IPA Members Only Social, Panel Discussion, and Live Podcast Recording
Release Date: 03/05/2022
The Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, David Cook discusses his recent article: . In addition to digital discipline in a national security context, David discusses cyber and AI threats and practical mitigation practices that private sector companies and citizens should be aware of. Recording Date: 19 Aug 2025...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Torvald Ask discusses his 2023 co-authored paper: The UnCODE System: A Neurocentric Systems Approach for Classifying the Goals and Methods of Cognitive Warfare. The UnCODE System is an accessible and a practical tool for understanding and addressing cognitive warfare goals....
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Matthew Canham discusses agentic AI's potential to boost productivity by automating tasks and its anticipated influence on user interfaces, potentially creating new security vulnerabilities and opportunities for user manipulation. Matthew emphasized the importance of robust security...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Dr. James Giordano discusses a broad range of topics related to national security from biopsychology to complexity to neurotechnology to enactivism. Recording Date: 25 Jun 2025 Research Question: James Giordano suggests an interested student or researcher examine: “How might the...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Austin Branch, Dave Pitts, and Joe Miller discuss cognitive warfare, the gray zone, and intensifying great power competition. The ultimate goal is to compete by gaining and maintaining information advantage without kinetic fighting. Recording Date: 28 Apr 2025 Research...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Jake Bebber discusses his work related to the concept, challenges, and potential responses to cognitive warfare. Jake explains how cognitive warfare uses technology to manipulate cognition and behavior, emphasizing its distinction from traditional information warfare and its...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Paul Buvarp contrasts disinformation as a human demand-side problem with the typical supply-side perspective. Additional discussion threads include thinking about online and real-world environments as differently as forests and tropical environments are different, how young people...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, JD Maddox discusses new influence opportunities borne out of necessity. JD suggests that listeners consider radical-sounding concepts for, such as letters of marque, indemnification, task-based organization, public-private operations, and new authorities as viable influence pathways...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Carrick Longley discusses Large Language Models (LLM) and influence. Key topics include: LLM 101 Usage and changes in prompt engineering Improving influence resonance and speed The recent DeepSeek model controversy Bias in foundational models and Software development Recording...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Tom Kent returns to the Cognitive Crucible to share his concerns related to the United States recent withdrawal from international broadcasting. Topics include: US soft power, abandoning pro-democracy initiatives, impact on international relations, international broadcasting...
info_outlineOn March the 9th 2022 from 1800-1930 ET – that this Wednesday evening – we will be having our first IPA members-only social and live Cognitive Crucible podcast recording session. We hope this will be the first of many such gatherings for the information professionals community.
After a short ice breaker, we will have a panel discussion led by Mr. Austin Branch – one of the founding Board Members of IPA. Joining Austin will be Lt. Gen. Lori Reynolds USMC ret., who before retiring from the Marine Corps recently, was the Deputy Commandant for Information. There may be some other surprise guests, as well. I can’t say anything more about that right now – you’ll have to attend the event to see who else joins the panel.
The primary topic will be the upcoming April 2022 Phoenix Challenge conference, which is the United States Department of Defense premier convening event hosted by the Office of Secretary Defense of Policy. IPA is very proud to co-host this year’s Phoenix Challenge with the University of Maryland’s Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS) in partnership with OUSD (Policy) and OUSD (Research and Engineering) as DoD sponsors and co-chairs. So, after the panel sketches out the conference agenda, there will be plenty of time for the virtual zoom audience to ask questions.
So, if you’re an information professional, you don’t want to miss out on this event–hit the event registration link below. After you register & before Wednesday’s start time, you will receive information about how to join the conference.
You may have noticed that this event is for IPA members only. So, if you’re not already an IPA member, then I can think of no better time than right now to join our growing community & support our mission. There’s a link to join IPA in the show note & we look forward to seeing you this Wednesday evening at 1800 or 6:00pm ET.
https://information-professionals.org/event/live-cognitive-crucible-podcast-recording/