Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks

BKBT Productions

Hosted by two guys named George on either side of the divide, this is a cybersecurity podcast that tackles the relationship between vendors and their customers. George Kamide is on the security vendor side, and George Al-Koura is a CISO on the customer side. Vendors gotta sell, and companies need tooling to protect their data. Tune in to hear real conversations from opposing sides of the pitch about cybersecurity marketing, sales, and go to market strategies. We go after these topics and bad practices with bare knuckles, then it’s down to brass tacks to look for solutions. Tune in to hear from guests from either side, including CISOs, SMEs, sales leaders, frontline account managers, and more!

  1. Looking ahead to the next year in tech and human impact

    5 NGÀY TRƯỚC

    Looking ahead to the next year in tech and human impact

    2025 was hella weird. The AI revolution is here whether we asked for it or not. This week, George K and George A reflect on the year and what it means for 2026. At AWS re:Invent, George A watched a machine create a custom fragrance and marketing campaign in real-time from a voice prompt. What does that portend for product prototyping, and scaled manufacturing? Could voice and natural language finally replacing typing as the primary interface? We're watching the biggest shift in human-computer interaction since the mouse. Worldwide AI adoption isn't hype anymore—it's happening and doing so unevenly. Some enterprises are getting serious and some are still noodling. The tools are maturing. The question shifted from "if" to "how do we do this responsibly." There are serious questions to answer. GPU lifecycles. The Magnificent Seven’s circular financing models. The human cost of moving this fast. But that's the work—building technology that serves us instead of the other way around. The revolution came. Now comes the interesting part: what we actually build with it. 2026 is going to be wild. We remain up to the challenge. Mentioned: Brookings Institution, “New data show no AI jobs apocalypse—for now” Discussed in further detail with Ethan Mollick on Your Undivided Attention Reid Hoffman’s interview with Wispr Flow founder/CEO Tanay Kothari More on Coreweave’s financing model at The Verge

    33 phút
  2. Getting Addicted to the Process and Chasing Excellence

    17 THG 11

    Getting Addicted to the Process and Chasing Excellence

    What happens when you go all in and bet on yourself? Taylor McClatchie, professional Muay Thai fighter with ONE Championship, joins the show to share how she did just that. She spent a decade in reproductive science, working in a lab. Then she walked away from it all to turn her pastime into her profession. Went 20-0 as an amateur. Made her pro debut at Madison Square Garden with a head kick knockout. Has competed 65 times—exceptionally rare for a North American woman in combat sports. This episode isn't about technology. It's about what happens when you stop following the prescribed steps and start building a life around what actually matters to you. Taylor didn't fall in love with winning. She fell in love with the process. With adding one more piece to training camp—sprints, nutrition coaching, strength work—and never taking them away. With waking up and doing it again. She talks about needing three types of sparring partners: people worse than you to test new skills, people at your level to compete with, and people better than you just to survive the round. "I never want to be the best person in the room because what am I getting from beating up on the new kids?" The parallel to our industry is unavoidable. You can't grow if you're always punching down. You need to be uncomfortable. You need rounds where you're just trying to survive. We spend a lot of time on this show questioning whether technology actually serves human interests. Sometimes the best lessons come from outside our world entirely—from someone willing to abandon the expected path to pursue something real.

    35 phút
  3. A Biotech Innovation to Treat a Chronic Health Problem Impacting 2 Billion People

    3 THG 11

    A Biotech Innovation to Treat a Chronic Health Problem Impacting 2 Billion People

    Hunter Grad, CEO and founder of Ameliogenix, joins the show to talk about developing mRNA immunotherapies for cardiovascular disease. George K and George A sit down with Hunter to discuss: How a procrastinated university project turned into a biotech startup tackling the leading cause of death worldwide The novel application of mRNA technology to permanently reduce cholesterol levels through targeting proteins within the body rather than viral diseases What it takes to bootstrap a biotech company in Ottawa, not Silicon Valley The brutal realities of fundraising in biotech versus software startups, and why pivoting isn't always an option when lives are on the line Clearing up the myths and misinformation around mRNA technology, from how it actually works to addressing fertility concerns The role of machine learning in accelerating biotech research and drug discovery, and why quality data matters more than flashy AI hypeHunter breaks down complex immunology concepts into digestible explanations while sharing the raw challenges of being a young founder in a traditionally academic-led industry. This episode explores innovation at the intersection of technology and medicine, the importance of rigorous science over buzzwords, and what it means to swing for the fences on a problem that affects 2 billion people worldwide. Mentioned: Using AI, MIT researchers identify a new class of antibiotic candidates

