Podcasts by I Spy
Spies don’t talk—it’s the cardinal rule of the business. But on Foreign Policy’s podcast I Spy, we get them to open up. We hear from the operations people: the spies who steal secrets, kill adversaries, and turn agents into double agents. Each episode features one spy telling one dramatic story.
Further podcasts by Foreign Policy
Podcast on the topic Gesellschaft und Kultur
All episodes
Introducing: Alphabet Boys from 2023-06-29T10:00
This week, we’re sharing an episode of Alphabet Boys. Alphabet Boys takes you inside secret investigations that the FBI, DEA, CIA, and other alphabet agencies never wanted the public to know about....
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The Skeptic from 2022-06-28T10:00
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 v...
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The Investigator from 2022-06-21T10:00:17
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...
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The Handler from 2022-06-14T10:00:32
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 am...
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The Spycatcher Part 2 from 2022-06-07T10:00:27
This is part two of Eric O'Neill's story. O'Neill was an FBI agent who went undercover to catch a suspected spy in the bureau: Robert Hanssen. If you haven't signed up for our newsletter yet, go ...
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The Spycatcher from 2022-05-31T10:00:48
On this episode, FBI agent Eric O'Neill goes undercover to catch a suspected spy in the bureau: Robert Hanssen. O'Neill is just 26 at the time. Hanssen turns out to be one of the most damaging spie...
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The Trainer from 2022-05-31T10:00:20
Well, listeners, it's taken us a while but here it is: the first episode of our fourth season. We begin with Ric Prado, a former CIA officer who trained the Contras in Central America in the 1980s....
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I Spy Season 4—Coming May 31 from 2022-05-18T14:56:35
Hey there I Spy listeners, here's the trailer for season 4. We'll have new episodes starting May 31. More spies, more Margo Martindale. This season, we'll also have an I Spy newsletter, with photos...
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Introducing: Cautionary Tales from 2021-05-07T10:45:53
While we're working on our new season, we wanted to share with you an episode of another podcast we're enjoying: Cautionary Tales. On the show, host Tim Harford tells stories of awful human erro...
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The Cassandra part 2 from 2021-03-09T11:00
This is part 2 of Frank Snepp's story. Snepp was a CIA analyst based in Saigon during the Vietnam War. In April of 1975, he discovered that Communist forces were preparing a large-scale attack on S...
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The Cassandra from 2021-03-02T11:00
Frank Snepp was a CIA analyst based in Saigon during the Vietnam War. In April of 1975, he discovered that Communist forces were preparing a large-scale attack on Saigon—but the higher ups refused ...
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The Special Agent from 2021-02-23T11:00
The FBI's Ali Soufan specialized in Al Qaeda investigations both before and after the attacks of September 11th. In 2002 he was sent to question Abu Zubaydah, a high-level jihadi captured in Pakist...
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The Hellraiser from 2021-02-16T12:52
Jay Dobyns was a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In 2002, he infiltrated the Hells Angels biker gang and spent two years undercover—a period in which he s...
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The Infiltrator from 2021-02-09T18:25
The British spy agency MI5 recruited Willie Carlin to infiltrate Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland. He spied on the group for 11 years until his cover was blown. Check out I Spy's merch by going to ...
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The Interrogator from 2021-02-02T13:25
FBI special agent George Piro spent seven months interrogating deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, establishing a rapport and then getting him to reveal the truth about the country's weapons of ...
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Hear More about 'The Operative' with I Spy Plus from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This season, there’s more I Spy with I Spy Plus. Get ad-free episodes and access to weekly bonus material right in your favorite podcast app. This week, Amy Mackinnon discusses the episode with Ann...
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Hear More about 'The Widow Spy' with I Spy Plus from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This season, there’s more I Spy with I Spy Plus. Get ad-free episodes and access to weekly bonus material right in your favorite podcast app. This week, a former CIA officer gives Amy Mackinnon a t...
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Hear More about 'The Whistleblower' with I Spy Plus from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This season, there’s more I Spy with I Spy Plus. Get ad-free episodes and access to weekly bonus material right in your favorite podcast app. This week, Amy Mackinnon and Dan Ephron discuss 'The Wh...
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Hear More about 'The Chaperone' with I Spy Plus from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This season, there’s more I Spy with I Spy Plus. Get ad-free episodes and access to weekly bonus material right in your favorite podcast app. This week, Dan Ephron and Amy Mackinnon discuss 'The Ch...
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Hear More about 'The Targeter' with I Spy Plus from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This season, there’s more I Spy with I Spy Plus. Get ad-free episodes and access to weekly bonus material right in your favorite podcast app. This week, Dan Ephron and Amy Mackinnon discuss 'The Ta...
