- 25 Years of Counterterrorism
Peter Bergen on the triumphs and tragedies wrought by 9/11.
More from our guest:
His latest book:
Twenty-Five Years of America's War on Terror - Bookshop.org US
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy1h 11m - Sep 9, 2026 - How to Recruit a Traitor
Former CIA operations officer and member of CIA's Senior Intelligence Service (SIS-3) turned author, Jim Lawler joins Micheal to discuss real world espionage, spy recruitment, and his latest spy novel.
The Traitor’s Tale by Jim Lawler
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy55m - Sep 4, 2026 - U.S. Adversaries Exploit Intel Failures
Former CIA Chief Learning Officer Steve Hirsch tells how Russia, China, and Iran exploit the cracks in US intelligence.
More From Stephen Hirsch | https://stephenhirsch.com/
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy43m - Aug 28, 2026 - The World's First Super-terrorist
Joby Warrick joined SpyTalk to talk about “The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World’s First Super-Terrorist.”
Check out the book:
The Jackal
The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First
More from Joby Warrick
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy53m - Aug 21, 2026 - Gunfight at the CIA Corral
Political pressure on the spy agency is forcing people out, says former senior analyst Julia Curlee.
More From Julia Curlee at | https://www.lawfaremedia.org/contributors/jcurlee
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy51m - Aug 17, 2026 - Kash Patel’s Strange Trips
Former FBI executive Lauren Anderson on the Director’s China, Russia outreaches.
Lauren C. Anderson | https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurencandersonintl/
https://laurencanderson.substack.com/
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy54m - Aug 7, 2026 - The Nord Stream Conspiracy
Wall Street Journal reporter Bojan Pancevski unveils the astounding story of Ukraine’s sabotage of the Russian pipeline.
Plus, Jeff and Michael discuss Jay Clayton, Todd Blanche, and more.
Read Bojan’s book
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy57m - Jul 31, 2026 - Who’s Running US Intelligence?
Atlantic staff writer Shane Harris drills down on the changes roiling the ODNI and CIA.
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy41m - Jul 24, 2026 - Trumpworld’s Dystopian World of Terror
Terrorism expert Colin Clarke fact-checks the administration’s claims on leftwing extremism and election security.
More from our guest: Colin P. Clarke
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy48m - Jul 18, 2026 - The Reporter and the China Trap
Tom LoBianco answered an ad for a writer and then things went south.
Tom LoBianco is a veteran national politics reporter and editor of 24sight News, the independent news site on Substack.
24sight's scoops have been featured in The New York Times, CNN, ABC News, the Reddit front page, the Columbia Journalism Review and many other outlets.
Tom LoBianco
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy48m - Jul 3, 2026 - War-Ender Weapons
Seeing-eye bombs were supposed to limit civilian casualties. Jeffrey Stern, author of “The Warhead,” explains why they didn’t.
The Warhead
https://www.jeffreyestern.com/books
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Jeffrey E. Stern is an award-winning journalist and the author of five books, including his newest book The Warhead, The 15:17 to Paris, which was adapted as a major motion picture by Clint Eastwood and Warner Brothers, and The Last Thousand: One School’s Promise in a Nation at War, an honorable mention for best book of the year by Library Journal. Stern co-wrote and produced the award-winning independent film Yasmeen’s Element, which premiered at the SXSW film festival and was named a “best of the fest.” He has been named a graduate fellow at the Stanford Center for International Conflict and Negotiation and a grantee of the Pulitzer Center Fellow for Crisis Reporting. Stern’s reporting has appeared in magazines such as The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic.
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy1h 0m - Jun 26, 2026 - Trump's Hatchet Man Atop US Intelligence
New York Times Intelligence Reporter Julian Barnes on the Rise of Bill Pulte.
More from Julian
Writes about the American intelligence community, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other spy agencies, as well as broader national and international security issues. His stories seek to break news about what intelligence officials are thinking, and occasionally doing, and to explain the U.S. perspective on security matters.
- X: @julianbarnes
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy50m - Jun 20, 2026 - How Trump Broke the ODNI
Former senior CIA analyst David Kanin on the crises in US intelligence.
