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Think Like a Spy

By: Tazeen Ahmad, LaRae Quy, Jason Hanson, James Glancy, John Ryan
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  • Summary

  • Imagine having three life-coaches who had been through the toughest mental and physical challenges; a crack team of problem-solvers who knew in their day job that one mistake could be the difference between life - and death.

    Think Like a Spy brings together ex-officers from the CIA, the FBI and the British Royal Marines. Across eight themed half-hours, they recount their experiences of working in the most stressful situations around the world - and how you can apply the same intelligence techniques to your own everyday life to become more productive, more perceptive and confident.

    A TBI Media production for Audible Originals.

    This is an Audible Original Podcast. Free for members. You can download all 8 episodes to your Library now.

    Journalist and presenter Tazeen Ahmad sadly passed away, aged 48, after the recording of this series. To mark the launch of this title Audible will be donating to two charities which were close to her heart. Mosac supports all non-abusing parents and carers whose children have been sexually abused. Woman's Trust is a specialist mental health charity, providing free counselling and therapy for women who have experienced domestic abuse.

    ©2020 Audible, Ltd. (P)2020 Audible, Ltd.
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Episodes
  • Ep. 1: Strategy: Spy Thinking 101
    Jan 2 2020

    How techniques from the intelligence world can help you plan to achieve your goals.

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    33 mins
  • Ep. 2: Under Pressure: Decisions in Crisis
    Jan 2 2020

    Spy life-hacks that help you to make the right decisions under pressure.

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    27 mins
  • Ep. 3: Persuasion & Negotiation
    Jan 2 2020

    Tips from our spies about how to influence people to get what you want.

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    27 mins

What listeners say about Think Like a Spy

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Spies like us....

This had so much potential but was actually a bit embarrassing in execution. The three "spies" comprised James Glancy, a decorated British former SBS officer, and two somewhat mid-tier US former CIA and FBI officers.

The series came across as a bit of a vehicle for Glancy, who was interesting and had some sensible (if not particularly earth-shattering) tips and suggestions for the day-to-day conduct of one's life and business, based upon his experiences as a special forces operative in a number of theatres.

The two US agency personnel, by contrast, were largely self-congratulatory and self-aggrandising, and frequently illustrated over-simplified high-falutin' "tips" with trivial and/or ridiculous examples of their professional experiences. For example, CIA dude explained how being able to spot deception was a key part of his former role (no, really?). He described how, despite apparently not looking like Brad Pitt, he had been unaccustomedly and unaccountably hit upon in a bar by a very attractive woman (played in the scenario by an actress with a very hammy Russian accent). He then recounted how he had "baselined" her as part of his human lie-detector routine; according to him this involves innocuous questions like "is this carpet blue? What year is it?" which don't really strike me as innocuous at all, but rather as guaranteed to make one's interlocutor's weirdo antennae start to tingle. Once he had "baselined" her, he hit her with the left-field, penetrating question:

"I'll bet you come here all the time to pick up guys."

Apparently, her stuttering response confirmed his suspicions that she was an enemy agent trying to deceive him. Leaving aside that that's not actually a question, perhaps it did not occur to him that she was just flabbergasted by his finger-munchingly crass comment.

Other low points included when "I AM AN F - B - I AGENT" informed listeners of the clichéd fact that the Chinese character for "crisis" also means "opportunity" - except that she said that the character for "crisis" comprised two characters, one meaning "crisis" and the other meaning "opportunity". Really, Flowers By Irene? That sounds like a rather circular definition.

Also, when CIA dude said " I get up at 4:30 every morning so that I can be the best of the best of the best", he was promptly one-upped by Special Agent FBI who informed listeners that she got up the night before.

Overall, very disappointing. A podcast ostensibly about spies where two of the three panellists were not spies at all, and the only one worth listening to was not even really involved in intelligence or counter-intelligence.

Oh, and incredibly formulaic. Every episode ended with the trite interviewer asking what the three interviewees had been particularly struck by in the episode, and inevitably we got "Well I really agreed with Jason and LaRae"; " Yeah and I really agreed with James and Jason"; "Golly, I really agreed with LaRae and James." At no point did anyone say anything like, "I didn't really agree with what Jason said - asking the hot lady in the bar whether water is wet won't out her as an evil Russian spy, it will just make you look like a socially-awkward ring-piece." There was no real challenge or discussion, just a reasonably engaging and informative former Royal Marine and his two comic Keystone Kops friends.

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150 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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self-congratulating bunch

A group of people telling tales of their own heroism and amazing achievements. Boastful, self-aggrandising and completely pointless

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15 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Bit of a waste of time

The theory is good. How can spies demonstrate skills that can be used every day. The problem is that the experts set up problems, which they then solve, that haven very little transferability to normal life.

Yes there are occasionally crisis that require fast thinking. But face it, most of our problems are not that sort. Where are the spy skills when mum is is exhausted with the kids and trying to make ends meet. There are skill sets that can help but not with these spies.

Or the terrible boss, the lousy job. The always tired. Even the chapter on the self discipline was useless because the exponents already had motivation. It was was self selecting.

Listen for mid entertainment but not education.

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13 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Quite misleading

The content was semi helpful but quite contrived to specific situations which most people will never experience. It felt very forced and the people involved made it sound obvious that they were reading from a script at points. Still okay pass time

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic content and production

Fantastic content and production. Really interesting guests, advice and care studies. definitely recommended for all listeners.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Thrilling self-help

Definitely a uniqie and fun to listen approach to somewhat overbundant topic of self help.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great listen

if spy's are your thing then this is for you . good doc worth the time .

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A lot of mainstream advice

Even though the title was Think like a spy, the emphasis was on using spycraft in your everyday life. Some very useful tips here. Some swashbuckling stories in here too: people who REALLY did do what James Bond pretends to do!

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent

This has excellent information in for everyday life and it is so exciting to hear about the 3 lives of the different agents involved.

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2 people found this helpful

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loved it

Loved all the stories and it was very insightful and inspiring. Would like to hear more about their lives

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2 people found this helpful