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

Secrets & Spies

Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode unpacks global events through the lens of intelligence and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and analysts. Tune in for balanced, critical perspectives that will expand your understanding of our uncertain world, deciphering the most enigmatic

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All Episodes

77:04

S10 Ep46: Espresso Martini | Gabbard Resigns, Trump...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/05/31

Chris and Matt break down a packed few weeks in intelligence and geopolitics, opening with the resignation of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence — a departure framed officially around her husband's illness but widely read as an exit under pressure. Drawing on a Bulwark piece by former CIA officer John Sipher, they examine whether the ODNI was ever structurally sound enough to survive a politicized occupant, and what Gabbard's tenure — from her reversal on the IC's Iran nuclear

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58:47

S10 Ep45: America’s War Powers Crisis with Brian...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/05/23

The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. Congress hasn't formally done so since 1942. Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer and current senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, joins Matt to make sense of how that happened — and what it means now that the United States is at war with Iran. Brian has spent years arguing, across administrations of both parties, that executive branch war-making has drifted dangerously far from its constitutional moorings

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72:10

S10 Ep44: A Spy at War with Charles Beaumont

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/05/16

Charles Beaumont spent years as an MI6 officer running human sources before turning to fiction—and his second novel, A Spy at War, carries the authority of someone who has actually done the work. Set against the early days of the Ukraine War in 2022, the book maps the architecture of Russian disinformation: corruption narratives seeded into sympathetic media, useful idiots at senior policy levels, and the Chechen enforcers whose own histories implicate Moscow in the violence that built Putin's

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1:21

No show on Saturday 9th May. We will return on 16th...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/05/08

There will be no show on Saturday 9th May as we are on a production break. We will return on Saturday 16th MayChris has some recommendations from our back catalogue.Chris's Episode recommendationsFrom CIA to CEO with Rupal PatelAudio: https://pod.fo/e/371b55YouTube: https://youtu.be/94-vBjgdNzAFormer CIA analyst Rupal Patel joins Chris to explore reinvention, resilience and life after intelligence, from tactical ignorance and time management to building a life that truly fits.The Fourth

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76:32

S10 Ep43: Espresso Martini | Iran Stalemate, the End...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/05/02

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 drawn-down munitions stockpiles with implications stretching from Taiwan to NATO, and reporting that JD Vance has privately challenged whether the Pentagon is telling the president the truth about how the

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65:21

S10 Ep42: A Spy’s Guide to Cold War Berlin with James...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/04/29

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 became the world's most notorious spy hub. Whether you're a history buff or an espionage enthusiast, this conversation unveils the secrets behind Berlin's legendary status in covert warfare.Subscribe and

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61:05

S10 Ep41: Able Archer: The Nuclear War Game That...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/04/24

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 the historical thriller The Able Archers—was inside those events: stationed in Tokyo during the KAL 007 shootdown, transferred to Washington just as the crisis peaked, and present in Germany as Soviet

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78:51

S10 Ep40: What Hollywood Gets Wrong About the CIA...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/04/18

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 lone hero, the ditched tail, the torture-porn shortcuts), why real intelligence work is quieter, more bureaucratic, and more character-driven than the screen suggests, and how lazy spy fiction feeds the

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61:38

S10 Ep39: Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks with...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/04/11

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, and the street tradecraft that protected agents like Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen for years. Wiswesser explains why Russian services keep returning to Cold War–era methods, breaks down the

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100:26

S10 Ep38: Inside the New Apostolic Reformation:...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/04/04

Pastor Louis Florio—Lutheran pastor, former military intelligence officer, and police chaplain in Virginia—joins Chris to explain the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR): what it actually is, where it came from, and why it matters beyond the pews. Florio traces the movement's roots in the mid-20th-century Latter Rain revival, unpacks its core doctrines of dominionism and post-millennialism, and explains how its network of self-proclaimed apostles and prophets has embedded itself inside American

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66:18

S10 Ep37: Espresso Martini | Boots in Iran, Putin's...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/03/28

Chris and Matt are back for Espresso Martini. Nearly a month into Operation Epic Fury, Washington appears to be laying the groundwork for potential ground operations inside Iran—but the two options on the table, seizing Kharg Island or securing Tehran's enriched uranium stockpile, are both far harder to execute than advertised. They dig into what a nuclear material extraction would actually require, and what growing strain on U.S. interceptor stockpiles and carrier availability signals about the

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0:39

No Show This Saturday. Please check out our interview...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/03/20

