Partnering with Satellite Image Providers 59:22 Satellite images yes, but they're only 1 component 01:06:40 The use of Open Satellite Imagery Data 01:17:55 Teaching OSINT 01:25:07 The ever faster increase in our access to Data 01:29:40 Filtering out the crap 01:33:20 Knowing who to trust: The Ukraine use-case 01:37:43 How Jeffrey's team called out the Russian Invasion 1h before it happened 01:43:21 The power of Companies 01:48:52 Funding & How to Stay Independent 01:52:51 Advocacy 01:59:00 The tools used for OSINT 02:07:48 The Surprising Impact of Ukraine on the Public's View of Nuclear Dissuasion 02:10:54 Nuclear weapons are not fun, like really not 02:14:18 Working with a Community 02:17:37 Jeffrey's podcast: Arms Control Wonk 02:22:51 Books & Podcast RecommendationsFeel free to reach out! - Website- My Twitter- Podcast Twitter- Previous Newsletter: Why I want to do more interviews in person- Sponsor the Podcast

After a brief hiatus due to Jeffrey's house catching on a lil' bit of fire, the Arms Control Wonk team is back to take a look at North Korea's triple missile launch and looming possible nuclear test.  Jeffrey and Aaron discuss the North Korean nuclear testing schedule, the expectations of precision that open source intelligence has generated, and what it means when half of the attendees at a nuclear conference all simultaneously leave... Support us over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast!

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is one of the biggest and most confusing political events of our lifetimes. We aim to bring some clarity in this special four-part series from Vox Conversations and host Zack Beauchamp, The War in Ukraine, Explained. In part three, Zack speaks with professor, blogger, and nuclear arms expert Jeff Lewis about the looming nuclear threat of the conflict in Ukraine. They discuss the probability of escalation by both Russia and the U.S., what "tactical" nuclear weapons really are and how they're misunderstood, the double-edged sword of deterrence, and some of the ethical, political, and psychological realities of managing large stockpiles of devastating nuclear weapons. Host: Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), Senior Correspondent, Vox Guest: Jeff Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk), founder and contributor, Arms Control Wonk; director, East Asia Nonproliferation Program, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey References:  "Is Russia committing genocide in Ukraine?" by Zack Beauchamp (Vox; Apr. 13) Enjoyed this episode? Rate Vox Conversations ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of Vox Conversations by subscribing in your favorite podcast app. Support Vox Conversations by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts This episode was made by:  Producer: Erikk Geannikis Editor: Amy Drozdowska Engineer: Paul Robert Mounsey Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: Amber Hall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Follow the speakers on Twitter: @DAlperovitch and @ArmsControlWonk

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow  #Korea: South Korea election answers North Korea threats. RV. https://twitter.com/ArmsControlWonk/status/1500856087188148228?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1500856087188148228%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2022-03-08%2Fnorth-korea-building-at-nuclear-site-for-first-time-since-2018

Seznam tehnoloških gigantov, ki se oglašajo zaradi ruskega napada na Ukrajino, je dolg in se hitro dopolnjuje. Tehnološka podjetja so sprejela številne sankcije. Z dr. Davidom Jelencem, asistentom Fakultete za računalništvo in informatiko, debatiramo o odločitvi Appla in Googla, ki sta v svojih zemljevidih onemogočila spremljanje prometa v Ukrajini, da ne bi sodelovala v vojni. Tik pred prvim napadom 24. februarja so namreč uporabniki na Googlovih zemljevidih opazili gnečo na rusko-ukrajinski meji. Razveselimo se napovedi, da bodo androidni telefoni ponujali večletno varnostno podporo, in gledamo v prihodnost s hroščem iz leta 2038.Zapiski: 1. Google temporarily disables Google Maps live traffic data in Ukraine | Reuters Daring Fireball: Apple Halts All Sales From Its Online Store in Russia Twitter - napoved invazije 2. Best Brands For Android Updates 3. Year 2038 problem - Wikipedia -- Zanimivosti iz tehnološkega sveta pošiljava tudi v elektronske nabiralnike. Naročilnica na Odbito pismo je tukaj.Pišete nama lahko na odbita@rtvslo.si. 

