PODCAST · science
Emerging Tech Horizons
by Dr. Arun Seraphin
ETI provides research and analyses to inform the development and integration of emerging technologies into the defense industrial base. This podcast will feature topics and speakers focusing on emerging technologies.
Episodes
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Gen. John Hyten, USAF (Ret.) on Emerging Technology, National Security & the future of Space Force
In this special edition of Emerging Tech Horizons, recorded live at the Emerging Technologies Conference in Washington, DC, Mark Lewis speaks with General John Hyten, USAF (Ret.), former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, and leader of Air Force Space...
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Special Edition: From Innovation to Capability with DIU and PSI
In this special joint edition of Emerging Tech Horizons, recorded live from the Emerging Technologies Conference in Washington, DC, Stephanie Halcrow and Mark Lewis explore the challenges of moving emerging technologies from development into real-world defense capabilities.Stephanie speaks with...
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Special Edition: Jason Potter and Stephanie Hughes on Defense Innovation and Emerging Technology
In this special joint edition of Emerging Tech Horizons, recorded live from the Emerging Technologies Conference in Washington, DC, Stephanie Halcrow and Mark Lewis explore how emerging technologies are being developed, adopted, and brought into practical defense applications.Stephanie speaks…
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Technology, Sustainment, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Future of Military Readiness
As military missions become increasingly complex, the technologies, infrastructure, and sustainment capabilities needed to support them are evolving as well. From contested logistics and forward repair to predictive maintenance and Artificial Intelligence (AI), emerging technology is changing how...
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Special Edition: Distributed AI and the Future of Defense
In this special edition of Emerging Tech Horizons, recorded live from the Emerging Technologies Conference in Washington, DC, Mark Lewis speaks with Jason Rathje, President of Public Sector at WebAI, about the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence in defense.They discuss Jason’s...
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Special Edition: Capital Markets and the Future of the Defense Industrial Base
In this special edition of Emerging Tech Horizons, recorded live from the Emerging Technologies Conference in Washington, DC, Mark Lewis speaks with Frank Finelli, Senior Advisor at The Carlyle Group, about the role of capital markets in strengthening the U.S. defense industrial base.They discuss...
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Building a More Productive Defense Industrial Base With CMMI
Building a stronger Defense Industrial Base is about more than adopting new technologies or changing acquisition policy. The processes organizations use to measure performance, manage risk, and continually improve their capabilities can play an important role in building a more productive,...
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Special Edition: Human-Centered AI in Defense Financial Management
In this special edition of Emerging Tech Horizons, recorded live from the Emerging Technologies Conference in Washington, DC, Mark Lewis speaks with Ruba Elbasha, Partner at Guidehouse, about the role of AI in transforming defense financial management. They discuss what it means to take a...
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Special Edition: Operationalizing Innovation at AFRICOM
In this special edition of Emerging Tech Horizons, recorded live from the Emerging Technologies Conference in Washington, DC, Stephanie Halcrow speaks with Lt. Col. Jared 'CLiF' Bindl, Chief Innovation Officer at AFRICOM, about how the command is working to make innovation part of its day-to-day...
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Biomanufacturing and National Security: Building Resilient Supply Chains
Biomanufacturing is rapidly expanding beyond traditional applications in food and medicine, with emerging technologies offering new possibilities for national security, military logistics, and supply chain resilience.In this episode of Emerging Tech Horizons, host Sam Moyer, Research Fellow at…
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Special Edition: The Future of Defense Microelectronics
In this special edition of Emerging Tech Horizons, recorded live from the Emerging Technologies Conference in Washington, DC, Mark Lewis speaks with Grant Meyer, Chair of NDIA’s Electronics Division, about the role of microelectronics in the future of defense systems.They discuss the challenges…
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Special Edition: Multi-Agent AI and Human-AI Teaming
In this special edition of Emerging Tech Horizons, recorded live from the Emerging Technologies Conference in Washington, DC, Mark Lewis speaks with Sarah Starr, a PhD student in Systems Engineering at George Washington University and an Army Reserve officer.They discuss the challenges of testing...
