I am often questioned by younger listeners about what it takes to get a career as a spy. In this episode, I am chatting with Matthew Zegar, host of the Career Paths Podcast and computer science student at Simon Fraser University.
Phil Gurski talks with computer science student Matthew Zegar about a career in counter-terrorism.
If the ins and outs of terrorism, extremism, national security and public safety are of interest to you, subscribe to receive free content by former Canadian intelligence analyst and author Phil Gurski on these issues.
About my guest Matthew Zegar
Hello! My name is Matthew Zegar. I’m currently doing an internship at NVIDIA.
Foreign policy and counter-terrorism is heavily outside my field of knowledge, so I do stumble around a bit trying to collect my thoughts. Regardless, Phil was able to paint a picture of what it’s really like to work in this career.
Subscribe to Matthew’s youtube channel!
About the host Phil Gurski

Phil Gurski is the President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting Ltd. and Programme Director for the Security, Economics and Technology (SET) hub at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute (PDI). He worked as a senior strategic analyst at CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) from 2001-2015, specializing in violent Islamist-inspired homegrown terrorism and radicalisation.
From 1983 to 2001 he was employed as a senior multilingual analyst at Communications Security Establishment (CSE – Canada’s signals intelligence agency), specialising in the Middle East.
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