EverydaySpy Podcast - How CIA REWIRED My Brain on DAY ONE

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

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Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. CIA liberated me. Hmm.

I mean, and I say that absolutely honestly. June 2008, I was, I feel like I was set free, right? Everything that I believed about the world up until I was 27 years old, the day that I went through the farm, the first day, the first briefing about American supremacy. Mm-hmm. Right? The first day of the farm, it just absolutely changed. changed me. The Farm is training ground?

The Farm is CIA's field trade craft. Okay. Got it. And it's a long course. It's classified how long it is. Wikipedia talks about it, but I can't confirm or deny if you're accurate. But what happens is, you know, CIA recruits a very specific type of person. And I realize that in hindsight, but not at the time.

And then with that very specific type of person, they essentially teach you that the things that you have always been suspicious of are real, right? I've always been suspicious that people are not being honest, even when they say they're being honest. I've always been, especially when I say the ringings. I've always been suspicious and skeptical of authority. I've always questioned whether or not authority has the right to be authority, right? And there's lists and lists of other things beyond that, right? I stay up sometimes late at night wondering whether or not I'm even telling myself the truth of what believe or whether I'm lying to myself or whether I'm creating some sort of context for myself to rationalize my thoughts.

Like, this is the kind of stuff that goes through my head. And it did when I was younger, how I handled girls and dating relationships and how I handled guys and friend relationships and when I was a supervisor in the military. And it wasn't until I got to CIA that they trained me and they kind of enlightened me like, this is the reality of how the world works. Here's how the human brain actually works. Here's how your brain works. One of the things that that's really unique about CIA officers is we're oftentimes recruited because we have some kind of significant childhood trauma that leads to us being outside of the typical neurotypical bell curve.

So we're higher anxiety than the average person, higher self-discipline than the average person, more rejection issues than the average person, right? So we fear rejection. We want loyalty. We trade loyalty. So we're fucked up in our own way. But you learn about it and it's incredibly validating. Because now you see that everything you've been conditioned to believe is fake. It's not real.

You've been conditioned to be a cog in a larger machine that works a very predictable way so that the state can function. And now you're being pulled out of that and you're being reshaped because your role to support the state is different than the cog. Right? you're still a cog. You're just not that cog. And that was a very liberating experience for me. So my first big transformation happened in 2008. So when I built my business, a big part of what I endeavor to do every day with everyday spy is give people a taste of that experience that I had, that liberation, that enlightenment, that life-changing realization that I'm not crazy.

Right? Like, I'm not crazy. I'm not crazy. I'm not stupid. I'm not ignorant. I'm not selfish. I'm not manipulative. I'm actually just...

Human. The type of person that understands espionage inherently. Yeah. Right? Oh, so that's what is. So you had intuitions about espionage and this gave you a rigorous framework

in which to validate those intuitions, something like that. And thank you for asking, thank you for being the first one to ask that question. And thank you for being the one to kind of, you know, summarize it that way. But yeah, you're right. I had an intuition about espionage,

but no training. to back it, and then I got the knowledge and the systems and the framework to recognize that my intuitions that always made me feel like I was a horrible person were in fact just natural... There were gifts, even. Natural ordained gifts for espionage. Then the second big aha moment came when I left CIA. Because the whole time I was at CIA, from 2008 to 2014, when I was a trained officer, from 2007 to 2014 when I was an officer, I never quite realized that the skills they were teaching

me were also the governing tools that they were using to control me. Of course. Right? I was inside of a system where the people who trained me what I knew knew more. And they were using that superior knowledge to be able to make sure that I executed my ops and that I made sure that I put myself at personal risk. And then I told the truth, right? So I was stuck inside that same KLT, R-I-C-E, you know, Secret Life, Public Life, Private Life framework.

but I was just subservient to a larger organization. So it wasn't until I left and got some space from it and realized how the system was failing me in my everyday life that I started asking myself the question, had the chance to reflect and say, holy smokes. Like, I feel like I'm failing in my current life. I'm not failing. I'm just not using the tools I was given.

Because before I was instructed what tools to use and when. Now I need to do that for myself. And, right? And that's the second part of everyday spy. It's teaching people the skills so they have the life change. They have the aha moment. But then also teaching them how to control what skills they use when. So they continue to manifest that unfair advantage.

That is so freaking cool. It's kind of ironic, I guess, because it sounded like you're describing an unplugged moment from the Matrix in a way. Where you're like, oh, was it plugged into this machine? I was supposed to be a cog, but I had intuitions that told me there was more to life than this. and then you come into the CIA and they're saying, yes, there is or actually you've taken the red pill or whatever it is, and they show you

your intuitions are legitimate and here's kind of the framework around them there's how people actually work, how the world actually works. And then you get a second unplug moment though which is taking all that knowledge and re-assimulating back into the world post-CIA.

