For reasons I can't articulate, and that are no fault of his, I don't like watching Shawn Ryan. Until your post, I had only heard short Tik-Tok style clips of his shows. I can't really explain what it was, but he turned me off.
I had a long road trip this past week and listened to the "Superbad" episode based on your recommendation, and because of my undying hatred of the Haqqanis. I was unimpressed with Shawn's style and ability as a podcaster, there was lots of sighing and very little meaningful interaction with the guest, whom he mostly let just run wild on his show.
I will add that I was very impressed by the recall ability of the guest--the way she can remember dates and names and other details was amazing. I disliked the way she referred to people that were captured due to her targeting efforts, saying "I captured." YOU captured? Like, YOU went on target, cuffed and stuffed the suspect and brought them back? YOU did that? Like... by yourself? No team, just you? Maybe she did, I don't know her background that well. Maybe the CIA targeters do it a little different. In SOF, most of the intel types that do targeting aren't the ones that go out on the objective. I would never say "I" captured anyone. Even if my intel was 100% accurate, which it rarely was because intel is an imprecise art, it is still someone else going out and getting the guy. And even if I was on the hit (which, for the record, never happened), it would be "we" captured, not "I" captured.
Petty annoyances aside, though, I thought it was a very interesting conversation. I've been out of the intel game for more or less a decade, at least on the counter-terrorism side, so I have no way of knowing if what the guest said was accurate. But the Haqqani Network stuff seemed accurate to me. And to be honest, if I had a guest as knowledgeable and chatty as Superbad, I'd probably let them run away with the show too.
So I thought that episode was interesting, but not particularly well-done by the host (probably because of my own confirmation bias). But because the road trip was so long, I had time to listen to another episode, and I listened to his talk with Tucker Carlson.
I thought the Tucker episode was great. Shawn was thoughtful and engaged, and Tucker is a natural conversationalist, who more than once turned the interview around and had Shawn answering questions. I really liked that episode.
On the return trip, I heard Shawn on Megyn Kelly. That was a good episode too.
So while I'm not ready yet to say I'm a Shawn Ryan fan, I'm definitely no longer a hater ;)
Thanks
@AWP for giving me something interesting to listen to (and be mad about) during my drive.