Ningún efecto de la guerra puede ser más devastador que la pérdida de vidas y hogares, pero la industria aeroespacial es una de las afectadas por la invasión de Ucrania por parte de Rusia, así que tenemos que comentar sus consecuencias. Este episodio se divide en tres partes: 1. Antes de la invasión: Los satélites no militares (Maxar, BlackSky…) ofreciendo imágenes de las tropas rusas (no sólo ópticas, sino también SAR), los datos de tráfico de Google Maps como herramienta para predecir el ataque... 2. Durante la invasión: Ciberataques a empresas de observación y terminales de tierra. GPS, ViaSat y Starlink; jamming, spoofing y los contraataques... 3. Tras la invasión: Sanciones, contrasanciones y sus consecuencias. El futuro de la Estación Espacial Internacional, los motores que ya no serán entregados, las misiones que están en el aire, empezando por la europea ExoMars. ¿Llegará el rover europeo a Marte? Enlaces: https://spacenews.com/satellite-imaging-companies-increase-profile-as-they-track-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/  https://spacenews.com/nro-chief-warns-satellite-operators-to-secure-their-systems-as-ukraine-crisis-unfolds/ https://twitter.com/ArmsControlWonk/status/1496657816740036616 https://twitter.com/rogozin/status/1497456753625153536 https://breakingdefense.sites.breakingmedia.com/2022/02/in-ukraine-conflict-russia-could-go-after-american-commercial-isr-providers/ https://twitter.com/Space_Pete/status/1495942750876979209 https://danielmarin.naukas.com/2022/03/03/la-invasion-de-ucrania-y-su-repercusion-en-el-panorama-espacial/ https://www.sondasespaciales.com/2022/02/las-consecuencias-espaciales-de-la-guerra-en-ucrania/ https://spacenews.com/with-soyuz-off-the-table-oneweb-back-in-the-mix/ https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/ESA_statement_regarding_cooperation_with_Russia_following_a_meeting_with_Member_States_on_28_February_2022 PARSEC es un podcast semanal sobre exploración espacial presentado por Javier Atapuerca y Matías S. Zavia. Haznos llegar tus preguntas por Twitter: @parsecpodcast@JaviAtapu@matiass Puedes escucharnos en todas las plataformas a través de parsecpodcast.com.

Over the weekend Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that Ankara would implement the Montreux Convention, an agreement that allows Turkey to regulate the transit of warships through the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits during times of war. The decision comes after Turkey called Russia's invasion a "war", and means Turkey could block at least some Russian warships from accessing the Black Sea. Despite taking this decision, Turkey's President Erdogan was clear that Turkey could not abandon its ties with Russia or Ukraine. Expert Aaron Stein joins our host Thanos Davelis to discuss this latest decision by Turkey, break down whether it will have a military impact, and look into how this decision helps Ankara address its diplomatic balancing act with Russia and the West. Aaron Stein is the Director of Research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and an expert on Turkey, arms control and nonproliferation. He is also the co-host of Arms Control Wonk, a podcast on nuclear weapons, arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation.You can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:Turkey announced it would regulate warship access to the Black Sea. Does that change Russia's strategy?Turkey Warns Against Sending Warships to Black SeaCould Turkey close the Bosporus to the Russian navy?Greece backs sanctions against Russia, ready to take in Ukraine refugeesUkraine's Zelenskyy ups pressure on EU with plea for immediate membershipWhy Ukraine's road to European Union membership will likely be long and winding.

Turkish President Erdogan visited Ukraine on Thursday where he reiterated Turkey's support of Ukraine and signed a number of deals on trade and defense. These include joint production in Ukraine of Turkish drones, expanding a partnership that has seen Ukraine buy at least 20 unmanned aerial vehicles from Turkey. During the visit Erdogan offered to mediate between Ukraine and Russia, stressing he would do whatever he could to end the crisis. Expert Aaron Stein joins our host Thanos Davelis to talk about Erdogan's visit to Ukraine, Ankara's efforts to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, and the broader implications of the drone deal between Turkey and Ukraine for Turkey's relations with Russia, Ukraine, and NATO.Aaron Stein is the Director of Research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and an expert on Turkey, arms control and nonproliferation. He is also the co-host of Arms Control Wonk, a podcast on nuclear weapons, arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation.Read Aaron Stein's latest piece in War on the Rocks: From Ankara With Implications: Turkish Drones And Alliance EntrapmentYou can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:Turkey, Ukraine Sign Free-Trade, Drone Deals as Erdogan Visits KyivErdogan seals pact with Ukraine over trade and dronesGreece to scrap negative COVID test demand for travellersGreece: Police raid soccer fan clubs after deadly attack

