Geopolitical Cousins

The Fourth Reich

AfD won 44% in Saxony-Anhalt, and the Twittersphere (x-sphere just doesn't hit, sorry) immediately projected Panzer divisions massing on the Polish border. Is AfD kinda s

Rabies-infested beavers

Rabies-infested beavers. Not an insult - a fiscal strategy. Canadians have stopped buying bourbon, started flying maple leaf flags in grocery stores, and ~ most important

Scotty Doesn't Know

Scott Bessent says he doesn't understand why oil prices are spiking. The guy standing between America and the River Styx is confused :) The cousins crack open a few cold

The King of Israel

It's been a minute. Marko and Jacob are back after a long gap, and not much has changed: the Hormuz standoff drags on, the war in Ukraine grinds forward, and the stock ma

Lessons Learned

Round two. Same four analysts, a lot more whiskey, and a lot less structure. Peter Zeihan, Marko Papic, and Matt Gertken sit back down with Jacob - a man who cut his te

This Is The Way The World Ends (w/ Zeihan & Gertken)

Sixteen years after last sharing a table together, four Stratfor alumni reunite for a wide-ranging conversation on the decade ahead. Jacob and Marko are joined by Peter Z

What We Got Wrong About The World Cup (A LOT)

The cousins reconvene with the BCA brain trust - Juan Correa, Robert Tipper, and Jeremie Peloso - for the World Cup post-mortem. The model called all four semifinalists b

Operation Fun Run

Iran again. Yes, again :( nobody's thrilled, but that's the content. The cousins break down a week of tanker attacks, retaliations to retaliations, and a 20% toll that be

A Little Belgium Cherub Gets to Pee in Trump's Pool

Iran, Hormuz, another tanker on fire - sure, fine, but the real question is: what's actually driving the behavior here, and it's not the diplomacy everyone keeps quoting.

16 Books That Shaped Us

It's the Book Episode!!! Marko and Jacob turn their usual geopolitical sparring into a book draft: eight titles each, no rules, no rankings, just the texts that actually

The Esprit de Corps of Buc-ees

Drones aren't a technological revolution - they're a pain-tolerance equalizer, letting Ukraine strike refineries deep inside a country that never planned to defend them.

The Serfs Will Have Drones

Cousins hits the road for its first-ever in-person episode, recorded at Matt Gertken's home in Taos, New Mexico! Jacob, Marko, and Matt dig into the brewing standoff betw

The Most Important Of All Unimportant Forecasts

World Cup Time!!!!!!! Robert Tipper and Juan Correa are our guests. -- Timestamps: (00:00) - Secret Forecast Origins (01:23) - Meet The Authors (03:02) - Juan Foo

The Second Derivative

The Strait of Hormuz is running out of runway - and so is the Trump administration's room to maneuver... The cousins unpack why oil inventories are the real ammunition in

Forty Meters Under Fordow

Jacob and Marko dive straight into the Iran-US ceasefire negotiations (airstrikes are hitting Iranian ships and missile sites as I type) - dissecting domestic political c

TVI26: C***** Goes #1

Trade Value Index 2026 Part 3! Okay, okay... Here's the FULL list -> https://tinyurl.com/gctvi26 -- Timestamps: (00:00) - Welcome Back and Housekeeping (01:37) - Ne

TVI26: Jinping Rising

2026 Trade Values P2 :) -- Timestamps: (00:00) - Welcome (00:42) - Part Two Setup (02:31) - Lula at Fifteen (05:17) - Macron Debate (09:57) - Noboa and Ecuador Cri

TVI26: Benchwarmers

The Trade Value Index is back!!!!!!! Part 1. -- Timestamps: (00:00) - Housekeeping (00:47) - Why We Love Rankings (02:15) - Trade Value Rules Explained (06:59) - Ho

A Soybean faux-détente

Trump and Xi shook hands in Beijing, and yes, the soccer mom in all of us should appreciate that two nuclear superpowers are behaving like adults. But let's not kid ourse

China Just Doesn't Care

The lads turn an unscripted session into a sharp diagnosis of the US-China relationship amid the Strait of Hormuz crisis. They debate whether China is strategically patie