The Truth of the Matter

AI Competition and Security: A discussion with Kemba Walden and Devin Lynch

“We’re in a whole tangled mess…we’ve gotten ourselves into a tangled mess around not just securing our infrastructure, but also around competition for the pieces of our infrastructure.” AI has become ...

2025-07-10

Download

Keeping Our Beaches Clean with the Surfrider Foundation

This summer, millions of Americans will head to the beach to beat the heat. But how clean is the water they're swimming in? At many beaches, especially on the East Coast, water quality is rarely teste...

2025-07-04

Download

NATO’s “Brain-Dead” Summit

“I think what happened here is Europeans made a lot of commitments that they don’t have any intention of fulfilling—at least in the near term—and this is all about appeasing President Trump to keep hi...

2025-07-01

Download

Did U.S. Strikes Prevent an Iranian Bomb—or Provoke One?

“The word ‘obliteration’ is being used a lot…I think there’s a little more nuance to it.” Intelligence assessments from the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran, and the United States have provide...

2025-07-01

Download

Is Ideology Blinding Iran to Reality?

“They didn’t understand the essence of Israel, and they are now dead.” Are Iran and regional terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah considering the reality of Israel’s military posture and motivati...

2025-06-26

Download

Emergency Podcast: How Degraded is Iran’s Nuclear and Missile Program?

CSIS Missile Threat Program director Tom Karako joins the podcast to assess conflicting reports about the degradation of Iran’s nuclear and missile program and how soon Iran may be able to rebuild.

2025-06-26

Download

12-Day War: Now What?

CSIS’s Jon Alterman, a longtime Middle East scholar and geopolitical expert, joins the podcast to discuss potential outcomes from Israel and Iran’s 12-day war and shaky ceasefire. Key question: Does t...

2025-06-25

Download

Emergency Podcast: Iran Strikes Back

CSIS Middle East Program Director Mona Yacoubian joins the podcast to discuss Monday’s strike by Iran on Al Udeid Air Base, the largest American military installation in the Middle East and the broade...

2025-06-24

Download

Google's Gopi Kallayil on the AI Revolution

In this cross over episode, Mariana and Andrew are joined by Gopi Kallayil, Google’s Chief Business Strategist for AI, to explore what he calls “the most profound technology ever created by human bein...

2025-06-20

Download

How Might Iran Conflict End?

CSIS’s Norm Roule, a former senior U.S. intelligence officer for the Middle East joins the podcast to discuss how conflict with Iran might end, what regime change could look like, the wider implicatio...

2025-06-20

Download

Israel’s Strategic Objectives and the Future of Warfare

CSIS’s Eliot A. Cohen, former dean of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and former councilor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joins the podcast to discuss Israel’s st...

2025-06-19

Download

Israel-Iran: Is Time Running Out?

"This is easily once of the biggest ballistic missile and ballistic missile defense engagements in history, and it is truly momentous in terms of the overall context and the overall posture that Israe...

2025-06-17

Download

Emergency Podcast: Israeli Strike on Iran

CSIS’ Seth Jones, Emily Harding and Ben Jensen join the podcast to discuss Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, leadership and other targets.

2025-06-14

Download

Can We Share Spectrum?

"The spectrum is a scarce national resource...it is absolutely a defense priority." Much of the spectrum has been auctioned off for commercial use, sparking a fierce debate on Capitol Hill: How can we...

2025-06-10

Download

What is the End Point of U.S.-China Competition?

“I do believe we’re in a strategic competition. I believe it’s fine to describe it that way analytically. But if it’s a competition that is purely strategic, what’s the goal? What’s the endpoint?” U.S...

2025-06-04

Download

Russia’s Battlefield Woes

“The stark reality is that the Russians really aren’t doing well on the battlefield, and their economy is also in pretty tough shape.” CSIS experts examined several indicators of Russia’s battlefield ...

2025-05-30

Download

The Golden Dome and the New Missile Age

“Back in 2015, about $12.8 billion, or about 7.6 percent of DOD’s modernization, went to missile defense of some kind. Today it’s up to $25.5 billion, and 8.2 percent of DOD’s modernization budget.” A...

2025-05-16

Download

Trump’s Middle East Minerals Deal

“The Gulf is an absolutely critical player in critical minerals, because they’re all working on their goal of diversifying away from a reliance on oil…Each of these countries has adopted critical mine...

2025-05-16

Download

Emergency Podcast: U.S.-China Tariff Pause

“The economic costs were beginning to become much more obvious—not just in terms of the market volatility, but potential shortages, inflation, the rare earths restrictions that the Chinese imposed. Th...

2025-05-14

Download

Analyzing Missile Attacks in Ukraine

“Modern war is almost a new missile age.” Missiles have played a crucial role in the Russia-Ukraine war, with Russia beginning to send mass missile salvos at command and control nodes, political cente...

2025-05-10

Download

The Truth of the Matter

Episodes (372 episodes)

Related Podcasts