Espionage told with evidence and consequence.
SpyCast follows espionage where it becomes concrete: a brain injury, a missing device, a compromised informant, a wartime bargain. Its interviews favor context, names, dates, and patient testimony over spectacle.
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SpyCast approaches espionage as a discipline rather than a mood. The show is built around long interviews, careful setup, and guests who can speak from records, field experience, reporting, or specialized research. Sasha Ingber frames questions with enough background to make the answer land somewhere specific. Then the guest usually carries the room. Recent episodes show the range clearly. Havana syndrome becomes a dispute over anomalous health incidents, brain injuries, Russian tradecraft, government assessments, and the tension between analysts and operatives. Palmer Luckey’s appearance turns defense technology into a discussion of sensors, augmented reality, battlefield awareness, artificial intelligence, and systems built for the intelligence community. Tim Booverie’s account of Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and Hitler treats wartime alliance as a relationship of necessity, suspicion, lies, and competing interests. Jonna Mendez’s stories from CIA disguise work bring the show close to tools, denied areas, recruitment, exfiltration, and the strange practicality of deception. A lost plutonium-filled generator on Nanda Devi becomes a story about collection against China, weather, memory, and reporting that took years to assemble. Chip Usher’s episode on AI companions shifts the frame to data, influence, recruitment, and China-linked technology risk. Aaron Tracy’s Roald Dahl conversation follows the complicated path from Shell Oil and the Royal Air Force to MI6 influence work in Washington. Stephen Conley’s account of Katrina Leung, James J. Smith, and the FBI shows espionage as institutional failure as much as personal betrayal. The show does not flatten these stories into neat lessons. It lets ambiguity remain visible. It also understands that a single object, job title, codename, or confession can carry a larger history. For listeners who want spy stories stripped of glamour but not of texture, SpyCast offers a serious, detailed route through the hidden work behind public events.
Made for: For listeners drawn to intelligence history, covert technology, defense policy, and the lived details of tradecraft. It suits people who prefer patient interviews and documented complexity over spy-story theatrics.
What sets it apart: SpyCast stands out by pairing museum-grade subject matter with guests who bring firsthand experience, deep reporting, or historical research. The show lets operational detail and moral ambiguity sit in the same conversation.
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 r...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
SpyCast turns firsthand accounts, museum artifacts and spy fiction into a detailed cultural record of covert work.
SpyCast treats espionage as a record assembled from testimony, artifacts and institutional memory. Sasha Ingber's interviews move between present-day intelligence questions and historical reconstruction, asking guests to explain how operations worked and what their consequences…
Spy history gets fingerprints here; you meet the people who planned, witnessed, or investigated it.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sober look at Havana syndrome, intelligence skepticism, and the cost of unresolved doubt.
SpyCast treats Havana syndrome, or anomalous health incidents, as a problem of evidence, trust, and self-protection inside institutions. Sasha Ingber lays out the stakes without overplaying them: American spies, diplomats, and service members say they suffered serious brain…
A clear look at how defense tech turns integrated sensing and speed into a battlefield pitch.
Palmer Luckey comes off less like a startup icon and more like a founder who has moved into Pentagon territory, while Sasha Ingber keeps the attention on Anduril's pitch for faster, cheaper, more flexible systems.
A Panama episode that blends invasion history with an intelligence officer's ground-level view.
SpyCast treats Panama as more than a battlefield story. It follows Operation Just Cause from the first mortar to Noriega's surrender, and it keeps the focus on what the intelligence work looked like on the ground.
A careful look at how le Carre turned intelligence work and public unease into fiction.
Jessica Douthwaite's SpyCast conversation keeps its focus on John le Carre's work and the pressures around it, from his time in MI5 and MI6 to the response to The Spy Who Came In From the Cold and the wider climate around double agents and Soviet spies.
A restrained archival account of the Lumumba plot and the CIA officer at its center.
SpyCast returns to the Lumumba plot and stays close to the CIA's 1960 plan to kill Patrice Lumumba, with station chief Larry Devlin at the center.
An assassination story built from one weapon, one archive conversation, and patient tradecraft.
SpyCast opens with the axe used to assassinate Leon Trotsky, then widens into the long search that led Keith Melton to it. The episode keeps a steady grip on the larger intelligence story, with Melton and Peter Ernest tracing Trotsky's stature, the operation in Mexico City, and…
A steady account of the Argo rescue, built on procedure, tension, and quiet nerve.
