SPYCRAFT 101

This episode contains particularly graphic descriptions of violence and gore. Know your own limits and proceed accordingly. Today Justin sits down with Steven Schofield. Steve enlisted into the US Army and completed training as an 18 Delta Special Forces Medic in 1967. He then deployed to Okinawa and later to Vietnam, where he served with Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observat...

This week Justin talks with Emanuele Midolo. Manu is a journalist based in London and writing for The Times and The Sunday Times . His work has appeared in Forbes , Wired UK , and publications across the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. Today he's here to discuss his new book, which he co-authored with Peter Gillman. It was just published last month and is the story of the previously unsolved mu...

Today just sits down with Trevor Barnes, a former senior reporter and producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation and retired attorney you're a longtime listener. You may remember Trevor from his first appearance here on the podcast for episode number 33. Today he's here to discuss another spy ring operating in the UK and throughout Europe that was only just uncovered. Very recently, six Bul...

Today Justin interviews Kevin Bryant. Kevin graduated from the University of California - Santa Cruz with a B.A. in History and graduated with top honors from American Military University with an M.A. in Intelligence Studies and an M.S. in Sports Management. He served more than 20 years with the United States Army both as a soldier and civilian, during which he conducted national security investig...

Today Justin speaks with Thomas Maier, an award-winning investigative journalist who has worked at Newsday since 1984. Thomas has written several books over the years, including When Lions Roar about the Churchills and the Kennedys and Masters of Sex , which was produced as a series on Showtime for four years. This is Thomas's second time here on the podcast. You may remember him from episode numb...

Today Justin sits down with Janet Wallach. Janet attended New York University and her work has been published in The Washington Post Magazine , Smithsonian Magazine , and other periodicals. She's the author of 10 books and has written extensively about notable women in history, including Queen Noor of Jordan, Coco Chanel, and Gertrude Bell, among others. Janet is here today to discuss Marguerite H...

This week's guest is Frank Villafana. Frank was born in Havana, Cuba, and moved to the United States after graduating high school to attend the University of Alabama, where he earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in engineering. He spent the next three decades working in various positions in the field of engineering before retiring in 1998. Afterwards, he devoted himself to writing and is no...

Today Justin talks to John Lechner. John graduated from Georgetown University with a master's degree in foreign service. He speaks several languages, including Russian, French, Turkish, and Georgian. He now works as an independent journalist and his reporting has been featured in The New York Times , The Atlantic, The Washington Post , BBC , and many more. He's here to discuss the story of the ris...

This week Justin talks with Rick Yell. Rick served as a civilian agent with the Naval Investigative Service, later renamed the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In 1986, he was assigned to the resident agency at Fort Amador, Panama. He was present along with his family before, during, and after Operation Just Cause, when the U.S. military ousted Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. Rick is feat...

This week Justin interviews Andreas Krieg. Andreas is a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King's College London and at the Royal College of Defense Studies. He spent more than 10 years living, studying, and working across the Middle East and North Africa, including in Lebanon, Syria, and Qatar. He is a co-author of the book, Surrogate Warfare: The Transformation of War in the 21...

Today Justin sits down with Rob Phayre. Rob served for seven years in the British Army as a helicopter pilot and commander.  After leaving the service, he moved to Kenya and opened his own business before moving into a second career in security and crisis management a few years later. Much of his time involved responding to Somali piracy and hostage taking in East Africa.  He's helped resolve near...

Today Justin sits down with Andrew Kirsch. Andrew grew up in Toronto, Canada, and is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He worked as an investment advisor in London before applying for a position with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service or CCIS. He spent nearly 10 years as an intelligence officer working in several positions, including analyst, investigator, and as...

Today Justin talks to retired Special Agent Joe Navarro. Joe spent 25 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, primarily working on counterintelligence investigations. He is also a founding member of the National Security Division Behavioral Analysis Program, which focused on the behavior of spies, terrorists, and criminals. During his career, Joe developed tremendous expertise in nonverbal...

Today's guest is Kit Turner. Kit has worked as an anthropologist and archeologist in the U. S., Polynesia, and Southwest Asia. He later joined the Central Intelligence Agency where he spent 25 years working in East Asia, South Asia, and Europe, running sensitive operations against high priority objectives. He's been awarded the Intelligence Star, a commendation for valor after a dangerous deployme...

Today's guest is David Axe. David is a journalist and filmmaker. His work has appeared in The Daily Beast , Vice , Reuters , Wired.com , The Washington Post , Forbes , and many other publications. He's published several books including fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels. He's also written, produced, or directed several independent films. David is here to discuss the origins of American battle...

This week Justin talks with Pat Boland. Pat has worked in several different positions in sales and marketing, including as a Portfolio Analyst, Consultant, and Senior Account Executive. She's currently working as a writer and researcher. But aside from her career, she's also devoted a great deal of time to investigating one of the most intriguing mysteries of the 20th century, the true identity of...

 Today Justin sits down with Dr. Daniela Richterova. Daniela received her master's degree from King's College London and her PhD from the University of Warwick. She is an associate professor of intelligence studies at the department of war studies at King's College London, as well as the co director of the King's Center for the Study of Intelligence. Her work has been published in international af...

In this solo episode, Justin share some of his own research. Today he discusses the very unusual case of Richard Craig Smith. Craig was a former army counterintelligence agent who was arrested in April, 1984 for passing classified information to a KGB officer in Japan on several occasions. There are two very different versions of Craig's story. He did meet with a Soviet intelligence agent. He did...

This week's guest is David Tyson. David served in the U. S. Army first as an enlisted artilleryman and later as an intelligence officer. During his time in the Army, he discovered he had an affinity for learning languages, and after leaving the service, he began working towards a graduate degree, focusing his studies on Central Asia.  He was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1996, an...

Join Justin for a special review episode of The Sandbaggers , a British television series that ran for three seasons between 1978 and 1980 following characters who worked at MI6. In Justin's opinion, this show is one of the best ever fictional portrayals of covert operations and the day-to-day running of an intelligence agency. You can find more reviews on Patreon , and catch The Sandbaggers on Pr...

This week Justin sits down with Dr. Claire Hubbard-Hall. Claire received her doctorate in European history from the University of Hull. She has lectured and taught history courses at several British universities over the past 16 years with a particular focus on secret intelligence. She's also appeared in several television documentaries and written articles for many different publications. Today s...

This week Justin talks with Robert Weingartner. Rob is a lifelong resident of Staten Island, New York. He graduated from Drake Business School in Manhattan in 2002, and he enjoys reading and learning about history. Over the past few years, Rob has been researching an espionage story that began right in his own hometown. I invited Rob onto the podcast to discuss his research into a German spy ring,...

Today Justin sits down with Peter Merlin. Peter is an author, historian, and college instructor. He received his Bachelor's of Science degree in Aeronautical Studies from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and has just completed his Master's degree in Aviation Management from Southern Illinois University. He's been a freelance writer and researcher for more than 30 years and has worked as a hist...

This week Justin replays one of his personal favorite episodes, number 26, when author and former special forces officer Greg Walker shared the little-known story of a David Baez, a green beret defector. Baez was a Nicaraguan national whose father was killed by U.S.-backed President Samosa after voicing his displeasure with inequalities that had risen under Samosa's rule. After immigrating the U.S...

Today Justin sits down with repeat guest Tim Tate. Tim has worked as a documentary filmmaker and an investigative journalist for more than 40 years, and in that time has published 19 books and produced 80 documentaries. Some of the topics he's covered in the past include China's slave labor gulags, the worst child murderer in British history, and the orphans left behind after the Vietnam War. Toda...