    45 phút
  4. Confronting Big Tech's Abuses as a Question of Human Rights

    27 THG 10

    Confronting Big Tech's Abuses as a Question of Human Rights

    Hannah Storey, Advocacy and Policy Advisor at Amnesty International, joins the show to talk about her new brief that reframes Big Tech monopolies as a human rights crisis, not just a market competition problem. This isn't about consumer choice or antitrust law. It's about how concentrated market power violates fundamental rights—freedom of expression, privacy, and the right to hold views without interference or manipulation. Can you make a human rights case against Big Tech? Why civil society needed to stop asking these companies to fix themselves and start demanding structural change. What happens when regulation alone won't work because the companies have massive influence over the regulators? Is Big Tech actually innovating anymore? Or are they just buying up competition and locking down alternatives? Does scale drive progress, or does it strangle it? What would real accountability look like? Should companies be required to embed human rights due diligence into product development from the beginning? Are we making the same mistakes with AI? Why is generative AI rolling forward without anyone asking about water usage for data centers, labor exploitation of data labelers, or discriminatory outcomes? The goal isn't tweaking the current system—it's building a more diverse internet with actual options and less control by fewer companies. If you've been tracking Big Tech issues in silos—privacy here, misinformation there, market dominance over here—this episode is an attempt to bring those conversations together in one framework. Mentioned: Read more about the Amnesty International report and download the full report here: “Breaking Up with Big Tech: a Human Rights-Based Argument for Tackling Big Tech’s Market Power” Speech AI model helps preserve indigenous languages Empire of AI, by Karen Hao Cory Doctorow’s new book, "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It"

    45 phút
  5. What a Ransomware Attack on a Hospital Really Mean (Audio Issue Fixed)

    22 THG 10 · NỘI DUNG TẶNG THÊM

    What a Ransomware Attack on a Hospital Really Mean (Audio Issue Fixed)

    RE-ISSUE: This recording corrects for an audio overlap problem in the previous version of this interview at the 28:00 mark. Zach Lewis, CIO/CISO at University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis, joins the show to talk about his experience with a ransomware attack by the LockBit group. Zach takes us beyond the technical recovery into territory most people don't talk about: the gut-punch moment of finding the ransom note and the months of running on pure adrenaline while keeping his team from cracking under pressure. Key takeaways from our conversation: The human toll matters. When hospital systems go down, it's not just inconvenient. People can't get medications, emergency rooms have to reroute patients, and lives are at stake. This is the cyber war nobody wants to acknowledge. Attribution is nearly impossible. Even when you know who attacked you, there's rarely closure for victims. Leading through crisis. Zach shares how he kept his team together during months of remediation by staying calm on the outside, and knowing which team members could handle the pressure and which ones needed to stick to routine work. Sometimes the best leadership is just being that steady presence when everything else is chaos. If you want to understand what really happens when ransomware strikes, this episode is required listening. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Zach's book "Locked Up" drops January 6th and is available for pre-order now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1394357044 Mentioned: Cyber Attack Suspected in German Woman’s Death Chase Cunningham and cyber war

    42 phút
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Giới Thiệu

Hosted by two guys named George on either side of the divide, this is a cybersecurity podcast that tackles the relationship between vendors and their customers. George Kamide is on the security vendor side, and George Al-Koura is a CISO on the customer side. Vendors gotta sell, and companies need tooling to protect their data. Tune in to hear real conversations from opposing sides of the pitch about cybersecurity marketing, sales, and go to market strategies. We go after these topics and bad practices with bare knuckles, then it’s down to brass tacks to look for solutions. Tune in to hear from guests from either side, including CISOs, SMEs, sales leaders, frontline account managers, and more!

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