How it works
You describe yourself once. It does the rest, every morning.
Four screens of setup, a run sheet you can rearrange, and an episode waiting when you get up.
The setup
Two minutes, then it runs without you.
The point of a briefing is that you stop maintaining it. Describe yourself once, adjust the run sheet when your life changes, and otherwise just listen.
- 01
Tell it who you are
Four screens, once. Your name, where you are, what you do, and the subjects you want covered. A semiconductor story matters differently to a chip engineer than to a nurse, and this is how it knows which one you are.
- 02
Write the run sheet
Turn segments on and off, drag them into the order you want to hear them, and leave a note where you want something handled a particular way. Pick a length and a narrator while you are there.
- 03
Wake up to a new episode
It publishes at your local time — seven in the morning unless you say otherwise. Press play, or read the script instead. Every issue is kept in your library.
The run sheet
Eleven segments. You choose which ones make the cut.
Switch one off for a fortnight and switch it back on without losing how you had it set up.
Headlines
The stories of the morning, wire-first.
Your calendar
What is in the diary, who is in the room, and where the gaps are.
Markets
Your watchlist, and what is reporting this week.
Weather
The forecast where you actually are.
Local news
Your town, not your country.
Politics & world
The regions you asked to be kept across.
Industry
Your sector, and the companies you named.
Technology
Releases and raises in the areas you follow.
Science & health
Findings worth knowing, without the press-release voice.
Culture
What is out, and whether it is any good.
Sports
Your teams, results and what is next.
Add a note to any segment — “skip transfer rumours”, “I care about the vote count, not the horse race” — and the writer works to it.
Questions
The things people ask first.
Is this just a news podcast?
No. A news podcast is recorded once for everybody. This is written for you each morning against your own profile and your own run sheet. Two listeners on the same day get two different episodes.
Can I read it instead of listening?
Yes. The written brief sits beside the audio, broken into the same segments, so you can skim it on a train where you would rather not have headphones in.
How long is an episode?
Three minutes, six, or about fifteen — your choice, and you can change it whenever you like.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It plays in the browser.
What does it cost?
Nothing during early access. The pricing page has the detail.