Most people grow up believing that our brains become “adult” sometime around the late teens or early twenties. School ends, university begins, careers start—and the assumption is that the brain is already fully developed by then. But new research from the University of Cambridge tells a very different story, and it’s the subject of our latest Battleplan Podcast episode. Why does this matter for our listeners? Because it challenges the long-held idea that we stop developing as young adults....

China’s intelligence activity in the West no longer resembles the old world of secret agents and midnight handovers. Today, it’s something far broader — a blend of political access-building, cyber penetration, strategic business deals, and online influence campaigns that often look harmless until you zoom out. What makes it so effective is precisely what makes it so difficult to counter: each piece appears ordinary, even deniable, yet together they form a strategic effort to shape how Western...

A New Episode of the Battleplan Podcast For many STANAG students and teachers, “Military English” can feel like something that takes place in classrooms, textbooks, and training centers. But what does it look like when language teaching moves to the front lines? What happens when English becomes a tool not just for exams, but for survival, cooperation, and real-time decision making? In the latest episode of the Battleplan Podcast , I speak with Olena Chekryzhova — an experienced educator...