Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs
S10 Ep43: Espresso Martini | Iran Stalemate, the End of Orbán, and the CIA in Mexico
Two months into Operation Epic Fury, the US and Iran remain locked in an uncomfortable limbo: a ceasefire is technically holding, the Strait of Hormuz is still contested, and diplomacy has collapsed over the question of nuclear enrichment. Chris and Matt assess the war's compounding costs—severely d...
S10 Ep42: A Spy’s Guide to Cold War Berlin with James Stejskal
In today’s episode, former Special Forces Detachment A operator James Stejskal shares his extraordinary insights into Berlin's role as the epicenter of Cold War espionage. From his personal experiences in the city to the strategic importance of intelligence operations, James explains how Berlin beca...
S10 Ep41: Able Archer: The Nuclear War Game That Almost Ended the World with Brian J. Morra
In the fall of 1983, NATO's annual nuclear war exercise, Able Archer 83, brought the United States and the Soviet Union closer to catastrophe than almost anyone in Washington understood at the time. Brian J. Morra—decorated former Air Force intelligence officer, aerospace executive, and author of th...
S10 Ep40: What Hollywood Gets Wrong About the CIA with John Sipher & Jerry O’Shea
John Sipher and Jerry O'Shea, former senior CIA officers and co-founders of Spycraft Entertainment, return to the show for a conversation with Matt and Chris about what Hollywood gets wrong about espionage—and what they're trying to do about it. They dig into the tropes that break the spell (the lon...
S10 Ep39: Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks with Sean Wiswesser
Sean Wiswesser spent three decades in the U.S. intelligence community, much of it running operations against Russia for the CIA. His new book, Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks , dissects of how the FSB, SVR, and GRU actually do their work: dead drops, signal sites, surveillance detection routes...