The New Season on Battle Rhythm

 With Stéfanie von Hlatky moving on to Associate Deaning, we have had to figure out a new plan for Battle Rhythm, a podcast of the Canadian Defence and Security Network.  We auditioned several sharp folks, and rather than repeating the Jeopardy mistake of giving the job to the producer, we, instead, gave the role to the four amazing folks who guested for us the past couple of months.  Our new band of podcast rebels are:

• Anessa Kimball, Professor of Political Science at Université Laval.  She is a Co-Director of the CDSN, leading the Security Theme from ye olde SSHRC grant and the Climate Security Theme of the new MINDS grant.  She works on international security cooperation, such as NATO, and is a quantitative evangelist.  @ProfKimball
  
• Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Military, Security, and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary.  She is a Co-Director of the CDSN, working in the Security realm as well as a Co-Director of the Canadian Network on Information and Security [CANIS]. @ErinGVB
  
• Linna Tam-Seto is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University and the CDSN's first Post-Doctoral Scholar. @linnaseto
  
• Artur Wilczynski is a retired Canadian national security expert and diplomat, having served as Ambassador to Norway, Assistant Deputy Minister, Director-General, and similar positions within Global Affairs Canada, Public Safety, and the Communications Security Establishment. He serves on the CDSN Advisory Board. @Arturmaks

These four individuals greatly expand our perspectives as they come from a variety of disciplines, work experiences, regions, networks, levels of seniority, and more.  We rely heavily on our networks to find guests for our interview segments, so we should be reaching out more broadly in the future.  It is no accident that most of these individuals focus a bit more on the S in our name, as the CDSN did start out pretty heavy on Defence.  We are now looking at a variety of ways to think and talk about Security.  These four individuals have very different perspectives on what security means, who it involves, and how Canada is doing in providing or threatening the security of Canadians and folks elsewhere.  

This will mean a bit less NATO tourism although Anessa's interests overlap a bit with mine there.  The new co-hosts will be working with Melissa Jennings, our podcast producer, Carelove Doreus, our new communciations officer, and myself on how we will proceed in the years ahead.  We may change the format as we include more chefs in the kitchen.  

While I will miss my bi-weekly conversations with Stef, I am excited about the dynamic future that awaits us.  And, yes, time to invoke the Lego movie: