SpyCast
SpyCast
300 episodes
SpyCast, the official podcast of the International Spy Museum, is a journey into the shadows of international espionage. Each week, host Sasha Ingber brings you the latest insights and intriguing tales from spies, secret agents, and covert communicators, with a focus on how this secret world reaches us all in our everyday lives. Tune in to discover the critical role intelligence has played throughout history and today. Brought to you from Airwave, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum.
More about the show
The Spy Museum does not endorse, approve, or support the opinions stated by guest speakers. Statements made by speakers do not represent the position or opinion of the International Spy Museum.
Episodes page 2 of 6
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The Lumumba Plot: Cold War in the Congo
The Congo was just gaining its independence from Belgium in 1960 when its first democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, faced an existential crisis: mutiny in his new army, followed by an unwelcome intervention…
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Russian Sabotage Operations and NATO’s Complex Alliance
Russian drones and warplanes have been increasingly breaching the airspace of NATO countries. Admiral Joachim Rühle, (ret.) is the former Chief of Staff of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, the…
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Opening the Foreign Influence Toolkit
Jessica Brandt knows a lot about influence. She was the director of the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which served as intermediary between the U.S. intelligence community and the public. It alerted private citizens…
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From the SpyCast Vault: An Assassination in Mexico
Keith Melton is a historian who’s been an advisor to the US Intelligence Community for decades. An avid collector and board member at The International Spy Museum, Keith has donated thousands of artifacts, and one of…
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The Dark Web Broker
Vinny Troia is at home on the Dark Web. The veteran hacker has developed relationships with cyberactors who have quietly stolen sensitive data from the far corners of the world. Vinny sells that data to law enforcement…
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To Catch a Drug Cartel
Keith Bulfin was a banker, not a spy. But then came a special client–a supposed coffee importer who was actually a banker for Mexican and Colombian drug cartels. Soon, U.S. authorities were knocking on Keith’s door. He…
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Retracing the Hunt for Bin Laden
This Thursday marks the 24th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, which spawned a decade-long search for the man behind them – Osama Bin Laden. Ed Bogan was the Chief of Operations for the CIA…
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An Assassination in Athens and a CIA Officer’s Legacy
It’s been 50 years since the assassination of the CIA’s former Station Chief in Athens, Richard Welch. At the time, he was the agency’s highest level officer killed in the line of duty. A Greek, Marxist terrorist group…
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From the SpyCast Vault: Escaping Tehran with The CIA Pt. 2
We return to November, 1979 when radical Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran and took dozens of Americans hostage. Mark and Cora Lijek were two American officials stuck in Tehran, and in 2008 they shared…
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From the SpyCast Vault: Escaping Tehran with The CIA
We'll go back in time to November, 1979 when radical Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran and took dozens of Americans hostage. Six US officials managed to find refuge with Canadian embassy staff, and 11…
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Catching an Iranian-American Missile Broker
Reza Olangian, a dual US-Iranian citizen, left behind his life in Silicon Valley to spy for Iran in the capital. And by the time DEA special agent Jeffrey James Higgins found out about him in 2011, Olangian was trying…
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Lethal Dissent: Iran’s Spy Games in Turkey
Washington and Tehran have a long and complicated history, with tensions that rise, fall and then rise again. Just this summer, we watched the U.S. and Israel strike Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. This month, SpyCast…
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Agent 202: New Secrets Emerge on an American Who Spied for Cuba
Codenamed "Agent 202," Kendall Myers went undetected as a spy for Cuba for nearly 30 years. He worked at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, secretly spying for Cuba out of an earnest love for the island,…
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Agent of Chaos: The Austrian Fugitive Running Russia’s Global Spy Networks
Today he’s one of the most wanted men in the world, but before Jan Marsalek fled to Russia, he was the COO of payment-processing firm Wirecard. Officials and investigators say Marsalek used the company to finance…
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From Intel Officer to White House Adviser: A Chat with The Museum’s Executive Director
This week we spoke with the International Spy Museum's Executive Director, Colonel Chris Costa. His decades-long career in the intelligence community spanned multiple continents, running sensitive operations in Panama,…
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“America’s Gatekeeper”: A Conversation with DCSA’s Director David Cattler
Born out of a major Chinese cyberattack that stole personal information from millions of federal government employees, the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency calls itself ‘America’s Gatekeeper.’ Now five…
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Russia's Fake Identity Assembly Line in Brazil
When a Russian spy was arrested in Brazil in 2022, authorities were shocked to discover that he seemed to have a real birth certificate and authentic citizenship documents. The incident sparked a multi-year…
