Harbinger was kidnapped twice, once in Mexico and again in Serbia.[4] He ran a tour company that took westerners to
North Korea via
China and has spent significant time in the country. Tours were supervised from beginning to end by North Korean minders and tour guides.[5][6]
While in law school, Harbinger started coaching others on how to date and network. He and co-host AJ Harbinger (who uses Jordan Harbinger's last name as a pseudonym) started The PickUp Podcast.[2][8] When Harbinger graduated in 2006, he moved to
New York.[8] Around that time he formed a company called The Art of Charm to turn his coaching into a business.[8][9]
By that time his podcast had gained traction, and he started focusing full-time on the coaching business.[7][8] In 2010 an app was launched, and by 2011 Harbinger had a radio talk show called Game On on both
Sirius and
XM Satellite that aired on Friday nights.[8][10] The show was the first-ever podcast carried on satellite radio.[11] By 2011, Harbinger had relocated to Los Angeles.[2] Meanwhile, his company had begun to offer week-long "boot camps",[8] as well as other options, such as coaching over the phone.[12]
In 2013 Harbinger demonstrated at
DEF CON how easily a person can be manipulated into divulging information to someone who may not be what they claim to be,[13] based on the
Robin Sage experiment of 2010.[14]
By 2015, Harbinger was rebranding himself more as a more general
self-help personality and was profiling celebrities in the podcasts.[15][10][16]
In early 2018, Harbinger split from his former partners, left The Art of Charm podcast, and started a new podcast under his own name.[17][18] The new show, The Jordan Harbinger Show, was listed by Apple as one of the most downloaded new shows of 2018 and brings in seven-figure numbers in revenue each year.[1][19] Harbinger interviews scientists, entertainers, athletes, artists, leaders, and spies; he also provides
self-help advice in professional networking, social skills,
human dynamics,
social engineering, and
psychology.[20][21][22][23]The Jordan Harbinger Show releases episodes three times per week and receives over six million downloads each month and 250,000 downloads per episode as of 2020.[1][24][11]
Harbinger interviewed
Billy McFarland while McFarland was in federal prison.[25] During the interview, McFarland admitted guilt publicly for the first time. The interview was filmed by ABC News and featured in season 1, episode 4 of The Con.[26][27][28]