Podcasts about Southeast Asia

For a limited time only, new customers get 20% off + free shipping at blueprint.bryanjohnson.com by using code WARTIMESTORIES at checkout. #Blueprint #ad A compilation of some of our strangest humanoid encounter stories, featuring firsthand accounts from servicemembers who reported talking animals, pale, lanky figures and humanoid creatures in remote locations around the world. From alleged skinwalkers and pale crawlers in North America and Europe, blood sucking creatures in Southeast Asia, and other unnatural beings reported in the Middle East, these encounters never made the official reports, but remain in the minds of the servicemen who saw them and continue to defy easy explanation long after the witnesses returned home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of the China Global South Project, joins the pod to discuss the developments on the other side of the globe. From Ho Chi Minh City, Eric explains how the Global South actually sees the US-Iran war, why nobody expects China to ride to anyone's rescue, and how Vietnam's tariff and energy shocks became a never-again moment. He and Jacob dig into the myth that tariffs can implode China, America's fading China literacy, and why the next order won't be Chinese-led - but China will be its transformational character.*Note: There are some weird buzzing sounds in the pod, we know! There was some sort of issue uploading the audio, we're on it.--Timestamps:(00:00) - Welcome and Guest Intro(00:46) - World Cup Travel Chaos(02:01) - Soccer Politics and Tensions(03:33) - Meet Eric Olander(05:32) - China's Transformation Story(07:54) - Global South Views of China(10:26) - China as Daily Operating System(13:12) - Pew Poll Surprises Explained(14:10) - Southeast Asia vs Northeast Asia(17:32) - Why Philippines Aligns With US(20:10) - Japan Taiwan Flashpoint(21:15) - Supply Chains and Sea Lanes(23:36) - Japan Rearms for Post US Era(28:19) - Japan's Regional Influence(30:38) - Japan as Counterbalance(32:04) - Drone Age Security Shift(33:05) - South China Sea Alarm(33:28) - Iran War Global South(38:37) - China Gains and Risks(40:46) - No Alliance Expectations(43:51) - ICBM Test Explained(47:40) - Decoupling and US Pragmatists(50:35) - People to People Breakdown(54:41) - China Blowing Europe Window(58:56) - Mutual Misunderstanding Finale(59:55) - Closing Thanks and Signoff--Referenced in the Show:--Jacob Shapiro Site: jacobshapiro.comJacob Shapiro LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jacob-l-s-a9337416Jacob Twitter: x.com/JacobShapJacob Shapiro Substack: jashap.substack.com/subscribe --The Jacob Shapiro Show is produced and edited by Audiographies LLC. More information at audiographies.com--Jacob Shapiro is a speaker, consultant, author, and researcher covering global politics and affairs, economics, markets, technology, history, and culture. He speaks to audiences of all sizes around the world, helps global multinationals make strategic decisions about political risks and opportunities, and works directly with investors to grow and protect their assets in today's volatile global environment. His insights help audiences across industries like finance, agriculture, and energy make sense of the world.--Mentioned in this episode:Check Out Future Hindsight!If you enjoy our podcast, check out our homies over at Future Hindsight! It's an award-winning weekly podcast that takes big ideas about civic life and democracy and turns them into action items for you and me. Learn more at www.futurehindsight.com/

Business and finance news from the Asia-Pacific. The hottest name in China's domestic AI industry is Moonshot. The company's AI model -- known as Kimi K3 -- was released last Friday. It shows China is closing the gap on OpenAI and Anthropic more rapidly than anticipated -- even with limited access to the most advanced processors from Nvidia. We speak about the market reaction with David Savage, Bloomberg's MLIV Strategist. And -- Top diplomats from across South East Asia are gathering at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meetings. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will attend along with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. There is a lot of topics in focus, including Myanmar's future, the situation in the Middle East, China and Philippines bilateral relations. Bloomberg TV Host Avril Hong spoke to Bec Strating, Director of La Trobe Centre for Global Security. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The C919, China's domestically developed narrowbody passenger jet, will begin its first scheduled international commercial service next month, a step industry experts said will test the aircraft's ability to operate beyond domestic markets and help build confidence for wider overseas expansion.中国自主研发的窄体客机C919将于下月开启首条国际定期商业航线。业内专家表示，此举将检验该机境外运营能力，也有助于为后续更大规模海外拓展积累信心。The daily round-trip service, operated by Air China, will connect Beijing Capital International Airport and Ulaanbaatar's Chinggis Khaan International Airport in Mongolia from Aug 12, the airline said.国航方面透露，这条每日往返航线将于8月12日起通航，往返北京首都国际机场与蒙古国乌兰巴托成吉思汗国际机场。According to the schedule, outbound flight CA723 will depart Beijing at 3 pm Beijing time and arrive in Ulaanbaatar at 5:15 pm local time. The return flight, CA724, will leave Ulaanbaatar at 6:30 pm local time and arrive in Beijing at 8:35 pm Beijing time.根据航班计划，出境航班CA723北京时间15时从北京起飞，当地时间17时15分抵达乌兰巴托；返程航班CA724当地时间18时30分从乌兰巴托起飞，北京时间20时35分落地北京。The route marks the first time the C919, manufactured by Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, will enter a regular international commercial passenger aviation market.该航线是中国商飞制造的C919客机首次投入常态化国际客运商业运营。Previously, the aircraft has operated mainly on Chinese mainland routes, as well as services connecting the mainland with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. China Eastern Airlines launched the aircraft on scheduled flights between Shanghai and Hong Kong in January 2025, while Air China began regular C919 services between Beijing and Hong Kong in November.在此之前，C919主要执飞中国大陆境内航线，以及内地往来香港特别行政区的航班。东方航空已于2025年1月用该机开通沪港定期航线，国航则在同年11月开通京港C919常态化航班。"Choosing Ulaanbaatar as the first regular international destination is not a move to lower the entry barrier or test the waters," said Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy.中国新经济研究院创始院长朱克力表示：“选择乌兰巴托作为首条国际定期航线目的地，并非为了降低准入门槛、浅尝辄止。”Zhu said the decision reflected a combination of factors including aviation cooperation between China and Mongolia, airworthiness cooperation arrangements, operational safety and route economics.朱克力称，这一决定是多重因素综合考量的结果，涵盖中蒙航空合作、适航协作机制、运营安全以及航线经济效益。"China and Mongolia have maintained stable civil aviation cooperation, with a relatively mature framework for airworthiness cooperation," Zhu said. "The airport environment is relatively straightforward, the flight distance is moderate and the aircraft can complete a round trip within a day, allowing domestic technical support to respond quickly if operational issues arise."朱克力表示：“中蒙民航合作长期稳定，双方拥有较为成熟的适航协作体系。当地机场运行环境简单，航程适中，客机可当日往返，一旦出现运行故障，国内技术保障力量能快速响应处置。”The route also has established business and tourism demand, making it suitable for regular commercial operations rather than serving only as a demonstration flight, Zhu said.他表示，该航线拥有稳定的商务、旅游客流需求，适合常态化商业运营，而非仅作为示范航班。He said the first international route is aimed at validating the full process of cross-border operations, including overseas maintenance support, international air traffic coordination and customs procedures.他表示，首条国际航线的核心目的是完整验证跨境运营全流程，包括境外维修保障、国际空管协调、海关通关流程等环节。"Ulaanbaatar is more like a low-risk practical training ground where the C919 can accumulate real overseas operating data and build a replicable model for future international expansion," Zhu said.朱克力称：“乌兰巴托更像一处低风险实操试验场，C919可以在这里积累真实海外运营数据，为后续国际化拓展打造一套可复制的运营模式。”Guo Jia, a civil aviation expert and professor at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies' South China Business College, said safety considerations were the primary factor behind the selection of the first international destination.广东外语外贸大学南国商学院民航专家郭佳教授表示，安全考量是选定首个国际通航点的首要因素。He said Air China's previous experience operating the C909 regional jet to Ulaanbaatar, along with the airline's assessment of airport handling and maintenance capabilities, also supported the route choice.他介绍，国航此前长期使用ARJ21支线客机执飞乌兰巴托航线，同时航司对当地机场地面保障、维修维护能力进行过充分评估，这也助推了这条航线落地。For the Chinese aviation industry, the significance of the route extends beyond the flight itself, experts said.专家指出，对中国航空产业而言，这条航线的意义远不止航班运营本身。"Previously, C919 operations were mainly based on China's domestic airspace and supporting infrastructure," Zhu said. "This scheduled international route means the aircraft is entering a regular commercial passenger aviation system between countries."朱克力表示：“此前C919的运行完全依托国内空域与配套保障体系，这条国际定期航线，标志着该机正式进入跨国常态化商业客运体系。”The operation will help establish overseas support capabilities, including maintenance cooperation, spare parts arrangements and international operating procedures, Zhu said.朱克力称，此次通航将助力搭建境外配套保障体系，涵盖维修合作、备件储备、跨境运营流程等多个方面。Guo said international expansion would require more than aircraft performance. "Aircraft sales, international operations and market expansion all need to comply with the airworthiness standards of different countries and regions," Guo said, adding that broader international communication and certification efforts would be necessary.郭佳表示，国际化拓展不只是考验飞机性能。“飞机销售、跨境运营、市场开拓都必须符合各国各地区的适航标准，还需要开展大量国际沟通与适航认证工作。”Guo added that overseas maintenance, aircraft support and route support capabilities would be among the key challenges for international operations.郭佳补充，境外维修、整机后勤保障、航线配套能力，将是该机开展国际运营的核心难点。Looking ahead, experts expect the C919's international expansion to be gradual. "C919's internationalization will not follow an aggressive model of rapidly launching a large number of routes," Zhu said.展望未来，专家认为C919的国际化进程将循序渐进。朱克力表示：“C919不会采取激进模式，短时间内密集开通大量国际航线。”After validating operations in Ulaanbaatar, the aircraft will likely expand first into short-haul international markets in Central Asia and Southeast Asia, allowing it to accumulate experience under different operating conditions, Zhu said.朱克力表示，在乌兰巴托航线完成运营验证后，C919大概率会先拓展中亚、东南亚短途国际市场，在多样运行环境中积累运营经验。"The priority is to complete the transition from zero to one — making the first international route operate safely and accumulating experience," Guo said. "Only after establishing overseas safety operation and maintenance standards should the C919 move from one route to multiple routes.郭佳称：“当下首要任务是完成从0到1的突破，保障首条国际航线安全运行、沉淀实操经验。只有建立成熟的境外安全运营与维修标准后，C919才能从单条航线拓展至多条国际航线。”"Airworthiness certification is indeed one of the biggest barriers for the C919 entering mainstream European and US markets," Zhu said.朱克力表示：“适航认证，确实是C919进入欧美主流市场最大阻碍之一。”He said certification by authorities such as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the US Federal Aviation Administration would be essential, while airlines' familiarity with the aircraft, maintenance networks, leasing systems and market recognition would also influence adoption.他表示，获取欧盟航空安全局、美国联邦航空管理局等机构的适航认证至关重要；同时航司对机型的熟悉度、全球维修网络、飞机租赁体系以及市场认可度，都会影响各国引进该机的意愿。narrowbody /ˈnærəʊbɒdi/窄体客机airworthiness /ˈeəwɜːðinəs/适航性certification /ˌsɜːtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn/认证infrastructure /ˈɪnfrəstrʌktʃə(r)/基础设施short-haul /ˌʃɔːt ˈhɔːl/短途的maintenance /ˈmeɪntənəns/维修，维护

Indonesian language teaching will be extinct in Australia by 2031, warns a parliamentary inquiry into Australia's Asian capability.Australia talks constantly about the importance of Asia, but is failing to build the skills needed to understand our closest neighbours.At the same time, Indonesia is on track to become one of the world's largest economies and an increasingly influential power in the region.So how did Australia get here? And what does it mean for trade, diplomacy, defence and our future relationship with Southeast Asia?And with China testing missiles in the Pacific, is Australia missing a perfect opportunity to build relationships in the region?Hamish Macdonald and Laura Tingle speak with Labor MP Tim Watts, who chaired the House of Representatives inquiry into building Asia capability in Australia. They discuss the collapse of language study, what Australia risks losing, and whether we're missing one of the biggest strategic opportunities on our doorstep.

