How to Live a Double Life

In this episode, we speak to Colonel Olivier Mas about his experience as a clandestine officer for France's DGSE, the work that goes into creating backstories, and the high stakes world of covert Human Intelligence. 

A graduate of the École de Guerre, Colonel Mas worked for 15 years at the DGSE.  His first years were spent in service to a special unit dedicated to undercover operations. It was here that he became adept at establishing a false identity or “legend” in French, to carry out operations around the world. Next, Mr. Mas joined the Intelligence Directorate, where he was successively responsible for counter-terrorism activities and political intelligence as well as counter-espionage. Twice, he acted as head of station in sensitive areas overseas and/or high-security environments. Mr Mas left active service in the summer of 2017 to launch a YouTube channel called « Talks with a Spy » (which now boasts 174,000 subscribers).  He is the author of two books on the world of intelligence: Profession : Espion (Profession: Spy) from the publishing house Les Éditions Hoëbeke, and J’étais un autre et vous ne le saviez pas (I was someone else and you didn’t know it) from the publishing house Les Éditions de l’Observatoire.  Mr. Mas is an expert lecturer and regular speaker for both private companies (Air France, Vinci, Matra, Rothschild group, etc) and for the media.  His latest project — a novel entitled Le Walk-In (The Walk-In) — will be published by the publishing house Les Éditions Flammarion in October 2024.

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