Former CIA operative Jonna Mendez
Tangle
Isaac Saul
4.8 • 672 Ratings
🗓️ 22 March 2021
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, we sit down with Jonna Mendez, the former chief of disguise at the CIA. She was recruited to the agency in 1966, spent 27 years in service, and is on the Board of Directors for the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. She spent her career in the Office of Technical Services of the CIA, which is staffed by engineers, chemists, physicists, makeup artists and counterfeiters. It's the part of the CIA you probably imagine when you think of a James Bond movie.
In this podcast, we chat with her about her favorite CIA gadgets, what her scariest moments in the service were, the time she got to impress George H.W. Bush and what it's like being in the CIA.
If you enjoy this podcast, please be sure to give it a 5-star rating.
You can subscribe to the Tangle newsletter here: https://www.readtangle.com/
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/messageHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | How did the dog sneak out? |
| 0:02.4 | When did that parcel vanish? |
| 0:04.8 | Who was outside last night? |
| 0:07.4 | Arlo doesn't miss a thing. |
| 0:09.8 | From 4K cameras to powerful AI detection, |
| 0:13.5 | Arlo makes a watched over space, a safer space. |
| 0:17.6 | Arlo, 10 years of innovation in one powerful security system. |
| 0:25.8 | Find out more and get conditions at arlo.com. |
| 0:34.5 | From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. |
| 0:40.7 | This is Tangle. |
| 0:48.7 | Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to my Tangle listeners, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some reasonable debate and independent thinking without some of that hysterical nonsense you find everywhere else. |
| 1:04.9 | In today's episode, we're doing something a little special, a little unique, a little different. |
| 1:10.5 | We are sitting down with |
| 1:11.8 | one of the most interesting people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Johna Mendez, |
| 1:15.9 | Johna, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Glad to be here. Typically, John, this is the part |
| 1:21.9 | of the show or the podcast where I'd ask you to introduce yourself. I might say, John, tell us a little |
| 1:26.6 | bit about your background. |
| 1:32.2 | But we've spoken before, and I've followed a bit of your career and your work. |
| 1:34.9 | And I know you to be a pretty modest person. |
| 1:38.1 | And I don't want to let you undersell yourself to my readers. |
| 1:41.6 | So I'm going to do the background intro for you today. |
| 1:47.9 | Jana Mendez is the former chief of disguise at the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Isaac Saul, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Isaac Saul and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.