The Rest Is Classified

I’ve been interested in the world of espionage for many years. I find this podcast pretty interesting and well done, overall. But I would enjoy it more if both hosts could tame some of their annoying verbal tics (Don’t the producers listen and provide feedback?). Today’s example: “Well, welcome to The Rest is Classified.” Drop the first “well”.

Great idea for a show, unfortunately ruined by the hosts’ unbridled political bias. Episodes covering historical topics, such as the Cold War, are typically very well done. But anything from the modern era—especially anything even tangentially related to President Trump—is borderline unlistenable. McCloskey, in particular, seems far too willing to carry water for the Intelligence Community and rarely bothers to seriously explore competing perspectives or alternative explanations. I don’t expect the hosts to share my political views, but I do expect some degree of intellectual curiosity and an honest examination of all sides. Unfortunately, that seems to disappear whenever modern politics enters the discussion. Unfollowed.

The American has to cut down on the vocal fry. Holy cow, it’s like nails on chalkboard.

Best spy podcast going and it's not close. David McCloskey was a real CIA analyst. Gordon Corera did 20 years on the security beat at the BBC. So when they walk you through a case you get the actual tradecraft, the screwups, the people, and it grips harder than any thriller. The Litvinenko series is unreal. Their run on how Russia hacked the 2016 election, the Prigozhin and troll farm and GRU stuff, is the clearest version of that mess I've heard anywhere. Start there, or just start at episode one. Then read the one star reviews for a laugh. Same crowd every time. Some MAGA guy melting down because the show covered Russian disinformation and wouldn't call it a hoax. Which is beautiful, actually, because the episode literally explains how the troll farms worked, and then the trolls show up in the reviews to prove the episode right. Free live demonstration. Ten out of ten commitment to the bit, comrades. Send Prigozhin my regards. Ignore all that and subscribe.