PODCAST

SPYCRAFT 101

Justin Black

Welcome to your clandestine classroom.

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All Episodes

60:43

203. A Diplomat’s Journey in Cold War Romania with...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/07/07

*Earnest joined us via telephone call, so some parts of this interview may be difficult to understand due to unreliable audio quality. We apologize for the inconvenience. My guest for today is Ernest Latham. Ernest is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Roosevelt University. During his career with the US State Department, Ernest worked all over the world, including Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and West Germany. From 1983 to 1987, he was assigned to the US Embassy in Bucharest, Romania as a cultura...

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71:34

202. Britain's SOE Jungle Warrior in Burma with Dr....

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/06/23

Today Justin talks with Dr. Richard Duckett. Richard received a master's degree from the University of Reading and a doctorate from Open University. He's taught history and politics for more than 20 years. He's also the author of three previous books on British military history in Burma. He's here to discuss the story of Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Peacock, who led mainly indigenous forces to incredible victories against Japanese forces in Burma and India during World War II. Connect wit...

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58:03

201. Psychic Spying: The Truth about Remote Viewing...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/06/16

Today Justin sits down with Dr. Paul H. Smith. Paul is a retired Army intelligence officer and a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Brigham Young University, a Master of Science degree in Strategic Intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College, and a Doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. He's also the president of Remote Viewing Instructional Services Incorporated, and Vice President of the Nonprofit Internationa...

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57:17

200. From Biffy to Bond: The Real Spy Who Inspired...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/06/09

Today Justin is joined 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. After retiring, he founded private security company Aegis in 2001. He's also the author of several books, including his autobiography, titled An Unorthodox Soldier. He's here to discuss the story of Biffy Dunder...

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105:37

199. [ARCHIVE] Flying for the CIA: a Continental Air...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/06/02

Today we're going back into the archives again with a replay of episode 60, originally published in September 2022. We're excited to reintroduce you to the incredible story of Toby Scott and Jerry Daniels. Randolph Toby Scott is a former smoke jumper with the US Forest Service, who later worked in Southeast Asia under contract with Continental Air Services during the Secret War in Laos. He also took part in Operation Cold Feet in the Arctic Circle, one of the most daring and ambitious missio...

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69:19

198. Project Mind Control: The Dark Secrets of MK...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/05/26

Today Justin sits dow with repeat guest John Lisle. John has a PhD in history from the University of Texas where he is now a professor of The History of Science. He's received research and writing awards from The National Academy of Sciences, The American Institute of Physics, and The National Endowment for the Humanities. His work has been published in Skeptic, Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, and elsewhere. If you are a longtime listener of the podcast, you might remember John fro...

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66:25

197. The Hidden History of Nazi POW Camps on US Soil...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/05/19

Today's guest is William Geroux. Bill graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia before becoming an author. He spent more than 25 years as a newspaper reporter and editor in Virginia and Northern Idaho, winning numerous awards for breaking news coverage, feature writing, and investigative reporting. He also worked as a writer for Maersk, the global shipping conglomerate. I invited Bill onto the podcast to discuss the hundreds of Nazi POW camps that sprung up all ...

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70:27

196. Housewife Assassin: The Sara Jane Moore Story...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/05/12

Today Justin sits down with Geri Spieler. Geri is a graduate of the University of California in Los Angeles and is a journalist and investigative reporter whose work has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, and other publications. Geri is also a former president of the California Writers Association and has worked as the research director at Gartner Group advising major corporations on emerging technology. Today she's here to tell the story of Sara Jane...

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69:20

195. Nuclear Physicist or Soviet Spy? The Enigma of...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/05/05

Today Justin talks 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 Rutherford 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. He re...

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93:53

194. The Secret War: A Medic in Laos with Steven...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/04/28

This episode contains particularly graphic descriptions of violence and gore. Know your own limits and proceed accordingly. Today Justin sits down with Steven Scofield. Steve enlisted into the US Army and completed training as an 18 Delta Special Forces Medic in 1967. He then deployed to Okinawa and later to Vietnam, where he served with Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observations Group. Afterwards, he left the US Army to join the US Agency for International Development an...

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54:24

193. Cairo Cold Case: Solving the Murder of David...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/04/21

This week Justin talks with Emanuele Midolo. Manu is a journalist based in London and writing for The Times and The Sunday Times. His work has appeared in Forbes, Wired UK, and publications across the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. Today he's here to discuss his new book, which he co-authored with Peter Gillman. It was just published last month and is the story of the previously unsolved murder of British journalist David Holden, who was killed just hours after arriving in Cairo to pursue...

