ABOUT

Torin Russell is a former intelligence analyst who explains geopolitics on TikTok and YouTube, with over 1.5m watch hours and over 92m views as of September 2026. He spent six years in intelligence and red team roles with the U.S. Air Force, Army Cyber Command, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, where his work centered on nuclear command and control, strategic cyber operations, and counterspace threats. He now advises organizations on geopolitical and digital risk. Torin launched his TikTok channel in August 2025 and grew it from zero to 200,000 followers in just 12 months. He has been named to the inaugural Creator Fellowship at the Center for a New American Security. He has written seven feature screenplays (the most recent of which is featured on this site) and several Middle Grade novels. He is currently completing The Emergency, a polyphonic speculative novel exploring Non-Human Intelligence intervention in human affairs. He lives in Northern Virginia with his fiancee, two cats (Leo and Lucy), and their dog Lane.

GROUNDWORK

The buried history beneath geopolitics

I’m writing a book. It grows out of the question behind almost every video I make: why does the world look the way it does today? My answer is that history never stays in the past. Every era, from prehistory through the Cold War, leaves something behind that countries still have to work with, whether that’s a border, a language, a grudge, or a disease that decided where people could live. Groundwork follows those layers forward through time, one mystery at a time, until they arrive in the present.

Join the waitlist to be the first to hear when the book has a publisher, a cover, and a release date. I’ll also send you the occasional story that didn’t make the final cut, and when preorders open, you’ll be first in line for reader perks, including a live discussion with me. I’ll write a few times a year and never more than once a month.