Hi everyone, I hope you are well. There will be no show this weekend as we need to take a breather. Our next show will be Saturday 28th March If you haven’t caught up with our latest episode, please check out our interview with Trevor Barnes about the Bulgarian Spy Ring trial via the links below: Audio: https://pod.fo/e/3afd42YouTube: https://youtu.be/VWODfRZZA2oIf you enjoy a show please Buy Us A Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/secretsandspiesSee you next week. Support Secrets and SpiesBecome a

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84:45

S10 Ep36: Inside the Bulgarian Spy Ring Trial with...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/03/18

Chris speaks with intelligence historian and journalist Trevor Barnes about the Bulgarian spy ring trial at the Old Bailey, one of the most significant espionage cases in the UK since the Cold War. Barnes attended the proceedings and walks Chris through how a network of Bulgarian nationals, allegedly directed remotely by fugitive Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek from Moscow, was tasked with surveilling journalists and dissidents across Europe — including Bellingcat investigator Christo Grozev — in

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60:49

S10 Ep35: How China Steals America’s Secrets with...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/03/14

David Shedd served as acting director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; Andrew Badger is a former DIA case officer now teaching state-sponsored espionage at Oxford. Together they've written The Great Heist: China's Epic Campaign to Steal America's Secrets. Matt talks with them about how the Ministry of State Security evolved from a backwater service into what they argue is the world's most powerful intelligence agency; how Beijing replaced Cold War recruitment tradecraft with guanxi-based social

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85:06

S10 Ep34: Iran After Khamenei with Phillip Smyth

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/03/07

Israel has killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The IRGC's senior leadership is decimated. The CIA is reportedly arming Kurdish opposition forces along the Iran-Iraq border. Phillip Smyth — one of the foremost experts on Iran's Shia proxy networks — joins Matt to make sense of what comes next: why Khamenei's succession is far more fraught than most analysis acknowledges; why the proliferation of "new" armed groups on the battlefield is largely a disinformation campaign run by established militias; the

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57:33

S10 Ep33: Plotters: The UK Terrorists Who Failed with...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/02/28

In this conversation, Lizzie Dearden, a journalist specializing in terrorism reporting, shares her journey into the field, the writing of her book Plotters, and insights into the evolving landscape of terrorism in the UK. She discusses the emotional atmosphere of terrorism trials, the shift in threats post-2017, and the complexities of radicalization. Dearden highlights the challenges of public perception, the role of intelligence agencies, and the significance of case studies like Haroon Syed's

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76:25

S10 Ep32: Ukraine’s Struggle, Four Years On with Ben...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/02/21

Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of Lawfare, joins Matt and Chris after spending two weeks traveling across Ukraine—from Kyiv to Kharkiv and Odesa—as the war enters its fourth year. What he describes is sobering. Cities that appear functional on the surface are living through freezing temperatures, rolling blackouts, nightly missile strikes, and the constant threat of drone attacks. Families endure shattered infrastructure and relentless uncertainty, while society strains to maintain some semblance

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67:09

S10 Ep31: Jan Marsalek’s Spy Ring and a Telegram...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/02/14

In this episode, Chris speaks with German investigative journalist Manuel Bewarder about the Jan Marsalek spy network and the landmark UK trial that exposed it. They unpack how the former Wirecard executive allegedly directed a Bulgarian spy ring from Moscow, targeting journalists, dissidents, and even U.S. military facilities in Germany. Drawing on thousands of Telegram messages revealed in court, Manuel explains how the network operated, how close it came to violence, and what the case reveals

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86:13

S10 Ep30: Espresso Martini | Epstein’s Russian...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/02/07

This week on Espresso Martini, Chris and Matt examine a set of stories pointing to a more volatile intelligence and political landscape. They unpack Poland’s investigation into whether Jeffrey Epstein functioned as a long-running collector of kompromat tied to Russian interests, and what the available evidence does — and does not — tell us about his relationship with Moscow. In Germany, the expulsion of a Russian military attaché and the arrest of an alleged spy accused of mapping defense and drone

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60:41

S10 Ep29: How Russia Protects its Nuclear Submarines...

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues... ·

2026/01/31

Investigative journalist Florian Flade returns to discuss Russia's Harmony Undersea Surveillance System, a project aimed at protecting its nuclear submarine fleet. Florian and Chris cover the international collaboration involved in Florian’s investigation, the strategic importance of the Harmony system, and the challenges of reporting on sensitive military topics. Florian also highlights the broader implications of Russia's military activities in the Arctic and the ongoing efforts to counteract

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