Fmr. Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin on Intelligence, Tradecraft, and Global Security in the Trump Era
In this episode, A’ndre Gonawela sits down with John McLaughlin, former Acting Director and Deputy Director of the CIA and now Professor of Practice at Johns Hopkins SAIS. Drawing on over three decade...
17 Sep 202555min
The Beijing Brief: Ambassador Nicholas Burns on Trump, Tariffs, and China's Playbook
Former U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns joins The Burn Bag to unpack the fragile U.S.–China tariff truce, the state of ongoing trade negotiations, and how Beijing is recalibrating its diplomacy...
8 Sep 202556min
Civilian Power: Why "Spirit of America" is a Non-Profit with a DoD Partnership, feat. Jim Hake, Founder of Spirit of America
Jim Hake, founder of Spirit of America, joins The Burn Bag to discuss why civilians matter in modern national security—and how his organization is filling gaps government can’t. A Silicon Valley entre...
4 Sep 202540min
The Trump-Putin Summit: Alexander Vindman on Ukraine After Alaska and Improvised Diplomacy
Former NSC official Lt. Col. (Ret.) Alexander Vindman joins The Burn Bag to break down the fallout from the Trump–Putin summit in Alaska, the Monday meeting between Trump, Zelenskyy, and European lead...
20 Aug 202553min
The Crimean Tatars: Ukraine, Russian Occupation, and Crimea's Indigenous Resistance with Professor Greta Uehling
The war in Ukraine didn’t start in 2022—it started in Crimea in 2014. In this episode, we sit down with University of Michigan professor and anthropologist Dr. Greta Uehling to explore the story of th...
13 Aug 202543min
Manhunt to Mindshift: Fmr. CIA Analyst Gina Bennett on Hunter-Gatherer National Security and Evolutionary Power
In this episode of The Burn Bag, A’ndre sits down with retired CIA analyst Gina Bennett, who famously authored the first classified warning about Osama bin Laden in 1993. A key voice in the fight agai...
31 Jul 20251h 3min
Veteran U.S. Diplomat Dr. Kurt Campbell on Tariffs, the China Challenge, and Allied Scale in Asia
Dr. Kurt Campbell, former Deputy Secretary of State and an architect of the U.S. “Pivot to Asia,” joins the Burn Bag to unpack the strategic crossroads the United States faces in the Indo-Pacific. In ...
9 Jul 202547min
The New Defense Prime: Breaking Innovation Theater, AI Adoption, and Data Fusion with Raft CEO Shubhi Mishra
In this episode, we’re joined by Shubhi Mishra, founder and CEO of Raft, to talk about what it takes to become a new defense prime. Shubhi challenges the dominance of legacy primes and makes the case ...
7 Jul 202546min
