Lt. General Mike Fenzel (Ret.) on bad data, bad experts, and why we can’t exit wars

Summation (formerly World of DaaS)

Summation (formerly World of DaaS)
Lt. General Mike Fenzel (Ret.) on bad data, bad experts, and why we can’t exit wars
Feb 17, 2026

Lieutenant General Mike Fenzel recently retired as a three-star Army General. He most recently served as the United States Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, navigating one of the world’s most complex geopolitical landscapes. His career is defined by high-stakes leadership, ranging from the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks, where he was stationed in the bunker alongside Vice President Dick Cheney, to multiple deployments to Afghanistan, to commanding an airborne brigade of 5,500 paratroopers. Beyond the battlefield, Fenzel is a scholar of strategic decision-making. His book, No Miracles, analyzes the internal Soviet failures during their occupation of Afghanistan.

In this episode of Summation, Mike and Auren discuss:

  • Why the Soviets took four years to exit Afghanistan
  • Lessons from leading security cooperation in Jerusalem
  • Israel's dominance in security tech
  • Why US foreign policy experts keep failing

You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Mike Fenzel on LinkedIn.

Episode Artwork Lt. General Mike Fenzel (Ret.) on bad data, bad experts, and why we can’t exit wars 42:25 Episode Artwork Martin Shkreli on prison, beating Bloomberg, and being hated 1:01:33 Episode Artwork World of DaaS is now Summation 1:16 Episode Artwork Turing CEO Jonathan Siddharth - The $30 Trillion Knowledge Work Market, Training Frontier AI Models and Building Stage Five Culture 41:54 Episode Artwork Chapter CEO Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz - medicare complexity, $100B fraud and how tech can fix it 42:20 Episode Artwork Industry Ventures Founder Hans Swildens - how secondaries became the dominant path for VC exits 54:12 Episode Artwork Economist Glenn Hubbard - The Fed’s dilemma, AI productivity, and why experts lost trust 41:54 Episode Artwork Rembrand CEO Omar Tawakol - why product placement works better than traditional ads 52:32 Episode Artwork We the Builders Podcast l From LiveRamp ($RAMP) to NQB8: Auren Hoffman’s Founder Journey 1:44:14 Episode Artwork FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller - why pricing data businesses trade at 30x EBIT despite 4% growth 51:31 Episode Artwork Wispr Flow CEO Tanay Kothari - voice AI deep dive 35:41 Episode Artwork The LM Brief: India as the Next Epicenter of AI? 12:39 Episode Artwork YipitData CEO Vin Vacanti - why hedge funds dominate data usage (and corporations don't) 52:12 Episode Artwork The LM Brief: The Syntax Illusion 15:06 Episode Artwork Patrick McGee - author of Apple in China – how Apple and China built each other 56:52 Episode Artwork Dave Morin, Offline Ventures - how venture studios work 1:01:48 Episode Artwork The LM Brief: Why Many AI Projects Fail 17:19 Episode Artwork Azeem Azhar of Exponential View - AI, hyperscalers, reshaping US GDP 52:05 Episode Artwork The LM Brief: Love Beats Hate 12:47 Episode Artwork Bolt.new CEO Eric Simons — one of the fastest growing AI companies in the world 40:20 Episode Artwork The LM Brief: The DaaS Renewal Landscape 18:46 Episode Artwork Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley - Law Enforcement's Data Problem: Why 50% of Murders Go Unsolved 53:37 Episode Artwork The LM Brief: 46ers, 55ers, 81ers, and today 15:34 Episode Artwork Venturehouse Group CEO Mark Ein - moneyball for CEOs, real estate data & buying sports teams 51:30 Episode Artwork The LM Brief: The Ethics of Agentic AI - Balancing Autonomy and Trust 14:49