Hardpoints
By VALOR Media Network
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Category: Tech News
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Episodes: 73
Description
Every week, former fighter pilots and current entrepreneurs Neal Rickner & Mike Smith provide unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in startups, energy, and national security.
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
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SpaceX Capped Starlink at 100 MPH and Ukraine’s Drones Went Dark. Who Should Hold the Off Switch?
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Nov 05, 2026 |
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Your Supplier Might Be Tied to the Chinese Military. How Would You Know?
|
Oct 29, 2026 |
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China Refueled a Satellite in Space and America Still Can’t. Why?
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Oct 27, 2026 |
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Zelensky Is Ignoring Trump and Bombing Russian Refineries. Who Actually Holds the Cards?
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Oct 20, 2026 |
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The First Russian Diesel Shipment Is Under a Day of U.S. Demand. What Did America Pay for It?
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Oct 15, 2026 |
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$10,000 a Household for a Data Center and the Town Still Said No. Bribe or Fair Deal?
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Oct 08, 2026 |
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The Pentagon Wants $54 Billion for Drones, Up From $226 Million. Does It Need a Four-Star for Robots?
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Oct 06, 2026 |
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Anduril's CEO Says Defense Tech Is a Bubble. So Why Is His Company Talking $100 Billion?
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Oct 01, 2026 |
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417 to 3: Congress Finally Agreed on Your Power Bill — And It Still Didn't Matter
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Sep 24, 2026 |
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Diesel Just Hit $6 a Gallon for the First Time Ever. Can the White House Actually Fix It?
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Sep 17, 2026 |
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We Tariffed Hockey Sticks and Exempted the Oil We Actually Need
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Sep 15, 2026 |
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Trump's Grid Emergency Order Bans the Two Technologies Actually Fixing the Grid
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Sep 10, 2026 |
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West Point Fired Its Only Climate Scientist
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Sep 03, 2026 |
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The Army Killed Its Drone School While Ordering Every Division to Buy Them. So Who's Actually Learning How to Fight?
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Sep 01, 2026 |
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The Bill Comes Due: America Just Hit $40 Trillion, and the Pentagon Is Picking Up the Tab
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Aug 27, 2026 |
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The Navy Kept a Carrier at Sea for 260 Days. Trump Says That Wasn't Long Enough.
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Aug 20, 2026 |
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America's Nuclear Reactor Made Zero Watts of Power. Welcome to the Golden Era?
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Aug 18, 2026 |
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You Are Not the President: What Tuesday's DCA Incident Actually Tells Regular Flyers About Their Safety
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Aug 13, 2026 |
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Nine Carriers vs. None: Why China Builds Ships 230 Times Faster Than We Do — And Who's Actually Fixing It
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Aug 06, 2026 |
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Oil Executives Cashed Out $400 Million Since the Iran War Began. Who Picks Up the Tab?
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Aug 04, 2026 |
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China Is Building the Factory. America Built the Chatbot. Are We Winning the Wrong Race?
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Jul 16, 2026 |
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Europe Is Cooking and Its Grid Is Shutting Down. Do We Know What's Coming?
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Jul 09, 2026 |
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SpaceX Can Drop Tungsten Telephone Poles from Orbit. Who Controls That Power?
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Jul 02, 2026 |
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AI Is Erasing Entry-Level Jobs. National Service Might Be The Answer.
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Jun 25, 2026 |
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11 Million People, No Power, 90 Miles Away: What's the Cuba Endgame?
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Jun 18, 2026 |
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Humanities Majors are Beating Computer Science. The World Has Shifted.
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Jun 11, 2026 |
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America is Being Forced to Burn More Coal. AI & Politics Did This
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Jun 04, 2026 |
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250 Wind Farms Blocked. 15 Million Homes Worth of Energy. The Pentagon Calls It National Security.
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May 27, 2026 |
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China Told Trump: Touch Taiwan and We Go to War
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May 22, 2026 |
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We Accidentally Made China the Climate Superpower
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May 15, 2026 |
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When Insurance Leaves, Everything Else Follows
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May 14, 2026 |
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Canada Keeps Your Lights On. So Why Are We Treating Them Like an Enemy?