The latest episode of the Cambridge Tech Podcast features a fascinating panel discussion on international trade recorded live at this year's Cambridge Wide Open Week.Steven Lynch, Director of International Trade at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), opens with a sobering statistic: whilst only 10% of British businesses export, the BCC's network achieves a remarkable 45%. This disparity represents a significant untapped opportunity. As Lynch points out, "If we increased UK exports by 2%, we could improve UK GDP by 0.6%."The problem isn't a lack of innovation or ambition; it's a delivery gap. UK founders and scientists often lack the business expertise and market clarity needed to confidently enter international markets. This is where the new trade accelerator comes in.Rather than offering generic webinars about exporting, the BCC has created something fundamentally different: an end-to-end, process-driven accelerator specifically targeting life sciences companies interested in Singapore.Singapore might not be the obvious first choice for UK startups - the US typically dominates - but it's positioned as a strategic gateway to Southeast Asia. With a population of 6 million, Singapore punches well above its weight as a hub for healthcare innovation and life sciences.Jay Sadanandan, a Singapore life sciences expert, highlights the market's unique advantages:The Health Sciences Authority recently launched a close collaboration with the UK's MHRA, enabling regulatory expediency for innovative technologiesAccess to world-class clinical research infrastructure and patient populationsSingapore's ambitious government vision to solve prevention through treatment across healthcareThe 10 selected companies span pre-seed to Series C stages and focus on areas where UK strength aligns with Singapore opportunity: genomics, molecular diagnostics, advanced therapeutics, and enabling technologies like biologic stabilisation. Importantly, companies aren't required to relocate or abandon UK operations. Instead, they use Singapore as a commercial testbed, a lower-risk environment to validate their business model before scaling across Asia Pacific, the US, or beyond.What's Next?The pilot launches in September 2026, but the ambitions extend far beyond Singapore. Lynch reveals plans to scale to Hong Kong, the Gulf, and other strategic markets. The ultimate goal? Moving from 15 businesses entering one market annually to 15 businesses entering different markets each month.For UK startup founders and investors watching the export opportunity, this episode offers genuine insight into how the next generation of British life sciences companies might achieve global scale, and why Singapore might be the launchpad you haven't considered yet.Listen to the full episode on the Cambridge Tech Podcast to hear the complete discussion, including audience Q&A and practical advice for companies considering international expansion.Headline sponsor Holden Polestar Produced by Cambridge TV #CamTechPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keith explores how investors can build legacy wealth by owning productive teak timber and the land beneath it in Panama.  Mike Cobb, an international real estate developer with over 30 years of experience, explains why Panama's legal framework, economic stability, and U.S. dollar economy make it a compelling destination for first-time offshore investors.  They discuss the long-term return profile of teak, its resilience as a hard asset, and common mistakes to avoid when investing internationally, along with how a sawmill and vertical integration can enhance returns.  This discussion highlights how the strategy can diversify both geography and asset type while also opening doors to potential residency options abroad. Episode Page: GetRichEducation.com/615 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text  FAMILY to 66866  Unlock truly passive real estate income—visit flockhomes.com/GRE today to see if your properties qualify for a 721 exchange with Flock Homes. To get in the best physical, mental, and professional shape of your life, go to DanielThomasHind.com and apply for Daniel's intensive 1-on-1 coaching for burnt-out entrepreneurs and executives. Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search "how to leave an Apple Podcasts review"  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— GREletter.com  Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Keith Weinhold  0:01   Welcome to GRE. I'm your host Keith Weinhold, talking about a legacy investment. You can profit from this real asset long term, and so can your heirs. It's real estate, but not housing. It's a diverse and more primitive use type. Today on Get Rich Education, you know. Mid South Homebuyers, that top Memphis turnkey provider. I learned that a secret weapon behind their explosive growth is more than just you buying their properties. It's an executive coach. For nine years now, their CEO Terry Kerr and his COO Pat Mix have worked privately with a coach who I've now learned from too, and he doesn't market himself online anywhere. After 12 years behind the scenes, that coach is now making himself available exclusively for GRE listeners. His name is Daniel Thomas Hind. If you're a hard-charging business owner or investor who wants to get in the best shape of your life, physically, mentally, and professionally, you can fill out an application for a free consult. This is private one-on-one coaching for those willing to go to uncommon lengths to achieve uncommon results. Thanks to Daniel, we've all become better leaders, better operators, and better men. It started by showing up for ourselves. Now it's your turn. Go to DanielThomashind.com. H-I-N-D. That's DanielThomashind.com, and sign up before spots fill.   Keith Weinhold  1:35   What if you got your mortgage loans the same place I get mine? You sure can at Ridge Lending Group NMLS 42056. They provided GRE listeners with more loans than anyone because Ridge specializes in investment property. They'll help you build a long-term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequal and even chat directly with President Caeli Ridge while it's on your mind. Start at ridgelendinggroup.com. That's ridgelendinggroup.com.   Speaker 1  2:08   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is Get Rich Education.   Keith Weinhold  2:24   Welcome to GRE from Cherokee, North Carolina, to Cherokee, Panama, and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm your host Keith Weinhold. Welcome back to another Wealth Building Week. You are inside Get Rich Education, where financially free beats debt free. Today we're talking about a specific investment that is not residential real estate. In fact, it's a more primordial real estate type that predates housing. So therefore, it is lucid and intelligible. It's easy to understand. Sort of the opposite of more arcane investment like AI data centers or crypto mining. At a basic level, this makes it easy to understand, and there aren't any tenants to manage. It also does not pay you as often as monthly, though as you'll learn, there is income and appreciation is expected too. Now, if you invest outside your home country, you're probably going to want to be diligent and select a politically stable nation that also has an operator based in that region with a fantastic track record. It helps if they're close to the U.S. This small nation is close to the U.S. in both geographic proximity and economically. Their currency is even the U.S. dollar. They even share an electrical system with the U.S. with the same outlets and voltages. As you might be guessing, where I'm talking about, this nation also has a consumer culture somewhat similar to the U.S. with American restaurants and retailers and brands in our real estate world. What we find more important is how, like the U.S. this nation is a constitutional presidential republic, and both nations have these separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches, the three branches and elected presidents, in these competitive multi-party elections, and both America and this place have market-oriented economies that emphasize private property and private enterprise, banking and financial services, international commerce, logistics, ports, and aviation.   Keith Weinhold  4:49   Today, we're talking about the opportunity for you to own productive timber and the land beneath it, teak hardwood trees in Panama, a quarter-acre parcel. At a time with your name on the deed, that direct ownership is known as fee simple ownership. I have directly invested in Panama for about 11 years myself. Now, though teak might be able to survive in a climate like Hawaii, mere survival is not enough in the U.S. It is difficult to impossible to find anywhere that grows productive plantation teak. Here in the late 2020s decade, we've had bouts of El Nino or La Nina a lot of places in the world, and that has severely weakened some crop types. Other providers of different agricultural investments are failing, but not this teak. They're resilient, and we'll get into the physical properties of the teak. I'm going to ask today's distinguished guest about that. He and his business partners planted some select timber 27 years ago, and they've been offering teak hardware parcels to investors for that long, 27 years, and for about the last 10 years to GRE investors. Hundreds of you are participating now, but I'm going to wait to ask more about the physical teak product itself until later, because what's more important are the investment environment and the strength of the operator. So learn more about this and what the projected investment returns are, and just how much exactly does a quarter-acre parcel of teak cost? If you so choose, owning teak parcels also gives you the option of residency status in Panama, and you only need to spend two days there every two years in part of maintaining that status, they offer investor in-person tours of the teak plantations too because they're proud of what they do there. I expect a fascinating discussion with Mike, the teak company co-founder and CEO. This week's guest has become a friend since I met him about 10 years ago. He co-founded and is CEO of an international real estate development company. He's got active projects throughout Central America. He's been doing it for more than 30 years, so he's not a tinkerer and not trying out project concepts.   Keith Weinhold  7:26   And at this point, he's helped thousands of North Americans diversify their portfolios through international real estate ownership and residency planning, and even lifestyle investing. And if you've ever attended an investment conference on something like global diversification. You might have seen him speak there because he's such a frequent, recognized speaker and voice, and he's authored multiple books on real estate, financial freedom, expat living, and just unlocking a better lifestyle. Hey, welcome back onto the show, Mike Cobb.   Mike Cobb  7:59   Oh Keith, nice to be with you. And you're right. 10 years, we've enjoyed one another's company at many conferences. It's always great to be back with you virtually. I look forward to seeing you again personally one of these days as well. And yeah, thank you for the very kind words on the intro.   Keith Weinhold  8:14   Yeah, if I'm teetering on whether or not to attend a conference, I ask myself, is Mike going to be there? That's right.   Mike Cobb  8:20   We'll hang out,   Keith Weinhold  8:22   100% And you know, Mike, he's also an avid reader of GRE's "Don't Quit Your Daydream" newsletter. So then, clearly, he's even smarter than you've ever thought. You heard him on the show before, so you knew he was smart, but now he's even smarter than you ever knew since he's a reader. Tell us what you like about the newsletter.   Mike Cobb  8:40   You know, Keith. I gotta say, every issue that comes in, I read it. By the way, today's issue said read before Thursday, so you give me a couple days tomorrow at least to read it. Anyway, no, you know what? You are so powerfully succinct. The charts that you put in are wonderful. You were a geographer major, and and so spatial things are important. I also recognize. I love the charts. I love the graphs, and I hate to even say I love sort of the I hate to call it the trivial information, but you know enough data points that seem trivial when you put a theory around them actually become meaningful. And what you are able to do is you're able to connect dots that most people don't connect. That's the hallmark of genius, and I think you are a genius, by the way. And I think your newsletter shows that. And so, thanks for putting it out. Your readers are very, very fortunate to have you there, giving them the kinds of information that are super relevant in the marketplace at one level and on a specific level. But even more important, creating the theoretical constructs that allow them to understand the why of something's happening because you know if you understand the why of something you know it makes a lot more sense first of all but it also allows us to maybe forecast the next what coming down the pike and if we can be on the front edge of something or you know being able to look over the hill or around the bend that's. Powerful in the marketplace, and and you bring that power to your readers. Well done, man.   Keith Weinhold  10:04   Thanks. Yeah, it's not just what; it's why this matters. And that was an incredibly kind thing to say. I write every word of the letter myself, and you, the listener, you can get the letter free now@greletter.com I send it about weekly, and Mike, I know that U.S. investors, including some Get Rich Education followers, they've been increasingly looking offshore for one thing many perceive the political risk has palpably higher than it was a few years ago. So, just broadly, tell us more about what North American investors seem to be looking for.   Mike Cobb  10:42   Sure, I summed it up earlier today. I was talking with a conference organizer, and he was really giving me the hard sell on why I should come to his conference. And it's probably not a good fit. But I heard myself say it for the first time. What we really help folks do in certain spheres, but maybe in this sphere, is help people get a good night's sleep, you know, peace of mind, right? And when you've got the political turmoil, you wrote an article or a newsletter a couple weeks ago, and it was about inflation, the kinds of things that were happening, and it was so spot on. And I think your readers, and not just your readers, but people who are tuned into what's really happening from a political standpoint, a financial standpoint. There is no way you can print this much money. There's no way you can have these kinds of things going on all the time that create a huge run-up of debt, right? And it's not even the debt; it's the implications of the debt. What's going to happen next? How's this thing going to unwind, right? And so when you have all of this stuff going on. You have people who are really, really worried about their future. It's a financial future. I say there are two train wrecks. There's a train wreck of debt, which is what I just talked about, and there's a train wreck of freedom. And that train wreck of freedom is really, in some ways, a result of the train wreck of debt. But when you've got a train wreck or two train wrecks happening, we really have three choices. We can ride it out, right? Take the ride and go for the crash, right? We can do something about it, but we really have to do something about it before. I'm going to mix a metaphor here, but if you know a hurricane's coming in three or four days, you don't wait till the wind's blowing 150 miles an hour to put up the plywood, right? You get out there while the sun's still shining. You put up the plywood, and then when the hurricane hits, like you got plywood over the windows, and you can ride out the storm. And this is where I think so many people are today. They're recognizing this hurricane is coming. The problem is, is that I don't think people always know where to go get plywood, right? What do I do? How do I protect myself and my assets, right?   Mike Cobb  12:38   And what this conversation right here is about is here's one kind of plywood you can put up on your window and the diversification overseas the diversification internationally into a hard asset that is not really inflation proof because I'm not sure there is such a thing but largely inflation proof or a big a great hedge against inflation real stuff hard assets real estate timber commodity right this is. what so many people are now looking at, and then the other piece of it is you can layer in a residency, which starts to give you that political plan B. You've got an economic plan B, kind of the hedge against inflation, but you've got this residency component that gives you sort of a hedge against the political uncertainty, and 1000s of folks have moved in this direction. Several 100, I think it's about 600 folks now, have picked up the residency as part of their timber investment as well. So a lot of different things going on, but I think they do circle all the way back to this train wreck of debt and a train wreck of freedom, the political divisiveness kind of what's happening.   Keith Weinhold  13:40   Now, what if someone hasn't invested in a hard asset overseas before, Mike? I'm thinking some people might come ask you. You know, why would I do this? For example, I live in the United States, where we have a rule of law and stable, mature markets and high property ownership rights. So, why should I look to diversify internationally with hard assets,   Mike Cobb  14:01   yeah, I think there's a general answer, and then maybe a couple specific answers. Generally, you know, I would never bet against the U.S. the U.S. economy. We're the largest economy in the world. I would never bet against it, right? But I think that for prudence, we would all want to have at least another basket for a few of our eggs: 5% 10% 20% Pick. Pick a number that's comfortable, but have some of your investable net worth outside your home country. Like that's just prudent, right? Why would you have everything all in one basket? And so we see that as a general answer. Specifically, a country like Panama, where we do have artique plantations, they have public title escritora publica. It's fee simple title, but in the civil law, so it's called escritora publica. The rule of law is strong in Panama. And then the other thing about Panama that I absolutely love is you have the canal, and the canal provides both economic stability and political stability. On the economic side, it generates just. Under $5 billion a year of cash flow, year in year out, right? So just it's like an ATM machine for a country with a population of about 4 million people. Do the math on that; like that's a huge amount of money on a per capita basis, right?   Keith Weinhold  15:13   Narrow water passages have really been newsworthy for a long time now, too.   Mike Cobb  15:16   Well, they have, and just like the Strait of Hormuz, right? You know, people sometimes go. I hear it said, "Oh, the canal is a vital strategic U.S. interest. That is absolutely 100% correct. But if you're a country that produces any goods that ship, or you're a country that receives any goods by ship, that canal is a strategic interest to you, and by definition, that's every country in the world. Every country in the world wants that canal open and transiting, right? Because everybody either produces or receives or both, right? And so you've got the political stability element as well as the economic stability element. You've got the rule of law. Panama is a great, great place for that person who you mentioned who's never done an overseas investment, never gone offshore, right? What's an easy place to start? What's one of the safest places to start is Panama, and it's in this hemisphere too, so it's close. I mean, you can get there for three hours from Miami, three and a half hours from Houston. Flights all over to U.S. Canada. It's easy. So I think a lot of folks see Panama as a very, very easy way to make that first step overseas.   Keith Weinhold  16:25   I happen to know that you just flew in from Panama. You're in the United States today, but you're constantly going to Central America. You span time zones more often than almost anyone I know. You mentioned fee simple ownership in there. For those that don't know, I think of that as direct ownership, where you don't have some weird administrative government layer in there that can dilute your hard asset.   Mike Cobb  16:47   Right, you can own it in your own name, you can own it in a corporation, so it's easy to own it. But yeah, no layering, right? By the way, the Constitution treats owners who are Panamanian the same exact ways it treats all foreign owners, and actually, we do business all over Central America. The one thing that we look for is a a legal regime that protects foreigners and foreign investors the same as it does domestic. Panama does that.   Keith Weinhold  17:12   Yeah, so investing in hard asset in Panama is a bit like investing internationally with training wheels on, due to its close relationship with the United States bolstered by the Panama Canal, but yet if someone hasn't invested internationally first, there are still a few mistakes to avoid. Maybe things that one isn't aware of. Can you tell us more about that?    Mike Cobb  17:33   The biggest danger people have when they make their first foreign investment is what I call margarita madness, right? And a lot of times it happens. You're on vacation in Cancun. You're having the time of your life. You're you just went parasailing, whatever. You're walking down the beach, and some developer says, "Hey, come on up here and take a look at my condo project. You know, and we'll buy you dinner at Senior Frogs tonight. We'll give you a coupon or whatever, right?   Keith Weinhold  17:55   Right.   Mike Cobb  17:55   And a lot of people do that, and then later that night, that's Senior Frogs. They're celebrating the condo they just bought, right? I mean, it's not how we transact real estate in the U.S. and Canada. There's a due diligence process. There's a due diligence period. It takes weeks or months to transact on a property, not hours, right? And so the single biggest mistake is that, and the way that we really can resolve it. I mean, my book is all about this. In fact, you have a copy, and I think you've helped some of your your readers and listeners get copies as well. It's called "How to Buy Your Home Overseas and Get It Right the First Time, and it really boils down to three simple principles: buy what you see. Is it there? Right. Own community. Right. Make sure it's in a place where you have people around. Right? Because there are a lot of ghost towns out there, and then know the developer. Do your due diligence on the developer himself, right? So you've got these three principles, and if you follow those three principles, you could do a lot better. But I actually think there's even a better way, and it has to do with character. It has to do with us, and you know when we move to the developing world, anywhere outside of you know North America, Northern Europe, maybe Australia, New Zealand, right? We're moving from the land of seller beware, right? Think lemon laws, think Ralph Nader, think advocacy groups, you know, lots of laws and regulations that control the seller, to the world of buyer beware, where none of those laws exist, and so now you're on your own. And because we've been living and transacting our whole lives in a seller beware environment, in a bubble of protection, we're protected by the government, right? We think we are. We'll just say that anyway. But we're protected. We're in a bubble, and we move to the land of buyer beware.   Mike Cobb  19:38   The problem is we don't really know how to transact. We don't know the right questions to ask, and our single biggest advantage, our single biggest attribute or asset that we have, is actually humility, because we don't know what we don't know, and we have to forget what we think we know. Assumptions, right? We can't bring assumptions with us that hold true. Some do some. Don't right. If we approach a transaction overseas with humility, there are no dumb questions. I'm going to ask every question I can think of. I'm going to do as much research as I can within a limited period of time. I'm not going to not analysis to paralysis forever. I'm going to say, look, I'm going to spend the next 30 days. I'm going to do a ton of due diligence, and at the end of 30 days, if I like what I say, I'm going to transact, right? So you're you're not getting the deer in the headlights never to do something, right? But you know, several weeks, maybe a month or two, depending on what it is you're doing, is enough time to do really, really good due diligence. Ask all the questions you can think of, but approach it with humility. And when we do those things, we transact so much, so much better than if we just rush into it with Margarita Madness.   Keith Weinhold  20:44   Right? People get caught up in those emotions with Margarita Madness and end up with a timeshare that they can't get rid of, or something like that. You said something so interesting there, Mike. When you move from the developed world to the developing world, you move from a seller beware world, like with some of the things you have to be aware of, and like you need to give disclosures and such into a buyer beware world. I hadn't thought of it that way before.   Mike Cobb  21:08   Yeah, and really, a lot of my book and a lot of the presentations that I've given, you've seen me give over the years, really deal with what I call a change in thought process. Because mostly in presentations, right? My goal in a presentation is to help somebody change how they think, to take away the bubble and understand that they're on their own, right? It's not really their own. They have you, they have me, they have other resources, right? But they don't have this bubble of government or regulations or laws out there protecting them anymore. Now it's the individual, and as an individual, I don't want to be rugged individual. I want to find other people that can help me, right? But I have to do that as opposed to it's just there for me, right? So if I can help people change how they think, they will transact so much better. They'll make better investments. They'll make investments that work for them in ways that they want them to work for them, right? They'll achieve the goal or the dream in a much, much, much higher percentage of the cases,   Keith Weinhold  22:04   we're talking about investing antique tree hardwood plantations, principally in Panama, like you mentioned, and we're talking about one mindset about crossing borders with our investing, and another is oftentimes, at least for GRE listeners, we're crossing asset use type because we're so used to residential rental housing. So when you cross into agriculture or forestry, I guess as it is with teak, what are some of the bridges to cross there as we change use type?    Mike Cobb  22:35   The reason I love timber generally and teak specifically in Panama in this case is that most people, most people, and I hope that many of your readers aren't most people. Most investors look at 20-five years and they simply say themselves, "No way, no way. And I love that because right now teak timber is being cut down 10 to 12 times faster than anyone is replanting it. And the reason people don't replant it is because most average investors come along and say, "Oh, it's 25 years. I can't wait 25 years. Well, you know what? Good, because the folks who do decide to move ahead and plant the teak, what that means is the price of teak is very highly likely to continue to increase in value far beyond inflation. Teak wholesale teak prices have gone up five and a half percent a year on average for the last 50-three years. I think that number is going to increase largely because there's this huge psychological barrier. People think, "Oh, 20-five years, but back in 1990-eight I bought 100-acre cattle pasture in Panama, and we had a professional forestry company plant it and maintain it for the last now 27 years, and two two and a half years ago, we started building a sawmill. Our sawmill is up and running. In fact, was just down there and brought back one of our first retail products. We're producing lumber. Our first container of lumber is headed out to a distributor in Colorado next week.   Keith Weinhold  23:56   Mike's holding up a nice cutting board for those in the audience.   Mike Cobb  24:00   Nice cutting board. We're setting up an e-commerce site. We're going business to consumer with cutting board, bath mat, shelving, tables, chairs. We have our whole production facility ramping up with new retail products. So the bottom line is, is yeah, man, it does take 25 years. You know.   Keith Weinhold  24:15   The lantation to harvest cycle. That's the 25 year span you're talking about here. The patience it takes for an investor.   Mike Cobb  24:21   Thank you. Yes, absolutely. And then, as we cut down this mature plantation that we we are now harvesting right now, it gets replanted, and the next 25 year harvest. I'm 61 Maybe I'll make 86 I don't know. Maybe not. Right. But my kids probably will, and they'll get the big harvest in 25 years, and then it'll replant, and maybe they'll get a next one, or maybe it'll be the grandkids, right? And so what we found savvy investors, people who are really not your average bear, right? And they think to themselves, how can I create generational wealth stewardship? I have enough money coming in. I mean, Keith, that the I mean, you can own teak for 10 grand. You can. Own a quarter acre of teak. You own the land. You own the trees. 10 grand, like it's 9000 something or other, but 10 grand, right? I mean, the bottom line is it's such an affordable, easy investment, right? And it turns into well over $100,000 in today's numbers. Who knows what inflation? But in today's numbers, buying power, you know, 10,000 turns into 100,000 right? Over 20-five years, and so most people who do this recognize the fact that they might get the first harvest, but it's their kids, their grandkids, their great grandkids who are going to get this harvest every 20-five years thereafter. And so the 20-five year thing becomes a wonderful thing, not a bad thing. Right, it keeps many people out, which keeps the price of teak high and growing, which we like. But it also creates this cash flow period. People go, "Oh, it doesn't cash flow. I'm like, "Absolutely, it does. It cash flows phenomenally four times a century. Like you have an internal rate of return of almost 11% 10 point something, right? You have an internal rate of return of 11% and it cash flows four times a century. This is a phenomenal cash flow investment. You might get to see the first one or the second one, but you're probably not seeing three or four. But somebody else in your lineage, your family, your heirs will see it, and they will all be so happy you made that decision to own teak.   Keith Weinhold  26:22   We're talking about the ability for you to own teak parcels and the land beneath it, title in your own name, one quarter of an acre at a time. We're going to talk more about that with Mike when we come back. You're listening to Get Rich Education. I'm your host Keith Weinhold. Flock Homes helps you retire from real estate and landlording, whether it's one problem property or your whole portfolio, through a 721 exchange, deferring your capital gains tax and depreciation recapture. It's a strategy long used by the ultra wealthy. Now mom and pop landlords can 721 their residential real estate. Request your initial valuation. See if your properties qualify at flockhomes.com/gre. That's flockehomes.com/gre.   Keith Weinhold  27:09   Let me ask you something: If you've worked hard to build wealth, is your money positioned to actually support your goals? A lot of accredited investors leave capital sitting in cash because it feels safe, but inflation and missed income opportunities can quietly erode its value. Freedom Family Investments offers freedom notes for investors seeking structured income backed by real estate. It's a straightforward approach built on real assets, not speculation. And full disclosure, I'm an investor myself. What I like is that their team walks you through how it all works, so you can decide if it aligns with your portfolio and income goals. Every investment carries risk, and nothing is guaranteed. But with a track record of consistent, on-time investor payouts, they built real credibility. Go to freedomfamilyinvestments.com to book a clarity call or text family to 66866 That's family to 66866.   Ken McElroy  28:12   This is Rich Dad advisor Ken McElroy. Listen to Get Rich Education with Keith Weinhold and don't quit your daydream.   Keith Weinhold  28:29   Welcome back to Get Rich Education. We're talking about international investing with teak tree plantations. This isn't something experimental. We're not talking about a tinkerer here. You have to be more careful when you go overseas, and we're talking about with the owner of an international company that's been doing this for 30 years, providing international investments. But the teak tree plantation, I think, began in 1998 or 1999 Is that right?   Mike Cobb  28:56   Yeah, 98 was the purchase of the property, and in the rainy season of 99 we planted the first 100 acres. Yep.   Keith Weinhold  29:03   Yeah. Well, talk to us more about that because you talked to us about how historically teak appreciates at about 5% per year. Tell us about how we get to that 11% internal rate of return.   Mike Cobb  29:15   Yeah. Sure. I mean, so two things. One, you've got the five and a half percent a year kind of calculated out over a very long period of time, 50-three years. So that's a pretty good statistical baseline. And then the fact that your trees actually physically grow, right? I mean, back in 2008 my joke is from 2008 to 2012 While the rest of us in real estate were hating life, my trees just simply kept growing, right? They just kept growing. And so what you start off with is about 100 maybe 110, I think, trees on a quarter acre, and in the end, after all the thinnings, you end up with somewhere between 22 and 25 trees per quarter acre, and each of those trees produces about 1.2 to 1.6 cubic meters of timber. For lumber, by the way, one of the things that we are working on, and you know, look at the end of the day, you had a walk, jog, run, right? And we're in the walk stage right now, but we're harvesting out all of the other elements of the teak tree. Your lumber piece, that just you know, sell it as boards, you know, one by fours, one by sixes, one by eights, whatever it is. Ship that stuff off. That's your 1.2 to 1.6 cubic meters, but you've got other pieces of the tree. You've got stuff that's too thin, the root stock that can be turned into other things, including cellucrete with cellulose, the ground up, the sawdust itself. We're saving all the sawdust. We're going to use that for cellulite. This is the math on this. Our investors get 80% of the net proceeds after processing costs, which is 15% my company gets 20% and so we, my company, has the highest incentive to drive the highest possible return to the investor possible because I get 20% of whatever I make for the investor, and so all the numbers we use are always the net investor number, right? And we have a business plan. All the numbers are laid out. It's all there, and it's pretty easy to see how the IRR gets up. About I think it's 10.6, 10.7% I can't remember. Just under 11% but it's all in the business plan, Keith. And again, this is part of that due diligence process, right? Get a copy of the business plan. Get on the phone with one of our property consultants maybe take a trip to Panama. I just got back. We just took a group of people. Yeah, we got tours. Yeah, we have tours, and so like as part of the due diligence process, come visit, come see the trees, come see the sawmill. Right? If it's something that makes sense from a an investment standpoint, yeah, the material, the facts, and the due diligence is all there for people to be able to pick up and do over a you know several week period, you know 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, whatever it is.   Keith Weinhold  31:47   Well, let's back up because seemingly you have had really good prescience. Because when we look at world agriculture today, we see some problems. Whether some people want to call it erratic weather, other want to call it climate change, and how that's really ravaged some crops and created disruptions in certain produce. Or with coffee, you know, we've also got a cattle production problem, for example. But you've chosen something that's been really resilient. Tell us more about that resilience and just why teak of all crops and forestry.   Mike Cobb  32:22   Let me start by saying, who was it? Yogi Berra says, you know, predicting is hard to do, especially when it's about the future or something. Exactly. Yeah. Right. But I mean, look, we're talking about the future. I mean, who the heck knows, right? I mean, that's what makes it investing rather than you know something else. But teak has been grown in plantations for almost 400 years. It was started by the British in India, what was then Burman throughout Southeast Asia. And one of the things the Brits did so so well is they documented everything. They had statisticians keeping track of altitude, rainfall, soil types, different stock. I mean, just anything and everything that you could imagine, and so by the early 1900s, some of the best books about teak and teak plantation farming was written. I actually read those books in order to interview the forestry management companies in Panama that we would hire them to manage our plantation, because I don't know anything about it, right? But I wanted to be prepared to do the interviews, so I was. What amazed and fascinated me was this incredible track record of production for almost 400 years of teak as a commodity in the marketplace, and then for the last 50 years, 53 years, you know, seeing what's happened to the price of teak in that time period. Look, nobody can predict the future. Weather patterns change. Teak as a species, is very very resilient. You know, the highest quality teak is grown in very specific conditions, and the Darien province of Panama has exactly the conditions to produce the highest quality teak. If those conditions change, maybe the quality of the teak goes down. Maybe the quality of the teak goes up a little bit. Who knows, right? I mean, at the end of the day, we don't control weather. We don't control weather patterns. We don't control the future. But that thing goes back to the idea of diversification. Like, how can we mitigate against the future? I think we do that by just simply broad diversification. And if we have all of our assets and stocks, bonds, and rental real estate, we're pretty concentrated, especially if it's all in the United States, right? Our home country, for example, and so some diversification into other sectors probably makes sense. I know it makes sense for me because I think that's my way of hedging against the uncertainties of the future.   Keith Weinhold  34:37   Let's talk about the tree quality and then the sawmill, because some people don't understand that teak really has pretty special properties that maple or black cherry or oak doesn't have.   Mike Cobb  34:47   It does. It has a very very high oil content and it has a hardness that makes it extremely resistant to rot fungus, which is why it's used in the marine environment. If you look at Chris Craft. Boats or yachts. You always hear about teak, teak, teak. Teak is used in maritime environments because it holds up to the salt water-not just salt water-holds up to water, but even more so, salt water and the environment, which makes it unique. And so, even if you don't treat teak, right, you just leave it out. It turns gray, but it doesn't rot. And then you can come back. You can you know sand it and varnish it and turn it into that beautiful, rich color. It's a beautiful, beautiful wood. It's funny because it has furniture uses, outdoor furniture, patio furniture, things like that, decking. But now they're starting to use it in hardwood floors. They're using it in gates and fences and soffit materials. Again, outdoor uses, but it can be used indoors as well for very very fine furniture, which at the end of the day teak has a panache that a lot of these other woods don't have. Mahogany is certainly one mahogany. The thing about mahogany is it's softer, right? It's a softer wood. It carries some qualities in terms of the grains and the colors that make it a a very favorable product for cabinetry and other things. We actually looked at mahogany as a species to possibly grow, and it's about a 30-five to 40-year harvest cycle. And so, when we looked at that, we said, you know, we can get our heads around 20-five, and and maybe someday we will do some mahogany plantations as well. But for now, we we started with teak. Actually, when we did the analysis, I don't know if this is still true, but 27, 28 years ago, when I did the initial research and analysis, it had the best time value of money ROI.   Keith Weinhold  36:29   Ah, that's the first time I learned that. And some of these durability properties that you've been talking about really go back to my earlier question about how some more sensitive crops have been ravaged lately.   Mike Cobb  36:39   Yeah, it holds up very very well to the environment. By the way, it'll do well in pretty much everything but desert, right? If it rains too much, the teak will grow faster. Actually, it produces a less quality. The quality of the teak is less. If so, if panama's rain system changed and it started raining every day of the year, where we have it growing, teak trees would grow wonderfully. The quality of the teak would be lower, right? Still, be teak. It'd still be valuable, but not as valuable in the marketplace. So.   Keith Weinhold  37:08   Now you've been here to talk about teak before, but something that you added a few years ago was a sawmill to really bring some vertical integration there. And now you're not at the mercy, perhaps, of the price that you would need to sell to a lumberyard. Can you tell us more about how it's going with that?   Mike Cobb  37:22   Yeah, absolutely. Well, the bottom line is, is because we earn 20% of what we earn for the investor on their wood, our goal is to sell it for as high a possible price. And lumber does pretty well. I mean, you can sell logs. Let's just start there. You can cut the trees and sell the logs for X. You can turn the logs into lumber and sell it for you know whatever 578 x. You can turn it into things like cutting board, chairs, tables, a finished product, and there you're talking about you know not just five to 7x You're talking about another 10x on top of that. So that's like 30x right? I mean it's an incredible difference. So from log to finished product, it's about a 30 times differential in what you ultimately achieve out of the marketplace for return. Right now it takes longer to do it. There's more work involved, but at the end of the day, because you make more of the investor, we make more. Some of the teak is going to go out as finished product, and so we get a blended return of lumber. We don't do logs, but we're going to have a blended return of lumber and finished product that will push that yield up maybe higher than we've anticipated, which would be just fine with everybody.    Keith Weinhold  38:30   ll right, all right. Diversifying your exit, then. Well, before we learn about how we can get a hold of more information, is there any last thing that we should know about investing across international lines into teak, maybe something that I didn't think about asking you, Mike.   Mike Cobb  38:45   The only thing there is two of the teak farm parcels can be bundled together for a half acre with about a I don't know it's a seven $8,000 legal piece government fees to achieve a residency. So you can actually become a resident of Panama with the teak investment, and again coming in on about 600 folks have done the residency as well as the investment and ownership of the teak farms. So I would say that's a piece. Again, if people aren't sleeping well at night, they're worried about inflation, they're worried about social disruption, polarization, where things are headed, right? And they like the idea of the teak investment, then you know it may make sense to just do the extra government legal piece and get the residency card. I mean, I just did that. By the way, I think you know I'm a I'm a Nicaraguan resident because I lived in Nicaragua for 14 years.   Keith Weinhold  39:34   Mike is holding up his Nicaraguan ID.   Mike Cobb  39:37   but last summer I also got my Panama residency card, so now I have, y'all. I'm a U.S. resident, U.S. citizen, and I'm also a Nicaraguan. I think I held up my West Virginia driver's license. Hold on, let me go. Here's my Nicaraguan residency. Sorry, I was like, yeah. Wait a minute. Anyway, so right. So I'm a U.S. citizen, and I'm a resident of both Nicaragua and Panama. And so, this is something that a lot of folks choose to do because of the uncertainty, the political and social uncertainty in their lives. The teak itself will help with the economic uncertainty, but the residency then helps with the other two elements.   Keith Weinhold  40:15   Next time you fly in and you're doing customs in Panama City or Managua, show them your West Virginia driver's license and see how they like it. See what happens.   Mike Cobb  40:22   It wouldn't work. Hahaha.   Keith Weinhold  40:25   Well, the prices are low. You do not need to be an accredited investor in order to do this. So there's really no qualification bar to clear. There's really no limit in the number of parcels that you can buy. Some people like to purchase 10 parcels, but you can buy as little as one, and tell us more about that price.   Mike Cobb  40:42   Yeah, in fact, we've introduced Keith since the last time we talked a financing program. Oh,   Keith Weinhold  40:48   I didn't know that yet.   Mike Cobb  40:49   We did. That's a fairly new. It's a this year thing, right? So the teak parcels, I think 9890 or something, whatever. Call it 10 grand. The parcels just under $10,000.   Keith Weinhold  40:59   Okay.   Mike Cobb  40:59   Yeah, and they have a down payment and a credit card thing. I think it stretches maybe over a year or two, so it's a fairly short period. Let's people who don't have the entire 10,000 upfront who want the teak investment to be able to acquire it. And if they're doing the residency piece, the residency piece can only begin after the teak farm piece is acquired, right? But it can also lead to the residency piece over time. So yeah, and then there are some discounts on three of them and 10 of them. So we have a lot of people that actually end up getting them for. And and here's a really cool thing because it's titled in your own name, it can also be titled in a child's name or a grandchild's name. And so we have a lot of people that actually acquire them and they don't take ownership. They put it in their kid's name or their grand name. Yeah, so it's a wonderful way to move that asset already right out of the gates into the next generation or the next generation.   Keith Weinhold  41:52   So we're talking about diversifying at least twice, both internationally and then in a different asset type as well. This has been fascinating to learn about, Mike. It's just fascinating alone, I think, to learn about the geography and the teak itself. And like we touched on earlier, they do organize tours. Any reputable provider should do that. They're proud of what they offer there. Tours in the Darien province of Panama, in this case, to see your teak tree parcels. It's a really approachable price. If you want to learn more and get a report and perhaps purchase some parcels, Mike's one of our GRE marketplace providers. You can visit gremarketplace.com/teak or talk to your GRE investment coach. Mike has been fascinating as always. It's been great having you back on the show.   Mike Cobb  42:40   Nice to be here. Thank you, Keith.   Keith Weinhold  42:48   Teak is one of the more durable crops that there is. The demand for teak hardwood is substantial, and it's really growing. They have also had the same tree manager for all 27 years since the teak was planted, some real continuity there. The name of the manager is Heyo Forestall. There's a little to manage with the teak hardwood trees, like performing thinnings, and those thinnings do give investors like you intermittent income. So you're not waiting for absolutely everything for 25 years, but the income from the thinning is really small. Most of the return takes place in that 25 years, and it's interesting to me to see the profile of the GRE investor in teak because it attracts young investors, and maybe that's because the cost of entry is so low. It also attracts older investors because they more often have an eye toward passing along something productive to their heirs that is going to outlive them. A lot of them don't want to give their heirs money because money can be spent on fleeting trivialities. Also, the older a person is, they just have an easier time visualizing the fact of 25 years and knowing that it really will pass by. And yes, in-person tours are offered there in the Darien province of Panama, and there were 13 to 14 attendees on a recent tour. They do need to limit the group size, and the tours are for you, whether you're an existing investor or not. If you're just checking it out, that's for you too. If you believe that you want to attend a tour and you don't want to buy, I understand that you can get your money back from the tour.   Keith Weinhold  44:35   The next tour is in September. Each quarter-acre newborn teak parcel costs $9,680 $9,680 and over 20-five years, it's projected to produce about 110k in today's dollars. And yes, now with financing, we've talked about this investment on GRE before, but it's the first time where they now have financing in place, so you don't even need. 9680 to get started. Also, retirement funds might be eligible for use here. And really, when you think about the long-term horizon of this investment, retirement funds make sense. If this is potentially interesting to you, get a hold of the report that goes into the details and shows you some projections and more. You can do so by either contacting your GRE investment coach or visit gremarketplace.com/teek. Money may not grow on trees, but sometimes trees grow into money. Until next time, keep growing your means and maybe a few trees. You could visit gremarketplace.com/teak. Until next week, I'm your host Keith Weinhold. Don't quit your daydream.   Speaker 1  45:53   Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal, or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial, or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of Get Rich Education LLC exclusively.    Keith Weinhold  46:21   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth building. getricheduceducation.com  

