Chatter

Latest Episodes:

"The Day After" with Nicholas Meyer Apr 28, 2022

Show notes

This week, Shane Harris speaks to filmmaker Nicholas Meyer about the renewed threat of nuclear war amid the conflict in Ukraine. Meyer directed the 1983 film “The Day After,” which remains the most-watched film in television history. The story follows a group of Kansans before, during, and after a full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. It shocked hundreds of millions of viewers--including President Ronald Reagan--with its graphic depiction of the ferocious power of nuclear weapons and the poisonous, lingering fallout that made the world effectively uninhabitable.

Meyer has had a remarkable career as a storyteller. He directed Hollywood blockbusters including Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Time After Time. He is an Academy Award nominated screenwriter and an accomplished novelist. He and Shane talked about making The Day After, a film Meyer thought might never make it to air. He felt he had a duty to tell the story as a warning to the world, and hoped it would prevent Reagan from winning reelection. That didn’t happen, but, as Shane and Nick discuss, The Day After did change Reagan’s thinking about the nature of nuclear war, and thus helped alter the course of history.

The lessons of Meyer’s film resonate loudly again today, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has raised the possibility of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.

Works discussed in this episode include:

Nicholas Meyer’s website: https://www.nicholas-meyer.com/

Read about The Day After: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After

Learn more about Television Event, a documentary about the 1983 film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_Event

Watch the 1983 ABC News town hall that followed the movie’s premiere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3CLeA2bOKU

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spy Satire with Alex Finley Apr 21, 2022

Show notes

No one understands the surreal aspects of a large, long-established bureaucracy like someone who has worked in it. And few have written satire about the particular bureaucracy known as the Central Intelligence Agency like former intelligence officer, prominent yacht-watcher, and book author Alex Finley.

For this episode, Shane Harris and David Priess speak jointly with Finley about her career in the CIA's Directorate of Operations (which became the National Clandestine Service during her tenure there), her keen observation and analysis of Russian oligarchs' mega-yachts (which brought her onto cable news networks this spring after several countries started to seize the ships in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine), and her experience writing a series of spy satire novels (which take espionage absurdity to a new level). The three of them also kicked around views on a range of spy satire films, from 1985's Spies Like Us to the puppet-centric Team America to Spy with Melissa McCarthy.

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.

Works discussed in this episode:

Victor in the Rubble by Alex Finley

Victor in the Jungle by Alex Finley

Victor in Troubleby Alex Finley

The Miernik Dossier by Charles McCarry

The Thunderbirds (TV show)

Movies mentioned include Office Space, The Interview, Team America, Spies Like Us, the James Bond series, Central Intelligence, Spy, Burn After Reading, and the Austin Powers series.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Artificial Intelligence and its Perils with Jacob Ward Apr 14, 2022

Show notes

Artificial Intelligence algorithms are increasingly being used to make decisions for us. But, as NBC technology correspondent Jacob Ward argues, these are not necessarily the ones we want to perpetuate. Preying upon our brains' evolved shortcuts, biases, and hidden processes, they are becoming ever harder to escape.

For this episode, David Priess spoke with Ward--author of the new book The Loop: How Technology is Creating a World Without Choices and How To Fight Back--about artificial intelligence and much more. They discussed Ward's previous roles as editor in chief of Popular Science magazine and as host of the PBS mini-series Hacking Your Mind, the importance of social psychology to many fields of study, the development of automated pattern-recognition systems that ultimately reduce human agency and choice, the ethics of working on algorithms without knowing their end uses, the challenges for reporters working on AI and related technologies, and how movies from Minority Report to Star Wars to WALL-E capture elements of AI.

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.

Works discussed in this episode:

Popular Science magazine’s announcement of its comments policy change (2013)

Hacking Your Mind PBS miniseries (2020)

The Loop by Jacob Ward

Movies mentioned include Minority Report, the Star Wars franchise, and WALL-E.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Climate Change and Insurance with Eugene Linden Apr 07, 2022

Show notes

For decades, humanity has failed to address climate change and prepare for its devastating impact. Without significant changes to our consumption of fossil fuels, the coming reckoning will be severe. But there is hope; the same forces that have confused the public's mind and slowed the policy response are poised to pivot with astonishing speed. And the insurance industry is likely to lead the way.

