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NatSec Tech

Special Competitive Studies Project - SCSP

NatSec Tech is a podcast from the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) that explores the critical intersection of emerging technology and national security. Hosted by veteran award-winning journalist Jeanne Meserve, the series provides a high-level look at how the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, synthetic labor, and advanced manufacturing is reshaping the global landscape.

Every first and third Wednesday of the month, Meserve engages in deep-dive conversations with world-class experts, policymakers, and industry leaders to untangle the complexities of the modern "techno-economic" competition. The show moves beyond the headlines to examine the long-term implications of innovation on our workforce, our education systems, and our standing on the world stage.

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Avg 30 min
English

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#115
Yesterday · 26 min
Closing the Readiness Gap
Headlines about munitions shortages in the Iran war point to a much bigger problem: aging weapon systems, slow maintenance, and fragmented, manual processes that are straining U.S. military readiness and, with it, deterrence. In this episode of NatSec Tech, Jeanne Meserve talks with Tara Murphy Dougherty, CEO of AIR (formerly Govini), about what she calls the readiness gap: the widening distance between what the frontline needs and what the system actually delivers. Dougherty explains why acqui
#114
October 21 · 30 min
The Future of Military Logistics in Space
What if space became a parking lot for munitions? Michael Hochberg, founder and president of Periplous LLC, joins the show to make the case for pre-positioning military supplies in low Earth orbit. Drawing on his recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, he argues that reusable heavy-lift rockets like SpaceX’s Starship could let the U.S. deorbit munitions, drones, and other cargo anywhere on the globe within minutes to a couple of hours, without relying on foreign bases that host nations may close off a
#113
October 7 · 32 min
Building Smarter Data Centers
AI's growth depends on data centers, but communities are increasingly pushing back over their land use, electricity and water demands, and noise. Host Jeanne Meserve is joined by Dr. Griffiths, chancellor of Dakota State University, and Stephen Timms, president of Thermo Bond Solutions, to look at how government, industry, and academia are tackling these problems. They discuss smaller, distributed, and rural data centers, more efficient chips and cooling, the future of nuclear power, and the rac
#112
September 23 · 23 min
Can AI See What Doctors Can't?
In this episode of NatSec Tech, Jeanne sits down with Dr. Nina Kottler, practicing radiologist and Chief Medical AI Officer at Mosaic Clinical Technologies, at the recent AI+ Health Summit. They discuss why AI hasn't yet transformed radiology despite the hype, how vision-language foundation models are changing that, and what it means for radiologists to shift from dictating reports to supervising them. Kottler also explains how AI could predict cancer years before a human can see it, and where d
#111
September 9 · 33 min
The AI Race Against the Next Pandemic
In this episode of NatSec Tech, Jeanne sits down with Dr. Charity Dean, founder and CEO of PHC Global and former public health officer for the State of California. They discuss why Dean calls COVID "a dry run," why she left government to build an AI-powered bio-threat intelligence platform, and how agentic AI and large language models are simultaneously lowering the bar for bad actors to engineer novel pathogens and giving defenders powerful new tools to detect and counter them. The conversatio
#110
September 2 · 45 min
25 Years After 9/11: Are We Safer?
As the U.S. marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, host Jeanne sits down with Dr. Philip Zelikow, executive director of the original 9/11 Commission and now the Botha-Chan Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution. They explore whether America is truly safer today, how terrorist threats have evolved from centralized sanctuaries to online radicalization, and why conflicts in Gaza and Iran may not drive terrorism the way many assume. The conversation ranges widely — from the fate o
#109
August 19 · 24 min
Episode 109: Jen Obernier on Commercial Data, Government Innovation, & the Speed of Decision-Making
Data has been called the new oil, but for AI, power may be the real bottleneck. In this episode of NatSec Tech, host Jeanne Meserve is joined by Jennifer Obernier, CEO of Gristmill Exchange, to discuss why commercial data, not just government-collected intelligence, is now central to national security. Obernier explains how a century of stovepiped, agency-by-agency data acquisition is giving way to shared infrastructure that lets the US and its allies buy exactly the data they need, at the spe
#108
August 5 · 32 min
Episode 108: Aliya Haq on Clean Energy, National Security, and Powering the AI Race
In this episode of NatSec Tech, host Jeanne Meserve is joined by Aliya Haq, President of Clean Econ, to discuss why "speed to power" may be the biggest constraint on America's ability to win the AI race. Haq breaks down why the century-old U.S. electric grid, with roughly 1.3 terawatts of capacity, is struggling to keep pace with surging demand, and how China has added that same amount of capacity in just three years. They discuss the two terawatts of energy projects stuck in interconnection qu
#107
July 22 · 31 min
Episode 107: Dr. Teija Tiilikainen on Hybrid Threats, Disinformation, & the Battle for Democracy
Conflict no longer requires troops or tanks. Increasingly, authoritarian regimes wage war through cyberattacks, disinformation, election interference, sabotaged infrastructure, and even weaponized migration, deniable tools designed to catch open societies off guard and erode trust from within. In this episode, we ask: As AI supercharges these hybrid threats, can the world's democracies build the resilience to withstand them? Dr. Teija Tiilikainen joins NatSec Tech from Helsinki to share her pe
#106
July 8 · 36 min
Episode 106: Mark Murray on Disinformation, Deepfakes, & the Fight for Free and Fair Elections