Payments look like pure software until you move countries, get hit with fraud, or watch a “guaranteed” settlement date slip. That's where the real story starts, and it's why I loved talking with Kristin Reischel, Senior Director of Solutions and Partner Marketing at Rapyd, for our Women Leaders in Payments Month series sponsored by Payroc.Kristin shares a refreshingly honest career path: Boulder, Colorado roots, a fine art degree, a pivot into computer science, then early years at IBM where every hour was billable and accountability was immediate. From there, she follows what energizes her most, working closer to customers, shaping stories, and eventually landing in payment product marketing. We talk about what product marketing means in fintech and how it connects product teams, partners, and real business needs, from local payment methods to faster money movement.Our theme is “the future is human,” and Kristin makes it real. Automation, AI, and embedded payments keep expanding, but trust is still built by people who test systems, respond when things break, and make judgment calls when fraud and risk show up. She also unpacks the cultural side of global payments, comparing credit habits in the US with the UK's banking realities, Germany's cash preference, and the mobile payments leadership seen across Africa and parts of Southeast Asia.We close with what she's watching next: stablecoins, crypto adoption on familiar card rails, and the convergence of AI with agentic commerce and microtransactions. If you care about the future of payments, fintech trust, and practical leadership lessons, this conversation delivers. 

Southeast Asia's venture market is not in a downturn. It is in a structural winter, and mid-2026 is when that distinction stopped being academic. Kristie Neo returns to break down what is actually happening across the region: Singapore's IPO revival is real but is being carried by data centres and REITs rather than homegrown tech; allocators now rank Southeast Asia at the bottom of Asia behind China, India, Japan, Korea and ANZ; and a generation of growth-stage companies is being kept alive past the point where a merger or a wind-down would have served everyone better. Jeremy Au and Kristie also work through what could actually restart the funding ladder, from encouraging tech M&A and fixing university IP commercialisation, to tax incentives for angels and support for syndicate leads who can assemble the $1 million to $5 million rounds that Singapore currently cannot fill. If you are a founder raising in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia, or an LP trying to work out where capital goes next in Asia, this is the honest state of the market. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/kristie-neo-southeast-asia-zombie-unicorns  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #SoutheastAsia #VentureCapital #SingaporeIPO 00:00 Intro 01:00 Singapore's IPO revival and what is really lifting SGX 06:30 Safe haven status and the Indonesia allocation problem 09:34 Why Southeast Asia sits at the bottom of the allocator stack 14:58 A generation of zombie companies 18:07 The case for mergers, folds and consolidation 21:50 Fixing the funding ladder: who writes the first check 23:55 The IP commercialisation gap and university tech licensing 35:15 Rethinking how governments seed VC funds 41:24 Where can an LP put money today 45:00 Incentivising angels, syndicates and family offices 52:43 The information gap and parting thoughts

Welcome to the fifth episode of our miniseries Ikigai Insider, where we invite our Client Advisers to share what it means to live a good life, combining Ikigai with Providend's Philosophy of Sufficiency.In this podcast episode, Isaac, our Client Adviser, reflects on the Ikigai petal of 'Life Satisfaction' - the ability to find fulfilment in both the ordinary and the extraordinary moments of life. He shares how learning to appreciate life's small joys has changed his perspective, how he derives meaning from effortful experiences, and how creating mind space has helped him be more present at work and with his loved ones.Together with our host Aaron, Isaac explores why a life worth living is not built on constant excitement or achievement, but on finding meaning in everyday experiences and making space for what truly matters.Through deep conversations with our advisers, you will gain clarity on what matters most in life and what needs to be done to live a good life, both financially and non-financially, with your Ikigai goals at the forefront of your wealth plan.Music courtesy of ItsWatR.The host of this episode, Aaron Loo, is an Associate Adviser at Providend, the first fee-only wealth advisory firm in Southeast Asia and a leading wealth advisory firm in Asia.The full list of Providend's Money Wisdom podcast episodes from Season 4 can be found here.Did you know that our Providend's Money Wisdom podcast is now available in video format on YouTube? Follow us on our YouTube channel for new episode on Thursday at 8pm.Mentioned in this episode:Rate Our Podcast!

New Zealand's milking it in the dairy market, holding our place as the world's largest single-country dairy exporter. Rabobank's World Dairy Map shows we accounted for 22.1% of global exports last year. It highlights global dairy trade grew by 11% across this time frame. Rabobank Senior Agricultural Analyst Emma Higgins told Mike Hosking that China is still the biggest customer in the global dairy space, but it's no longer the only growth story. She says that new growth markets are emerging in places like the Middle East, and closer to home in Southeast Asia. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2026, the competitive advantage in AI will no longer come from model speed or scale—it will come from trust. As Southeast Asia and Korea accelerate enterprise AI adoption amid fragmented regulatory landscapes (from Singapore's FEAT to Korea's AI Basic Act), the CIO's mandate has shifted from deployment to defense. “AI integrity”—the convergence of data provenance, bias mitigation, explainability, and ethical resilience—is now a board-level risk. For heads of compliance and data science, the question is no longer “Can we scale AI?” but “Can we certify its integrity?” Without it, you face regulatory fines, model drift, and reputational collapse.  In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Lee Anstiss, Regional Director, Southeast Asia and Korea at Infoblox, to hopefully get insights and tips on how to safeguard AI integrity.1.       Do Asia's CIOs and CISOs know exactly which AI models are running across all our business units—or is shadow AI already creating integrity risks we cannot see?2.       Given the fragmented state of each model's regulatory status, what options are there for CIOs as they navigate fragmented rules with fragmented data?3.       In your view, are enterprises in Asia prioritizing raw accuracy over an “integrity scorecard” that includes bias, explainability, and robustness—and if so, are CIOs trusting models that are fast but not fair?4.       Based on current technologies and practices, can CIOs trace every piece of training data, including synthetic data, back to its source? Do organisations have blind spots where hidden bias or poisoned inputs could enter?5.       Can CIOs test their production AI for bias against local languages and cultural norms in each market? Can they produce an audit trail for any regulator who asks?6.       If a regulator demands proof of real-time bias disclosure tomorrow, is there a way for enterprises to have automated logs mapped to specific legal articles?7.       Should organisations maintain a human-in-the-loop for high-stakes decisions, with override logs that feed back into retraining? How risky is using the discipline of oversight as a checkbox?8.       Our topic is “tips on how to safeguard AI integrity” Can you share some of the most common or practical tips for CIOs, heads of AI, for ensuring or safeguarding AI integrity.

Oil prices rise as high as US$91/barrel overnight after Iran blows up two tankers and the Houthis blockade Saudi oil shipments via the Red Sea. The UK has a new Prime Minister who's looking at a tax cut, and New Zealand inflation is set to hit 4% today. In our deep-dive interview, ANZ's Chief Economist for Southeast Asia & India Sanjay Mathur analyses the effects of America's exceptional economic and corporate profit growth on Asia's economies. Before accessing this podcast, please read the disclaimer at https://www.anz.com/institutional/five-in-five-podcast/

In this episode, Minter Dial is joined by transformation specialist Stuart Green, whose extraordinary journey takes us from the fisheries of Hull to the frontlines of ecosystem regeneration in Southeast Asia—and through unimaginable personal tragedy and reinvention. The conversation focused on the realities of guiding communities and organisations through deep transition, drawing on Stuart Green's decades of work helping both natural environments and business leaders navigate profound, often destabilising change. A key theme that emerged was the inadequacy of conventional resilience narratives and the urgent need for a regenerative approach to leadership. Stuart Green shares the crucible moment that upended his life and explains how embracing vulnerability, radical honesty, and the willingness to shed outdated assumptions are now at the core of his methodology. The discussion explored his powerful forest fire analogy, challenging listeners to let go of comforting but obsolete models and to find renewal through crisis—transforming adversity into purposeful new growth rather than striving to restore the status quo. Several points were raised, including the importance of integrating personal purpose with professional ambition, setting boundaries around time, and cultivating an “abundance mindset” for the future. The episode also touches on the promise and perils of AI, with insight into how Stuart Green's own digital twin, Delphi, is designed to make his regenerative frameworks accessible to anyone in need—at any hour. Whether you are confronting polycrisis as a leader, seeking frameworks for deep adaptation, or simply searching for meaning in tumultuous times, this conversation is packed with hard-won wisdom and practical guidance. Tune in as Minter Dial and Stuart Green invite you to rethink resilience, rediscover purpose, and take the regenerative leap in your leadership and your life.

✈️ ETF III Update #6: Bangkok 2026 Hey now! I am your host Ric Gazarian, and I am here with the sixth update for the Extraordinary Travel Festival (ETF III), happening October 22-25, 2026, in Bangkok. We have 4 amazing days of community, content, and exploration of Bangkok and beyond. Over 175 people have committed to joining ETF III — 25 additional people have joined since the last podcast just 4 weeks ago. Use code BANGKOK to join and save $100.

