Episodes

Sign up for our newsletter Jim's book, With My Shield Former U.S. Army Ranger James Lechner joins the podcast to discuss modern warfare, drone combat, and the lessons the West should be learning from Ukraine.Lechner shares ex...

Sign up for our newsletter Isaiah Taylor, founder and CEO of Valar Atomics, joins the show to discuss why energy is becoming a national security issue. Valar is building small modular nuclear reactors designed to deliver scal...

Sign up for our newsletter Clayton Swope, Deputy Director of the Aerospace Security Project and Senior Fellow in the Defense and Security Department, joins us to break down the real state of U.S. space and missile defense. We...

Today we’re joined by Charles Acknin and Isaac Roberts from Skyways, the Austin-based aerospace company building long-range autonomous cargo aircraft for real logistics missions. We dig into why Skyways went defense-first, ho...

Chandler Luzsicza, Founder and CEO of Galadyne, joins us to break down why he’s betting on liquid propulsion to reinvent long-range missile production. A former SpaceX engineer who started working on liquid rockets as a teena...

Heather Armentrout, President and General Manager of Kongsberg US, joins the show for a candid look at how a European defense leader is scaling real production inside the United States. We cover NASAMS, CROWS, and how lessons...

The war in Ukraine, defense tech, procurement, and private capital are colliding in real time, and most people in the West are missing what matters. Mentions: Disinformation by Ion Mihai Pacepa (Wikipedia) Match in a Haystack...

Austin Gray, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Blue Water Autonomy, returns to the show to break down what it actually takes to build large unmanned ships that can operate for months without touch maintenance. We get i...

Olaf Hichwa joins the podcast to break down the reality of modern drone warfare, FPVs, and why small drones now drive the majority of battlefield casualties. Drawing on direct exposure to Ukraine and deep experience building ...

Congressman Pat Harrigan (NC-10), former Army Special Forces officer and defense manufacturer, joins the show to talk about why he ran for office after the fall of Afghanistan and what that moment signaled to adversaries. We ...

Scott Sanders is the Chief Growth Officer at Forterra . Scott joins us to talk about counter-UAS, unmanned systems, and why scaling hardware is fundamentally different from software. We cover USVs and UGVs, recent fundraising...

Shannon Vaughn breaks down how modern China actually works, why the CCP’s primary objective is regime survival, and how that shapes everything from AI policy to military strategy. In this episode, we’re joined by Shannon Vaug...

Defense tech, robotics, and edge AI are moving fast, but scaling them in the real world is hard. Hunter Dunbar, Chief Product Officer at Luxonis, joins the show to break down embedded computer vision, AI hardware, and percept...

Mike Weigand, Founder and CEO of Aventra Defense Systems, joins the show to unpack a radically different approach to long-range strike and mass precision. Aventra Defense Systems Mike Weigand on LinkedIn Aventra is building l...

Drew Horne, founder and CEO of GreenMet, joins the show to break down the rare earth crisis and what the United States needs to do to remain competitive. He previously led critical minerals policy work inside the White House,...

Morgan Murphy joins the show to talk national security, defense manufacturing, and why he’s running for U.S. Senate in Alabama. Murphy is a 26-year Navy Reserve captain, former Pentagon press secretary, and national security ...

Emma Bates, co-founder and CEO of Cachai, joins the show to break down what true drone swarming actually means and why almost no one has achieved it. Drawing from her background in defense modernization and distributed system...

Dan Magy, co-founder and CEO of Firestorm, returns to the show for a live episode recorded at Battlefield 2027. Firestorm is building deployable, modular 3D printing systems that can manufacture drones, parts, and tools direc...

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...