Intelligence; Optimised Podcast
by Todd Crowley
Latest episode
#72 China Can Cut the Pacific's Internet. Australia Has No Plan B |…
#72 China Can Cut the Pacific's Internet. Australia Has No Plan B |…
About this podcast
In this series our Indo-Pacific experts navigate the complexities of safeguarding our present and fortifying our future in these uncertain times.
Our focus is on delivering expert analyses and insights under the national security umbrella, to help you: "Be Ready for Today. Prepared for Tomorrow." This series is crafted for a discerning audience, including defence professionals, policymakers, academics, technology experts , logistics and supply chain managers, public health officials, and food and agribusiness purveyors.
It's designed for those who seek to stay ahead of the curve in understanding and implementing the cutting-edge strategies and technologies that define global security today and shape its evolution tomorrow.
The “Vaxa Bureau - Intelligence; Optimised Podcast” is a part of the Vaxa Grow Series and brought to you by the Vaxa Bureau team.
Find out more: https://vaxabureau.com/
Episodes
The newest 20 of 72 episodes
- #72 China Can Cut the Pacific's Internet. Australia Has No Plan B | Todd Crowley · 10 min · Season 2 Episode 42Picture a cable roughly the diameter of a garden hose lying on the ocean floor, 3,500 metres down. It carries 95% of international data traffic, including classified military…
- #71 700 Million Hungry Neighbours. Apparently That's Not a Market. | Part 2 · 29 min · Season 2 Episode 41Australia produces some of the cleanest, highest-quality food on the planet. But less than two percent of global venture capital flows into agriculture and food technology, a…
- #70 Australian Food Is 13% of GDP. The Capital Found Other Hobbies. | Part 1 · 28 min · Season 2 Episode 40Australian food is 13 per cent of GDP. It gets less than 2 per cent of venture capital. That gap is not an accident. It is where the entire conversation starts. Todd Crowley…
- #69 ADF trained her to run a field hospital. She built the second one herself| Wing Commander Dr. Ajitha · 46 min · Season 2 Episode 39What happens when the officer commanding Australia's forward-deployed surgical unit runs the same mission on her own time - faster, leaner, and without a joint logistics unit…
- #68 Australia Was Warned About Its Fertiliser Vulnerability. Nobody Acted. | John Cotter · 54 min · Season 2 Episode 38Australia feeds the region, but the mineral that makes that possible is almost entirely imported, processed offshore, and held in supply chains that break on a predictable cycle…
- #67 The 'Australian Made' Battery Illusion | Dominic Spooner - Part 2 · 25 min · Season 2 Episode 37Australia commissioned more grid-scale battery storage in 2025 than the previous eight years combined. Most of those systems have no cell-level visibility, no long-term support…
- #66 The 'Australian Made' Battery Illusion | Dominic Spooner - Part 1 · 25 min · Episode 36Australia commissioned more grid-scale battery storage in 2025 than in the previous eight years combined. Most of those systems provide two to three hours of support. In January…
- #65 We Feed the World. We Can't Feed Ourselves | The Labour Crisis | Kate Banville Pt. 2 · 30 min · Season 2 Episode 35Australia's agricultural sector faces simultaneous failures in fuel, fertiliser, and labour inputs. This is Part 2 of Todd Crowley's conversation with Kate Banville — journalist…
- #64 We Feed the World. We Can't Feed Ourselves. | Fuel & Fertiliser | Kate Banville Pt. 1 · 26 min · Season 2 Episode 34The season is already at risk — Australia's fuel is nearly gone and the fertiliser that should have arrived from the Gulf hasn't. --- Australia exports food to three times its…
- #63 Iran "Defeated" — So Why Is The Strait Still Closed? | Col. Paddy Hallinan · 1 h 15 min · Season 2 Episode 33The headlines say Iran lost. The insurance market disagrees. Lloyd's of London has withdrawn cover from the waterway. Maersk has suspended bookings. 170 container ships are…
- #62 What the QUAD Can Actually Do to Secure the Seas | Colin Gunn - Part 2 · 41 min · Season 2 Episode 32In Part 2 of the episode, Todd Crowley and Colin Gunn unpack how a 28-hour Group 3 platform, the Raider 330, plugs into a wider Indo-Pacific security fabric. They walk through…
- #61 What the QUAD Can Actually Do to Secure the Seas | Colin Gunn - Part 1 · 30 min · Season 2 Episode 31Colin Gunn argues the centre of gravity for maritime security has shifted. Coast Guards, border agencies, fisheries, aviation and SAR authorities already maintain daily sovereign…
- #60 Weapon-Grade Carbon: Breaking the World's Quietest Dependency | Mark Livings - Part 2 · 43 min · Season 2 Episode 30Part 2 of this Intelligence Optimised episode goes from “carbon is everywhere” to “carbon decides who holds power” - in energy, defence, health and the wider Indo-Pacific. Todd…
- #59 Weapon-Grade Carbon: Breaking the World's Quietest Dependency | Mark Livings - Part 1 · 36 min · Season 2 Episode 29Advanced carbon is one of the quiet foundations of modern capability - running through batteries, sensors, drones, soldier systems, grid storage and data centres. More than 90…
- #58 Welfare Trends & Future of Young Australian Men | Lachie Stuart · 1 h 4 min · Season 2 Episode 28Young Australian men are carrying more isolation, welfare reliance and aimless grind than many leaders realise - and that has direct consequences for workforce readiness and…
- #57 $73B Australia Al Backbone: Data Centres, Renewables | Pete McCrystal · 43 min · Season 2 Episode 27Australia is moving fast to secure its digital sovereignty through new AI “factories” and national-scale data centres. In this episode of Intelligence Optimised Podcast, Todd…
- #56 Sovereign Digital Chains | Swaroop Tulsidas - Part 2 · 28 min · Season 2 Episode 26In part 1 of this two-part conversation, Intelligence Optimised explored practical sovereignty — how Australia can’t be fully sovereign in technology, but can be far more…
- #55 Sovereign Digital Chains | Swaroop Tulsidas - Part 1 · 33 min · Season 2 Episode 25Australia can’t be fully sovereign in tech - but it can be more prepared. In this episode of Intelligence Optimised, Todd Crowley speaks with Swaroop Tulsidas - formerly of…
- #54 Redesigning Childcare for Productivity & National Growth | Madeline Simmonds & Jen Fleming - Part 2 · 38 min · Season 2 Episode 24In Part 1, the conversation exposed the lived impacts of Australia’s current childcare model - from parents driving hundreds of kilometres to reach centres, to professionals…
- #53 Redesigning Childcare for Productivity & National Growth | Madeline Simmonds & Jen Fleming - Part 1 · 26 min · Season 2 Episode 23Why childcare subsidy reform matters for productivity and family policy. Hear from parents leading the national debate. In this Part 1 episode of Intelligence Optimised, Todd…
