Service, gut checks, the power of humanity in law enforcement, and why she said “yes” to The Steady State.

In a format shift, host Peter Mina turns the microphone over to co-host Lauren C. Anderson to explore her origin story — from a childhood visit to the FBI where a tour guide told her girls can't be agents because “...they paint their fingernails," to serving as a senior executive in the FBI across nearly 30 years.

Lauren shares how her first "failure" — struggling with pre-med science in college taught her to trust her gut and pivot. She recounts harrowing moments in the Central African country of Gabon, where she negotiated with a corrupt colonel to restore dignity to a torture victim who was a witness in a murder investigation, demonstrating that you can be "tough and compassionate at the same time. ...