The Shawn Ryan Show · Shawn Ryan · Transcript & summary by WhipScribe
Only if you're curious about Glacier itself — this is one extended pitch for Ryan's own app, though the CIA spy-game war stories framing it are genuinely colorful.
Tap a chapter to open that moment in the transcript; the link to it is copied for you.
“Remember, privacy isn't paranoia, it's protection.” Shawn Ryan · at 7:45 — open in the transcript →
This eight-and-a-half-minute solo episode is a product launch, start to finish. Ryan opens with the backstory: contracting for the CIA in a poor Middle Eastern country while hunting ISIS and the Taliban, his team carried clunky 'black phones' — an app inside an app inside an app — because China, Russia and Iran were all collecting on each other in the same place. That paranoia faded when he changed careers, then returned as the podcast escalated from interviewing former SEAL and CIA colleagues to vice presidents, heads of state, Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Massoud in Vienna, and Taiwan's vice president.
The modern black phones he found cost $10,000 and up, so he partnered with the developers of one — former intelligence and NSA people, by his description — to turn it into an app called Glacier. The feature he leads with is burner numbers: pick a number with any US area code, hand it out to politicians, nonprofits, or stores, and deactivate it the moment it gets sold or abused. He also pitches secure DNS (his phone had blocked over 1,300 web trackers by 4pm that day) and a US-based VPN he says collects no user data — paired with his claim that the VPN companies advertised on podcasts are owned by Chinese, Pakistani, and Israeli firms. The app is live on iOS at launch, with Android promised soon.
Our own transcript of the public episode, with a timestamp about every 75 seconds. Tap a timestamp or the link button on a paragraph to copy a link that opens this page there.
0:00As you guys know, once upon a time I was a Navy SEAL and then I contracted for CIA. And that was a whole nother life. But in that life, one thing I learned is how important encryption in protecting your data is on your devices. And so let me give you an example. One time when I was contracting for CIA, we were in a very poor country in the Middle East. And in that country, we were hunting ISIS, Taliban, terrorist organizations, stuff like that. But it was a very permissive environment. And when we were there, we had to get these black phones. Super complicated. Not easy to use. Very not user-friendly at all. And to be able to operate it, it was like an app inside of an app inside of an app. And then you get your secure communications. And we had that because there was like a spy game going on in this place. China was there, Russia was there, the Iranians were there,
1:16and everybody's kind of collecting on each other. That experience has just always made me extremely paranoid about what's being sucked out of my phone, what information are people getting. And then it kind of fell off a little bit as I kind of changed careers. Now, you know, I run a podcast called The Sean Ryan Show. And, you know, when that started, it was interviewing former colleagues of mine, people that I contracted with at CIA, people that I worked with in the SEAL teams, former Green Berets, former Dev Group guys, Delta guys, intelligence professionals. And then the show kind of developed and it got bigger. And we started meddling a little bit in politics and talking to members of the administration, current and former administrations, very powerful people. And then it went to vice presidents and presidents, and now it's all the way up to heads of state all over the world, intelligence professionals in Austria, Vienna, the spy capital of the world, where we interviewed Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the Afghan resistance. We went to Taiwan and interviewed Bao Shikim, the vice president of
2:33Taiwan, where China is just constantly exploiting information out. Dubai, where they hand you a free VPN card as you enter the country. What do you think that's for? And so through this journey, I've been really paranoid, worried about myself and my team because we're in communication with all these people. And what we've noticed is once you get in touch with them, all their friends want to get in touch with you and they all have access to you. And so I started looking for a black phone, meaning a phone that just cannot be tracked, can't be traced, can't be exploited. And I found them and they're expensive. I'm not talking about the ones that are 500 bucks or a thousand dollars. I'm talking $10,000 plus plus for one phone but i needed them for my team to protect them as well as myself so i partnered with some of the developers that developed one of those black phones these guys are all former intel guys nsa types very good at tech i wanted something that could protect everybody not just people that can afford a ten thousand dollar plus phone and so we turned it into an application we call it the glacier app
3:55my favorite thing about the glacier app is the burner number feature this is like the real james bond shit mi6 cia level stuff and so what do we use it for? Well, as I just mentioned, different heads of state, politicians that we don't want to talk to. I don't want those people to have my number. So with the Glacier app, you can pick a burner number with any area code you want in the country. You pick it, you give that burner number out, and if they take advantage of you or your phone, or they start calling you or handing out your number or anything that pisses you off, you just deactivate the number. You burn it, gone, relationship over. They have no way to contact you now. And then you just pick another one. Now, how does this apply for everyday people like you? I'll tell you how it applies. How many of you guys have donated to, out of the generosity of your heart, you've donated to a nonprofit, and then what do they do? They exploit your number and they sell it. And then you get spam calls from them nonstop begging for more money. Or maybe it's a political campaign and that politician just continues to pander you
5:11for more money. And then they sell your number. And then the next politician is pandering you for money because you donated to the other one. Or it's a pizza joint or a hotel, or you're trying to get a discount at a store and then they sell your number. And then the next thing you know, every single phone call that comes in is a spam call. Well, now you can give them a burner number. And when they do sell your number, deactivate it, burn it, throw it in the trash, pick a new number. They have no way to contact you again either. That's my favorite feature. Along with that, we have secure DNS. Now, what's secure DNS? Well, very simply put, secure DNS keeps your phone from being exploited while you're browsing the internet. How many times have you been talking about a product next to your phone, something you want to buy? Maybe it's a new device. Maybe it's a new car. Maybe it's a new car maybe it's a new camera whatever it is and then all of a sudden every social media app you open every web browser you open it's all these ads about the exact thing you were just talking about like five minutes ago well these are the kind of things that secure dns help help fix. So here's an example. Today, it's about 4 p.m. and my phone has already blocked over 1,300
6:30web trackers. And I don't even have any social media apps on my phone, but I'll bet you do. So yours would even be more than mine. And we have a U.S.-based VPN who collects no data off your phone. All of your data stays localized right on your device, so you never have to worry about us exploiting it. Now, if you look at VPN companies, I researched the shit out of this when we were developing this. And most of the VPN companies, actually, I feel pretty comfortable saying all of the VPN companies that are advertised on podcasts, they're owned by Chinese companies. They're owned by Pakistani companies. They're owned by Israeli companies. I'm pretty sure we've all figured out by now that those companies and those nations do not have our best interest. So what do you think they're doing with all that information that they're sucking out of your phone? I don't know, but I'll bet you could come up with some stuff. And so we developed the Glacier app. It's the simplest app on the market. Just a couple of buttons, your phone's protected, a couple of buttons,
7:45you got yourself a burner number or five or more. It's easy. You open the app, you hit connect, done. You're protected. You can get the Glacier app at the App Store, you can get it at theglacierapp.com. It's available for iOS right now, Android's coming soon. If you have an Android and you want theglacierapp.com. It's available for iOS right now. Android's coming soon. If you have an Android and you want the Glacier app, we have a link below here. You can sign up for the newsletter and we will inform you when it's ready. It'll be out soon. Once again, ladies and gents, theglacierapp.com, or just go on the App Store and look up the Glacier app. Remember, privacy isn't paranoia, it's protection.