Seaplane regulations, a fatal speedboat accident and new cyberscam centre revelations. This week's show takes Gary and Hannah around ASEAN and beyond, with stopovers in Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Timor Leste and the Middle East. We begin with the latest updates on flights connecting South East Asia and the Middle East as the military conflict between the US and Iran flares up once again. We look at the latest developments in IATA's battle to promote sustainable aviation fuel while at the same time challenging government policies. A deadly speedboat accident near Phu Quoc raises once more the issue of marine safety in tourism, while Vietnam steps up attempts to attract more Muslim tourists. New revelations about scam centres in Timor Leste and Cambodia raise more questions than answers, and we finish in Thailand where an island network of seaplanes is ready for take-off, or is it?  

Why can't we farm rattan on industrial plantations like corn or palm oil? In this episode, we break down Southeast Asia's near-total geographic monopoly over natural rattan—a trade controlling roughly 90 percent of global supply. We examine the unique biology of this climbing palm, the grueling reality of its jungle harvest, and how modern logistics tech is reshaping a centuries-old material for the global market.The Old-Growth Dependency: Unlike standard agricultural crops, rattan is a vine-like climbing palm that requires the tall, complex canopy of primary rainforests to climb toward sunlight. Because it cannot grow in open fields or artificial lab environments, its production remains tethered entirely to pristine equatorial ecosystems. The High-Stakes Supply Chain: Sourcing rattan is anything but simple. The episode details the journey from dangerous, labor-intensive jungle harvests to the essential, time-sensitive moisture stabilization process required to prevent rot, mold, and warping before processing.Modern Supply Chain Pivots: To offset skyrocketing international shipping costs and carbon footprints, manufacturers are abandoning bulkier traditional builds in favor of innovative flat-pack design engineering.Blockchain & Ecological Integrity: Discover how top brands are adopting blockchain tracking to verify sustainable, ethical sourcing. By proving the origin of raw canes, traceability technology ensures that purchasing rattan directly incentivizes the preservation—rather than deforestation—of threatened tropical forests.The Big Takeaway: Rattan isn't just a design trend—it is a finite luxury material whose existence depends entirely on keeping old-growth rainforests standing.Read our blog post https://mondoro.com/the-rattan-monopoly-why-its-mainly-grown-in-southeast-asia/

Lisa Natividad (Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice) describes the impact of US bases on Guam/Guåhan and tells how the CHamoru people are fighting for independence and an end to militarism. Maeve Larkins (Solidarity) puts that struggle in the broader picture of imperialist rivalry in the Pacific. Read more about Guam/Guåhan. Find out more about Solidarity. This episode was recorded at Solidarity's Keep Left conference on 5 April 2026.

On this episode of Asia Inside Out, Akshay Mathur, Senior Director of Asia Society Policy Institute Delhi, speaks with Ambassador Gurjit Singh, former Indian Ambassador to ASEAN, Indonesia, Germany, Ethiopia, and the African Union, about the future of India's relationship with ASEAN. Drawing on Singh's latest book, The Durian Flavour, they explore the historical and cultural foundations of India's engagement with Southeast Asia, the evolution of India's Look East and Act East policies, India's strategic partnership with Indonesia and ASEAN, China's growing regional influence, and the opportunities shaping the Indo-Pacific in an increasingly competitive geopolitical landscape.Asia Inside Out brings together our team and special guests to take you beyond the latest policy headlines and provide an insider's view on regional and global affairs. Each episode we'll deliver an interview with informed experts, analysts, and decision-makers from across the Asia-Pacific region. If you want to dig into the details of how policy works, this is the podcast for you. This podcast is produced by the Asia Society Policy Institute, a “think-and-do tank” working on the cutting edge of current policy trends by incorporating the best ideas from our experts and contributors into recommendations for policymakers to put these plans into practice. 

Daniel Suh spent a decade optimizing for prestige. Korean immigrant parents who left careers behind to start a small business in the US, a childhood spent moving apartments through bankruptcy, UCSD, five years in consulting to put his brother and mother through school, then an accelerated JD-MBA at Northwestern. He landed the big law summer and a private equity offer, the American dream on paper. He was elated for about ten minutes. "It felt like climbing a mountain for ten years. You get to the summit, and then you realize you climbed the wrong mountain the whole time." Today he is General Partner at Gold House Ventures, the cultural capital fund backing founders at the intersection of AI and creativity.  In this conversation with Jeremy Au, Daniel breaks down the second-generation guilt that pushes immigrant kids into careers they never chose, the high school demand letter that won back his family's security deposit in 24 hours, and why Gold House evolved from an Asian founder fund into something broader. He gets specific about what "cultural capital" actually buys a founder that money and introductions cannot, and why the backlash against AI is a narrative problem rather than a technology one. If nobody trusts the model, adoption stalls no matter how good the model is. Culture, not capability, is what moves people. A conversation for founders, VCs and operators across Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia who are quietly wondering whether they are climbing someone else's mountain. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/daniel-suh-gold-house   BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #VentureCapital #StartupPodcast #GoldHouse #SoutheastAsia  00:00 - From San Francisco to Manila 01:31 - Korean immigrant parents, bankruptcy and growing up in poverty 03:56 - Three prisms: parent expectations, family money and your own dreams 07:38 - Five years in consulting to put the family through school 09:45 - The Northwestern JD-MBA: decent at law, miserable doing it 13:39 - The big law and private equity offer and climbing the wrong mountain 17:04 - Finding Gold House on LinkedIn and getting emotional over a website 19:46 - The security deposit fight that made empowerment personal 24:42 - Building the "Asian YC" and the fund thesis 27:26 - The Fund II rebrand: cultural capital 32:12 - The AI backlash: jobs, deepfakes and paying creators 34:45 - Bravery, optionality and choosing yourself by telling the truth 39:22 - "A winner is a loser who tried one more time"

In 1941, Imperial Japan did not attack Pearl Harbor on a whim. Its pilots trained, its engineers modified torpedoes to operate in the harbor's shallow water, and its commanders studied how to cripple the United States Pacific Fleet in one overwhelming blow. The strategic objective was simple: knock America backward long enough for Japan to seize territory, establish a defensive perimeter and present Washington with a completed conquest. Pearl Harbor was not intended to conquer America – it was intended to remove America from the battlefield at the decisive opening moment. Here in 2026, China appears to be quite busy doing the exact same thing.“Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.” Jeremiah 25:32 (KJB)On this episode of the Prophecy News Podcast, satellite imagery reveals today that Beijing is building replicas of American aircraft carriers, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, fighter aircraft, airfields and critical Taiwanese government buildings. These are not monuments to military history. They are targets. China is constructing physical representations of the enemy it expects to face, then using them to refine missile accuracy, surveillance systems, autonomous weapons and the ability to recognize and destroy specific American and Taiwanese assets. The modern Chinese equivalent of Pearl Harbor would not necessarily begin with Japanese-style aircraft appearing over Hawaii. It could begin with coordinated missile strikes against American bases in Guam, Japan and the western Pacific; cyberattacks against communications, satellites and infrastructure; strikes against U.S. carriers and destroyers; and a blockade or massive assault around Taiwan. The objective would be to blind, stun and paralyze the United States while Chinese forces move against the island. Just as Japan sought to remove the Pacific Fleet before advancing through Southeast Asia, China must remove—or intimidate—the American military presence that could prevent it from taking Taiwan. China is building American ships to destroy, American aircraft to target and Taiwanese buildings to assault. The rehearsal area is a warning written in steel, concrete and sand. Beijing is studying how to fight the United States because conquering Taiwan may require defeating America first. Don't think that's possible? Today's Podcast is here to awaken you.

In this episode, I sit down with Chris Salinas, a former U.S. Coast Guard officer whose career has spanned international security, maritime cooperation, and technology.Chris reflects on the experiences during his teenage years that first drew him toward a life of service, and how those early influences led him to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He shares how working alongside partners across cultures shaped his approach to leadership, trust, and international cooperation.We talk about his years working across Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, exploring what successful international partnerships have in common, the lessons learned from operating in complex environments, and how those experiences changed his perspective on America's role in the world.Recorded on 25 June 2026.Connect with Chris on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissalinas/.Instagram: @at.the.coalfaceAnd don't forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks.Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude!Support the show

Asia Pacific has become one of the fastest-growing regions in clinical research, offering sponsors new opportunities to advance clinical development in an increasingly complex global environment.In this episode, Pavels Anetko, Director of Clinical Operations and Clinical Project Management at CTI, shares insights from across the region, including Australia's strengths in early phase studies and CTI's recent expansion into China and Japan.  01:24 Pavels' background, career journey, and leadership role overseeing CTI's project management teams across Asia Pacific. 02:13 Why APAC is one of the fastest-growing regions for clinical development and the increasing influence of China. 02:41 CTI's growth strategy in Australia and the region's advantages for early-phase research, including the CTN regulatory pathway and R&D tax incentives. 04:06 The rise of healthy volunteer and Phase I studies in Australia. 04:27 Building CTI's presence in China and Japan and navigating more complex regulatory environments. 05:05 Staying aligned with regional regulatory requirements while maintaining global clinical trial standards. 05:40 How CTI helps sponsors select the right countries, sites, and patient populations across APAC. 06:20 Why local infrastructure, language expertise, and in-country teams are critical to trial success. 07:09 Challenges sponsors face when entering new APAC markets and how local support reduces risk. 07:36 The strategic value of including Japan and China in global studies, including access to patients and regulatory considerations. 08:58 How APAC can accelerate development timelines and strengthen regulatory submissions. 09:38 Key operational considerations for global studies, including logistics, specimen handling, and country-specific requirements.  10:08 Emerging opportunities across APAC, including growth in Southeast Asia and expanding clinical research markets.  10:54 Pavels shares career highlights, including gene therapy studies in Australia and supporting COVID-19 vaccine trials in Singapore.  12:44 Closing thoughts on the future of APAC and its growing influence on global clinical development.

When most people think about online scams, they picture criminals sitting behind a screen and stealing from victims around the world. But in Southeast Asia, many of the people sending those messages are victims too. Some were promised legitimate jobs, flown across borders, trapped inside guarded compounds, and forced to scam others while trying to survive.  In this episode, I talk with Ivan Franceschini, a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the Center for Contemporary Chinese Studies Asia Institute. After years of studying labor rights, civil society, and Chinese investment in Cambodia, Ivan's work led him to the online scam industry and the cybercrime compounds that have spread across Southeast Asia. He is the co-author of Scam: Inside Southeast Asia's Cybercrime Compounds, and through the EOS Collective, he and his colleagues also help support people who have been trafficked into these operations. I talk with Ivan about how small scam operations grew into large compounds, why COVID helped the industry expand, and how fake job offers are used to recruit people from around the world. We also talk about the blurred line between victim and criminal, the local economies that grow around these compounds, and what happens when people escape or are left stranded without money, documents, or a safe way home. Show Notes: [01:27] Ivan Franceschini explains how his academic background in China studies and labor rights eventually led him to research scam compounds in Southeast Asia. [04:39] Early scam operations in Cambodia started as smaller setups in villas, apartments, and hotels before expanding into large, organized compounds. [07:53] COVID becomes a major turning point as isolation, financial desperation, and new technology help the online scam industry grow rapidly. [10:42] The industry expands beyond Chinese-speaking networks and begins recruiting people from many countries, including large numbers from Africa. [13:29] Criminal groups, businesspeople, local elites, and trafficking networks all play different roles in keeping the scam compound industry running. [15:50] Fake job offers are used to recruit people from abroad, with many victims believing they are traveling for legitimate work in customer service, teaching, sales, or other fields. [18:19] Recruiters use believable salaries and convincing explanations to lure people who may be desperate for work or unfamiliar with the region. [21:43] Many trafficked workers are not highly trained scammers, but poor or vulnerable people who are taught scripts, given tools, and assigned small parts of the scam process. [24:05] Language barriers are no longer a major obstacle because scammers can use translation tools, AI tools, and backstories that make mistakes seem believable. [26:40] Scam compounds become embedded in local economies through guards, cleaners, restaurants, construction workers, delivery services, and other support jobs. [31:22] Getting out of a compound can involve paying a ransom, escaping physically, or risking a message to an embassy, family member, NGO, or government official. [33:40] Some trapped workers are able to ask for help online, but contacting authorities can also be dangerous if local police alert the compound operators. [35:17] Crackdowns in Cambodia have left many people stranded without money, valid visas, housing, or a safe way to return home. [37:27] Survivors released from compounds may end up sleeping on the street, begging for food, and trying to find help while facing fines and deportation barriers. [40:14] Survivor support often means meeting immediate needs such as food, basic medical care, and flights home for people who have nowhere else to turn. [41:29] Ivan explains that sanctions and enforcement need to consider the human beings inside the industry, not just the money and criminal networks behind it. [42:49] Survivors often have valuable information about trafficking networks, scam techniques, and specific operations, but that intelligence is lost when they are abandoned. [45:15] Verifying survivor stories requires interviews, embassy coordination, compound maps, cross-checking details, and recognizing that victim and criminal roles can overlap. [48:53] Ivan shares where people can find his book, Scam: Inside Southeast Asia's Cybercrime Compounds, and learn more about the EOS Collective's work. Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.  Links and Resources: Podcast Web Page Facebook Page whatismyipaddress.com Easy Prey on Instagram Easy Prey on Twitter Easy Prey on LinkedIn Easy Prey on YouTube Easy Prey on Pinterest Ivan Franceschini - LinkedIn Scam: Inside Southeast Asia's Cybercrime Compounds EOS Collective

It's just the two of us this week, which means we bounce between Star Wars, ageism in medicine, Mark Cuban's healthcare policy ideas, and the spleen. Kristin sent me a video about the Bajau people of Southeast Asia, a group of divers from Indonesia and the Philippines who have genetically evolved spleens that are 50% larger than average, which they use as an oxygen reservoir to dive 70 meters and hold their breath for up to 13 minutes, and look, I'm not saying I was wrong about the spleen, but I'm being forced to acknowledge it might have one useful function. We also talk about the 72-year-old medical school graduate who is now heading into a family medicine residency and the baffling ageist backlash she received from people who apparently think someone "stole a spot", in family medicine, where programs regularly can't fill their positions. She earned it, full stop. We get into Mark Cuban's argument that free medical school tied to service requirements could help fix the primary care shortage, I think he's closer to right than I initially gave him credit for, but the downstream problems are thornier than they look, and the direct primary care model, which makes a lot of happy doctors but probably has a selection bias problem. We also go deep on spleen physiology because Kristin is my heckler and this is the bit now: splenic lacerations, splenules, Howell-Jolly bodies in the blood post-splenectomy, and why losing your spleen means you really, genuinely need to be vaccinated against pneumococcus, meningococcus, and Haemophilus influenzae type b. Also, I had mono in college, did not follow the no-contact-sports instructions, and I only survived because Kristin wasn't around yet to enforce anything. She has since made up for lost time. Takeaways: The Bajau people of Southeast Asia have genetically evolved larger spleens. A 72-year-old woman earning her medical degree and entering family medicine isn't taking anyone's spot Free medical school tied to service requirements is a more interesting idea than pure loan forgiveness Losing your spleen significantly raises your infection risk from encapsulated bacteria Direct primary care attracts genuinely enthusiastic physicians, but that may partly reflect selection bias — To Get Tickets to Wife & Death: You can visit Glaucomflecken.com/live  We want to hear YOUR stories (and medical puns)! Shoot us an email and say hi! knockknockhi@human-content.com Can't get enough of us? Shucks. You can support the show on Patreon for early episode access, exclusive bonus shows, livestream hangouts, and much more! –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://www.patreon.com/glaucomflecken⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Also, be sure to check out the newsletter: https://glaucomflecken.com/glauc-to-me/ If you are interested in buying a book from one of our guests, check them all out here: https://www.amazon.com/shop/dr.glaucomflecken If you want more information on models I use: Anatomy Warehouse provides for the best, crafting custom anatomical products, medical simulation kits and presentation models that create a lasting educational impact.  For more information go to Anatomy Warehouse DOT com. Link: https://anatomywarehouse.com/?aff=14 Plus for 15% off use code: Glaucomflecken15 -- A friendly reminder from the G's and Tarsus: If you want to learn more about Demodex Blepharitis, making an appointment with your eye doctor for an eyelid exam can help you know for sure. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.EyelidCheck.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more information. Produced by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Human Content⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have Washington and Tehran reached the limits of what force can accomplish or is risk of a wider regional conflict growing? Plus: A flick through the papers, Southeast Asia news and why chilled red wines are keeping us cool.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A discontented Long Island housewife and the forgettable corset salesman she seduced hatch a clumsy plot to murder her sleeping husband — a scheme so poorly executed that one famous newsman couldn't resist giving it a name.==========HOUR ONE: Ruth Snyder and Judd Gray devised a scheme to get rid of Ruth's husband – and they planned it so well that, okay… actually no. They were so inept they were caught immediately, and even the police publicly called them incompetent. (The Dumb-Bell Murder) *** For over 2,000 years across South and Southeast Asia, trained elephants served as living instruments of execution, crushing condemned prisoners with calculated brutality under the control of their handlers. (Execution By Elephant) *** Before he became a Civil War general, Congressman Dan E. Sickles' scandalous murder trial changed our legal system forever. He said outright that he had killed his wife's lover. So how did he avoid being found guilty of the crime he admitted to committing? (How A Congressman Got Away With Murder) *** In 1150, two children were found near Woolpit in England – they wore strange clothes, spoke oddly, but the most identifiable characteristic for both children was their skin was green. The children themselves were a mystery – but what happened when they grew up? Did they marry? Did they have children? Could there be decedents of the green children of Woolpit living among us today? (Great Grandkids of Green Children) *** In the summer of 1518, a mysterious dancing plague seized the French town of Strasbourg, compelling hundreds to dance without rest for months—some until they collapsed and died—in a frenzy that baffled authorities and remains unexplained to this day. (Dancing Plague)==========HOUR TWO: When it comes to receiving the death sentence, history has given us several ways to go about the execution. Hanging, firing squad, gas chamber, being stoned to death or burned at the stake… but you have to be some whole new level of “hated” by the people if your death blow comes by way of molten gold being poured down your throat. (Death By Golden Throat) *** Typically, when you hear the phrase “high speed chase”, you think of law enforcement trying to catch the bad guys who are in a getaway vehicle. Perhaps after a bank robbery, or after blowing a stop sign and simply refusing to pull over. But have you heard about the time that the police were involved in a high-speed chase up to 100-miles-per hour, trying to catch up to a flying saucer? (The 100mph UFO Chase) *** When the Black Plague arrived at their doorsteps, the villagers were forced to choose between life or certain doom. It's the tragic tale of England's Plague Village – the village of Eyam. (The Black Death Comes to Eyam) *** In the 1800s, women finding themselves “with child” but unmarried, were treated like second-class citizens or worse. And during a time when birth control was limited or even unavailable outside of the rhythm method, what was a girl to do if she found herself in such dire circumstances? Fortunately, there was a woman there ready to help – to take the baby off their hands and give it a good home. Or so everyone thought. (Minnie, The Baby Farmer) *** On frozen lakes near Manitowish Waters, a hooded figure appears to ice fishermen, silently guiding them to the best spots for a catch before vanishing into the winter air. (The Ice Fisherman Ghost)==========SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME: “Tom" and "Lena" are in a loving relationship and have a young child together. It sounds like the perfect family – except for one tiny detail about their relationship. Tom and Lena are biological brother and sister. (I Fell In Love With My Sister) *** In Norfolk, England the village of Eccles was slowly gobbled by the rising waters of the sea in the early 1600s. But even today, sometimes during a particularly heavy story, you can see St. Mary's Church mysteriously reappear… bringing with it, the dead buried in the church graveyard who cannot find rest. (The Disappearing And Reappearing Village of Eccles) *** Lory Price and his wife Ethel mysteriously disappeared from Marion, Illinois. But then, sometimes that happens when you are mixed up with the mob or may have learned something you weren't supposed to. (The Vanishing of Lory Price) *** The Catacombs of St. Callixtus in Rome, Italy, hold the remains of sixteen popes, several martyrs, and around half a million Christians, and according to on author, a not-of-this world entity. (The Callixtus Catacombs Entity)==========SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM TONIGHT'S SHOW:“Death By Golden Throat” by Genevieve Carlton for Weird History https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3586qeqk, Rachel Nuwer for Smithsonian Magazine https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/18pu2d9b, and Laurie L. Dove for History https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3vy6r2a9“The Black Death Comes to Eyam” by Stephanie Almazan for The Line Up: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/1aptirxk“Minnie, The Baby Farmer” from The Scare Chamber: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2eqd77xa“The 100MPH UFO Chase” from The Parajournal for The Times Online: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/ntcaqk3y“The Ice Fisherman Ghost” by Charlie Hinz: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8nzemt“The Dumb-Bell Murder” by Troy Taylor: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/jsut4w93 (includes photo)“I Fell In Love With My Sister” by Jennifer Tillman for Vice: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/y2dmtp2e“Execution by Elephant” by Joanna Gillan for Ancient Origins: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8jj255“The Cursing of Christopher Case” by Gurnoor Kaur for Conspiracy Theories: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/145d147q“The Disappearing And Reappearing Village of Eccles” by Stacia Briggs for Eastern Daily Press:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/5fopg2hq“The Vanishing of Lory Price” by Troy Taylor from his book “Bloody Illinois”: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/lsi06qet“How A Congressman Got Away With Murder” by Genevieve Carlton for All That's Interesting:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2jantfjj“Great Grandkids of Green Children” from Ancient Code: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/4u4xdypk“The Callixtus Catacombs Entity” by Ellen Lloyd for Ancient Pages: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/aqhlme0r“Dancing Plague” by Cassandra Yorgey at HubPages: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/ycke4fwe==========(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for material I use whenever possible. If I have overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it immediately. Some links may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)=========="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46==========WeirdDarkness®, WeirdDarkness© 2026==========To become a Weird Darkness Radio Show affiliate, contact Radio America at affiliates@radioamerica.com, or call 800-807-4703 (press 2 or dial ext 250).The podcast version of the syndicated weekend radio show posts Sunday night/Monday morning at midnight after the show has aired nationally on radio stations Sunday evening.