In this Hustle edition of the show, Dr. Van Jackson sits down with Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Project at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, author of multiple books including the novel The 2020 Commission, co-host of the Arms Control Wonk podcast, and founder of the Arms Control Wonk blog.  That's a lot of stuff. 

Reuters reported this week that Turkey made a request to the US to buy 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighter jets and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes, as Turkey looks to modernize its Air Force after it was kicked out of the F-35 program. The deal, which would be worth billions, would need the approval of both the US State Department as well as Congress, which can block deals. The request comes as Turkey's President Erdogan recently stated that Turkey is looking to buy a second batch of S-400s from Russia. Expert Aaron Stein joins The Greek Current to discuss this latest request by Turkey, explain why it could be the endpoint of Turkey's S-400 to F-35 to CAATSA saga, and place it within the broader context of US-Turkish relations. Aaron Stein is the Director of Research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and an expert on Turkey, arms control and nonproliferation. He is also the co-host of Arms Control Wonk, a podcast on nuclear weapons, arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation.You can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here: Turkey asks U.S. to buy 40 F-16 jets to upgrade Air Force -sourcesWhite House plans to nominate George Tsunis as new US ambassador to GreeceGov't promises investigation into migrant pushback accusationsCroatia confirms police pushed back migrants on Bosnian borderCyprus won't sign pact if EU doesn't budge

Bad news abounds for Iranian and US returns to JCPOA compliance. Aaron and Jeffrey talk through the frustration around breakout time requirements, the timidity of the Biden administration, and the shortfalls of the wait-and-see approach.    Links of Note: The Economist article on OSINT, including Arms Control Wonk and the Slack channel, which is filled with only the most brilliant and beautiful of people, whom all listeners should aspire to emulate:  https://www.economist.com/briefing/2021/08/07/open-source-intelligence-challenges-state-monopolies-on-information   Support us over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast!

At the end of this awful year, Jeffrey and Aaron talk about the future of arms control, the future of analytics, and the future of the pod. 2021 will have a lot going on: New START expiration or extension, new facilities in Iran, figuring out what the heck the North Koreans are doing, what's going on with anti-satellite missiles, and more. Head over to the Arms Control Wonk slack channel to voice your opinion on what topics we should prioritize, because we have a lot of them and not everything's getting covered!    Support us over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast!

Futures studies versus moneyball--the problem with prediction.  A supply-side theory of Obama's drone strike addiction.  Telling lies about a Galactic Federation with aliens.  Should Japan join the Five-Eyes intelligence-sharing partnership?  How to get out of Afghanistan.  Why the Indo-Pacific is too big for a single strategy.  Also this episode: The movies that made Van Jackson and the team.  Jeffrey Lewis's Tweet: https://twitter.com/ArmsControlWonk/status/1334533169547075584?s=19Annette Joseph: https://twitter.com/AnnetteJosephG/status/1336321130303467520?s=19Ankit Panda's Tweet: https://twitter.com/nktpnd/status/1336774686152286210James Palmer's Tweet: https://twitter.com/BeijingPalmer/status/1336722893829443585Contributors: Pete McKenzie, Gaby Magnuson, Jake Dellow, Ciara Mitchell

Another day, another suspected nuclear facility in North Korea. Anne and Jeffrey discuss the Wollo-ri Suspected Nuclear Warhead Manufacturing Facility.  They discuss how the CNS team has monitored this site since 2015, the satellite imagery analysis that went into it, and Ankit Panda's impressive sourcing. They also discuss the immediate pushback, claims that this site is a training facility, and the open-source methods used to evaluate this site.  Arms Control Wonk post on the Wollo-Ri Facility, by Catherine Dill, David Laboon, Jeffrey Lewis, and Dave Schmerler: https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/1209644/wollo-ri-nuclear-facility/ CNN reporting on the Wollo-Ri analysis: https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/08/politics/north-korea-nuclear-facility-wollo-ri-satellite-images/index.html Daily NK report claiming Wollo-Ri is not a nuclear facility: https://www.dailynk.com/english/source-nuclear-pyongyang-just-school/   Support us over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast!

