Behind the Scenes with Pete Turner: The Life of a Spy

I sit down with Pete Turner who is a former U.S. Army counterintelligence officer, producer, and host of The Break It Down Show. Pete’s got some unbelievable stories, from his time running missions in Afghanistan to what Hollywood totally gets wrong about spies.

We get into everything from basketball, battlefield lessons, podcasting, and how owning your flaws can actually be a power move. It’s raw, funny, and full of insight from a guy who’s lived through some serious stuff and come out with perspective to spare.

You can find Pete's content Here.

Transcript

Intro

Rob Valincius: Oh, we are live on a thirsty Thursday. Yeah

, and man, I gotta tell you, it's, it. Today is a sports day here in Philly. 'cause we got Phillys going on NLDS flyers are on. And then we have a Monday night football game in, in Philly. Well, I don't know if it's in Philly or not. I dunno if it's a home game. But anyway, this is the Drink O'clock podcast.

I'm your host Rob Valincius, and I have the pleasure of having with me Pete Turnin. Now, Pete, you're an executive producer and you're a host of the Break It Down show, but you got a lot of shit going on. I probably have a whole paragraph of your background and in the military and, and everything, but welcome to the show, man.

Pete Turner: Hey, thanks for having me on. I, you're right, I am busy. I'm right now producing a book for a person with a significant TBI and trying to get her and the audio and everything lined up like it just takes. She's wonderful. Right? But she requires special help and uh, I'm a guy that has special help. So you're right.

I, you might ask me about the project I'm working on this week. I can't even tell you what it'll be 'cause it's always crazy. So thanks for having me on. I appreciate it all of you watching. Hey, thanks for hanging out with us. I appreciate it. Your time means something to me too. I'm gonna pack as much energy and knowledge into this time as I can and.

Rob Valincius: You got a cocktail? Oh yeah. Cheers, brother. Cheers. You, you said you got gin over there. I can't do gin, man. That's not my thing. It's 'cause you're soft. It, it probably is because my buddy is, my buddy's real big into it When I, when I drink it, I, I, I, I, I'll be honest with you, I've been a pussy for 95% of my life when it comes to drinking.

Yeah. And, and the guys make fun of me still. So like, I'd rather drink like a super light beer and just be able to crush 20 of them. Um, but I just really got into whiskey. Yeah. And old fashioned. And, and I, I can appreciate made whiskey and you normally don't appreciate that I think until you, until you get older.

Pete Turner: Yeah. Yeah. And, and there's a thing I call the pussy principle. Like if you're a pussy about something, you just say it and then it's like, oh. There's, there's no point in making funny you then, you know, like, and, and really, uh, but if we went to Dr. Bob's house, he'd make us the best martini in California.

That man is a pro a pro. And you drink that thing and be like, you know what, Jen ain't so bad. Or you might hate it, but you know what, you'd love doing it. 

Rob Valincius: That's the thing. And that's, I'll be the first person to tell you when I'm a pussy for shit. I, it's, it's, uh, my mo with a lot of stuff. I'm like, nah. I, especially now like maybe in your twenties, I would like fake it.

Oh yeah. Right, right. You know, fake it to your, make it type shit. But once you're, I, I'll be 40, you know, uh, in July. So I still have a lot of my thirties left, uh, this year. But, uh, I feel like once you get to that point, you're just like, you accept what you're gonna do. And I work in a, uh, in an office, but we work in the insurance world and we're all ball busters.

So you also have to have thick skinned, especially in the northeast, you know, we're, we're very thick skinned for, for just fucking making fucking, I mean, 

Pete Turner: this is where my California softness comes out. You know, if I'm driving over there and I go, you're honking at me, I feel bad. What did I doing wrong?

Like, I wanna cry because, you know, it's ruthless here on the road, bro. You guys talk with your horn. You're like, Hey, come on. But, but we're like, oh, oh, excuse me, sorry. Beep, beep, beep. Or we'll just be patient and wait. Not ho honk at all. Like it. And then I go to Boston and I'm like, the light's not even green yet.

Fucking why aren't you already? They're anticipating it. The pre honk is a real thing. It is. 

Rob Valincius: I had a guy this morning, uh, I was merging and like, you know, where, where I merged, there's nowhere else for me to go except that link. Yeah. And he refused to let me over. I was down in, I was going down in the, the fucking shoulder for like two minutes.

And I'm like, what? It was a guy in a, in a, a white truck that he looked like he was, he worked for the, the county or the state, and he was like, you know, like a electrician Yeah. Or something like, he, he was wearing the, the yellow vest. And I'm like, come on dude. I literally have nowhere else to go. Yeah. And eventually I just let him go and I just fucking blared on the horn for three minutes straight.

I just like, fuck you guy. You know? And then he was going slow. Yeah. It's like you just did that 'cause you didn't want me to get in front of you, but I had nowhere else to go. Right. You know? Yeah. Uh, but anyway, I digress. Look, um, you got a lot of accolades, man. Yeah. Us army counterintelligence, which I think is, is pretty cool.

A buddy of mine growing up, he was the crazy kid. Uh, he was my best friend. Crazy dude. I actually just ran into him and it was, it was the first time. I haven't seen him in, it's gotta be 20 years. Um, but he went, uh, he was always the, the first part, and this was back when Jackass was big, so we would do dumb shit with our skateboards.

And we, we were, we were definitely getting injured for dumb shit. And, um, he's like, Hey man, I'm, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna go into the Army. And we were just like, well that's, I mean, it sucks 'cause you're my best friend, but it makes sense, you know? And uh, he went and he learned Arab, uh, he went to California, learned Arab.

This was back when. Yeah, the whole Iraq war was, was just starting, you know, it was, it was not. That's probably a good time to join. Uh, but it, it suited him pretty well. He learned Arab for four years before he went over. And then, um, you know, I saw him on aim. This is when a was a thing. And I'm like, Hey man, what's, what's, what's going on?

You okay? He's like, well, I can't tell you anything. Yeah, but I, I, I'm alive. I'm like, uh, 'cause he was in intelligence. So like, um, you know, and, and you were, obviously you did that for a long time. You fought all over the world. Um, you had a thousand different patrols. Yeah. Which is, which is pretty cool. Um, you got your, your podcast, you got, uh, you know, you're a, a detrimental health advocate.

You got a lot going on. But before you go into a lot of this shit, take me back. Oh, okay. Take me back to the beginning. Talk to me about little Pete. And what did Pete wanna do? Was there anything that kind of steered, like, you know, steered you? Were you a fan of fucking James Bond growing up? Talk to me about that.

Growing up and such. 

Pete Turner: Yeah, I mean, I didn't know what I was doing, you know, and I was goofy looking. I had big dumb glasses. You just way back before, like you got options of glasses after you get big dumb glasses, bigger dumb glasses or even bigger dumb glasses. Like it was, you know, it wasn't a cool thing.

And, and so, you know, I got picked on like all kids do. I was awkward in middle school, all that, you know, all of that stuff, all that classic stuff. Sure. I like James Bond, you know, who doesn't, but that wasn't like what I thought I would do. Um, I read Tom Clancy and that was probably a little influential on me 'cause I was a little older then.

