Title: Former Spy Reveals the Brutal Survival Rules Inside the
Show: Covert Operations Insight
Date: 2026-05-20
URL: https://youtu.be/Rf8xsrnBBs0
Duration: 51:00

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[00:04] Welcome back to another episode of deep focus Q&A. So first as always, I want to thank each and every one of you deeply for continuing to watch the show, to like, to subscribe, to to refer your friends and family members to it. We keep growing and we're growing only because of you. So thank you so much. Please keep it up. We've got a ton of questions today which of course I love and the first one is from Noah R. Lyons. He says, "Hi John, are you a Pens fan?"

[00:36] Meaning the Pittsburgh Penguins. Absolutely yes, I'm a Pens fan. I'm not even a huge like hockey fan, not as big of a hockey fan as I am baseball and football, but you got to love the Pens. I still remember when I was 14 years old, Pittsburgh was the the city of champions. We won the Super Bowl, the World Series and the Stanley Cup all in the same year. God bless Pittsburgh. So Noah says, "My question is about the Strait of Hormuz. Since Iran cease-fire terms require ships to coordinate passage with their

[01:06] military and their proposal apparently includes formal control over the strait going forward, does that represent a permanent change from how it worked before the war? And if they're allowed to charge transit fees as part of a final deal, how much of that cost do you foresee getting passed on through oil, fertilizer and other commodities? Thanks for everything. Much love and fingers crossed for your pardon. Thank you." Uh really important questions and the truth is that that the facts on the ground are changing literally daily. Since Noah wrote this question, um the Iranians

[01:38] have said that uh that they would charge a fee for each ship going through. The fee has been as high as $2 million per ship payable in yuan, not in dollars. Which is going to be a direct challenge to uh US uh you know, economic uh control of the of the region or of of the oil going through the region. Um but just a couple of days ago Donald Trump said that the US would would take over the strait. Today is day two. We're recording this on Monday

[02:09] morning and the US Navy said this morning that they indeed have control of the strait and the strait is again closed. We're living in bizarro world here where US policy has always been that the strait has to remain open. And now it's the US that is ensuring that the strait remains closed. So, like I say, it's the twilight zone and we're going to have to try to figure this out one day at a time. So, does this represent a permanent change from how it worked before the

[02:40] war? Yeah, absolutely. The The status quo before the war was that, you know, the strait is very very narrow. It's only 16 mi at its narrowest point and ships like have to barely be on the international side of the of the line of Iranian um territorial waters. So, if the IRGC and its fast boats, the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps and its fast boats, are out there

[03:10] harassing ships, well, of course, that's unacceptable. If the US Navy is there blockading the strait, that is also unacceptable. And so, my my own belief is in the end, there aren't going to be any fees, there isn't going to be an American blockade, and the Iranians are going to go back to their side of the of the uh of their territorial waters. It's going to take some time, though, because of ongoing hostilities. Um another thing to keep in mind,

[03:42] 65% of the world's fertilizer goes through the Strait of Hormuz. 65% The world can't eat without that fertilizer and God knows Ukraine can't provide enough enough wheat. You know, Ukraine is the world's breadbasket they call it. They can't provide enough wheat without any fertilizer to feed all of Africa and right now

[04:13] Ukraine feeds all of Africa. So, this is an untenable position. It's it can't last. Uh people are going to starve to death and so the two sides are going to have to come to some sort of an agreement even if it's a temporary one to allow on the one hand fertilizer and oil to get through the straight and on the other hand for the Iranians to make something out of it and it's not going to be in dollars. Nick W

[04:44] says, "Hi John, I discovered you a couple of weeks ago and I'm a big fan already. Thank you, Nick. My question is what's your view on bias in US mainstream media, cable news and papers? I can't help but to smile because bias is like ridiculous. And where do you go to do your own research? Um how do you know if a source is trustworthy? Thanks and keep up the good work. I hope my small donation makes a difference." And thank you for that, Nick. Um yeah, I I believe that the mainstream media is biased even if they don't even realize that

