Doug Patteson spent years overseas as a CIA case officer recruiting assets, running operations, and navigating a world built on secrecy and human psychology. After leaving the agency, he brought that experience into Hollywood, advising major studios on how the intelligence world actually works.
In this conversation, Doug opens up about the realities of spycraft, the pressure of living a hidden life, the toll secrecy takes on families, and the lessons he carried forward into leadership, resilience, and emotional intelligence. We talk about failure, character, why good officers think differently, and how real fieldwork looks nothing like what you see on screen.
This is a rare look at the human side of intelligence work from someone who lived it.

https://www.instagram.com/texasspydad/
https://x.com/GrayManActual
https://linktr.ee/Dougpatteson
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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - CIA Case Officer Shares His Untold Story
00:27 - Hollywood, Field Ethos, and Experience in the Real World
01:01 - Hunting in Alberta and a Windstorm That Took Out the Camp
03:27 - Jet Lag, Knee Surgery, and Still Making the Hunt Happen
05:05 - Tents Collapse and a Middle of the Night Escape
06:40 - Learning Elk Country and the Strength of a Good Team
07:39 - Too Many Hunters in the Backcountry and Finding True Remote Ground
08:51 - Blaze Orange, Local Laws, and Staying Visible in the Field

10:52 - Doug’s Path Into the CIA
11:47 - Analysts vs Operators and Why Doug Was an Unlikely Recruit
13:34 - Thinking Differently in the Field
14:24 - Living Under Cover and What It Does to Family
16:34 - The Moral Weight of Secrecy
18:19 - Polygraphs, Personal Choices, and Agency Tests
20:53 - When Character Cracks Reveal Themselves
22:07 - Why Doug and His Wife Eventually Left the Agency

23:48 - How Spies Are Recruited and What That Relationship Looks Like
27:43 - Is Spycraft an Art or a Science
29:05 - Lessons From the Field That Still Matter Today
31:51 - Emotional Intelligence and Radical Self Awareness
34:31 - Failure as a Teacher and Raising Resilient Kids
35:34 - Faith, Family, and Keeping a Moral Compass Straight
37:07 - Losing His Wife to Early Onset Alzheimer’s
39:30 - What Hard Times Reveal About Character

41:28 - Choosing Love When Life Gets Hard
43:50 - Stopping, Regrouping, and Choosing a Better Path
45:24 - Being Human, Failing Forward, Resetting the Next Day
47:52 - Letting Go of Failure and Moving Ahead Clean
49:23 - Good, Better, Best and Remembering to Celebrate Wins
51:16 - Burnout, Friends, and Iron Sharpening Iron

55:23 - What Hollywood Misses About the CIA
57:30 - Conspiracies, Secrets, and What Actually Leaks
01:00:33 - Mistakes, Coverups, and How Narratives Twist

01:02:12 - The Explorers Club and DefenderX
01:04:35 - Amphibious Land Rovers and Journeys Nobody Has Done Before
01:06:21 - How Extraordinary Teams Form

01:08:03 - Leadership Lessons From a Life in the Field
01:09:20 - Capacity vs Capability and Hiring for Character
01:11:27 - The Hardest Thing You Have Ever Done
01:13:03 - Ethical Failures and What They Reveal
01:18:22 - Hiring, Firing, and Getting People on the Right Bus
01:22:32 - Necessary Endings and Knowing When Paths Diverge

01:24:12 - Wrapping Up and What’s Coming Next