Tech Transforms

In this episode of Tech Transforms , Carolyn Ford sits down with Ramon Perez, Executive Director of the Digital Democracy Project to explore how emerging technologies could fundamentally reshape democratic participation. Drawing on his background in AI, public policy, and military service, Ramon shares how secure mobile voting, blockchain, digital identity verification, and artificial intelligence...

** When most people hear "AUKUS," they think of submarines. But according to Lee Davis, Senior Director at Honeywell Aerospace Australia, that's only part of the story. In this episode of Tech Transforms, Carolyn Ford sits down with Lee Davis to explore how AUKUS is driving one of the most ambitious industrial transformations ever attempted across Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United Stat...

What if the most vulnerable targets in a cyber conflict aren't power plants, military systems, or critical infrastructure? What if they're the everyday technologies we depend on without a second thought? In this episode of Tech Transforms, Kurt Sanger, retired U.S. Marine Corps judge advocate, former Deputy General Counsel at U.S. Cyber Command, and cybersecurity attorney at Buchanan Ingersoll &am...

Carolyn Ford sits down with Dawn Zimmer, CIO of the United States Department of Energy, for a deep dive into what it really takes to modernize one of the most complex technology environments in government. From managing decades-old legacy systems across national labs and critical infrastructure to securely integrating AI into everyday operations, Zimmer shares how her team is transforming DOE tech...

In this fast-moving and deeply candid episode of Tech Transforms: So What?, host Carolyn Ford reconnects with technologist and enterprise architect Trac Bannon to examine what has changed inside the Department of Defense since their last conversation just 60 days earlier. What emerges is a picture of an AI ecosystem accelerating at extraordinary speed — where acquisition behavior, trust, governanc...

In this episode of Tech Transforms, Carolyn Ford sits down with Dave Raley, Chief Digital Business Officer at Marine Corps Community Services, to unpack one of the most persistent challenges in federal IT: why innovation moves so slowly and how that can change. At the center of the conversation is Operation Stormbreaker, the Marine Corps’ only RAISE-certified software factory, designed to eliminat...

Today we shift the focus from cyber threats to a challenge that may be just as critical: how to communicate complex technology in a way that actually resonates. Joined by Dharma Pachner, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Contrast & Co., the conversation explores why even the most advanced cybersecurity solutions fail if their value isn’t clearly understood and how better storytelling can c...

In this episode of Tech Transforms, Carey Lohrenz shares powerful lessons from her experience as the first female F-14 Tomcat pilot and author of Span of Control. Rather than focusing on aviation war stories, the conversation dives into how high performers navigate overwhelm, uncertainty, and pressure by narrowing their focus to what they can actually control. Drawing on both combat aviation and p...

Host Carolyn Ford sits down with Eric Monterastelli, technologist at ATP Gov and creator of the BLUF podcast, a new format designed to distill dense technical content into concise, decision ready insights. Faced with an overwhelming volume of webinars, white papers, and vendor messaging, Eric saw a critical gap. Even seasoned technologists were walking away from 90 minute briefings unsure of what...

In this follow-up episode of Tech Transforms, Carolyn Ford continues her conversation with Michael Blake of Owl Cyber Defense, shifting from the theory of Zero Trust to the realities of implementing it. The discussion explores the first practical step, network discovery and why organizations are often surprised by shadow IT and legacy systems still operating inside their environments. From there,...

In this episode of Tech Transforms, Carolyn Ford sits down with Michael Blake of Owl Cyber Defense and Chris Rule of GME to unpack one of cybersecurity’s most misunderstood concepts: Zero Trust. What begins as a discussion of architecture quickly evolves into something broader, an exploration of mindset, modernization, and the reality that today’s networks must operate under the assumption that a...

In this special 2026 Predictions episode of Tech Transforms, Carolyn Ford is joined by Brian Carter, Scott Orton, Ralph Spa, and Michael Blake from Owl Cyber Defense for a no-crystal-ball conversation about the signals already flashing across cybersecurity, defense, and digital trust. This isn’t speculation. It’s trajectory. The group tackles the accelerating collapse of content trust in a world o...

n this return episode of So What? on Tech Transforms, host Carolyn Ford reconnects with co-host Tracy Bannon to unpack one of the most significant structural shifts happening inside the Pentagon: the consolidation of R&D, AI, and data organizations under a single Chief Technology Officer. On paper, it looks like bureaucratic reorganization. In practice, it could redefine how innovation moves f...

Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery joins Tech Transforms for a blunt, practical look at the cyber risks the U.S. keeps underestimating—and why “Uncle Rufus’s rail switch” may be the weak link that matters most. Montgomery breaks down military mobility as a national security problem hiding in plain sight: once equipment leaves the secure “Noah’s Ark” of a base and hits rural rail networks and swi...

In this episode of Tech Transforms, Carolyn Ford sits down with Will Roper, one of the key architects of modern defense digital transformation, for a wide-ranging conversation that challenges a core assumption of today’s tech landscape: what if AI can’t scale because the Internet was never designed to support it? Drawing on his experience leading Project Maven, overseeing the Air Force’s cloud ado...

Tech Transforms went live in front of an in-person audience (and simultaneously on the virtual platform and LinkedIn Live) for a special episode featuring Steve Stratton, retired Green Beret, former White House and Secret Service professional, and award-winning author of Skip Jack (included in attendees’ welcome package). The conversation explored why storytelling beats “speeds and feeds” when it...

In this special holiday episode of Tech Transforms, we’re joined by Mike Beckerle—Chief Software Architect at Owl Cyber Defense, co-creator of the DFDL standard, and a foundational force behind the Apache Daffodil open-source project. Mike’s career has been a masterclass in solving some of the most complex challenges in data interoperability and secure information sharing—often behind the scenes,...

In this thought-provoking episode of Tech Transforms, host Carolyn Ford welcomes Janet Kang, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned nonprofit leader whose work sits at the intersection of AI innovation, ethics, and long-term societal impact. After building companies since age 13, launching multiple ed-tech ventures, and incubating AI-powered products in a corporate venture studio, Janet experienced...

In this episode of Tech Transforms, host Carolyn Ford welcomes Connor Morley, Head of Security Research at Glasswall, for a deep dive into the spy-thriller world of modern file security. From malware hidden in images and PDFs to “polyglot” files that can appear as multiple formats at once, Morley exposes how attackers are redefining what a “safe file” really means. They explore how artificial inte...

For our Halloween finale, Carolyn Ford invites two favorite “AI conjurers”, Dave Egts “Mr. X,” public-sector field CTO at Mulesoft, and Laura Klebanow, founder & chief storyteller at Show & Tell, into the Tech Transforms cauldron. Each brings a “secret AI ingredient”: Carolyn composes whimsical Suno-generated theme music (after a prompt-crafting detour through ChatGPT), Laura pushes image...

In the “Thrills” side of our Halloween series, host Carolyn Ford and futurist Joseph Bradley shift from fear to possibility, exploring how AI can amplify human potential and unlock joy at scale. Bradley introduces the “happiness paradigm,” the idea that AI’s true value isn’t just about productivity, but about helping people find more meaning, connection, and time for what matters most. From digita...

The Curious Case of AI - A Two-Part Special (“The Chills”) In this Tech Transforms Halloween “Chills” episode, host Carolyn Ford and futurist Joseph Bradley explore the eerie, but essential, questions AI raises. Using Star Trek as their guide, they look at how “identic AI”, technology that mirrors identity, preferences, and even purpose can feel both thrilling and unsettling. Bradley, a strong bel...

In this episode, host Carolyn Ford sits down with Julie Laurin, a cyber threat intelligence consultant with the Mining and Metals ISAC. Julie brings two decades of expertise in software, a sharp eye for overlooked risks, and a deep curiosity about the intersection of humans and technology. Together, they explore the evolving landscape of cyber threats, from social engineering tactics like the Clic...

On this episode of Tech Transforms, host Carolyn Ford welcomes Antoine Harden, Regional VP of Federal at Sonatype, to unpack one of the most urgent challenges in federal cybersecurity: securing the software supply chain. With more than 25 years of experience at Oracle, Google, and now Sonatype, Antoine shares why software supply chain risks from SolarWinds to Log4j have pushed SBOMs (Software Bill...

In this episode of TechTransforms, host Carolyn Ford sits down with Martin Stanley, Senior Advisor at NIST, to explore how AI is reshaping federal cybersecurity. They dive into NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework, the growing need for secure and resilient AI systems, and what it takes to build a “risk-aware” culture in government. Stanley shares insights on guarding against threats like model thef...