Covert Contact

Latest Episodes:

Inside the President’s Daily Brief with David Priess | Episode 58 Aug 19, 2016

Show notes

Dr. David Priess delivered the Presidents Daily Brief during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and has produced the definitive history on the subject with The President’s Book of Secrets: The Untold Story of Intelligence Briefings to America’s Presidents from Kennedy to Obama. David joined me to discuss the monumental challenge of structuring, producing, and presenting one of the intelligence community’s most important products.

Fragmented Realities – AV and VR Update | Episode 57 Aug 12, 2016

Show notes

Freelance writer and Zam.com columnist Robert Rath joins me in episode 57 to review the latest advances in virtual and augmented reality. Augmented reality, in the form of Pokemon Go, has captured much of the attention but the virtual reality market will continue to mature. Neither technology will remain a fad despite several false or slow starts. We look at this evolution and looming impact on our already diminished shared experience.

Russia, Donald Trump, and the 2016 Election | Episode 56 Aug 01, 2016

Show notes

Regular Blogs of War and Covert Contact contributor William Tucker joins me to look at allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Trump’s roll in the insanity, and the impact that it is having on American power and our allies in places like Estonia and other Baltic states.

Journalism and Conflict in East Africa | Episode 55 Jul 29, 2016

Show notes

In episode 55 Amanda Sperber joins me to discuss her work as a journalist in East Africa. Amanda has covered the region for Foreign Policy, VICE News, Al Jazeera English, and others. We discuss the challenges inherent in covering a largely overlooked, and sometimes dangerous, part of the world.

The Nice, France Attack: How Can Counterterrorism Evolve with the Threat | Episode 54 Jul 17, 2016

Show notes

In episode 54 I’m joined again by Patrick Skinner, Director of Special Projects for The Soufan Group. Patrick is a former CIA case officer, with a background in federal law enforcement, who specializes in counterterrorism issues. His background, and current work, allow him to look at these events from related, but different, perspectives. Our focus in this episode is on how governments should shift their thinking to better identify and mitigate that which is almost undetectable and unpreventable. It is an immensely challenging problem yet there are patterns that could inform the creation of a different model – a different approach.

Building an Intel Shop from the Ground Up | Episode 53 Jul 05, 2016

Show notes

In this episode Dean Baratta, Chief of the Analysis Bureau at New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, joins me to discuss how he and his leadership rebuilt their intelligence operation from the ground up. Their radical restructuring touched every facet of their operations and included substantial changes in how they classified and distributed their work. We also dig into the key elements that made the effort successful, how it has changed the way officials view their product, and where they plan to go next.

You can follow NJOHSP on Twitter (@NJOHSP) and access their unclassified intelligence products at njhomelandsecurity.gov. Their podcast, Intelligence, Unclassified is available on iTunes and other platforms.

Russian Hackers Run Wild on the DNC | Episode 52 Jun 21, 2016

Show notes

Regular Blogs of War and Covert Contact contributor William Tucker joins me to discuss the apparent Russian state-sponsored hack of the DNC. We also spend quite a bit of time discussing the sorry state of security. We’re talking about cyber issues constantly but the intrusions, threats, and vulnerabilities seem to be mounting. There is a lot of cybersecurity chatter but it seems to have generated very little urgency or understanding.

The Orlando Shooting and Our Struggle to Make Sense of the Senseless | Episode 51 Jun 14, 2016

Show notes

In episode 51 I’m joined again by Patrick Skinner, Director of Special Projects for The Soufan Group. Patrick is a former CIA case officer, with a background in federal law enforcement, who specializes in counterterrorism issues.

This episode is not a rigorous analysis of the attack in Orlando. Most of the discussion focuses on how people are responding to the attack in a highly politicized and understandably emotionally charged environment and what that means for domestic counterterrorism efforts. It’s also an appeal for Americans to be more thoughtful, more united, and more resilient in the face of threat that can’t be completely eliminated.

Victor in The Rubble: Tackling Intelligence Community Bureaucracy Through Satire | Episode 50 Jun 13, 2016

Show notes

Former CIA Reports Officer Alex Finley joins me in episode 50 to discuss her first novel and the business of intelligence. Victor in the Rubble is a satirical look at the CIA and the War on Terror. The book is insanely funny, and worth reading for the entertainment value alone, but Alex’s insight and ability to highlight the absurdity of bureaucratic organizations and human failures should make this required reading at the agency and other large organizations.

Developing and Leveraging Strategic Foresight | Episode 49 Jun 11, 2016

Show notes

I was recently in Washington D.C. and one of the highlights of the trip was meeting Dr. Mat Burrows. Dr. Burrows is the Director of the Strategic Foresight Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.

Dr. Burrows spent many years at the CIA and National Intelligence Council where he was the principal drafter of the highly regarded Global Trends report. He continues to lead this same type of forecasting in his role at the Atlantic Council.

In this episode we discuss the importance of forecasting, the challenges inherent in it, and how fiction writers and artists can play a key role in the process. Along the way we dig into some of the key drivers, such as technology, that will weigh heavily in the next report.

The process and final product are fascinating and it gets even more interesting because it’s open to input to all through a contest hosted by The Art Of The Future Project.

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