Conversations
Candid, off-the-record conversations
Private gatherings convened by Digital Battlefield Group — bringing senior leaders from government, technology, science, media, and finance into the same room.
About these gatheringsMost Fridays
12:00–1:00 PM Pacific, by invitation.
Cross-disciplinary
Leaders from government, science, tech, media, and finance.
Chatham House Rule
No press, no recordings. Discretion by default.
Upcoming
Hot Nerd Summer #8
Hot Nerd Summer — Save the Date Hot Nerd Summer is a standing Friday conversation: candid, off-the-record discussions among accomplished people from across government, science, technology, media, and finance — convened to think out loud about the forces shaping the next decade. Recent sessions have ranged across the national debt and a looming fiscal reckoning, the future of healthcare, the promise and the hype of artificial intelligence, the agentic web and the fight to tell humans from machines, geopolitics and national security, the search for intelligence beyond Earth, federalism, and what it takes to keep a great country great. The point is not to reach consensus, but to bring together people who would not normally share a table — and let the conversation go where it will. Speaker and topic to be announced. Held under the Chatham House Rule. 12:00 PM PT / 3:00 PM ET · 60 minutes including Q&A · Zoom.
TBA - invite will be updated and more...
Hot Nerd Summer #9
Hot Nerd Summer — Save the Date Hot Nerd Summer is a standing Friday conversation: candid, off-the-record discussions among accomplished people from across government, science, technology, media, and finance — convened to think out loud about the forces shaping the next decade. Recent sessions have ranged across the national debt and a looming fiscal reckoning, the future of healthcare, the promise and the hype of artificial intelligence, the agentic web and the fight to tell humans from machines, geopolitics and national security, the search for intelligence beyond Earth, federalism, and what it takes to keep a great country great. The point is not to reach consensus, but to bring together people who would not normally share a table — and let the conversation go where it will. Speaker and topic to be announced. Held under the Chatham House Rule. 12:00 PM PT / 3:00 PM ET · 60 minutes including Q&A · Zoom.
TBA - invite will be updated and more...
Past
Hot Nerd Summer #7
Hot Nerd Summer — Save the Date Hot Nerd Summer is a standing Friday conversation: candid, off-the-record discussions among accomplished people from across government, science, technology, media, and finance — convened to think out loud about the forces shaping the next decade. Recent sessions have ranged across the national debt and a looming fiscal reckoning, the future of healthcare, the promise and the hype of artificial intelligence, the agentic web and the fight to tell humans from machines, geopolitics and national security, the search for intelligence beyond Earth, federalism, and what it takes to keep a great country great. The point is not to reach consensus, but to bring together people who would not normally share a table — and let the conversation go where it will. Speaker and topic to be announced. Held under the Chatham House Rule. 12:00 PM PT / 3:00 PM ET · 60 minutes including Q&A · Zoom.
TBA - invite will be updated and more...
Hot Nerd Summer #6
Hot Nerd Summer — Save the Date Hot Nerd Summer is a standing Friday conversation: candid, off-the-record discussions among accomplished people from across government, science, technology, media, and finance — convened to think out loud about the forces shaping the next decade. Recent sessions have ranged across the national debt and a looming fiscal reckoning, the future of healthcare, the promise and the hype of artificial intelligence, the agentic web and the fight to tell humans from machines, geopolitics and national security, the search for intelligence beyond Earth, federalism, and what it takes to keep a great country great. The point is not to reach consensus, but to bring together people who would not normally share a table — and let the conversation go where it will. Speaker and topic to be announced. Held under the Chatham House Rule. 12:00 PM PT / 3:00 PM ET · 60 minutes including Q&A · Zoom.
TBA - invite will be updated and more...
Hot Nerd Summer #5
Hot Nerd Summer — Save the Date Hot Nerd Summer is a standing Friday conversation: candid, off-the-record discussions among accomplished people from across government, science, technology, media, and finance — convened to think out loud about the forces shaping the next decade. Recent sessions have ranged across the national debt and a looming fiscal reckoning, the future of healthcare, the promise and the hype of artificial intelligence, the agentic web and the fight to tell humans from machines, geopolitics and national security, the search for intelligence beyond Earth, federalism, and what it takes to keep a great country great. The point is not to reach consensus, but to bring together people who would not normally share a table — and let the conversation go where it will. Speaker and topic to be announced. Held under the Chatham House Rule. 12:00 PM PT / 3:00 PM ET · 60 minutes including Q&A · Zoom.
TBA - invite will be updated and more...
Hot Nerd Summer #4
Hot Nerd Summer — Save the Date Hot Nerd Summer is a standing Friday conversation: candid, off-the-record discussions among accomplished people from across government, science, technology, media, and finance — convened to think out loud about the forces shaping the next decade. Recent sessions have ranged across the national debt and a looming fiscal reckoning, the future of healthcare, the promise and the hype of artificial intelligence, the agentic web and the fight to tell humans from machines, geopolitics and national security, the search for intelligence beyond Earth, federalism, and what it takes to keep a great country great. The point is not to reach consensus, but to bring together people who would not normally share a table — and let the conversation go where it will. Speaker and topic to be announced. Held under the Chatham House Rule. 12:00 PM PT / 3:00 PM ET · 60 minutes including Q&A · Zoom.
