Outside the Secret Service Podcast

Today we site down with Retired Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Mark Youngblood, to re-trace his 23-year Secret Service Career.

Mark is a natural storyteller and this episode features vivid anecdotes - from getaway trips during training, Rwandan goodwill moments, airspace operations and the Bitcoin/Silk Road investigation fallout - as well as reflections on timing, teamwork, leadership, and the challenges that lead to retirement.

Mark also discusses his transition to the private sectore with American Global Strategies and the lasting lessons he took from life in the US Secret Service.

Today we sit down with Retired Assistant Special Agent in Charge Mark Youngblood to trace his 23-year Secret Service career.

Mark is a natural storyteller and this episode features vivid anecdotes — from getaway trips during training, Rwandan goodwill moments, airspace operations, and the Bitcoin/Silk Road investigative fallout — as well as reflections on timing, teamwork, leadership, and the challenges that led to retirement.

Mark also discusses his transition to the private sector with American Global Strategies and the lasting lessons he took from life in the US Secret Service.

Former Special Agent Tate Jarrow joins the podcast to share his journey from West Point to wiretaps. We talk about his path through combat deployments to the U.S. Secret Service, where he tackled major cyber investigations like the Liberty Reserve takedown and JPMorgan intrusion, served on the Counter Assault Team, and later transitioned to tech and startups focused on online safety.

This episode dives into polygraph myths, training realities, wild protection logistics (including a multi-boat extraction from the lawless tribal region of Nantucket), life-saving moments, and why personal privacy and consumer protection matter more than ever.

Tate is a natural and a cutting-edge leader in online safety and personal privacy. You can find his worthwhile offerings here:

https://onlinesafety.substack.com/

and here: 

https://trustrebound.com/

They tell you not to start a show with a "show stopper", so I saved this for Episode 2 of Season 2.

Barry Spodak is a mostly-retired clinical specialist, senior consultant and trainer, whose simulation-based training and collaboration with researchers shaped behavioral threat assessment and protective intelligence for the U.S. Secret Service.

The episode traces Spodak’s 40-year impact on generations of agents and officers: teaching them to interview people with mental illness, recognizing the ‘‘path to violence,’’ using realistic role-play simulations, and focusing on threat assessment and management to prevent targeted violence.

Here is a link to the US Secret Service's Exceptional Case Study Project that started it all: https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/preventing-assassination-secret-service-exceptional-case-study-project

Today we welcome Brian Lewis to the Outside the Secret Service Podcast. Brian is a Navy veteran and now retired Roseville, CA Police Lieutenant. On this episode we cover his fast-paced two years in the Secret Service which included a stint on a campaign advance team, and protecting a high-level foreign dignitary (Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai); and the ping-pong match that may have saved US-Afghan relations.

While Brian's story is uniquely his, the pace of his career and the decision to leave represent an all-to-familiar pattern in the ranks of the Secret Service. His story is equal parts impressive, inspiring and instructive.