Headline: The Medieval Warm Period and the Rise of Parallel Empires Guest: Professor Peter Frankopan Book Title: The Earth Transformed: An Untold History The Medieval Warm Period (950–1250 AD) was marked by low volcanism and climatic stability, facilitating the rise of "power empires" across the globe. Frankopan details the expansion of the Vikings into the North Atlantic, driven by the trade of valuable walrus ivory and hides. This colonization often involved violence and the forced movement of women from Ireland and Scotland to settle new lands like Iceland. In North America, the city of Cahokia thrived as a cosmopolitan center with massive mounds, yet eventually collapsed due to resource exhaustion and social unrest. Simultaneously, the Chola Empire in India and the Khmer in Southeast Asia flourished, fueling each other's growth through trade and diplomatic exchange. The Cholawere particularly successful in exporting Indian culture and Hinduism. Frankopan argues that these parallel empires succeeded because they could plan for the future without major environmental shocks, though they eventually "suffocated" under their own administrative and ecological weight. (4)1930S. FSA.  DUST BOWL

Executive coach Pooja Venkatraman (Harvard College, Harvard MBA, ex-BCG, ex-Capital One) explains why burnout has almost nothing to do with how many hours you work, and everything to do with the mental soundtrack running while you work. She breaks down the two flavors of burnout high achievers miss, why "just quit" is bad advice, and the framework she uses to help Ivy League grads and operators get unstuck. For founders, VCs, and operators across Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia, this is a candid look at building a career that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside: navigating career pivots, imposter syndrome, and high-pressure decisions without burning out. Pooja also shares her non-linear path from aspiring screenwriter to coach, and why every move was a hypothesis worth testing. Learn more about Pooja: https://poojavcoaching.com/ Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/pooja-venkatraman-burnout-fear-flow  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #Burnout #CareerCoaching #ExecutiveCoaching #SoutheastAsia #Podcast #TechCareers #Leadership #Founders #HighAchievers #CareerChange #MentalHealth 00:00 The biggest misconception about burnout 00:39 Intro: from HBS classmates to executive coach 03:35 The writer years: Harry Potter to Harvardwood 08:22 Pivot to business: Capital One and the secret writing job 10:28 HBS, BCG, and the hypothesis that broke 13:12 The Clay Christensen fellowship and the shelved book 17:44 Back to Capital One: "You're not being brave" 23:44 The circular career and the wrapping paper trap 28:56 Hiring a coach, then becoming one 35:17 Burnout is not about the hours 38:44 Why not just quit? The internal tug of war 42:05 Being brave, advice to her younger self, and takeaways

If expertise is becoming almost free, why is judgment becoming the most expensive skill in tech? Ajey Gore, former Gojek CTO, explains why the age of AI agents rewards builders over typists.In this episode, Ajey Gore, former Group CTO of Gojek and Operating Partner at Peak XV Partners, explains why coding agents are forcing software teams to rethink what “correct” really means. He argues that as expertise becomes cheap, judgment becomes the scarcest and most valuable skill in engineering. Ajey walks through why the classic developer-to-reviewer workflow no longer makes sense when agents can generate thousands of lines a day, and why trunk-based development, feature flags, and rigorous testing matter more than ever. He also shares how he built ClawStation solo, coordinating specialized AI agents through story cards instead of writing code by hand. The conversation covers why most organizations still fail to see returns from AI adoption, and what happens when leaders cut headcount without redesigning how work actually flows.Key topics discussed:Why judgment, not typing speed, is now the scarce skillThe workflow mistake behind most failed AI adoptionHow Ajey built ClawStation solo without writing codeWhy he advocates trunk-based development to replace PRsThe real risk of cutting headcount before rethinking workWhy “earning time” matters as much as earning moneySoutheast Asia's surprising advantage in the AI eraTimestamps:(00:00:00) Trailer & Intro(00:04:10) What Has Life Been Like Since Leaving Peak XV?(00:09:02) Why Should You Create Slack Instead of Always Running Full Speed?(00:13:47) Why Being Uncomfortable and Replaceable Makes You More Valuable(00:18:12) Why Earning Time Matters as Much as Earning Money(00:24:57) Why Is This the Age of Builders, Not Typists?(00:40:55) What Should You Not Do While Navigating the AI Revolution?(00:50:07) What Are the Top Engineering Practices Needed to Leverage the AI Revolution?(00:55:09) How Did Ajey Build ClawStation Solo Using Story Cards and Agent Roles?(00:58:57) How Can Developers Successfully Let Go of Writing Code by Hand?(01:02:29) Why Do 95% of Organizations Fail to See AI ROI?(01:08:49) What Are the Real Dangers of AI-Driven Layoffs?(01:12:20) What Does the Future Hold for the Southeast Asian Tech Scene?(01:15:29) What Must We Do to Avoid Losing Our Fundamental Thinking Skills to AI?(01:19:25) 3 Tech Lead Wisdom_____Ajey Gore's BioAjey Gore is a technologist, builder, and founder who has spent two decades turning engineering into scale. As Group CTO of Gojek, he grew the platform from 300K to 120M monthly orders and built a 2,000-strong engineering org powering one of Southeast Asia's largest super-apps. He was an early employee at ThoughtWorks India, founded CodeIgnition (acquired by Gojek), and served as Operating Partner at Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India & SEA), advising founders across the region. Today he builds and advises at the intersection of AI, infrastructure, and product — and is a hands-on practitioner who still ships code.Follow Ajey:Website – ajeygore.inX / Twitter – x.com/ajeygoreLinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/ajeygoreClawStation – clawstation.aiLike this episode?Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/263.Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn and Instagram.Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

Singapore equities have delivered exceptional returns in recent years, even outperforming a globally diversified portfolio over certain periods. Is this time to rethink your portfolio to focus more on Singapore stock?In this podcast episode, Glenn, our Senior Portfolio Manager, joins Joyce, our Client Adviser, to explore why recent market winners do not necessarily stay ahead, why a strong economy does not always translate into the best investment opportunity, and why many Singaporeans may already be more exposed to Singapore than they realise through their jobs, CPF and property.Rather than chasing what has worked recently, Glenn shares a timeless investing principle that has helped investors stay disciplined and navigate changing market cycles with greater confidence.If this conversation has prompted you to reflect on your own investment approach, our complimentary investment eBook is a great next step. Drawing on more than two decades of managing our clients' portfolios, it shares the investment philosophy that guides our decisions and offers a practical framework for navigating market volatility. Grounded in long-term evidence rather than short-term market movements, it is designed to give investors the highest probability of achieving successful long-term investment outcomes: https://providend.com/publications/#investmentTo understand the conversation better, you can begin with reading the article that inspired this episode here: Why Recent Market Outperformance Does Not Replace the Need for Global DiversificationMusic courtesy of ItsWatR.The host of this episode, Joyce Chng, is a Client Adviser at Providend, the first fee-only wealth advisory firm in Southeast Asia and a leading wealth advisory firm in Asia.Did you know that our Providend's Money Wisdom podcast is now available in video format on YouTube? Follow us on our YouTube channel for new episode on Thursday at 8pm.Mentioned in this episode:Download Investment eBook Today!Download our Investment eBook titled “A More Reliable Way to Get Enough Investment Returns: Even During Times of Market Uncertainty” here: https://providend.com/publications/#investment

Rising pressure on power, water, and land availability is changing how AI data centre campuses are assessed. Sungai Samak Estate's five plots present a Malaysia-based model where sustainable infrastructure, electric vehicle manufacturing, and long-term industrial planning meet investor demand for resilient growth in Southeast Asia. Sungai Samak Estate City: Kuala Lumpur Address: 2 Jalan Sempurna off Jalan Gombak Website: https://sgsamak.com

It's an exciting MadTech Podcast this week as ExchangeWire's Lindsay Rowntree and John Still are joined in-person by our APAC/MENA Editor Charlotte Mceleny, as they record on location in Singapore. Former WPP China Executive Gets Life Sentence for Advertising Kickbacks Di Fei, former chief investment officer at GroupM's China operations, has been sentenced to life in prison over a bribery scheme in which he and colleagues allegedly received 1.2 billion yuan (~$176 million) in kickbacks between 2019 and 2023. Two colleagues also received lengthy sentences - 14.5 years and four years respectively.Australia's ACCC Sues Amazon Over Unfair Prime Video Ad Contract TermsAustralia's competition regulator, the ACCC, is suing Amazon over unfair contract terms affecting more than one million annual Prime subscribers. It alleges Amazon used five one-sided clauses to introduce ads into Prime Video from mid-2024 without offering refunds, forcing subscribers to pay extra to keep an ad-free service they'd already paid for upfront.Shopee and Meta Launch Instagram Affiliate Partnerships Shopee and Meta have extended their Facebook affiliate program to Instagram, letting eligible creators across Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Brazil tag Shopee products in Reels and Feed posts and earn commissions on completed purchases. The companies are also piloting paid affiliate ads, as Shopee builds out creator-led commerce to counter TikTok Shop's growth.

On today's episode of the AgNet News Hour, California Walnut Commission and Board CEO and Executive Director Robert Verloop shared an optimistic outlook for the state's walnut industry, highlighting strong export demand, improving trade conditions, and what growers can expect as the 2026 harvest approaches. Verloop said the 2025 crop benefited from favorable growing conditions that resulted in exceptional quality and minimal losses during processing. While the large crop initially created abundant supplies, strong domestic and international demand has steadily reduced inventories, leaving the industry in a favorable position heading into the new season. California remains the dominant producer of walnuts in the United States, accounting for approximately 99% of the nation's commercial walnut production. The industry includes roughly 3,700 growers farming about 375,000 bearing acres throughout the Central Valley and surrounding production regions. International trade continues to be a major driver for the industry, with about two-thirds of California walnuts exported worldwide. Verloop highlighted recent progress in trade negotiations with the European Union, where reduced tariffs are expected to strengthen California's position in one of its largest export markets. He also pointed to India as one of the industry's biggest long-term opportunities. California walnuts currently face a 100% tariff entering India, but negotiations continue between U.S. trade officials and the Indian government. Verloop said lowering those barriers could significantly expand demand, calling India one of the most promising growth markets for California walnuts. Other export destinations, including Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Southeast Asia, have also contributed to stronger international shipments over the past year. Verloop noted that while competition from countries such as Chile and China remains part of the global marketplace, California continues to distinguish itself through consistent quality, flavor, and reliability. Beyond exports, the California Walnut Commission is also working to increase domestic consumption. One major focus has been repositioning walnuts in grocery stores from the baking aisle into the produce department, emphasizing that walnuts are a fresh agricultural product grown on trees. The organization is also expanding efforts with chefs and restaurants to encourage more menu applications beyond traditional salads and baked goods. Looking toward harvest, Verloop said growers are closely monitoring weather conditions as orchards move through the critical nut-filling stage. An early harvest is possible if favorable conditions continue, although producers will continue watching for any late-season heat or rainfall that could affect harvest timing and quality. Throughout the conversation, Verloop emphasized that California's walnut growers remain focused on producing a high-quality crop while continuing to expand markets around the world. Listen to the full interview below or on your favorite podcast app.

Host Jeremy Au sits down with two-time founder Justin Banusing, who returns to BRAVE to explain why he shut down a startup that was already working, near $1M ARR and freshly funded, and what that call taught him about building across Southeast Asia and the US. Together they unpack the value-chain trap Justin calls "sharecropping on someone else's land," why college gaming and esports could not become venture-scale businesses, and how the cultural shift from campus gaming to music festivals reshaped his entire thesis on where to build. From AcadArena, the Philippines' first Series A gaming startup, through the AI-companion era of Clout Kitchen, to Clouted, the a16z Speedrun-backed AI virality engine he runs today, Justin traces the difference between revenge founders and missionary founders, why he chose to build again instead of moving into venture capital, and how he thinks about winning what he calls "algorithmic warfare." Jeremy draws out the emotional side of pulling the plug and the discipline behind it. For founders, operators, and investors in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia, this is a candid look at product-market fit, distribution, and knowing when to reset. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/justin-banusing-clouted-ai-virality  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #StartupFounder #VentureCapital #ArtificialIntelligence #SoutheastAsiaStartups #CreatorEconomy #GoingViral #TechPodcast #Philippines 00:00 Introducing Justin & Clouted 2:31 What Makes Justin a Founder 4:14 The Rise and Fall of College Gaming 6:51 Why Esports Doesn't Scale 10:44 The Messy Exit and a Deliberate Sabbatical 13:16 Founder, Not Investor 17:54 Revenge Startup vs. Missionary Founder 19:51 Building Backseat, the AI Gaming Companion 24:53 Knowing When to Pull the Plug 27:03 Falling for Music and Finding the Real Problem 33:34 Algorithmic Warfare: Why Virality Is Now Engineered 36:57 Inside Clouted: The AI Media Buyer 39:14 The Brave Question and Takeaways

For episode 750 of the BlockHash Podcast, host Brandon Zemp is joined by Aigerim Omarbekova, the Head of Ecosystem at Fasset, a banking and investment platform focused on financial inclusion in emerging markets. At Fasset, Aigerim leads the platform’s full stakeholder and community ecosystem, spanning investor relations, regional market development across Southeast Asia and MENA, and outreach to global Muslim investor bases through Fasset’s Shariah-compliant finance programs. Fasset is an American-founded banking and investment platform focused on enhancing financial inclusion in emerging markets, enabling individuals and businesses to securely invest from anywhere in the world. Founded by Mohammad Raafi Hossain and Daniel Ahmed, Fasset has raised more than $78 million in funding and holds regulatory approvals in several countries, including the UAE, Indonesia, Malaysia, the EU, Türkiye, Pakistan, and others.

South and Southeast Asia face a different challenge to many developed economies. As the regions continue to grow, so too does demand for energy, transport and industry. The question is whether that growth can be powered by cleaner technologies from the start. In the second of our episodes recorded from Singapore, Michael meets Marie Cheong, founding partner at 100x100, a climate tech venture builder and VC for South and Southeast Asia. Previously, Marie co-founded WaveMaker Impact, where she helped launch climate startups addressing some of the region's biggest opportunities for decarbonisation. Marie explains why climate innovation in emerging South Asian markets requires a different approach. They discuss investing across the region, growing energy demand, using AI to decarbonise manufacturing, and why there are no "silver bullet" solutions to climate change. Marie also takes Michael to the People Bee Hoon noodle factory, which makes rice vermicelli noodles to see how Desmond Goh, the factory's director is using AI to improve his operations. Michael meets to Desmond and Muun AI founder Kathryn Knight about how better use of data can help cut emissions and waste. And at the end of the episode, a very special announcement… stay tuned. Topics Include Building climate startups across South and Southeast Asia Why climate investing needs more than "silver bullet" technologies The biggest opportunities for climate innovation in emerging Asian markets Solving regional pain points as the key to success Can Southeast Asia grow without burning more coal? Investing in emerging markets and navigating regional diversity How AI can help manufacturers cut emissions, costs and energy use The next generation of climate technology in Asia Leadership Circle Cleaning Up is proud to be supported by its Leadership Circle. The members are Actis, Alcazar Energy, Arup, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Cygnum Capital, Davidson Kempner, Ecopragma Capital, EDP, Eurelectric, the Gilardini Foundation, KKR, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, National Grid, Octopus Energy, Quadrature Climate Foundation, Schneider Electric, SDCL and Wärtsilä. For more information about the Leadership Circle, visit cleaningup.live Links Marie Cheong's bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-cheong-06141b36/ Wavemaker Impact https://wavemakerpartners.com/ 100x100 https://www.100x100.com/ Muun AI https://muun-ai.com/ Watch our previous episode from Singapore, with Ravi Menon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvhd34i6YMk Harish Hande on Cleaning Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUxdaHFJI68 South Asia Includes: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan,and Sri Lanka. South East Asia Includes:  Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Acronyms FESIA - Future Energy Storage and System Integration Alliance ASEAN - Alliance for Southeast Asian Nations CPTPP -  Comprehensive and Progressive agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership MT - Megatonne SAF - Sustainable Aviation Fuel SME - Small/Medium-sized Enterprises

