Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs

Putin’s Survival Machine | Sean Wiswesser

Putin’s Survival Machine | Sean Wiswesser

Every few months, a rumor or prediction suggests Vladimir Putin is finally cornered — a purge, a battlefield setback, a grim Victory Day parade. Former senior CIA officer Sean Wiswesser, author of Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks, says the West keeps mistaking Russia's elite infighting for weak...

Germany Rewrites the Rules for its Spies | Florian Flade

Germany Rewrites the Rules for its Spies | Florian Flade

For most of its history, Germany's foreign intelligence service was built to watch, not to act — a constraint rooted in the country's experience of the Gestapo and the Stasi. A sweeping draft law would change that, letting the BND conduct sabotage, covert interference, and offensive cyber operations...

Britain's Next PM, AI's Counterintelligence Problem, and Ukraine's Warrior-Witches | Espresso Martini

Britain's Next PM, AI's Counterintelligence Problem, and Ukraine's Warrior-Witches | Espresso Martini

Chris and Matt examine the political fallout from Keir Starmer's departure as Prime Minister, the prospect of Andy Burnham taking over, and what it means for Britain's defence and national security. They also explore AI as a new counterintelligence threat through Anthropic's Claude experiment before...

The Guru, the Loyalist, and the DNI After Gabbard | Shane Harris

The Guru, the Loyalist, and the DNI After Gabbard | Shane Harris

A Washington Post investigation into Tulsi Gabbard and questions surrounding her successor, Bill Pulte, expose a deeper crisis inside US intelligence. Shane Harris joins Matt to examine how the Office of the Director of National Intelligence became vulnerable to political influence, why many intelli...

Iran Survived. Now What? | Espresso Martini

Iran Survived. Now What? | Espresso Martini

On the latest episode of Secrets & Spies, Chris and Matt analyse the U.S.-Iran memorandum signed by President Trump in Versailles, examining sanctions relief, frozen Iranian assets, the Strait of Hormuz, the future of the Iran nuclear deal, and why claims of a diplomatic breakthrough may be prematur...