But, um, when I first read it, I'm like, I don't wanna be in a building all the time with no windows. Like that's really kind of where I started that whole Tom Clancy thing. 'cause you don't assume you're gonna be out in the field doing stuff, but turns out that's, that's what I did. So in the rear view mirror, it all makes sense, right?

I was an athlete, I was, uh, gregarious. I could make friends. I mean, even though I was like awkward and goofy and made fun of, I still was able in my little world to be popular, you know? And because I could get along with a lot of different kinds of people, I wasn't, um, I wasn't stuck in a particular clique.

I, I could, I could hang with the jocks. They were, they were dicks, you know, but, you know, in a way that I could manage. And, and I frankly didn't hang out with them very much. I'm friends with all those dudes now though. Um, you know, the hot girls, the cheerleaders, it didn't matter to me. I just, you know, was trying to figure myself out and as long as they were cool, I was gonna be cool.

And there's just a lot of cool people out there. And so I've, I figured out a long time ago that, um, just the ability to relate to people was gonna be valuable and just let people be people and all blended to them. So, like, I played a lot of basketball growing up. Just pick up basketball. I'd go anywhere and.

Sometimes I get invited. 

Rob Valincius: I did the same. 

Pete Turner: Yeah. And, and you know, you end up in a sport.

Rob Valincius: Basketball was my sport, man. 

Pete Turner: Yeah. You're like, how did I end up in whatever it is? Right. Oakland, Richmond, you know, and I'm playing with these guys. I was, I was little ages decades ago, and this dunk contest broke out. Now I can't dunk.

I might go up there and just try to grab the rim or something, but you know, I'm not gonna dunk. These guys were jumping over cars. The one guy who won, he jumped over her car and I'm like, how in the, I, how am I playing the same game? I, and I've got a hilarious story. I was playing pickup ball and um, gosh, I guess it was Brent Berry.

He was playing with us and he was so good. But I prided myself being able to hang with anybody, even an NBA grade player. And so he was coming down the court with the rock, and I'm backing up and I'm like, I'm just gonna DM up. I'm just gonna be a hard guy to get by, you know, and, and not crazy, but like, you know, for what we're doing.

And so he was coming down. He is pressing the ball. And, uh, I'm like, oh, he's gonna pull up right here, like by the corner of the free throw line and, and shoot like a little, uh, you know, mid-grade jumper. And I'm like, I got him. 'cause he went up before me and I'm like, I got him. So I went up, oh, you know what?

He's flying by my face. I came down and as I came down, his foot flew by my face and I realized he was wearing topsiders. He was playing basketball and kicking my ass in Topsiders. I, I couldn't even get posturized because he basically flew right by me and kept going, you know? And I was like, oh, there's some guys that are really, really good at basketball.

And, and, and while I was able to hang with a lot of guys who were better, I had, I was nowhere near, you know, that's like when you kind of realize your talent level, you know? 'cause I'd played with guys who were, yeah, they're better at this. But, but I had a role on, in the game and, um, and I realized not, not around Brent Berry.

No. And he wasn't even all that good in the pros. I mean, he is a good player. Imagine the guys who were actually all stars 

and everything hikes. You know, Aren, they're really good. 

Rob Valincius: Yeah, I mean, I've, I've done that. I've played with some, never NBA greats, uh, but I've definitely played with some people who I underestimated.

I had this one time I was playing and the courts were playing on were maybe nine and a half foot rims. They weren't, they weren't 10. Oh yeah. Or maybe a little higher than, than nine and a half. But they were, they were lower. And there was two girls were on the other team, and I was talking trash. I was a big time trash talker, and I, I wasn't superb, but I was pretty good.

Like I was small, I was fast and I could pass the ball. And then I had a three point shot. 

Yeah. 

So I was talking trash to this one chick, and I was covering her and I underestimated her. And before I knew it, she, she fucking just jammed, like windmill jammed in my face. And I was like. Oh, alright. And this was in front of all my boys, so I'm like, yeah, all right.

Well, that's it for the day. You know, like, I, uh, should not have underestimated her and she fucking just jammed it in my face. Uh, 

Pete Turner: yeah. It's funny, the, uh, and, and here we are talking about pickup basketball, but it is funny and there's some life lessons in there, you know, like back when I was, you know, playing, I was in my early twenties and that white men can't jump movie came out.

And so when I played with, with the brothers, they, uh, would assume they would call me Billy, help Billy Billy, or they'd call me dead legs, like dead, dead legs, you know, and they would just kind, that would be my nickname. Whatever. I didn't,

Rob Valincius: I, I had Steve Nash because you can't get, because I had, I had my, grew my hair long and I would wear a headband, 

Pete Turner: right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so they would assume that I could rock a three, right? And I couldn't, the one of my weak, I'm ambidextrous. That's, I've got a lot of advantages, but it made hard for me to have a, a jump shot. And so I would take on the best guy I could find and just be like, I am going to Absolutely. And I had a big motor.

Big motor. I never got tired. And so I would go find the best guy. Good. And I was physical. I wasn't afraid to go after the ball or anything and put a hand on hip. I'd shove guys, I didn't you. And within the game, not like a bully or nothing, but like I was, I was hard. I demanded hard. So I would take these guys on and what they didn't know, I would, if I detected, and this goes into my spy stuff, if I detected that they had that kind of racial prejudice where they're like, oh, this guy could shoot threes.

I would just hawk the three point line and pull them away from the ga away from the ball. And I would just, and I'd force them to follow me. And I'd make moves like I was trying to get open and they would have to like, press through things and I would just, I'd just wear 'em out as much as I could until they figured out that I wasn't gonna shoot threes.

Right. And, but I could still drive on them because I, I could drive a little bit and then I would dish and that would be it. And then all of a sudden there's a guy wide open. 'cause there's three guys on me thinking I'm some kind of special player. And all I was was the decoy for the really good guy. And I love, like you, I love to pass the ball.

Here it comes, throw it up in the air, let the guy go get it. I did a lot of no ls. Yeah. It's right. And behind the back and Oh yeah.

Rob Valincius: Yeah. The last time I tried to do that, by the way, I, yeah. I had tore my hip. I, I, I'm pretty sure I didn't, I didn't get it m mri, but I tore my hip rotator. Right. Why wouldn't you?

Yeah. And, uh. I went to go play again like a month afterwards, and, uh, I did a no luck pass, and it was the last no look pass that I have, I have thrown, this was probably four years ago because retired, my hip just popped right out, like it popped right back in, but it, it popped and I had a bruise that went from the inside of my thigh all the way down to my calf.

It looked like someone beat me with a baseball bat on the inside of my, and I, I could barely get up for like a week. 

Yeah, you're gonna get a fake hip. That's what you're gonna get. Oh, 

oh yeah. Yeah. 

Both 

hips are 

probably fucked. You did Bill Jackson. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

You, you popped 

Pete Turner: that 

Rob Valincius: bustle. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that, that's a thing, you know, and there's other things that turned out.

Went into the spy thing within basketball. There was, there, our basketball team in high school was really good. So as I was graduating they were like peaking. So I played a lot of pickup ball with these guys. And again, I knew my spot, I knew how to play and uh, I knew how to pass the ball. But there was this one guy, Lawrence went on to play D one ball and he wasn't particularly good at D one level, but he was a good, good ball player on our court.