[05:15] they're biased. And I'll give you a one egregious example from last week. There was a front-page photograph on the Washington Post of of a dud Iranian missile laying uh in the playground of a school. And the the caption said, you know, "Israeli children walking past an Iranian missile on the playground of their school." Yeah. So, where's your picture of the Iranian school that was actually blown up by the

[05:47] American missile and killed what was it 270, you know, 9, 10, 11, and 12-year-olds. Uh why are we only getting the one side of this conflict? Why Why isn't the mainstream media saying that the president's threat to destroy Iranian infrastructure is a war crime? Because it's the definition of a war crime. You cannot attack civilian infrastructure. It is against the law. But the mainstream media aren't talking

[06:19] about that. And I mean, they're all guilty. The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, MS Now, Fox, they're all guilty. I will say The Associated Press is generally okay. And Reuters is is pretty good. So, you ask what I read in the morning. I'm going to read it off to you. And I I'm I'm telling you what I read every morning, not what I believe every morning. I read, when I get up, The

[06:49] Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette just for the sports, and they're going out of business in a couple of weeks. CNN, AP, Politico, The Hill, The New York Post just because they're just so awful. You have to know what the other side's saying. Uh the Greek papers, which you're not interested in. Uh The Telegraph, The Times of London, The Guardian, The London Evening Standard, BBC, Dropsite News, Al Jazeera, I'll monitor Electronic

[07:21] Intifada, Consortium News, Real Clear Politics, Axios. And then I take a quick look at Covert Action Magazine, although I write for Covert Action Magazine, and we don't update it uh every day. It's usually updated every couple of days. And then I look at at things like, you know, these stuff that's unusual. Like if there's if there's a an especially good uh article in the Miami Herald about Venezuela for again example or Cuba.

[07:54] I don't have a subscription there, but I'll I'll buy, you know, the one-time article. Also, I try I try to spend as much time on Twitter as I can just because I don't follow a ton of people. But the people I do follow are people whose reporting I respect. Uh Ryan Grim for example or Max Blumenthal or um Oh my gosh, there's so many. Elizabeth Lane, uh

[08:25] so many of them. Anyway, they're out there looking for truth in reporting and when they post things, I always check it out, too. The The bottom line is you can't just rely on one or two or 10 sources. You have to You have to find people who have been proven correct in the reporting, who have been proven diligent in their reporting. Follow them and then let them do the heavy lifting so you don't have to search every every outlet in the world. Thanks for that good question. Eoin O'Reilly

[08:59] Irish names. I I just I apologize if I butchered it. Um Hey John, as an 18-year-old from Ireland, what intelligence opportunities are there for people from countries of non-major international importance? As a European, do you see a possible European army if NATO collapses? And who will Europe turn to for friendship with US being an utter hindrance to us now? Thank you so much for your work. I know a classmate of mine met you in Poland. Oh, that's funny. Yeah, I was in Poland a couple of weeks ago. Couldn't be more jealous. Thank you

[09:30] for that. Hopefully one day I'll have the pleasure of shaking your hand. Thank you for that. I was in Ireland Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So I'm sorry I missed you. Sending the luck of the Irish for your pardon and pension. Thank you so much. Great questions. Number one, Donald Trump cannot withdraw from NATO. I think nobody has told him yet that only Congress can withdraw from NATO. So, the United States isn't going anywhere out of NATO. So, he's going to have to get that out of his head. Just like the president cannot change the name of the

[10:02] Department of Defense to the Department of War. Only Congress can change the name. So, it's not the Department of War. It's the Department of Defense. So, number two. Our leader has embarrassed our country when it comes to our relations with our European friends and allies. There's just no other way to say it. I'm sorry, but this has been an utter embarrassment. These threats against NATO are counterproductive. They don't do anything. The US isn't pulling out of

[10:33] NATO. Nothing's going to happen in NATO. He can yell and scream all he wants, and nothing's going to change. So, do I see a possible European army if NATO collapses? In the unlikely event that NATO collapsed, absolutely. Yes, there would be a European Union army, which would essentially be, you know, NATO plus five or six. So, yeah, I I would see that absolutely taking place. You ask also if there are opportunities, intelligence opportunities for people from the smaller