In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Camille Krejci, Managing Director of CMK Capital. Camille discusses private credit, fintech-enabled lending, and how CMK Capital uses data-driven underwriting to finance short-term commercial receivables while supporting business growth across Southeast Asia. Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/ Visit our website: https://missionmatters.com/ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, ⁠Adam Torres⁠ interviews ⁠Camille Krejci⁠, Managing Director of CMK Capital. Camille discusses private credit, fintech-enabled lending, and how CMK Capital uses data-driven underwriting to finance short-term commercial receivables while supporting business growth across Southeast Asia. Follow Adam on Instagram at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/⁠ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: ⁠https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/⁠ Visit our website: ⁠https://missionmatters.com/⁠ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: ⁠https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, Ray Cochrane digs into “algorithmic outing,” new research showing that social feeds can infer your sexual orientation before you have consciously come out. He also covers Meta’s privacy-aware AI infrastructure, Alberta’s 466-million-line code scan with Claude, NVIDIA on reinforcement learning, and the many journeys of learning Rust. Along the way, he hits Google DeepMind’s A24 deal, WhatsApp usernames, and scuba-diving cyborg cockroaches. Finally, he looks up with Webb’s puzzling early universe, NASA’s emergency telescope rescue, and a gorgeous aurora from orbit. – Want to start a podcast? Its easy to get started! Sign-up at Blubrry – Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Email Ray if you want to get in touch! Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes Get 1Password Full Summary Cochrane opens with a quick personal update. He hopes listeners had a good holiday weekend, and he shares that he spent his time working his other job at Oregon’s Finest, chatting with people around Portland. Because his Blurbry workweek tends to be solitary, he refills his social meter on the weekends. He then recalls a Saturday night out with coworkers at the Hungry Tiger before turning to the lead story. Algorithmic Outing: When Your Feed Knows Before You Do Cochrane leads with new research from Australia that identifies a phenomenon called “algorithmic outing.” In short, the recommendation systems behind your social feeds can infer your sexual orientation or gender identity and start serving related content before you have worked it out yourself. Importantly, the study is small and qualitative, built on in-depth interviews with twenty LGBTQ+ adults in the Hunter region of New South Wales and published in the journal Gender, Place and Culture. The mechanism is engagement signals: what you like, who you follow, and how long you linger on a post, a metric the industry calls dwell time. Lead researcher Dr. Justin Ellis of the University of Newcastle notes that several participants said the algorithm “knew” they were queer before they did, an experience that felt validating for some but frightening for others in public settings. For Cochrane, the deeper worry is what else that hidden pattern encodes, from upbringing to mental health, and where that data ultimately gets sold. Sponsor: GoDaddy Economy hosting $6.99/month, WordPress hosting $12.99/month, domains $11.99. Website builder trial available. Use codes at geeknewscentral.com/godaddy to support the show. Meta’s Blueprint for Privacy-Aware AI Infrastructure Next, Cochrane turns to a sharp engineering piece from Meta on privacy-aware infrastructure. The core challenge is that a system must understand what a piece of data actually is before any privacy rule can protect it. A field named “age,” for example, might describe a person in one place and a cache setting in another. Meta’s answer deploys a large language model only on the genuinely ambiguous cases, then distills what it learns into fixed, human-reviewed rules. The payoff is concrete. According to Meta, those deterministic rules already handle about 85 percent of the traffic, and only the last 15 percent falls back to the model, which costs roughly 400 times more compute. Cochrane loves this edge-case approach. However, he contrasts it sharply with the AI-everywhere software he wrestles with at his weekend job, which he says the heavy AI reliance genuinely makes worse and harder to audit. Alberta Scans 466 Million Lines of Code With Claude This one comes from Anthropic, and it ties directly to Meta’s theme. A team inside Alberta’s Ministry of Technology and Innovation used Claude to scan 466 million lines of code in about twenty hours, a review Anthropic estimates would have taken humans roughly six and a half years. Notably, they ran around fifty AI agents in parallel, essentially an automated red team and blue team probing the systems at once. For Cochrane, this is the good version of AI in production: cleaning up and locking down real systems rather than running the show unsupervised. NVIDIA on Reinforcement Learning for AI Agents On the AI-building side, Cochrane walks through an NVIDIA developer piece on reinforcement learning for agents. Reinforcement learning rewards a model for good behavior rather than showing it the right answer, much like training a dog with treats. Additionally, he clears up a common mix-up. NVIDIA treats RAG, retrieval-augmented generation, as a separate tool: reinforcement learning changes how a model behaves, while RAG changes what facts it can reach. GitHub Retires Two Gemini Models Meanwhile, GitHub is retiring Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 3 Flash across all of Copilot on July 31. The migration paths are Gemini 3.1 Pro and Gemini 3.5 Flash. Cochrane flags it as a sign of the times, since tools that felt brand new a couple of years ago are already getting sunset. He also wonders how quickly today’s “AI-optimized” chips will turn over as the models keep changing. The Many Journeys of Learning Rust One for the programmers, and Cochrane makes no secret of loving Rust. The Rust blog’s Vision Doc series explores how people actually learn the language, which is built around memory safety and its strict borrow checker. Honest themes surface throughout, including “clone guilt,” where beginners refuse to copy anything, and “silent attrition,” the learners who quietly bounce off. His take stands: getting your brain onto a memory-safe language rewires how you approach a problem. Google DeepMind Partners With A24 In an interesting collision of worlds, Google DeepMind is teaming up with A24, the studio behind Hereditary and Everything Everywhere All at Once. The two call it a first-of-its-kind research partnership, with DeepMind researchers and A24 building creative tools shaped by the artists who use them. Cochrane adds a detail worth noting: Google also invested in A24, so this is money on the table, not just a research handshake. For now, though, the announcement stays deliberately vague, with no named films or products. Google’s $1 Million Africa Indie Game Fund Another one from Google, and it is good news for developers. Google is launching an indie games fund for sub-Saharan Africa, a region whose gaming scene is growing about as fast as anywhere. The fund puts up $1 million across ten local studios, each receiving between $50,000 and $200,000 plus mentorship and hands-on support. Applications close at noon UTC on July 31. WhatsApp Usernames Are Here to Reserve WhatsApp is finally moving off phone numbers as your identity. With usernames, someone can start a conversation with you without ever seeing your number. Starting this week, you can reserve the name you want ahead of the full launch later this year. To claim yours, head into Settings, then Account, then Username. Intel Sets Its Q2 Earnings Date Cochrane flags a date worth watching for anyone tracking Intel. The company reports second-quarter results on July 23, right after market close, with an earnings call at 2 p.m. Pacific. Given recent US government investment and a shifting chip landscape, he is curious how the domestic chipmaker is holding up. Your Smartwatch Might Spot Illness Before You Do Shifting to health, Engadget reports that the wearables-plus-AI wave is starting to deliver. These devices excel at catching the moment your body drifts off its own baseline, often the first nudge to get checked out. A 2025 study from Texas A&M and Stanford suggests smartwatches can detect early signs of COVID or the flu within hours of infection. Additionally, Apple Watch’s irregular-rhythm alerts have flagged AFib correctly about 84 percent of the time. Working Memory and Consciousness Here is a heady one from Scientific American, written by philosopher Henry Taylor at the University of Birmingham. Working memory is the mental scratchpad holding whatever you are doing right now. Taylor opens with the doorway effect, that blank moment when you enter a room and forget why. Intriguingly, when information leaves working memory, it seems to leave conscious awareness at the same instant, a link drawing fresh attention across psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. Scuba-Diving Cyborg Cockroaches Now for the wild one. Scientists have built tiny diving suits that let Madagascar hissing cockroaches survive underwater for up to three hours, while an unequipped roach suffocates in minutes. The 3D-printed suit feeds oxygen through tubes into the insect’s breathing holes, called spiracles, using a chemical generator with no electronics. This lab already steered the roaches with electrodes, so the diving suit is the new trick on top. Researchers pitch it for search and rescue, though Cochrane notes the reality of the spy bug has already arrived. Quantum Time Runs Backward at Los Alamos Next, a genuine brain-bender. Physicists at Los Alamos, led by Luis Pedro García-Pintos, found a way to make a quantum system look like it is running backward in time. To be clear, time is not literally reversing. Precise measurements just make the system’s evolution appear to unfold in reverse. The useful part is energy: measurement itself becomes a resource in what they call a continuous measurement engine. Cochrane admits the paper drifted further from his reality the more he read. Tall Trees Shrug Off Drought A new study in Science overturns some textbook wisdom. For years, the assumption held that taller trees suffer more in drought because they must lift water higher. However, researchers studying dipterocarps in Southeast Asia found that trees topping seventy meters slowed their growth by about the same amount as short ones during the 2023-2024 El Niño drought. The trick is plumbing: a seventy-meter tree grows base vessels roughly twice as wide as a ten-meter tree, so the real driver of drought stress is subtler than raw height. The Energy Department Purges Conservation Pages This next one frustrates Cochrane. The US Department of Energy deleted roughly 6,000 web pages about energy conservation, and the timing is brutal during a record heatwave. The move followed backlash over New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani urging residents to ease strain on the grid. Fortunately, the Internet Archive and its Wayback Machine preserved the pages before they vanished. For Cochrane, deleting that kind of public information simply does not make sense. Webb’s Puzzling New Universe Heading to space, Quanta Magazine explores how the James Webb Space Telescope keeps finding early-universe objects that should not exist. Those include black holes that grew enormous too fast and hundreds of mysterious “little red dots” around 650 million years after the Big Bang. As astrophysicist Rachel Somerville of the Flatiron Institute puts it, scientists have “almost gone from having too many early galaxies to having too many theories.” The hard part now is figuring out which theory is right. NASA’s Emergency Telescope Rescue NASA has a rescue mission underway for the Swift Observatory, a 2004 telescope that studies gamma-ray bursts. Recent solar storms puffed up Earth’s atmosphere, and the added drag has dragged Swift’s orbit down to about 224 miles, low enough to risk burning up this year. To intervene, NASA enlisted Katalyst Space Technologies of Flagstaff, Arizona, whose LINK spacecraft launched Friday. The plan is to boost Swift back up to roughly 373 miles. A Gorgeous Aurora From Orbit Finally, Cochrane closes on something beautiful. ESA shared a stunning aurora captured from orbit, a shimmering green band of light rippling over the planet. If you have a few minutes, it is well worth a look. Cochrane wraps with housekeeping and a thank-you to GoDaddy for two decades of support, then signs off, wishing listeners a wonderful evening. The post Algorithmic Outing: When Your Feed Knows Before You Do #1869 appeared first on Geek News Central.

Dr. Bob Aubrey has spent decades advancing the field of human development across Asia. With experience spanning 25 countries and six continents, he founded and chairs the Advisory Board of the ASEAN Human Development Organisation (AHDO), which promotes human development across the region and beyond. In this episode, Dart and Bob discuss the global human development movement, where it fits alongside HR, and what it means for capitalism, company profitability, and the future of work.Dr. Bob Aubrey is a human development consultant, author, educator, social entrepreneur, and leadership advisor whose work has spanned more than 25 countries across six continents.In this episode, Dart and Bob discuss:- How human deveolpment (HD) creates a better work environment- How HR and HD work together- HD curriculum and career paths- The importance of ethics in companies and investments- How Environmental Social Governance improves profitability- HD within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)- HR practices in Western vs. non-Western nations- How to create an organization that prioritizes employee well-being- If and how HD can coexist with capitalism- And other topics...Dr. Bob Aubrey is a human development consultant, author, educator, social entrepreneur, and leadership advisor whose work has spanned more than 25 countries across six continents. He is the Founder and Chair of the Advisory Board of the ASEAN Human Development Organisation (AHDO) and the Managing Director of Bob Aubrey Associates.Bob has authored numerous books on human development and leadership, including Human Development Careers: Leading the Future of Work, one of the first books dedicated to careers in human development, and The Ethics of ASEAN. Through his writing, consulting, and educational initiatives, he continues to advance the field of human development across Southeast Asia and beyond.Resources mentioned: Human Development Careers, by Bob Aubrey: https://www.amazon.com/Human-Development-Careers-Leading-Future-ebook/dp/B08QJ1BS98Measure of Man, by Bob Aubrey: https://www.amazon.com/Measure-Man-Leading-Human-Development-ebook/dp/B014IF1W36The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas S. Kuhn: https://www.amazon.com/Structure-Scientific-Revolutions-50th-Anniversary-ebook/dp/B007USH7J2Human Resource Champions, by David Ulrich: https://www.amazon.com/Human-Resource-Champions-David-Ulrich/dp/0875847196 Connect with Bob: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobaubrey/ASEAN Human Development Organisation: https://www.aseanhdo.com/aboutWork with Dart:Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what's most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.

This week on Tell Me More, host Katy sits down with Curt and Ashley Berryhill to unpack the fruit of the Spirit "Goodness"—the sixth stop in a nine-week series through Galatians 5:22-23. The conversation traces the word from the Hebrew tov in Genesis (where God calls His creation "good") to agathosune, a term the Apostle Paul appears to have coined by fusing the Greek word for "good" with a suffix meaning "intimately knit together." Using Barnabas—Scripture's "son of encouragement"—as a case study, Kurt explores how real goodness isn't about staying clean and uninvolved; it risks, protects, and proclaims, showing up in messy, no-win situations on behalf of other people. They also connect goodness to restoration, discipleship, and what it looks like to raise kids who bear good fruit rather than just "healthy" lives.Before diving into the theology, the team catches listeners up on a busy summer of ministry: 41 students serving at the Texas border with Texans on Mission, a small team encountering God's work among refugee communities in Southeast Asia, college students serving a church plant in Denver, and international partners visiting from Spain, Sierra Leone, and beyond. Ashley also shares an update on the church's growing pathway of student mission trips. The episode wraps with a teaser for next week's study on Faithfulness through the life of Mary Magdalene, plus details on Summer Clusters (women's Bible studies) starting soon. Learn more and get connected at fbca.org/summer.

Podcast: PrOTect It All (LS 27 · TOP 10% what is this?)Episode: AI for OT Cybersecurity: Real-World Strategies to Protect Critical InfrastructurePub date: 2026-07-06Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationAI is changing OT cybersecurity - but success still depends on understanding your operations. In this episode of Protect It All, host Aaron Crow welcomes Vivek Ponnada for a practical conversation about how artificial intelligence is transforming the way organizations defend critical infrastructure. With decades of experience in industrial automation and OT security, Vivek shares firsthand insights into the realities of protecting legacy control systems while preparing for a future increasingly shaped by AI, automation, and digital transformation. Together, Aaron and Vivek discuss how organizations can use AI to improve visibility, accelerate threat detection, prioritize vulnerabilities, and strengthen operational resilience, without losing sight of the fundamentals that keep industrial environments safe. Key Learning:  How AI is transforming OT cybersecurity and industrial operations Practical AI use cases for protecting critical infrastructure Why legacy systems remain one of the biggest OT security challenges How AI can improve vulnerability management and incident response The role of digital twins in strengthening cyber resilience Why trust, collaboration, and operational knowledge remain essential in OT security Whether you're responsible for manufacturing, utilities, energy, water, or other critical infrastructure, this episode provides practical insights into balancing innovation with operational reliability. Tune in to discover how AI can strengthen OT cybersecurity while helping organizations protect the systems that keep the world running. Key Moments:  06:43 AI and cloud adoption in OT 13:27 Controller logic changes and safety steps 21:24 Discussing Digital Twins for Security Use 26:51 Managing vulnerabilities at scale 32:41 Understanding Power Plant Limitations 37:17 Keeping up with plant changes 41:43 Automating infrastructure and maintenance 49:08 Rising importance of cybersecurity investment 52:16 Early days in cybersecurity and OT 01:00:03 Ransomware impacts on industries 01:01:53 Using GPUs for security and OT About the guest :  Vivek Ponnada is an Operational Technology (OT) Security practitioner with global experience and currently serves as the SVP of Growth & Strategy at Frenos, the world's first Simulated OT Pentesting Platform. Having started his career in Industrial Control Systems (ICS) as a Technician, Vivek became a Controls Engineer and commissioned Gas Turbines in Europe, Middle-East, Africa and South-East Asia. Post MBA, Vivek held multiple roles in Sales, Marketing & Business Development and Services covering ICS and OT Security solutions for Critical Infrastructure industries (Power, Oil & Gas etc.) at GE, XenonCyber Dynamics and Nozomi Networks. He was a co-lead for the Top 20 Secure PLC Coding Practices Project and regularly speaks at Information Security Conferences. Vivek has a C.Eng. from IEI, MBA from McCombs (UT Austin) and holds the ISA/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Expert & GICSP certifications. He is a member of the ISA, ISACA, Public Safety Canada ICS Security Symposium Advisory Committee and is a CS2AI Fellow. How to connect Vivek:  Frenos: https://frenos.io  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/1ot/  Frenos YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Frenos_Security Learn more about PrOTect IT All: Email: info@protectitall.co  Website: http://protectitallpod.com/ep113 X: https://twitter.com/protectitall  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PrOTectITAll  FaceBook:  https://facebook.com/protectitallpodcast To be a guest or suggest a guest/episode, please email us at info@protectitall.co Please leave us a review on Apple/Spotify Podcasts: Apple   - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/protect-it-all/id1727211124 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1Vvi0euj3rE8xObK0yvYi4The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Aaron Crow | Operational Technology & Cybersecurity Host, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Geoffrey Wawro, guest author, concludes that after the 1973 peace deal, the NVA rebuilt their forces, confident that a distracted US government—weakened by Watergate and the oil crisis—would not intervene again. When the final 1975 offensive began, President Ford did not react, and the ARVN, suffering from slashed funding and ammunition shortages, rapidly collapsed. President Thieu's decision to abruptly abandon northern provinces turned the retreat into a disordered rabble, leading to the fall of Saigon. The war's ultimate lesson was the futility of using extreme violence for political signaling, as the massive expenditure of lives and treasure had little lasting effect on the ground in Southeast Asia. The conflict was never approached strategically; instead, it was a series of tactical escalations hoping for a "lucky break." Ultimately, the US supported a government in South Vietnam that lacked the foundation for long-term success. The Vietnam War: A Military History (8)

Is SaaS dying? Andres Klaric, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Fuse, joins Jeremy Au to explain why he believes we have reached "peak SaaS" and why AI agents are forcing software companies to charge for outcomes instead of seats. Andres shares how he spent a decade on Wall Street to build a war chest, launched during the 2020 pandemic, and pivoted from automotive refinancing to an AI-native loan origination system now used by more than 100 lenders. He breaks down the $25 million Series A, the $5 million "rescue fund" that frees credit unions from legacy contracts, and why context-rich teams, not newcomers, win the AI race. For founders, venture capitalists, and operators across Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia, this is a playbook on disciplined pivots, outcome-based pricing, and building durable B2B software in a highly regulated industry. Whether you are raising a Series A, rethinking your SaaS pricing model, or navigating enterprise sales, Andres offers a candid look at accountability, agentic AI, and the immigrant grit behind the journey from Bolivia to a fast-scaling fintech. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/saas-outcome-pricing  BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English), YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (English), Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia), Spotify (Chinese), Spotify (Vietnamese), Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn, X / Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #VentureCapital #Startup #SaaS #AI #Fintech #LoanOrigination #Founders #SoutheastAsia #Podcast #Business 00:00 Harvard reunion and the cookie-cutter finance path 03:25 Building a war chest and the pandemic catalyst 06:15 From auto refinancing to the B2B pivot 10:25 How to run a disciplined pivot 13:24 Why legacy loan origination software is broken 19:37 Peak SaaS: charging for outcomes, not seats 26:02 The $5M rescue fund explained 28:53 Selling to banks and credit unions 31:39 Why humans still close deals in the AI era 34:15 Bravery, Bolivia, and his parents' migration 38:27 Founder, father, and finite time 40:57 Key takeaways

