SPYCRAFT 101

Today Justin sits down with Laken Pavan. Laken is a 19-year-old student from Vancouver, Canada. In April, 2024, he left Vancouver and traveled to Eastern Ukraine to join a volunteer group there called InterBrigade. Shortly after arriving, he was confronted by agents from the Russian FSB Federal Security Service, who recruited him to work on their behalf gathering information elsewhere in Europe. He first traveled to Denmark and lat...

Today Justin speaks with Dr. David Tuch. David is a technology entrepreneur and author. His writing uncovers overlooked stories at the intersection of organized crime and espionage. David is originally from New York and has lived in England and France, but now resides in Brookline, Massachusetts with his wife and children. He's here to discuss his new book about Harold Derber, a merchant sailor and radio operator during World ...

Today Justin sits down with Tim Willasey-Wilsey Tim is a visiting professor of War Studies at King's College London, and Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. He served for many years as a foreign office diplomat in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. He has also published numerous articles and reviews in the national and international press, and for academic institutions and think tanks. He&apos...

Today Justin speaks with Reality Winner. Reality enlisted in the US Air Force after high school and served as a cryptolinguist assigned to the National Security Agency where she translated audio recordings in Pashtu and Dari from Afghanistan. Following her first enlistment, she was hired as a private contractor working at a different NSA facility in Augusta, Georgia. In June, 2017, she was arrested after leaking a classified report...

Today Justin sits down with Jen Gatien.  Jen is a filmmaker and producer based in New York City. Some of her film credits include Hound Dog starring Dakota Fanning and Robin Wright, Holy Rollers starring Jesse Eisenberg, and For Ellen starring Paul Dano. In her spare time, Jen serves as a board member on the Lower East Side Girls Club, as well as a volunteer for Pup Stars Dog Rescue and the Mercer Houston Dog Run. She's here t...

 Today's episode is another solo episode where Justin shares his own research with you. This time he's talking about Ralph Sigler, a US Army warrant officer, and one of the best double agents in Army history who died under mysterious circumstances in a Maryland hotel room in 1976. We briefly discussed Sigler's death way back in episode 76 in December, 2022, but Justin decided this case was worth a much more in-depth ...

 This week Justin sits down with Robert Kerbeck. Robert is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has worked extensively in theater, film, and television, appearing in lead roles in major shows, and earning several awards. He is a lifetime member of the Actor's Studio. He's also the founder of the Malibu Writers Circle and the author of Malibu Burning: The Real Story behind LA's Most Devastating Wildfire. H...

Today Justin sits down with Dr. Aviva Guttmann. Aviva has worked as a visiting researcher in war studies in King's Intelligence and Security Group, and a Marie Curie senior researcher at the Center for War Studies at Southern Denmark University. She's also worked for the Swiss Embassy in Nigeria and the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces where she managed product projects on police cooperation in the...

This week Justin's guest is William "Bill" Ray. Bill is a retired army major and a Department of Defense civilian with more than 50 years of service as an intelligence and counterintelligence officer, including 20 years in Europe. During his career, he spent over three and a half years as a remote viewer at Fort Mead, including as the unit commander from 1985 to 1987, along with my previous podcast guest, Dr. Paul Sm...

Today Justin talks to Shaun Walker. Shaun worked as a reporter in Moscow for more than a decade starting in 2007, first for The Independent and later for The Guardian. He now lives in Warsaw, Poland, where he is the Central and Eastern Europe correspondent for The Guardian, and mostly covers the war in Ukraine. Besides his many articles for The Guardian and other media outlets, he's also the author of The Long Hangover: Putin&...

Today Justin is joined once more by Tim Spicer. Tim served for 20 years in the British Army where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and saw active service in Northern Ireland, The Falklands Campaign, the Gulf War, and the Balkans, as well as serving in the Far East, Cyprus, and Germany. Today, he's back to discuss his own life and career, which has been full of danger and adventure as well. Tim wrote about it all in hi...

This week Justin welcomes Dr. Luca Trenta. Luca is an associate professor in international relations at Swansea University in Wales, and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Higher Education Academy. He's written extensively on covert action and assassination as tools of foreign policy. He's the host of the Out of the Shadows Podcast with nine episodes available now, and he has appeared on four episodes ...

This week Justin reconnects with Dr. Frank Close. Frank is Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics and Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College at the University of Oxford. He was formerly the head of the Theoretical Physics Division at the Ruthford Appleton Laboratory Vice President of the British Science Association and Head of Communications and Public Understanding at CERN. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and won their Michael F...

*Ernest joined us via telephone call, so some parts of this interview may be difficult to understand due to unreliable audio quality. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Today's guest is Ernest Latham. Ernest is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Roosevelt University. During his career with the US State Department, Ernest worked all over the world, including Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and West Germany. From 1983 to 1987, he was as...

Today Justin talks with Dr. Richard Duckett. Richard received a master's degree from the University of Reading and a doctorate from Open University. He's taught history and politics for more than 20 years. He's also the author of three previous books on British military history in Burma. He's here to discuss the story of Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Peacock, who led mainly indigenous forces to incredible victories a...

Today Justin sits down with Dr. Paul H. Smith. Paul is a retired Army intelligence officer and a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Brigham Young University, a Master of Science degree in Strategic Intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College, and a Doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. He's also the president of Remote Viewing Instructional Serv...

Today Justin is joined by Tim Spicer. Tim served for 20 years in the British Army where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and saw active service in Northern Ireland, the Falklands Campaign, the Gulf War, and the Balkans, as well as serving in the Far East, Cyprus, and Germany. After retiring, he founded private security company Aegis in 2001. He's also the author of several books, including his autobiography, titled An...

 Today we're going back into the archives again with a replay of episode 60, originally published in September 2022. We're excited to reintroduce you to the incredible story of Toby Scott and Jerry Daniels. Randolph Toby Scott is a former smoke jumper with the US Forest Service, who later worked in Southeast Asia under contract with Continental Air Services during the Secret War in Laos. He also took part in Operation Col...

Today Justin sits dow with repeat guest John Lisle. John has a PhD in history from the University of Texas where he is now a professor of The History of Science. He's received research and writing awards from The National Academy of Sciences, The American Institute of Physics, and The National Endowment for the Humanities. His work has been published in Skeptic, Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, and elsewhere. If you ...