logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2022
35m 3s

The Skeptic

Foreign Policy
About this episode

Long before Joe Weisberg created the award-winning television show The Americans, he served in the CIA. His brief period in the agency informed story lines in the show and helped shape Weisberg's views on espionage. Eventually, he came to believe that spying does more harm than good in the world.



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Dec 2022
Introducing: Conspiracyland, Season 4
Our friends at Yahoo News produce this seasonal show about conspiracies, real and imagined. We liked season 4 so much, we decided to share the first episode with our listeners. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. 
39m 31s
Jun 2022
The Investigator
The Secret Service is known for its VIP protection unit but it also investigates international crimes, including hacking cases. On this episode, we feature a Secret Service agent who helped nab one of the biggest hackers in the world, Roman Seleznev. Hosted on Acast. See acast.co ... Show More
27m 28s
Jun 2022
The Handler
Michele Rigby Assad joined the CIA just weeks after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and spent much of the next decade working undercover in the Middle East.In 2007, she helped investigate an ambush in Iraq that killed an American woman.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy ... Show More
32m 1s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2020
Inside the CIA: How the Intelligence Agency Help Shape History
Author Chris Whipple pulls back the curtain on the CIA and its often secretive directors in his new book, "The Spymasters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future," published by Scribner an imprint of Simon & Schuster a division of ViacomCBS. Having spoken to almost ev ... Show More
30m 1s
May 2023
The Spy Who Fooled the FBI
May 10, 2002. Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life in prison without parole. His crime? Selling scads of top-secret information to the Soviets – and later, the Russians – over 22 years. How did Hanssen get away with his deception for so long, which led to the deat ... Show More
33m 52s
Feb 2021
CIA Agent and Former Spy - John Braddock
John Braddock is a former CIA officer and spy and was responsible for recruiting and handling sources on weapons proliferation, counter-terrorism and political-military issues. In this interview, he gives us an insider's guide into what it takes to be a spy, what it took to track ... Show More
49m 7s
Sep 2022
"Wild" Bill Donovan, Super Spy Extraordinaire
On this episode of Our American Stories, Drew Newman, of JC Newman Cigars, tells the story of cigars in the United States, a story his family played a big part in. “Wild Bill" Donovan was one of America’s most exciting and secretive generals—the man President Franklin Roosevelt m ... Show More
38m 16s
Sep 2021
The Man Who Loved Spying
In a riveting new memoir, former senior CIA officer Doug London celebrates a career in espionage, but in a lengthy conversation with host Jeff Stein, he offer candid, even brutal observations on how 20 years of counterterrorism warped the agency’s priorities and managers.Support ... Show More
41m 16s
Nov 2021
Espionage history: everything you wanted to know
When did espionage become professionalised? What ingenious gadgets did intelligence agents use in the past? And how have animals been used for spying? Speaking with Elinor Evans, Michael Goodman tackles listener questions and popular search queries on the history of espionage and ... Show More
1h 1m
Apr 2021
Fire and Ice
In this week’s edition of the SpyTalk podcast, Jeff Stein goes deep on the CIA’s looming eviction from Afghanistan with Lisa Curtis, a longtime former CIA, State Department and White House National Security Council expert on the region. And then co-host Jeanne Meserve conducts a ... Show More
57m 3s
Oct 2023
The Unwanted Spy
In 2015, former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was sentenced to 3 and a half years in prison for violating the Espionage Act by leaking details of a top-secret operation to a journalist - a charge he has always denied. Jeffrey believes that during his time at the Agency, he was dis ... Show More
50m 19s