{"id":58724,"date":"2016-08-12T16:35:13","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T21:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=58724"},"modified":"2026-10-20T12:22:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:22:30","slug":"podcast-225-the-real-life-james-bond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-225-the-real-life-james-bond\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #225: The Real Life James Bond"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bond. James Bond.<\/p>\n

007 is a masculine film icon. He\u2019s handsome, debonair, and dangerous. He completely epitomizes the French idea of savoir faire<\/em> \u2014 the ability to know what to do in any situation.<\/p>\n

Bond is so damn manly, it\u2019d be easy to think that he was purely the creation of author Ian Fleming\u2019s imagination. But in fact, Bond was inspired by a real-life WWII spy, and his life and career was even more Bond-like than James Bond himself.<\/p>\n

My guest today has written a biography of the real-life inspiration for James Bond. His name is Larry Loftis and he\u2019s the author of the book Into The Lion\u2019s Mouth: <\/i>The True Story of Dusko Popov: World War II Spy, Patriot, and the Real-Life Inspiration for James Bond<\/em><\/a>. Today on the show we talk about Dusko Popov and his career as a double agent during WWII. Larry and I discuss how Dusko got involved with spying, the insanely dangerous missions he went on, and the real-life encounter between him and Ian Fleming that inspired one of popular culture’s most iconic characters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bond. James Bond. 007 is a masculine film icon. He\u2019s handsome, debonair, and dangerous. He completely epitomizes the French idea of savoir faire \u2014 the ability to know what to do in any situation. Bond is so damn manly, it\u2019d be easy to think that he was purely the creation of author Ian Fleming\u2019s imagination. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42376,42385,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-history","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/225-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/225-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/225-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/225-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/225-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"\nPodcast: The Real Life James Bond | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"James Bond is so manly, it\u2019d be easy to think that he was purely the creation of author Ian Fleming\u2019s imagination. 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