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Breaking the Silence: Coming Out in the CIA
Emerging alongside Joseph McCarthy’s Red Scare in the 1950s was the Lavender Scare: Widespread panic and paranoia over the inclusion of gay personnel in the federal government. Their perceived dangers led to the…
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A Conversation with House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman
What should the US Intelligence Community prioritize domestically and overseas, and how should the work be done? We sat down with Congressman Rick Crawford, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on…
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Ghost Stories: The Hunt for Russian Spies in the US
In the early 2000s, the FBI uncovered a team of Russian operatives who had been living double lives in the United States. They were posing as professors, journalists, financial planners, real estate and travel agents,…
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The Secret Navy and Their Hunt for a Nazi Sub
How do you catch an enemy’s submarine … and then make it vanish? That’s what the U.S. Navy’s elusive Tenth Fleet planned, as it tracked down Germany’s U-505 submarine. The mission came right before the Allies ran…
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How Are Shifting Priorities Impacting National Security in America?
Most Americans would agree that the United States should be protected, but from whom … and how? Dr. Donell Harvin, the former Chief of Homeland Security and Intelligence for the District of Columbia, says the U.S. is…
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Sharing Intelligence: Challenges between US and Ukraine
After Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. rushed to create a secret center that set targets for the Ukrainians to destroy. But the counteroffensive of 2023 failed to achieve its goals. So, what went…
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Stories From the President's Daily Brief
Conflict has been escalating between two nuclear powers–India and Pakistan. It started in April, after India blamed Pakistan for supporting militants who carried out a massacre in Kashmir. President Trump offered to…
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The Minions: Putin's Expendable Spies
They were a spy cell like no other — operating from quiet British suburbs, hailing from Bulgaria, and working on behalf of Russia. Their handler dubbed them “The Minions,” and their plots stretched across Europe and…
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Escalation: Tracking the US-Ukraine Relationship
The United States and Ukraine have had a long, complicated history that has been defined by just as much partnership and collaboration as hesitation and disagreement. This dynamic is laid bare in the 7-part podcast…
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Where the ‘West V. Russia’ Plot Begins
Why does Vladimir Putin often say that the West is conspiring to weaken Russia? Historian James Crossland traces this narrative back to a British intelligence officer and a failed assassination attempt on Vladimir…
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DOGE Layoffs and the Counterintelligence Threats They Pose
Government employees were dismissed with startling swiftness and sweeping in the midst of the Trump administration's relentless pursuit to pare down the federal workforce. The sheer number of fired personnel and the…
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Taiwan: China’s Testing Ground for Intelligence Operations
It's no secret that China has recently stepped up political and military pressure on the democratically governed island of Taiwan. But then, there are the Chinese Communist Party's covert efforts: Recruiting from the…
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Introducing Targeted
Targeted uncovers harrowing stories of people who have been singled out and systematically dismantled—whether for political reasons, personal vendettas, or simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Each…
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Understanding Chinese Espionage Through 900 Cases
Nicholas Eftimiades’ 34 year career in government spanned the CIA, State Department and the Defense Intelligence Agency. He's published three books that examine the structure, methodology and operations of China's…
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Remembering The CIA’s Mind Games
Sidney Gottlieb was one of the CIA’s star chemists during the Cold War. As head of MKUltra, he ran a brazen—and deadly—program aimed at mind control. Gottlieb and fellow scientists tried to keep the work secret by…
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From Covert to Overt: Valerie Plame on political retaliation
Valerie Plame’s clandestine life made headlines in 2003 after her CIA cover was leaked to the press. Her husband, an ambassador, had gone to Niger to investigate whether yellowcake uranium had been transferred to Iraq…
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Eyes on The Ground: The National Resistance Front in Afghanistan
After the Taliban took back control of Afghanistan, the National Resistance Front rose up to defy them. We spoke with their leader Ahmad Massoud, who has overseen hundreds of military and intelligence-gathering…
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From NFL to Espionage: The Story of Ernest Cuneo
He was an American spy before an American spy agency existed. NFL player Ernest Cuneo, a little known first generation Italian American, worked with British intelligence to convince the United States to join World War…
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Debriefing from the Ukrainian Front
A fourth year of war in Ukraine begins. But for Lt. Col. Kyrylo Berkal, who’s been fighting since Russia first invaded in 2014, the battle for his country has raged much longer. Now, he’s second in command of the elite…
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How did Harriet Tubman operate as a spy?
