#11 - Malicious Assured Destruction: Cold War to Cyber War

The Aidan Project

In this episode of The Aidan Project, Aidan is joined on the line from Israel by Ran Levi, an accomplished science author and podcaster. In this episode, Aidan and Ran discuss Ronald Reagan’s ambitious Strategic Defence Initiative, known as ‘Star Wars’, which came to prominence towards the end of the Cold War. Aidan and Ran also look at ‘Mutual Assured Destruction’ – did the nuclear balancing act of the Super Powers mean that nuclear war was prevented? This episode also features a look at how warfare has developed since the demise of the USSR, the use of cyber-attacks rather than conventional military action, what steps Israel has taken to counter terrorism, the audacious Israel/US malware attack on Iran (Stuxnet), Israeli national identity, national service, and a number of other interesting topics. Ran is the host of one of Podbean‘s top ten technology podcasts of 2016, 'The Curious Minds Podcast', and his ‘Making History' podcast is one of the most successful podcasts in Israel, with over five million downloads. Born in Israel in 1975, Ran studied electrical engineering, and has worked as an electronics engineer and programmer for several high tech companies in Israel. Ran has written three books in Hebrew, 'Perpetuum Mobile', 'The Little University of Science', and 'Battle of Minds'. You can find Ran on Twitter @ranlevi or visit his web site at www.ranlevi.com