Phoenix Cast

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, host John mentally travels back to the Marine Corps Communication Electronics School in 29 Palms, the place where the cast was basically born, to talk with Col Arun Shankar, MCCES’s commanding officer, and LtCol Steve Morello, who leads Communication Training Battalion. The conversation digs into how the comm community is shifting from being “just plumbers” to owni...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, John and Rich sit down with Keith Mularski and Damon Mathews from Qintel. Keith is the former FBI agent who went undercover in DarkMarket as "Master Splyntr," eventually becoming a top-five spammer in the world and a "made man" in the cybercriminal underground before the operation culminated in 80+ arrests. Damon is a retired Marine CI/HUMINT of...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John and Kyle break down a packed week in cyber: the Canvas ed-tech breach by Shiny Hunters that hit 9,000 schools and 275 million records right at testing season (both of their kids' schools are scrambling to go non-digital), Firefox's eye-opening collaboration with Anthropic's Mythos model that surfaced 271 vulnerabilities in a single release fo...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John and Rich — with Kyle sidelined by what Rich suspects was an AI-orchestrated exploit — welcome CW4 Justin Helphenstine, a U.S. Army cyber warrant officer with 22+ years of service and deep offensive cyber operations experience. The conversation digs into what Army cyber warrant officers actually do versus their Marine Corps counterparts, how the talent pi...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John, Rich, and Kyle welcome Katie Moussouris — founder and CEO of Luta Security, creator of Microsoft’s first bug bounty program, and architect of Hack the Pentagon — to break down Anthropic’s Project Glasswing and what it means when an AI model can find hundreds of real-world vulnerabilities at scale. Katie walks through the staggering complexity of coordin...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John and Kyle dive into two cautionary tales from Kyle’s AI-powered workflow — one where he spent $70 proving that AI detection tools are fundamentally broken, and another where he nearly lost his entire CRM database to a vibe-coded update gone wrong. Kyle walks through his process of writing a Marine Corps Gazette article using AI as a drafting assistant, on...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John, Rich, and Kyle break down the recent “hack” of McKinsey’s internal AI platform Lilly — where a security startup’s automated agent gained full root access through unsecured API endpoints in under two hours — sparking a lively debate on what actually constitutes a hack and why zero trust architecture still matters more than ever. The crew covers exciting...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John, Rich, and Kyle dive into a passionate debate about why the military needs to stop relying on a single "AI guy" in every unit and instead adopt an "every Marine an AI rifleman" mentality — training all service members in AI fundamentals the same way every Marine learns basic marksmanship. Kyle breaks down what AI "marksmanship&qu...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John, Rich, and Kyle break down the rapidly evolving world of agentic artificial intelligence through the story of Clawd—also known as Molt and now OpenClaw. They explain what AI agents are, how tools like Claude Code and full-system agents are changing the way humans interact with machines, and why this shift is both powerful and potentially risky. The hosts...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John and Rich are joined by special guest Vice Admiral (ret) Craig Clapperton - the former Commander of Navy’s Fleet Cyber Command. They discuss how technical mastery, leadership development, and career progression differ across ranks, and why early-career officers and operators must prioritize deep warfighting competence before broadening into team leadershi...

In this episode of the Phoenix Cast, hosts John and Kyle kick off 2026 with a jam-packed current events roundup covering the React to Shell vulnerability (think Log4Shell but for the front end), the Marine Corps' new drone training requirements, Google's TPU announcements that might have NVIDIA sweating, and the launch of GenAI.mil. They also share some exciting podcast milestones, dish ou...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John and Kyle are joined by special guest LtGen Jerry Carter, the Marine Corps Deputy Commandant for Information. They discuss the evolution of the DCI role, the cultural and organizational challenges of building a cohesive information warfare community, the urgency of adapting faster in cyberspace and AI, and why winning future conflicts requires rethinking...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John, Rich, and Kyle are joined by special guest MajGen (ret) Ryan Heritage - the former J3 (Director of Operations) for US Cyber Command, and Commander of Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command.  We'd love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us at our new handle, @ThePhoenixCast , and don't forget to join our LinkedIn Group to connect with fellow Phoenix Ca...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John, Rich, and Kyle are joined by special guest Capt Chris Clark - the Marine Corps Artificial Intelligence Lead in the Marine Corps Deputy C Links: -(USMC Fellowships) https://www.marines.mil/News/Messages/Messages-Display/Article/4315247/fy26-artificial-intelligence-fellowship-programs/ - https://www.marines.mil/News/Messages/Messages-Display/Article/43258...

