#supply-chain-security
28 episodes
#1280: Laptop Farms: North Korea’s Invisible Hardware Backdoor
Discover how North Korean operatives use "laptop farms" and IP-KVM hardware to bypass security and infiltrate the US workforce.
#1041: Before the Hum: Life in the Pre-Refrigeration Era
Explore the high-stakes world of food preservation, from 19th-century ice trades to the biological secrets of 50-year-old perpetual stews.
#1017: The Nuclear Shell Game: Can We Ever Verify Neutralization?
Beyond the missile strikes, a hidden war persists. Discover why verifying nuclear neutralization is the ultimate intelligence nightmare.
#1015: The Fortress Paradox: Inside the IRGC’s Security Collapse
How did Israel bypass the world's most paranoid security? Explore the "Fortress Paradox" and the technical myths of the air-gap.
#968: Breaking the Air Gap: The Truth About Industrial Cyber War
Beyond the "hacker in a hoodie" myth, we explore how state actors breach air-gapped systems to sabotage critical physical infrastructure.
#946: The Hormuz Bottleneck: Oil, Insurance, and Global Risk
Explore why the Strait of Hormuz is the global economy's ultimate single point of failure and how insurance markets can trigger a total freeze.
#918: Solid Fuel & Strategic Depth: Iran’s Missile Arsenal
Explore the technical evolution of Iran's missile program and how geography dictates the warning times in a modern ballistic arms race.
#897: The Nuclear Dark Phase: Shrinking the Industrial Bomb
How does a massive nuclear facility shrink into a weapon the size of a soup can? Explore the "dark phase" of atomic weapon production.
#882: The Invisible War: Inside the World’s Shadow Fleets
Explore how "ghost fleets" and "shadow armies" allow nations to bypass sanctions and project power through a world of plausible deniability.
#861: Beyond the West: Modeling Israel’s Strategic Pivot
What if Israel lost the support of the US and EU? Explore the economic shocks and AI tools used to model a massive geopolitical shift.
#751: The Frozen Fortress: Why the World Wants Greenland
Greenland is no longer a frozen afterthought. Discover why the Arctic is the new strategic center of global trade and resource security.
#744: The Billion-Dollar Math of Missile Defense Logistics
Beyond the flashes in the sky lies a high-stakes game of logistics. Explore the costs, storage, and supply chains of modern missile defense.
#740: The Limits of Flight: Logistics, Endurance, and Entropy
How long can a plane truly stay airborne? Explore the mechanical, human, and logistical limits of modern aerial power projection.
#692: The 12-Day War: How Algorithms Redefined Middle East Combat
Herman and Corn revisit the 2025 12-day war, exploring how electronic warfare and regional alliances changed the face of modern combat.
#670: Open Source vs. Open Weights: The AI Branding Illusion
Is your AI truly open? Herman and Corn break down the critical difference between open source and open weights in the age of LLMs.
#662: The Geopolitical Graph: Mapping Global Power with AI
Move beyond flat maps. Discover how graph databases and AI reveal the hidden connections and second-order effects shaping our global landscape.
#604: Global Arteries: Guarding the World’s Maritime Chokepoints
Explore the invisible infrastructure keeping global trade alive, from secure naval chat rooms to armored ship citadels.
#590: Beyond the Hype: Real-World Smart Contracts in 2026
Forget the crypto hype. Herman and Corn explore how smart contracts are revolutionizing tenancy, insurance, and supply chains in 2026.
#555: Walking Between Raindrops: Israel and the New Axis
Can Israel maintain its balancing act as Russia and China align with Iran? Herman and Corn dive into the "adversary entente" and its risks.
#521: Hidden in Plain Sight: Safe Houses and Front Companies
Explore the world of urban camouflage, from fake London facades to the "deep cover" front companies embedded in our global supply chain.
#519: The Science of Stick: Decoding 3M VHB Tape
Discover how 3M VHB tape holds skyscrapers together and learn to decode the secret four-digit codes for your next DIY project.
#474: The Price of Autonomy: Can a Nation Truly Go It Alone?
Herman and Corn explore the myth of self-reliance, from military aid and F-35 supply chains to the "calorie problem" of national food security.
#390: The True Cost of a Click: AliExpress and Global Logistics
Herman and Corn dive into the hidden environmental and ethical price of ultra-cheap global shipping and the dilemma of the modern consumer.
#388: The Global Supply Chain vs. The Lunar Calendar
Discover how the world's largest human migration brings global manufacturing to a standstill and how businesses survive the month-long blackout.
#376: Hardwired for Havoc: Inside Mossad’s Pager Operation
Explore the chilling reality of supply chain poisoning and how a decade-long operation turned everyday pagers into targeted weapons.
#337: Sovereign Bags: The Secret World of Diplomatic Pouches
In a digital age, why do governments still use physical bags? Explore the high-stakes world of diplomatic pouches and sovereign transit.
#85: Why AI Lies: The Science of Digital Hallucinations
Why do smart AI systems make up fake facts? Corn and Herman explore the "feature" of digital hallucinations and how to spot them.
#84: The Silicon Arms Race: Why GPUs are the New Oil
Are high-end microchips the new enriched uranium? Herman and Corn dive into the high-stakes world of GPU export bans and global AI supremacy.