Podcast Club ONLINE: The New Tech/Drone War Field - Are We Militarily Ready?

This week's podcast is Lost Debate, with host Ravi Gupta and guest Dexter Filkins, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist known primarily for his coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prior to winning the Pulitzer, Filkins was a finalist for that award for other work. He has received numerous prizes, including two George Polk Awards and three Overseas Press Club Awards. Filkins is the author of the book The Forever War, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Nonfiction Book and was named a best book of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, and The Boston Globe. Filkins has been called "the premier combat journalist of his generation" and currently writes for The New Yorker.

PLEASE NOTE: We require that attendees listen to the podcast below before attending the meeting to optimize discussion.

https://thebranchmedia.org/show/lost-debate/war-will-never-be-the-same/

or

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/war-will-never-be-the-same/id1591300785?i=1000722840973

(53 min.)

ALSO, the podcast references a recent piece in The New Yorker written by Filkins. Reading the article, linked below, is optional but highly recommended. It's very interesting and goes further in depth than the podcast in certain fascinating arenas. Caveat: the article is long. But it's worth it!

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/21/is-the-us-ready-for-the-next-war OR, if you hit a paywall, you can alternatively access the article here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bEkXMTk8U2lqBIIFVxBhfgfN7XncQGsZ-036GE9JbcE/edit?usp=sharing
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What's this podcast about?
This week's podcast examines how drones and AI are massively and quickly transforming modern warfare. War now looks nothing like it ever did before. Discussing Filkins' The New Yorker article, linked above, host Gupta and Filkins explore what this new technology is like, including how it is being deployed in the war between Ukraine and Russia, costs (some of these drones, which can inflict significant damage, cost merely hundreds of dollars), manufacturing, training, deployment, strategy, capability, and more. The conversation further considers U.S. military readiness in this new tech-heavy war field, China’s dominance in the defense supply chain, and the rise of autonomous weaponry. Also discussed is Israel’s use of AI in Gaza and what it reveals about the moral cost of algorithmic war.

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3682869318?pwd=SC80SzI1S3JkeW1pbGhzcTNVQWVmdz09. Password for event might be W5hDy7

What's a podcast club?
It's like a book club for podcasts. Each week we discuss an interesting and currently-relevant episode from podcasters like Ezra Klein, Michael Shermer, or Russ Roberts. We start off as a large group and spend most of the time talking in small break-out groups, which we remix 3 times during the course of the evening. Our conversations are casual and open. We ask that everyone speak respectfully at all times, and we encourage free and concise discussion relevant to the week's podcast topic. To do this, we try to adhere to Grice's Maxims: https://bit.ly/2p4uSQm

Ultimately, the idea is to help each other think a little differently, learn a thing or two and have some fun.