#supply-chain-security
43 episodes
#3694: The Hidden World of Electronic Component Distributors
Digikey, Mouser, and Farnell aren't normal retailers—they're the backbone of global electronics manufacturing. Here's how they work.
#3608: The Lost Scent of the Temple: Incense in Jewish Tradition
How a core Temple ritual vanished from Jewish practice and became associated with other religions instead.
#3558: How to Spot a Rigged Government Tender
Learn to identify sham tenders and bid effectively on genuine government contracts without wasting time.
#3096: How Encrypted Plots Actually Get Busted
Encrypted phones don't stop arrests. Here's how intelligence agencies actually catch terror cells.
#3070: The Hidden World of Custom Drug Dosing
Why getting a precise 6.25mg Seroquel dose reveals the strange economics of custom medicine.
#2954: The 47 Lubricants of War: Inside Defense Supply Chains
How Israel’s military actually buys bullets, missiles, and tank grease — and why a single factory in Virginia matters.
#2922: The Milk That Never Touched a Cow
Precision-fermented dairy is on shelves. But is it milk? And is it kosher? Three rabbinic positions, one yeast strain.
#2805: The Subprocessor Notification Nobody Reads
Why do companies send subprocessor update emails nobody reads? It's transparency theater — with a hidden purpose.
#2542: The Best Permanent Markers That Actually Last
From ink chemistry to top brands: which markers hold up on plastic, metal, and in the sun.
#2473: GitHub Actions Beyond CI/CD: What You're Missing
Cron jobs, self-hosted runners, NPM publishing, and self-healing repos — GitHub Actions does way more than run tests.
#1989: Your Cloud Photos Vanish If You Miss a $5 Bill
Is your data safe in the cloud, or is it one missed payment away from oblivion?
#1780: The Danger Zone: Your Browser Extensions
Your encrypted data is safe until it hits your browser. Here's how extensions turn your "secure" browsing into a data leak.
#1682: Israel's China Dilemma: Cheap Chips, Costly Partners
A geopolitical paradox: Israel leans on Chinese supply chains to fix its cost of living, while Beijing backs Iran and its proxies.
#1625: Why Israel Is Sabotaging Yellowcake, Not Just Reactors
Discover why hitting a yellowcake mill is more effective than breaking a centrifuge in the race to stop a nuclear program.
#1549: Why Your Next GitHub Notification Could Be a Trap
Attackers are weaponizing GitHub notifications to bypass security filters. Learn how to spot the latest phishing lures before you click.
#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: Why IRGC Bunkers Became High-Tech Death Traps
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: What Missile Fuel Means for Civilian Safety
Explore the technical evolution of Iran's missile program and how geography dictates the warning times in a modern ballistic arms race.
#897: The Dark Phase: When a Bomb Becomes Invisible
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: How 1,400 Ghost Ships and Fake GPS Are Breaking the World
Explore how "ghost fleets" and "shadow armies" allow nations to bypass sanctions and project power through a world of plausible deniability.
#861: Modeling a Nation's Rewiring with AI Digital Twins
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 War Against Entropy at 30,000 Feet
How long can a plane truly stay airborne? Explore the mechanical, human, and logistical limits of modern aerial power projection.
#692: When Algorithms Decide the Battle
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: The Secret Chat Keeping Ships Safe in War Zones
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: When a Frustrated Renter Unlocks the Secrets of Skyscraper 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 Hidden Price of a Click
Herman and Corn dive into the hidden environmental and ethical price of ultra-cheap global shipping and the dilemma of the modern consumer.
#388: Navigating the Chinese New Year Industrial Blackout
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: When Probability Beats Truth: Why AI Must Lie
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.