Episode 5: Russia: Inside & Out
Konstantin Samoilov grew up in Russia, lived in the United States, then returned to build a successful life in Moscow, until 2022 changed everything.
In this conversation with Mark and Howard, Konstantin explains how his YouTube channel began as a hobby to “translate” everyday Russia for a Western audience, and why the invasion of Ukraine pushed him from observer to daily documentarian, and ultimately forced him to leave.
He recounts the moments when the risks became real and the wrenching decision to leave Russia with little time to prepare.
Episode 4: Making Sense: Interview with Deborah Osborne
In this episode of The Collators, Mark and Howard are joined by Deborah Osborne, retired intelligence analyst and educator whose career spans the Buffalo Police Department and the U.S. Secret Service
A wide-ranging conversation about what analysis actually is, why the profession so often struggles to define itself, and what “good” looks like in practice.
Debbie’s journey into the craft is anything but linear (she didn’t become an analyst until her forties), and that outside perspective shapes a sharp critique of how the role is taught, labeled, and valued..
Episode 3: Interview with Jeremy Levin
There's an old joke in intel. Three analysts, six opinions. Well in this pod, three intelligence nerds walk into a podcast and end up debating about standards, ethics, and the limits of what humans can explain about their own thinking.
Jeremy Levin (analyst, trainer, and long-time intelligence practitioner) sits down with Mark Lockwood and Howard Atkin to discuss how analytic standards evolved from “guild” practice into codified frameworks like ICD 203.
Episode 2: Trust me, I'm a doctor: Return of Dr Jim Wilson
Dr. James Wilson is back—and this time the topic is trust. Jim shares what it’s like when families walk into the clinic sceptical, anxious, or armed with competing “expert” advice, and how he had to rethink his own approach: less authority-as-command, more humility, disclosure, and coaching.
Mark and Howard connect the dots to policing, courts, and the wider attention economy—where simple narratives spread faster than complex truths. Together, they ask a hard question: if trust is falling everywhere, how do we rebuild it without surrendering expertise?
Episode 1: The Madness Of Our Times with Mark Blyth
What does a banking crash have to do with frontline services quietly collapsing a decade later?
In this episode, Mark and Howard are joined by award-winning political scientist and economist Mark Blyth (Brown University) to trace the “breadcrumb trail” from 2008 to today’s brittle institutions, hollowed-out state capacity, and a politics increasingly powered by distraction — mostly in the UK, but with familiar echoes across the West