[11:03] European countries. 100% yes. I gave a series of speeches around Ireland a little more than a year ago. I went to Belfast, Cork, Dublin, and Waterford before going on to um Scotland. And I met with a lot of European intelligence and law enforcement officials. Listen, if there's one thing that that the Irish are especially good at, it's anti-money laundering investigations. The Irish intelligence

[11:35] service and the Irish Garda are first-class when it comes to anti-money-laundering. But, another thing that they're good at is counterterrorism. And the reason they're so good at counterterrorism is because there were so many Irish going to Libya and Lebanon in the 1970s to be trained by Carlos the Jackal, who was, you know, the Osama bin Laden of the '70s and '80s. And so, the Irish

[12:07] government just got really, really good at recruiting spies to penetrate these various groups, Irish groups mostly, in in many cases, you know, Northern Irish or sort of international communist that were in league with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Abu Nidal organization, Carlos the Jackal, the Libyans, and they've maintained that expertise.

[12:38] So, if you're interested in intelligence, look no further than the Irish government. They're really good. Uh Dr. Vamps says, "Hi John. I wish you the best in getting that pardon. Thank you." "What specific tells did you rely on the most when assessing if a high-value target was telling the truth? Was it all body language or also some verbal tells? I would also love to hear a story regarding this. Have a great day. Keep up the good work." I've got a story for you, one that I've never told publicly. Maybe I should start telling it publicly. First of all, the the tells,

[13:10] the the verbal tells are the obvious ones. Where you ask them a question and then they kind of look down before they answer you, or they look up as if they're visualizing something. You know, I'm right here. Look me in the eye when you talk to me. Don't look up and around and down and this way. Straight in the eye. That was kind of the obvious tell. Also, the fidgeting. The fidgeting is a is a big tell. The arms crossing. Arms crossing means that you're you're nervous and defensive. A lot of people do that. Frankly, I cross

[13:41] my arms cuz I just like the way it feels. But, um but those were some of the obvious tells. How you get past all that, how you get around it is this. You go into a debriefing or an interrogation. Interrogation is a word that the FBI uses. The CIA doesn't interrogate, it interviews or debriefs. Um don't pay any attention to that. That's just CIA silliness. But, anyway, what

[14:12] what we were trained to do was to go in to these interviews already knowing the answers to all of our questions. Now, that's a that's a basic, you know, police detective tactic. But, um we we captured a high-value target who had flown into Pakistan. We knew for days in advance that he had bought a ticket in his own name, like a He He uses his own credit card, buys a

[14:42] ticket in his true name, one-way ticket to Pakistan, and we had six guys waiting for him at the airport. So, we grab him, and they send him to me in Islamabad. And I knew exactly who he was. I knew exactly who he had been meeting with in the country that he came from. I knew that he was mid-to-high-level Al-Qaeda. He was not some, you know, street fighter. This was a serious guy, a dangerous guy, a guy

[15:13] that had, literally, American blood on his hands. And, um and so, we had him handcuffed, and the cuffs are are connected to a uh they're they're chained to an eye bolt that had been uh screwed into the table. So, I asked him his name. And he pretends to have severe stomach pain. And he's like doubled over in pain. Oh my god. Well, I've read the Al-Qaeda training manual,

[15:43] right? We captured an original copy of the Al-Qaeda training manual. And this is number one, literally, it's number one, pretend to have severe stomach pain and fall off the chair. So, he fell off the chair with his hands still chained to the table. And I just sat there in the chair. He opens one eye and looks up to me. And I said, "I read the training manual. Get back in the chair." So, then he gets back up. He sits in the chair. I said, "What's your name?" He's like, "Mohammed Abdallah." I said, "Eh, try

[16:13] again. What's your name?" He came up with some other name. Wrong second time, you're going to really piss me off if you give me a third fake name. Then he gave me his real name. And then we just kind of took it from there. But he tried everything. He pretended to faint. He did the whole stomach thing. Uh he pretended that he was going to throw up, like And I just kind of sat there like this looking at him, like, "Are you done? I read the training manual.

