Ep. 05: Splashy Action, Long Term Effect

Understandable Insights: Information to Intelligence with Sue Gordon

Understandable Insights: Information to Intelligence with Sue Gordon
Ep. 05: Splashy Action, Long Term Effect
Aug 12, 2025 Episode 5
Sue Gordon & Eric Koepp

In this episode of Understandable Insights, Sue and Eric jump into two Administration announcements—the GENUIS Act, the Nation’s first cryptocurrency policy focusing on stable coins; the second the elimination of more than $500M in mRNA research funding  As always, they break down the details of the announcements and put them in more strategic context  in other words, what they portend. 

To begin and end, they revisit some previous topics and presage emerging events.

Timestamps: 

00:00 Introduction to Understandable Insights

03:35 Be curious, not judgmental

05:40 GENIUS Act and stablecoins

13:20 China's stablecoin hesitation

18:35  mRNA research cuts

24:44 Government's role in research

32:21 National security and technological advancements

35:46 Geopolitical tensions and What We're Watching

46:21 Concluding Thoughts and Reflections

About:

Welcome to “Understandable Insights: Information to Intelligence with Sue Gordon” — the national security podcast that provides you an elemental understanding of the world as it is, not how you prefer it to be.

Each week, Eric Koepp — a former Marine, father, and entrepreneur — sits down with the Honorable Sue Gordon, the nation’s former top career intelligence officer. Together, they break down the headlines shaping our world and ask what they really mean for citizens, leaders, and institutions.

From armed conflict to emerging tech, foreign interference to the resilience of democracy — this is where raw information becomes real intelligence. Unfiltered. Candid. Unapologetically clear.

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