PODCAST

SPYCRAFT 101

Justin Black

Welcome to your clandestine classroom.

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All Episodes

118:26

223. A Former Marine Held Hostage in Yemen with Sam...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/11/24

Today Justin sits down with Sam Farran. Sam moved to United States from his birth place in Lebanon and joined the US Marine Corps in 1978. He was later trained as an interrogator and worked on orders with the Defense Intelligence Agency and as an at attache officer. After retiring from the Marine Corps, he worked as a civilian contractor all over the Middle East and in particular in Yemen. In 2015, Sam was captured by Houthis Fighters in Sanaa shortly after they took over the capital city. He...

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80:55

222. Russian Sabotage: Inside The Wagner Trial with...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/11/17

Today Justin is joined by repeat gues Trevor Barnes, who writes on national security issues for the London Standard Newspaper and is a former senior reporter for the British Broadcasting Corporation. He is the author of Dead Doubles The Extraordinary Worldwide Hunt for One of the Cold War's Most Notorious Spy Rings. That was the story of the infamous KGB Portland spying, which operated in England in the 1950s. If you're a longtime listener, you may remember Trevor from his previous appearance...

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41:47

221. Japan's Intelligence Journey in the Modern Era...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/11/10

Today Justin talks with Dr. Brad Williams. Brad is an associate professor in the Department of Asian and International Studies at the City University of Hong Kong. He has studied, taught and conducted research in Australia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Taiwan, and the United States. He is the author of Resolving the Russo-Japanese Territorial Dispute, which was published in 2007 and has published on a diverse range of issues in Japanese politics and foreign policy such as arms procur...

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56:53

220. Real Life Narcos: Toppling the Cali Cartel with...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/11/03

Today Justin talks with Chris Feistl. Chris worked for 26 years as a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. He spent much of his career in Columbia beginning in 1994. Since then, he's been featured in several different documentaries, including the Discovery series Finding Escobar's Millions, plus German Cocaine Cowboy and Narco Wars. He's here today to discuss his book, After Escobar. It's the story of his time in Columbia in the mid 1990s, working with his partner, Dave Mitc...

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57:26

219. Digital Intelligence, Phishing Scams, and North...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/10/27

Today Justin sits down with Aidan Raney. Aidan is the founder of Farnsworth Intelligence, a digital intelligence service, which he founded after unmasking a phishing network online which was harvesting credentials from unwitting Facebook users on a massive scale. Aidan is here to discuss his work at the forefront of digital intelligence, and in particular, his interactions with North Korean IT workers attempting to infiltrate American companies employing remote workers. Connect with A...

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30:22

218. Who Was Agent 355? A Revolutionary Spy Story...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/10/20

Today's guest is Peggy Wirgau. Peggy is a graduate of Michigan State University and George Mason University. She's an active member of American Christian Fiction Writers, The Historical Novel Society, and The Colorado Authors League. Her debut novel, The Stars in April, was published in 2021. She's also written for Appleseeds, Insight, Learning through History, and more. She's here today to discuss the story of Agent 355, the only female spy from the Culper Ring, which was a network of Americ...

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51:22

217. Journalists Imprisoned Behind the Iron Curtain...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/10/13

This week Justin talks with Kati Marton. Kati is an author, journalist, and correspondent who has worked with National Public Radio and later with ABC News where she was the bureau chief in Germany. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Times of London, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, and many other publications. She's also published nine books and has served as an advocate for human rights all over the world, including as the chair of the Internati...

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87:14

216. A Canadian Teen Recruited to Spy For Russia with...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/10/06

Today Justin sits down with Laken Pavan. Laken is an 18-year-old student from Vancouver, Canada. In April, 2024, he left Vancouver and traveled to Eastern Ukraine to join a volunteer group there called InterBrigade. Shortly after arriving, he was confronted by agents from the Russian FSB Federal Security Service, who recruited him to work on their behalf gathering information elsewhere in Europe. He first traveled to Denmark and later to Poland, communicating with his handlers online. Laken w...

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60:02

215. From World War II Radio Operator to the OG Drug...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/09/29

Today Justin speaks with Dr. David Tuckh. David is a technology entrepreneur and author. His writing uncovers overlooked stories at the intersection of organized crime and espionage. David is originally from New York and has lived in England and France, but now resides in Brookline, Massachusetts with his wife and children. He's here to discuss his new book about Harold Derber, a merchant sailor and radio operator during World War II who was later involved in some of the most pivotal events o...

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55:01

214. The MI6 Spy at the Heart of the Nazi Regime with...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/09/22

Today Justin sits down with Tim Willasey-Wilsey Tim is a visiting professor of War Studies at King's College London, and Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. He served for many years as a foreign office diplomat in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. He has also published numerous articles and reviews in the national and international press, and for academic institutions and think tanks. He's here today to discuss the story of William de Ropp, who successfully ...

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103:00

213. Beyond the Leak: Life, Justice, and Redemption...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/09/15

Today Justin speaks with Reality Winner. Reality enlisted in the US Air Force after high school and served as a cryptolinguist assigned to the National Security Agency where she translated audio recordings in Pashtu and Dari from Afghanistan. Following her first enlistment, she was hired as a private contractor working at a different NSA facility in Augusta, Georgia. In June, 2017, she was arrested after leaking a classified report to The Intercept media outlet. Her story became a media sensa...

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56:33

212. Operation Gideon: Inside the Failed Venezuelan...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/09/08

Today Justin sits down with Jen Gatien. Jen is a filmmaker and producer based in New York City. Some of her film credits include Hound Dog starring Dakota Fanning and Robin Wright, Holy Rollers starring Jesse Eisenberg, and For Ellen starring Paul Dano. In her spare time, Jen serves as a board member on the Lower East Side Girls Club, as well as a volunteer for Pup Stars Dog Rescue and the Mercer Houston Dog Run. She's here to discuss her new documentary film, Men of War, which is debuting t...

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32:59

211. The Mysterious Death of Double Agent Ralph Sigler

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/09/01

Today's episode is another solo episode where Justin shares his own research with you. This time he's talking about Ralph Sigler, a US Army warrant officer, and one of the best double agents in Army history who died under mysterious circumstances in a Maryland hotel room in 1976. We briefly discussed Sigler's death way back in episode 76 in December, 2022, but Justin decided this case was worth a much more in-depth exploration. Once you finish this episode, if you'd like to learn more, ...

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66:08

210. From Hollywood to Corporate Espionage with...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/08/25

This week Justin sits down with Robert Kerbeck. Robert is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has worked extensively in theater, film, and television, appearing in lead roles in major shows, and earning several awards. He is a lifetime member of the Actor's Studio. He's also the founder of the Malibu Writers Circle and the author of Malibu Burning: The Real Story behind LA's Most Devastating Wildfire. His first account firsthand account of fighting the Woolsey Fire, which devast...

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51:11

209. Europe, Mossad, and Operation Wrath of God with...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/08/18

Today Justin sits down with Dr. Aviva Guttmann. Aviva has worked as a visiting researcher in war studies in King's Intelligence and Security Group, and a Marie Curie senior researcher at the Center for War Studies at Southern Denmark University. She's also worked for the Swiss Embassy in Nigeria and the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces where she managed product projects on police cooperation in the Western Balkans. She's currently a lecturer in strategy and intelligenc...

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77:22

208. From Cold War Counterintelligence to Project...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/08/11

This week Justin's guest is William "Bill" Ray. Bill is a retired army major and a Department of Defense civilian with more than 50 years of service as an intelligence and counterintelligence officer, including 20 years in Europe. During his career, he spent over three and a half years as a remote viewer at Fort Mead, including as the unit commander from 1985 to 1987, along with my previous podcast guest, Dr. Paul Smith from episode 201. Bill is hear to discuss his decades counterintelligence...

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65:33

207. Russia's Sleeper Agents Infiltrating the West...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/08/04

Today just talks to Shaun Walker. Shaun worked as a reporter in Moscow for more than a decade starting in 2007, first for The Independent and later for The Guardian. He now lives in Warsaw, Poland, where he is the Central and Eastern Europe correspondent for The Guardian, and mostly covers the war in Ukraine. Besides his many articles for The Guardian and other media outlets, he's also the author of The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and The Ghost of the Past. He's here this week to discus...

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75:21

206. Behind the Lines from Belfast to Sierra Leone...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/07/28

Today Justin is joined once more by Tim Spicer. Tim served for 20 years in the British Army where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and saw active service in Northern Ireland, The Falklands Campaign, the Gulf War, and the Balkans, as well as serving in the Far East, Cyprus, and Germany. Today, he's back to discuss his own life and career, which has been full of danger and adventure as well. Tim wrote about it all in his autobiography which covers his service all over the world, as wel...

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56:04

205. The CIA, The United Fruit Company, and Communism...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/07/21

This week Justin welcomes Dr. Luca Trenta. Luca is an associate professor in international relations at Swansea University in Wales, and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Higher Education Academy. He's written extensively on covert action and assassination as tools of foreign policy. He's the host of the Out of the Shadows Podcast with nine episodes available now, and he has appeared on four episodes of the Secret Wars Uncovered series on the History Channel. This is Luca...

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80:03

204. Behind the Atomic Curtain: 80 Years into the...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/07/14

This week Justin reconnects with Dr. Frank Close. Frank is Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics and Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College at the University of Oxford. He was formerly the head of the Theoretical Physics Division at the Ruthford Appleton Laboratory Vice President of the British Science Association and Head of Communications and Public Understanding at CERN. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and won their Michael Faraday Medal for Excellence in Science Communication in 2013. ...

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SPYCRAFT 101

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