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by 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.
Latest Episodes
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- 4 days ago26 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 acquisition, sustainment, maintenance, and logistics still operate in silos, and why the U.S. is spending more on readiness while getting less. She describes how AI can close the loop between a part being used and a replacement being ordered, such as swapping a 300-day part for a certified alternative with a three-day lead time, while keeping humans in charge of the critical decisions. They also cover right-to-repair fights, rebuilding domestic manufacturing, and how budget uncertainty and parochial spending in Congress make it all harder. NatSec Tech is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.
- 2 weeks ago30 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 at a critical moment.The conversation covers how the idea compares in cost and speed to bombers, ballistic missiles, and Tomahawks; the engineering of reentry and precision targeting; the vulnerability of orbital assets to anti-satellite weapons and the risk of Kessler syndrome; why Hochberg is skeptical that the Outer Space Treaty or any future agreement with China will be enforced; and what it means to place so much strategic capability in the hands of a private company and its founder. NatSec Tech is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.
- Oct 7, 202632 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 Tims, 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 race with China for power and compute. They also cover underwater and space-based options, and why transparency with local communities may be the key to winning public trust. NatSec Tech is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.
- Sep 23, 202623 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 data access, FDA rules, and a fee-for-service payment system stand in the way. NatSec Tech is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.
- Sep 9, 202633 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 conversation ranges from the mechanics of early-warning biosurveillance and rapid medical countermeasures, to the private sector's growing role as an alternative to institutions like the WHO and CDC, to the erosion of public trust that Dean says now shapes how corporate America, not just government, will respond to the next outbreak. She closes with a candid look at the ongoing U.S. measles outbreak and a hopeful case for what AI-enabled biodefense can achieve if the country invests in it in time. NatSec Tech is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.
- Sep 2, 202645 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 of key 9/11 Commission reforms like the DNI and NCTC, to the politicization of U.S. intelligence agencies, to Zelikow's stark warning that biotech and pandemic preparedness represent the most dangerous, most neglected threat on the horizon. A candid, wide-ranging look at what's changed since 2001 — and what hasn't. NatSec Tech is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.
- Aug 19, 202624 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 speed missions demand, and why nations that master data velocity, not just data volume, will hold the real edge over rivals like China. NatSec Tech is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.
- Aug 5, 202632 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 queues, why hyperscalers are resorting to building their own power plants "behind the meter," the political battle over renewables versus fossil fuels under the current administration, and the growing case for next-generation nuclear technology. NatSec Tech is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.
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About NatSec Tech
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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