I'm Mike Baker. I'm very excited to be taking over hosting duties of the President's

Daily Brief from Brian Dean Wright. The show took a brief hiatus over the past few months,

but it's back. We'll be kicking off the podcast on September 5th, but before we do, I

wanted to introduce myself to you, the loyal PDB listeners. My story is the usual romantic

boy meets CIA, boy is recruited by the CIA, boy travels a world working for the CIA.

I spent almost 20 years as an operations officer working around the globe, counterinsurgency,

counter narcotics, counterterrorism operations. It was a terrific ride. I get asked all the time,

Mike, why did you leave the CIA if it was so exciting? Well, the answer is pretty simple.

Once you start having children and those children start growing up, you realize that they don't

care what you do for a living, no matter how cool it might be. They just want you home sitting on

the floor playing Legos. So I decided to find something that could keep me closer to home.

I left and started my own private sector business, a global intelligence and security firm.

With the help of many excellent people, a lot of hard work and some luck, we've built that

business into a successful operation with offices around the globe, providing intel, analysis,

and risk management. Now, the key takeaway from all my years in the intelligence game is this,

whoever has the best information wins. It's that simple. And my job with the PDB is to ensure

that you have access to that information. The world continues to shrink. We're all more connected

around the globe than we've ever been. And that fact demands that you stay informed, that you seek

out accurate, well-sourced intelligence. I'm thrilled to be able to be part of that process with

the President's Daily Brief. Every day, we'll be looking at the key issues, developments,

and stories around the globe that you need to know about. As always, with this podcast, we'll keep

it tight, just like with the actual President's Daily Brief that drops every morning in the oval

...