Episodes

Rob Sladen is the Chairman and CEO of Zulu Pods, a company pioneering next-generation lubrication and fluid delivery systems for aerospace and defense. Before founding Zulu Pods, Sladen spent 13 years at Pratt & Whitney desig...

John Ferry returns to the show for one of the most blunt conversations yet about the defense startup ecosystem. From the realities of selling to government and surviving the “valley of death” to the cultural dysfunction insid...

Church Hutton, Chief Growth Officer at AV Inc. (formerly AeroVironment), joins the show for a deep dive into the future of autonomous systems, directed energy, and defense innovation. A retired Army officer and longtime Hill ...

Jeff Wright, founder and CEO of SplashOne Robotics, joins the show to discuss how his company is developing small, purpose-built fighter drones to redefine air superiority. A former Marine and Air Force Special Tactics Office...

Max Vozoff, Chief Technology Officer at X-Bow Systems, joins the show to discuss the urgent challenges and opportunities in America’s solid rocket motor industry.

With decades of experience, including early work a...

Todd Graetz, co-founder and CEO of Aerolane, joins the show to share how his aviation startup is reimagining air cargo with autonomous glider-based aircraft. From his early work launching one of the first large-scale drone pr...

Jon Dandrow , CEO of Radenso and Strikeman, joins the show to talk about building advanced radar detection systems, modular sensing hardware, and consumer-to-defense innovation. From hacking traffic cameras in his college yea...

Matt McCrann, U.S. Navy veteran and CEO of DroneShield US, joins the show to talk about the evolving fight against drone threats. From handheld jammers like the DroneGun MkIV to advanced sensor fusion and AI-powered RF detect...

Troy Demmer is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Gecko Robotics, the industrial tech company behind wall-climbing inspection robots and the full-stack software platform reshaping how we manage critical infrastructur...

Mike Canty, co-founder and CEO of Armaments Research Company, joins the show to discuss the future of defense tech and the realities of building hardware startups for the Pentagon. A former Army major, Mike now leads ARC in d...

Kyle Hardy, CEO of Hardy Dynamics, and Ashkan Bayatpour, U.S. Navy Reserve Officer, join the show to break down the future of drone warfare and the challenges of building software for autonomous swarms. We dig into the realit...

Defense tech insider Patrick Blumenthal breaks down the latest developments in Ukraine's drone warfare evolution and the Vector vs. RedCat lawsuit shaking up the industry. From Russia's new evasion modules and radar warning r...

Russia’s ambitions extend far beyond Ukraine. In this episode, we’re joined by two experts with deep regional and strategic insight: former Army intelligence officer Matt Tavares, and Anna Borshchevskaya, Senior Fellow at The...

Andrew Peterson is the co-founder and CEO of Array Labs, a startup building 3D imaging radar satellites to compete with billion-dollar airborne ISR platforms at a fraction of the cost. In this episode, Andrew breaks down why ...

Kirsten Bartok Touw is the co-founder and Managing Partner of New Vista Capital, a venture firm focused exclusively on aerospace, space, and defense. In this episode, Kirsten joins to talk about investing in dual-use tech, st...

Austin Gray, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Blue Water Autonomy, joins the podcast to break down the future of autonomous naval warfare. From unmanned ships that carry large payloads to the technical and political c...

Paul Lwin is the co-founder and CEO of HavocAI, a defense startup building collaborative autonomous surface vessels. In this episode, Paul breaks down the company’s tech stack, their strategic approach to naval warfare, and h...

General James Rainey leads the U.S. Army’s effort to prepare for the next war. As the Commanding General of Army Futures Command, he’s focused on adapting to a battlefield shaped by drones, autonomy, and AI. In this conversat...

Miles Arnone, CEO of Re:Build Manufacturing, joins the podcast to explain why American manufacturing fell behind—and how to bring it back. We dive into defense supply chains, national security vulnerabilities, rare earth magn...

David Ruth, Dean of STEM at the University of Austin and retired Navy captain, joins the show to discuss the future of technical education, the ethics of AI in warfare, and what it takes to build a new university from scratch...

Modern Intelligence Founder and CEO John Dulin joins us in-studio for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of autonomous warfare. We break down the latest Ukrainian drone strike and what it signals about the next era of ...

Mike Monnik, CEO of DroneSec, breaks down the global drone war that’s unfolding in real time. From prison drops to battlefield swarms, Monnik reveals how DroneSec tracks drone threats across the world and delivers that intell...

Venture capitalist and Anomaly Fund founder Patrick Blumenthal joins the pod to talk frontier tech, reindustrialization, and the future of defense. (0:00) - Intro (0:52) - Defense Spending and Threats from China (2:18) - Patr...

Government contracting, but with zero fluff. In this episode, we sit down with Travis James—former Army contracting officer and now Head of Contracts at Fortera—for a brutally practical breakdown of how to actually win defens...