The Grey Dynamics Podcast offers an insight into the often murky and hidden world of intelligence. Brought to you by current and former intelligence practitioners that know the routes through the "Grey Zone".
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
From Improvised Rockets in Iraq to Drones Over Russia: Inside TECHINT with Travis Butson
Your intelligence team can tell you who fired the rocket. Almost none of them can tell you what it was, how it was built, or what’s coming next.
That gap has a name: TECHINT. And it’s the least understood discipline in the entire intelligence world.
This week I sat down with Travis Butson. 15 years with the New Zealand Defence Force, Air Force intelligence, and the man who built our new TECHINT course.
There is no equivalent of this course anywhere. I’ve looked.
In this episode:
How Travis learned to think like the enemy, alone in an armoury with a Carl Gustaf and no doctrine to hold him back
Tracking the adaptation cycles of improvised rocket systems in Iraq, and the Taji attack that changed how we think about insurgent capability
Why one photo from a Chinese air show was worth more than classified reporting
Op Spiderweb, drones, counter-UAS, and what happens when you underestimate a cunning enemy
Why identifying a weapon system is the first minute of the job, not the job
Inside the course: 15 modules, from the Battle of Thymbra to foreign materiel exploitation
Here’s the thing. Travis doesn’t just teach you to fish. He shows you how he fishes, then hands you the tackle box.
The course goes live on the 5th of July at the Grey Dynamics Intelligence School.
And that story about the Pantsirs in Sudan?
The one I couldn’t wrap my head around in 2023? You’ll want to hear how that ends.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
20 Mar 2026
Former US SOF SIGINT Operator on the Upcoming Grey Dynamics OSINT Course
Gabe Fanelli is back. Our Director of Training, 14 years active duty Army, Bronze Star recipient, SIGINT operator from West Africa to Syria, walks us through the new OSINT Operator Course, module by module.
This one is different. It is not a tools course. Tools go down. This is about building the analytical brain behind the tools: critical thinking, bias recognition, geo and chronological verification, the dark web, ad tech surveillance, corporate intelligence, and the ethics that hold all of it together.
We also went somewhere most podcasts will not go. AI in the kill chain. 900 strikes in 12 hours. The targeting deck for that girls’ school in Tehran. Palantir’s Maven Smart system. I wrote my dissertation on LLMs in the kill chain eight years ago, and the fact that the human is being removed further and further from the loop is not a future problem: it is a right now problem.
Gabe and I got into it on ad tech too. Your data broker probably knows your BMI. That should scare you.
The OSINT Operator Course is launching soon with a presale discount. If you work in intelligence, law enforcement, corporate security, compliance, or you just want to understand what is actually possible with open source data: this one is for you.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
6 Feb 2026
From SIGINT to OSINT: Gabriel Fanelli on Languages, Intelligence, and Being Useful
Gabriel Fanelli is back on the Grey Dynamics Podcast, and this time as our new Director of Training.
Look, I've been wanting to have this conversation since we first met. Gabe's trajectory is different from most people in the intelligence world. Bronze Star recipient, 14 years in the Army, former SOCOM instructor, fluent in Arabic, and now leading our training programs at Grey Dynamics. But what makes this conversation special isn't just his resume.
We went deep on this one. We talked about what it really means to be a crypto linguist, not the Hollywood version. But the actual work of listening to intercepted communications while sitting in a forward operating base in Syria. We talked about why he hated being stuck in a SCIF and how he found his way to tactical SIGINT work where he could actually connect with people on the ground.
But we also talked about languages in a way I haven't explored on this podcast before. Gabe's father was an archaeologist, and he grew up surrounded by Middle Eastern artifacts and culture. His love for Arabic didn't come from military necessity. It came from genuine fascination. And that makes all the difference when you're trying to connect with people. Whether you're an intelligence collector or just someone trying to understand the world better.
We touched on OSINT and where it sits in the intelligence ecosystem. Gabe's take is refreshing. OSINT isn't better than SIGINT or HUMINT, and those disciplines aren't better than OSINT. They're all sinew connecting different parts of the same body. The gatekeeping and chest-pounding about which INT is superior misses the point entirely.
And then we got philosophical. We talked about AI's role in intelligence work, about writing and how to convey complex ideas without sucking the humanity out of them, about the goal in life not being happiness but usefulness. Gabe wrote a book called The Resilient Dad after losing a friend to suicide, and his perspective on fatherhood, masculinity, and what it means to show up for people hit differently than most self-help nonsense you see online.
This is probably the most introspective conversation I've had on this podcast. Usually I'm just listening and learning from guests, but because Gabe and I are already friends, this felt more like two people thinking out loud together. If you're interested in intelligence tradecraft, if you care about language and cross-cultural communication. Or if you're just trying to figure out how to be a better human being in a world that's increasingly automated and disconnected—this one's for you.
And for those asking: yes, Gabe will be launching our Operational OSINT Fundamentals course soon, along with an open-source SIGINT course for people who want to get their feet wet in that world. More details are coming.
Listen now and see why I'm so excited to have Gabe on the team.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Who has been a guest on Grey Dynamics
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Douglas London
Ahmed Hassan
Bryan Stern
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
20 ratings
Spotify
4.9 / 5
73 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 45 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
50
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
97
Contact Grey Dynamics
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Grey Dynamics?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