To understand how we got to the cliff's edge--and how to avoid going over it--David Priess speaks with Eugene Linden, a longtime writer on issues at the intersections of science, culture, and business. They discussed Linden's previous books on animal intelligence and how civilizational rises and falls are linked to climate change. They talked about a new way of looking at the climate story, as four clocks that move at different speeds: the reality of climate change itself; the scientific consensus about it, which always lags reality; public opinion and political will, which lag further still; and, perhaps most important, business and finance. And they spoke about the changes in these clocks decade by decade, from 1979 forward, with a focus on the insurance industry as one loud canary in the coal mine.

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.

Works mentioned in this episode:

Fire and Flood: A People's History of Climate Change, from 1979 to the Present

Eugene's previous writings can be found here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ethical Space Exploration with Lucianne Walkowicz Mar 31, 2022

Show notes

This week, Shane Harris speaks to Lucianne Walkowicz, an astronomer and astrobiologist at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Walkowicz is the co-founder of the JustSpace Alliance and studies the ethics of space exploration.

This was a wide-ranging conversation about the moral and ethical dimensions of humanity’s search for life in the universe and exploration of other planets. We often think about what cities on the moon or Mars might look like, but how should humans live on those worlds and interact with their new environments? For instance, what if human visitors find microbes living in Martian water, but also need that water as a source of nourishment? Do we kill the organisms living in it, which might also be the first evidence of life on other planets?

They also talked about the risks and rewards of sending out signals of human life on Earth in the hope that distant species might discover it. Should we try to make contact in order to find more intelligent life forms we can learn from, or do we risk opening ourselves to conquest by alerting potentially hostile species to our existence?

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.

Among the resources cited in this episode:

Lucianne Walkowicz’s web site. https://notnotrocketscience.com/

The JustSpace Alliance https://justspacealliance.org/

The SETI Institute https://www.seti.org/

Some movies we discussed:

Contact (1997) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/

Arrival (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Putin’s People with Catherine Belton Mar 24, 2022

Show notes

This week, Shane Harris talks with journalist Catherine Belton about the rise of Vladimir Putin from KGB officer to president of Russia.

Belton’s book, Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West, traces how Soviet-era spies siphoned billions out of the state economy, creating vast networks for laundering money and hiding assets. After Putin came to power, he pushed out the tycoons of the post-Soviet era and set up his own cadre of loyal oligarchs.

Today, as the West levies massive sanctions against Putin and his supporters, Belton’s work reveals much about how he managed to amass such vast wealth and control of the Russian state. Putin now finds himself increasingly isolated, surrounded by a small circle of loyal advisers. Will Western sanctions help pressure the oligarchs to take back control? What is Putin’s endgame in Ukraine? Shane and Catherine’s discussion is a timely exploration of what made Putin and what could bring him down.

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.

Among the works cited in this episode:

Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West https://www.amazon.com/Putins-People-Took-Back-Russia/dp/0374238715/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1647978957&sr=8-1

Catherine Belton on Twitter https://twitter.com/CatherineBelton?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Arctic Security and Cooperation with Marisol Maddox Mar 17, 2022

Show notes

Russia's most recent invasion of Ukraine is reverberating around the globe--including in the Arctic. An area that had seen increasingly productive cooperation, due in large part to multilateral institutions like the Arctic Council, is now facing even greater uncertainty.

To dig deep into all things Arctic as the war in Ukraine continues, David Priess spoke with Marisol Maddox, senior Arctic analyst at the Polar Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and non-resident research fellow at the Center for Climate & Security. Her research and communication sits at the intersection of Arctic politics, climate change, and security.

