Chuck Watson: "The Nuclear Wild West"
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 553 Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2023
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
(Conversation recorded on November 2nd, 2023)
Show Summary:
On this episode, Nate is re-joined by risk expert Chuck Watson for a candid discussion of recent news regarding the nuclear developments between Russia and the United States. As the world's attention is focused on the events in the Middle East, US testing and development of new nuclear weapons and Russia's decision to pull out of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty last week have been overlooked and underreported by major media. Yet, in the bigger picture these trends represent some of the most imminent risks to life on Earth as we know it. What is the history behind this framework of trust that took decades to develop, and how quickly might our current fear spiral destroy it? Are the people in positions of power aware of the dangers of this situation and acting with appropriate caution? What should concerned individuals and leaders understand and advocate for to minimize this truly existential risk?
About Chuck Watson:
Chuck Watson has had a long career in military and intelligence work, with a specialty in natural and human made disaster modeling. He worked for the US Air Force, was an attache to US Ambassadors to the Middle East Robert McFarland, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as a Soviet expert. Chuck has worked as an advisor to the military for over four decades with a particular emphasis on big data, open source intelligence, with an emphasis on the Soviet Union and Russia. Chuck is also the founder and Director of Research and Development of Enki Holdings, LLC, which designs computer models for phenomena ranging from tropical cyclones (hurricanes) and other weather phenomena, earthquakes, and tsunamis, as well as anthropogenic hazards such as industrial accidents, terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction.
For Show Notes and More visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/97-chuck-watson
To watch this video episode on Youtube → https://youtu.be/8T9vGNNdKKs
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to The Great Simplification with Nate Higgins. |
| 0:06.0 | That's me. |
| 0:07.7 | On this show, we try to explore and simplify what's happening with energy, the economy, the environment, in our society. |
| 0:17.0 | Together with scientists, experts, and leaders, this show is about understanding the bird's-eye |
| 0:23.2 | view of how everything fits together, where we go from here and what we can do about it as a |
| 0:29.1 | society and as individuals. |
| 0:32.8 | Today I welcome back to the program, my colleague Chuck Watson. |
| 0:37.2 | Chuck was a special attache to secretaries of defense, MacFarlane and Rumsfeld, with expertise |
| 0:47.3 | in Soviet and Middle East Affairs. |
| 0:50.1 | He was in the Air Force, communications officer. |
| 0:52.3 | He has a long history of looking at geopolitics and nuclear risks, which is why I called |
| 0:58.2 | him this morning to find out what was going on when Russia pulled out of this nuclear |
| 1:02.9 | deproliferation treaty. |
| 1:05.4 | He told me this has been in the works for a while, but it's worse than that because there have been new tests |
| 1:13.7 | on new nuclear weapons by the United States in the last few weeks. |
| 1:17.0 | And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I didn't know that. |
| 1:19.5 | Stop. |
| 1:20.0 | Let's do a podcast conversation on this, if you're willing. |
| 1:24.9 | And he reluctantly agreed to do such a podcast because both of us feel that more people need to understand what's going on, what's at stake. |
| 1:37.3 | I'm not an expert in this, which is I'm fortunate to have friends that are experts in these issues. |
| 1:46.0 | I do host a podcast and the world is converging on the greatest problem and our geopolitical move from a |
| 1:52.2 | unipolar to a multipolar world is one of those problems. I hope at the end of my days on this |
... |
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