David Kanin is a retired CIA senior analyst and member of the Senior Intelligence Service.
https://commonsensecoalition.net/about-csc/
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy1h 0m - Jun 12, 2026 - How a Terror Case Fizzled
Former Gitmo prosecutor Michael Lebowitz takes us inside the nuclear plot that never was.
Mike Lebowitz is one of America’s few war-crimes prosecutors with front-line counterterrorism experience. A former senior attorney at the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, he spent nearly a decade prosecuting cases at Guantanamo Bay, including the 9/11, USS Cole, and top Al Qaeda commander trials. A US Army combat veteran and former Pathfinder unit paratrooper officer, Lebowitz also served as a senior legal advisor to US Army Cyber Command. He has been featured or quoted by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NPR, Associated Press, and the Atlantic. He lives in Washington, DC.
Second Wave by Michael Lebowitz
In 2003, US intelligence uncovered evidence that al Qaeda had acquired nuclear materials, plotting to smuggle them into American ports. The “Second Wave” threat triggered one of the most urgent and secretive manhunts in US history.
With the cinematic intensity of Zero Dark Thirty and the investigative depth of The Looming Tower, Michael Lebowitz captures post-9/11 chaos and drama: agents risking everything to prevent another catastrophe, families torn apart, and the ethical fault lines still dividing US intelligence.
Readers meet Pakistani-American industrialist Saifullah Paracha, whose import- export business concealed ties to al Qaeda; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, architect of 9/11; Majid Khan, a Baltimore gas-station clerk turned jihadist who mapped US targets; an FBI interrogator who broke suspects faster than any waterboard; and an Orthodox Jewish garment importer whose betrayal helped avert disaster. On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Lebowitz’s account reveals a global pursuit that tested America’s moral limits and asks: Are we as prepared today as we were then?
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy55m - Jun 5, 2026 - Pod Save Our National Security with Tommy Vietor
Former Obama speechwriter Tommy Vietor talks about energizing Dems on vital US foreign policy issues.
Tommy Vietor | https://x.com/TVietor08 | https://crooked.com/podcast-series/pod-save-the-world/
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy59m - May 29, 2026 - Is Havana Up For Grabs?
Cuba intervention expert Peter Kornbluh joins SpyTalk to discuss Trump’s pressure campaign.
Peter Kornbluh | National Security Archive
Peter Kornbluh, Senior Analyst, has worked at the Archive since April 1986. He currently directs the Archive's Cuba and Chile Documentation Projects. He was co-director of the Iran-Contra documentation project and director of the Archive's project on U.S. policy toward Nicaragua. From 1990-1999, he taught at Columbia University as an adjunct assistant professor of international and public affairs.
Cuba: Declassified Records on the Brothers to the Rescue Shootdown | National Security Archive
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy54m - May 22, 2026 - The Ultimate Intelligence Fiasco
Ex-CIA operative Jerry Watson and journalist Bob Drogin tell the disastrous story of Curveball and its relevance to today’s war against Iran.
The US invaded Iraq after the based on bogus intel. Much of that intel was fabricated by Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi an Iraqi defector codenamed "Curveball."
More from our guests:
Bob Drogin | Los Angeles Times
A CIA Officer Returns to Iraq and Uncovers Embarrassing Details of the Spy Agency’s WMD Debacle
Jerry Watson | https://www.criticalanswers.net/
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy1h 3m - May 15, 2026 - Putin in Peril?
Former CIA Russia hand Sean Wiswesser assesses Putin’s grip on his security services amid rumors of coups.
Sean Wiswesser is a Russian intelligence and espionage expert, retired CIA senior ops officer, and author.
His latest book, Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin's Secret War, is out now.
https://www.instagram.com/seanwiswesser/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-wiswesser
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy46m - May 8, 2026 - JFK’s Fatal Mistake
Veteran journalist Jack Cheevers takes another look at President Kennedy’s ambivalent role in the overthrow and assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
Check out Kennedy’ Coup by Jack Cheevers
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy1h 3m - May 1, 2026 - Deciphering the Iran War Talks
A former Pakistani ambassador to the US says the more Trump bashes Iran, the more it will dig in.
Husain Haqqani joins SpyTalk to discuss the state of diplomacy between Iran and the US.
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy47m - Apr 23, 2026