In this cross-over podcast with Arms Control Wonk, Aaron speaks with Fabian Hinz, a frequent guest on the podcast, about the recent explosions in Iran and what open source intelligence has revealed about the two incidents.https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/

In mid-April, Russia tested a direct ascent anti-satellite missile (DA ASAT), the Nudol/PL19, against a point in space. Anti-satellite weapons are an old favorite of the pod, so Anne, Aaron, and Jeffrey meet to discuss the history of anti-satellite weapons, the U.S. negotiating strategy that led to the spread of hit-to-kill and anti-satellite weapons, and the hypocrisy of certain PR statements. They also gush over open-source collection and analysis of NOTAMs, which allowed Michael Thompson to predict the ASAT test ahead of time. Check out previous Arms Control Wonk episodes about Hit-to-Kill and Anti-Satellite Weapons: 2019's Mission Shakti: The Indian Anti-Satellite Test 2016's China's HQ-19 Hit-to-Kill Interceptor 2014's Satellites Under Threat: The Spread of Hit-To-Kill   Support us over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast!  

The end of arms control, or a sub-culture run amok? In today’s special, live-recorded edition of the Arms Control Wonk podcast, Aaron and Jeffrey talk about the end of the INF, John Bolton's motivations, and the reasons behind the US pull-out (aka the Stormy Daniels). Previous Podcast Episodes about this Topic: Tightening the Screws on the INF An Era Without Arms Control? The INF, NATO, and the MSC The Little Green Men and a New Cruise Missile Russia and the INF: Don't Call it a Circumvention Is Russia Cheating on the INF Treaty? This was the very first Arms Control Wonk Podcast episode!   Support us over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast!

Imagine a future in which American & North Korean leaders continue the paths they're on, with a few little bumps down the road, and a nuclear war that leaves over a million Americans dead. That future is what Dr. Jeffrey Lewis portrays in his new novel, "The 2020 Commission Report." Dave Ross and Dr. Lewis explore a possible terrifying future -- and one that continues in peace. Dr. Lewis is an arms control expert, Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His also a non-resident affiliate at Stanford's Center for Security and International Cooperation and the founder of the nonproliferation site Armscontrolwonk.com.

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Scott LaFoy. They speak about the background of North Korea's warfighting capabilities, their development of asymmetric threats, the place that cyber-warfare now holds in this regard, the history of North Korea's cyber-operations, the strategic value of this type of warfare, as well as looking into the different motivations for such conflict through analysing a series of actual North Korean cyber-attacks. Scott LaFoy is a military analyst and researcher focussed on North Korea and its military capabilities. In 2015 he co-wrote a report, ‘North Korea's Cyber Capabilities', at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) (https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/publication/151216_Cha_NorthKoreasCyberOperations_Web.pdf), from which this interview heavily references. Scott currently works at Arms Control Wonk (https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/).   Donate at Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/jedleahenry Website – http://www.jedleahenry.org Libsyn – http://korea-now-podcast.libsyn.com Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qg6g1KyHaRXi193XqF6GA Twitter – https://twitter.com/jedleahenry Academia.edu – http://university.academia.edu/JedLeaHenry Research Gate – https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jed_Lea-Henry    

