Avignon, AI Risk, Federal Workforce Futures

Avignon, AI Risk, Federal Workforce Futures

From Sirens: A Bombshell production by Loren DeJonge Schulman, Radha Iyengar Plumb, Erin Simpson

April 15, 2026 · 1h 6m · Season 2 · Episode 8

About this episode

Radha and Loren discuss federal hiring models and AI risks with guest Margaret Mullins, covering various political and technological topics.

Radha and Loren welcome Margaret Mullins (Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator) to discuss her new report proposal new models for organizing federal hiring and talent maangement (it's extremely cool, trust us). We have just way too much fun in it's a drill between Iranian Lego meme wars, the Pentagon's threats to the Pope, the FY27 budget, and the extreme drama that is our tech overlords. For Dumpster Fires, we consider just what Anthropic actually meant when they said their latest AI model is simply too scary and what response we can expect from the Trump administration. And for Gong Show - Artemis!

People in this episode

Hosts: Radha Iyengar Plumb, Loren DeJonge Schulman

Guest: Margaret Mullins

Topics covered

  • federal hiring
  • AI risk
  • Pentagon
  • budget
  • technology
  • politics
  • meme culture

Keywords

  • federal workforce
  • AI model
  • Pentagon threats
  • Trump administration
  • budget
  • technology drama
  • meme wars

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, Pentagon, Trump administration, Anthropic

Places: Iran, Pope

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