[16:44] Um he lied. Everything that that he told us was a lie. And then I told him, "Listen, I'm I'm the good cop in this. We can either have a conversation like two grown men, or you know, we're going to we're going to send you someplace that you're not going to like." And he's like, "I'm not afraid of Guantanamo." I said, "Guantanamo? I never said I was going to send you to Guantanamo.

[17:14] I'm going to send you to Jerusalem." Now, of course, I would send him to Jerusalem. We don't do that. We send him to way worse places than Jerusalem. That scared the out of him. And then he just started talking. And he gave us everything. And then he went to Guantanamo. I don't even know whatever happened to him. He's probably still there. But anyway, yeah, body language is a big deal, but but you've got to know the answers to your questions before you even go into the meeting.

[17:47] Before our next question, I wanted to say uh I wanted to give you a word from one of our sponsors. Last week the Treasury put out its financial report for 2025 and almost no one covered it. Here's what it said. $6 trillion in assets, $47 trillion in debt. The US government is $41 trillion in net debt. That's not my opinion. That's the Treasury Department's own numbers. A few days ago, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell

[18:17] said that the debt path that the debt path will not end well. You can say that again. Those were his actual words. Meanwhile, the big beautiful bill added $3 trillion more in debt. And now we're paying more than $1 trillion a year just in interest on the debt. Well, I spent more than 14 years in the CIA. I learned to spot problems before they blew up. Right now, central banks all over the world are buying gold as fast as they can. China, Poland,

[18:47] India, they see what's coming. I've put together a free report along with American Alternative Assets called the Big Beautiful Bubble. It shows what's really going on and how to protect your savings before this thing gets worse. So, go to johnlovesgold.com for your free copy. That's johnlovesgold.com or call 888-G-O-L-D-0-5-3. Travis Viner says, "Hello John, hope you're doing well. I have some questions for your next show. Would it be

[19:18] appropriate to call this Iran war a rogue action by the Trump administration? It doesn't appear to have the blessings of the deep state and it is constantly counter-signaled in our media and by our allies or am I off the mark? Also, are there levers for intelligence agencies to pull to prime the public? ICU, Tucker Carlson, Joe Kent and others all have huge pushes in the algorithm, especially your anti-Israel content. Could the deep state be priming the American people to leave Israel holding the bag? I believe that is what does what's deserved."

[19:50] Good questions. Um first, would it be appropriate to call this Iran war a rogue action by the Trump administration? Yes. Yes, there's been no congressional declaration of war. There has been no congressional authorization for the use of force, which is a, you know, limp-wristed way of declaring war without actually declaring it. And there is no there has been no vote by the United Nations Security Council. Listen, international law allows you to attack another country for three reasons.

[20:23] Number one, they've attacked you. Right? Number two, they have asked you to come in and attack in order to save them. And number three, the United Nations Security Council authorized a use of military force. None of those three things have have happened. We just attacked because the Israelis asked us to. That's it. That's an illegal war. It's a violation of international law and in fact, it's it's quite literally a war crime, something that I've been saying from the

[20:53] very beginning. You are correct, Travis, that this action does not appear to have had the support the blessings of the deep state. Uh in fact, when we attacked Iraq in 2003, the battle lines were clearly drawn right down the middle in the US government. The pro-war factions were the Office of the Vice President, OVP, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, OSD, and the National Security Council.

[21:24] And the anti-war factions were CIA, State, and the Joint Chiefs. Well, we know, thanks to leaks, that this Iran war has not had the support of the ODNI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and consequently the CIA, the Office of the Vice President, and the Joint Chiefs. But, the White House, the NSC, the State Department, that's all been the pro-war faction.