And he was good at picking the ball. He'd run down the other end and just go, you know, slam it. And I was like, you know, he's never gonna get an uncontested basket from me. I don't care. I'm just gonna go after him. Way before the, he had that dog in him, like that was me. I would dog, that was guys all the way down.

I would run heavy feet. So they knew I was there, you know, trying to do my psyop on him. And I'd jump up and I'd be there all the time. I never ever, ever gave up. And he said to me one time, he found me years. And you we're like adults. He's like, man, when I played with you, it was so crazy because you weren't as good as I was.

But you always pushed me. And I knew if I ever got towards the bucket and I thought I was alone, I knew you'd be there even if you weren't there. And it taught me things like I had, I couldn't underestimate anything. No basket is uncontested. I had to play hard the whole way. 'cause a guy like you who's in the game to play hard.

He's gonna come get me, you know? And I never got him once, but I, every single shot he knew I was there and it changed his game. And how cool is that? Right? But I, I approached the army in the same kind of way, just dogged. And I'd go after things. And when I wasn't deployed, not all that helpful to be that aggressive and that assertive.

But, um, when you're in combat and you have to go out every day and you can't, you gotta be relentless. That same spirit is required. 'cause I'm in charge of me. If I don't do my job, no one else will do it. And the other jobs that no one else will do that. I'm like, I can go do that. And I'm not picking up more work.

It's just my work can flow into anything. And so my work got bigger and better because I was gonna go after him. I was gonna go after Lawrence every step of the way. I was gonna jump with him. I was gonna tap the backboard. When he tapped the backboard to make him realize I am right there. You missed, I missed you by six inches.

Don't ever slow down. Don't ever have a half step. 'cause I will get you, you know, and. That's, that played right into the whole combat spy thing. It was crazy. I thought about it one day on a patrol and I'm like, this is exactly like basketball. It doesn't sound like it. Yeah. But when I looked at it, I'm like, I just, I am gonna be relentless at this.

'cause you can't, you can't let up because it's just the pros. This is the real, like the Super Bowl. Every day people are trying to kill us. We're trying to kill them. And most days there's no shooting. Right. But you don't know when it's contested and you have to be, every time, every question, everything has to be right.

Because if you leave a wrinkle, someone can fill it and that'll kill someone. And if someone got killed, 'cause I wasn't prepared, I couldn't have that. Yeah. And you never know what's real and what isn't. Right. So I guess, all right. So, so you get outta high school, you know, did you make the decision to go into the Army in high school or did that flow out?

I had no idea. No. No. I didn't know until I was 20 probably, uh, I guess I was 24. Just 24 years old. Um, I, I just had my birthday and, uh, I had not even considered it, so I went from never considering it to end the army in a month because I, I just got stuck professionally. I was working at Costco and that, and that was just like a job, like, you know, to hang out and get money for beer and that kind of thing.

Yeah. I needed to do something and I wasn't going in a direction that I recognized as being fruitful. And I'm like, I'm gonna end up being really good at softball having two DUIs, and like, that's not the road I wanted to go down. I need to get out of my hometown. Yeah. You know, and then I love my hometown, but, but that wasn't where I needed to be and that's, that's why I went out and I didn't go get a degree to, to work at Costco and push carts.

So I, um, I was pushing carts in the rain one day and I'm like, I just gotta make this change. I gotta make this change. And so I did, I, I, uh, I made the call and that was, that was real. I mean, February, I was like, what am I gonna do? Let me go check out the recruiter and just see what happens. And then in March I was in the Army.

Wow. Yeah. I, uh, I actually took the, with the, what's the test called? Asba sba. That's what I was gonna say. Yeah. So I took the asba and I scored very well and 'cause I'm a smart guy. I'm a smart guy, I'm not an idiot. Yeah. Uh, and I was 27, I think. Okay. When I was thinking about I was gonna do the National Guard and, uh, my mom and the wifey were like, no, no, no, no, no.

You're, no, no. My mom's my mom. This is, I love her to death. If you listen to this, mom, I love you. Sure. But I am 39 and she will call me if she hears sirens or had heard there's a bad car accident in Philadelphia. Philadelphia. It's just so, uh, same reason why I probably don't have a license to, to ride a, like a.

Motorcycle because, uh, I would, I would probably get, uh, murdered first before, before I even ever attained it. But How did your, how did your family Yeah, you're, you're never gonna become a motorcycle rider now. I mean, maybe in your, in your later years. Maybe a dirt bike rider, but man, it's, I used to ride all the time.

It's crazy. It's just, it's so dangerous and it's gonna happen. I mean, we live in big places where, where, I don't know how the roads are in Philadelphia, but wild stuff happens down here in like a plane landing on the freeway. That's every year. Like that's crazy. All the time. Crazy. I mean, we had a plane crash explode on a highway and, and uh, we live right next to the Northeast Philadelphia airport, so there's planes that come in and outta here a lot of times.

Like you'll have people that are relatively famous that might fly into here 'cause it's of like a private style airport, right. Um, but yeah, the roads suck here too, man. It's crazy. Shit happens here all the fucking time. Um, and traffic blows. I mean, R 95, which is the main highway, has been an under construction for as long as I've been alive probably.

Yeah. It'll never stop. Yeah. Um, yeah, we have all kinds of crazy stuff. And, and so I think about, and then you'll see the debris in the middle of the road or the side of the road, and I'm like, that's a ladder. Jesus Christ. If I was riding a motorcycle and a ladder came flying down the road, what am I gonna do?

And all the time, tires. Tires and rims, just the rim. And you're like, how in the world did that get there? And what if that was, you know, in a car you might die, but in a motorcycle, you for sure are gonna die. Oh, yeah. And, and whatcha gonna do about it? You know, you're like, it's, you're just gonna get wacko in a bad way.

We actually just had somebody that reason why I, I'm doing her book. That lady, she was in a motorcycle accident. She didn't do anything wrong. Someone turned in front of her and ejected her 30 feet down the road. And, uh, I mean, basically killed her, you know, and she's, she's just now rebuilding her life, but what's left of her life is not what she had before.

And man, that's, I love riding motorcycles, but not that much. No. Yeah. I mean, look, we just had somebody die that they weren't on a motorcycle. They were in a car, uh, I think it was a Mustang, and they hit a deer on our turnpike, so they were probably going 75, 80, and we'll be conservative there. They hit a deer.

And I, I don't know if the deer was just so big and the way they, it ripped off the top of their car and just killed them instantly. Like, I'm, I, I, I would not wanna be the EMS to see what they look like. Oh, yeah. Picking that up. Yeah. I mean, imagine if there was just a hundred pound bag of cement in front of your windshield going 80 miles an hour, what that would do, and that's smaller than a deer.

You know, like it would, it would, absolutely. Yeah. It's, it's crazy. I think about, um, we drive up into the mountains every now and then to go to this, uh, family home that's up there. And I, I look at the roads and there's like, when they say falling rock, like the road is scarred from rocks and they have like these chain mail fences trying to catch the rocks and everything.

