I Don't Believe Ruby Was Part of a 'Conspiracy'

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Before this most recent presidential election, the national security experts i know all spoke to me about how worried they were about foreign interference and our elect yet we held the election. So what happened or what changed? Why did all the experts get this wrong? I read hundreds of main street meteor articles about forthcoming foreign interference. They all cited experts. Where is it? No one's talking about it. Well, i think we know, still unclear how much the interference was. But i think there's no doubt that in russia and china or o other countries, tried to use the social medim environment to push out their narratives that they wanted to influence the minds and votes ofof american...

Want to support the show? Visit conversationswithtyler.com/donate.

Growing up in a working-class city in New Jersey, John Brennan’s father was an Irish immigrant who always impressed upon his children how grateful they should be to be American citizens. That deeply-instilled patriotism and the sense of right and wrong emphasized by his Catholic upbringing would lead John first to become an intelligence officer and then eventually Director of the CIA. His new memoir, which Tyler found substantive on every page, recounts that career journey.

John joined Tyler to discuss what working in intelligence taught him about people’s motivations, how his Catholic upbringing prepared him for working in intelligence, the similarities between working at the CIA and entering the priesthood, his ability to synthetize information from disparate sources, his assessment on the possibility of alien life, the efficacy of personality tests and polygraphs, why CIA agents are so punctual, how the CIA plans to remain a competitive recruiter for top talent, the challenges that spouses and family members of intelligence workers face, the impact of modern technology on spycraft, why he doesn’t support the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, his favorite parts of Cairo, the pros and cons of the recent Middle Eastern peace deal brokered by Jared Kushner, the reasons he thinks we should leverage American culture more abroad, JFK conspiracy theories, why there seemed to be much less foreign interference in the 2020 election than experts predicted, what John le Carré got right about being a spy, why most spies aren’t like James Bond, what he would change about FISA courts, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded November 16th, 2020 Other ways to connect

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Follow John on Twitter
Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.