The Podcast
Geopolitics. Scripture. Clarity.
The mechanics behind the headlines — chokepoints, sea lanes, drones and deterrence — read alongside Scripture, without the shouting. New episodes weekly.
with Elias Maren · hosted by Ron Anzevino, creator of author Elias Maren
The Watchman Ethos: Verify before testify.
Latest Episode
Newest first. Every episode streams free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart.
September 11, 20269 min
Thirty-six days before it happened, somebody wrote it down. The President's Daily Brief of August 6, 2001 carried a title requiring no interpretation: Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US.
September 8, 202611 min
A ship dragged its anchor across three hundred kilometers of Baltic seabed and cut two cables. Measured impact: little to none.
August 21, 202615 min
The United States is in confrontation with three major powers at the same time. That has not been true since the 1940s.
August 18, 202612 min
A public correction: the Silicon Shield isn't eroding for the reason I first argued. The mechanism is worse — and more deliberate — than 'nobody's in charge.'
Pairs with The Taiwan Tripwire — Global Chokepoints Book Two
Listen on Spotify →August 18, 202611 min
Closing a strait is a blunt instrument. It hurts you almost as much as everyone else, and the world unites against you because the world has no other option.
Pairs with The Tehran Toll Booth — Global Chokepoints Book Eleven
Listen on Spotify →August 13, 202611 min
The Taiwan semiconductor deterrent was never designed — and it's being eroded one individually-correct business decision at a time.
Pairs with The Taiwan Tripwire — Global Chokepoints Book Two
Listen on Spotify →August 10, 20269 minBonus
A bonus episode on open-source intelligence — how a woman with a pencil and a composition notebook saw what a nine-figure intelligence budget could not.
Pairs with Silent Mandate — Aegis Directive Book Two
Listen on Spotify →August 10, 20268 minBonus
A bonus episode on restraint as doctrine — why taking a threat apart quietly usually beats destroying it loudly, and what it costs the man who chooses.
Pairs with The Architect — Aegis Directive Book Five
Listen on Spotify →August 5, 202610 min
One shipping route between Asia and Europe, two locks, no third door — why Suez and Bab el-Mandeb are one story, not two.
Pairs with Shadow Axis — Nations in the Valley Book Three
Listen on Spotify →August 4, 202610 min
A drone cheaper than a used car forces a navy to spend the price of a house to stop it — an arithmetic problem no navy has solved.
Pairs with Silent Swarms — Nations in the Valley Book Four
Listen on Spotify →August 4, 202610 min
The strait closes not by blockade but by insurance — the mechanism that shuts a sea lane with no order given and no shot fired.
Pairs with Hormuz — Nations in the Valley Book Two
Listen on Spotify →Narrated using digital voice technology, including a voice model of the author.
Every episode has a book behind it. Hormuz, the Red Sea, the drone arithmetic and the silicon shield are the same research that built the Global Chokepoints series; the Vale bonus episodes come straight out of the Aegis Directive. The podcast is the briefing. The books are the file.
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