Episode One: Mission Critical Conversations June 2026

Resilience depends on seeing risk as one connected system. In the first episode of The Chertoff Group's Mission Critical Conversations, host Michelle Dawn Mooney sits down with Ben Joelson, principal and head of Security Risk and Resilience, to discuss what it takes to protect an organization in an age of converging threats. Joelson traces how the threat landscape has shifted since the post-9/11 era, away from large, detectable plots and toward smaller, ideologically motivated actors who are comfortable addressing grievances with violence. He explains why that change forces a move toward real-time, adaptive risk management. The conversation also surfaces the risks leaders tend to underestimate. Joelson makes the case that AI's impact on the workforce is a security concern in its own right, and that job displacement can translate into insider risk and workplace violence. He describes how cyber, physical and reputational threats now converge, and why managing them in silos leaves companies flat-footed. From there, the discussion turns to what leaders can do. Joelson lays out a practical approach to resilience: a strong risk intelligence program, a modern view of executive vulnerability and cross-functional alignment that is stress-tested before a crisis hits. He shares why the smartest organizations treat a peer's crisis as high-value training, and where AI supports faster decisions without replacing human judgment. Ben Joelson brings a career across the U.S. Air Force, where he served as a nuclear convoy commander and anti-terrorism officer, and more than a decade guiding Fortune 500 companies through high-stakes risk. Mission Critical Conversations is a podcast from the Chertoff Group. Subscribe for conversations that help organizations navigate risk to achieve their security and growth objectives.