TBA - invite will be updated and more...
The Global Report Card: Progress, Agency & the Open Web
Hot Nerd Summer #3 The third session of Hot Nerd Summer delivered a global report card. The conversation weighed the genuine, measurable progress in human welfare against democratic backsliding and the erosion of norms, then turned to agency, “information diabetes,” universal basic service, federalism as a laboratory for reform, the open web and open-source AI, and academic freedom. Held under the Chatham House Rule, in the spirit of solving problems one at a time. Selected, unattributed quotes below.
Steven Pinker, Esther Dyson, Grover Norquist and more...
Agentic AI, the Future of the Web, UAPs & the AI Bubble
Hot Nerd Summer #2 The second session of Hot Nerd Summer turned to the machines — and what they are about to do to the open web. The discussion explored agentic AI and the coming flood of non-human traffic, the fight to keep a clear line between humans and bots, the economics of an AI bubble, the worst budget system in the world, and the evidence — and theatre — around unidentified anomalous phenomena. Held under the Chatham House Rule, with voices from astrophysics, intelligence, Congress, media, and AI research. Selected, unattributed quotes below.
Nick Thompson, Avi Loeb, Congressman Van Taylor and more...
Debt, Healthcare, AI, Media & National Security
Hot Nerd Summer #1 The opening session of Hot Nerd Summer convened a cross-disciplinary group to take on the forces bearing down on America's future — the national debt, a healthcare system riddled with perverse incentives, the promise and the hype of artificial intelligence, the fragmentation of media and trust, and national security. The conversation ranged from a looming fiscal reckoning to why sepsis still kills at ten times the necessary rate, from the prospect of an AI winter to China reaching parity in AI — a frank, generational look at how to keep a great country great. Held under the Chatham House Rule. Selected, unattributed quotes below.
David Walker, George Halvorson, Peter Norvig and more...
Private Briefings on Iran with former Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian - May 8
On Friday May 8 at 3pm ET / 12pm PT, we're hosting private, Chatham House rule Zooms on the Iran conflict, a rare look at track two diplomacy behind the scenes. We will be interviewing Seyed Hossein Mousavian, Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator and ambassador to Germany and joined by diplomats and thought leaders from around the world. The conversation will be candid and off the record.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian and more...
Private Briefings on Iran with former Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian - May 1
On Friday May 1 at 3pm ET / 12pm PT, we're hosting private, Chatham House rule Zooms on the Iran conflict, a rare look at track two diplomacy behind the scenes. We will be interviewing Seyed Hossein Mousavian, Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator and ambassador to Germany and joined by diplomats and thought leaders from around the world. The conversation will be candid and off the record.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian and more...
Private in-person dinner Human X - 8th April
In San Francisco on April 8th, we’ll be at the premiere AI conference, HumanX, hosting private in-person dinners on the intersection of national security and AI. We'll be joined by: Head of trust and safety at Wikipedia Jan Eissfeldt, Canadian former security intelligence and former extremist Mubin Shaikh, Head of Applied AI Strategy and Global Security at Scale AI Christopher Kirchhoff, award-winning author of the 'Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11' Lawrence Wright, and former Harvard Business Review chief Adi Ingatius, among others.
Jan Eissfeldt, Mubin Shaikh, Christopher Kirchhoff and more...
Private in-person dinner Human X - 7th April
In San Francisco on April 7th, we’ll be at the premiere AI conference, HumanX, hosting private in-person dinners on the intersection of national security and AI. We'll be joined by: Head of trust and safety at Wikipedia Jan Eissfeldt, Canadian former security intelligence and former extremist Mubin Shaikh, Head of Applied AI Strategy and Global Security at Scale AI Christopher Kirchhoff, award-winning author of the 'Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11' Lawrence Wright, and former Harvard Business Review chief Adi Ingatius, among others.
Jan Eissfeldt, Mubin Shaikh, Christopher Kirchhoff and more...
Discussion with Kai-Fu Lee, China Is Winning the Open Source War
AI founder Kai-Fu Lee joins a Chatham House roundtable of global technologists, diplomats, and security experts for an unfiltered conversation on AI, geopolitics, and the shifting world order.
Kai-Fu Lee, Larry Brilliant, Shyam Saran and more...
What the West Is Getting Dangerously Wrong About Iran
A rare 360-degree conversation with Gillian Tett, Arab League Secretary General designate Nabil Fahmy, and global insiders on the Iran conflict, energy shocks, and why the off-ramp still exists - if anyone is willing to take it.
Gillian Tett, Sir Martin Sorrell, Esther Dyson and more...