[21:56] Um you are not off the mark. It is constantly counter-signaled in the media. And it's funny to see Fox News just beat itself up over this, because on the one hand, you know, they bought into the whole MAGA no foreign wars thing, but now you've got Hannity who's a cheerleader for the war. I'm going on his show day after tomorrow, and I think he and I are probably going to go to the mat over this. Uh you've got uh Jesse Watters who like

[22:27] wasn't sure what to do, and then came down on the side of the war. And then other Fox hosts that are that are anti-war. And then you've got, you know, MSNBC like really loving the idea of the war because it's, you know, for Israel, but then hating the idea that the war is being prosecuted by Donald Trump. So, they're confused, too. And then CNN is like, well, you know, we're trying to be not biased, but we kind of like the war because we like

[22:58] Israel, but we don't like Donald Trump, so we're going to kind of be against the war. They don't know what to do. They're just kind of stuck. You make a very interesting point here that there could be levers for the intelligence community to prime the pump. You say, I see you Tucker Carlson, Joe Kent, and others. I'm going to add uh uh well, yeah, others uh being pushed in the algorithm. I

[23:29] I I have no explanation for it, but I I have to I have to agree with you. My algorithm is Tucker, Tucker, Tucker, Candace Owens, me, Kent, Tucker, Tucker, Candace Owens. And it's all pretty much the same message. And you may be onto something here about the deep state having some kind of effect on on the algorithm. In which case, I welcome it. I welcome it. Uh Lance says, "Hi John, I have been a

[24:00] fan for about a year now. Thank you, Lance. I believe you're an American hero and I hope you get your well-deserved pardon. Thank you for that. I am an incoming journalism major and wonder if you could talk about how journalists, specifically investigative ones, are persecuted by intelligence agencies across the world. I'm very passionate about this subject because I wish to become an investigative journalist myself one day. You are truly an inspiration to me and if you ever ran for president, uh thank you. You have my vote. I appreciate that. God bless, John. You have no idea how much of an impact you've had on young men like myself. Thank you very, very

[24:32] much, Lance. And you know, it's funny. No, I I I do have no idea. It's only like in the last couple of weeks that my life has gone crazy. I mean, quite seriously, I can't go 10 ft down the street without somebody asking me for a selfie and I always always say yes. Always. I was telling Chris, our our producer and sound engineer, I went to a baseball game a week ago

[25:02] yesterday and 15 separate times people came to my seat during the game and asked me to take a selfie. I always say yes. I was in Ireland Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to accept the gold medal for uh integrity in the public discourse. Thank you very much to Trinity College. Um I took 500 selfies the first day. 500. It took 3 and 1/2 hours. The line went

[25:33] like around the block. And and then another 60 after dinner just walking from the restaurant to uh to my hotel. I was in Berlin the week before filming a documentary and we were filming out on the street >> [snorts] >> and were interrupted 35 times by people asking for selfies. I went to Poland for the day just cuz I'd never been to Poland before and I wanted to say I ate pierogies in in Poland. And I got stopped in Poland for selfies by people that don't even speak English.

[26:05] So something happened to the algorithm. I don't know what it is. I am extraordinarily grateful for it. Um but it's only now that I'm beginning to understand that that people in the like 15 to 30 age group almost exclusively men um are listening to me. So thank you very much for that. Now, getting to this investigative journalism

[26:35] thing there are very few professions, in my humble view that are more important than investigative journalists. Um and what we're seeing right now is the death of investigative journalism in the mainstream media. Joby Warrick is a friend of mine, a long-time investigative journalist for the Washington Post. This is the kind of guy who is on the level of Woodward and Bernstein. Multiple Pulitzer Prize winner. You can

[27:08] bet your bottom dollar that whatever Joby writes is the truth. And he resigned 2 weeks ago because investigative journalism at the Washington Post is dead. This is This is the newspaper of record that brought down a president with the Watergate investigation. And it's done. Jeff Bezos killed it. Did you know that since Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post 80% of the employees at the Washington Post

[27:39] have been let go? 80% Now, the real investigative journalism is being done by outlets like ProPublica. Go to propublica.com or or or whatever it is. They're amazing. Go to the Brennan Center. Amazing investigative reporting. Dropsite News. Uh Max Blumenthal at The Grayzone. I mean, this is real investigative journalism. So, it's still being done. It's just not necessarily being done at