Disinformation has always shadowed elections, but artificial intelligence now lets bad actors produce it at a scale and speed never seen before. With the midterms approaching and government election-security agencies diminished, the question grows urgent: Can the same technology fueling the threat also be used to defend against it? Mark Murray joins NatSec Tech to share his perspective on AI, disinformation, and election integrity. Mark is Editorial Director at OpenAI and previously served as
#105
June 24 · 39 min
Episode 105: Teresa Carlson on Frontier AI, Smart Regulation, & Keeping America Number One
Artificial intelligence is advancing faster than any technology before it, yet the United States still has no federal framework to govern it, leaving a patchwork of state and foreign rules that startups can barely navigate. With Europe regulating aggressively and China surging forward, the central tension is sharper than ever: regulate too much and risk falling behind, regulate too little and risk chaos. In this episode, we ask: As AI reshapes jobs, children's lives, and the integrity of our inf
#104
June 10 · 24 min
Episode 104: The Genesis Mission, AI-Driven Science, & America's Race to Innovate
For decades, the path from scientific breakthrough to real-world impact has taken ten to twenty years, with researchers relying on tools not far removed from a high school chemistry lab. The Department of Energy's Genesis Mission aims to change that, harnessing artificial intelligence to compress discovery from decades to mere years. In this episode, we ask: Can a "Manhattan Project 2.0" for science deliver the breakthroughs America needs to stay ahead of China? Angela Sheffield joins NatSec T
#103
May 27 · 25 min
Episode 103: Anshu Roy on AI-Powered Propaganda, Cognitive Warfare, & Future of Information Conflict
Propaganda has existed for centuries, but artificial intelligence and neurological research are transforming it into something far more dangerous: cognitive warfare. Today, adversaries aren't just shaping what we think, they're targeting how we think, exploiting fear, anxiety, and tribalism at massive scale. In this episode, we ask: As AI gives bad actors the power to destabilize populations and cloud the decision-making of leaders, is the world prepared for this new kind of war? Anshu Roy join
#102
May 13 · 18 min
Episode 102: Pete Newell on Battlefield Innovation, Scaling Speed, & the Future of National Security
In Ukraine and the Middle East, cheap and easy-to-produce drones have fundamentally altered the battlefield. But while technology moves at the speed of a text message, the Pentagon’s procurement process remains stuck on a different clock. In this episode, we ask: Is the Department of Defense actually equipped to counter this evolving threat, or are we just buying the wrong things faster? Pete Newell joins the show to share his perspective on the drone revolution. Pete is a 32-year Army veteran,
#101
April 29 · 33 min
Episode 101: Sal Khan on AI Education, Literacy, & The Human Edge
In this episode of NetSec Tech, host Jeanne Meserve sits down with Sal Khan, the visionary founder and CEO of Khan Academy, at the AI+ Education Summit. As AI reshapes national security and the global workforce, Khan shares how his nonprofit is leveraging artificial intelligence to solve the "two-sigma" problem: providing every student with a personalized, one-on-one tutor.
#100
April 15 · 36 min
Episode 100: Keith Strier on AI Sovereignty, Resiliency, & What’s Next
To celebrate our 100th episode, NatSec Tech is evolving. We are moving from audio-only to a full video and audio experience. You can now watch our deep dives into the intersection of technology and national security on the SCSP YouTube channel and Spotify, or continue listening on your favorite podcast platform. For this milestone, host Jeanne Meserve welcomes Keith Strier, Senior Vice President of Global Markets at AMD and a leading global voice on the geopolitics of computing. In a wide-rangi
#99
April 1 · 30 min
Episode 99: Gina Raimondo & Eric Holcomb on States, AI, and Workforce Competitiveness
In this episode of NatSec Tech, Former Rhode Island Governor and Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Former Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb joined host Jeanne Meserve, live at the AI+ Education Summit, to discuss how states can stay competitive as AI reshapes the workforce. The conversation focused on outcome-based retraining programs, stronger employer participation, AI literacy and education reform, and state-led efforts to prepare workers for automation. Raimondo & Holcomb empha
#98
March 18 · 26 min
Episode 98: Dr. Erik Brynjolfsson on Navigating the Second Machine Age
In this episode of NatSec Tech, host Jeanne Meserve sits down with Dr. Erik Brynjolfsson, Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab and member of the newly formed SCSP-NVIDIA Task Force on AI and the Future of Work. Dr. Brynjolfsson argues that we are entering a "Second Machine Age" that will be ten times faster and significantly larger than the Industrial Revolution. As artificial intelligence races ahead of our economic institutions, the United States faces a critical turning point: will
#97
March 4 · 26 min
Episode 97: Eli Sugarman and Rama Elluru on the Delhi Summit and India’s AI Aspirations
In this episode of NatSec Tech, host Jeanne Meserve explores India's emerging role as a global AI superpower. Guests Rama Elluru, Senior Advisor at the Special Competitive Studies Project, and Eli Sugarman, Director of Special Projects at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, provide a firsthand account of the massive AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. The discussion highlights a shift in the global AI narrative from Western-centric safety concerns to the population-scale adoption of technology
#96
February 18 · 31 min
Episode 96: André Loesekrug-Pietri on Reinventing the West’s Industrial and Military Edge
In this episode of NatSec Tech, recorded at the Munich Security Conference, host Jeanne Meserve is joined by André Loesekrug-Pietri, Chairman and Scientific Director of the Joint European Disruptive Initiative (JEDI). JEDI focuses on accelerating frontier technologies across energy, life sciences, and computing. Loesekrug-Pietri offers a candid assessment of why the West must move past "innovation theater"—the tendency to talk about technological advancement without fundamentally changing how o

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