SpyCast

SpyCast

SpyCast, the official podcast of the International Spy Museum, is a journey into the shadows of international espionage. Each week, host Sasha Ingber brings you the latest insights and intriguing tales from spies, secret agents, and covert communicators, with a focus on how this secret world reaches us all in our everyday lives. Tune in to discover the critical role intelligence has played throughout history and today. Brought to you from Airwave, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum.  The Spy Museum does not endorse, approve, or support the opinions stated by guest speakers. Statements made by speakers do not represent the position or opinion of the International Spy Museum.

  1. 8 hr ago

    General Petraeus on Ukraine and the Shadow War

    Winter is coming, and that means Ukraine has to gear up for another brutal season of strikes on its energy infrastructure - Russia’s bid to cut off power and heat, making life harder for all Ukrainians. Earlier this year, Ukrainian forces reversed the enemy’s territorial gains, and now Vladimir Putin appears to be stepping up long-range strikes targeting not just Ukraine’s energy system but also its water, railways, and bridges. The Ukrainians have responded with their own long-range attacks on Russian energy sites. Since the full-scale invasion began, former CIA director and retired four-star general David Petraeus has made numerous trips to Ukraine. He sits down with SpyCast host Sasha Ingber to discuss not just major developments on the battlefield but also the quieter side of the war: the covert maneuvering behind closed doors and the threats of sabotage troubling the European continent.  For the episode transcript and the full list of all SpyCast episodes, visit: https://thecyberwire.com/podcasts/spycast Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@sasha-ingber  For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: https://www.spymuseum.org/ If you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org. This show is brought to you by N2K Networks, Podville Media, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was hosted by Sasha Ingber and produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Podville Media. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Nastya Bykova is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs.

    General Petraeus on Ukraine and the Shadow War

  2. 20 Oct

    Unraveling a Secret KGB Investigation That Separated a Father and Son

    The Kremlin is not a fan of Alex Goldfarb. He left the Soviet Union as a scientist, becoming a prominent author and human rights activist. In 2006, he was in the room with ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, reading his dying words, which accused Vladimir Putin of assassination by radioactive polonium. Today, Alex's memoir, Refusenik's Son, traces a complicated family history made clear only decades later. His father, David, was a Jewish scientist denied permission to leave the Soviet Union - one of the so-called "refuseniks." David had been a prominent microbiologist in the 1970s and '80s, when Moscow's secret bioweapons program was under development. But only after an exiled KGB officer contacted Alex in 2010 did the full reason for his father's confinement become clear. It's a winding story involving an anthrax accident and a media leak, a Soviet scientist and a U.S. journalist trying to help him. Two men pulled unknowingly into a tide of suspicion. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@sasha-ingber  For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: https://www.spymuseum.org/ And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org. This show is brought to you by N2K Networks, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Nastya Bykova is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs.

    Unraveling a Secret KGB Investigation That Separated a Father and Son

  3. 13 Oct

    Ukraine’s Nord Stream Attack: Underwater Sabotage and Its Fallout

    Correction: At 3:27, Bojan Pancevski refers to the “Danish” military intelligence agency. He meant the Dutch military intelligence agency, which picked up the intelligence and passed it to the CIA. The trial of a former Ukrainian special forces officer, identified as Serhii K., is set to begin October 14th in Hamburg. German investigators have been unrelenting in their pursuit of justice since the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, which carried Russian gas to Germany. It was about seven months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Scandinavian seismologists detected what appeared to be an undersea earthquake near a Danish island, on the floor of the Baltic Sea. Denmark, Germany, and Sweden opened investigations, but only Germany pushed forward. Since then, The Wall Street Journal’s chief European political correspondent, Bojan Pancevski, has uncovered what happened in his book, The Nord Stream Conspiracy. Sasha sat down with him to talk about the operation and the fallout, part of which is set to unfold in a German courtroom. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@sasha-ingber  For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: ⁠https://www.spymuseum.org/⁠ And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by email at ⁠spycast@spymuseum.org⁠. This show is brought to you by N2K Networks, Podville Media, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Podville Media. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Nastya Bykova is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs.

    Ukraine’s Nord Stream Attack: Underwater Sabotage and Its Fallout

  4. 6 Oct

    A Plan to Be Captured: How Three American Commandos Deceived Their Nazi Captors Before D-Day

    In the spring of 1944, three elite commandos parachuted into Hungary. The country was aligned with Nazi Germany, and these men intended to be captured in what was meant to look like a failed operation. Their real mission was to help Hungary switch to the Allied side. But three days later, Germany launched a preemptive invasion. The men were captured by the Nazis, imprisoned, and interrogated. They used their interrogation as a chance to fool Adolf Hitler into thinking an Allied invasion would come from southeastern Europe, drawing German troops away from Normandy ahead of D-Day. Author Jason Bell unravels this daring and untold story in his new book, Operation Sparrow. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@sasha-ingber  For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: https://www.spymuseum.org/ And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org. This show is brought to you by N2K Networks, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Nastya Bykova is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs.