[28:11] the the Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the LA Times, the places where it used to be done. And think of this, too. You're not going to get rich being investigative being an investigative journalist. But getting rich should not be your goal. Seeking the truth should be your goal. So, I say go for it. Go to the best school you can get into. By God, if you can get into Columbia School of Journalism, go to Columbia. If you can't, just go to the best school you

[28:41] can get into. Practice, practice, practice, even if it's just at the school paper or for outlets like Consortium News or the Gray Zone or Covert Action Magazine or Reader Supported News. Get published as much as you can. And then set your sights on the big time. Very best of luck. I think what you're doing is very admirable. Netham O'Camel says, "Hey John, I'm not

[29:12] sure if you've answered this question before, but do you know about What do you know about UAPs? I think I heard you had a sighting yourself." I did. And also have seen dancing lights in the sky. Or you have seen dancing lights in the sky. It's something that's completely dumbfounded me and I was wondering if you knew any more than than I. Seems like they're able to defy the laws of physics as we know them and inhabit airspace and sea. Cheers for the amazing work. Hope you get your pardon. Thank you. You know, I've I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again.

[29:42] Um I was 17 years old. And my mom and dad owned a restaurant in the next town to the north. We lived in New Castle, Pennsylvania and they owned a restaurant in Sharon, Pennsylvania. So Sharon was 15 miles north and to get there you had to go through Amish country. And the Amish don't use electricity. So it's very very dark there. My dad and I used to work together on uh midnight shift Friday nights and Saturday nights. And so we would leave

[30:13] home at uh at 10:00. We'd get to Sharon around 10:20 and start our shift at 11:00. It was an 11:00 to 7:00 shift. And so we're driving through Amish country and we see this blinding flash of white light. Not high off the ground. I'm going to say 1,200 to 1,500 ft off the ground. And then there's a second flash and then a third flash. like blinding. And then this orange

[30:46] trapezoid lights up in the shape of a saucer. And it has these glowing orange lights in the four at the four angles of the saucer. And it's just hovering there. I said, "What is that?" My dad pulls the car over to the side of the highway. We get out of the car and we're just standing there like looking at it. Like, what what is that? And this guy pulls up behind us. He gets out of his car and he says, "What is that?" And my dad said, "I don't know."

[31:18] And then it just went at this fantastic speed that just defied the laws of physics. It didn't make any sound at all. And we stood there for a good minute afterwards just looking up into the sky thinking, "Is it going to come back? Like, is it going to land?" We couldn't see it anymore. And then finally we just got in the car and drove the rest of the way to the the restaurant. And I said to my dad during the drive, I said, "Should we call

[31:49] somebody? Like, should we call the cops?" I was 17. And he said, "And tell them what? We saw a flying saucer and it flew away? They'll think we're nuts." And so we didn't tell anybody. We told my mom the next day and then that was it. Years later, I mentioned this to my cousin here in the Washington area. My cousin was an F-15 fighter pilot. And I said, "Cuz, we saw the craziest thing one time. I'm

[32:21] talking this is, you know, 45 years ago. And um and I told him what I just told you. And he said, "Oh." He goes, "That that's nothing. He said, "We used to see these things all the time." He said, "One time I was off the coast of uh Norfolk, Virginia and I saw one come out of the water. Out of the water. In the ocean. And they they fly at these fantastic speeds, they make turns, and they sort of cut at angles that that the laws of physics tell us are not

[32:52] possible. But they've all seen them. He said, "You have to file a classified report. It goes to the Pentagon and then it just gets lost in the black hole there." On my very first day at the CIA, literally my very first question of my new boss was, "Where are the UFOs?" And he laughed and he said, "That's the first question for all of us on our first day, and I'll tell you what my boss told me and his boss told him. All that information is at the Pentagon.

