A fellow @GoalhangerHQ podcast host, @mccloskeybooks, from the brilliant @triclassified joins me on Open Book to discuss his wonderful new book The Persians: CIA Analyst: How People Are Really Recruited, Manipulated, and Broken Watch on YouTube, X, Spotify. Listen on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Timestamps 0:00 David McCloskey Introduction 2:30 The Rest Is Classified podcast & espionage storytelling 5:30 What turns someone into a spy? 8:30 Introducing The Persian: Israel vs Iran’s shadow war 10:30 Ordinary people in extraordinary intelligence games 13:30 The Iranian general: interrogation, power, and cruelty 15:30 Writing spy fiction with real intelligence experience 18:00 Iran, Israel, and the durability of violent regimes 26:00 Five Words

Watch on YouTube: Watch/Listen on Spotify: Listen on Apple Podcasts:

Also pick up your copy of his brilliant novel "The Persians" here: