Voices of the Vigilant podcast:
humanizing cybersecurity
with candid tales from cyberspace and beyond
About the Voices of the Vigilant podcast
Voices of the Vigilant is a cybersecurity podcast about the humans behind the work — their stories, their pivots, their hard-earned lessons. Each episode is a candid conversation with practitioners, leaders, and thinkers doing meaningful things in the field.
New episodes drop monthly. Find the full catalog below or on all major podcast platforms and YouTube.
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Voices of the Vigilant reaches a targeted audience of cybersecurity professionals, career changers, and security leaders. If your product or service belongs in that conversation, let’s talk about a sponsorship.
Voices of the Vigilant episode catalog
Voices of the Vigilant EP12 | Fear into Fluency: Building Real Cyber Literacy
This episode features Craig Taylor, Co-Founder and CEO of Cyberhoot, a cybersecurity training company.
Panic is not a security strategy. Craig Taylor—co-founder of CyberHoot and longtime virtual CISO—shares a people-first approach to security that swaps fear for positive reinforcement and simple, repeatable habits. With his psychology background, he explains how short, gamified exercises build real muscle memory against urgent scams and deepfake-driven attacks.
Craig highlights the highest-ROI steps leaders can take now: MFA on every external account and an easy path to passkeys. He breaks down how FIDO2 passkeys tie identity to both device and site, eliminating phishing and password reuse without added friction.
We also zoom out to the essentials most teams miss—complete asset inventories, verified patching, least privilege, and clean entitlements—along with monthly email analysis drills to counter AI-enhanced phishing. The result: empowered users, fewer incidents, and lower support costs.
Special Offer:
Get 20% off CyberHoot for one year with code UnHacked.
Voices of the Vigilant EP11 | Calm Under Fire: The Psychology of Thriving in Cybersecurity
This episode features Sara Rabinovitch, PhD, Workplace Psychologist | Clinical Psychologist | Behavior Scientist | Co-Founder & Chief Clinical Officer, Pacific Mindful Wellbeing @ Work
Why does your brain feel razor-sharp at 2 p.m. but foggy by 7? In this episode of Voices of the Vigilant, we sit down with psychologist and behavioral scientist Dr. Sara Rabinovitch to explore the hidden cost of constant vigilance—and how small, evidence-based resets can bring your nervous system back online.
Sara translates cutting-edge stress science into practical tools for high-pressure fields like cybersecurity and tech, turning recovery into a measurable skill rather than a wellness cliché. From understanding heart rate variability and polyvagal-informed breathing to mastering quick, tactile resets, she shows how flexibility—not calm—is the true mark of resilience.
We also dive into the tougher stuff: emotional masking in hybrid teams, the loneliness of leadership, and how reframing recovery as readiness boosts performance and retention. If you’re ready to protect your edge without burning it down, this episode offers grounded science, compassionate strategy, and a fresh definition of vigilance—sustained attention you can direct on purpose.
Listen now and try a two-minute reset at learn.pacificmndfl.com
Voices of the Vigilant EP10 | The Groundbreaker: Lessons from the Many Layers of Cyber
This episode features Andreae Pohlman, Cybersecurity strategist and former member of Microsoft’s Corporate Incident Response and Compromise Recovery team.
Careers in cybersecurity rarely follow a straight line—and that’s where the real strength is built. In this episode, we sit down with Andreae Pohlman—Air Force veteran, former Microsoft incident responder, and enterprise security advisor—to chart a journey from the identity trenches to global ransomware recovery and the architectural backbone that holds it all together.
Andreae shares hard-won lessons from Pass-the-Hash defenses, ESAE bastion forests, and privileged access workstations, connecting them to today’s Entra ID and the Defender suite. She breaks down how identity-first practices evolved into full-stack defense, why compromise recovery deserves equal footing with incident response, and how AI can sharpen—but not replace—discipline and process.
Threaded through it all is community: from Scholarship for Service to Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, where Andreae now helps others build both skill and confidence. Her closing message? Kill the password. Passkeys and passwordless authentication aren’t just convenience—they’re liberation from whole categories of attack.
If you’re navigating your cyber career, maturing your IR program, or seeking a community that runs on grit, this episode delivers clarity, connection, and a call to evolve.
Voices of the Vigilant EP09 | The Mentor’s Map: Empowering Pathways to Cyber
This episode features Chris Lemmon, Director of Security Engineering at Secure Yeti and educator at City Colleges of Chicago.
Chris shares how her unconventional journey—from nanny to cybersecurity leader, gives her a fresh perspective on problem-solving and people management. She believes diversity is essential to strong security teams: “What we need is that Swiss cheese model—different lived experiences covering security from all angles.”
Her grant-funded Cybersecurity Career Accelerator removes barriers for students, blending technical training with hands-on competitions. Beyond the classroom, her “Backpacks for Good” initiative turns unused conference swag into care packages for Chicago’s homeless—showing how tech can drive change both in careers and communities.
The human side of tech
As a gifted speaker and connector, Jess is super excited to share this project with you! Each episode features a candid conversation with folks in the infosec space on a specific topic and is designed to educate and inspire you to take action on your own terms.
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Apply to be a guest
Know someone, or are someone, with a story worth hearing? We’re always looking for practitioners, leaders, and unconventional voices from across the security landscape.