Helen Walters

Hello, everyone.

It's May the 20th, 2026, and we are doing something a little different today.

We are going behind the curtain to talk about how reliable, trustworthy analysis and reporting actually happen.

So as the founder of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, Ian Bremmer is one of the most closely followed voices in geopolitical analysis.

He has access to the rooms,

the conversations and the world leaders who make and respond to the news of the day.

And today we are going to get a better sense of how he does what he does.

I am Helen Walters.

I am the head of media and curation at TED.

And here is Ian.

Ian, thank you so much for being here.

A pleasure as always.

So I mentioned that word trustworthy.

So let's start with that very small topic of trust.

So what public sources of information and analysis do you trust the most and what makes a source trustworthy?

Interesting.

OK, so you that was the public side.

Now let's talk about the private side.

Often when we have spoken, it seems to me like you've been having conversations with the people who are actually involved in making the important decisions.

You're in the room or you're close to the room.