{"podcast":{"title":"Rational Security","slug":"rational-security-525411","podcast_index_feed_id":525411,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60427f9d34b9a27f4b6e3a8d","website_url":"https://www.lawfaremedia.org/podcasts-multimedia/podcast/rational-security","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/60427f9d34b9a27f4b6e3a8d/1713544365257-0f824289275f3526942871153b556a2c.jpeg","author":"The Lawfare Institute","episode_count":571,"summary":"A weekly discussion of national security and foreign policy matters hosted by Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-17T04:20:20.086606+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/rational-security-525411"},"episode":{"title":"The “Mosquitos and Heat and Sweaty and Eww” Edition","slug":"the-mosquitos-and-heat-and-sweaty-and-eww-edition","published_at":"2026-06-04T16:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/rational-security-525411/the-mosquitos-and-heat-and-sweaty-and-eww-edition","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/rational-security-525411","url":"https://shows.acast.com/rational-security/episodes/the-mosquitos-and-heat-and-sweaty-and-eww-edition","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/60427f9d34b9a27f4b6e3a8d/e/6a219c24ac951431d76f5113/media.mp3","summary":"This week, Scott sat down with his Lawfare colleagues Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina and Managing Editor Tyler McBrien, and Lawfare Contributing Editor and Vice President of Research, Security and Defense at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Ariane Tabatabai, to talk through the week’s big news in national security, including: “The Empire Strikes Out.” Russia’s ground offensive in Ukraine appears to have hit some stiff resistance with it losing territory over the past calendar year in the face of a strong defense by Ukrainian forces—including strikes on Russian supply lines in Russia—and growing manpower shortages and economic pressures at home. But Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be compensating with one of the most brutal air campaigns in recent memory, including a massive aerial attack on Kyiv this week that forced tens of thousands of Ukrainians to shelter in place—including our own Nastya. What signs are there for optimism—or for caution—on the future of Russia’s war of aggression? And how will positive developments on the battlefield for Ukraine impact Russia’s demands at the negotiating table? “Strait Trippin’.” On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the first time since the U.S. went to war with Iran and told senators that “the war is over.” This statement came just days after the United States and Iran traded strikes and Iranian state-run news outlets reported that it had broken off negotiations with the United States. President Trump, on the other hand, insists that the talks are still ongoing and appeared to pressure Israel to pull back from a major offensive against Hezbollah over the weekend. What do we make of these developments? Has there been any progress toward a negotia…","meta_description":"This week, Scott sat down with his Lawfare colleagues Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina and Managing Editor Tyler McBrien, and Lawfare Contributing Edito…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4352,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/rational-security-525411/episodes/the-mosquitos-and-heat-and-sweaty-and-eww-edition/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/rational-security-525411/the-mosquitos-and-heat-and-sweaty-and-eww-edition.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}