Renny Babiarz: Exposing China's Nuclear Testing - MBM#40

Minds Behind Maps

Renny Babiarz is a former Analyst at the NGA (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) and the VP of Analysis & Operations at AllSource Analysis, a company focused on providing geospatial Intelligence investigations. One of the angles of Renny's work is better understanding China's Nuclear testing using satellite imagery, Open Source Intelligence methods & location data.

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Support the podcast on Patreon

About Renny:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• AllSource Analysis

Shownotes

• AllSource
• 2021 NPR Report “A New Tunnel is Spotted At a Chinese Nuclear Test Site”
• Jeffrey Lewis Interview
• Washington Post Chine Nuclear Missile Silo Article
• Renny's book
• Books & Podcast recommendations:
  • The Realignment
  • Making Sense by Sam Harris
  • Industry (could not find it!)
  • China Built the Bomb by John W Lewis & Litai Xue (Affiliate Link)
• Flipping the tables, Max's book & podcasts:
  • Lex Fridman
  • Joe Rogan
  • Kanye West on Lex Fridman
  • “La Horde du Contrevent” by Alain Damasio (Affiliate Link)

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction

02:51) Conversation starts: Renny's Journey with the NGA

(12:45) AllSource's work

(15:55) Defining Open & Proprietary

(18:42) Deciding which Analysis to publish

(23:12) Researching China's Nuclear Program

(29:43) How Projects Get Started

(34:39) Starting from Known Areas of Interest

(37:50) Automating Change Detection

(42:20) The Importance of Communicating Nuance

(48:13) Misinformation vs Disinformation

(51:21) The Hard Execrcise of Social Media Communication

(55:21) Twitter

(57:08) Sources & 'Peer Review'

(01:03:19) Working with Outside Analysts

(01:10:03) Teaching Geospatial Intelligence

(01:13:09) Teaching Soft Skills & Communications

(01:18:33) Renny's book

(01:23:52) Importance of staying hands on

(01:27:59) Micromanaging

(01:30:23) Book and podcast recommendation

(01:35:32) Flipping the tables: Max's Book & Podcast recommendation

- Support the podcast on Patreon
- Website
- My Twitter
- Podcast Twitter
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- Edited by Peter Xiong. Find more of his work