The KGB Spy Who Used a Dead Child’s Identity to Live in America for 20 Years | Jack Barsky

The Growth Time Machine with Daniel Curtis · Sep 13, 2026 · 1h 45m

Jack Barsky lived one of the most extraordinary double lives of the Cold War.Recruited and trained by the KGB, he was sent into the United States under an identity taken from a child who had died years earlier. For a decade, he operated as a Soviet agent while building what appeared to be an ordinary American life — a career, relationships and a family — all while Moscow believed he was working for them.In this conversation, Jack tells me how the KGB found and tested him, what spy training was really like, how he entered America using false documents, the methods he used to detect…