He's ex-CIA, but he's now an author, and the title of the book is "The National Divorce: A Story of a Fractured Superpower." Uh, before we get into this great book, though, James, uh, and thank you for coming on the show, tell us about you, your background, and what motivated you to write this book.

Yeah, I think, uh, I think maybe in a way the, the story of how I wrote this is, is, is more of a story than the actual book itself.

Uh, I spent nearly, uh, 25 years in the Central Intelligence Agency, uh, you know, very, uh, very forward-leaning after 9/11.

Joined an office that, uh, kinda put me on the front lines, spent an amazing career in the CIA, worked with amazing people, did amazing things.

Uh, but all of that kind of comes to an end when you look at retirement, and, uh, you know, talking to some of my peers and friends that had retired, uh, some would say, you know, the biggest thing is, you know, it's like a lot of other jobs out there, whether you're in law enforcement or in the military, uh, there could be, you know, a, a loss, you know, a loss of identity when one retires.

It's, it's very difficult for people, especially for the first few months going into retirement.

Uh, so I knew I had to kind of pick up something to get my mind off of things, and, uh, what I had done is, uh, I sat down.

You know, you know, you know, in other words, you know, you, you got this micro thing as opposed to the attack on the fort, which leads to the Civil War in the 1860s.