We're Still There

In the late summer of 2017, Matthew Farwell and Douglas Laux set out from Dallas, Texas to Rigby, Idaho to witness the National Eclipse on 21 August 2017. Their travels were detailed by Farwell in an article for Playboy.

http://www.playboy.com/articles/in-the-path-of-the-totality

http://nationaleclipse.com/

In the summer of 2018, Douglas Laux sat for an interview with Amazon KDP about his time in Afghanistan. The interview went a bit off the rails in the last ten minutes and was decidedly not published by Amazon. This is the full interview.

In the Fall of 2018, Douglas Laux interviewed author/veteran Matthew Farwell about his forthcoming biography of Bowe Bergdahl, entitled American Cipher.

On June 30, 2009, Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl left his post in eastern Afghanistan, about 25 miles from the Pakistani border. He was quickly captured by local tribesmen, who sold him up the Taliban’s chain of command.

In May 2014, after almost five years in captivity – the longest-held and most brutalised Prisoner of War since Vietnam – he was released. His freedom was exchanged for five Taliban commanders held at Guantanamo Bay. Bergdahl was welcomed home by President Obama in a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House.

Within hours, however, some of Bergdahl’s former platoon mates were denouncing him as a deserter, even a traitor. Bergdahl admits walking away from his guard post of his own volition. But what is the truth: is Bowe Bergdahl a traitor or a hero? Or does the truth lie somewhere in-between, shrouded by the fog of war?

Bowe Bergdahl’s story has risen to international prominence since becoming the subject of the current series of the hit podcast Serial. But now, and for the first time, American Cipher, written with exclusive access to key sources, will tell the full compelling, dramatic and shocking true story.

Matt Farwell has written for the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and other publications. He also served for five years in the US Army, including 16 months in Afghanistan in the same area of the country from which Bergdahl disappeared.

In the fall of 2018, Douglas Laux interviewed a former West Point & USG colleague who was present in Manhattan on 9/11, shortly after leaving the military. This represented his first post military job and this is his story of the day’s events — as well as his thoughts on West Point. (Laux begins the episode with a reading of Hunter S. Thompson’s article from 9/12.)

Former CIA Operative Douglas Laux shot a three part video AMA series in the summer of 2017 to answer each of the private messages he has received on Reddit to date. Laux answered every question he had been asked over an 18-month period. This is part three — filmed with a DSLR camera at a coffee shop in Ohio.

Former CIA Operative Douglas Laux shot a three part video AMA series in the summer of 2017 to answer each of the private messages he has received on Reddit to date. Laux answered every question he had been asked over an 18-month period. This is part two — filmed with a DSLR camera and 360Fly VR camera in a park in Ohio.

Former CIA Operative Douglas Laux shot a three part video AMA series in the summer of 2017 to answer each of the private messages he has received on Reddit to date. Laux answered every question he had been asked over an 18-month period. This is part one — filmed with a DJI Mavic drone and DSLR camera in a park in Ohio.

New York Times bestselling author, Douglas Laux, sat down with students from Stanford University to discuss career opportunities at the Central Intelligence Agency. Laux was an Operations Officer in the Directorate of Operations and shared his opinions on the top five skills necessary for this career track.

“As an Operations Officer for the CIA, you will focus on clandestinely spotting, assessing, developing, recruiting, and handling non-US citizens with access to foreign intelligence vital to US foreign policy and national security decisionmakers. You will be expected to build relationships based on rapport and trust using sound judgment, integrity, and the ability to assess character and motivation.

Operation Officers spend most of their careers serving in multi-year assignments in a variety of overseas locations. As such, all Operation Officers must be able to be medically cleared for world wide deployment. All Operations Officers address a highly diverse and dynamic set of intelligence requirements on country- and region-specific issues, as well as transnational issues such as counterterrorism, counter proliferation, and cyber.

All Directorate of Operations (DO) officers are hired at an entry level and train as they are expected to work – as one team. Operations Officers begin their careers spending one to two years learning the foundations of clandestine operational tradecraft via classroom training, practical exercises, and on-the-job experience gained through a series of interim assignments. Following successful completion of the foundational training, each DO officer will transition into advanced training activity to prepare them to serve effectively in their respective career occupational specialty.”

https://www.cia.gov/careers/opportunities/clandestine/core-collector.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Laux

Stanford University

In March 2019, former CIA operative, Douglas Laux, called into a high school student’s podcast to discuss how Laux came to join the Central Intelligence Agency. The podcast was subsequently featured on Spotify and NPR.