The episode keeps its focus on the mechanics of the Tehran embassy escape: six diplomats sheltered by Canadian embassy staff, Tony Mendez showing up as a production manager, and the final airport run where paperwork and nerves matter more than speeches.
Host Jack Rhysider narrates true hacking, breach, and privacy stories from the people involved.
David Pierce and Verge staffers cover AI industry news, gadgets, and tech policy weekly.
Aria Knight breaks down one AI case study per episode, from Amazon's biased hiring tool to TikTok's voice cloning.
Season-long reported deep dives into one giant company at a time, from Disney to Tesla.
Brian McCullough's daily tech news digest, mixing solo rundowns with reporter interviews.
Havana syndrome remains contested.
Palmer Luckey, founder of defense technology firm Anduril, joins SpyCast host Sasha Ingber to discuss autonomous weapons, AI-driven intelligence collection, and US defense strategy.
This episode explores the complex and distrustful relationship between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin during World War II, focusing on espionage and political dynamics that shaped their alliance against Hitler.
This episode features an interview with Jonna Mendez, former CIA chief of disguise, discussing her career and untold stories about operations in Iran and exfiltrations during Camouflage Month.
This episode explores the CIA's loss of a nuclear-powered listening device on India's Nanda Devi mountain in the 1960s, featuring an interview with New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman who investigated the incident.
This episode explores how AI companions, primarily developed in China, could be used to collect personal data for recruitment and influence operations, featuring insights from former CIA officer Chip Usher.
This episode of SpyCast explores Roald Dahl's secret life as an MI6 spy during World War II, featuring an interview with writer Aaron Tracy about his new podcast on Dahl's espionage career.
This episode explores the case of Katrina Leung, a double agent who worked for the FBI while secretly spying for China and had an affair with her handler, featuring an interview with retired FBI agent Stephen Conley.
Host Sasha Ingber interviews Brian Stern about his secret mission to extract Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Karina Machado.
Former DEA agent Wes Tabor discusses Hezbollah's roots in Latin America and their ties to drug cartels.
Former DEA agent Wes Tabor discusses creating a gang intelligence database in Guatemala to combat drug cartels and gangs like MS-13.
Panama is the starting point.
Host Sasha Ingber interviews director Georgie Banks Davies about the long-awaited second season of the espionage TV series The Night Manager.
An interview with a former CIA director of the Special Activities Center about his career in covert operations.
John le Carre began as David Cornwell.
Retired Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Ingram discusses his role in Operation Odyssey Lightning, a mission to push ISIS out of Sirte, Libya.
This episode discusses the Kryptos sculpture at CIA headquarters and the auction of its creator's archive.
This episode features an interview with Bob Wallace, former director of the CIA's Office of Technical Service, discussing spy gadgets, covert operations, and innovations in espionage technology.
This episode discusses the CIA's secret 35-year program of smuggling books into the Soviet Union to combat communism, based on Charlie English's new book.
Former FBI agent discusses the investigation of engineer Chi Mac who stole warfighting secrets for China.
Author Christine Kuhn discusses her family's spy history, including an aunt's affair with Joseph Goebbels and grandfather's espionage for Japan.
Larry Devlin speaks from the archive, and the room gets cold fast.
Author Stuart Reid discusses his book 'The Lumumba Plot' about the CIA's operation to assassinate Patrice Lumumba in 1960 Congo.
Host Sasha Ingber interviews Admiral Joachim Ruhle about Russian incursions into NATO airspace and hybrid warfare tactics.
Jessica Brandt discusses the growing sophistication of foreign disinformation operations and how the U.S.
The axe stays at the center.
Host Sasha Ingber interviews hacker Vinny Troia about his work on the dark web and selling data to intelligence agencies.
A former banker recounts how he was coerced into befriending drug cartel leaders in prison and later became their private banker while secretly working for U.S.
A former CIA operations chief recounts his experience on 9/11 and his role in overseeing the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound.
This episode explores the 50th anniversary of CIA station chief Richard Welsh's assassination in Athens by the 17 November terrorist group, featuring insights from former officer Ralph Mariani about Welsh's legacy and the family's fight to have his CIA affiliation engraved on his grave.
Tehran is where the pressure lands.
This episode recounts the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and the CIA's daring rescue of six U.S.
Host Sasha Ingber interviews former intelligence officer Chris Costa about his transition from field operations to White House counterterrorism policy.
Interview with the director of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency about its role in security clearances and protecting against insider threats after the OPM hack.
Chairman Rick Crawford discusses his priorities and vision for the House Intelligence Committee.