Dark Side of Seoul Podcast Episode 316 The Weird Science Behind Korean Food Nationalism   Episode Description A 2023 paper published in the Journal of Ethnic Foods argues that Korean cuisine developed in isolation, authentic Korean food isn't spicy, and even that royal court cuisine isn't truly Korean. In this episode, we examine the paper's historical, linguistic, archaeological, and scientific claims to see where the evidence supports the authors and where nationalism appears to outweigh scholarship. Topics Discussed Why Korean food doesn't need exaggerated origin stories The concept of food nationalism The "Hermit Kingdom" myth Did Korean cuisine really develop in isolation? Is banchan unique to Korea? Claims that Korean food has no sugar or oil Korean language and the outdated Ural-Altaic theory Ancient DNA and whether genetics can explain cuisine The debate over chili peppers and Korean food history Why the paper argues royal court cuisine isn't Korean How academic papers should distinguish evidence from advocacy Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 03:12 Why this paper caught our attention 08:45 "Correcting" Korean food history 15:20 Korea as an isolated civilization 22:08 Is banchan unique? 28:41 The claims about sugar, oil, and Korean cooking 35:15 Pottery, archaeology, and food history 42:10 Genetics, language, and extraordinary conclusions 49:55 The chili pepper controversy 56:30 Royal court cuisine and cultural identity 1:02:45 Final thoughts Mentioned During the Episode Science and Philosophy of Korea Traditional Foods (K-food) (Journal of Ethnic Foods, 2023) Traditional Korean cuisine Kimchi Banchan Joseon royal cuisine Korean food history The Columbian Exchange Ural-Altaic language theory Listen & Follow Website: https://darksideofseoul.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dark-side-of-seoul-podcast/id1504623984 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1lZBXNX79kwH2NXcJWNcb8 Patreon: https://patreon.com/darksideofseoul YouTube: https://youtube.com/@darksideofseoul Instagram: https://instagram.com/darksideofseoul Facebook: https://facebook.com/darksideofseoul Contact: info@darksideofseoul.com About The Dark Side of Seoul The Dark Side of Seoul explores Korea's darker history, folklore, true crime, urban legends, supernatural traditions, forgotten places, and the cultural stories that don't usually appear in guidebooks. New episodes include deep historical dives alongside our "Fun Sized" discussions of current events, controversies, and unusual aspects of life in Korea.   Notes Science and philosophy of Korea traditional foods (K-food) Dae Young Kwon,  Kim Soon-Hee,  Kyung Rhan Chung,  James W. Daily &  Sunmin Park    https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s42779-023-00194-3 Introduction Why This Paper Matters On the surface, this looks like an ordinary academic paper. It was published in 2023 in the Journal of Ethnic Foods, an open-access journal published by BioMed Central. It has multiple authors, references dozens of sources, and presents itself as a scientific examination of Korean food history and philosophy. But once you start reading it closely, something becomes obvious. The paper repeatedly makes sweeping historical, linguistic, archaeological, genetic, and anthropological claims that either go well beyond the available evidence or directly contradict mainstream scholarship. Rather than weighing competing explanations, it almost always arrives at the same conclusion: Korean food is uniquely independent, uniquely original, and fundamentally separate from neighboring cultures. That is what makes this paper interesting. Not because it's simply "wrong." Plenty of academic papers contain mistakes. It's interesting because it reflects a broader pattern that occasionally appears in Korean public discourse, media, and even academia: the desire to demonstrate Korean exceptionalism through scientific language. The Bigger Pattern Much of the paper revolves around proving things don't merely exist in Korea. They must be: older than everyone else's more original than everyone else's scientifically superior impossible to have borrowed from neighboring cultures It's the same pattern behind claims that: Korean is uniquely logical. Korean relationships are deeper because of speech levels. Metal chopsticks create better surgeons. Koreans excel at archery because of chopsticks. Kimchi predates chili peppers. Everything distinctive must have originated in Korea. Some of these are harmless internet folklore. Others find their way into books, museums, newspapers, documentaries, and occasionally academic publications. Why This Happens None of this appeared in a vacuum. Modern Korea emerged from colonization, war, dictatorship, and decades of being culturally overshadowed by larger neighbors. Building a strong national identity was an understandable project. The problem comes when pride begins driving the research instead of the research informing the pride. Good scholarship starts with evidence and follows wherever it leads. Nationalistic scholarship often starts with the conclusion and works backwards. That doesn't make every conclusion false. It does make readers ask a very different question: "Is this trying to discover the truth?" Or "Is this trying to prove something?" This paper often feels like the latter. 1. The Authors Set Themselves Up as the Correctors of History Page 1 "Nevertheless, until now, the history of food on the Korean Peninsula has been mainly studied by history scholars who can read Chinese characters rather than by natural scientists, resulting in errors and distortions in our understanding of the identity, history, and originality of Korean food. In this paper, we aim to correct these errors and distortions and to present scientifically validated research... Furthermore, we also aim to provide scientific truths..." Problems The paper begins by declaring that historians have distorted Korean food history while positioning the authors as the ones who possess the "scientific truths." Throughout the paper they continue using historical texts whenever those texts support their conclusions while dismissing them when they do not. It's an unusual way to frame an academic paper. Most research begins with questions, not with a declaration that previous scholarship is fundamentally wrong. 2. Korea Developed in Isolation Page 2 "The early Korean population developed their characteristic foods in relative isolation from other regions of Asia due to the oceans and rugged mountains surrounding the country. Therefore, we must be very careful when discussing the culture and history of Korean food through Chinese books... Korea has historically been geographically isolated... it was also so historically resistant to outside influences and interactions that it was commonly called the 'Hermit Kingdom.'" Problems This compresses thousands of years of Korean history into an isolation narrative. Korea maintained continuous contact with China, Japan, Jurchens, Mongols, and others through diplomacy, trade, religion, migration, and warfare. "Hermit Kingdom" describes a particular period of late Joseon diplomacy, not Korea's entire historical development. 3. Banchan Exists Nowhere Else Page 2 "Another distinctive feature of Korean cuisine is the unique presentation of bap and banchan... We call this banchan culture, and it is a food culture that does not exist in any other country in the world." Problems Korea's version is distinctive. The concept of eating a staple grain with multiple shared side dishes exists throughout East and Southeast Asia. The paper turns a distinctive tradition into an absolute claim. 4. Korea Had No Sugar or Oil Pages 2-3 "Not only do we have a different ethnic root than China, but we also do not have oil or sugar as elements to make food delicious agriculturally." ... "In an environment where livestock and dairy products did not exist, where sugar to provide a sweet taste was unavailable, and where there was no oil to enhance the flavor..." Problems Traditional Korean cooking uses sesame oil, perilla oil, honey, rice syrup (조청), and malt syrup. Traditional desserts like yakgwa depend on both oil and sweeteners. The paper repeatedly describes Korea as lacking ingredients that are well documented in Korean culinary history. 5. Tasteless Vegetables Are the Soul of Korean Food Page 3 "As with all vegetables and herbs, they have less flavor when they do not contain salt, fat, or protein. The essence of Korean cuisine lies in the spirit and wisdom of Korean ancestors on how to eat these tasteless vegetables deliciously, which can be said to be the soul of Korean food." Problems This is philosophy rather than food science. It's a perfectly reasonable cultural reflection. It should not be presented as scientific evidence. 6. Pottery Alone Proves Independent Food Culture Page 4 "The earthenware vessels found in Korea during the ancient times were... mostly different from that of China. From this alone, we can tell that the food culture of ancient times in Korea was independently formed from that of China." Problems "From this alone" is an enormous leap. Archaeologists do not infer entire culinary traditions from pottery styles alone. Different pottery demonstrates different pottery. 7. Korean and Chinese Are Completely Different Peoples Pages 4-5 "The Korean and Chinese peoples are ethnologically different nations." ... "Korea has continued to develop independently thereby developing and preserving its own culture and history without being culturally absorbed by the country of China." Problems Korean civilization certainly developed its own identity. But history also documents centuries of exchange in religion, administration, philosophy, literature, technology and cuisine. The paper repeatedly frames influence as something that either happened completely or not at all. 8. Korean Is Related to Hungarian and Finnish Page 5 "Korean is classified as Ural-Altaic (Trans-Eurasian), which is completely different from the Chinese language system (India-Europe). Korean belongs to the same linguistic family as Manchurian, Mongolian, Japanese, Hungarian, and Finnish." Problems Chinese is not Indo-European. The Ural-Altaic hypothesis has largely been abandoned by historical linguists. This entire linguistic discussion has little bearing on culinary history. 9. Ancient DNA Proves Korean Food Didn't Come from China Pages 5-6 "The rapid decline in male genetic diversity... suggests that during the war, the invaders slaughtered men and humiliated women." ... "Therefore, it is a false claim that Korean food came from either China or Japan through men's communication. Wars have not advanced the development of food. Had mothers' languages not changed after the war, their food would not have changed either." Problems This is probably the biggest logical leap in the paper. Population genetics cannot determine where recipes originated. The authors move directly from Bronze Age Y-chromosome bottlenecks to twentieth-century arguments about Korean cuisine. 10. Korea Had No Livestock, Dairy, Sugar or Oil Page 6 "In an environment where livestock and dairy products did not exist... where sugar... was unavailable... and where there was no oil to enhance the flavor..." Problems This repeats and expands an earlier claim. Historically Korea had livestock. It had oils. It had traditional sweeteners. The statement is presented far more absolutely than the historical record supports. 11. Korean Food Is Never Spicy Page 16 "Foreigners who do not understand this come to believe that Korean food is very spicy. In reality, authentic Korean food is never hot because chili pepper varieties cultivated in Korea are not hot." Problems Korean peppers are generally milder than many Southeast Asian varieties. That does not make Korean food "never hot." This swings from one extreme myth to the opposite extreme. 12. Royal Court Cuisine Isn't Korean Page 16 "Royal court cuisine and jongka cuisine are not Korean food; they are based on Chinese food." Problems One of the paper's most extraordinary conclusions. Royal cuisine developed inside Korean courts, by Korean cooks, over centuries. Cultural influence does not erase cultural identity. 13. The Paper Contradicts Itself About Foreign Influence Pages 16-17 The paper argues wars and foreign influence did not shape Korean food. Then later it writes: "Inexpensive wheat flour from the USA replaced the more expensive rice with flour, which has greatly contributed to the development of pajeon, tteokbokki, and kuksu." Problems This is exactly the kind of foreign influence the paper spends earlier chapters minimizing. It acknowledges that American food aid transformed important Korean dishes after the Korean War. Structural Problems Heavy self-citation Many of the paper's key citations are previous publications by the lead author. The article often cites earlier books and papers by Kwon to support Kwon's current arguments. Personal communications as evidence One of the key claims about ancient Korean chili peppers relies on an unpublished personal communication rather than peer-reviewed evidence. Conclusions precede the evidence Throughout the paper, the conclusion remains remarkably consistent: Korean food is uniquely independent. Korean food is uniquely original. Korean food is uniquely healthy. Korean food is fundamentally separate from neighboring cuisines. The evidence is then selected and interpreted to support those conclusions. Closing Korean cuisine is extraordinary. It doesn't need exaggerated origin stories. It doesn't become less Korean because chili peppers came from the Americas. It doesn't become less Korean because Buddhism came through China. It doesn't become less Korean because dumplings arrived with the Mongols. Every great cuisine is built through centuries of borrowing, adapting, refining, and making ideas its own. Ironically, that's exactly what makes Korean food so interesting. The strongest case for Korean cuisine isn't that it developed in complete isolation. It's that Korea took influences from around the world and transformed them into something unmistakably Korean. That story is both more believable and far more impressive.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

ITP - 151 - Melissa Rodway is an author, traveler, and former Radio Jockey. She joins Hannah, JP, and Greg to talk about travel, storytelling, and her new book The People You Meet: Luxury, Leeches, Love and Lao-Lao. Melissa shares how a childhood year in Australia planted the travel seed, how months of moving through Southeast Asia became the foundation for her book, and why the people we meet on the road often shape us more than the places themselves. The conversation moves through Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China, Mexico, travel fatigue, solo adventures, border-crossing panic, and the strange compulsion to write it all down before the memories get eaten by time, bad Wi-Fi, or another questionable bus ride.You can buy her first book in multiple formats on Amazon.com-more information-The International Teacher Podcast is a bi-weekly discussion with experts in international education. New Teachers, burned out local teachers, local School Leaders, International school Leadership, current Overseas Teachers, and everyone interested in international schools can benefit from hearing stories and advice about living and teaching overseas.Additional Gems Related to Our Show:Greg's Favorite Video From Living Overseas - ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQWKBwzF-hw⁠Signup to be our guest  ⁠https://calendly.com/itpexpat/itp-interview?month=2025-01⁠Our Website⁠ -  ⁠https://www.itpexpat.com/⁠Our FaceBook Group - ⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/itpexpat⁠⁠JPMint Consulting Website  - ⁠https://www.jpmintconsulting.com/⁠Hannah's Personal IG - https://www.instagram.com/thatexpatfamily?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==Greg's Personal YouTube Channel: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs1B3Wc0wm6DR_99OS5SyzvuzENc-bBdO⁠Books (on Amazon) By Gregory Lemoine:Stay for the Show (2026) | Greg's first Childrens Picture Book⁠International Teacher Guide: Finding the "Right Fit" 2nd Edition (2025)⁠ | by Gregory Lemoine M.Ed.⁠⁠"International Teaching: The Best-kept Secret in Education"⁠⁠ | by Gregory Lemoine M.Ed.Apps by Greg:https://apps.apple.com/app/6755244840  1. Who's That? Name & Face Trainer  Nov 21, 2025https://apps.apple.com/app/6756509803   2. Facetag | Memory Trainer   Dec 16, 2025

