Best Michael James Benson Podcasts (2025)

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EMPIRE CITY UNDER SIEGE—Craig McGuire 59:56

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16h ago59:56

59:56

Empire City Under Siege shares true stories of an FBI Special Agent spanning three tumultuous decades in New York City, beginning in the gritty 1970s when law enforcement refused to let their city be consumed by corruption and violence. Starting as an undercover operative investigating Mafia hijackers in Red Hook, Anthony John Nelson offers a gripp…

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Lawfare Daily: The Trials of the Trump Administration, Dec. 5 1:37:47

39m ago1:37:47

1:37:47

In a live conversation on YouTube, Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett sat down with Lawfare Senior Editors Anna Bower, Michael Feinberg, Molly Roberts, Roger Parloff and Eric Columbus and Lawfare Contributing Editor James Pearce to discuss the arrest of a suspect in the attempted bombing on Jan. 6, 2021, a hearing in NPR’s lawsuit over the Tru…

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Joey Bragg, Kevin Lewis and Geoff Tate guest 53:44

3h ago53:44

53:44

Doug welcomes Joey Bragg, Kevin Lewis and Geoff Tate to the show. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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B Movie Blockbuster Knockoffs: Topline (1988)/Lady Terminator (1988) 2:00:37

1d ago2:00:37

2:00:37

B Movie Blockbuster Knockoffs: Topline (1988)/Lady Terminator (1988) Top Notch Nonsense Genre Film Podcast Episode 125-B Movie Blockbuster Knockoffs: Topline (1988)/Lady Terminator (1988) This week we talk about two B Movie Blockbuster Knockoffs. A Hybrid of Indiana Jones and Aliens Are infused in both movies this week, Topline and Lady Terminator.…

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Lawfare Archive: Lynzy Billing on Afghanistan's Zero Unit Night Raids 42:27

7h ago42:27

42:27

From January 24, 2023: In 2019, investigative journalist and photographer Lynzy Billing went to Afghanistan to investigate a very personal story: her own past. In the process, she discovered what she came to call a classified war, one with lines of accountability so obscured that no one had to answer publicly for operations that went wrong. Lawfare…

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Lawfare Archive: How Congressional Staffers Helped Our Afghan Allies 38:00

3d ago38:00

38:00

From April 5, 2024: A new report from the POPVOX Foundation focuses on a little-known and hugely under-appreciated congressional effort: that of congressional staffers helping Afghan allies flee the country during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett sat down with the report’s author, Anne Meeker. They talke…

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Lawfare Live: The EU Fines X 120 M Euros - What Comes Next? 35:50

1d ago35:50

35:50

On Dec. 5, the European Commission announced that they are fining X (formerlly Twitter) 120 million euros for impersonation scams with “verification,” broken advertising transpaency system, and blocking researchers from its platform. On a Lawfare Live, Lawfare Senior Editor Kate Klonick and Lawfare Contributing Editor Renee DiResta analyzed the dec…

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Scaling Laws: Caleb Withers on the Cybersecurity Frontier in the Age of AI 49:00

1d ago49:00

49:00

Caleb Withers, a researcher at the Center for a New American Security, joins Kevin Frazier, the AI Innovation and Law Fellow at the University of Texas School of Law and a Senior Editor at Lawfare, to discuss how frontier models shift the balance in favor of attackers in cyberspace. The two discuss how labs and governments can take steps to address…

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Lawfare Daily: The End of New START? With John Drennan and Matthew Sharp 58:45

5d ago58:45

58:45

New START, the last bilateral nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia, will expire in February 2026 if Washington and Moscow do not reach an understanding on its extension—as they have signaled they are interested to do. What would the end of New START mean for U.S.-Russia relations and the arms control architecture that ha…

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Rational Security: The “Living La Vida Off Camera” Edition 1:29:25

5d ago1:29:25

1:29:25

This week, Scott sat down with his Lawfare colleagues Benjamin Wittes, Natalie Orpett and Eric Ciaramella to talk through the week’s big national security news stories, including: “The Art of the Ordeal.” The Trump administration has been at the center of yet another bout of shuttle diplomacy the last several weeks, after an initial “28-point plan”…

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Lawfare Daily: The Besieged District Judges, with Reynolds Holding and Judge Jed Rakoff 50:57

6d ago50:57

50:57

Veteran legal journalist Reynolds Holding, author of "Better Judgment: How Three Judges Are Bringing Justice Back to the Courts," and U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, one of the judges featured in his book, sit down with Lawfare Senior Editor Roger Parloff to discuss the role of district judges in our justice system. They also discuss the attacks th…

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'Playing with Fire' by Arthur Conan Doyle with Dr. Emily Vincent. 1:20:22

