#310 – Andrew Bustamante: CIA Spy

Lex Fridman (0:00)

The following is a conversation with Andrew Bustamante, former CIA covert intelligence officer and US Air Force combat veteran, including the job of operational targeting, encrypted communications and launch operations for 200 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. Andrew's over seven years as a CIA spy have given him a skillset and a perspective on the world that is fascinating to explore. And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast. We've got Wealthfront for savings, LMNT for hydration, BetterHelp for mental health, ExpressVPN for privacy and MasterClass for intellectual inspiration. Choose wisely, my friends. And now onto the full ad reads. Never any ads in the middle. I hate those. And the ads I do hear up front, I do try to make interesting. But if you must skip them, dear friends, please still check out the sponsors. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too. This show is brought to you by a new sponsor called Wealthfront. They do savings and automated investing accounts to help you build wealth and save for the future. It's a beautifully designed and streamlined interface. It's honestly really surprising to me how many financial institutions of all kinds on the Internet don't have a good interface. It's clunky. I don't understand it. They're taking your money. Obviously, it should be frictionless to move your money around. Anyway, I think I have a lot of trouble with companies that don't do a good job with the interface and Wealthfront does a good job with that. I think it's very important to save for the future. From a stoic perspective, you should consider that you can die any day now. But from a financial perspective, you should consider that if you're lucky, you're gonna live for quite a long time. And in that case, you want to invest into your future. Nearly half a million people use Wealthfront. You can go check them out at wealthfront.com/lex and you'll get a $50 bonus with a $500 deposit. This episode is also brought to you by Element Electrolyte Drink Mix, spelled L-M-N-T. I really love Element. It's one of the things that really brings joy to my day. I drink, I don't know how many, maybe five, six Element packets a day. So for low carb diets, all that kind of stuff, it's essential to get sodium, potassium, magnesium, and they have a really nice balance of that. I think watermelon salt is the one I go to to just feel refreshed, to make my water go down in a way where I really enjoy it. It's the thing that makes all the fast thing I do, and if I do carnivore diet or keto diet, it's the thing that makes that really enjoyable and easy. Never any headaches, never any of that kind of stuff. It's the thing I drink before, and it's the thing I drink after to feel refreshed and to make sure I have enough electrolytes in my system to handle the 10, 12, 13, 15 mile runs that I do in the insane heat of Austin. Get a simple pack for free with any purchase when you go to drinklmnt.com/lex.

This episode is also brought to you by BetterHelp, spelled H-E-L-P, help. They figure out what you need and match you with a licensed professional therapist in under 48 hours. I recently had an offline conversation with Duncan Trussell. I got a chance to meet him. I'm such a huge fan of Duncan. He's such a beautiful person. He's such a sweetheart. He's both hilarious and kind, but also is willing to go to the wildest ideas and not just for a little bit, but a full journey through the wildest possible ideas. It's like I feel like Alice in Wonderland every time I talk to him. Anyway, we've talked about his time with depression and the value of therapy. It really is something, especially in your darker moments in life, that can really, really help. And it could also help to help avoid those darker moments. So it's definitely something you should consider. Check out BetterHelp at betterhelp.com/lex and save on your first month. This show is also brought to you by ExpressVPN. I've used them for many years, primarily because they have a big sexy button that I can press and it can do the thing it's supposed to do. And that kind of thing, it's like the easy button. That kind of thing brings joy to my OCD heart, that there are software services out there that do a thing and do it well. But I also use it to protect my privacy on the Internet, make sure that ISPs can't collect all of my data even when I go to shady websites, which of course I never ever do in incognito mode in Chrome. The thing also works super fast, which is really, really important. On any operating system, including Linux, it also works on Android and iPhone, anything you could imagine, any operating system that I at least know of, it works. It's super fast. You can use it to watch shows that are geographically constrained on Netflix and other such services. I encourage you to go to expressvpn.com/lexpod to get an extra three months free. This show is also brought to you by MasterClass. $180 a year gets you an all-access pass to watch courses from the best people in the world in their respective disciplines. The list of people is just insane from Chris Hadfield, who I really need to talk to soon. I've been trying to talk to him. We agreed to talk. We just haven't been able to make it happen. But you don't have to wait for any podcast conversation with him because he has a MasterClass course. And there's many others. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Will Wright, Martin Scorsese, Tony Hawk, Jane Goodall. The list just keeps going. It's incredible. In terms of understanding something deeply about a subject, you can read books about it from people who analyze it from a distance, or you can listen to the words of wisdom from the people who have done it. That is one of the best ways to learn. I highly recommend you check it out and get unlimited access to every MasterClass and get 15% off an annual membership at masterclass.com/lex. This is the Lex Friedman Podcast. To support it, please check out our sponsors in the description. And now, dear friends, here's Andrew Bustamante.