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Securing Critical Minerals: Building a Strategic Reserve for U.S. Industry
Critical minerals form the foundation of modern defense and commercial technologies, from fighter aircraft and missile systems to satellites, batteries, and advanced electronics. As global supply chains remain vulnerable to disruption and critical mineral processing remains concentrated overseas,...
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Modernizing Shipbuilding: Technology, Innovation, and the Future of the Maritime Industrial Base
Emerging technology is reshaping how ships are designed, built, maintained, and sustained across the U.S. maritime industrial base. As the U.S. Navy works to modernize its fleet and increase shipbuilding production, shipbuilders are turning to digital engineering, advanced manufacturing…
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The Future of Unmanned Systems: Scaling Drone Autonomy for Defense
Emerging technology is rapidly transforming unmanned systems, aviation, and defense operations. As autonomous technologies evolve from prototypes into systems that can be produced and deployed at scale, industry is rethinking how these platforms are designed, manufactured, and integrated into...
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Turning Emerging Technology Into Capability: ETC 2026 Preview
That challenge is at the center of the 2026 Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference & Exhibition (ETC), taking place September 8–10 in Washington, D.C. In this special episode of Emerging Tech Horizons, NDIA's Jen Walsh, Director of Divisions, and Rachel Sutherland, Director of Public...
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Reimagining the Defense Innovation Ecosystem: From Labs to the Warfighter
The U.S. has no shortage of Emerging Technology and Defense Technology innovation, but getting that innovation into the hands of the Warfighter remains a challenge. As the pace of technological change accelerates, the Department of Defense (DoD) is rethinking how its research, development, and...
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How Faster Systems Integration Can Transform Defense Innovation
Modern warfare depends on the ability to rapidly integrate emerging technology, sensors, software, and autonomous systems into existing military platforms. Yet despite years of modernization efforts, systems integration and interoperability remain some of the Department of Defense's greatest...
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How AI and Quantum Computing Are Transforming Defense Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity has become one of the most pressing challenges facing the Defense Industrial Base. As advanced cyber threats, next-generation technologies, and evolving digital warfare reshape the security landscape, organizations must move beyond traditional approaches and adopt new strategies to...
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The Future of Defense Technology: Part 2 on NDAA 2027
The FY27 National Defense Authorization Act reaches far beyond acquisition reform. It also reflects how Congress is shaping the future of defense technology, emerging technology, supply chains, and the federal workforce responsible for delivering the next generation of national security...
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The Future of Defense Innovation and National Security: Part 1 on the NDAA 2027
The fight over the FY27 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is about far more than acquisition policy. It is a debate about who controls intellectual property, how the Defense Industrial Base deploys capital, and whether the Department of Defense (DoD) can attract the commercial innovators...
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From Startup to Defense Supplier: Building a Stronger Defense Industrial Base
The Department of Defense (DoD) has spent decades building programs to attract innovative small businesses and accelerate emerging technology into the defense market. Yet according to former Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Small Business Programs Director Farooq Mitha, the department was...
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Could Biotechnology paired with Biomanufacturing Be the Next Emerging Technology for National Security?
In this episode of Emerging Tech Horizons, Dr. Arun Seraphin speaks with Bruce Friedrich, CEO and Co-founder of the Good Food Institute, about why alternative proteins and food biomanufacturing are emerging as strategic biotechnologyinnovations. As biotechnology reshapes industries ranging from...
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Inside Future Force Capabilities 2026: Scaling Speed, Production, and the Next Generation Force
Warfare is entering a new phase—where innovation happens in real time, and emerging technologies move from concept to deployment at unprecedented speed. At the 2026 Future Force Capabilities Conference, leaders across defense and industry explore what it takes to keep pace. Recorded live at the...
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Mobilizing Private Capital on Aligning Private Investment with DoD Needs
Private capital is playing an increasingly visible role in the defense industrial base, but its impact depends less on the amount of money flowing in than on how effectively government demand shapes investment decisions. The central question for policymakers is not whether capital is available…
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From Detection to Decision: Dr. Marc Mendonca on Closing the Radiation Response Gap
You can detect radiation in seconds. Understanding what it does to the human body can take far longer. This gap defines a leading challenge of radiation biology, the field that studies how radiation interacts with living systems. In this episode, Dr. Marc Mendonca, Associate Vice President of...