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May 07, 2026 |
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We Burned Through Half Our Missiles in Seven Weeks... Now What?
|
May 01, 2026 |
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The AI That Taught Itself to Hack — And What Happens When China Gets It
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Apr 27, 2026 |
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The Underwater War Nobody's Talking About
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Apr 23, 2026 |
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Why VCs Are Betting on Fusion (And Why They Probably Shouldn't)
|
Apr 16, 2026 |
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Speaking Up From America While Your Family's Still in Tehran
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Apr 14, 2026 |
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Ghosts in the Grid: China’s Sleeper Access, a Plan With No Plan, and America’s Energy Security Gap
|
Apr 08, 2026 |
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Iran, China, Russia: The Oil Chessboard
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Apr 02, 2026 |
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When War Planning Fails: The Iran School Strike
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Mar 25, 2026 |
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Operation Epic Fury: Iran Strikes, Hormuz Tightens, and the Old World Order Cracks
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Mar 18, 2026 |
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EPA Pulls the Jenga Block: The Endangerment Finding Falls and Climate Policy Enters a New Era of Uncertainty
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Mar 18, 2026 |
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Pentagon vs. AI Guardrails: Anthropic Draws a Line on Autonomous Lethality & Domestic Surveillance
|
Mar 18, 2026 |
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“No U.S. Parts”: Lessons from the Munich Security Conference
|
Mar 18, 2026 |
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Drones, Darkness, and Disruption: Ukraine’s Energy War and the Startup Response
|
Mar 18, 2026 |
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$2.3 Trillion on the Table: Batteries, Power, and the New Energy Arms Race
|
Mar 18, 2026 |
|
Building Big Things
|
Mar 18, 2026 |
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Operation Absolute Resolve: Venezuela Shock, Oil Politics, and the AI-Driven Startup Squeeze
|
Jan 07, 2026 |
|
Pushing the Edge
|
Dec 17, 2025 |
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Turkey & Energy Transition
|
Dec 04, 2025 |
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The Game is Rigged
|
Nov 06, 2025 |
|
Wind Wins, Power Shortfalls, and “War-Zone” Politics
|
Oct 16, 2025 |
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Maintaining Accountability in Energy, Climate, & Security
|
Oct 08, 2025 |
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Moral Courage and the Future of Energy
|
Sep 24, 2025 |
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Wind, War & Warning Signs
|
Sep 11, 2025 |
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Troops in DC, Intel Bailout, and Authoritarian Drift
|
Aug 27, 2025 |
|
Burning the World to Distract from Epstein
|
Aug 13, 2025 |
|
Thirsting for Leadership, But Drinking the Sand
|
Jul 30, 2025 |
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Truth Is Quieter Than You Think
|
Jul 23, 2025 |
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Power, Privilege, and the Energy Future
|
Jul 16, 2025 |
|
When The Storm Comes
|
Jul 09, 2025 |
|
Modern Conflict: Tech, Climate, Bad Calls
|
Jul 02, 2025 |
|
Unserious Country, Serious World
|
Jun 25, 2025 |
|
Drones, Nuclear Proliferation, & American Dysfunction
|
Jun 19, 2025 |
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Free speech and online safety - Guest: Michael O'Herlihy
|
Jun 11, 2025 |
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Finding Meaning in Work - Guest: Daniel Kim | Hardpoints
|
Jun 04, 2025 |
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Predator Innovation & The Age of Machines - Guest: Siggy Zerweckh | Hardpoints
|
May 29, 2025 |
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Surfing, Carbon Collective, & Film Making - Guest: Breene Murphy | Hardpoints
|
May 21, 2025 |
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Microbes, Mines & an Alaskan: A Startup CEO Redefines Mining
|
May 14, 2025 |
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Elite athletes & the veteran transition | Hardpoints
|
May 07, 2025 |
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Setting up the DoD Energy Clearinghouse
|
Apr 30, 2025 |
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Tariffs, national security, and startups - More overlap than you'd think | Hardpoints
|
Apr 23, 2025 |
|
Signal is forgotten but we all got the message
|
Apr 16, 2025 |