6d ago1:20:22

1:20:22

In Series 5, Episode 9 join me, Adam Z. Robinson, and my guest, Dr Emily Vincent, as we discuss 'Playing with Fire' by Arthur Conan Doyle. Dr Emily Vincent is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in English Literature at the University of Birmingham. As part of the Media and Epidemics project, Emily is co-writing a book on imaginative representations of …

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Lawfare Daily: America's Defense Industrial Base 43:17

7d ago43:17

43:17

For today's episode, Lawfare Foreign Policy Editor Daniel Byman sits down with Seth Jones, the President of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic & International Studies to discuss Seth's new book about the U.S and Chinese industrial bases, "The American Edge: The Military Tech Nexus and the Sources of Great Power Dominanc…

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Ring-Side Seats in a High-Stakes Environment: Brian Stewart’s On the Ground 58:42

7d ago58:42

58:42

On a lovely fall afternoon in October, Linda drove up to possibly one of the most charming spots in Quebec, just off-island of Montreal —Hudson, on the unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka. Hudson has much to commend to it, but, in this instance, it was StoryFest, the annual literary program hosted through the Greenwood Centre that invites write…

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SISTERS IN DEATH—Who Killed The Black Dahlia?—Eli Frankel 1:29:47

8d ago1:29:47

1:29:47

Who killed the Black Dahlia? In this eye-opening shocker, award-winning producer, true-crime researcher, and Hollywood insider Eli Frankel finally solves the greatest-and most gruesome-murder mystery of the twentieth century just before its 80th anniversary. In January 1947, the bisected body of Elizabeth Short, completely drained of blood, was dis…

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Lawfare Daily: Grading the Trump Administration's Cybersecurity Efforts, with Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery 35:50

8d ago35:50

35:50

Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery is the Senior Director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He spent 32 years in the Navy as a nuclear-trained surface warfare officer, retiring as a rear admiral in 2017. After leaving the Navy, Admiral Montgomery worked as policy director for the Senate …

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Kurtis David Harder, Jonathan Mangum and Clarke Wolfe guest 1:00:15

4d ago1:00:15

1:00:15

Doug welcomes Kurtis David Harder, Jonathan Mangum and Clarke Wolfe to the show. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Holiday Food That Kills You: Poultrygeist (2006)/Thankskilling (2008) 2:08:37

8d ago2:08:37

2:08:37

Holiday Food That Kills You: Poultrygeist (2006)/Thankskilling (2008) Top Notch Nonsense Genre Film Podcast Episode 124-Food That Kills You: Poultrygeist (2006)/Thankskilling (2008) This week we talk about the cholesterol that makes you die with two films from the Aughts: Poultrygeist from 2006 and Thankskilling from 2008. Also discussed are the mo…

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Lawfare Archive: Russia and the American Far-right, with Marlene Laruelle 41:20

9d ago41:20

41:20

From November 19, 2024: Lawfare Associate Editor Olivia Manes sat down with with Marlene Laruelle, a Research Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at The George Washington University, and Director of GW's Illiberalism Studies Program, to discuss the financial, ideological, and historical connections between the American far-righ…

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Lawfare Archive: Deploying the Military at the Southern Border, with Chris Mirasola 42:25

10d ago42:25

42:25

From November 26, 2024: Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes sits down with Chris Mirasola, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center, to discuss the legal and practical considerations surrounding a president’s ability to deploy the military at the U.S. southern border, particularly in light of President-elect Trump’s re…

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Lawfare Archive: Zelensky’s Victory Plan, with Anastasiia Lapatina and Eric Ciaramella 43:14

11d ago43:14

43:14

From October 18, 2024: Following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to the Ukrainian Parliament outlining his victory plan, Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with Lawfare Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina and Eric Ciaramella of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. They talked about the components of the plan,…

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Lawfare Archive: AI Regulation and Free Speech: Navigating the Government’s Tightrope 1:23:10

12d ago1:23:10

1:23:10

From November 25, 2024: At a recent conference co-hosted by Lawfare and the Georgetown Institute for Law and Technology, Georgetown law professor Paul Ohm moderated a conversation on "AI Regulation and Free Speech: Navigating the Government’s Tightrope,” between Lawfare Senior Editor Alan Rozenshtein, Fordham law professor Chinny Sharma, and Eugene…

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JOIN US for the live-streamed Christmas Special! 1:59

12d ago1:59

1:59

In this BONUS episode, I'm inviting you to join us for the live-streamed Christmas Special of The Ghost Story Book Club on Tuesday 9 December. Book your place here: http://gsbcxmas2025.eventbrite.com/ My guest will be Mike Muncer (The Evolution of Horror) and we'll be discussing the classic BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas films Stigma (1977) and th…

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Lawfare Daily: Anastasiia Lapatina and Eric Ciaramella Talk Russia, Ukraine, and Trump 56:14