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Wearables for Warfighters: How WHOOP is Powering Human Performance in National Security
Two of WHOOP's first 100 paying customers were LeBron James and Michael Phelps. The device built to optimize elite athletic performance is now finding a second calling in national security — and the story of how it got there says as much about military institutions as it does about the…
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Inside NDIA’s Defense Hackathon: How Collaboration, Learning, and Rapid Problem Solving Come Together
Hackathons are becoming an increasingly important tool in the defense innovation ecosystem. When designed intentionally, hackathons can work for everyone involved in defense innovation. In this episode of Emerging Tech Horizons, Dr. Arun Seraphin is joined by Nick Lanham, Chair of NDIA’s Data...
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Beyond Attrition: Integrating Drone and Unmanned Systems into the Future of U.S. Warfare
After more than four years of conflict, the war in Ukraine has produced an unprecedented body of data on rapid innovation, emerging technology, and the evolving role of drone warfare and unmanned systems on the modern battlefield. The pressing question for U.S. defense planners is which of those...
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Fight the Base: Military Infrastructure Resilience Against Cyberattacks in a Contested Battlespace
Military bases are no longer guaranteed sanctuaries. As cyberattacks, drones, long-range missiles, and space-based threats expand the battlefield, U.S. installations must be treated as operational assets, not just support infrastructure. In this episode, Brian Stites, ETI Visiting Fellow and…
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Connecting the Factory to the Fight: AI-Enabled Software and Proactive Defense Supply Chains
The Department of War manages trillions of dollars in capabilities through an acquisition system that has not kept pace with the technologies it is meant to deliver. As readiness rates decline and supply chains grow more contested, modernizing how the defense enterprise uses data has become a...
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Start in Elementary School: Building America’s Defense STEM Pipeline
Start in Elementary School: Building America’s National Security STEM Pipeline YouTube Description: America’s next generation of emerging technology will not be built without the workforce to design, manufacture, operate, and sustain it. Jeremy Anderson, CEO of the National Math and Science...
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Beyond the Battlefield: Emerging Technology, AI, and the Future Force of War
As Emerging Technology continues to accelerate across domains like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Biotechnology, & Brain-computer interfaces coverage, humanity may be approaching a threshold that fundamentally redefines what it means to wage war – and what it means to be human. In this episode…
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Human Systems at the Speed of Acquisition: How Defense Innovation Is Reshaping the Workforce
The Department of War (DoW) is moving faster than ever—embracing commercial technology, autonomous systems, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled capabilities. But this acceleration raises a critical question: what happens to the human in the loop? Recorded at the NDIA Human Systems…
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Multi-Agent Systems in Defense Policy Modeling
For decades, the U.S. government has tested weapons systems before deployment, but not the policies that govern them. That gap is starting to close through artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced modeling techniques. In this episode, Dr. Arun Seraphin sits down with Dr. David Metcalf and Dr.…
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Microelectronics & Semiconductors: Strengthening Supply Chains for U.S. National Security
Over the past decade, microelectronics and semiconductors have become a cornerstone of U.S. national security and supply chain resilience, moving beyond a purely technical issue to a central focus of economic and defense policy in Washington. In this episode, host Dr. Arun Seraphin sits down with...
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James Chew of Intel on How Commercial Microelectronics Can Reshape the Defense Industry
Microelectronics and semiconductor technologies are no longer commodities—they are central to national security and defense innovation. James Chew, President and General Manager of Government Technologies at Intel, explains why this shift is redefining how the semiconductor industry supports...
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Inside the New DoD Appropriations Reality: Defense Industrial Base, Munitions, and Golden Dome Signals
Join host Dr. Arun Seraphin for a conversation with Kate Käufer, President & Founder of KMK Global Strategies, LLC, to break down how the DoD, Congress, and industry are navigating the FY26 Appropriations Act. The discussion highlights key budget timelines, the evolving role of the Defense...
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Optimizing the Warfighter: Can the Military Turn Data into Decisions at the Edge
The U.S. military has spent decades optimizing platforms while largely underinvesting in the system that actually operates them: the warfighter. As body-worn technologies mature, that imbalance is becoming harder to justify. In this episode, Sonya Rahmani, Warfighter Performance Lead at Booz…
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The Grid at War: Power Grid Risks to National Security
Over 3,000 troops and contractors experienced some form of casualty moving fuel to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. That history explains why military energy thinking has defaulted to fuel logistics for two decades — and why a more serious vulnerability has gone largely unexamined. Today, the...
