A new wave of civil unrest in Iran has triggered one of the most severe communications crackdowns the country has seen, with disruptions extending beyond the internet to voice, SMS, and Starlink. Host Philip Gervasi is joined by Amir Rashidi (Miaan Group / Filterwatch) and Kentik’s Doug Madory to break down how the shutdown unfolded, what the data shows as connectivity collapses, and why attribution is tricky in the fog of a rapidly evolving crisis. They discuss Iran’s National Information Network (the domestic “intranet”), how shutdown tactics have grown more targeted and sophisticated over time, and what makes this event different.

Host Philip Gervasi is joined by Andrés Azpúrua (Executive Director, VE sin Filtro / “Free and Secure Online”) and Kentik’s Doug Madory to examine what internet visibility can, and can’t, tell us during a fast-moving political crisis in Venezuela. They discuss Venezuela’s “baseline” reality of brittle infrastructure and recurring power outages, alongside long-standing, regulator-mandated censorship targeting independent media, social platforms, and even exchange-rate information. Using multiple data perspectives, the episode explores how traffic patterns, localized outages, and BGP noise can be misread without ground truth, and why careful attribution matters.

Host Phil Gervasi talks with Chris Grundemann, cofounder of the Network Automation Forum and AutoCon, about why network automation still isn’t fully adopted after more than a decade of hype. They dig into the real blockers behind the tech: skills gaps, engineer identity and culture, organizational structure, and the broader “sociotechnical” system around NetOps. Chris also shares how the AutoCon community has evolved over five events, the growing role of observability and AI in automation, and what’s next for NAF and AutoCon in Europe.