[33:23] None of it's here. We don't have any idea what those things are." So, there you have it. >> [snorts] >> Philosopher Veil says, "Hi John, new fan here." Oh, welcome. "From your recent mega viral wave." I know, right? "20-year-old fan who has always had an interest in how the CIA and other spy agencies work. Won't lie and say I'm an old fan. I do have a few questions. Number one, what are your thoughts or inquiries on the recent CIA operations this year? For

[33:54] example, the insertion of agents into Venezuela prior to the Maduro raid, the use of the Ghost murmur device in Iran to rescue the downed F-15 pilot, and the CIA attempts to inspire a Kurdish rebellion in Iran." All excellent questions. I'll get to them in a second. Number two, on your Instagram videos, what do you think of commentators accusing you of still working for the CIA as some sort of recruitment tool to make the CIA sound cool. You know what? Let me answer that one right now. I think that they're brain damaged. Number one, there's literally

[34:26] nothing that's more intellectually lazy than saying, "Once CIA, always CIA." Like, are you deranged? If you think I went to prison to make the CIA look sexy, then you've got some serious mental and emotional problems. So, no, I dismiss those people as unserious and unworthy of a response. And number three, what is your experience with the intelligence agencies of small S important nations on the global stage? Great question. I

[34:57] mean, really small countries like Jamaica or Fiji or Bolivia or random sub-Saharan African nations. That's a great question. Nobody's ever asked me that question before. You know what? Let me answer that one first because uh it's easy and quick, and then we'll get to your first one, which is more complicated. Um I went to the I went to the Djibouti intelligence service one time. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that this very humble rental townhouse

[35:29] that I live in was twice the size of the Djibouti intelligence service. Um my humble little living room here, which has room for a couch, a chair, a coffee table, and a TV, I'm looking at it, was twice the size of the office of the director of the Djibouti intelligence service. Most of these little countries, and I've I've I've dealt with a lot of the little countries. And And when you go and you treat them with respect, you call the director your excellency or Mr. Director

[42:22] so you don't have to go to the urgent care and spend $60 unnecessarily. A question from our Spotify audience from Gasp Man. John, I'm part of Gen Z and I feel quite helpless when it comes to the state of the world. What advice do you have for the younger generation? What actions should we take? What careers should we go into? Yeah, that's a tough one. I have to tell you I've said a thousand times, I'm 61 years old. My earliest memories

[42:55] Among my earliest memories are sitting on my dad's lap and watching the news and asking him why all these buildings were on fire. And he told me that a very bad man killed Martin Luther King and that people were very angry. And then a couple months later, my mother was crying and she told me that Robert Kennedy had been killed. That a bad man shot Robert Kennedy. 1968 was nightmarish.

[43:25] It got worse in '69 with the Kent State shootings. So, we've been through periods of helplessness before. World War II had to be just one nightmare year after another. I can only imagine what 1861 to 1865 was like. So, we've been through this before. I I get how you feel. Some days I wake up and I read the headlines and I feel helpless, too. But, we're not helpless.

[43:58] It is such a cliché to say that your generation is the next generation of leaders, but clichés are clichés because they're true. You're the next leaders. And so you've got to grab the bull by the horns. Run for office. Any office. Run for the local water board because then that's going to get you elected next time to city council and then to state legislature and then to Congress. I mean, how do you think these these people started? They started

[44:28] at the bottom. You don't start by running for the Senate in most cases. You run for something else and then, you know, finally we can elect people that we can believe in that are going to that are going to do what's best for the country instead of what's best for for themselves or lining their own pockets. Get out there and demonstrate. I have a friend and former colleague Brian Becker who's the the founder of something called the Answer Coalition. Brian has never cared about money. He only cares about truth and activism

[45:01] and equality. And he, just as one example, he organized a demonstration just after the October 7th attacks when the Israelis started pounding Palestinian civilians. He organized a demonstration in Washington, D.C. And on his application for demonstration permit at the Department of the Interior, he said that he expected 25 to 30,000 people. I went to that demonstration.

[45:32] 300,000 people turned up and the line stretched from the White House to the Capitol Building. Now, that's a demonstration. We've got to take to the streets. We also have to ride our elected officials. And if they don't do what we tell them to do, remember they work for us. If they don't do what we tell them to do, then they have to go. And we have to vote them out and bring somebody new in who is going to do what we want him to

[46:02] do or her to do, and is going to represent the people who put them in office. At the same time, you have to write, write, write. Place op-eds and articles everywhere, whether it's in the big mainstream papers if you have access to them, or online publications. I've recommended repeatedly Consortium News, Covert Action Magazine, Reader Supported News, Dropsite News. There are million outlets out there. antiwar.com, the American Conservative magazine.com.

