Highlights from AFA's Air, Space & Cyber Conference

A veteran of the National Security Council shares what the movie got right and wrong on U.S. missile defense and nuclear command and control.  Guest: Jon Wolfsthal, Director of Global Risk at the Federation of American Scientists.

Patrick Tucker explains what he learned during a recent trip to Eastern Europe.

A celebrated historian shares years of research into the quiet and not-so-quiet struggles of millions of American veterans returning home from World War II.  Guest: David Nasaw, historian, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and author of "The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II." 

The EU's ambassador to the U.S. underscores the importance of the bloc's $910 billion defense plans known as Readiness 2030.  Guest: European Union Ambassador to the United States Jovita Neliupšienė.

Our editors explore the vibe, the headlines, the aircraft, the drones, and the other news coming out of the Air Force Association's big annual conference at National Harbor, Maryland. Guests: Tom Novelly, Defense One senior reporter covering air and space warfare; And Lauren C. Williams, Defense One senior editor.

A researcher unpacks recent adaptations in drone technology after more than three years of Russia's ongoing Ukraine invasion.  Guests: Sam Bendett, advisor in Russia Studies at the Virginia-based research organization CNA; And Patrick Tucker, Defense One science and technology editor.

A Munich-based developer with a new air-to-air counter-drone system shares insights into Europe's growing defense industry and recent lessons from Russia's Ukraine invasion.  Guest: Jan-Hendrik Boelens, co-founder and CEO of Alpine Eagle. 

A researcher uses his work with U.S. special operations forces to explain a new neuroscientific approach to intuition, imagination, emotion, and common sense. Guest: Angus Fletcher, Professor of Story Science at Ohio State University's Project Narrative. His latest book is called, "Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know," from Penguin Random House. 

Guest: Patrick Tucker, Defense One science and technology editor.  Read Tucker's recent reporting on the topic below:  Related reading: "New Golden Dome details emerge from industry day," Tucker reported on August 14;  "Pete Hegseth Doesn't Want to Talk About Golden Dome," former Naval War College professor Tom Nichols wrote for The Atlantic on August 8; "Lockheed Martin aims to test a missile-killing satellite by 2028," also via Tucker, reporting August 5; "Effects of Lower Launch Costs on Previous Estimates for Space-Based, Boost-Phase Missile Defense," May 5, via the Congressional Budget Office with an estimated total price tag for Golden Dome somewhere between $831 billion to $542 billion;  See also, "Trump wants a Golden Dome over America. Here's what it would take," via NPR's Geoff Brumfiel, reporting April 22.   Watch the futuristic, satirical news clips from 1987's "Robocop," via YouTube, here.  And you can find a trailer for the 1985 film, "Real Genius," also via YouTube, here. 

Guest: Journalist and writer Kevin Maurer, whose work focuses on U.S. special operations forces around the world. Read Maurer's report for Rolling Stone, "Here's What Trump's Mexico Invasion Plan Could Look Like."