Right. And the ironic part in my mind is you hear Bitcoin is having a similar unplug moment. It's like you get into Bitcoin, you start going down the rabbit hole. You know,

what is money? What is this? What is that? Next thing you know, like the whole world's like, oh my God, we're living in, you know,

as we said earlier, it's like a slave complex. There's a lot of bullshit, you know, government's not your friend, all these things. And you're kind of left to pick up the pieces.

So it's just interesting that I would never expect it to hear that going into the CIA was like going to the, the Bitcoin rabbit hole a little bit, but it sounds like both of them shatter your old worldview and leave you to pick up the pieces. Or recraft. Recraft something completely different, right? And what's the hard part about it, and I'm guessing it's the same way with Bitcoin folks, is you become very isolated. All of a sudden, everybody else is still operating according to the old

matrix. Yeah. And you're outside of that. And the only option you have is to find the other people who are outside of that. Bingo. Bikhorner is often complain that they feel kind of isolated in their local community because there's not a lot of us in each community, but then we all come together. It's something like a Bitcoin Commerce in Miami, and it's a big love fest. Everyone's having a great time. But yeah, you're correct. That's a common complaint. Yeah, and that's just part of that, part of that, the wolf pack developing for ourselves. So now that you've been through all this and you've discovered your gifts and you're endeavoring to share them with the world, where are you headed from here? Like, what is the,

vision for your life and how do you see everyday spy into the future? So my original, my original ambition when I first launched, it's funny, when I launched my podcast in 2018, I think the third or fourth episode of my podcast, I made this claim that I wanted to be a household name by the time I was 45. And I was 39 at the time. So I made that claim not because I wanted to be a household name, but because I was trying to make a point about how CIA teaches us. to set ridiculously impossible goals.

It doesn't, it's not worth it to just set a, a realistic goal. It's not worth it to set a goal that's a stretch, right? Set a ridiculous, completely improbable, embarrassing to say out loud kind of goal. Hmm. And then see how close to that goal you get. Hmm. So there I was in 2019 recording a podcast episode where I told the world, which was 11 listeners at the time, right, that I set this goal to be a household name by the

time I was 45. then I was going to disappear. I was going to take all of my toys and fucking go home, right, and turn my company over to an executive, a C-suite, and let them run it, and I'll just take a passive paycheck and just disappear with my family and be with them, be with my kids when they're in their teenage years, be with my wife while we're still young enough to enjoy our youth. Since then, I am now 43. I have been referenced in popular media as a household name.

I don't think I am a household name. I think I'm a YouTube-ish name, and that's about at best. right. But we now have TV projects, film projects, book projects that are making it so I can't disappear at 45. So I've had to adjust my ambition. So now I'm targeting 47, 48 before I take my toys and go home and fall off the map. So I've got five more years to really have a good time building this business out. I got to find my new CEO. I got to find my new C-suite. I've got to find other ex-CIA and NSA and DIA folks who are going to come in and teach the next generation. But I didn't build this business to be famous.

I built the business to give skills to real people that they can use to get a real advantage. And I'm not needed for that. That's why it's not called Andrew Bustamante Incorporate. It's called Everyday Spy. There will always be people leaving CIA who want to give back to the American public and teach the skills that they used for success in the field. So that's the mission. That's the goal.

and, you know, if I'm lucky, I'll still talk to you and I'm 49 years old, but nobody else will be able to find that. If I'm so lucky, I still get to talk to you in your 49. I think that's a really cool mission. You're taking these badass skills that we've learned to really, like we said, all of human history, right,

that have culminated in the intelligence inside of institutions like the CIA, and then you're giving that back to people to use in their everyday life. that seems ennobling and enabling, not enabling, you're improving people's competence, right? Because if they have this knowledge, they have these frameworks, there must be many other people out there with intuition similar to you that also think they're crazy or bad. And now you can just give them this gift of saying, no, this is actually how human minds work

and how society works. And you can use these to your advantage in a professional sense, a personal sense, et cetera. It's cool. It's really cool stuff you're doing. I appreciate it, man. And thanks for letting me talk about it. And thanks for asking such awesome questions, man. This was a joy.

Yeah, this was great. So we've got you for at least five more years, right? You got me. So we'll get you back here at least once a year for the next five years. I won't say no to you, man. Dude, thank you so much for doing this. Where can people find you on the internet? Yeah.

The fastest way to find me is to look up EverydaySpy.com. That's my homepage. If you're a podcast fan, look up my podcast. It's called the Everyday Espionage Podcast. or if you just Google my name, Andrew Bustamante, you'll find me on all platforms, and you'll find your way to whether you want to listen to me, watch me, or hear me. Beautiful. Dude, thanks again.

I appreciate it. Thank you. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca.