Homeland: the Podcast

In this episode of Homeland, I had the opportunity to speak with Noel Lipana where we talked about moral injury, coffee, Jiu-Jitsu, coffee, healing through art, and of course, more about coffee.

This episode is one I recorded while at APEX at the Naval Postgraduate School. So, for those that missed the conference, you’re in for a treat, and those that heard Noel speak, we found a way to hit areas a presentation just can’t take you.

When my editor was listening to this podcast, he asked how long Noel and I have known each other. I told him we’d met the day prior. I bring this up because when conversations flow the way this one did, I find the content resonates on a deeper level, and the impact is that much more meaningful.

If you’d like to get in touch with Noel, you can find him on FB at Quiet Terrain and on Twitter @TroopInContact.

As I mentioned in our last episode; I’ll be releasing several conversations originally recorded during the APEX 2020 conference; this is one of those. In this episode, I’m joined by Madeline Kristoff from Citizenship and Immigration Services and Kevin Peters from DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

In today’s conversation, I wanted to bring us past the political rhetoric and tribal narratives surrounding immigration and border security and take an honest look at the issues we face. We’ll discuss securing our borders, addressing humanitarian concerns, and a path forward to move from outdated immigration policies and how to bring them in line with the realities of a changing world.

Before we jump into today’s episode, I want to thank each of you for hanging with us during the very busy months of 2020. I guess this show has been directly impacted by my work responsibilities addressing COVID-19, protests, civil unrest, wildfires, and most recently the election.
Dedicating time to edit and release episodes has been challenging to say the least. However, I’ve blocked time into my schedule to get this show up and moving forward.
Fortunately, I’ve got some episodes recorded from February’s APEX conference in Monterey and I think you’ll enjoy what we have lined up.

Today’s episode is with John Comiskey and Mike Larranaga where we’ll be talking about climate change and the homeland security challenges that arise from this complex issue.

So with that, let’s jump right into our discussion on climate security.

In this episode I have the opportunity to talk with not just one or two of our fellow alum, rather I have the pleasure of speaking with four: Steven Polunsky, Will Pilkington, Merideth Bastiani, and Angi English.

This team was part of the first cohort of Advanced Thinking in Homeland Security, also known as HSx. They came together to address the delay in public health alerts of communicable disease outbreaks. They specifically focused on accessing real-time health data and crafted five recommendations to enhance disease detection within the United States.

The best way to understand the breadth of this project is to get right to it and start my conversation with the team of One Health Alert System.

Many of our episodes have featured those leaders of today and visionaries of tomorrow, but in this episode, we’re having a conversation with one of yesterday’s pioneers, Mr. Andy Mitchell.

But a bit of a background first. What prompted funding towards training and educating the countries' emergency responders and government leaders? Shortly after the end of the Cold War we entered into the country’s next era of conflict – one of terrorism. This era was heralded in with the 1993 World Trade Center attack and the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City. These events prompted the government to pass the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.

After the attack of September 11th and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, this increase of funding for tactical training was expanded to include building the critical thinking capacity within the homeland security enterprise.

In 2002 we saw the establishment of the Homeland Security Centers of Excellence. Then in 2003, additional funding was allocated to expand education even further. One of these undertakings occurred at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

So, let’s take a walk into the past and hear about the origin story of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security.