Christina Hillsberg, Author, License to Parent: How My Career as a Spy Helped Me Raise Resourceful, Self-Sufficient Kids. As a guest on the show, Christina Hillsberg explained she was a single, successful CIA analyst with a burgeoning career in espionage when she met fellow spy, Ryan, a hotshot field operative who turned her world upside down. They fell in love, married, and soon they were raising three children from his first marriage, and later, two more of their own. It wasn’t long after they married that she realized the secret to Ryan’s parenting success: he was using his CIA training and field experience in his day-to-day child-rearing.