In this episode of the Phoenix Cast, hosts John, Rich, and Kyle are joined by special guests Cols Russ Belt and Kevin Stepp, the II MEF and I MEF G-6s.  They continue the discussion started by Col Matt Schroer on Episode 122, and LtCols Berdela and Henderson on Episode 123 about the future of communications formations.  We'd love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us at our new handle, @ThePhoenixCa...

In this episode of the Phoenix Cast, hosts John and Kyle are joined by special guests Josh Stiefel and LTG (ret) Edward Cardon, the architects of CSIS’ Cyber Force project.  We'd love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us at our new handle, @ThePhoenixCast , and don't forget to join our LinkedIn Group to connect with fellow Phoenix Casters. If you enjoyed the episode, help us out by leaving one...

What should leaders take from Brickstorm, a 150-year-old company felled by one password, and an easy Microsoft global-admin misstep—plus how agent-to-agent payments could evolve? In this episode of the Phoenix Cast, hosts John and Kyle connect the dots for you. Have a listen, and let us know what you think! We'd love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us at our new handle, @ThePhoenixCast , and  htt...

Continuing the conversation from Episode 122 with Col Matt Schroer, The Phoenix Cast hosts John, Rich, and Kyle sit down with Glenn Berdela and John Henderson—Commanding Officers of 2d Network Battalion and 8th Communications Battalion—to explore where communications formations are headed next. We'd love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us at our new handle, @ThePhoenixCast , and don't forget...

In this episode of the Phoenix Cast, hosts John and Kyle are joined by special guest Col Matt Schroer - Enterprise and Expeditionary Communications Branch Head, Deputy Commandant for Information (DC I), Information Command, Control, Communications and Computers (IC4).  They discuss the future of Marine Corps communications and some of the work being done to move the Marine Corps enterprise forward...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John, Rich, and Kyle are joined by special guest LtCol Brian Kerg - Commanding Officer of Comm Squadron 38 to discuss the basics of a Communications Squadron, and an upcoming competition that MWCS-38 will be having - Thunderstruck.  Have a listen, and let us know what you think! We'd love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us at our new handle, @ThePhoenixCast...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John and Kyle discuss MCP, and MCP vulnerabilities, and GPU Hammer.  Have a listen, and let us know what you think! We'd love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us at our new handle, @ThePhoenixCast , and don't forget to join our LinkedIn Group to connect with fellow Phoenix Casters. If you enjoyed the episode, help us out by leaving one of those coveted 5-...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John, Rich, and Kyle discuss AI 2027.  Have a listen, and let us know what you think! We'd love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us at our new handle, @ThePhoenixCast , and don't forget to join our LinkedIn Group to connect with fellow Phoenix Casters. If you enjoyed the episode, help us out by leaving one of those coveted 5-star reviews on Apple Podcasts...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John and Kyle are joined by special guest Robert Teller and they talk through some of the scarier sides of AI. Share your thoughts with us on Twitter: @ThePhoenixCast (Now verified!) and join our LinkedIn group to interact with other Phoenix Casters. 

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John, Rich, and Kyle are joined by special guest Capt Dan Choi for the first episode in a series about quantum technologies.  Have a listen, and let us know what you think! We'd love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us at our new handle, @ThePhoenixCast , and don't forget to join our LinkedIn Group to connect with fellow Phoenix Casters. If you enjoyed th...

In this episode of Phoenix Cast, hosts John, Rich, and Kyle talk about AI in the news, and some reflections on what it means.  Share your thoughts with us on Twitter: @USMC_TFPhoenix (Now verified!) Follow MARFORCYBER, MCCYWG, & MCCOG on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. Leave your review on Apple Podcasts. Links:  Disney employee article: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/ame...