Useful Fiction w August Cole
MAD Warfare Podcast
Do your stories shape the future—or do they quietly shape you first? And when the next war shows up wearing a hoodie, a meme, and a “totally harmless” plotline… how would we even recognize it? In this episode, we talk with August Cole — co-author of Ghost Fleet and Burn In and co-founder of Useful Fiction — about why fiction can do what white papers can’t: grab attention, build foresight, and help people rehearse decisions before reality demands them. We get into “strategic surprise,” why the information environment is the missing chapter of the last decade, and what it means...
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Subversive Reality w Mike Ross
MAD Warfare Podcast
Do your ideas belong to you—or are they secretly running the show? If identities can calcify into cages, how do you melt them back into something alive? In this episode, we talk with therapist and writer Mike Ross about the weird life of ideas: how they form, how they spread, and how they quietly start making decisions for us. We go from punk rock and tattoos to liminal spaces, Robin Williams, Gen Alpha chaos (“67”), emotional granularity, and Mike’s concept of cognitive alchemy—naming and reshaping the stories and feelings that shape us. If you’ve ever felt lonely online, stuck in...
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Cognitive Security w Matt Canham
MAD Warfare Podcast
What if your worst enemy wasn’t a foreign adversary—but a virtual clone of you? A digital twin that knows your habits, your cravings, your blind spots. It knows when you’re tired. When you’re distracted. When you’re easiest to influence. Sounds like Black Mirror. It isn’t. In this episode, we sit down with Matt Canham—former FBI supervisory special agent, trainer to NASA and DARPA, and founder of the Cognitive Security Institute—to talk about digital twins, social engineering, and why the human mind is now the primary target. This is a conversation about prediction ,...
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The Info War w Andrea Hickerson
MAD Warfare Podcast
Who wins when nobody knows what to trust? If the biggest national security threat isn’t hackers or spies—but bad communication—what happens next? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Andrea Hickerson, Dean of Journalism at the University of Mississippi and founding director of the new Center for Information Advantage & Effectiveness, to distill how information actually moves, mutates, and manipulates us. From deepfakes and dashboards to sports rumors, betting markets, and why “media literacy” might be the wrong fix entirely—this is a conversation about how narrative, tone, and...
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Cognitive Security in a Noisy World w John Bicknell
MAD Warfare Podcast
What happens when the information environment becomes too loud for the human brain to handle? And why does it feel like everyone — kids, adults, institutions, governments — is getting overwhelmed at the same time? We sit down with John Bicknell, former Marine and host of The Cognitive Crucible, to talk about the cognitive overload shaping modern life: from teenagers buckling under algorithmic pressure… to countries struggling to manage complexity… to why some global actors might actually weaponize chaos itself. ⸻ Key Topics • Why different groups (teen girls, teen boys,...
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The War Within w Nicholas Wright
MAD Warfare Podcast
What if your brain isn’t a peace-loving hippie at heart…but a very polite war machine trying its best? In this episode, Dr. Nicholas Wright — neuroscientist, former neurologist, advisor to the Pentagon, and author of Warhead: How the Brain Shapes War and War Shapes the Brain — walks us through why our minds are wired for conflict, why that doesn’t mean we’re doomed, and how better self-knowledge might literally save civilizations. We get into everything from nuclear deterrence and TikTok anxiety to Love Island, shitstorming, and why the “nice” Terminator is the role...
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May the Best Story Win w Rand Waltzman
MAD Warfare Podcast
Ep 019: May the Best Story Win w Rand Walzman Before “fake news” or ChatGPT, one computer scientist asked a dangerous question: could a machine invent believable lies? That was 1985. Dr. Rand Waltzman went on to shape DARPA’s research into social media and information influence. This work helped define what we now call “cognitive security.” We talk about how those early experiments connect to today’s manipulation economy, why emotion is the real battlefield, and why the biggest threat isn’t the tech … it’s US. 😬 Key Topics • The...
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You Are Not the Villain w Nate Ragolia
MAD Warfare Podcast
What if the story running your life isn’t yours at all? Author and publisher Nate Ragolia (Brink Literacy Project) joins us to talk about how the stories we inherit—about who we are, what we deserve, and what we’re capable of—shape everything. From teaching creative writing in prisons to publishing comics by people society wrote off, Nate’s work shows what happens when people stop living inside someone else’s narrative and start writing their own. Key Topics Why the stories we believe decide what we see—and who we become How Brink uses story to rebuild...
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Know Thy Enemies w Sonia Van Meter
MAD Warfare Podcast
What’s the worst possible headline someone could write about you, using nothing but public records? That’s opposition research. Sonia Van Meter, managing partner of Stanford Campaigns, shows us how to use it–to your prosperity … or to your peril. Key Topics What opposition research really is (and isn’t) Why oppo is about narrative, not “silver bullets” “Self-research”: knowing your own vulnerabilities before anyone else does Tone as strategy: how to hit hard without looking cruel Strategic patience—when not to respond and let others do...
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Reputation Warfare w Simon Paterson
MAD Warfare Podcast
What do extremists, trolls, and corporate boardrooms have in common? They’re all in the business of narrative warfare. Simon Paterson went from “smiting the Queen’s enemies” in UK military intelligence to advising Fortune 100 companies on how not to get wrecked by disinfo. Turns out: memes, lies, and smear campaigns can be just as effective as missiles. And no, “just ignore it” is not a strategy. This episode takes you from the battlefield to the boardroom—where trust is the real target, and narrative resilience is the only shield that matters. Key Topics ...
info_outlineDo your stories shape the future—or do they quietly shape you first?
And when the next war shows up wearing a hoodie, a meme, and a “totally harmless” plotline… how would we even recognize it?
In this episode, we talk with August Cole — co-author of Ghost Fleet and Burn In and co-founder of Useful Fiction — about why fiction can do what white papers can’t: grab attention, build foresight, and help people rehearse decisions before reality demands them.
We get into “strategic surprise,” why the information environment is the missing chapter of the last decade, and what it means when cognitive warfare becomes hyper-personalized—so everyone is fighting their own battle. (Yes. That’s as weird as it sounds. Also: unfortunately real.)
If you’ve ever felt your agency slipping, your feed steering, or your brain quietly drafted into a conflict you didn’t sign up for… this one’s for you.
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Key Topics
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Useful fiction: why story can carry serious ideas farther than doctrine
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Strategic surprise: what it is, why institutions keep getting blindsided, and how narrative reduces it
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Ghost Fleet, 10 years later: what aged well, what changed, what got left out
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The attention economy: when incentives + algorithms start shaping behavior at machine speed
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Useful fiction vs. propaganda: credibility, trust, and why “too clean” stories fail
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“You may not be interested in cognitive warfare…” (but it’s interested in you)
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Why cognitive warfare is getting harder to detect: personalization at scale
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The simplest anti-doom message that still matters: you matter
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Resources + Links
August Cole — augustcole.com
Useful Fiction — useful-fiction.com
Books: Ghost Fleet / Burn In
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MAD Warfare™ is hosted by narrative strategist Jocelyn Brady and cognitive neuroscientist Sean Anthony Guillory.
Edited and produced by Amine el Filali.
Visit madwarfare.com for extra giggles.
Send your wishes, weird ideas, dream guests, and sponsorship inquiries (yes, again) to madwarfarepodcast@gmail.com.
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Fair Use
This show is MAD enough to include homages, short clips, and references that provide vital context and/or moments of joy. We deeply respect every creator’s work and use these moments for educational, artistic, and transformative purposes under Fair Use. If we missed an attribution or you’d like to collaborate, reach out—we’re happy to chat.