# Diary of a CEO, January 2026 Kiriakou interview

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Diary of a CEO, January 2026 Kiriakou interview," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/diary-of-a-ceo-january-2026/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The January 2026 long-form appearance by John Kiriakou on Steven Bartlett's Diary of a CEO podcast that a University of Texas at Austin sophomore then cut into TikTok shorts, sped and slowed, with lasers added, kicking off the Gen Z discovery of Kiriakou that pushed his cameo requests past 1,900 and drew a 2:30 a.m. representation call in Dubai from the Creative Artists Agency; Kiriakou treats it as the pivot after which stories he had been telling for nineteen years finally landed.*

- **Host:** Steven Bartlett
- **Guest:** [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- **Downstream effect:** TikTok shorts by a UT Austin sophomore triggered the Gen Z breakout

The **Diary of a CEO, January 2026 Kiriakou interview** is the long-form podcast appearance by [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) on Steven Bartlett's *Diary of a CEO* that, in Kiriakou's own account, produced the pivot he calls his Gen Z breakout.[1] Kiriakou describes the interview itself as *"the standard long-form podcast interview"* he had already given many times to [Tucker Carlson](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/tucker-carlson) and Joe Rogan, only *"a little bit more philosophical."* He recorded it, boarded a plane and flew home; the shorts came later.[2]

## The UT Austin sophomore's shorts

A University of Texas at Austin sophomore took the Bartlett interview and cut it into TikTok shorts, *"sped up my voice, slowed down my voice, shot lasers out of my eyes"*, and in Kiriakou's telling, *"it went completely crazy."*[3] While Kiriakou was on a paid contract in Dubai, his niece called: *"Uncle John, you're exploding on TikTok, I don't know why, but it's huge."* At 2:30 the following morning local time, the [Creative Artists Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/diary-of-a-ceo-january-2026), *"the biggest talent agency in the world"*, reached him and said *"tell me you're not represented."* He wasn't. They signed him on the call.[4]

## The interview itself

Kiriakou's assessment of the host is unusually warm. Steven Bartlett, he says, is incredibly bright and asked such insightful questions that the conversation was *"much more philosophical than a normal, you know, John telling stories kind of podcast"*, questions he had never been asked to answer before.[5][6]

## The edit

The student who cut it up was, in the fuller tellings, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin, and the method was consistent: each short was one story, Kiriakou's voice pitched up into an Alvin and the Chipmunks register with the punchline dropped into an ogre's voice, and laser beams shooting out of his eyes.[7][6][8]

He has described a moment of hesitation about it. *"For a second I thought, should I be offended, that they're turning this into something so light-hearted? I was talking about serious issues here. Torture."* The hummus material, he notes, was about a torture technique. He decided otherwise: *"now, I've got a sense of humour too. I'm going with it."* His verdict on the result is that it led more people to the actual message, *"and that's exactly what has happened."*[8]

## What followed

The scale of the change is measured, in his telling, in interruptions: he cannot walk twenty-five feet down the street without being stopped for a selfie, and he always says yes. On one flight from Miami to Washington he was stopped five times in the airport and twice on the plane.[9] Out of it came representation by a major talent agency, invitations to speak, new publishing deals, Hollywood representation and corporate spokesman offers, *"my whole life has changed in the last eight weeks."*[9][10] [Cameo](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cameo) approached him, he says, literally the next day.[11]

## Why he thinks it landed with Gen Z

Kiriakou attributes the traction to a generational appetite for a truth-teller with no personal agenda: *"Gen Z trusts me because I'm a truth-teller, I don't have any personal agenda, none. I think that for the most part, mainstream media lies to us every single day."* His prescription to the audience is not a subscription but a discipline: sample twenty-five outlets across the ideological range, the *Washington Post*, *New York Times*, *Wall Street Journal*, *LA Times*, BBC, *Times of London*, AP, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Al Monitor, and reason your way to the fact pattern yourself.[12][13][14]

## See also

- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Tucker Carlson](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/tucker-carlson)

## Sources

1. Covert Strategies Revealed (2026-07-08), at 19:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUxyyvi_ORE&t=1150s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-08-covert-strategies-revealed-covert-strategies-revealed/
2. Covert Strategies Revealed (2026-07-08), at 19:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUxyyvi_ORE&t=1181s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-08-covert-strategies-revealed-covert-strategies-revealed/
3. Covert Strategies Revealed (2026-07-08), at 20:13. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUxyyvi_ORE&t=1213s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-08-covert-strategies-revealed-covert-strategies-revealed/
4. Covert Strategies Revealed (2026-07-08), at 20:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUxyyvi_ORE&t=1244s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-08-covert-strategies-revealed-covert-strategies-revealed/
5. The Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446 (2026-05-04), at 2:52:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeTlw4Zy3o&t=10328s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-04-cleared-hot-446-cost-of-truth/
6. The Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446 (2026-05-04), at 2:52:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeTlw4Zy3o&t=10361s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-04-cleared-hot-446-cost-of-truth/
7. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: How to Escape The System & Stop Being Manipulated (2026-04-23), at 1:03:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn-yCYLhjo0&t=3780s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-23-doug-bopst-cia-whistleblower-escape-system/
8. The Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446 (2026-05-04), at 2:53:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeTlw4Zy3o&t=10392s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-04-cleared-hot-446-cost-of-truth/
9. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: How to Escape The System & Stop Being Manipulated (2026-04-23), at 1:03:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn-yCYLhjo0&t=3810s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-23-doug-bopst-cia-whistleblower-escape-system/
10. CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: How to Escape The System & Stop Being Manipulated (2026-04-23), at 1:04:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn-yCYLhjo0&t=3840s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-04-23-doug-bopst-cia-whistleblower-escape-system/
11. The Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446 (2026-05-04), at 2:53:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeTlw4Zy3o&t=10423s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-04-cleared-hot-446-cost-of-truth/
12. Covert Strategies Revealed (2026-07-08), at 21:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUxyyvi_ORE&t=1275s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-08-covert-strategies-revealed-covert-strategies-revealed/
13. Covert Strategies Revealed (2026-07-08), at 21:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUxyyvi_ORE&t=1305s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-08-covert-strategies-revealed-covert-strategies-revealed/
14. Covert Strategies Revealed (2026-07-08), at 22:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUxyyvi_ORE&t=1338s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-08-covert-strategies-revealed-covert-strategies-revealed/

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