I’ve been trying to get Darrell Blocker on this show for a while. Took a fireplace in Montana to finally pin him down.
For those who don’t know him, here’s the short version. Thirty-two years in the intelligence community. Four in the Air Force. Twenty-eight at CIA. He ran the Farm. He was Deputy Director of the Counterterrorism Center. Chief of Africa Division. He served as Chief of Station more times than most people change cars. When he retired in 2018, he was the most senior Black officer in CIA’s Directorate of Operations – rank equivalent to a three-star general. These days he’s also fixing Hollywood’s spy stories from the inside as a creative consultant, which means he’s the guy quietly making your favorite shows less embarrassing.
He’s also one of the funniest, kindest people I know. That part matters more than the resume.
We talked about our careers – the early years, the messy parts, the “what am I doing here” moments. We both came up through the military and found our way into national security from there. Nobody hands you a map. There’s barely a road. That’s why I wrote my new book, National Security Careers: The Ultimate Guide to Breaking In, and yeah, we got into that too.
But mostly we talked about what life at CIA is really like, once you scrape away the movies and the novels and the myths. It’s harder than Hollywood makes it look. Quieter. And way funnier than either. The work gets done by people – some weird, most brilliant, all of them human. That’s not a slogan. It’s the job.
We recorded this in front of a roaring fire at the Whitefish Security Summit in Montana. IN Network was one of the sponsors and brought 11 young professionals from across the country to attend. Darrell and I both spoke. He’s been one of IN Network’s biggest champions from day one, and watching him sit with young people who want into this field is the kind of thing that reminds you why you signed up in the first place.
This is part one of our conversation – the early years, the road in, and what life at CIA is really like. Part two picks up where we left off. Subscribe so it lands in your inbox.
