Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment

The Cipher Brief
  • 4.6 (9)
  • TV & FILM
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment is a new podcast from The Cipher Brief hosted by Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly and Cipher Brief Senior Book Editor and author, Bill Harlow exploring the entertainment side of espionage as well as non-fiction books and media on national security issues that are making a difference. Join us each week for new episodes with authors, former intelligence officers, actors, directors, television and movie producers, agents, publishers and more.

  1. 10/09/2025

    David McCloskey: Secrets of a Novelist

    David McCloskey, former CIA Analyst turned novelist is out with his fourth book, The Persian, about an Iranian dentist who is recruited by Mossad to take on a dangerous mission inside Iran.  Cover Stories Host Suzanne Kelly digs in on how McCloskey's real-life Intelligence background fueled his latest novel, and discovers a few of McCloskey's own secrets along the way.

    41 min

  2. 09/25/2025

    The Person Who Wrote the Book on Writing Books

    Have you ever wanted to write a book but not known where to start?  We've got some answers for you.  Jane Friedman, the author of "The Business of Being a Writer" joins us to explain the ins and outs of deciding what kind of publisher is right for your writing, how to approach a literary agent, what to include in a book proposal and much more. She offers author-wannabees a wealth of advice and resources on how to navigate the publishing landscape.

    30 min

  3. 09/18/2025

    The Spy and the Devil

    Former British diplomat and current Cipher Brief expert Tim Willasey-Wilsey is just out with a book called "The Spy and the Devil: The Untold Story of the MI6 Agent Who Penetrated Hitler's Inner Circle"  We'll talk with him about the never before told story of Baron Wilhelm Von de Ropp, a German aristocrat, who became a British citizen and who spied on the Nazis for the UK from 1931 to 1939.The book is a deeply researched and documented work of history. "Bill de Ropp" as he came to be known had multiple personal meetings with Adolf Hitler and was credited in 1938 as providing at least 70% of MI-6's German political intelligence.

    34 min

  4. 09/04/2025

    Talking "Skwerl" and "Cheese" with author Elliot Ackerman

    Author and former Marine Elliot Ackerman's latest tale is about an ex-CIA Ground Branch operator who goes by his call sign, "Skwerl" and a former Afghan special ops pilot who goes by the name "Big Cheese" so you're probably already getting a good picture of Ackerman's latest novel Sheepdogs, which follows Skwerl and Cheese on a globe-trotting adventure from Uganda to Marseille.  Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly welcomed Ackerman to the Cover Stories Studio to talk about missing handlers, hidden cargo and shadow war.

    29 min

  5. 08/13/2025

    The North Korean Threat: Intelligence and Diplomacy

    Ambassador Joe  DeTrani's The North Korean Threat: Intelligence and Diplomacy — A Personal Memoir is a candid insider's account of more than three decades navigating the perilous world of U.S.–North Korea relations. We'll talk with him about some of his  experiences as a CIA officer, senior U.S. negotiator, and Special Envoy for the Six-Party Talks.  In his book, which is available for free at this site, DeTrani blends gripping personal stories with sharp analysis of nuclear diplomacy, intelligence challenges, and the delicate regional dynamics that shaped negotiations. The memoir offers rare insights into the mindset of Pyongyang's leadership and the enduring importance of vigilance, credible intelligence, and sustained dialogue.

    36 min

  6. 08/07/2025

    The Moldavian Gambit

    Lots of forces were released when the Soviet Union came apart in the early 1990s. Brad Meslin imagines the worst case scenario in his novel "The Moldavian Gambit" in which a man-portable nuclear device goes missing from a Soviet arsenal in Moldova and may have ended up in the hands of terrorists threatening to detonate in a western capital. Meslin has worked in "the intersection of aerospace, defense, private equity, and national security." His debut novel was very favorably reviewed in the Cipher Brief by former CIA counterproliferation officer Jim Lawler who praised the book for its realism and heart-stopping plot. We will talk with Meslin about what inspired him to write the book and his sources and methods for keeping readers at the edge of their seats.

    28 min

  7. 07/10/2025

    Rekindling Memories of the Fuji Fire

    In  October1979, the most powerful cyclone in recorded history, raced across the Pacific and set in motion circumstances that caused a horrendous fire at a U.S. Marine Corps facility at the foot of Japan's Mount Fuji. Thirteen Marines died of their burns and more than 70 other people were seriously injured.  And yet few people today know of or remember these events. Chas Henry who served twenty years as a Marine and went on to have a highly successful career as a broadcast journalist – is out with a new book called "Fuji Fire: Sifting Ashes of a Forgotten U.S. Marine Corps Tragedy."  We will talk with him about his four-year-long effort to investigate the tragedy and what he learned about the chaos of the mass casualty event and the courage of those who fought the fire and battled their injuries during the long recovery process. We will ask him why a disaster of such magnitude is so little remembered and why official investigations into the fire appear to have been so limited.

    44 min

  8. 06/05/2025

    Taking Midway with Martin Dugard

    Martin Dugard is an enormously prolific, best-selling author. In addition to ten mega-million selling books co-authored with Bill O'Reilly,  He has authored a fistful of books about World War II including "Taking London," "Taking Berlin" and "Taking Paris." Now he is back with "Taking Midway: Naval Warfare, Secret Codes, and the Battle That Turned the Tide of World War II."  Podcast host Bill Harlow will talk with him about his sources and methods for cranking out so many deeply researched and well-received books – and what the world should know about a crusty 4-star admiral and a quirky Navy commander who combined to surprise the Imperial Japanese Navy and the world in one of the most consequential naval battles in history.

    31 min
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Ratings & Reviews

4.6
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment is a new podcast from The Cipher Brief hosted by Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly and Cipher Brief Senior Book Editor and author, Bill Harlow exploring the entertainment side of espionage as well as non-fiction books and media on national security issues that are making a difference. Join us each week for new episodes with authors, former intelligence officers, actors, directors, television and movie producers, agents, publishers and more.

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