In this episode of the podcast, we are shifting from modeling physical risks to exploring how wargaming and combat modeling is being used to understand the growing threat of geopolitical conflict.

Our guest is Dr. Jeremy Sepinsky, Lead Wargame Designer at CNA, a federally funded research and development center that supports national security analysis.

We dive deep into how wargaming differs from traditional combat modeling, how escalation and de-escalation decisions are captured through human dynamics, and what all of this means in the context of current tensions with Iran.

Whether it’s simulating natural disasters, cyber warfare to strategic miscommunication, Dr. Sepinsky explains how wargames help reveal the unpredictable—but actionable—dimensions of risk that quantitative models alone can’t capture.

Risk Market News: Risk, Models and Markets

In this episode of the Risky Science Podcast, Dickie Whitaker, CEO of the Oasis Loss Modelling Framework, discusses how open-source catastrophe modeling is transforming the risk ecosystem. Whitaker shares the origin story of Oasis and how the platform is working to lower barriers to entry, spur innovation, and increase transparency in a space long dominated by proprietary models. The conversation covers how Oasis has evolved over the past decade, recent milestones in its adoption by major players like Moody’s and Verisk, and the importance of model evaluation frameworks in ensuring trust and credibility—especially for regulators, reinsurers, and developing countries.

Whitaker also offers a behind-the-scenes look at Oasis’s technology roadmap, including performance upgrades for large portfolios, growing support for cyber and climate-conditioned models, and new tools tailored for low-resource environments. From global reinsurers to national risk pools, the episode explores the expanding use cases for open modeling and what success looks like for an ecosystem built on collaboration. Whether you're a model developer, regulator, or insurance professional, this episode offers a candid look at the future of catastrophe risk analytics.

As insurers seek higher yields in a persistent high-rate environment, private credit has become an increasingly significant part of portfolio strategies. But with that growth comes a new set of questions—about liquidity, transparency, and the long-term implications for credit quality. Carmi Margalit shares S&P’s analytical framework for assessing these risks, highlighting what insurers, regulators, and investors should be watching.