True Spies Debriefs: John Taylor on the Psychology of Spies

True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics

SPYSCAPE

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John Taylor is an author, lecturer and advisor on handling human sources of secret intelligence. He joins True Spies producer Morgan Childs to discuss the psychology of those who play the espionage game - agent and handler alike. From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producer: Joe Foley. Produced by Morgan Childs. John Taylor is a senior Research Fellow at Kings College London and the author of The Psychology of Spies and Spying. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello,
0:01.0	Hello,
0:02.0	Spies,
0:03.0	Yes,
0:04.0	If you can hear me,
0:09.0	take the encryption
0:10.0	button off the trial.
0:12.0	Hello,
0:13.0	true spies listeners.
0:15.0	Welcome back to True Spies,
0:17.0	Debrief.
0:18.0	Here on the debrief,
0:20.0	we catch up with experts from the intelligence and espionage
0:24.0	community for a deeper look at the themes, events and insights that fascinate them, taking you
0:30.2	behind some of the world's most consequential, dangerous and outlandish missions.
0:36.5	What are the traits of a successful spy?
0:40.2	What are the early experiences that make a skilled operations officer, agent or handler?
0:46.2	John Taylor, co-author of the book, The Psychology of Spies and Spying, has a keen understanding
0:53.0	of what makes intelligence experts tick.
0:56.2	Having served the UK's foreign office in Geneva, Moscow, Stockholm and New Delhi,
1:01.7	John now trains intelligence services from around the world, drawing on his insights into
1:07.1	the mind of the spy.
	...

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