13d ago56:14

56:14

Lawfare Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina and Eric Ciaramella of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace join Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes to discuss the last week's machinations surrounding a potential Russia-Ukraine peace deal. What is the actual American position? Is the United States abandoning Ukraine? Or is it now backing off the 2…

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'The Mezzotint' by M.R. James with Leon Craig 1:21:19

13d ago1:21:19

1:21:19

In Series 5, Episode 8 join me, Adam Z. Robinson, and my guest, Leon Craig, as we discuss 'A Wicked Voice' by Vernon Lee. Leon Craig is the author of gothic short story collection Parallel Hells and queer haunted house novel The Decadence (both Sceptre UK). Her work has been published in Hazlitt, the London Magazine, the TLS and elsewhere. Leon is …

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Erotic Melodramas with a Passionate Simp & a Empty Chad: Boxing Helena (1993)/Young Adam (2003) 2:59:47

13d ago2:59:47

2:59:47

Erotic Melodramas with a Passionate Simp & a Empty Chad: Boxing Helena (1993)/Young Adam (2003) Top Notch Nonsense Genre Film Podcast Episode 123-Erotic Melodramas with a Passionate Simp & A Empty Chad: Boxing Helena (1993)/Young Adam (2003) This week we talk about 2 jerkface toxic men trying to control and use the women in their lives. The two fil…

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Lawfare Daily: Inside the Law Letting Senators Sue Over Phone Data 46:56

14d ago46:56

46:56

Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes talks with Executive Editor Natalie Orpett and Senior Editor Michael Feinberg about their recent Lawfare article examining a little-noticed piece of legislation that was slipped into the deal to end the government shutdown—one that gives senators a civil right of action to sue the U.S. government when their p…

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Lawfare Live: Judge Dismisses Indictments Against James Comey and Letita James 40:39

14d ago40:39

40:39

At 4 pm ET, Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett will sit down with Lawfare Senior Editor Roger Parloff and Lawfare Contributor James Pearce to discuss a judge dismissing the indictments against both former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that Lindsey Halligan was not properly appointed to served as U…

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RUNAWAY GROOM—Ron Peterson Jr 1:17:49

15d ago1:17:49

1:17:49

Good-hearted country boy Petie Miller vanishes without a trace two days before his wedding in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley in 1983. Some speculate it’s a case of cold feet, but investigators suspect cold-blooded murder. The bride’s stepfather, a violent career criminal named Charlie Almond, is the prime suspect. Circumstantial evidence suggests tha…

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Lawfare Daily: The Trials of the Trump Administration, Nov. 21 1:45:18

15d ago1:45:18

1:45:18

In a live conversation on YouTube, Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with Lawfare Senior Editors Molly Roberts, Roger Parloff and Eric Columbus and Lawfare Public Service Fellow Loren Voss to discuss a judge ordering the Trump administration to end the National Guard deployment in D.C., updates in the prosecutions of Letitia James an…

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Joey Bragg, Jared Hacker and Anna Roisman guest 1:00:09

13d ago1:00:09

1:00:09

Doug welcomes Joey Bragg, Jared Hacker and Anna Roisman to the show. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Lawfare Archive: The Saudi-Iran Deal Featuring China 57:01

16d ago57:01

57:01

From April 13, 2023: A few weeks ago, China made headlines for brokering a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia to thaw diplomatic relations after seven years of cutting ties and even more years of tense relations. Since then, we've already begun to see some downstream effects of this deal, with significant movement on the war in Yemen and the reopen…

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Lawfare Archive: Explaining the Michigan Fake Electors Prosecution 42:55

17d ago42:55

42:55

From August 16, 2023: On July 18, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel unveiled criminal charges against 16 people—the “fake electors” from that state who featured in Trump’s effort to hold onto power in 2020. Just a few weeks later, a special counsel in Michigan announced additional charges related to the 2020 election, this time against three pe…

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Lawfare Daily: The New U.N. Security Council Resolution on Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan, with Amb. Jeffrey Feltman and Joel Braunold 1:03:19

18d ago1:03:19

1:03:19

For today’s episode, Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson sits down with Joel Braunold, Managing Director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace and a Lawfare contributing editor, and Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, the John C. Whitehead Visiting Fellow in International Diplomacy at the Brookings Institution, who previously served as …

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Lawfare Daily: All Things Ukrainian Energy with Anastasiia Lapatina 49:42

19d ago49:42

49:42

Lawfare Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina has written two recent articles for Lawfare on energy and the Ukraine war. The first deals with the ongoing Russian attacks on the Ukrainian civilian power grid—attacks which actually interfered with the recording of this very podcast. The second details an ongoing corruption scandal rocking the Ukrainian …

