Cyberwar, Social Media’s Future and Passing the Mic with Peter W. Singer

Joining us this week is Peter W. Singer, a New York Times bestselling author of books including Ghost Fleet, LikeWar and the techno-thriller Burn In. He shares details on the New America volunteer, non-profit organization and its awesome #SharetheMicinCyber program helping to bring diversity of thought to the cybersecurity front lines. We also discuss the future of social media, what defines a cyberwar, Ukraine’s leverage of social media to garner global support this year, and the great work Useful Fiction is delivering to organizations to address the age old problem of translating complex themes (such as cyber) into compelling business narratives audiences understand and can learn from. And definitely take a few minutes to learn more about Passing the Mic’s cybersecurity fellowship program this week. Read more here: https://www.newamerica.org/the-thread/passing-the-mic-introducing-new-americas-cybersecurity-fellowship/

Peter Warren Singer is Strategist at New America, a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University, and Founder & Managing Partner at Useful Fiction LLC.

A New York Times Bestselling author, described in the Wall Street Journal as “the premier futurist in the national-security environment” and “all-around smart guy” in the Washington Post, he has been named by the Smithsonian as one of the nation’s 100 leading innovators, by Defense News as one of the 100 most influential people in defense issues, by Foreign Policy to their Top 100 Global Thinkers List, and as an official “Mad Scientist” for the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command. No author, living or dead, has more books on the professional US military reading lists. His non-fiction books include Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, Children at War, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century; Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know and most recently LikeWar, which explores how social media has changed war and politics. It was named an Amazon and Foreign Affairs book of the year and reviewed by Booklist as “LikeWar should be required reading for everyone living in a democracy and all who aspire to.” He is also the co-author of a new type of novel, using the format of a technothriller to communicate nonfiction research. Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War was both a top summer read and led to briefings everywhere from the White House to the Pentagon. His latest is Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution. It has been described by the creator of Lost and Watchmen as “A visionary new form of storytelling—a rollercoaster ride of science fiction blended with science fact,” and by the head of Army Cyber Command as “I loved Burn-In so much that I’ve already read it twice.”

For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e274