Last time we spoke about the battle of Zhongtiao Mountain. On 7 May 1941, Japan launched a three-front assault on the Zhongtiao Mountains, striking multiple axes and using paratroopers to disrupt Chinese command. On the northeastern front, Wu Shimin's 98th Army scored a success at Wangcun, routing about 2,000 attackers. Elsewhere, three-pronged Japanese forces drove south toward Yuanqu with overwhelming artillery, armor, and coordinated movement. During the first night, paratroopers found the Chinese headquarters already disordered: orders were unclear and communications with most units collapsed. By 8 May, the First War Zone could no longer coordinate; armies fought alone. From mid-May into June, Japanese units swept the mountains, manning river crossings to block retreat and eliminating pockets. Surviving Chinese formations escaped or regrouped south of the Yellow River, but the three-year Zhongtiao defensive system was destroyed in about twenty days, sharply worsening Japan's strategic situation in northern China.   #208 Operation Plus: The Road to the Second Battle of Changsha Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. In the autumn of 1939, Japanese forces under General Yasuji Okamura launched a major offensive aimed at capturing Changsha — the gateway to China's interior and one of the most important cities still under Nationalist control. The First Battle of Changsha ended without a decisive Japanese victory. Chinese forces, anchored by the Ninth War Zone under General Xue Yue, managed to repel the advance, inflicting significant casualties and preserving the city. It was a notable achievement at a time when Japanese arms had swept across vast swathes of Chinese territory, and it reverberated through both the Chinese military establishment and the watching international community. Following the Japanese withdrawal, Chiang Kai-shek convened the Second Nanyue Military Conference to carry out a thorough assessment of the battle and to plan for the period of relative calm that would follow. The conference sought to answer several pressing questions: What had worked in the defense? Where had coordination broken down? How could the period of Japanese inactivity be used most productively? Chiang made it clear that this respite was not to be wasted. Commanders of all the major war zones were simultaneously expected to serve as governors of their respective provinces, ensuring unity of military and civilian command. Chiang himself set an example by personally assuming the governorship of Sichuan Province and focusing attention on that province's production and reconstruction efforts. The conference produced broad directives for the reconstruction of war-zone provinces and the intensification of military training. For Hunan, responsibility for implementing these directives fell on the shoulders of General Xue Yue, who had emerged from the First Battle of Changsha with greatly enhanced prestige and authority. The reason Changsha and Hunan more broadly attracted such persistent Japanese attention was geographical and logistical. The Yuehan Railway — running from Yueyang in northern Hunan down through Changsha and south toward Guangzhou — was one of the most important transportation arteries in China. Whoever controlled it could move troops, equipment, and supplies across vast distances with speed and reliability. Opening up the Yuehan line would, in Japanese strategic thinking, effectively connect their forces in Central China with those in South China, allowing for a gradual tightening of the strategic noose around Chiang Kai-shek's wartime capital at Chongqing in Sichuan Province. Hunan was therefore not merely a defensive problem for the Chinese; it was a strategic prize that Japan would inevitably seek to take. Xue Yue, whose headquarters were in Changsha, was well aware of this logic. With the First Battle of Changsha behind him and the province in need of recovery, Xue Yue turned his attention to governance. He was not content to wait passively for the next Japanese offensive. He believed that a province that was economically productive, administratively disciplined, and politically stable would provide a far more durable foundation for military resistance than one that was disorganized and demoralized. At the beginning of his tenure as effective governor of Hunan, Xue conducted a thorough survey of the province's situation and then articulated a philosophical framework for his administration in the form of a "three-character policy," consisting of three guiding principles: "Peace"  (an), "Convenience" (bian), and "Sufficiency" ( zu). In Xue's formulation, "Peace" meant that the population should be able to live, work, and conduct their daily affairs free from fear and disruption. "Convenience" meant that policies should benefit the people, the nation, and the war effort simultaneously — eliminating bureaucratic obstacles and inefficiencies. "Sufficiency" meant achieving adequate levels in all essential areas: enough soldiers, enough food, and enough wisdom in leadership. These seemingly simple principles were elaborated into extensive implementation guidelines. The announcement of this framework immediately sparked debate across Hunan's intellectual and administrative community. Veteran officials and scholars were divided. Some praised the policy as a clear and practical framework for wartime governance. Others dismissed it as hollow wordplay, offering nothing new or substantive. A minority was more sharply critical, warning that if such superficial philosophizing was all Xue could offer, the province would decay into warlordism. Undeterred by the criticism, Xue Yue built upon the three-character framework with a set of "Six Policies" for governing the people of Hunan: "Benefiting the People, Raising the People, Educating the People, Protecting the People, Managing the People, and Utilizing the People." Each of these six principles came with specific implementation targets and performance metrics, designed to be measurable rather than aspirational. This second round of policy announcements generated yet another wave of debate, but Xue pressed forward with implementation regardless. From the beginning of 1940, Xue vigorously pushed for the expansion of agricultural and industrial production across the province. His approach was comprehensive and at times uncompromising. He approved funds for the reconstruction of the Zhongshan Road National Goods Exhibition Hall in Changsha — which had been destroyed in the catastrophic Changsha Fire of 1938 — and by February 1940, 114 shops had reopened there. In March, he approved the "Eight Measures for the Construction of Sheds in Changsha," drafted by the Changsha Municipal Police Bureau, which relaxed housing regulations and helped address the severe shortage of accommodation for the city's residents, who had largely fled or been displaced during the fire and the Japanese offensive. One of the more creative initiatives of this period was the Ninth War Zone's order requiring all troops stationed in Hunan to cultivate a certain amount of farmland in their spare time, growing grain to supplement military rations. Local residents came to refer to the plots tended by soldiers as "soldier's fields" (bing tian). This policy served a dual purpose: it reduced the logistical burden of feeding the garrison forces from civilian stocks while keeping soldiers productively occupied during lulls in fighting. It also served to maintain a degree of goodwill between the military and the rural communities on which any prolonged resistance ultimately depended. One of the most consequential steps Xue Yue took to stabilize Hunan's governance was an aggressive campaign against corruption. On April 15, 1940, he ordered the execution of Tian Weizheng, the county magistrate of Changsha, and Wang Lun, the county magistrate of Xiangtan, both on charges of corruption and abuse of office. The proclamation accompanying the executions was blunt: "This serves as a warning against corruption and establishes the authority of the law in upholding discipline." The message was not lost on officials across the province. In the months that followed, a sweep of investigations led to the punishment of numerous corrupt officials and illegal businessmen. The effect on public confidence in the provincial government was significant. Citizens and soldiers alike perceived that there was now a leadership willing to hold its own accountable — a stark contrast to the corruption and self-dealing that had plagued Chinese provincial governance throughout the war. Xue was also attentive to the ideological dimension of the war effort. On May Fourth Youth Day — itself laden with nationalist significance, commemorating the great student movement of 1919 — Xue attended the provincial capital's sports meet and delivered a speech before thousands of young people entitled "Iron Youth, Iron Spirit, Sacred Labor, Sacred Survival." The speech was aimed at galvanizing the younger generation, connecting their personal futures to the fate of the nation and the resistance against Japan. That same month, in May 1940, the 110th executive meeting of the Hunan Provincial Government revised and approved the "Hunan Province County Heads Performance Evaluation Method," a document that formalized military service and support for the war effort as the primary criterion in the evaluation of local officials' political performance. Throughout 1940, the provincial government and the Ninth War Zone organized a series of training courses for officials, including courses specifically designed for guerrilla cadres, women cadres, and village chiefs — an indication that preparations for sustained, decentralized resistance were underway. Xue himself addressed the cadre training group with a speech on "The Conditions That a Well-Rounded Cadre Should Possess." By the end of 1940, after more than a year of sustained effort, Hunan had broadly recovered to the administrative and economic condition it had enjoyed before the Changsha Fire, when the reformist official Zhang Zhizhong had governed the province. Agriculture, industry, and commerce all showed measurable improvement over their wartime lows. The government's accounts for the year reflected growth across all sectors. This recovery was not merely statistical; it represented a genuine rebuilding of the province's capacity to sustain a prolonged defense. Soldiers were better fed and equipped, local officials were more disciplined, and the civilian population had a functioning, if still imperfect, relationship with the wartime state. Early in 1941, Xue Yue's reputation had grown to the point where local gentry and public figures jointly petitioned for a bustling street in Changsha to be named after his courtesy name — a mark of genuine popular esteem unusual for a military governor in wartime China. While Xue Yue was rebuilding Hunan, events at the geopolitical level were reshaping the strategic environment in ways that would directly precipitate the Second Battle of Changsha. On September 27, 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, formally joining the Axis powers. The pact alarmed the Western democracies and accelerated their support for China. On December 2, 1940, the United States Congress passed a bill approving a one-hundred-million-dollar loan to China. On December 10, 1940, Britain followed suit, approving a ten-million-pound loan. Both measures were explicitly understood — by all parties — as responses to Japanese expansion and Japan's recognition of Wang Jingwei's collaborationist puppet government in Nanjing. For the Japanese military leadership, these loans signaled that the international community was not prepared to accept Japan's fait accompli in China, and that the war of attrition against the Nationalist government could not be allowed to continue indefinitely. The imperative to resolve the "China Incident" — as Japanese officials euphemistically called the war — before the international situation deteriorated further became more urgent than ever. On January 16, 1941, the Japanese Army adopted the "Long-Term Operational Guidance Plan for China." The document acknowledged a painful internal contradiction: Japan could only sustain a protracted war in China, yet it simultaneously demanded a swift resolution to the conflict through strong military pressure. The plan's solution to this contradiction was to intensify operations while "taking note of the international situation" — meaning that military actions should be calibrated to avoid triggering direct American or British intervention. The plan called for large-scale offensive operations in the summer and autumn of 1941. The companion document, the "Annual Plan for Showa 16 (1941)," was more specific. It required Japanese troops stationed in China to conduct a major operation in the summer and autumn of that year with the aim of dealing a heavy blow to the main force of the "Whampoa Military Academy" — the term used by Japanese planners to describe the core of Chiang Kai-shek's professional officer corps, trained at the Whampoa (Huangpu) Military Academy and regarded as the backbone of the Nationalist army. The stated goal was to destroy the Chongqing government's will to continue resistance and thereby force a resolution to the China Incident. Xue Yue himself read translated summaries of both these documents when he traveled to Chongqing to report on his work in early 1941. He returned to Hunan in a reflective, and determined, frame of mind. For much of the period between the two Battles of Changsha, the Japanese Eleventh Army — the primary force facing Xue Yue's Ninth War Zone — had been commanded by General Yasuji Okamura, a seasoned officer with whom Xue had developed a degree of familiarity through combat. By early 1941, it became known that Okamura was to be transferred to the Military Advisory Council at Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo — a prestigious but more removed role. Xue Yue reflected on this change with a mixture of relief and characteristic self-confidence, reasoning that whoever replaced Okamura would be a new adversary to be dealt with on the battlefield, and that there was no reason to lose to him regardless. Korechika Anami received his appointment as commander of the Eleventh Army on February 15, 1941. From the first day of his appointment, he carried a detailed battle map of the three provinces facing his command — Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi — along with comprehensive intelligence files on both sides' troop dispositions and strengths. He studied these materials constantly, on trains, in waiting rooms, wherever he had a free moment. By the time he formally took up his post on March 10, 1941, he already had a clear operational vision for the coming campaign. Before reaching the front, Anami stopped in Nanjing to meet with General Hata Shunroku, the Commander-in-Chief of the China Expeditionary Army. Hata had himself arrived in China in early 1941, having been summoned by the Emperor before his departure and entrusted with what the Emperor called the sacred mission of resolving the China Incident. The two men talked through the night, their conversation returning repeatedly to the planned summer-autumn offensive. Hata urged Anami to annihilate the main force of the Ninth War Zone in the area south of the Miluo River — to destroy, once and for all, the core of Chiang Kai-shek's best troops. "If this battle is fought well," Hata told him, "the entire war situation in China will undergo a huge change." Anami listened and agreed, though he had his own reasons to want the battle to go well. He had voluntarily relinquished the prominent position of Vice Minister of the Army at General Headquarters in Tokyo to take this field command — a significant personal sacrifice that reflected his deep desire for battlefield achievement. There was a personal dimension to Anami's motivations as well. His second son, a bright and lively boy to whom he was deeply attached, had died in combat in China. Anami carried a photograph of his son wherever he went, and had resolved to transform his grief into a consuming commitment to military excellence, whatever the human cost. At the Eleventh Army's headquarters in Yueyang, Anami found the war game board and operational plans that Okamura had left behind. He did not immediately begin issuing orders. Instead, for weeks he immersed himself in the problem, traveling between divisional headquarters and subordinate commands to gather ground-level perspectives, or sitting alone for hours before the great map, motionless and in deep concentration. His new chief of staff, Kinoshita Isamu, who had come from a divisional unit and was unfamiliar with his commander's temperament, could only keep silent company during these long sessions. When Anami eventually convened his headquarters personnel to explain his operational intentions, he made a pointed critique of the First Battle of Changsha. "The reason why the last battle in Changsha did not achieve great results," he said, "was that the troops were too dispersed and the main direction of attack was not highlighted, so they could not form a strong impact and lethality." He named the new operation "Operation Plus" — a deliberate contrast with what he saw as the subtracted, diluted efforts of the previous campaign. His concept was one of radical concentration: rather than dispersing the attack across multiple fronts in Hubei and Jiangxi while simultaneously advancing on Changsha, Anami proposed pulling the forces from southern Hubei and northern Jiangxi and massing them in front of northern Hunan. The effect on his staff officers when he demonstrated this redeployment on the map was electric; one of them involuntarily exclaimed aloud at the sudden clarity of the advantageous position that mass concentration would create. Anami's personality was, in the judgment of those who worked with him, fundamentally different from Okamura's. A commander's fighting style is shaped by his character, and Anami's character was defined by intensity, focus, and a willingness to commit fully. These traits would shape "Operation Plus" from conception to execution. On June 22, 1941, five and a half million German troops launched Operation Barbarossa — the largest military invasion in history — against the Soviet Union. The news reached the Japanese military establishment with a degree of surprise, since such a momentous operation should, under the terms of the Tripartite Pact, have been communicated in advance. Beyond the procedural slight, German strategists had placed themselves in the position of fighting a two-front war, something Japanese generals found strategically bewildering. The outbreak of the Soviet-German War forced a serious debate within the Japanese General Staff. One faction argued for a "northward advance" — seizing the opportunity to strike the Soviet Union from the east while its military was fully committed in the west. Another faction argued for a "southward advance" — moving into Southeast Asia and the Pacific to secure the oil and raw materials that Japan desperately needed. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe adopted a wait-and-see compromise, authorizing secret preparations for war in the north known as Operation Kantokuen while continuing to monitor developments. Now it just so happens I released a Patreon/Youtube Members exclusive episode covering Operation Kantokuen the previous month. I highly recommend it, fascinating what if piece of history. For just a teaser I can briefly summarize it: Operation Kantokuen — officially designated "Kwantung Army Special Maneuvers" — was Japan's plan for a large-scale invasion of the Soviet Far East, developed in the summer of 1941 following Germany's launch of Operation Barbarossa. When news of the German invasion reached Tokyo, Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka and senior Kwantung Army officers argued Japan should abandon its neutrality pact with the USSR and strike in coordination with Germany. An Army-Navy compromise on June 24th allowed preparations to proceed so long as they did not interfere with Japan's concurrent southern ambitions. On July 5th, Matsuoka and Major General Shin'ichi Tanaka convinced War Minister Hideki Tojo to back a more ambitious scheme, and the two men then bypassed the War Ministry entirely, securing Emperor Hirohito's personal authorization. The plan was structured in two stages — a buildup and readiness phase followed by an offensive phase — during which the Kwantung Army would await an explicit order to attack. The Army General Staff calculated that any campaign had to conclude by mid-October before Siberian winter conditions made logistics impossible. Their ideal force requirement was 16 to 22 divisions supported by 800,000 tons of shipping, though this assumed the Soviets would first redeploy half their Far Eastern infantry and two-thirds of their armor westward against Germany. The planned order of battle ultimately settled on 24 divisions — 17 committed to the eastern front and 5 concentrated near Mutanchiang. The opening blow was designed to fall on the Primorye (Maritime Province) front. The 1st Area Army, commanding the 3rd and 20th Armies along with elements of the Korea Army, would cross the border south of Lake Khanka to shatter Soviet defensive lines and menace Vladivostok. Simultaneously, the 5th Army would strike south of Iman to cut the Trans-Siberian Railway and isolate the Maritime Province from northern reinforcements. In the north, the 4th Army would hold the Amur River line before pivoting to attack Blagoveshchensk, while two additional reinforced divisions would invade Northern Sakhalin in a land-and-sea pincer. A second phase envisioned capturing Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk, and Sovetskaya Gavan, with amphibious operations considered against Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Kamchatka itself. The operation was to be supported by a massive air assault — between 1,800 and 2,700 aircraft combining Army and Navy aviation — aimed at annihilating the Soviet Far East Air Force in the opening hours, after which Japanese air power would shift to tactical ground support and interdiction of Soviet supply lines. Armored assets included roughly 800–900 tanks, mostly Type 97 Chi-Has and Type 95 Ha-Gos. Kantokuen was also allocated chemical weapons stockpiled in Manchuria and biological agents produced by Unit 731, intended for deployment against Soviet rear areas and supply lines. Despite the scale of planning, the operation was already fatally compromised before it could be launched. Japan's industry and logistics could not sustain a two-front war while remaining bogged down in China. On August 1st, 1941, the United States enacted a total oil embargo that cut off 80% of Japan's fuel supply, and the Dutch East Indies followed. With oil reserves sufficient for only 12–18 months of peacetime consumption, a Siberian offensive that would consume an estimated one to two million barrels per month was no longer tenable. By August 9th, the Army General Staff conceded that seizing the oil-rich territories of Southeast Asia was the overriding strategic priority. The Kantokuen buildup was formally terminated, and Japan turned south — setting the course toward Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War. Now Kantokuen held some practical consequences for the China Expeditionary Army was disruptive. Serious consideration was given to redeploying units of the Eleventh Army away from their positions facing Hunan and northward toward Manchuria, in anticipation of a possible war with the Soviet Union. This threatened to derail Anami's planning entirely. The cloud of uncertainty hung over the Changsha operation for several weeks. Despite the disruption, Anami refused to let the operation be indefinitely deferred. On June 24, 1941 — just two days after Barbarossa began — he formally approved the operational guidance outline for the Changsha offensive and set a planned launch date of September 15. This was an act of deliberate institutional pressure: by formalizing the plan so quickly in the wake of Barbarossa, Anami made it harder for higher authorities to redirect his forces northward without explicitly cancelling a plan already in motion. The gamble worked. The northward deployment option was ultimately shelved, and the Eleventh Army remained in place to conduct its summer-autumn offensive. While Anami and his staff at Yueyang bent over their map of Hunan, so too did Xue Yue and his staff at Changsha. Two nearly identical colored military maps were laid out on large tables in two different command centers — one in Chinese, one in Japanese — showing the same terrain of Hunan, southern Hubei, and western Jiangxi. The Xiang River appeared on both as a green ribbon; Dongting Lake as a blue maple leaf. For those responsible for commanding the impending battle, the war game was the battle, played out in simulation before blood was shed. Xue Yue, his Chief of Staff Wu Yizhi, Chief of Staff Zhao Zili, and the intelligence and operations officers of the Ninth War Zone Command engaged in extensive map exercises throughout the summer of 1941. Wargaming pieces bearing unit designations moved across the terrain as staff officers reported troop strengths, timings, and geographic objectives. The summer heat was intense, and there was nowhere cool in Changsha; Xue and his staff worked in the heat, sweating heavily as they played out scenario after scenario. It was during these sessions that Xue came to believe he had grasped the essential shape of the Japanese plan. Reasoning from the known Japanese strategic posture and the pattern of the first battle, he concluded that the enemy would again advance roughly the same way. His counter-strategy was as follows: in northern Jiangxi and southern Hubei, the war zone would launch pincer attacks on Japanese forces that were not part of the main offensive, targeting the area north of Chongren and Xingan, east of Yichun, Wanzai, Tonggu, and Xiushui, to defeat them in detail. In northern Hunan — the main theater — the war zone would deliberately allow the Japanese to advance, luring their main force south of the Miluo River into the area north of Jinjing, Fulinpu, and Sanjieqiao, and then launch a devastating counterattack to encircle and annihilate them. After a successful counterattack, Xue imagined pursuing the broken Japanese forces all the way back to Yueyang, and beyond — even, in his more expansive moments, recapturing the great cities of Jiujiang and Wuhan, lost in 1938. This was the "lure and annihilate" strategy, and it was not merely a hope — it was the formal operational order issued to the forces of the Ninth War Zone. In August 1941, the Ninth Military Front officially assessed that Japan intended to capture Changsha and obtain supplies, and the lure-and-annihilate plan was formalized accordingly. What Xue Yue did not know — and could not know through his intelligence network alone — was that Anami's operational philosophy was fundamentally different from Okamura's. The critical assumption underlying the lure-and-annihilate plan was that the Japanese would attack in roughly the same dispersed, multi-front pattern as the first battle. Anami's "Operation Plus" invalidated this assumption entirely. By concentrating his forces in front of northern Hunan rather than dispersing them, Anami would strike with an impact Xue's cordon defenses were not designed to absorb. Xue was, unknowingly, planning to fight a replay of the first battle against an opponent who had studied that first battle as a case study in what not to do. Despite this fundamental intelligence gap, the Chinese were not without information. From mid-August 1941 onward, residents of mountain villages and riverside communities in northern Jiangxi and southern Hubei began reporting unusual nighttime activity. Faint sounds of motor engines and the footsteps of large columns moving on main roads were heard after dark. On moonlit nights, fleets of motorboats were seen moving without lights on the rivers, visible only as dark shadows on the water. The local population was puzzled and unsettled: what kind of unit was this, and what were they doing? The answer was that Anami's forces were conducting their pre-offensive assembly under cover of darkness and strict light discipline, moving four divisions totaling approximately 120,000 troops into position for the attack on Hunan. Military and civilian intelligence agents operating in these areas crouched in the bushes, enduring insect bites through long nights, watching and recording everything they witnessed. The information was relayed by human chain, passed from one agent to another across a network stretching back to Changsha, until it was collated and placed on Xue Yue's desk by staff officers from the Ninth War Zone Command's Intelligence Department. Xue studied the reports carefully, comparing them against his map. The evidence of a large Japanese build-up in northern Hunan was unambiguous. But Xue was suspicious of its implications. "Mobilize troops? All the troops are moved to northern Hunan. What about Tongcheng? What about Yueyang? Impossible! Feint? What does that mean? You want me to concentrate my troops in northern Hunan so you can attack from both sides?" His staff officers were similarly uncertain how to read the intelligence. The scale of the Japanese concentration defied the pattern of previous operations, and Xue's trained instincts — calibrated against years of dealing with Okamura — led him to doubt what his intelligence was plainly showing. He concluded, without firm evidence, that the concentration must be a feint or a deception. On August 26, 1941, Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo issued Mainland Order No. 538, which authorized the Commander-in-Chief of the China Expeditionary Army to "temporarily conduct operations beyond the designated operational area in Central China during the summer and autumn." This order provided the formal imperial sanction for the Changsha offensive, lifting any remaining bureaucratic constraints on Anami's operational plan. It represented the final piece of institutional authorization, completing a chain that stretched from Anami's June 24 approval of the operational outline through Hata's advocacy at the China Expeditionary Army level to the formal imprimatur of the Imperial General Headquarters. With Mainland Order No. 538 in hand, the Eleventh Army's final preparations could proceed without ambiguity. The original planned launch date of September 15 would in practice be moved forward, with combat beginning on September 7 — itself a date chosen partly to maximize the advantage of late-summer weather conditions in the Hunan river-crossing terrain. By the time Anami's forces were assembled, the operational force was formidable. Estimating that the enemy facing them comprised fifteen divisions from the Chinese 4th, 37th, 99th, 74th, and 26th Corps, Japanese planners calculated — somewhat optimistically — that two infantry battalions would suffice to handle one enemy division. To provide a margin for error and to ensure decisive striking power, the Eleventh Army committed forty-one infantry battalions distributed across four full divisions and three specialized task forces, supported by twenty-nine artillery battalions. This represented a massive concentration of firepower and manpower along a relatively narrow axis of advance, precisely as Anami had intended. The objective was clearly stated: "to deal a major blow to the Ninth Military Front in order to thwart the enemy's plan for resistance." Japanese senior leadership reiterated at every briefing that the mission was emphatically not territorial — the army was not to occupy Changsha or secure it for long-term administration, and it was not to forage for supplies. The goal was destruction of Chinese combat power. On the Chinese side, the Ninth Military Front had not been idle. Since the Battle of Shanggao in March 1941 — a significant Chinese defensive victory in Jiangxi that had inflicted heavy casualties on Japanese forces attempting to advance into the province — the Ninth Military Front had ordered its troops to cooperate with guerrilla units operating in the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi border region, conducting harassment operations against Japanese logistics and communications. This cooperation served both to maintain offensive pressure and to train the irregular forces that would prove invaluable in a war of attrition. By August 1941, Xue Yue had assembled a force of thirty-five divisions organized into thirteen armies across three army groups, totaling 378,307 troops. The headquarters of the Ninth Military Front remained in Changsha. Xue had also assessed his forces' combat readiness with some confidence: in the summer of 1940, the Ninth War Zone had dispatched one corps from each army group and one division from each corps on summer offensive operations against Japanese positions, explicitly testing their readiness in real combat. Although no major victories had been achieved in those operations, the exercise confirmed that troop morale was high and that combat effectiveness had recovered to the level of the First Battle of Changsha. If anything, Xue thought, after another full year of training, they should be better. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Operation Plus, emphasized concentrating forces and creating a decisive breakthrough rather than dispersing attacks across multiple fronts like in earlier battles. On the Chinese side, commander Xue Yue developed a "lure and annihilate" strategy, expecting the Japanese to fight like before; however, Anami's concentrated approach undermined these assumptions, making a Chinese counteroffensive far harder to execute.

Dr. Steven Platt is a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Herpetologist for Southeast Asia. Steve is a crocodile and turtle biologist who studies these animals in the field and in captivity. Many species of crocodiles and turtles are endangered, and Steve is dedicated to better understanding and conserving them. When he's not working, Steve spends his time reading, going for walks outside, birdwatching, and hunting. He also used to raise chickens as a hobby. Birdwatching is a particular passion, and he aspires to one day see an ivory-billed woodpecker in the wild. He received his BSc in Forestry and Wildlife Management from Louisiana State University, his MSc in Biology from Southeastern Louisiana University, and his PhD in Zoology from Clemson University. Afterwards, Steve worked for WCS from 1996 - 2001. In 2001, Steve transitioned to working in academia. He served on the faculty at Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota for about five years, followed by five years as a faculty member at Sul Ross State University in Texas. In 2011, he accepted his current position and returned to WCS. In this interview, Steve shares more about his life and his work in research and conservation.

Tata Electronics and Bajaj Auto continue recovery from cyberattacks. FCC tightens undersea cable rules to bolster national security. CISA warns of actively exploited PTC vulnerability. Gamaredon expands toolkit, hides behind legitimate services. Iran-linked hackers turn public warning systems into psychological weapons. Threat actors target critical infrastructure across Southeast Asia. DCloud framework behind global scam economy. Polish police disrupt SIM-swapping gang. French statistics agency reports cyberattack affecting nearly 13,000 staff. Our guest is Michael Fanning, CISO at Splunk, discussing how AI doesn't create problems, it exposes them. And an open-book exam for hackers. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Today we are joined by Michael Fanning, CISO at Splunk, discussing how AI doesn't create problems, it exposes them. Selected Reading Apple supplier Tata tightens internal controls after data breach, sources say (Reuters)  Bajaj Auto resumes normal operations as cyberattack probe continues (Storyboard18)  FCC passes new cybersecurity rules for emergency systems, undersea cables (CyberScoop) U.S. CISA adds Cisco and PTC Windchill and FlexPLM flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (SecurityAffairs)  Gamaredon in 2025: Leveraging tunnels, workers, dead drops, and new alliances (ESET)  A Cyber-Psychological Operation: Iran-Linked Attackers Target Warning Systems (Claroty)  CL-STA-1062 Targets Southeast Asian Governments and Critical Infrastructure (Unit 42) From San Pedro to Salinas: How a Chinese Framework “DCloud Uni-App” Powers a Global Scam Economy (Infoblox) Poland busts SIM-swapping gang tied to millions in crypto theft (BleepingComputer) France's statistics department reports cyberattack on staff data (Reuters) UK school's network left wide open for invasion, student found (The Register) Share your feedback. What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show. Want to hear your company in the show? N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry's most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices