SpyCast
657 episodes - English - Latest episode: 27 days ago - ★★★★ - 1.3K ratingsTOP SECRET
Personal Attention, SpyCast Listeners
Known to be the podcast real spies listen to -(STOP)- eavesdrop on conversations with high level sources from around the world -(STOP)- spychiefs molehunters defectors covert operators analysts cyberwarriors and researchers debriefed by SPY Historian Hammond -(STOP) stories secrets tradecraft and technology discussed -(STOP)- HUMINT SIGINT OSINT IMINT GEOINT and more -(STOP)- rumored to be professional education internal communication and public information -(STOP)- entire back catalog available online for free -(STOP)- please investigate this claim with all possible haste -(STOP)- SPY Historian Hammond said to have a Scottish accent -(STOP)- is this a countermeasure or a hearts-and-minds campaign?
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Episodes
Author Debriefing - Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World’s Best Writers
March 07, 2017 12:00 - 1 hourSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down (remotely) with Joel Whitney, the cofounder and editor at large of Guernica: A Magazine of Art & Politics, to discuss his book on how the CIA used culture to fight the Cold War, Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World’s Best Writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Author Debriefing - Beware the Predator: The American’s Guide to Personal Security
February 28, 2017 12:00 - 53 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA Technical Operations Officer Warren Holston and former Air Force intel specialist Dave White to discuss their new book Beware the Predator: The American’s Guide to Personal Security. Get the Book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/beware-the-predator.html#.WL7Y7xIrJUM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How Much Should We Know: An Interview with Alex Howard of the Sunlight Foundation
February 21, 2017 12:00 - 1 hourSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Alex Howard, the Deputy Director of the Sunlight Foundation, to discuss the public’s right to know what the government is doing in its name. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
From the Vault: The SpyCast Interview with Michael Flynn
February 21, 2017 11:50 - 1 hourA year ago, SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former DIA Director and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Here is their conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Spooks and Nukes: An Interview with Dr. James Acton
February 14, 2017 12:00 - 59 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to discuss the threat of nuclear confrontation and how intelligence can play a vital role in reducing this danger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
CIA’s Secret War in Laos: An Interview with Josh Kurlantzick
February 07, 2017 15:14 - 1 hourSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Josh Kurlantzick of the Council on Foreign Relations to discuss his new book A Great Place to Have a War: The Secret War in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Historian” Roundtable: 2016 Revisited
January 31, 2017 12:51 - 1 hourSPY Historians Vince Houghton sat down to rehash the year that was 2016. He was joined by former SPY Historian Mark Stout, former CIA briefer David Priess, and BuzzFeed intelligence and national security reporter Ali Watkins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
John Nixon - Debriefing the President
January 24, 2017 12:00 - 1 hourSPY Historian Vince Houghton is joined by John Nixon, who shares what he learned as the first man to conduct a prolonged interrogation of the captured Iraqi president. Get the book:http://www.spymuseumstore.org/spycast-books.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bioweapons Containment: An Interview with Dr. Hank Parker
January 17, 2017 12:52 - 46 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with bioterrorism expert Hank Parker to discuss current threats and Parker's new book Containment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cyber Special Forces: An Interview with Dmitri Alperovitch
January 10, 2017 12:00 - 47 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dmitri Alperovitch, the CTO and co-founder of CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that detected the hack of the DNC, and traced the breach back to Russian intelligence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
From the Vault: The Tony and Jonna Mendez Edition, Part 1
January 03, 2017 12:00 - 25 minutesThe Secret History of Disguises (November 1, 2006) Peter talks with Tony Mendez, former Chief of Disguise for the CIA. Peter and Tony discuss the intricacies of developing disguises for use in hostile environments, the advantages of selective aging, and the secret history of facial recognition technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
From the Vault: The Tony and Jonna Mendez Edition, Part 2
January 03, 2017 12:00 - 28 minutesWoman in Disguise - Jonna Mendez (November 18, 2008) Jonna Hiestand Mendez began her CIA career as a secretary and ended it as head of the agency’s Office of Technical Services, overseeing the development of gadgets, disguises, and high-tech devices in support of espionage missions. Today, she discusses with Peter some of the operations she was involved in as well as opportunities for women in the intelligence community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
From the Vault: The Tony and Jonna Mendez Edition, Part 3
January 03, 2017 12:00 - 32 minutesThe Iranian Hostage Crisis (September 1, 2008) In November 1979, radical Iranian students overran the U.S. embassy in Tehran, capturing most of the embassy staff—except for six diplomats who found refuge with the Canadian embassy. Today, Peter talks with retired CIA officer Tony Mendez who, in an elaborate deception and disguise operation, managed to exfiltrate the six Americans from Tehran before the Iranians were able to track them down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/...
From the Vault: Russians Behaving Badly Edition, Part 1
December 27, 2016 12:00 - 53 minutesThe Litvinenko Murder and Other Riddles from Moscow (December 4, 2006) Peter sits down with former CIA officer Bob Rayle and Oleg Kalugin to talk Russia past and present. The three discuss their perspectives on the recent poisoning of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko. Then, they turn to 1967 and Bob's role in the extraordinary defection of Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Josef Stalin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
From the Vault: Russians Behaving Badly Edition, Part 2
December 27, 2016 12:00 - 33 minutesLeon Trotsky — Murder in Mexico (September 1, 2007) Peter’s guest today is H. Keith Melton, renowned intelligence historian and owner of the largest collection of espionage artifacts. Keith sheds new light on one of the most notorious intelligence operations of all time—the assassination of exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1940. Keith reconstructs the operation in all its phases, including material from his own original research. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit m...
From the Vault: Russians Behaving Badly Edition, Part 3
December 27, 2016 12:00 - 32 minutesAn Army of Illegals: Assessing the Russian Spy Case (July 12, 2010) Two weeks ago on 27 June, the FBI arrested a network of 10 Russian "deep cover" spies. Peter sits down with former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin to discuss this remarkable case and the historic spy swap which took place last Friday. Kalugin, who once ran agents in the United States, is forthright in expressing his views about what this case says about the state of Russian intelligence today. Learn more about your ad choices....
The Last Diplomat: An Interview with Devlin Barrett of the WSJ and Adam Entous of the Washington Post
December 20, 2016 12:00 - 1 hourSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Devlin Barrett and Adam Entous, co-authors of an exceptional long-form article, written for the Wall Street Journal, which highlights the tension between traditional diplomacy and the counterintelligence mission of the FBI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
High Risk, High Reward: An Interview with IARPA Dep. Director Dr. Stacey Dixon
December 13, 2016 12:00 - 44 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dr. Stacey Dixon, the Deputy Director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. Drs. Houghton and Dixon discuss some of the advanced scientific and technological research that will transform intelligence far into the 21st Century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pearl Harbor at 75: An Interview with Steve Twomey
December 06, 2016 11:17 - 1 hourSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Twomey to discuss his new book about the attacks of December 7, 1941, Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
CIA’s Man in Havana: An Interview with Canadian Diplomat John Graham
November 29, 2016 12:00 - 52 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former Canadian diplomat John Graham to discuss his role as the eyes and ears of Western intelligence following the Cuban Missile Crisis. This story, as well as many others, are told in Graham’s memoir, Whose Man in Havana: Adventures from the Far Side of Diplomacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Author Debriefing – 100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative's Survival Guide
November 22, 2016 12:00 - 45 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down (remotely) with former SEAL Team 6 member Clint Emerson to discuss his new book, 100 Deadly Skills: Survival Edition, a follow-up to his national bestseller 100 Deadly Skills. Buy 100 Deadly Skills from the Spy Museum Store Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Able Archer 83: An Interview with Nate Jones
November 15, 2016 14:51 - 58 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Nate Jones, the Director of the Freedom of Information Act Project for the National Security Archive, and the author of the new book Able Archer 83: The Secret History of the NATO Exercise That Almost Triggered Nuclear War. Get the book: http://www.spymuseumstore.org/able-archer-83.html#.WIdjWrYrJTY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
From the Vault: Election Spectacular, Part III - Why Mark Felt became Deep Throat
November 08, 2016 11:01 - 39 minutesIntelligence officers and investigative journalists both depend on clandestine sources to divulge secrets. But why do people betray a trust? Peter interviews veteran journalist Max Holland about his new book, Leak, which probes the mind and motivations of one of the most famous clandestine sources in American history: Deep Throat. Hear why Mark Felt, the Deputy Director of the FBI, betrayed President Nixon by leaking to the Washington Post and Time about Watergate. Were Felt’s motives patriot...
From the Vault: Election Spectacular, Part I - An Interview with NBC Chief Political Correspondent Chuck Todd
November 08, 2016 11:00 - 33 minutesSPY Historian Dr. Vince Houghton sat down with NBC News Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd to discuss the growing role of intelligence tradecraft in American election politics. Todd, the host of MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown, explains how political campaigns – on both sides of the aisle – use surveillance, propaganda, disinformation, deception, and covert action to give their candidates a political edge. This interview was recorded on July 29, 2014. https://www.yout...