And I think every now and then someone's car just gets blasted by one of these rocks and a 10 pound rock coming down, spinning on three axes as you're driving. Unaware, man. It could be a bad day. Bad, bad, it, some final destination shit, you 

Nothing: know? Yeah. 

Rob Valincius: What it's, it's, that's exactly right. So, so did your, did your, was your family okay with you joining the army?

Was this something, has, has anyone in your family joined the, you know, is it, is, does it run in a family or? It was funny. My brother and I, um, we were, uh, about five and a half years apart age wise. And so same with my brother graduated. Yeah. And, um. And he was for sure kinda lost and a lot more comfortable with drugs than I ever was.

And he was like, I gotta do something. 'cause he, he's like, I'm just going down the wrong road. Same thing. And so he had signed up on delayed entry and we were at meps. That's like the last place you go before you leave to get on the bus, to go wherever you're going. And we were at meps the same day to leave, the same day just by just total luck not playing it all.

Now he ended up not leaving because he liked drugs a little too much. And so they kept onto him for about another month. But we were in basic and bootcamp at the same time on parallel paths. And so his training was a little shorter than month. So he came out right before my graduation to see me. And he had already graduated.

But um, you know, I like all families who have been in America for any length of time, you know, all kinds of people have served in our family, but our generation, it became a lot less common. And so my brother and I serving, trying to think of who else might have done now. A lot of my cousins did their mission.

'cause a lot of 'em, my cousins are Mormon. But, um, yeah, it's, it wasn't as calm or anything. Again, just kinda came out of nowhere, you know, for, not so much for him, but more for me that I was gonna do this and I was really independent. So if my mom had said, I really don't want you to do it, I'd be like, that's nice.

Know, and I, I would've gone and my dad would've no say, so I was really, and, and I'm 24, you know, and I wasn't completely independent at that point in my life, but I was, I was pretty independent, like they were providing shelter. But if I had to, I could have got shelter somewhere else. You know, it would've been a little harder.

And I'm thankful for my folks allowing me to stay there. But, um, yeah, it was, it was all my decision. And, and, and here's the thing, I didn't tell my friends because I didn't want them to sway me. And so I just kept it close to the vest. And when I decided I was gonna do it, I had signed, and then I'm like, I'm joining the military.

I'm leaving on the 28th. I'm throwing a party on the 25th, you know, kind of thing. And, uh, and that was it. And so they're all like, what? Really? You matter. Nowhere. And I, I knew nothing about the Army when I got there. I'm like, I don't know anything. But the Army will give you all the tools you need to study and learn.

And so like you, I'm pretty smart. I'm not a genius, but I'm, I'm pretty dang smart. And I remember things, I just started learning and uh, you know, over time you, you figure it out. You just keep, you keep studying what the army is, you keep learning how they communicate. And again, this is all spy stuff and you just keep learning how to exist in that world.

It took me a while, but I gotta figure it out. So how, how did you work your way into the counter counterintelligence? Was there, is there, is there a story behind that or you just kind of that's, they were like, you, you'd be good for this. Like Lane Dobber, you know, um, my recruiter's like, what do you wanna do?

Like, I don't wanna be outside all the time. I don't wanna be inside all the time. I'm not really trying to be in the infantry, but that stuff kind of sounds, and so I took the test like you did the asfab. I did really well. He is like, listen, you got the highest score. I'm, and he was done being a recruiter.

He is like, I'm not seeing anybody get a, where you can get any job in this book that you want. And I'm like, what do you think I should do? He's like, you should do medical or Intel don't do anything else. And he said, the higher the number, the better the job. And my job was 97, you know, out of like, uh, a hundred would be like the numbers.

And it's not a scale, it just happens that a really cool job are at the end of the scale. And, uh, and the is like 11. So it, it has nothing to do with intelligence, it's just how they stack the jobs, right? Yeah. And it's like, medical is all nineties. Intel is all nineties. So that, those are the numbers.

Anyhow, so, um, we landed on counterintelligence and we both watched, it was a laser disc. We both watched the laser disc. I looked at him and I'm like, what do you think that means? He is like, I have no idea. You know what that means? I mean, oh, and you should do it. I'm like, you serious? He's like, yeah. And so, um, one of my thoughts was I would just go to the Army and just play, you know, softball.

'cause every post has a softball thing. And if you're good enough, you can rise up and you real legitimately can just get detailed out to play, like competitive softball, you know, at some kind of army level. And, and, and there's like all kinds of things like that. There's the choir you can go, if you can sing, if you're willing to go, they'll take you.

You can get detailed out to the choir and just spend your entire career being a choir guy or a song and dance guy. They have all these crazy little niche jobs. And I thought if I don't like it, I'll just do one of those things. I can sing a little bit, you know, I'm, I'm no singer, but I can sing a little bit, right.

And make, yeah. So, um, I thought, man, you know, if it doesn't work I just go play softball. And, uh, but my job was really cool and the more I learned about it, the cooler it was, and I just kept at it. And it, it just so happened that it all worked in a way that made a lot of sense. Again, in the rear view mirror when I was doing it at the time, I'm like, I don't know what's next.

I don't know what I'm doing. I was just trying to figure it out and uh, like a lot of things in life, it just sort of worked itself out and, and there's a lot of, uh, misfortunate fortunate things, like it's terrible to have to go to combat, but it turned out I needed to go to combat. I was good at it, and it's better than me who's good at it to go than someone who, I saw a lot of people that weren't good at combat, you know?

And so when they go, you're like, oh my gosh, you need to stay here in this chair where you're safe and you're not gonna be scared. 'cause my job has to be terrifying. My job is one of the most danger. They don't make jobs more da like once you're over the danger bar, you know, like you're doing jackass on skateboards, like you're already above the danger 

bar.

Yeah. 

And so if my job, if I'm not in danger doing my job, I, I'm not doing my job right. And I was comfortable in that spot because I understood the stakes. I understood what it took to do that. And I accepted that to get to where I had to get to, I had to trust people that were willing to kill me. Jesus, man.

That's some wild shit. Now I gotta ask you, what, what are some what, and you know, obviously, I don't know if you could talk about certain things or whatever, but what is some stuff that, you know, Hollywood, you know, you're in la Oh yeah, yeah. You know, 'cause what are some stuff that Hollywood puts in their movies that they just get wrong about?

You know, being a spy or counterintelligence, you know, they do a lot of stuff right. I wanna be nice to 'em because they, they do a pretty good job. One of the things they do is they make all of the, the tech nerd spy type guys, they make 'em all tech nerds as soft. And there's a lot of hardass dudes who do intel.

They're really good at it. And so that's one thing that kind of bugs me, but they're telling a story. So I get, but I, but I point it out all the time when I, um, on my show, I have a lot of, uh, spy novel type guys who write Clancy, who write whatever. And, uh, I'll, I'll tell 'em like, Hey man, let's, let's get some nerds out of there and let's put some nerds who are hard asses.

Let's go put nerds in there who are black belts and juujitsu or something like that. And, and let them, yeah. Don't be so stereotypical. Because here's the thing about the military that, that a lot of folks don't realize is as, as you get into the military and you've been in it for a while, you look around and you're like, damn, that guy's got a PhD in archeology.