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77:22

192. Inside the Bulgarian Spy Ring with Trevor Barnes

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/04/14

Today just sits down with Trevor Barnes, a former senior reporter and producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation and retired attorney you're a longtime listener. You may remember Trevor from his first appearance here on the podcast for episode number 33. Today he's here to discuss another spy ring operating in the UK and throughout Europe that was only just uncovered. Very recently, six Bulgarians were arrested as members of a ring operating at the behest of the Russian FSB and GRU. An...

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62:38

191. Espionage in the NFL with Kevin Bryant

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/04/07

Today Justin interviews Kevin Bryant. Kevin graduated from the University of California - Santa Cruz with a B.A. in History and graduated with top honors from American Military University with an M.A. in Intelligence Studies and an M.S. in Sports Management. He served more than 20 years with the United States Army both as a soldier and civilian, during which he conducted national security investigations and trained federal agents. He's here to discuss the story of how NFL teams have used inte...

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57:06

190. Churchill's Spy Ring in Rockefeller Center with...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/03/31

Today Justin speaks with Thomas Maier, an award-winning investigative journalist who has worked at Newsday since 1984. Thomas has written several books over the years, including When Lions Roar about the Churchills and the Kennedys and Masters of Sex, which was produced as a series on Showtime for four years. This is Thomas's second time here on the podcast. You may remember him from episode number 65 when we discussed his book, Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, gangsters, JFK, and Ca...

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58:39

189. Marguerite Harrison: Socialite, Reporter, and...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/03/24

Today Justin sits down with Janet Wallach. Janet attended New York University and her work has been published in The Washington Post Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, and other periodicals. She's the author of 10 books and has written extensively about notable women in history, including Queen Noor of Jordan, Coco Chanel, and Gertrude Bell, among others. Janet is here today to discuss Marguerite Harrison, dubbed the socialite spy, and the story of her double life as a reporter and a spy for U.S...

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40:29

188. Cuban Exiles vs. Guevara's Forces in the Congo...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/03/17

This week's guest is Frank Villafana. Frank was born in Havana, Cuba, and moved to the United States after graduating high school to attend the University of Alabama, where he earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in engineering. He spent the next three decades working in various positions in the field of engineering before retiring in 1998. Afterwards, he devoted himself to writing and is now the author of 10 books, primarily dealing with Cuban history and themes. Today he's here ...

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73:30

187. The Wagner Group: Rise and Fall of a Russian...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/03/10

Today Justin talks to John Lechner. John graduated from Georgetown University with a master's degree in foreign service. He speaks several languages, including Russian, French, Turkish, and Georgian. He now works as an independent journalist and his reporting has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, BBC, and many more. He's here to discuss the story of the rise of the Wagner Group, aRussian mercenary private military company that grew in a few short years fr...

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84:50

186. Defeating Noriega: Inside Operation Just Cause...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/03/03

This week Justin talks with Rick Yell. Rick served as a civilian agent with the Naval Investigative Service, later renamed the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In 1986, he was assigned to the resident agency at Fort Amador, Panama. He was present along with his family before, during, and after Operation Just Cause, when the U.S. military ousted Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. Rick is featured as one of the primary subjects of the new book, Ghosts of Panama by Mark Harmon and Leon Car...

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52:25

185. The Invisible Battlefield: Subversion in the Age...

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/02/24

This week Justin interviews Andreas Krieg. Andreas is a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King's College London and at the Royal College of Defense Studies. He spent more than 10 years living, studying, and working across the Middle East and North Africa, including in Lebanon, Syria, and Qatar. He is a co-author of the book, Surrogate Warfare: The Transformation of War in the 21st Century, which was published in 2019. He also works as a geo strategic consultant through his ...

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69:38

184. How to Deliver a Ransom with Rob Phayre

SPYCRAFT 101 ·

2025/02/17

Today Justin sits down with Rob Phayre. Rob served for seven years in the British Army as a helicopter pilot and commander. After leaving the service, he moved to Kenya and opened his own business before moving into a second career in security and crisis management a few years later. Much of his time involved responding to Somali piracy and hostage taking in East Africa. He's helped resolve nearly 40 hostage incidents, both on and offshore, across Africa. Two of those ransoms have...

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SPYCRAFT 101

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