From the Vault: Election Spectacular, Part II - An Interview with Ken Vogel of POLITICO
November 08, 2016 11:00 - 39 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Ken Vogel, Chief Investigative Reporter for POLITICO and author of the article, “The Koch Intelligence Agency.” Houghton and Vogel (who tracks the confluence of money, politics, and influence for POLITICO) discuss the use of use surveillance, propaganda, disinformation, deception, and even covert action in modern political campaigns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Stalin’s Englishman: An Interview with Andrew Lownie
November 01, 2016 11:00 - 39 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with author and literary agent Andrew Lownie, who has been researching Guy Burgess and the Cambridge 5 for over three decades. The culmination of this research is Lownie’s book, Stalin's Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rise of the Machines: An Interview with Dr. Thomas Rid
October 25, 2016 11:00 - 51 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Thomas Rid, professor in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, and the author of Rise of the Machines. The book tells the sweeping story of how cybernetics, a late-1940s theory of machines, came to incite anarchy and war half a century later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Countering Radicalism and Extremism: An Interview with Dr. Lorenzo Vidino and Jesse Morton
October 18, 2016 11:00 - 56 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dr. Lorenzo Vidino and Jesse Morton from the Program on Extremism at the George Washington University’s Center for Cyber & Homeland Security. Dr. Vidino, and expert on Islamism in Europe and North America, is the Program’s Director, and Morton, a reformed, former extremist who was once a prominent radicalizer in the West, is a research fellow who sees this work as an opportunity to repair some of the damage caused by his radicalization. Learn more ab...
Author Debriefing - True Believer: Stalin’s Last American Spy
October 11, 2016 11:00 - 1 hourAt a live event at the International Spy Museum, SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with journalist Kati Marton to discuss Soviet spy Noel Field, the subject of Marton’s new book True Believer: Stalin’s Last American Spy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
From MI to UPI: An Interview with Newsweek’s Jeff Stein
October 04, 2016 11:00 - 1 hourSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Jeff Stein, who covers the spy agencies and foreign policy for Newsweek in Washington. An Army Intelligence case officer in Vietnam, Stein is an investigative reporter of long standing, specializing in intelligence, defense and foreign policy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
15 Years Later, Part 3: An Interview with Mark Zaid and Bradley Moss
September 27, 2016 11:00 - 1 hourSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with national security attorneys Mark Zaid and Brad Moss to discuss the impact of the attacks of 9/11 on the US Constitution, and the continuing legal legacy of that fateful day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
15 Years Later, Part 2: An Interview with Ambassador Cofer Black
September 20, 2016 11:00 - 1 hourSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Cofer Black, the former Director of CIA’s Counterterrorism Center (CTC), to discuss the role of the CTC before, during, and after the attacks on September 11, 2001. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
15 Years Later, Part 1: An Interview with Dr. Barbara Sude
September 13, 2016 14:04 - 1 hourSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA analyst Barbara Sude to discuss the intelligence analysis leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Dr. Sude was one of a team of analysts at CIA who focused on Al Qaeda and bin Laden starting in the 1990s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Securing Cyberspace: An Interview with Charlie Mitchell
September 06, 2016 11:00 - 56 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Charlie Mitchell, editor and co-founder of Inside Cybersecurity, and the author of Hacked: The Inside Story of America's Struggle to Secure Cyberspace. Houghton and Mitchell discuss the ongoing congressional debates over cybersecurity, the landmark framework of cybersecurity standards crafted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the policy ramifications of major hacking events. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...
When COIN Works: An Interview with Tom Ordeman
August 30, 2016 11:00 - 41 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with antiterrorism advisor and risk management specialist Tom Ordeman to discuss the little-know case of the Dhofar Rebellion. Often called the “Secret War” (because so few people have heard of it), the Dhofar Rebellion is an example of COIN Theory implemented to perfection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Corrupted State: An interview with Ilya Zaslavskiy
August 23, 2016 13:47 - 57 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Ilya Zaslavskiy, who was falsely accused of espionage by Russian security services (the FSB). Unwilling to sit back and allow others to be victimized by a corrupt system, Ilya now dedicates his time to exposing those at the heart of the Russian kleptocracy. See his petition here: https://www.change.org/p/chancellor-chris-patten-oxford-university-and-other-academic-entities-review-cooperation-with-putin-s-oligarchs Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...