That guy's a world class sprinter. Now you can be a world class sprinter and not be able to compete professionally because, you know, it gets real, it gets real peaky, right? But that guy over there pitched for the whatever, whatevers, you know, and so you realize there's all these things and then you go into a staff room, a brigade level, you don't, you have a master's.

Uh, you are working on something else, right? Like you're light. There's professionals in this world. And so all of that is not captured in the Hollywood, like how brilliant these people are, how hard they work. The reading list, these guys chew through. If you wanna, if you wanna get your, you wanna feel dumb, go challenge a full kernel in the reading list game, you're gonna be like, nevermind, nevermind.

And they probably have a command of a second language. I mean, it's just, it's crazy what these folks know. So when you see someone like Jason Bourne and I love these movies, I love these, they're all, they're all great. Um, James Bond and everything, it, they're, they are comprising a lot of things, a lot of people, a lot of disciplines into one super human because you really can't tell the story of the guy who sits at his desk for 30 hours just tracking signal intelligence and sending out requests for information, getting it back, you know, and just pro I, I've been one of those guys, we sit there and you're just in the mix and all of a sudden you realize like, I've been sitting here for 18 hours and I don't feel like it's been 20 minutes.

'cause you're just in the mix. Right. So, um, all of those people at, at my best, I shouldn't be thinking about the process of, of I shouldn't be thinking about processing the information I collect. I should be thinking about how do I get out to collect more information right at, at the limit of what should be perfect.

The reality is I'm going to think about how it all goes together, but someone behind me who's at a desk should be thinking about how it all goes together. And they should be guiding me to make me go and figure out where the, the next gold mine is. And they should be guiding that. And all I'm doing is gold mining, right?

And so that's, that's not represented in the movies. But again, I don't know that that's all that interesting for a movie. You need action. Another thing, um, though, I, I technically have a license to kill if I'm in the army and I'm a collector, right? Like we all have a rule of engagement. Yeah. That it, and, you know, shoot, shoot, shoot is is part of the, uh, rule of engagement a lot of times.

So, um. If I go killing people, I can't work in that area anymore. Like, oh, there it goes, Pete, he killed Bob. You know? And that, that becomes a barrier. So, uh, I'm not going to be lethal if I can avoid it because, uh, that's not good for me. I certainly can't go drive through a Prague and destroy buildings and blow up a city block, you know, chasing Specter or whatever.

I, I, I can't do that 'cause I'll go to jail and show up in a suit at the casino like that that night, you know? Yeah. Now look, you might go to a casino, you for sure will go to a bar, right? And you'll do that and then you'll have to figure out, and you might play the exact same game. Like you might be sitting there going tetto Tet with somebody else, and they're talking to you and you're talking to them.

Here's the difference though, sometimes that guy's gotta feel like he got the better of me, even if, if I purposely won and, and but like roll back to let him think he got me, because I may want that advantage. Now I don't typically roll like that. I certainly have done that, but, um. Yeah, you're, you're trying to give enough up so that you're interesting.

You're trying to give something so that they can see that you're a human and that you're relatable. More importantly, are you trustworthy? So that's what I'm trying to build is trustworthiness, you know? Yeah. I mean, that's, that's interesting. Can you, can you tell me with, I mean, whatever, I don't know how much detail you can give, 'cause I don't know if you're still serving or not, but, um, can you give me like a maybe a crazy story or a crazy instance of, of something that you did while you were in the service?

Yeah, yeah. And I'm not serving anymore and I don't, I don't do that work at all anymore. So, and, and you're welcome to believe me or not. That's one of the things, like if you say like, Hey, I don't spy anymore. Everybody's like, nah. So no one believes me that I am a spy. You're like, and they blink the both eyes, so you can see, but both eyes, they're blinking.

It's funny, lemme say you this. So if I say, oh, I'm, I was a spy, people are like, yeah, whatever. They don't believe me. And then if I say, oh, I'm not a spy anymore, they don't believe you. So like, it doesn't matter what I say. So I'm just always honest because I'm like that, that way. Whatever you think I said, I know I told you what I thought was true in the time.

So yeah, there's all kinds of crazy stories, man. There's, um, I was, I was, this is probably one of the craziest, so I was working with this governor and I had built a pretty powerful relationship with them. We were exchanging trust. He was introducing me to his peers and these are guys that no one else got to talk to because they don't want to talk to us, right?

And so I was meeting more and more and more people, and I didn't do this by myself. My buddy Rich did this with me. But, um, as we, as we kind of climbed this pyramid of elders in Afghanistan. It became apparent to the Taliban, and we don't know this, it became apparent to the Taliban that we were gaining influence and we were talking to more people.

And so they called a meeting to have us show up at this farmhouse. We don't know this. The farmhouse is, is not far from now. We are, we are in a way out in the country. I mean, like, this is stone age. There's no electricity. There's no plumbing. This is the old world, right? And so, um, our, our little post, this tiny little post was up on the side of a mountain and we would walk into the valley and, ah, let's say 400 yards away.

Not far at all. You know, like just a picture, like a middle school campus, not even that far, right? Like, it's just not very big. We walk to this guy, we'll call him Ted, we'll go, we go to Ted, the farmer's house, and we sit down, we have this meeting, there's a bunch of farmers in there, you know, and, and we're just kicking it.

And we're talking and they're asking us questions for a change. And I'm like, that's cool. You know, I want you guys to know me. I don't mind telling you things about me. And so I'm talking and. You know, rich and I are explaining what we're doing and, and how we're studying, how they live and trying to get the army to understand all these things.

Right. And so, just a very normal meeting, normal day for us. We do this kind of work all the time. And so we walk back, you know, and I don't even know if I was armed, 'cause you, you're kind of under the protection of the governor when you're there, right? Um, maybe Rich had a gun 'cause he's, he's coon ass and he is like, I'm bringing a gun wherever I go.

So he probably had a pistol, but it would surprise me if he didn't, I don't recall. Um, I didn't, I often didn't carry a pistol because I had a lot of guys with me usually that had guns. And so if I don't have a gun, I can be a little different. And my job isn't really about shooting in most cases. So let's say that, um, we have an interpreter and he doesn't have a gun.

We'll say Rich had a pistol and we'll say I had nothing probably. That's probably what it was. And uh, we have this meeting, so we go back and we go back and we go home and there's no big deal. We have dinner, hang out and don't think a thing of it. Right. Just another meeting. Write up a little report. We had a meeting today at a bunch of farmers.

I saw, I saw Chris, I saw Larry, I saw Tim. And you just kind of like do all the, you report things and really just nothing really to write about. So another day or two, the governor calls us over to his office. It's right in between, it's right off the camp. So it's even closer than than Ted's house. And so we go to the governor's place and uh, we're hanging out and talking and Eaton, and he is like, I have to tell you guys something.

And we're like, oh, okay, great. What is it? He's like, well, that meeting, I didn't call that meeting that was called by the Taliban. And we're like, oh, that's interesting what happened? They're like, well, they were there and everybody knew it, but you, and they were assessing you and they have decided that you are men, you are scholars, and you are respectful and you can talk to whoever you want in this valley.