She’s known for helping to free people through the Underground Railroad, but Harriet Tubman was also a spy during the Civil War. And with the intelligence she collected, the Maryland native became the first woman to…
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What's next for Kim Jong Un?
North Korea is growing more dangerous, but no U.S. administration has been able to crack the code on its leader Kim Jong Un. Now, there’s even less incentive for Kim to negotiate because of the support he’s getting…
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Campus Cloak-and-Dagger: Spies Targeting American Universities
For decades, colleges and universities have been a destination for espionage. Especially in recent years, the use of international students and faculty as spies on American campuses has been particularly daunting. Why…
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Agent Zo: The woman who defied the Nazis and Communists
Agent Zo was the only female Polish resistance agent to reach London as a courier during WWII and the only female member of Poland's fabled 'Silent Unseen' paratroopers. Yet despite having researched Poland's wartime…
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How will President Trump handle intelligence in his second term?
Now that President Trump has been inaugurated, what can we expect for the intelligence community? On his first full day in his first term, he visited the CIA to voice support. But he has also displayed deep skepticism…
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How do you fool Russian Intelligence?
Former intelligence officer Bryan Stern describes the tradecraft he used on Russian intelligence and military services to rescue an American imprisoned in Russian-occupied Ukraine. If you liked this episode check out…
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Introducing the New Host: Sasha Ingber
Introducing the new host of SpyCast, Sasha Ingber! In this week’s episode, Sasha joined Erin in a conversation about her career and the future of the International Spy Museum’s flagship podcast. Now entering it’s 19th…
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From the Vault: “The 75th Anniversary of the CIA” – with former Director Robert Gates
Summary Robert Gates (Website; Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to reflect on the 75th Anniversary of the CIA. He served 8 U.S. presidents. What You’ll Learn Intelligence • His reflections on the CIA at 75…
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“An Imperial History of the CIA” – with Hugh Wilford
Summary Hugh Wilford joins Andrew (X; LinkedIn) to discuss his new book. Hugh is a professor, author, and leading CIA historian. What You’ll Learn Intelligence • Imperial influences on American intelligence • Key…
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“The Battlefield Tour Guide” with Bob Shaw
Summary Robert Shaw joins Andrew to discuss his experience working as an accredited Battlefield tour guide. Bob’s career in the British Army spanned over 25 years. What You’ll Learn Intelligence • Becoming a…
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“Two Decades at the International Spy Museum” – with Anna Slafer
Summary Anna Slafer (LinkedIn, Website) joins Andrew (X; LinkedIn) to discuss the history of the International Spy Museum. Anna was one of SPY’s first employees when the museum opened in 2002. What You’ll Learn…
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Leadership & The United States Pacific Command with Ret. Lieutenant General Anthony Crutchfield
Summary Lieutenant General Anthony Crutchfield (Ret.) (LinkedIn, Wikipedia) joins Andrew (X; LinkedIn) to discuss his time as the Deputy Commander of United States Indo-Pacific Command. PACOM covers 52% of the globe.…
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“Applying Intelligence to Business Strategy” with Jonathan B. Smith
Summary Jonathan B. Smith (X; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (X; LinkedIn) to discuss the application of intelligence to entrepreneurship. Jonathan is an entrepreneur, author, and business strategist. What You’ll Learn…
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“The Skinny on Cuban Intelligence” – with Counterintelligence expert Ean Forsythe
Summary Ean Forsythe joins Andrew to discuss the history of Cuban intelligence. Ean is the Counterintelligence and Security Center Chair at the National Intelligence University. What You’ll Learn Intelligence • The…
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