Épisodes

  • Gwyneth Paltrow, AI Week, Defense Innovation

    Gwyneth Paltrow, AI Week, Defense Innovation
    Jun 12 2026
    Gywneth Paltrow, typo right? Nope. Nope not at all. Check out our it's a drill segment where we again name drop Pope Leon, plus Schedule P/C, the Reflecting Pool refurbishment from hell, the proposed update to federal grantmaking, and the queen of Goop interviewing the founder of Anduril. Plus, we read all the recent federal AI policies so you don't have to, and welcome DCODE CEO Meagan Metzger to chat defense innovation and what makes it (not) work.
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    1 h et 4 min
  • New Jersey, Just War, Crisis Engineering

    New Jersey, Just War, Crisis Engineering
    May 31 2026
    Marina Nitze joins us to discuss their new book, Crisis Engineering, and how real change can come to government even in the worst moments. For Its a Drill, apparently the attack on science continues with the threat to defund the National Academy of Sciences, and the shocking response by ICE when Senator Andy Kim visited at detention facility. In Dumpster Fires we ask whether congressional war powers are well and truly dead, with some help from the Pope. Plus our angsty (and cringey) teenage vacation stories as we get ready to head into summer.
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    1 h et 8 min
  • FISA, Ukraine, and Reconciliation

    FISA, Ukraine, and Reconciliation
    May 15 2026
    Molly Reynolds joins us to talk through all the mysteries and magic of reconciliation, and if the appropriations works will ever be the same. We don't even get to the China trip because we have FISA 702 renewal, hantavirus, Germany troops rotations and new leadership in Hungary (plus zebras). There's interesting things afoot in Russia-Ukraine despite or because of endless Trump shenanigans. And as always Devil Wears Prada.
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    55 min
  • Fired Navy Secretary, Fired NSB, and UAVs

    Fired Navy Secretary, Fired NSB, and UAVs
    May 2 2026
    CSET's Lauren Kahn joins us this week to discuss trends in drone deployment and whether or how they are changing the character of warfare. For the rest of the episode, well, it's a whole lot of "you're fired!" The Navy Secretary was fired (for battleships? for no battleships? for principle?). Several members of Congress under ethics investigation resigned ahead of other sanctions. And in yet more trends in the Trump administration threatening independent public science, the entire National Science Board was fired, by a short little email. All that, plus DC proms!
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    1 h
  • Avignon, AI Risk, Federal Workforce Futures

    Avignon, AI Risk, Federal Workforce Futures
    Apr 15 2026

    Radha and Loren welcome Margaret Mullins (Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator) to discuss her new report proposal new models for organizing federal hiring and talent maangement (it's extremely cool, trust us). We have just way too much fun in it's a drill between Iranian Lego meme wars, the Pentagon's threats to the Pope, the FY27 budget, and the extreme drama that is our tech overlords. For Dumpster Fires, we consider just what Anthropic actually meant when they said their latest AI model is simply too scary and what response we can expect from the Trump administration. And for Gong Show - Artemis!

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    1 h et 6 min
  • Brent, Science Funding, State and the Soldier.

    Brent, Science Funding, State and the Soldier.
    Apr 2 2026

    Radha and Loren welcome the glorious Dr. Kori Schake to the podcast for a discussion of her new book, The State and the Soldier:A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States; hurray! As we hopefully welcome spring, we grapple with chaotic management of military promotions, the globally economy, and the Iran war in It's a Drill. And for Dumpster Fires, we wade into the political crisis + administrative burden burden + totally out of sync funding system that is federal science grantmaking, just for fun. Also: Devil Wears Prada 2, anyone? That's All.

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    55 min
  • SAVE Act, VOA, and the Deficit

    SAVE Act, VOA, and the Deficit
    Mar 20 2026
    Radha and Loren are so excited to welcome the Co-Director of the Yale Budget Lab, Martha Gimbel, to explore her team's work and her fantastic recent testimony exploring how the the national debt and tariffs show up in the lived experience of Americans. For It's a Drill, we note that the SAVE Act doesn't really save anyone, except maybe people who want to be saved from women's votes, and give you the long extended analogy of how the dynamics Straits of Hormuz is actually the movie He's Just Not That Into You. For Dumpster Fires, we use the recent court ruling on reinstating Voice of America staff to consider the role of government in the information space. Also: the Oscars!
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    1 h et 1 min
  • Endangerment, DOD AI, Iran

    Endangerment, DOD AI, Iran
    Mar 5 2026
    Radha and Loren are so excited to welcome special guest Dana Stroul to help us understand this war, er, special military operation in Iran, but first we wade through cocktail party gossip on the end of the endangerment finding, forced ranking for civil servants, and like a lot of things going on in the western hemisphere. If you've ever wanted to know about the systems challenges of security clearances, our discussion on NBIS and its woes are for you; plus, of course we couldn't avoid getting into the messiness of the DOD-Anthropic situationship. Plus: do you have an Irish soda bread recipe? We don't.
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    1 h et 16 min