The “Ten Years, Still Off-Key” Edition
Rational Security
The Lawfare Institute
4.8 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 17 September 2025
⏱️ 109 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For this week's very special episode on Rational Security's 10th anniversary, Scott sat down with a slew of co-hosts emeritus, each of whom brought their own topic to discuss.
- Shane Harris flagged the connections between online radicalization and the young men behind many recent public acts of gun violence, including the alleged perpetrator of the Charlie Kirk killing;
- Benjamin Wittes insisted we are STILL not talking enough about Russian drone incursions and other forms of gray zone warfare in Eastern Europe;
- Quinta Jurecic brought some statistics about the success (or not) of the Trump administration's federalization of law enforcement in D.C. (and elsewhere) that are worth contemplating; and
- Alan Rozenshtein asked how it can still be true that no one but him seems to care about the Trump administration blatantly disregarding the TikTok ban.
In object lessons, Shane is basking in the glory of HBO’s “Somebody Somewhere”—partly because his buddy Jeff Hiller just won an Emmy for his role in it. Ben praises Adam Boehler—and even Donald Trump—for helping secure Elizabeth Tsurkov’s release. Alan is definitely not using this opportunity to use Pacific Rim for his object lesson—really—instead recommending fantasy mystery “The Tainted Cup,” by Robert Jackson Bennett. Scott takes us into orbit with Samantha Harvey’s “Orbital,” a lyrical meditation on life and reflection in space. And Quinta dives into the future with “Empire of AI,” by Karen Hao, a deeply reported look at OpenAI and its role in shaping the technology’s trajectory
Last call to help us celebrate Lawfare’s 15th anniversary! Get your tickets now to join us this Friday, 9/19, to hear from some of your favorite Lawfare people past and present, take a look back on the key moments that have shaped our first 15 years, and get a sneak peek into what’s coming next.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everyone. It's Jamie and Sophie from Nearly Parents and we are currently sponsored by Etsy |
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| 0:19.8 | from handmade jewelry and vintage |
| 0:21.2 | jackets to handcrafted leather bags. It is also great for baby items with real people behind the shops |
| 0:27.6 | that sell everything from cute nursery decor to tiny little personalized jumpers. |
| 0:32.6 | Shop the Etsy app. Special starts on Etsy. |
| 0:38.4 | All right, so if we're really doing this properly, we have to have both Shane and Scott say |
| 0:45.9 | hello and welcome to rational security, either at the same time or it's in succession, |
| 0:51.4 | because these are, other than Sophia playing Astor Piazola, this is the iconic sound of rational security. It's true. What do you think, Scott? Should we do it at the same time? Like we're jumping off a bridge together? I'll go high, you go low. We'll do a barbershop quartet style and see if we can hit perfect harmony on first bat hello sure sure sure |
| 1:13.2 | sure let's try let's see how works all right let's try hello hello okay hello |
| 1:19.5 | hello hello wait you who's counting down this is failing this is not as well as I expected |
| 1:26.8 | this to go. We are two |
| 1:28.4 | rational security co-host shy of a barbershop quartet, which is a shame. We got Alan on board. |
| 1:34.2 | We're like almost there. I will count down. Count us down, Ben. We're going to actually try |
| 1:38.8 | and sing it. Okay. Three, two, one, go. |
| 1:45.3 | Hello. |
| 1:47.6 | That's not bad. |
| 1:48.5 | I feel like we got some harmony in there. |
| 1:50.7 | No? |
| 1:51.4 | No, no bites? |
... |
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