[46:34] There are million outlets. Get your ideas out there and help to to mold minds. And then just stay as well informed as you possibly can. The future really is yours. And like I say, grab it by the horns. >> [snorts] >> Rhetorical answer says, "Hi John, what are some upcoming things you're excited about in your life recently? Secondly, I'm a Coptic Orthodox Egyptian. All right. I'm just wondering what you know about the

[47:04] history and relations between the Egyptians and the Greeks. Us Egyptians love making your food. For years I was under the impression that my two favorite foods that my mother would cook cook were Egyptian dishes, and it turned out that they were Greek, dolmades and pastitsio. Uh thank you for all your hard work. I hope you give yourself the opportunity for some rest now and then. PS, if you ever find yourself in the New Jersey or Philadelphia area and need a ride anywhere, I'm a five-star Lyft or driver, and it would be my honor to drive you wherever you want to go, free of charge. Thank you so much. Kalistos Anestis. I

[47:36] Kalistos Anestis, my friend. Um thank you for that. I I'm going to I'm going to show a little bit of vulnerability here, and I'm going to tell you that I have struggled with depression my entire life, until recently. The last the last year has been especially good. And I haven't been this happy in 20 years. Things have really started to turn

[48:07] around. Um personally, professionally, things are going places. I'm optimistic about the coming years. Uh I hope I can stay healthy and enjoy these new changes, but I'm I'm really optimistic about things. Um what I'm looking forward to, what I'm excited about is I have a lot of travel coming up, and I think that there's probably nothing that I love more in life than travel.

[48:37] I'm going to go to Greece in June and again in August. I'm going to Egypt uh in August with my son, and I'll get to that in a minute. I'm going to go to Vietnam with my brother-in-law also in August. Uh I just got back. I was in Ireland a week ago. I was in Germany and Poland the week before. Uh I have a trip to Australia coming up. I love travel more than anything else in the world.

[49:08] Uh Egypt. I've been to Egypt many, many times, and I have a deep love of Egypt. And I know Cairo's got problems. The the pollution, the air pollution will choke the life right out of you. It's ridiculous. Traffic is of epic proportions, unparalleled practically anywhere in the world, but it's Egypt. It's a 5,000-year-old civilization. You know, my son told me just yesterday

[49:40] Cleopatra is closer in time to the iPhone than she was to the pyramids. That's how old the pyramids are. So, I'm taking him to Cairo. We've been talking about Egypt, Egypt, Egypt for years and finally I said, "Buddy, let's just We're going to go to Greece in in this in August in the summer. Let's just go to Egypt, too. We'll take 4 days. We'll see the the pyramids, the Sphinx. We'll go to ancient Memphis. We'll go to the new like A-list world-class archaeological museum. I'm told it's

[50:10] literally the best in the world. We're going to go to Khan el-Khalili, the souk, and go shopping like crazy people. And then we've got to go to the to the Christian quarter and see, you know, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church, and everything that the that the the Christian quarter has uh to offer in Cairo. You know, I've been to Sharm el-Sheikh. I've been to Dahab. I've been to St. Catherine's Monastery. I climbed to the very top of of um Mount Sinai.

[50:41] Um it's an incredible place. Just absolutely incredible. And I can't wait to go back. I've I've already taken my two oldest sons there. Now my third is going to be is going to be um a traveler to Egypt. And uh he has the travel bug as much as I do. Yeah, that I look forward to very much. And thank you for your kindness. I look forward to meeting you in Philadelphia. Well, ladies and gents, that's all we have time for today. I want to thank you

[51:12] again for your great questions, deep, insightful questions. Thanks for the conversation. Thank you also for watching, for liking, for subscribing, for sharing, and for telling your friends and family. Again, we're up over 200,000 subscribers and it's only because of you. So, thanks again for being with us and I wish you all the best until next time.