We spoke about her unusual education combining ecology and international security, how climate change is driving heightened geopolitical interest in the Arctic, the regional importance of the Law of the Sea, the unique legal status of the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, the Arctic Council and other international institutions focusing on the region, the damage that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has done to Arctic cooperation, China's increasing interest in the Far North, and more.

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recovering from a Russian Attack with Toomas Ilves Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

This week's episode goes back a decade and a half to the 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia--and brings the conversation to today, both with lessons we can learn from the country's digitalization and information security awareness and with discussion of how Russia's earlier aggression previewed its recent invasion of Ukraine.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves served as Estonia's Ambassador to the United States, Canada, and Mexico and then its Foreign Minister (twice) before becoming the country's president in 2006. During the first of his two five-year terms in that office, Estonia suffered a wave of Russian or Russian-backed cyberattacks that shut down much of the highly online country. But Estonia recovered quickly, using the crisis as an opportunity to speed up its already advanced digitization and to expand its cyber education efforts.

David Priess spoke with Ilves about his parents' experience fleeing wartime Estonia as Russians started mass deportations to Siberia, his education and early exposure to coding in 1971, the cyberattacks of 2007, how the government and society responded, how others in Europe reacted to this and other Russian provocations, Estonian education and E-government initiatives, and why the new Russian invasion of Ukraine has (so far) lacked a major cyber warfare element.

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

WWII in the Movies with Elizabeth Samet Mar 03, 2022

Show notes

This week, Shane Harris talks with professor and author Elizabeth Samet about Hollywood’s portrayal of World War II and how that influences what Americans think about “the good war.”

Samet’s book Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness explores how generations of filmmakers have depicted the conflict. Many of their stories, she argues, have inspired a nostalgia for a war that seemed clearer cut and more virtuous than subsequent American conflicts.

Contemporary movies in particular have emphasized the righteousness of the war and the United States’ role in it. Saving Private Ryan, for instance, reintroduced a new generation of Americans to “the greatest generation,” and portrayed the war as seemingly less complicated and fraught than the Vietnam War.

But Samet writes that many of these Hollywood renderings are misleading and don't accurately capture how those fighting the war, and those on the homefront, truly felt about it. She also shows how veterans of the war have not always been flatteringly portrayed.

Samet is a professor of English at West Point.

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.

Among the works cited in this episode:

Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness https://www.amazon.com/Looking-Good-War-American-Happiness/dp/0374219923/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1646252298&sr=1-1

New York Times review https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/29/books/review-looking-for-good-war-elizabeth-samet.html

About Elizabeth Samet and her other books https://us.macmillan.com/author/elizabethdsamet

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Assassination by Poison with Neil Bradbury Feb 24, 2022

Show notes

This week's episode takes a walk on the dark side, with a molecular look at a prominent international poisonings.

Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov died in 1978 after a ricin pellet was shot into his leg, from an air gun disguised as an umbrella. Twenty-eight years later, former KGB/FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko suffered horribly and died after the poison polonium-210 was slipped into his tea. And former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia nearly died in 2018 from the effects of a nerve agent attack.

To understand how the molecules used in these assaults do their worst to the human body, David Priess speaks with Dr. Neil Bradbury, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science--where he teaches and conducts research on genetic diseases, especially cystic fibrosis. He is the author of A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them, which combines elements of popular science, medical history, and true crime to show how the precise systems of the body can be impaired to lethal effect through the use of poison.

We spoke about the four routes through which poison can be delivered to a victim, the physiology and biochemistry behind a few poisons, the prominent assassinations of Markov and Litvinenko, the attempted assassination of Skripal, and the difficulty of getting away with murder using even rare poisons once their effects are known. The information in this episode is purely for educational and entertainment purposes and is not intended to give the advantages and disadvantages of the use of any particular poison in the commission of any crime.

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Among the works cited in this episode:

A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them, by Neil Bradbury

Dr. Bradbury's research on cystic fibrosis

"Murder by Numbers," The Police (the PoliceWiki)

"A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie" (agathachristie.com)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.