On March 21, 2020 North Korea shoots down a South Korean civilian airliner, mistaking it for a US bomber. This sets off a series of events that leads to the launching 13 nuclear armed ballistic missiles towards the United States. Several of these missiles miss their target. But not all. One bomb levels Manhattan, another hits Northern Virginia and a third lands near Mar a Lago, in Florida. 1.4 million Americans are killed. The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States by Jeffrey Lewis explains how this tragedy transpired.    The book, of course, is fiction -- Jeffrey Lewis calls it a "speculative novel."   But it is all too believable.  nd that's because Jeffrey Lewis is a nuclear security expert who has spent decades studying the North Korean nuclear program. He is the director of the Center for Non Proliferation Studies at the Monterrey Institute and is a pioneer in open source intelligence gathering and geospatial analysis. He and his team famously identified the location of North Korean missile test sites using tools available to ordinary citizens.  And 'm sure many you know him as the host of the excellent Arms Control Wonk podcast.    But now, he has taken his hand at fiction -- and his book, which takes the perspective of a government report explaining the series of mistakes and miscalculations that lead to this nuclear attack, is one of the most vital international relations books of many years -- despite the fact that it's fiction. I suspect it will be standard on international relations syllabi.  That is because the scenario he lays out is entirely plausible and the politics that enable this tragedy are very real.    We discuss the plot at length, including the miscommunications, misperceptions and just plain mistakes that lead to the events of March 22 2020. 

Turkey has poured a lot of money into its indigenous defense industry. To talk about the state of Turkish aerospace, Aaron spoke to Tony Osborne, London Bureau Chief at Aviation Week, about Ankara’s indigenous development programs, spanning unmanned aerial vehicles to 5th generation fighter aircraft. The two also discussed on-going US-Turkish tensions and what that could mean for the F-35 fighter program in Turkey and how that could impact Turkish Air Force planning.    Support Turkey Wonk over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast, the Patreon for both Turkey Wonk and Arms Control Wonk!  

The Turkish elections surprised most observers. No one doubted that Recep Tayyip Erdogan would win, but few expected the far right MHP to maintain support and win more than 11% of the vote. What just happened? What does it all mean? To break it all down, Aaron spoke with Laura Pitel, the Turkey correspondent for the Financial Times, about the recent election.    Support Turkey Wonk over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast, the Patreon for both Turkey and Arms Control Wonk!

Turkey and the F-35 has made a lot of news in the past few weeks. First, Turkey had an interesting cultural display at the Lockheed ceremony in Fort Worth.   Second, the Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act included language that could threaten the Turkish role in the F-35 consortium. Against this backdrop, Ankara continues to tell the world it will import the Russian made S-400, potential triggering American sanctions and raising questions about US-Turkish defense-industrial cooperation.   To make sense of it all, Aaron spoke with Valerie Insinna, Air Warfare Reporter for Defense News.    Links of Note: Valerie's reporting on the F-35 delivery. Van Hollen-Graham amendment.   Support Turkey Wonk over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast, the Patreon for both Turkey and Arms Control Wonk!

On an all-summit episode of Worldly, Zack and Jenn are joined by actual North Korea expert Jeffrey Lewis (host of the Arms Control Wonk podcast) for an in-depth analysis of how the Trump-Kim meeting actually went. They talk about how the US didn’t get very much, while North Korea got exactly what it wanted and more. They also give a somewhat counterintuitive take on how the summit, which led President Donald Trump to cancel US-South Korea military exercises, could actually be good for South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Zack talks about his taste in Batman movies, Jenn gives terrible microwave advice, and Jeff compares North Korean propaganda to Fox News. Our guest, Jeffrey Lewis, is the host of the Arms Control Wonk podcast and the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies Here’s a good breakdown of the contents of the agreement and some of the winners and losers from this summit. Jenn published a transcript of the summit press conference. We discussed the press conference throughout the podcast. Jeff Lewis mentions that this is not the first time North Korea has made denuclearization agreements. He shouts out a few of those past agreements over the course of the podcast, but here’s a timeline of past agreements, all in one place.   We played a clip from Sean Hannity’s interview with President Trump on Fox News after the Summit in which the president praises Kim Jong Un. When Jeff Lewis was explaining the challenges that a dictator can face at home, he mentioned former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was executed. Jeff also shouts out Michael Wolff’s book, Fire and Fury, when talking about Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia. We dive deep into South Korean politics in this episode. Here’s a primer on some of that. As Zack and Jeff discussed, North Korean news published a photo of John Bolton and Kim Jong Un shaking hands. Jenn shouted out Yochi’s recent piece about all the ways China is the real winner in this summit.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s Gist, don’t all these senators know the depths of CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s patriotism? Plus, why are chemical weapons useful to Bashar al-Assad? “They’re really weapons of terror,” explains Aaron Stein, co-host of the Arms Control Wonk podcast. Stein is the author of Turkey’s New Foreign Policy. And filmmakers Tony Gilroy and Brad Anderson tell us what it was like filming their latest movie, Beirut, during a particularly long and hot Ramadan.  In the Spiel, a few more words about the late Barbara Bush.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s Gist, don’t all these senators know the depths of CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s patriotism? Plus, why are chemical weapons useful to Bashar al-Assad? “They’re really weapons of terror,” explains Aaron Stein, co-host of the Arms Control Wonk podcast. Stein is the author of Turkey’s New Foreign Policy. And filmmakers Tony Gilroy and Brad Anderson tell us what it was like filming their latest movie, Beirut, during a particularly long and hot Ramadan.  In the Spiel, a few more words about the late Barbara Bush.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Canadian reviews the last two months' North Korea news with a special guest. Andrea talks to Scott LaFoy for a whirlwind tour of December and January's developments. They cover Kim Jong Un's New Years Address, the Vancouver Foreign Ministers Meeting, and those pesky ship-to-ship transfers the North Koreans are so fond of these days.   Links of Note: Andrea's pre-mortem of the Vancouver Meeting at Arms Control Wonk. Andrea's discussion of the Olympic exchanges and negotiations over at The Diplomat. NK News imagery of the nuclear backpacks from the 2013 parade. Scott and Fyodor Tertitskiy's NK Pro article on the Olympic Negotiations. Full text of Kim Jong Un's 'op ed' in KCNA/Rodong Sinmun. VOA link, safe for clicking in South Korea! Support us over at Patreon.com/acwpodcast! Sponsored Links: Our sponsor this episode is ActionKit, a powerful suit of online campaigning tools. https://actionkit.com/wonk

