Everyday spy - with former CIA agent Andrew Bustamante

On this episode I speak to Andrew Bustamante, a former ‘covert CIA intelligence officer’. We delve into the psychology of being a spy. Andrew explains the need for officers to know themselves really well, to know how to optimise their own recovery which is in part something helped through profiling and in part a process of self-discovery. We discuss the extreme cognitive load experienced as an officer and the need to retreat to a safe space in order to recover. Getting this wrong isn’t just a case of burnout, but as a spy it means ‘you become a major liability, not just to the operation, but to yourself and your own life.’