Dr Wilson takes us through his journey from medical school in the shadow of Ebola outbreaks, to rainforest fieldwork, to NASA satellite projects that caught the attention of the intelligence community, and later, front-line pandemic response.

Mark and Howard welcome Dr. James Wilson, a practicing pediatrician and one of the world’s leading experts in operational health security and biosurveillance. Wilson has built systems used to anticipate and detect infectious disease crises, served as the first operations chief of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Biosurveillance Integration Center, and has decades of experience in epidemic forecasting and intelligence analysis.

This is not just a story about pandemics. It’s a story about information, uncertainty, and the resilience of societies when confronted with the unknown.

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To learn more about Dr Wilson visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmwilsonv/

In this special episode, Mark and Howard welcome their first guest: Dr. John Elliott, honorary research fellow in computer science and coordinator of the SETI Post-Detection Hub at the University of St Andrews.

Arthur C. Clarke once described John’s work as “of great importance,” and with good reason. His research spans human language, dolphin communication, computational linguistics and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

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Visit SETI / SETI Post-Detection Hub

Mark and Howard wrestle with the deceptively simple question: What is intelligence?

They explore why intelligence is so hard to define, how it differs from raw data and information, and why it sits somewhere between science and art.

Along the way, they highlight the many uses (and misuses) of the word “intelligence,” from law enforcement practice to political spin.

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