Introducing: Operation Rising Lion - Attack On Iran (Espionage Thriller)

New episodes every Sunday.

Operation Rising Lion is the untold story of one of history's most audacious intelligence campaigns, narrated by the man who lived it. Marcus Cole spent twenty years coordinating Mossad's most sensitive operations. Now, at 52, he's ready to tell the story that's haunted him for seven years—how a midnight heist in Tehran sparked a shadow war that prevented nuclear catastrophe and cost him everything he had left to lose.

From the legendary 2018 theft of Iran's nuclear archives to the infiltration of double agents at the highest levels of Iranian intelligence, Marcus reveals the human mathematics of modern espionage. Every decision required sacrificing someone. Every operation demanded calculating lives like variables in an equation that had to balance, no matter the cost.

Based on real events but told through deeply personal fictional narratives, this six-part series explores what happens when ordinary people become instruments of history. Dr. Ahmad Tehrani, wrestling with the true nature of his nuclear research. Captain Reza Amiri, hunting the very network we're rooting for. And Marcus himself, carrying his brother's dog tags and a growing list of names he can never forget. This is the story of how we prevented the unthinkable—and whether it was worth what we became.

To become a premium subscriber (no ads and no feed drops) visit caloroga.com/plus.   For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app which seays UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. You also get 25+ other shows on the network ad-free!  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
My name is Marcus Cole. I'm not supposed to be
telling you this story. For twenty years, I coordinated operations
you'll never read about, missions that changed history while the
world slept. I was good at it because I could
see people as numbers in an equation, variables to be calculated,
not lives to be mourned. My brother Daniel was supposed

(00:22):
to be the hero. He died in Jennin in two
thousand and two, and I've been carrying his dog tags
ever since. Three months after his funeral, I walked into
MASAD headquarters and volunteered to become someone I never wanted
to be. January twenty eighteen, we had six hours to
steal a RAN's nuclear secrets from a warehouse in Tehran.

(00:44):
That heist was just the beginning of seven years. I
can't forget seven years of impossible decisions, seven years of
trading lives like chess pieces. June thirteenth, twenty twenty five,
Operation Rising Lion, ulmination of everything we built, everyone we'd sacrificed,
every line we'd crossed to prevent nuclear war. I keep

(01:07):
a private file of everyone who died because of operations.
I coordinated their names, their families, their dreams I help destroy.
This is their story and mine and maybe yours if
you can stomach the math of saving the world. Operation
Rising Lion available wherever you get your podcasts.