The NDS Show - An Intelligence Community Podcast covering Geospatial Intelligence, Open Source Intelligence OSINT, Human Intelligence HUMINT, Military & National Security

In this episode of The NDS Show, Nick Smith sits down with Edward Donaldson, ExxonMobil veteran and quantitative geoscientist with decades of experience in the oil and gas industry, to explore the surprising connections between subsurface intelligence, national security, and the future of artificial intelligence.

In this episode they cover:

Why geoscience and national intelligence share the same problem: seeing in the dark

How seismology, gravimetry, and electromagnetic sensors map what no eye can see

Cognitive bias in high-stakes decisions, and how the CIA studies it

What a nuclear submarine, poker, and a geoscience career have in common

Why agentic AI fluency is non-optional for any technical professional today

Can a machine learn to "see" what's buried under kilometers of rock? What do an oil well and an underground military target have in common? Is the convergence of quantum AI and remote sensing about to change everything?

This is one of the most unusual and eye-opening conversations we've had on the show. If you've ever wondered what lies beneath the surface, literally and figuratively, this one's for you.

In this episode of The NDS Show, Nick Smith sits down with Mark Galeotti, one of the world's leading experts on Russia, banned indefinitely by the Kremlin in 2022, to break down how Russia's intelligence apparatus really works, what's actually happening inside Putin's inner circle, and where the Ukraine war is really headed.

📘 Order Mark's books:
We Need to Talk About Putin: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/439532/we-need-to-talk-about-putin-by-galeotti-mark/9781529981094
Homo Criminalus: How Crime Organizes the World: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/445951/homo-criminalis-by-galeotti-mark/9781529148220
Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin and the New Fight for the Future of Russia: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/460781/downfall-by-galeotti-anna-arutunyan-and-mark/9781529927382
Forged in War: A Military History of Russia from Its Beginnings to Today: https://www.ospreypublishing.com/uk/forged-in-war-9781472862518/

🎙️ Check out Mark’s podcast: https://inmoscowsshadows.buzzsprout.com/

They dive into:
- Why Russia's intelligence community operates on a permanent war footing
- The truth behind Russian disinformation, and how much of it is actually hype
- What ordinary Russians really think about Putin and the war
- The only realistic endgame for the Ukraine war
- The dirty secret behind the Russia-China "alliance"
- How the Kremlin is outsourcing operations to organized crime
- What happens to Russia when Putin is gone

This conversation offers a rare glimpse into the forces shaping Russia today, from modern warfare and global power shifts to the inner workings of authoritarian systems behind closed doors.

In this episode, Nick sits down with Jonathan B. Smith: Black Swan Group negotiation instructor, author of Fight Less, Win More, and the only entrepreneur on Chris Voss' team of former FBI hostage negotiators. Through his EOS system, Jonathan has helped executives, recruiters, and leaders win rooms they had no business walking into.

📘 Get Jonathan's book: Fight Less, Win More: https://a.co/d/07PMQVRA

They cover:

Why smart people keep losing negotiations they should have won

The "accusations audit" and why saying the uncomfortable thing out loud changes everything

How to negotiate when you have zero leverage

The Black Swan method: hunting for hidden information that flips the deal

Why tactical empathy is more powerful than any argument you can make

The one question that turns deal killers into your biggest advocates

How to proliferate negotiation skills across an entire organization

Why low stakes practice leads to high stakes confidence

Whether you're closing a multimillion-dollar contract, navigating a tough conversation at home, or trying to get a hotel upgrade, these skills work everywhere.

In this episode of The NDS Show, Nick Smith sits down with Dmitri Alperovitch to break down the AI arms race between the United States and China, the growing threat of cyber warfare, and why we may already be in a new Cold War.

Order Dmitri's book! World on the Brink How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aWOAOM2

They dive into:

Why AI is being called the “nuclear weapon of our time”

Whether the U.S. is accidentally empowering

China’s military The real risk of a China-Taiwan conflict

Russia’s shocking TP-Link router cyberattack

How AI could hack systems, steal data, and change warfare forever

What YOU can do to protect yourself from modern cyber threats Is the U.S. giving away its advantage?

Are we heading toward World War III?

And how does autonomous warfare change everything?

This is one of the most important national security conversations happening right now.

Artificial Intelligence is about to fundamentally change geospatial intelligence, warfare, and decision-making—and few people understand it better than former NGA Chief AI Officer Mark Munsell. In this episode, we break down the real state of AI in GEOINT, why models are rapidly approaching superhuman performance, and what that means for intelligence analysts, national security, and the future of war. From AI-driven targeting myths to the truth behind how military operations actually work, this conversation cuts through the noise and exposes what’s really happening behind the scenes.

We dive into:

The future of AI in geospatial intelligence (GEOINT)

Why large language models still struggle with spatial reasoning

How geo-AI, embeddings, and RAG are changing intelligence workflows

The reality behind “AI targeting” in modern conflicts

Autonomous weapons, decision-making, and human control

AI vs humans: when do we trust the machine?

The coming shift to real-time AI operating in the physical world Space, satellites, and the next AI arms race

Mark also shares insights from leading AI initiatives inside the intelligence community and how classified data, GEOINT, and AI will shape the future of global power.

 

If you work in defense, intelligence, geospatial, or AI—this is a must-watch or Listen!!!