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Lawfare Live: Discussing the Hearings on James Comey’s Prosecution and the Alien Enemies Act 53:33

19d ago53:33

53:33

At 4pm ET on Nov. 19, Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with Lawfare Senior Editors Molly Roberts, Anna Bower, and Roger Parloff to discuss two court hearings that occurred that day. First they discussed the hearing in the prosecution of James Comey. Then they briefly discussed the hearing in J.G.G. v. Trump, over potential contempt …

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Rejoinder: MASSIVE Part 2 with John Trefry

19d ago

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Joe is rejoined by John Trefry to close the book on MASSIVE, or will they?! Contact for John Trefry MASSIVE Bsky Inside the Castle Contact for Joe bielecki Instagram, and Bluesky: @noisemakerjoe Website One time donation Patreon Tired Art photo by Arielle TipaBy Joe bielecki

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Rational Security: The “Chicken Fight” Edition 1:17:47

19d ago1:17:47

1:17:47

This week, Scott sat down with his Lawfare colleagues Anna Bower, Michael Feinberg, and Roger Parloff to talk through the week’s big domestic news stories, including: “Diving Head First into the Shallow End of the Jury Pool.” A federal magistrate judge has concluded that the government may well have made substantial misrepresentations and other err…

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Lawfare Daily: Emily Hoge on Russian Mobsters at the Front 46:13

20d ago46:13

46:13

Benjamin Wittes sits down with Emily Hoge, a historian at Clemson University, who has written a pair of pieces for Lawfare recently about Russian mobsters and the war in Ukraine. They’re getting out of prison in exchange for service at the front. Some of them are surviving their service there and returning home by way of reward—and the Russian crim…

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'A Wicked Voice' by Vernon Lee with Brontë Schiltz 1:29:38

20d ago1:29:38

1:29:38

In Series 5, Episode 7 join me, Adam Z. Robinson, and my guest, Brontë Schiltz, as we discuss 'A Wicked Voice' by Vernon Lee. Brontë Schiltz is a writer, journalist and PhD candidate researching the Televisual Gothic at Manchester Metropolitan University's Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies. Her creative work has been published in Hungry Ghost Ma…

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Taking Out the Imperial Trash - Jovanni Sy's A Taste of Empire 36:55

20d ago36:55

36:55

Linda AND students of Bishop's University interview the award-winning Montreal-based playwright, Jovanni Sy, in this episode of Getting Lit With Linda. Linda considers how one of his plays in particular, A Taste of Empire (Talonbooks), obliges us confront the abuses of a system of globalization, wherein the processes involved in maximizing profit a…

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Lawfare Daily: The Epstein Files and the Politicization of the Justice Department 57:53

21d ago57:53

57:53

Senior Editor Anna Bower speaks with Lawfare Public Service Fellow Michael Feinberg and Senior Editor Eric Columbus about the extraordinary actions taken by the Justice Department and Congress in response to calls for the release of investigative files related to Jeffrey Epstein. The discussion covers the DOJ’s unusual “review” of the Epstein files…

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WhoDunit Thrillers Starring James Mason: The Last of Sheila (1973)/Bloodline (1979) 2:07:00

21d ago2:07:00

2:07:00

WhoDunit Thrillers Starring James Mason: The Last of Sheila (1973)/Bloodline (1979) Top Notch Nonsense Genre Film Podcast Episode 122-WhoDunit Thrillers Starring James Mason: The Last of Sheila (1973)/Bloodline (1979) This week we talk about 2 WhoDunit Thrillers starring the amazing James Mason: ‘The Last of Sheila’ from 1973 and ‘Bloodline’ (1979)…

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Lawfare Daily: The Trials of the Trump Administration, Nov. 14 1:29:23

22d ago1:29:23

1:29:23

In a live conversation on YouTube, Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett sat down with Lawfare Senior Editors Anna Bower, Roger Parloff and Eric Columbus and Lawfare Public Service Fellow Loren Voss to discuss an update in the Georgia prosecution of President Trump, a hearing on whether Lindsey Halligan was lawfully appointed as U.S. attorney, a …

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Joey Bragg, Josh Gondelman, Seth Herzog and Kate Micucci guest 1:13:34

21d ago1:13:34

1:13:34

Live from City Winery in New York City, Doug welcomes Joey Bragg, Josh Gondelman, Seth Herzog and Kate Micucci to the show. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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A NEED TO KILL—Mark Pettit 1:09:15

22d ago1:09:15

1:09:15

From two-time best-selling author and three-time Emmy-winning investigative reporter Mark Pettit comes the haunting true story of Nebraska serial killer John Joubert—a case that shocked a nation and still echoes across the true-crime world. It was one of the most terrifying times in Nebraska's history. The year a young Air Force Airman went on a ki…