On The Gist, the press is too squeamish to clarify that “shithouse” isn’t much better than “shithole.” In the interview, more on fire and fury—nuclear fire, rhetorical fury, and the consequences of both. Jeffrey Lewis and Aaron Stein, hosts of Arms Control Wonk, assess the Trump administration’s tough talk on North Korea and the danger of a South Korea that decides to take matters into its own hands.  In the Spiel, Aziz Ansari isn’t blameless, but he doesn’t deserve a total destruction of his career, either. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On The Gist, the press is too squeamish to clarify that “shithouse” isn’t much better than “shithole.” In the interview, more on fire and fury—nuclear fire, rhetorical fury, and the consequences of both. Jeffrey Lewis and Aaron Stein, hosts of Arms Control Wonk, assess the Trump administration’s tough talk on North Korea and the danger of a South Korea that decides to take matters into its own hands.  In the Spiel, Aziz Ansari isn’t blameless, but he doesn’t deserve a total destruction of his career, either. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we sat down with North Korea to conduct a podcast about The Interview (2014). Is North Korea’s nuclear weapon program a laughing matter or something to worry about? How does the Kim family stay in power? How to do you show ‘em what your worth when fireworks are banned in your city? Tim Westmyer and special guest Gabe answer these questions and more. This is the seventh in our Mini-Nuke episode series, where we overthink movies with a smaller slice of nuclear weapons plot than our usual full-sized episodes. Before we look to see if our tourist trip to North Korea had refundable airfare, we recommend checking out: -Arms Control Wonk podcast and blog -Barbara Dimmick, “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea,” 2009 -North Korea Economy Watch -Team America: World Police I'll put up more resources in the coming days here and on show's website, SuperCriticalPodcast.com, for more resources and related items. We aim to have at least one new episode every month. Let us know what you think about the podcast and any ideas you may have about future episodes and guests by reaching out at on Twitter @NuclearPodcast, GooglePlay, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio, Facebook, SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com, and YouTube. Enjoy!