And we were like, what? What? Wow. You know? And, and here's the thing is the way I approach the job, that's, it's a surprise, but it's not a shock because I do try to be helpful, respectful, and, and this will sound a little bit crazy, but um. If someone says, are you a spy? I'll say, yes, yes I am. And I'm here to help.

And if I ask you a question you don't like, don't answer it. You know? And I already coached up my interpreter to say all that stuff for me, you know, so that they understand the intention of that. And I've never had anybody worry about it. It's a horse. They think I'm a spy here I am this guy asking all these questions.

I'm from America. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna hide it. I'm not trying to hide that. And if you see me ever do anything that you think is wrong, let me know. 'cause I'm not trying to be that guy. I'm trying to be helpful to you all. I'm trying to make your country a better place. I don't understand how you guys do it, what we need to work on.

And I talk to the Army more than I talk to you guys about what to do. I never tell you guys what to do. And they, they always go, oh yeah, you're right. Yeah, you're cool. And so of course the Taliban would fall for my little trap, you know? And it's not a trap, it's just being honest. And, and of course they trusted me to operate in that area.

And, and it gave us access to things. It was all we were trying to do was, uh, the right thing. And, and we were no longer a threat to them. Because we weren't, I wasn't telling anybody to get, 'cause we, we were in Taliban country. There's this guy named Muah Amar. You can look him up. He lived a mile from our camp and we all were desperate to find him.

Never had any idea where in the world he was. We thought he might've been dead. So, um, we weren't telling people, I wasn't going, you know, give up the Taliban. 'cause they were the Taliban, they were cousins of the Taliban, their brother. They might be. So what's the point in telling 'em to give up something that they are, they are that thing.

It'd be like going to Philly and saying, Hey, quit liking the Phillies. That's not possible right now. It's not happen. That's not gonna happen. Hey, everybody has to like, Pat's not Gino's and you guys are like, we didn't talk about Pats and Ginos. That's from tourists, you know. Yeah. That, that's for movies, right?

He's right. And so when, when you, when you think about that, like when I go and the Taliban calls a meeting and we go and we survive that 'cause they easily could whacked us easily. All those farmers would've easily let us die. But, um, they didn't because of how I ran my show. And, and I say that even though Rich was there, this was my design.

I built this program on how to talk to people. 'cause I'd done it in Iraq and Afghanistan. I learned from Warlords and they taught me how to, how to run these things and how to do it in a way that helped them help their people. Because no matter what they, because it's adorable to say, oh, the government's gonna be better, here we are, we're the Americans.

Meanwhile that dude Abu Warlord, the guy who's like, oh listen, I actually have to be the guy, the government. He is the government. He are the government. And so. If you start to say, Hey, you don't have to worry about that anymore. He doesn't get to just not worry about it. He still has to worry about it. And so I learned about warlord from warlords and shakes and trial builders and all these guys that had all this political interest involved.

And you're not just easily gonna take their power because their phone's never gonna stop ringing. They have to have answers or they die. And so when you understand that you act differently and, and you're like, okay, it's a little more, it's a little more deliberate than what we thought. And I tell the boss, my boss, I go, Hey, we gotta slow down a little bit, but I'm talking to the right people.

And the boss doesn't mind that. So there's a thing in Intel where we act, try to find a need, a let a haystack. Yeah. I don't do that. I look, I go to two fields over, it's a field of needles and I just keep bringing the boss needles. And when he is like, Hey, Pete, stop bringing me needles, right? They never say that.

They're like, man, all this stuff you're giving me, nobody else gets me. And it's all right. So please keep feeding me all these needles. I got someone motherfuckers around here, so let's do it. And, and that's what happens, right? So, so. When, when you look at all the things that I'm trying to do, uh, you're not gonna capture that in a movie.

You're just not, you're not gonna train someone on day one to get there by day two or day 700. It's a very complex world and you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. You have to be willing to be at the edge and completely open to someone else who might decide to. You have to be accept that like someone might kill me today and for any damn reason they want doesn't have to make sense.

'cause the gods of war don't abide quality. They, there's they to take whoever they want. And so if you can get your head wrapped around that, and most folks can't and shouldn't your upper head around that, that's what a spy in a combat zone death.

That is wild, dude. You know, you, you don't really think about that shit. You know, obviously as just being a civilian and I'm too pussy enough to ever fucking join. Um, but you really don't think about all the crazy shit. That, you know, I guess our, our army, our navy, all those guys are doing on, like, on the dl.

But I think it's funny that you said, yeah, are you a spy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like, like I feel like if you're, if someone's being aggressive and they're mad and, and you just say, yeah, I'm a spy. What, what, what's your comeback to that? Like, if someone's like, comes up to you, like, like look, we grew up in, in the old school, someone would come up to me and they'd be like, Hey, you're a fag, right?

And I'd be like, yeah, okay, I am. And they're like, yeah, yeah. Alright, well I'll see you later. I'm not, but you know, it's like, if you just agree, it throws off the people that are hitting you. And I think that's kind of great. And it's, it's, they should add that into a spy movie instead of all this hidden shit, you know?

Johnny Depp does do it. He's a CIA guy and he is got a shirt that says Spy on it, I think. And I kind of mimicked, I'm not wearing one today, but, but I, yeah, I make 'em and I, I wear 'em. So if, if you want, I've never done this before live, I've actually never done it before at all. But, but, um, we could role play this out and we could do the opposite.

So you could ask me if I was a spy and I'll tell you what, I've been trained what to say, and I'll say those things and then just take that two or three questions down the line and you tell me which, which method you think works better. So if you want to, we'll do it, and if not, we, we won't do it. But if you want to ask me if I'm a spy, and I'll play the role of the American who's been trained by American.

Alright, let's do this. Lemme take a drink, right? Yeah, me too. Pete, you look like a spy to me, man. I don't know about you. Are, are you a spy? Oh, oh, no, no, no. Oh, I'm not a spy. I'm with the American Security Services. That's, that's what I, so what does the American Security Services and why are you guys asking me all these questions?

Well, we, we, we ask questions because we are, um, assessing the, uh, the local area and trying to make sure that we put together a package of security and safety for everybody. I can't, that is, that is what they tell you guys to fucking say. Yeah. Yeah. You never answer a real question. And so it's like, no, just say what you are.

And here's the thing is you think I'm a spy already. You're like three words in. I'm like, this guy's a spy. I should probably kill him. Let's be honest, right? Like, if I this's the whole thing is like, okay, let, let's say that, that, um, America invades Philadelphia, right? And, and you're, you're the enemy. And, um, I, I come in and you are like, Hey, what's that guy doing over there?

And you're like, is that guy a spy? You're gonna think, that's gonna be one of the things you think of right away, right? What is that guy doing here? He is talking to people. That's a spy. Everybody's gonna say that. And not just because they're talking to me all around. They'll be like, have you seen that guy who's a spy?

He is walking around the valley. They're already thinking it, right? It's the norm. Just say the quiet part out loud, and all of a sudden it's not that big of a deal. When I say, no, no, I'm with security forces. Like, yeah. That's, that's a spy. You're, it's, you're dusing the situation before it ever even escalates to that.