GPS Declassified: An Interview with Richard Easton
August 16, 2016 11:00 - 53 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Richard Easton, author of GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones, to discuss the development of GPS and its role in the military, intelligence, and civilian domains. Easton’s father, Roger, led the Space Applications Branch of the Naval Research Laboratory from the Vanguard Satellite era to the early days of GPS development. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Blurred Lines: An Interview with Georgetown International Law Professor Rosa Brooks
August 09, 2016 11:00 - 58 minutesBlurred Lines: An Interview with Georgetown International Law Professor Rosa Brooks SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Rosa Brooks, professor of national security law, Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, and author of the new book How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Author Debriefing: NSA’s Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union
August 02, 2016 11:00 - 1 hourSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Stephen Budiansky, the author of seventeen books about military history, intelligence and espionage, science, the natural world, and other subjects, to discuss the history of the NSA and his new book, NSA’s Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Lifetime in Intelligence: An Interview with ex-CIA Officer Stephen Slick
July 26, 2016 11:00 - 57 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with former CIA officer Steve Slick, who spent more than three decades at the Agency as a case officer, chief of station, and senior executive. He is now the inaugural Director of the Intelligence Studies Project at the University of Texas, Austin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Goat Staring and Other Oddities: An Interview with Jon Ronson
July 19, 2016 20:07 - 1 hourSPY Historian Vince Houghton traveled to Politicon in Pasadena, CA and sat down (before a live audience) with Jon Ronson, author of The Men Who Stare at Goats, and all-around interesting person. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Secret History of WWII: An Interview with Sir Max Hastings
July 12, 2016 11:00 - 49 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with prolific author Sir Max Hastings, whose 20+ books have set the standard for historical writing over the last 40 years. Dr. Houghton and Sir Max discuss the fascinating topic of Hastings’ new book, The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945, arguably the best single-volume history of the secret side of the War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Intel at Leyte: An Interview with John Prados
July 05, 2016 15:04 - 44 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dr. John Prados, author of the new book Storm Over Leyte: The Philippine Invasion and the Destruction of the Japanese Navy. Drs. Houghton and Prados discuss the role of intelligence in the Pacific War and, specifically, how it impacted the Battle of Leyte Gulf – the largest naval battle in world history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Author Debriefing: Executing the Rosenbergs: Death and Diplomacy in a Cold War World
June 28, 2016 14:07 - 43 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dr. Lori Clune, Associate Professor of History at California State University, Fresno, to discuss her new book on how the Rosenberg spy case affected American relations with the rest of the world. A completely new way of looking at this milestone in spy history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Combating Extremism: An Interview with Dr. Tara Maller
June 21, 2016 11:00 - 51 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Dr. Tara Maller, the Spokesperson and a Senior Policy Advisor for the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), to discuss the growing threat – and responses to – online extremism. To learn more about the CEP, go to http://www.counterextremism.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Missing Man: An Interview with the NYT’s Barry Meier
June 14, 2016 16:20 - 48 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Barry Meier of the New York Times to discuss the story of Bob Levinson, former FBI agent and CIA contract worker, who disappeared in Iran in 2007. Meier’s book, Missing Man: The American Spy Who Vanished in Iran, drew on years of interviews and never-before-disclosed CIA files to weave together a riveting narrative of the ex-agent's journey to Iran and the hunt to rescue him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
From the SpyCast Vault: D-Day Anniversary Edition
June 07, 2016 11:00 - 45 minutesJuan Pujol was the Walter Mitty of World War II, a nobody who at one doomed venture after another while dreaming of doing something interesting with his life -- saving Western civilization, if possible. Journalist Stephan Talty, whose work has appeared widely, including in the New York Times Magazine and GQ, has told the remarkable story of how against all the odds, Pujol did just that by becoming agent GARBO, the most important double agent of World War II. Hear Talty discuss his new book wi...
The Blonde Bond: An Interview with Vanity Fair’s Howard Blum
May 31, 2016 15:32 - 50 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with Howard Blum, contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of The Last Goodnight: A World War II Story of Espionage, Adventure, and Betrayal, a book about one of the greatest spies of WWII, Betty Pack. Pack used seduction as her tradecraft, and stole some of the most consequential secrets of the war. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Commander: An Interview with Gen. David Petraeus
May 24, 2016 10:00 - 47 minutesSPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with retired 4-star general David Petraeus, former Commanding General, Multi-National Force – Iraq; Commander, US Central Command; commander of the International Security Assistance Force and Commander, US Forces Afghanistan; and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, where he served from September, 2011, until November, 2012. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Author Debriefing: Eisenhower's Guerrillas: The Jedburghs, the Maquis, and the Liberation of France
May 17, 2016 11:00 - 1 hourSPY Executive Director Peter Earnest sat down with Ben Jones, Dean of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of History, Dakota State University. Dr. Jones also served as an advisor to the National Military Academy of Afghanistan and later as a liaison officer to the Afghan Ministries of Defense, Interior, and their National Directorate of Security for the effort to transition Afghan security from the coalition back to Afghanistan. Peter and Dr. Jones discuss Ben’s new book, Eisenhower's G...