The Peter Zeihan Podcast Series - A Glimpse Into Peter Zeihan's Daily News Digest

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

This is a sample of the news digest that Peter Zeihan starts his day with: https://mailchi.mp/zeihan/a-glimpse-into-our-daily-news-digest If you want to get the news digest sent to your inbox daily, join the Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/PeterZeihan

Hi, I'm Michael Nabi Oskiri. I'm the director of analysis here and sign in geopolitics. And I just wanted to talk a little bit about what our daily news digest, our coffee brief is, what it's meant to do for us, how we use it, because there's been some questions about where is the content that we've come from, who writes it. So we are in open source shop. Our past is in open source intelligence. And for, um, the, bulk of it, that means we rely on reporting to help keep us informed about the world and how that works. So depending on the size of your organization or your needs or what your clients' needs are, open source collection can look a few different ways.

For us, our researchers, our analysts do a lot of the primary collecting on their own, based on what's going on in the world, what our client needs. are things that interest us. So we pull from a variety of sources, a variety of reporting agencies. Now, what we do for our brief, that's a little bit different than some summaries you might be able to get from other organizations.

And again, based on our own needs, we present the news raw, so sort of like a raw intel. The only reason we do is, One is when we read the news, how we read the news, all of the details that are presented in an article are relevant to us. These include the reporting agency. So is it an in-country news desk? Is it a wire?

When we say a wire, we mean a global reporting agency, sort of like Reuters or an AP in the U.S. In the UK, the BBC, which, of course, has historic roots with the government and is publicly supported. Other examples of agencies like that would be AFP, a Jean-Alstance Press, which is for France. The Germans have one. So who's the recording agency? Who's the reporter? There are certain reporters that might have a particular bias, good or bad?

That's important for us to know. There's some reporters who have a good track record of reliability when it comes to some of the tips or leaks of the day. certain outlets have affiliations with certain governments or branches of government agencies. For a long time, the LA Times had a longstanding relationship between several of its reporters and certain intelligence agencies out of the U.S. and they got a lot of good CIA at least. Where is the story reported from? If we're talking about an event that's unfolding in Bangladesh, but it's reading reporters,

out of Paris, that reporter very likely was not on the ground when events were unfolding. So again, where are they getting their information from? Also, we include what would be in a print story, like above the fold. The first few paragraphs after the lead, after the byline of the story, there, again, this is just a raw intel or a raw presentation of the story. not every story in the brief is going to be relevant for everyone at that time for us internally. But you could sort of skim the relevant details and see, do I need to go through and click this link and read more of this? Or Peter or somebody else to say, I need more information on what's being reported here. Look at it, look at it sent to them.

They can then ask for like an in sum, an intelligence summary, more data on a particular topic. So that's why sometimes if you read an item in the coffee brief to digest and you're like, why is this particular language being used? Whose toner, whose belief or whose analysis is reflecting? That's the story. That's the news article item. That is not the sort of final presentation of an internal forecast or analysis from Zog on that topic. We are giving y'all what we see. what reread from that particular news article.

So they bring up a recent conversation that was happening. Al Jazeera presented a story where they described Israeli military's actions in Gaza as genocide. Al Jazeera, I think, actually went on to change the language in that report. But there was a lively discussion, which I think broadly is good. you should be engaged, you should participate in exchange of ideas with everybody. That was a major goal of ours from me, set up

the Patreon. But, you know, there was a question of, does the energy of politics call this genocide? I would say maybe from a geopolit perspective, that conversation is sort of go to the side, but that was not a language

analysis. But it's also important to note that one of the major and last remaining international outlets whatever your view of them, on the ground or as much on the ground as they can be, in this kinetic

situation, let that particular designation, or we can call it bias, pass through and go on to publishing. Does that completely invalidate what they're reporting? I would argue, you might seem differently. We can talk about it.

I think we can engage in in adversarial but not antagonistic, again, exchange of analyses and ideas, and hopefully we'll all emerge at the end of it, better informed, and more open. But this is probably going on too long for most of you all to care about. But if there is interest and sort of, I'll be further parse apart a story or what sources do we look at? Or why do we engage with some particular clients of media and not others. I think we'd be happy to get into that either me or

if Peter's schedule allows, absolutely Peter can. This is something that I've been doing for a decade and a half and I forget, and that's my bet, that not everybody has the same sort of internal

rubric or metrics that they engage with the story with, so the same sort of, what is that for me, an internalized process when I open up a newspaper or more forgiving quick to the news. So if that's, again, if this is that all interesting to you, if you would like any more on this, let us know. And if you don't like the format of the digest, we're still going to do it the way we do it for ourselves internally. But all of this is a new and organic and evolving process.

So we want, again, to be as impactful and meaningful for all as it is for us. So let us know. Um, anyways, again, really appreciate the support, really appreciate the engagement. Uh, it means a lot to see that so many people get, uh, get enjoyment of finding value in what we do every day. So thanks again.