Silicon Curtain

Jonathan Fink

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A podcast about propaganda, digital disinformation, politics, corruption, hybrid warfare, weaponised conspiracy theories, social echo chambers and digital dystopias.

1984, Authoritarian, Autocracy, Autocrat, Big Brother, Brainwashing, Cold war, Cold war propaganda, Communism, Conflict, Conspiracy theories, Control, Cults, Cyber warfare, Deception, Dictator, Dictatorship, Digital dystopia, Digital media, Disinformation, Echo chambers, Economic sanctions, Fascist, Fake news, Foreign correspondents, Foreign policy, Fossil fuel sanctions, George Orwell, History, Hybrid warfare, Industrial disinfo

Episodes

Mentioned books

Jun 29, 2024 • 55min

451. Sir Richard Shirreff - Escalation is Putin's Default Strategy; Might that be Driving us Towards WW3?

Barely a week goes by without things occurring that would have been inconceivable three years ago. Russian territory being hit by American made munitions, history’s most substantial sanctions in place against Russia, a near coup against the Kremlin, and Putin going cap-in-hand to Kim-Jong-Un to prop up his ailing military. What more can happen before these tensions and conflicts coalesce into World War 3 – especially the expectations that Korea troops will soon be fighting on the territory of Europe. ---------- Richard Shirreff is Co-founder and Managing Partner at Strategia Worldwide. After graduating from Oxford, he served in the British Army for 37 years commanding soldiers on operations or in combat at every level from platoon to division and rising to the highest rank before retiring from the Army as NATO’s Deputy Supreme Commander Europe. Richard is co-Founder and Managing Partner of Strategia Worldwide. In 2016 his novel ‘2017: War with Russia’ was published in the UK, USA, and Poland. He is an honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- LINKS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Shirreff https://twitter.com/RichardShirreff https://www.strategiaworldwide.com/our-people/sir-richard-shirreff https://www.globsec.org/who-we-are/our-people/gen-ret-sir-richard-shirreff https://www.brookings.edu/events/is-armed-conflict-with-russia-a-real-possibility/ ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ ----------

Jun 29, 2024 • 47min

449. Steven Moore - All Outcomes from the Election Pose Risks, but what are the Main Existential Threats?

Whatever mistakes he has made in the war Vladimir Putin has retained the Escalation Initiative, always proving he can push the war to a new level of brutality, with the Western allies always playing catch-up, any in many ways placing restrictions and delays on Ukraine in terms of how it fights back. What are the implications of this dynamic for the war and a potential Ukrainian victory? ---------- Steven Moore is a political strategist, who spent seven years as a chief of staff and senior leadership aide in the United States Congress, developing relationships with senior policymakers across the United States and around the world. He worked on Capitol Hill in the House of Representatives mostly as chief of staff for former Rep. Pete Roskam (R-Ill.), the former chief deputy GOP whip. In that role, Moore was one of the most influential staff members on the Republican side of the aisle. ---------- LINKS: https://x.com/MooreUSA https://x.com/UKRAINEFREEDOM7 https://stevenmoore.substack.com/ https://substack.com/@steveninkyiv ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyśl https://kharpp.com/ Save Ukraine https://www.saveukraineua.org/ Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine Ukrainian Freedom News https://www.ukrainianfreedomnews.com/donation/ UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ NOR DOG Animal Rescue https://www.nor-dog.org/home/ ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube’s algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Jun 27, 2024 • 42min

448. Benjamin Tallis - Estonian PM Kallas and 'Russia Hawk' Set to be EU's Next Top Diplomat

Dr Benjamin Tallis is a research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. He runs the project “Action Group Zeitenwende” on the transformation of Germany’s security and foreign policy, and where he hosts the podcast "Berlin Inside Out". He previously worked for the EU on security missions in Ukraine and the Balkans and was policy officer at the European Centre of Excellence for Civilian Crisis Management in Berlin. Benjamin spent five years at the Institute of International Relations Prague where he headed the Centre for European Security, advised numerous European governments, edited the journal New Perspectives. Benjamin regularly appears in the media, and has been published in Foreign Policy, Politico, The Independent, and in leading academic journals. He is the author of the books To Ukraine with Love: Essays on Russia’s War and Europe’s Future (2022) and Identities, Borderscapes, Orders: (In)Security, (Im)Mobility, and Crisis in the EU and Ukraine (2023). ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- LINKS: https://twitter.com/bctallis?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-tallis-b02a386/ https://berlinsideout.podigee.io/ https://dgap.org/en/user/28265 https://foreignpolicy.com/author/benjamin-tallis/ https://www.opendemocracy.net/ru/author/benjamin-tallis/ ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ ----------