Right, right. Exactly. Yeah. Security forces. Uh, the other thing is, is if if they captured me, what are they gonna call me? What are they gonna trade me at? They're be like, oh, we captured a spy. No, no, no. I'm with American Security Forces, you know, and I'm like, no, no. We know what you are. You're a spy and they're gonna trade me.

And, and then it's gonna come out. Oh, counterintelligence agent Pete Turner was captured today. Right. That's a spy. You gonna wear like that, you gonna wear like that security t-shirt that they wear as bouncers, you know? Right. 

Pete Turner: Yeah, 

Rob Valincius: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I, I, I should do that more because it is, it's a funny exercise.

'cause what are you gonna say that you do now? Look, I can make something up. Oh no, I'm a truck mechanic. What the fuck are you out here talking to people? Then why you asking questions about where our warlord is? They don't need to know. The truck guy doesn't need to know what that is. Yeah, exactly. That's, that's, that's pretty cool.

And you know what, um, I mean that's, that's something I guess I never, like, I guess if you're a civilian, you're not really ever thinking like there, there's actual, we have spies all over the fucking world, right? So it's like you don't really actually think, like you watch these movies like, oh, that's a cool movie.

But there is people that are doing bits and pieces of what these guys are actually doing. Um, whether it's undercover cops that are trying to infiltrate a local, we watch a lot of Law and Order SVU, but, and, uh, you know, our guy Stabler at, uh, what's his show, babe? Yeah. Criminal something or other. Yeah. Um, but like, you know, you have those shows, but you have the movies that get probably bits and pieces of, of like what it actually is.

Right. But. It's not, you don't see like the real world type shit where like you're like, all right, if I don't kill this guy, 'cause the warlord told me to, he's gonna kill me and then I'm gonna fucking lose everything that I need to lose. Or like, there's gotta be so much fucking crazy shit you don't really actually think about happens in this world.

It's crazy. I've talked, again, I speak warlord at a pretty good level. And when those guys talk, they'll talk about twisting somebody's cap. Like it's nothing because it's not about vengeance and it's not like, Hey, it's business, right? It's about survival. And so if this guy won't comply, or if this guy's standing out, this guy's running his mouth, he gets reminded, Hey, don't run your mouth.

And if they run their mouth, then they don't run their mouth ever again. And they're like, what happened to Bob? Well, Bob's gone. And the desert just swallows 'em up. So yeah, I mean, those guys are playing a different level game. And, and we, on our side, we forget that, that this is life and death for these guys and, and they hold the power.

And so you don't easily give that, get them to give up the power. Now it happens. Sometimes they get taken down. Sometimes they get taken out. But while they have a chance, like Putin's backed into a corner, what's he gonna do? You don't want him backed into a corner so far he can't get out of the court.

You want to give him an off ramp? 

Nothing: Yeah. Right. 

Rob Valincius: We, we want to punish Putin. Well, you know what? You're gonna have to let a lot of stuff go because if you don't, and Russia gets wobbly and there's a coup and someone else is in charge, you're not in better straits maybe. Right? But Ted usually, no. Now you've got a nuclear power with this new person who we know nothing 

Nothing: about.

Yeah. 

Rob Valincius: And it's all about the devil that you dance with the most. And, and so we're gonna have to figure out a way to get Putin to chill out and, and you know, like, does, is Putin alive in six months? Maybe not. That's how he's thinking. He's like, you know, I gotta stay alive around here. And you never know. In their world, you never know who's gonna fucking stab you in the back.

You know? He's, he's been in power for a long time. Um, how many people would it take to overrun your house and kill everybody? 5, 10, 2, right? Not many. Yeah. Right. If they wanted to. If they wanted to. Right. And I'm not saying it's ever gonna happen to you, but, but you think about that. So he's in a bigger house, so if it's 500 people, is it 40?

If they come in and just say, you're either I'm with us or you're dead. And as they say that they're shooting people in the head like, oh, I'm with you, I'm with you, I'm with you. And then the whole tide turns. It's, it's all about imposition of will and, and what we're trying to do on my end if I'm focused on that part, is like, how stable is this place?

Where are the instability places? Who are the power brokers? How does it man? And that's not what they teach you, but this is what I learned. You know, I read the prints, Machiavelli's the Prince. I read that in a different way. I read it like a, how do you deal with these guys' manual? 'cause they're trying to understand the prints and implement it.

I'm trying to look at the other angle, like that guy's implementing the prints. How do I help him feel calm and safe around me so he can trust me and I can maybe be Machiavelli and help guide him? Like, Hey, the Americans aren't so bad. Hey, why don't you do this? And so I'm trying to inculcate into his world.

I'm trying to become his Machiavelli, and that's pretty damn arrogant to say that. But, but it's a good way to describe it. So instead of reading the print, like this is how you govern that. No, no. How do I infiltrate? And it's a different way of reading that book. No, I mean that's, and that's a good insight, man.

And let's, so let's go go off of the, the spy world. You're, you're a podcaster, right? Let's talk a little bit about that before we get out. Um, break It Down show, coming up on its 10th anniversary, um, you're almost at 2000 plus episodes. Yeah, man. Well, congrats first off. Yeah. Um, yeah, we passed both of those things.

We're, we're past 10 years down. Oh, did you hit it? Okay. 

Pete Turner: Actually, 

Rob Valincius: yeah, yeah, yeah. I got, you know, I write bios and I don't know where I wrote, so Yeah. But we, we passed those things and it's ridiculous, man. It's, um, I, I quit counting at two thou. I'm not gonna count anymore because 2000 just says it like we, we've done a lot and, and I say weeks.

My buddy John and I started the show. It's really my show now. But there's so many amazing opportunities. I get, here's the thing, here's where my show is at. My show often books itself and people who work with me or people who know me, they're like, I've got the best person. He won't do anybody, but I've pulled favors personally to get you this amazing person.

And, and that'll walk in the door all the time for me. You know, things just show up and I'm like, I don't have to work that hard to book my show because. Greatness just shows up or greatness comes back. Yeah. Again and again and again. And it's just a delight. Look, is my show made for everybody? No. Right?

But, but, uh, I don't care. Like the things I do are cool. I'm like, I get to do dope stuff all the time. And so I don't wanna hype my show too much because I want people to, to listen, enjoy your show. But yeah, we, you got, bro, you gotta hype the show up, man. We want the listeners to listen to your show. Man, look, I, I, it's amazing.

It's one thing I've learned, it's changed my life. It's one thing I've learned about podcasting is this is a network business. It's a lot about. What you do in this world. I've made some really good friends that I talk to every day from just them being on my show or me being on their show. Yeah. And sharing and, and yeah.

I don't think that you can ever have too many podcasts. 'cause everybody has their own likes and dislikes and everyone might like, maybe people that are listening to my show exclusively might like your show more and they start to listen to your show more. But they still listen to my show a little bit.

That's cool, man. It's whatever. You know, like, yeah. And people fade in and out. They'd be like, oh yeah, I love Pete's show, but they don't listen anymore. But they love me. Right. And so this's the thing I had to wrap my head around, it's like, they can love me, they can support me, but not consume my show. And what does support me mean?

Man? I don't know. Sometimes. So like, if I go to my hometown reliably, I, I can't buy a meal. Someone's always wanted to take me out for lunch. And so they may not buy a shirt, they may not invest in the show in any kinda way, but, but. And there goes 25 bucks for lunch, you know? And so that's, and I let, here's the thing is I've learned to be comfortable with that.

