The Collators

What happens when the systems we rely on to find information stop simply retrieving answers and start generating them? Library science and AI governance specialist José Ruiz-Vázquez joins The Collators to explore what librarianship can teach us about the rapidly changing information environment. Drawing on more than two decades in public libraries and his recent work in AI security, José explains why librarians have always done far more than look after books: they help people navigate information, assess what they can trust, and connect what they know to what they actually need.

Intelligence veteran Nadia Tuominen joins Mark Lockwood and Howard Atkin to explore how analysts think, how professional judgement develops, and why some of the most important parts of analysis may be difficult to explain. Drawing on a career spanning policing, sports integrity, economic crime, academia and professional training, Nadia reflects on the culture of intelligence analysis, the value of intellectual humility, and why thinking itself should be treated as a skill that can be developed.

Drawing on more than four decades of reporting, Andrew Revkin reflects on the craft of journalism, the danger of becoming captured by a compelling narrative, and what happens when complicated realities are compressed into headlines designed to compete for attention.   From Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and TWA Flight 800 to climate reporting and the rise of social media, the conversation explores how journalists, analysts and scientists can get things wrong even while trying to establish what is true.

Drawing on experience spanning the US Navy, the intelligence community, national security law and Capitol Hill, Carson Checketts discusses how he found his way into intelligence, the enduring lessons of 9/11, and why information-sharing remains one of the hardest problems facing large institutions. The conversation explores the tension between secrecy and openness, the cultures that develop inside intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, the importance of professional trust and informal networks, and whether traditional organisational silos still make sense in an increasingly connected world.

What does investigating cold cases really involve? The conversation reveals cold-case investigation not as a self-contained event, but as a continuing process shaped by time, technology, professional judgement and the enduring experiences of victims' families. Former UK Detective Inspector Howard Atkin explains why an unsolved case does not simply stop when the original investigation ends. They explore the relationship between active investigation and independent review, how limited resources affect which cases are revisited, and why evidence, records and human memory become more difficult to recover as time passes.