From CIA Secrets to Bestsellers: Barry Eisler on Writing What’s Real
Guy Kawasaki's Remarkable People
Guy Kawasaki
4.5 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2025
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when a former CIA operative turns bestselling novelist? Barry Eisler has the answer. In this episode of Remarkable People, Guy Kawasaki explores Barry’s transformation from covert missions to crafting thrillers that keep readers up all night. From his early days in intelligence to his sharp-eyed commentary on government overreach, Barry shares how truth and fiction often blur. His newest book, The System, is a riveting example of how storytelling can illuminate the darker corners of power. This conversation will challenge how you see politics, justice, and the art of suspense.
---
Guy Kawasaki is on a mission to make you remarkable. His Remarkable People podcast features interviews with remarkable people such as Jane Goodall, Marc Benioff, Woz, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Bob Cialdini. Every episode will make you more remarkable.
With his decades of experience in Silicon Valley as a Venture Capitalist and advisor to the top entrepreneurs in the world, Guy’s questions come from a place of curiosity and passion for technology, start-ups, entrepreneurship, and marketing. If you love society and culture, documentaries, and business podcasts, take a second to follow Remarkable People.
Listeners of the Remarkable People podcast will learn from some of the most successful people in the world with practical tips and inspiring stories that will help you be more remarkable.
Episodes of Remarkable People organized by topic: https://bit.ly/rptopology
Listen to Remarkable People here: **https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/guy-kawasakis-remarkable-people/id1483081827**
Like this show? Please leave us a review -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!
Thank you for your support; it helps the show!
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | From October 7th to 9th in San Francisco, the Masters of Scale Summit returns. |
| 0:05.6 | It's where the boldest minds in business, tech, and beyond gather to build the future. |
| 0:11.5 | And we want you to join us. |
| 0:13.7 | Here from the CEO of the New York Times, scientists using cutting-edge technology to find cures, |
| 0:18.9 | the leader of crypto powerhouse coinbase, a retired |
| 0:22.0 | four-star general, and many, many more. They're all on the same stage, and it's not just another conference. |
| 0:29.3 | It is the gathering for remarkable people. Apply to attend at masters ofscale.com slash remarkable. |
| 0:36.9 | That's masters of scale.com slash remarkable. That's masters of scale.com slash remarkable. |
| 0:40.6 | How much does, let's say, the president really know about these sorts of things and how much of |
| 0:46.5 | this stuff is done by people who don't agree with the presidential policy and they've got the means |
| 0:51.3 | to do what they think is the better policy. The ship of state in America is a vast, complicated machine. How much can any one person really |
| 1:00.3 | have a solid grip on all the levers of control of that machine? Not as much as any of us |
| 1:05.9 | might like. And again, this is some of what gets depicted in the system. |
| 1:21.5 | I'm Guy Kawasaki. This is the Remarkable People podcast, and you know we're on a quest to find remarkable people all over the world who can inspire you and inform you. And this one was easy. This is Barry Eisler and he lives |
| 1:31.1 | in Menlo Park and we used to hang out together at Kepler's bookstore and Cafe Barone and all that. |
| 1:38.5 | In one day in a real act of chutzpah, I asked him to name a character in his next novel Kawasaki and he did it |
| 1:47.0 | yeah that's the day I arrived I don't care about MacArthur awards and all that kind of stuff |
| 1:52.7 | being a Barry iceler John rain book is the height of my career so he is a best-selling novelist. |
| 2:03.9 | And one of my favorite books of his is called A Clean Kill in Tokyo. |
| 2:09.3 | And his hero is this, he's hopper, right? |
| 2:13.1 | John Rain is hopper, right? |
| 2:14.6 | And he's a judo guy. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Guy Kawasaki, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Guy Kawasaki and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.