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Reshaping Defense Technology Innovation: Inside the Pentagon’s New 2026 Innovation Memo
Join host Dr. Arun Seraphin for a conversation with Dr. Reed Skaggs of Lewis-Burke Associates examining how the Pentagon’s new innovation memo is reshaping the Defense Technology ecosystem. The discussion focuses on the memo’s emphasis on accelerating speed to Capability, strengthening the...
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Reshaping Aerodynamics: Rise of Adaptive Morphing Control Surfaces in Aerospace & Defense Industry
Join Dr. Arun Seraphin for a conversation with Dr. Sridhar Kota and Hal Chrisman of FlexSys exploring how adaptive morphing control surfaces are transforming aerodynamics across the aerospace industry and defense industry. The discussion centers on this engineering breakthrough and its potential…
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FY26 NDAA Acquisition Reform: What Changed, What Didn’t and What Comes Next
Another cycle of NDAA-driven Acquisition Reform has concluded, beginning with the introduction of the FoRGED Act and SPEED Act and culminating in the enactment of the FY26 NDAA. Join Dr. Arun Seraphin and Moshe Schwartz for a detailed discussion of NDAA acquisition reforms and why this…
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Mapping Pentagon Leadership Backgrounds: Analysis of Senior Civilian STEM Workforce in Emerging Tech
Join Dr. Arun Seraphin and Dr. Jae Yu for a conversation that explores new data on Pentagon senior civilian leadership, illuminating the backgrounds of individuals serving in STEM leadership roles focused on Emerging Technologies. This discussion draws on the NDIA ETI report published by Dr. Yu,...
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Different Reforms, Same Problems: Common Threads in Defense Acquisition Reform (Part 2)
In part two of this conversation, Dr. Arun Seraphin is joined again by HON. David Berteau to examine how Defense Acquisition and Acquisition Reform in the Defense Industry evolved after the end of the Cold War. Berteau reflects on why Defense Acquisition Reform has remained a persistent challenge...
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Different Reforms, Same Problems: Common Threads in Defense Acquisition Reform
Join Dr. Arun Seraphin and David Berteau for a conversation exploring the common threads across major defense acquisition reform efforts since the 1980s. Drawing on decades of experience in both the public and private sectors, David offers a historical perspective on how shifting geopolitical...
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I/ITSEC and the Future of Defense Training Technologies
Join ETI Associate Research Fellow Anna Kim for a live conversation from the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) with Bob Kleinhample, Director of the National Training and Simulation Association’s Next Big Things Initiative and CEO of Pioneer Sim.…
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Industry and Innovation in the Tech Competition with China
Join host Arun Seraphin for a conversation on U.S.–China technology competition and industrial policy with Randy Shriver and Mike Kuiken of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Drawing from the Commission’s 2025 report, this episode examines how China uses state-directed...
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The Research Security Tightrope: Openness vs. Protection
Join host Dr. Arun Seraphin for a deep dive into the evolving challenges of research security in national security R&D with guest Dr. Shanni Silberberg of Lewis-Burke Associates. Dr. Silberberg discusses the need to balance global scientific collaboration with national security protections, as…
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Following the Money: Inside Pentagon Tech Funding
Join host Arun Seraphin for a discussion into the complexities of tracking Pentagon funding for emerging technologies with experts Bess Dopkeen, founder of Keen Edge Strategies and former senior advisor to former Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, and Andy...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Emerging Tech Horizons have?
Emerging Tech Horizons currently has 189 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Emerging Tech Horizons about?
ETI provides research and analyses to inform the development and integration of emerging technologies into the defense industrial base. This podcast will feature topics and speakers focusing on emerging technologies.
How often does Emerging Tech Horizons release new episodes?
Emerging Tech Horizons publishes regularly with 189 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Emerging Tech Horizons?
You can listen to Emerging Tech Horizons on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Emerging Tech Horizons?
Emerging Tech Horizons is created and hosted by Dr. Arun Seraphin.
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