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Hear More about 'The Survivor' with I Spy Plus from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This season, there’s more I Spy with I Spy Plus. Get ad-free I Spy episodes and access to weekly bonus episodes right in your favorite podcast app, plus more exclusive espionage content. This week'...
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The Narc part 2 from 2021-01-28T03:32
This is part 2 of the story with DEA special agent Steve Murphy, who goes to Bogota, Colombia, to hunt for the head of the Medellin Cartel, Pablo Escobar. Check out I Spy's merch by going to https...
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I Spy Season 3—Coming January 19 from 2021-01-12T11:00
More spies, more Margo Martindale. Hey there I Spy listeners, here's the trailer for season 3. We'll have eight new episodes starting January 19.Check out I Spy's merch by going to https://store.df...
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The Analyst from 2020-06-16T10:00
CIA analyst Sarah Carlson spent a year at the U.S. Mission in Libya after the attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi. When battles between rival Libyan militias edged closer and closer to th...
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The Operative from 2020-06-09T10:00
Mubin Shaikh poses as a Muslim extremist to nab Canadians who planned to stage large-scale attacks on government targets. The group he infiltrated would come to be known as the Toronto 18. This sea...
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The Bookseller from 2020-06-02T10:00
Naveed Jamali worked at his parents’ specialty book business, a little company that counted among its regular customers one very unusual client: a Russian spy. Jamali hatched a plan to nab the Russ...
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The Widow Spy from 2020-05-26T10:00
Martha Peterson handled one of the most valuable Soviet spies of the Cold War, code-named TRIGON—until the KGB got wind of the operation. Peterson was a young undercover officer working at the Amer...
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The Whistleblower from 2020-05-19T10:00
Thomas Drake joined the NSA in 2001 to help deal with the glut of data created by the huge rise of Internet use around the world. But he grew increasingly troubled by something else: the way the U....
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The Chaperone from 2020-05-12T10:00
On this episode, CIA officer Milt Bearden helps a KGB defector make a new life in the United States. But the Russian, Vitaly Yurchenko, discovers America can be a strange and lonely place. This sea...
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The Targeter from 2020-05-05T10:00
On this episode, CIA targeting officer Nada Bakos leads a two-year hunt for one of the most dangerous militants in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. This season, there’s more I Spy with I Spy Plus. Get a...
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The Survivor from 2020-04-28T10:00
Welcome to Season 2 of I Spy. On this episode, CIA officer Richard Holm is sent to Congo in 1965 to organize local agents against an anti-government rebellion. But a fiery plane crash leaves him in...
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I Spy, Season 2 - Coming April 28 from 2020-04-23T20:16
Foreign Policy’s hit show returns Tuesday, April 28 with the first of eight new episodes. From a former CIA officer’s retelling of how he survived a plane crash in the Congo to the hunt for Abu Mus...
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The Jumper from 2019-12-10T11:00
A man jumps from a burning plane, exposing a covert U.S. operation and nearly bringing down the president. This week on I Spy, Eugene Hasenfus tells his story. Check out I Spy's merch by going to ...
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The Art Dealer from 2019-12-03T09:57
Amaryllis Fox worked for a decade as an undercover agent at the CIA, cultivating arms merchants and preventing them from selling fissile material to terrorist groups. On this episode, she describes...
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The Counterspy from 2019-11-26T10:16
The CIA thought it had thoroughly penetrated Cuban intelligence, with scores of agents and informants in Havana, until one day a Cuban officer walked into the U.S. Embassy in Vienna and broke the n...
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The Man With the Antidote from 2019-11-19T11:00
On this episode, the Israeli Mossad operative Mishka Ben-David is sent to the Jordanian capital of Amman to help assassinate Khaled Mashal, the political leader of the Palestinian Islamic group Ham...
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The Master of Disguise from 2019-11-12T11:00
On this first episode of I Spy, CIA agent Jonna Mendez is sent to a capital city in Asia to help steal a top-secret encryption machine from a Soviet Embassy. Mendez’s job in the operation is to fas...
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The Sleeper Agent from 2019-11-12T11:00
On this episode, we talk to Albrecht Dittrich—aka Jack Barsky—who was born in East Germany, recruited by the KGB, and sent to the United States to influence U.S. policymaking. Barsky began his miss...
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Trailer: I Spy from 2019-10-03T19:20
Spies don’t talk—it’s the cardinal rule of the business. But on Foreign Policy’s podcast I Spy, we get them to open up. We hear from the operations people: the spies who steal secrets, kill adversa...
Listen