It’s been a validating week for apocalypse watchers. On this episode of Deep State Radio, David hides in his hardened bunker while Rosa, Kori and guests Alice Hunt Friend and Jeffrey Lewis wonder what should scare us more, heavily armed white supremacists marching through Charlottesville, or the prospect of imminent war with North Korea? Jeffrey – a.k.a. Arms Control Wonk – explains North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, Rosa wonders if deterrence theory applies to Donald Trump, Alice argues that the moral arc of the universe is still bending towards justice, and several rhinestones fall off Kori’s tiara of optimism.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

“Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make. You can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won’t know for twenty years! And you may never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce…“And they say there’s no fate, but there is, it’s what you create. And even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are only here for a fraction of a fraction of a second. Most of your time is spent being dead, or not yet born. But while alive, you wait in vain wasting years for a phone call or a letter or a look from someone or something to make it all right, but it never comes. Or it seems to, but it doesn’t really.“So you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope that something good will come along, something to make you feel connected, something to make you feel cherished, something to make you feel loved. And the truth is is, I feel so angry! And the truth is, I feel so fucking sad! And the truth is, I’ve felt so fucking hurt for so fucking long and for just as long, I’ve been pretending I’m okay, just to get along!“I don’t know why. Maybe because…no one wants to hear about my misery…because they have their own.Fuck everybody. Amen.” Today's stripNathan Olivos Vader's excellent new Garfield TumblrOther podcasts we talked about:Arms Control WonkThe E.R.The National Security Law PodcastToday's incidental music, "That Old Clock" from the e.p. Well, Off to the Horse Races! by The Flowers of Disgust, appears courtesy of The Flowers of Disgust and Cat O' Nine Tails Records.

It’s been a validating week for apocalypse watchers. On this episode of Deep State Radio, David hides in his hardened bunker while Rosa, Kori and guests Alice Hunt Friend and Jeffrey Lewis wonder what should scare us more, heavily armed white supremacists marching through Charlottesville, or the prospect of imminent war with North Korea? Jeffrey – a.k.a. Arms Control Wonk – explains North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, Rosa wonders if deterrence theory applies to Donald Trump, Alice argues that the moral arc of the universe is still bending towards justice, and several rhinestones fall off Kori’s tiara of optimism. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the second part of our two part Star Trek marathon, we continue to boldly overanalyze what no one had deemed necessary to overanalyze before: the nuclear nonsense in the fail Star Trek spin-off pilot, Assignment: Earth. Why did countries think it was a good idea to put nuclear weapons in space? What does it look like when a nuke goes off in the vacuum of space? Is it still okay these days to name your cat Isis? With the continued help of our special guest and Star Trek enthusiast Gabe, we answer these questions and more. Before we attempt a gravitational slingshot maneuver around the sun to travel back in time, we recommended reading Outer Space in World Politics, an edited volume organized by Joseph Goldsen in 1963, especially the chapter by renowned nuclear deterrence scholar, Thomas Schelling, on "The Military Use of Bombardment Satellites." Also, check out Space Weapons, Earth Wars, a RAND Study prepared for the USAF in 2002 by Bob Preston, Dana Johnson, Sean Edwards, Michael Miller, Calvin Shipbaugh, http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/2011/RAND_MR1209.pdf. Other sources to check out include: -Space Nuclear Weapon Test, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKvvrNrCOnw -Space Nuclear Weapon Detonation EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpTvqLfvLKU -The Unexpected Effects of Nukes in Space, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRhStl7SQnM -Minuteman 1 ICBM Air Launch, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It7SQ546xRk -ICBM Basing Modes, ArmsControlWonk, June 12, 2012, http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/205397/icbm-basing-modes/ -Robert Richardson, "Rocket Blitz From the Moon," Collier's Weekly, October 28, 1948, https://www.unz.org/Pub/Colliers-1948oct23-00024 We aim to have at least one new episode every month. Let us know what you think about the podcast and any ideas you may have about future episodes and guests by reaching out at on Twitter @NuclearPodcast, Facebook, GooglePlay, YouTube, or SuperCriticalPodcast@gmail.com.

A rebel coup has sent the President of the Central African Republic into exile. While the IMF and the EU agree to a deal to bailout Cyprus. Old Guatemalan strong man Rios Montt faces a genocide trial for his actions in the 80's. We wonder if even with the new constitution, Robert Mugabe might be President when he is 100 years old. Riot police in Rio carry out more evictions as part of World Cup and Olympic preparations. And our NEWZ source of the day is the mighty Arms Control Wonk.

PA changes nothing. What you haven't heard about Korea and Syria. Interview with Cliff Schecter, author of "The Real McCain."