On the latest LGM podcast Scott and I spoke with friend-of-the-blog and current candidate for the Democratic nomination in Kentucky’s sixth district Erin Petrey, who many of you will remember from previous posts. We talked about Erin’s reasoning for joining the race, some of the positions that she has staked out on the campaign trail, and finally some snippets from the day-to-day life of a Congressional candidate.



Also, the best question is the Nazi tattoo question.



Erin’s donation page is here and her website is here, from which you can follow all of her socials if that’s the kind of thing you would normally do.



Transcript is here.




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On the latest LGM Podcast I had the opportunity to speak with longtime contributor Chris Koski, who is currently at Ground Zero in Portland, Oregon. Chris and I talked about the current state of anti-ICE protests, the legacy of the 2020 George Floyd protests, the possible effects of a National Guard deployment to Portland, and the general cultural impact of years of anti-Trump protest.



Transcript is here.




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Photo Credit: By Another Believer – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=168216844

On the latest LGM Podcast I had the good fortune to interview Dr. Tim Benbow, Professor of Strategic Studies at King’s College London. Tim has recently been researching the history of the Royal Navy’s decisions to keep, and then to give up, its battleships after World War II. We talk through the role of the battleship in Royal Navy doctrine prior to and during the war, tracing changes in attitudes as the course of the conflict brought other technologies to the fore.



Give it a listen.



Transcript available here.




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On the latest LGM Podcast I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Kate Epstein of the Rutgers University Department of History. We talked through her two books, Analog Superpowers (about fire control equipment) and Torpedo (about, well, torpedoes), the latter of which I reviewed here. We discussed the mechanics of fire control and the history of theft, plagiarism, and legal dispute in the UK and the US, talked about how to build a legal regime that can support an innovative defense industrial base, worked through how these legal structures created the environment in which the Manhattan Project prospered, compared the “young and hungry” versus the “old and established” military organization in terms of innovation, and finally made some observations about the state of the modern defense patent regime.



If any of that sounds interesting, tune in!



Transcript available here.




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On the latest LGM podcast Paul and I sat down with Friend of the Blog Dean Spears to talk about his and Michael Geruso’s book, After the Spike. Paul and I each had some thoughts on the subject and Dean was good enough to send along copies and to offer a conversation. In the podcast we talk through the numbers, the social impact, and the difficulties in folks to come to an understanding of a thing that has literally never happened through all of human history.



Transcript available here.




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Here’s the second half of our NFL preview podcast, where Scott, Erik, and I talk about the NFC. And for posterity, this is who we picked for the conference finalists:




* Erik: Ravens over the Bills, Lions over the Eagles



* Rob: Bills over the Broncos, Lions over the Buccaneers



* Scott: Bills over the Ravens, Lions over the Buccaneers








Transcript available here.




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Photo Credit: By All-Pro Reels – https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeglo/52379080723/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=123777148

Are you ready for some football? We are. As has become an annual tradition, Erik, Scott and myself previewed the NFL season. The first half of the podcast concerns the AFC. We’ll publish the second half on Thursday prior to the Cowboys-Eagles season opener.



Transcript available here.




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Photo Credit: By All-Pro Reels – https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeglo/51529935401/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=111523310

This last week (as consequence of the LGM Silent Auction) I had the opportunity to speak with Ed Niedermeyer, author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors, host of the Autonocast, and general thinker of large thoughts. We talked through the history of Tesla, its unique corporate culture, the role of Elon Musk, the complications of autopilot and autonomy, and finally the unsustainability of the stock price.



Transcript available here.




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Photo Credit: By Norio Nakayama – https://www.flickr.com/photos/norio-nakayama/5240830220/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107793270

Last week Dan, Cheryl and I talked through the implications of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Cheryl gave us a damage assessment, we worked out the domestic politics, and Dan gave some thoughts both on Trump and on the broader international implications. I talked the airpower angle, contrasting the Israeli performance with Russia’s air campaign in Ukraine. Some links of note:




* Details of the strike.



* Jeffrey Lewis on Iran’s trajectory towards a bomb.



* Ankit Panda on the flagging non-proliferation regime.



* When the cards were down, Moscow and Beijing were nowhere to be found.



* Speaking of cards, Tulsi folded like a house of them…



* Israeli success has made the Saudis nervous.





As a policy matter, I think Trump officials are smart to lie about the destruction of Iran's nuclear program to avoid being drawn further into this shit show. As a professional with a reputation to uphold, I have to point out that these statements are untrue. It's a weird time.— Jeffrey Lewis (@armscontrolwonk.bsky.social) 2025-06-29T19:03:38.299Z




Transcript is here.




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