Jun 26, 2024 • 49min

Silicon Bites - Episode #50 - Putin's Little Helpers and the Spreaders of Myths, Lies and Deceptions

Jun 25, 2024 • 48min

447. Beverly Ochieng - One Year on from Prighozhin’s Mutiny, Wagner is Deeply Embedded in Africa's Sahel.

It’s been a year since Prighozhin’s mutiny and 10 months since his death, or murder, as some believe it to be. Today we will be asking how this has affected Wagner’s operations in Africa. --------- Beverly Ochieng is an experienced journalist and commentator on socio-political, economic and security developments in Sub-Saharan Africa. She analyses political developments in the region, as well as security developments in West Africa and the Sahel. Until recently Beverly was a Senior Digital Journalist and Africa Specialist at BBC Monitoring. --------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- LINKS: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beverly-ochieng-267469143/ https://twitter.com/BeverlyOchieng ----------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube s algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Jun 24, 2024 • 1h 11min

445. Kevin Leach - Russia did not Invest the Culture Wars, but Ruthlessly Exploits them to Divide Enemies

Kevin Leach is the main director for Sabre Training Advisory Group, a professional military training non-profit. Their aim is to give Ukrainian defenders the skills to come home alive. Kevin is a Canadian Armed Forces veteran, with a long history of working in Ukraine and in military affairs. He served as a sergeant from 2008-2018, specialising in armoured reconnaissance. He leads a weekly segment on the Mriya Report called “Come Home Alive” covering the Key Elements of Training for the Ukrainian army. ---------- LINKS: https://x.com/SabreAdvisory https://www.sabretag.org/donate https://www.instagram.com/sabre_tag/ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mriyareport/episodes/Kevin-Leach--Sabre-Advisory-Training-on-Key-Elements-of-Training---May-29--2024-e2kavap ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: Save Ukraine https://www.saveukraineua.org/ Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyśl https://kharpp.com/ NOR DOG Animal Rescue https://www.nor-dog.org/home/ ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube’s algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Jun 22, 2024 • 43min

446. Ivana Stradner - Putin's Desire for Further Territorial Conquests is Unlikely to Stop Unless Stopped

Dr Ivana Stradner is a Research Fellow at The Foundation for Defence of Democracies (FDD) a non-partisan institution focusing on national security and foreign policy. She is a Special Correspondent @KyivPost and expert on Russia’s information security. Ivana has been published in many academic journals and the media, including The Washington Post, The National Interest, Real Clear World and Defence, Newsweek, National Review, and Foreign Policy. ---------- LINKS: https://www.fdd.org/team/ivana-stradner/ https://x.com/ivanastradner https://www.aei.org/profile/ivana-stradner/ https://www.belgradeforum.org/speaker/ivana-stradner/ https://foreignpolicy.com/author/ivana-stradner/ https://www.kyivpost.com/authors/245 ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyśl https://kharpp.com/ Save Ukraine https://www.saveukraineua.org/ Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine Ukrainian Freedom News https://www.ukrainianfreedomnews.com/donation/ UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ NOR DOG Animal Rescue https://www.nor-dog.org/home/ ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube’s algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Jun 21, 2024 • 1h 24min

444. @AnnafromUkraine and @ATPGeo - Putin's Bogus Peace Ultimatum - Why Russia is not Serious about Peace

