S3 E12: Former Philadelphia FBI Agent on Post-Truth, Bad Guys and Reinventing Yourself

Jerri Williams spent 26 years as an FBI agent, mostly in the Philadelphia division. You might remember seeing her on Action News as the spokeswoman for the FBI and later on SEPTA before her retirement. Williams was able to remold herself post-retirnement as a successful author of fiction and non-fiction and as a podcaster. How did she figure out how to do this? She just learned, worked hard and did it. I spoke to Williams through a Zoom connection from her Gloucester County, New Jersey home about creating that "second act" in life, her days investigating white collar crime with the FBI, how some criminals clearly underestimated her, plus what the idea of a "Deep State" and an age of post-truth means for the FBI and the criminal justice system. Recorded on Zoom on May 18, 2020. In this podcast: Why her "FBI Retired Case File Review" podcast has become so popular, now with more than three million downloads (1:25), why she joined the FBI in the first place (2:45), how rare it was for a black woman to work in the FBI (4:00), why she thinks it is rare for women in general to join the bureau (4:30), the craziest case she ever worked on with the FBI - the New Era Philanthropy Ponzi scheme (5:30), if it was ever boring to be constantly working on complex white collar crimes (6:45), the criminal suspect who tried to charm her by saying she looked like singer Gladys Knight (8:00), how she became a successful author (9:10), how she became a successful podcaster and what the secret is to a great podcast (11:00), the skill of listening (12:10), if it was scary to have to figure out her life post-retirement (12:45), what she thinks about the conspiracy theories that the country is run by a "Deep State" that exists in the FBI (14:40), what she thinks about a post-truth world and the technology to create "deep fakes" to fool the public (16:20) her optimism that detection technology will help (17:20), if people are born evil or become evil (19:10), why she sees an increase in scams during this pandemic (21:15), why she is hopeful about coming out of this crisis (22:25), her favorite things about Philadelphia (23:10).