Podcast Update: What's New, What's Not, and What's Next

Welcome back everybody. We got a quick one for you today. No breach to break down, no threat model, no tradecraft, no privacy strategies, just me talking to you about the future of this show for a few minutes, some changes that are coming down the pipeline, and what's staying the same and what's not. Nothing here will change for what you're coming to this show for and your expectations of what you get out of the content. If anything, it's about us protecting it so that this is still in your ear holes from now on and hopefully years into the future. I am Alan Pace, and this is the OPSEC Podcast. [upbeat music] The biggest change that we'll talk about today is happening behind the scenes. Up to now, the production of the show, the sound, the editing, the polish that makes the episode feel like a finished product has been in the hands of our friends and partners over at Gray Dynamics. A lot of what you've come to expect from how these episodes sound, you owe to them, and so do I. I don't say that lightly. I'm grateful for every hour that they put in, and I'm especially grateful to Ahmed for believing in me when I brought this concept to him. We will continue to work closely with Gray Dynamics on other ventures, and you'll be hearing from Ahmed and other team members on future episodes. But at this time, their production engineer, the person who has quietly shaped the sound of this show, is moving on to future opportunities. We're happy for him. We're thankful for the work that he's put in here, and we wish him nothing but good things in whatever he does next. And as much as that is a goodbye, it is also an opportunity. This is the moment that lets us bring the entire thing home, from the research and the writing to the editing and the release. The OPSEC Podcast team is going to handle production in-house from start to finish. That means the show becomes more truly ours, and the care that goes into it stops depending on anyone's calendar but our own. Owning the whole process end to end also lets us move faster and stay more consistent. It's more work on our end, but it's the kind of work that makes the show steadier and lets us grow it at our own pace. This means that the success and quality of the show is now 100% our responsibility. Most of these changes are gonna be happening off mic and in the background. You will-- won't hear it directly, but it's the reason for the next thing that I wanna tell you. Now, here's the part that touches most of you directly. We're taking about a month off. We're gonna try to make it less, but we'll have to see. The primary focus is putting off new episodes so that we can get the new production process figured out and get our legs underneath us. I wanted to say that plainly because I never want you refreshing the feed and wondering if the show quietly died or dropped off. It didn't. We're using the time to set up the new in-house process the right way. That means getting the recording and the editing chain dialed in, building out templates so that every episode gets the same treatment, and the recording far enough ahead that we don't have to scramble against a deadline. When you build the machine carefully once,