27 episodes

These are stories you were never meant to hear. The invisible but vital work of the world’s intelligence services: secret operatives playing to very different rules. The Spy Who, hosted by Indira Varma and Raza Jaffrey, takes you deep inside that shadow world to meet spies who risked everything in the national interest – or, sometimes, their own.
Listen to The Spy Who on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/the-spy-who now. 

The Spy Who Wondery

    • History
    • 4.7 • 172 Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

These are stories you were never meant to hear. The invisible but vital work of the world’s intelligence services: secret operatives playing to very different rules. The Spy Who, hosted by Indira Varma and Raza Jaffrey, takes you deep inside that shadow world to meet spies who risked everything in the national interest – or, sometimes, their own.
Listen to The Spy Who on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/the-spy-who now. 

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | The Stranger In Red Square

    The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | The Stranger In Red Square

    It’s 1960. The world hangs on the brink of nuclear war. But in Moscow, a man’s about to emerge from the shadows with an offer for the CIA. His name is Oleg Penkovsky and he wants to supply the US with the Soviet Union’s greatest nuclear secrets. But is he for real or part of an elaborate trap?




    Listen to The Spy Who on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/the-spy-who now. 

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    • 42 min
    The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | Hero or Madman?

    The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | Hero or Madman?

    After months of missed opportunities, the CIA and MI6 are about to meet Penkovsky. But with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev squaring up to the US President John F. Kennedy over West Berlin, his information could have thermonuclear consequences.




    Listen to The Spy Who on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/the-spy-who now. 

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    • 39 min
    The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | Manoeuvres in Moscow

    The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | Manoeuvres in Moscow

    Oleg Penkovsky is back in the USSR, ready to feed Soviet secrets to his new MI6 contact: a pram-pushing mother of three. But with the Berlin Crisis about to boil over, his intel could be the difference between war and peace. But with the KGB lurking everywhere smuggling these secrets out of Moscow will demand nerves of steel.




    Listen to The Spy Who on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/the-spy-who now. 

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    • 43 min
    The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | Code Nuclear

    The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | Code Nuclear

    It’s 1962 and Oleg Penkovsky has gone to ground after spotting a KGB surveillance team tracking his MI6 contact Janet Chisholm. But when the British Embassy in Moscow invites him to a cocktail party, he sees a chance to reconnect with Western intelligence.

    The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | Unpacking the mind of a spy legend

    The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | Unpacking the mind of a spy legend

    Few spies have motives as hard to decipher as those of Oleg Penkovsky. Was he a hero, an egotist or a madman? Writer and executive producer of The Spy Who, Tristan Donovan, sits down with Jack Basu-Mellish, host of the LSE Cold War Podcast, to discuss Penkovsky’s actions, plus the lessons to learn from the events of the Cold War. Can the history books really be trusted?

    The Spy Who Betrayed Bin Laden | Holy War

    The Spy Who Betrayed Bin Laden | Holy War

    It’s 1994 and 16-year-old Aimen Dean wants to die. He’s heading to war-torn Bosnia to join the Mujahideen and save fellow Muslims. He hopes to become a martyr so that he can be reunited with his dead parents in paradise. Instead, he’s about to be confronted by a bloody reality.




    Listen to The Spy Who on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/the-spy-who now. 

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    • 40 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
172 Ratings

172 Ratings

ReneeF* ,

Outstanding!

I’m so glad I found this podcast - outstanding!

jeepinjacks ,

Great podcast

The stories are very well done. I could listen to Ms. Varma read anything, what an amazing voice.

EvenMorePerfect ,

Awesome, exciting, gripping

Absolutely love all of them. Great stories of unsung HEROES.

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