    A Plan to Be Captured: How Three American Commandos Deceived Their Nazi Captors Before D-Day

  5. 29 Sept

    Inside Sweden's Cold War Stay-Behind Operation

    It was preparation for an invasion that might never come, and never did. Across Cold War Europe, stay-behind networks were established on the premise that Soviet forces might successfully invade and occupy sovereign territory. These clandestine organizations consisted of carefully vetted soldiers, intelligence officers, and everyday citizens tasked with remaining behind enemy lines to gather intelligence, conduct sabotage, and support resistance movements if their country were overrun. In neutral Sweden, the prime minister secretly authorized one such covert network in 1949 to mount guerrilla warfare against a potential Red Army occupation. Guest host Dr. Mark Jacobson speaks with Johan Wennström, author of The Stay Behinds: Sweden's Cold War Guardians, about this long-classified operation. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@sasha-ingber  For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: https://www.spymuseum.org/ And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org. This show is brought to you by N2K Networks, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs.

    Inside Sweden's Cold War Stay-Behind Operation

  6. 22 Sept

    How the CIA captured Carlos the Jackal

    Before he became one of the world's most notorious terrorists in the 1970s and '80s, inspiring movies, books, and future terrorists, Carlos the Jackal was born Ilich Ramírez Sánchez to a privileged family in Venezuela. Over time, his crimes grew bolder, from an attempted assassination to abductions, murder, hijackings, and bombings. Some state leaders tolerated him out of fear he would target their countries, yet his alliances with militants and dictators soured as the years passed. In his new book, The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist, journalist Joby Warrick profiles the mercenary terrorist and details how American and French intelligence took him down. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@sasha-ingber  For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: https://www.spymuseum.org/ And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org. This show is brought to you by N2K Networks, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs.

    How the CIA captured Carlos the Jackal

  7. 15 Sept

    A House Divided: The CIA, State, and a Coup in South Vietnam

    It's a dark moment in American history that leads to a lot of what-ifs. By the spring of 1963, eight years into the Vietnam War, two opposing factions across the CIA and the State Department had President John F. Kennedy's ear. One side wanted to keep South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Đình Diệm, in power. The other wanted to see him removed. Then, unrest in Saigon caught the CIA by surprise, and the rift in Washington grew deeper. Author Jack Cheevers spent a decade piecing together and writing Kennedy's Coup, which lays out the grave decision to oust Diem, a move that led to his death and, arguably, escalated the war. The first U.S. combat troops deployed two years later. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@sasha-ingber For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: https://www.spymuseum.org/ And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org. This show is brought to you by N2K Networks, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs.

    A House Divided: The CIA, State, and a Coup in South Vietnam

  8. 8 Sept

    25 Years After 9/11: The CIA's First Moments Behind Enemy Lines in Afghanistan

    Retired Colonel Justin Sapp was a Green Beret detailed to the CIA after the September 11th terrorist attacks. He was part of Team Alpha, the first eight Americans to drop behind enemy lines into the mountains of Afghanistan. At 29, Justin was its youngest member. There was no time to onboard him, and he was told he was leaving the next day, departing from the DC area to a base in Uzbekistan, then touching down in northern Afghanistan on a Black Hawk helicopter. Justin would go on to clear the way for follow-on forces to land, secure alliances with warlords to oust the Taliban, interrogate enemy fighters who had been captured. He would also tragically lose his colleague, Johnny “Mike” Spann. Justin takes us back into that historic mission 25 years later.  Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@sasha-ingber  For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: https://www.spymuseum.org/ And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org. This show is brought to you by N2K Networks, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs.

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About

SpyCast, the official podcast of the International Spy Museum, is a journey into the shadows of international espionage. Each week, host Sasha Ingber brings you the latest insights and intriguing tales from spies, secret agents, and covert communicators, with a focus on how this secret world reaches us all in our everyday lives. Tune in to discover the critical role intelligence has played throughout history and today. Brought to you from Airwave, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum.  The Spy Museum does not endorse, approve, or support the opinions stated by guest speakers. Statements made by speakers do not represent the position or opinion of the International Spy Museum.

Information

  • Creator
    SpyCast
  • Years Active
    2006 - 2026
  • Episodes
    768
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026, SpyCast 794942
  • Show Website
    SpyCast

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