Where they wanna do something for me, what they're comfortable doing is buying me lunch. And someone will say, Hey, let me buy you lunch. I, I don't go, no, no, come on. I go, yeah, of course, of course, of course. I, I let them be great. And that's what they want to do. They don't wanna click on my link, they don't wanna shop through my Amazon thing.

That gives me, no, I'd rather them buy me lunch anyhow. That, that's direct benefit to me. And that's, that's the thing with these shows, you are right. Like so many of my friends are, because of the show, I get to meet all these incredible people. I'm gonna go to a conference in England, it's a spy conference.

And, um, you know, it's, I, I get to go talk to it because of my show. Right? And not, not because I was a spy. No one cares about that, but because I have a show and I was a spy, right? It is. And you've got it. It's a networking tool. It's on me to figure out how to make it valuable to everybody involved. And I'm good enough at that, apparently, so that people are glad to come on the show.

PR people are like, Pete, your show is great. My, my all they care about right. Is that their client is happy when they talk to me, whether or not the show works. They don't care about that. Yeah. What they care is, is my client happy? And I know if I put 'em on Pete's show, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be excellent, and I'm not gonna ask all the basic questions.

And so all kinds of things, all kinds of value comes. And when I go back to that PR person, I'm like, who you got? And they're like, actually, I got someone special for you. And they know who I am because I'm doing something to make their life better. And even if it's a small thing, just being a good, a good place for them to put their client man, that that means they're winning for their client and that gets them more clients.

Yeah. And look, man, I mean, it's, it's, it's not easy to do. I mean, to hit your milestone, it's, you know, I, I hit, I hit the hundred episode, uh, maybe like six months ago. Oh man. Congrats 

Pete Turner: so 

Rob Valincius: big. But yeah, it's, it's, um, you know, the milestones, a lot of times people give up after, what's it like, 10 episodes or something like that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is I think the generic thing. And, um, you know, I hit the a hundred, which I thought was really cool, but I, you know, I've, same with you. It's like, I, I haven't had any opportunities like that yet. 'cause I still think I'm very early in the infancy here, but 

Pete Turner: True. I didn't add a hundred either.

Yeah. Like, I didn't, it took a long time. 

Rob Valincius: I, I, I've got to interview people from Japan and China and, uh, yeah. England and Germany and all over the, the, yeah. The us And it's just like, you get to, I get to interact with people from all over the world, and I feel like almost every episode, whether it's some crazy shit, uh, or like just your spy stories, like the things that we talked about.

Say I get to walk away always knowing that I picked something up. I had, I did not know before I, I stepped into the door and turned on this, this camera, you know? And I think there's something cool about that. Yeah. I'll tell you something cool. Philadelphia just picked up a run against the Dodgers first run of the game.

Oh, did we? So there you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Was it shorts? You heard about all that stuff, man? Who hit it? Uh, no. I, I I don't, I I don't know. I didn't see that part. Damn it. Oh, he was cast along. Yeah, he, he drove in the run. We've been crucifying him for fucking three months because he made a comment about, uh, not being a, he's like, the fans are, uh, you know, the, the wind to our sails or the wind blowing into our sails or some shit because we boo you here if you fucking don't do what you're supposed to do.

And like some people get it, like Bryce Harper embraces it. He thinks it makes him better. Other people just get butt hurt about it. But like, we're not a fan base to Dick around, especially when you're making $40 million a year. Like we. We want you to perform. So, uh, yeah, happy to back around for sure. New York, Boston, Philly, Chicago.

They will throw you out the door easy, like in a second. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, I, that's not what we do here, but we also don't get the big free agents like you guys do out here in California. The giant struggle with it. Padres kind of struggle with that, you know, the angels for sure do. Like, we don't get 'em like you guys do.

We struggled for, for a while though. We struggled for a while. I, I think it was, it was, uh, picking, getting, Harper changed a lot of that 'cause he then started to petition and then it's the same thing with Eagles. Was Rudo before or after Harper? Who is it? Ray Muto. The catcher. Was he before or after He was, he was friends with Harper and then also Okay.

Also, uh, Trey Turner was friends with Harper. Yeah. So he brought those guys in and, I mean, I hope they don't lose jt. Um. My, my, my wifey likes to call him real keto. Um, but hopefully we don't lose him 'cause he's outside. He's not the best hitter in the world, but he's the best fucking catcher on the planet in my opinion.

Man. He gives you, he's a hall of fame talent. I dunno if he'll get in the Hall of Fame or not, but he's a hall of fame talent right now. And, um, yeah, I mean, if you want to get a better catcher, I don't know who it would be. Like they've gotta be available, right? Yeah. And so do you sign him or do you just go and and turn him over and, and go to young guys?

Which is possible, right? Like that's the whole game is who's available and what's possible are not what fans want, you know? And, and Harper, is Harper a disappointment or is Harper just fine doing what he is doing? You know, he's built a Hall of Fame career. He's definitely staying in Philadelphia because you're not gonna trade him away now with a 13 year year contract.

Yeah, probably not. But he, he's at this point, he's not gonna get better. His production doesn't warrant his contract, but I think his, his presence does. Like what he brings to like the, the clubhouse, I think does, and you're also going to get that golden era at some point 35 or later, which will be pretty soon for him, where it'd be like, oh, you know, he's our guy.

You're kind of like, we're now, look, look at Freddie Freeman. He's, he's in that golden era now where like he's gonna go to the Hall of Fame. He is great, but he happens to still be great. And it easily could be that Harper is that kind of great, again, fans struggle with this, but great, great is being above average really for 20 years.

You know, when you've been in the league for 19 years and you're fi fighting off 21-year-old players trying to take your job and you're still out there above average. Man. That's hall of fame. That's what that it, it doesn't sound sexy, but 150 hits a year for 20 years is 3000 hits. 150 is not sexy. Sexy, you know, but, but that's what it is.

Hey man, it's kinda like your podcast. So, uh, do me a favor. Plug yourself, tell everybody that listens to my show where they, they can find your shit. I drink a glass of. Happy about that. Beautiful. Put me in a good mood. My show is called The Break It Down Show. You can find me on social media. I'm primarily on X.

Go look there. PA Turner on that PA Turner on YouTube or just break it Down. Show I'm not hard to find. And if you have an idea, you want something, you can always get ahold of me. You can email me, Pete, at Break It Down show.com. Always glad to hear what you're trying to do, you know? But that's it, man. That that's, that's, that's what I have to say.

And, and man, I appreciate you for having me on. Again, I appreciate all of you folks out there for listening and hanging out with us. Hopefully, uh, hopefully you guys liked the, the episode. Thank you very much for having me on. Oh dude, Deb, I mean, I enjoyed it. So at this point, I don't give a shit if, anyway, that's how I'm at.

If I enjoyed it, that's all. I'm, I hope someone else does. So, um, they'll, they'll, my pa my podcast is Drink Clock Pot on all socials, drink clock podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. And this will be up before you know it, man. Thank you and, uh, hope you have a great rest of your day. Have a good night.

You too.

Outro