This podcast, it's a Costerton Touchstone production.

Hi, I'm John Kirooku. Welcome to Dead Drop, What Makes a Spy Tick.

As always, we thank you for listening and for keeping us part of your regular podcast regimen.

Whether you listen in big bites or little ones, we thank you for listening and for keeping us part of your regular podcast regimen. Whether you listen in big bites or little ones, we thank you for biting. And we especially thank you for liking,

rating, reviewing, commenting on, and sharing the podcast via whatever platform you're listening to it.

In this episode, we're going to bite into a question. Did John Le Carre invent the modern spy?

Graham Green, another spy-turned-author, said this.

Quote, being a novelist is similar to spying.

Both require watching, listening, and analyzing human behavior.

Unquote.

As you've heard in this podcast, the good spy needs to be a people person too,

especially if the information thereafter sits inside another person's head. A talented spy is

adept at using a story, real or created, to compel other people to tell their stories

for the spy's purpose, whatever it is, good, bad, or indifferent.

You've also heard in this podcast how the CIA wanted people with sociopathic tendencies.

That's because while sociopaths themselves can't be trusted by their bosses, well, because

they're sociopaths, people with sociopathic tendencies can be trusted. People with sociopathic

tendencies, me for instance. Well, we see black and white. We see a higher purpose and a greater

good, but we also see gray. And the truth is, there's a lot of gray out there separating the

black from the white. People with sociopathic tendencies have no philosophical issues

navigating the gray, understanding how to navigate the gray. But things can get murky fast in a

gray world. Murky and morally ambiguous. It's the ideal entry point for a compelling story.

...