GUESTS: Anna from Ukraine - Anna Danylchuk and Jonathan MS Pearce ---------- Anna Danylchuk has been creating a war diary since the early days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022. Anna Danylchuk aims to tell the truth about Ukraine and Russia’s war and cut through the noise and propaganda. Anna is passionate about the beauty and independence of her country, and communicates this powerfully in her videos, in a clear and honest way. Jonathan MS Pearce is a philosopher, author, columnist, and public speaker with an interest in writing about almost anything, from scepticism to science, politics, and morality, to the environment. Essentially because everything is philosophy. He is a former teacher and is now battling primary progressive multiple sclerosis. He can no longer play football with his twin boys, but he can still write a good column and book. And remarkably, and very bravely, he has just come back from an arduous journey to Ukraine’s frontlines. His experiences are the subject of today’s conversation. ---------- LINKS: @AnnafromUkraine https://www.buymeacoffee.com/annafromukraine @ATPGeo https://twitter.com/ATipplingPhilo https://onlysky.media/jonathan-pearce/ ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: Save Ukraine https://www.saveukraineua.org/ Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyśl https://kharpp.com/ NOR DOG Animal Rescue https://www.nor-dog.org/home/ ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube’s algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Jun 20, 2024 • 39min

Silicon Bites #49 - Extension of Financial Sanctions & Secondary sanctions Hit Russian Economy Hard.

Jun 19, 2024 • 1h 7min

443. Mark Galeotti - The Fall, Rise & Fall of One of the Most Dangerous Warlords in Russia and the World.

GUEST: Mark Galeotti - historian, author, security expert and academic. ---------- Yevgeny Prigozhin emerged as one of the most dangerous warlords in the world and as one of Vladimir Putin's chief rivals in Russia's tumultuous political climate, exiled after leading Wagner's attempted coup and killed in a mysterious plane crash. But what is the truth about this enigmatic figure, his role in the war with Ukraine, and the chaos unleashed across Russia by his turn against Putin? And, in the aftermath of his death, what is next for Russia in the new stage of late Putinism that Prigozhin's life forged? ---------- LINKS: https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/ https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/in-moscows-shadows/id1510124746 https://twitter.com/MarkGaleotti https://www.rusi.org/people/galeotti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Galeotti ---------- SPEAKER: Mark Galeotti is an author and academic – by training an historian – but in practice an interdisciplinary scholar with interests encompassing politics, criminology, security studies, international relations, and anthropology. He is a specialist in transnational and organized crime, security affairs, Russian Politics, Russian History, Intelligence and Security. Mark has a PhD in Government from LSE and has worked as a Senior Lecturer and Head of Department of History at Keele University. He is a Principal Director at Mayak Intelligence, and is an Honorary Professor, SSEES at UCL. He is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. He has also been Professor of Global Affairs at New York University from 2009 to 2016. ---------- BOOKS: Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin, and the new fight for the future of Russia by Mark Galeotti and Anna Arutunyan (2024) Mark Galeotti: Putin's Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine (2022) Mark Galeotti: The Weaponisation of Everything: A Field Guide to the New Way of War (2022) Mark Galeotti: A Short History of Russia: From the Pagans to Putin (2021) Mark Galeotti: Storm-333: KGB and Spetsnaz seize Kabul, Soviet-Afghan War 1979 (2021) Mark Galeotti: We Need to Talk About Putin: How the West gets him wrong (2019) Mark Galeotti: Russian Political War: Moving Beyond the Hybrid (2019) Mark Galeotti: The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia (2018) ---------- WAR STUDIES: Mark Galeotti: Russia’s Wars in Chechnya: 1994–2009 (2024) Mark Galeotti: Putin Takes Crimea 2014: Grey-zone warfare opens the Russia-Ukraine conflict (2023) Mark Galeotti: Russia's Five-Day War: The invasion of Georgia, August 2008 (2023) Mark Galeotti: Afghanistan 1979–88: Soviet air power against the mujahideen (2023) Mark Galeotti: Teutonic Knight vs Lithuanian Warrior: The Lithuanian Crusade 1283–1435 (2023) ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyśl https://kharpp.com/ Save Ukraine https://www.saveukraineua.org/ Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine Ukrainian Freedom News https://www.ukrainianfreedomnews.com/donation/ UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ NOR DOG Animal Rescue https://www.nor-dog.org/home/ ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ----------

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