Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs cover art

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs

Written by: Secrets & Spies
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Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode unpacks global events through the lens of intelligence and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and analysts. Tune in for balanced, critical perspectives that will expand your understanding of our uncertain world, deciphering the most enigmatic professions, ideologies, and organizations that shape the global landscape.

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Our Hosts Host Chris Carr, driven by a teenage encounter with former KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky, brings a unique authenticity to the podcast. His deep-seated fascination with espionage is evident in his highly acclaimed short spy film The Dry Cleaner, available on Apple TV and Amazon Prime. Currently developing feature film and television scripts inspired by the podcast's themes, Chris aims to create realistic and compelling spy dramas.

Joining him is Matt Fulton, a novelist and screenwriter who draws inspiration from masters of the spy genre like John Le Carré, Tom Clancy, and Graham Greene. Author of the Active Measures series of globe-trotting geopolitical thrillers, Matt brings his decades of extensive research and narrative prowess to the podcast, offering listeners a front-row seat to the thrilling world of covert operations.Chris Carr / F & P LTD
Politics & Government Social Sciences True Crime
Episodes
  • S10 Ep41: Able Archer: The Nuclear War Game That Almost Ended the World with Brian J. Morra
    Apr 24 2026

    In the fall of 1983, NATO's annual nuclear war exercise, Able Archer 83, brought the United States and the Soviet Union closer to catastrophe than almost anyone in Washington understood at the time. Brian J. Morra—decorated former Air Force intelligence officer, aerospace executive, and author of the historical thriller The Able Archers—was inside those events: stationed in Tokyo during the KAL 007 shootdown, transferred to Washington just as the crisis peaked, and present in Germany as Soviet nuclear alerts reached levels never seen before or since. He walks Chris through the paranoia that drove Operation RYAN, the Kremlin's vast intelligence collection effort premised on the certainty of a NATO first strike; why mirror imaging at CIA left Reagan largely uninformed; and how three individuals—General Charles Donnelly, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, and General Leonard Perutz—each exercised the kind of cool judgment that kept the crisis from tipping into war. Morra draws the line from 1983 to the present: when leadership on opposing sides stops talking directly, the system fails—and that failure, he argues, looks familiar today.

    Subscribe and share to stay ahead in the world of intelligence, global issues, and current affairs.

    Learn more about Brian and his work: https://brianjmorra.com/

    Order The Able Archers: https://brianjmorra.com/the-able-archers/

    Support Secrets and Spies

    Become a “Friend of the Podcast” on Patreon for £3/$4: https://www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies

    Buy merchandise from our shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996

    Buy us a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/secretsandspies

    Subscribe to our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDVB23lrHr3KFeXq4VU36dg

    For more information about the podcast, check out our website: https://secretsandspiespodcast.com

    Connect with us on social media

    Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/secretsandspies.bsky.social

    Instagram: https://instagram.com/secretsandspies

    Facebook: https://facebook.com/secretsandspies

    Spoutible: https://spoutible.com/SecretsAndSpies

    Follow Chris and Matt on Bluesky:

    https://bsky.app/profile/chriscarrfilm.bsky.social

    https://bsky.app/profile/mattfulton.net

    Secrets and Spies is produced by Films & Podcasts LTD: https://filmsandpodcasts.co.uk/

    Music by Andrew R. Bird

    Photo by US National Archives/Getty

    Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode examines the very topics that real intelligence officers and analysts consider on a daily basis through the lens of global events and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and journalists.

    #Espionage #ColdWar #Spy

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    1 hr and 1 min
  • S10 Ep40: What Hollywood Gets Wrong About the CIA with John Sipher & Jerry O’Shea
    Apr 18 2026

    John Sipher and Jerry O'Shea, former senior CIA officers and co-founders of Spycraft Entertainment, return to the show for a conversation with Matt and Chris about what Hollywood gets wrong about espionage—and what they're trying to do about it. They dig into the tropes that break the spell (the lone hero, the ditched tail, the torture-porn shortcuts), why real intelligence work is quieter, more bureaucratic, and more character-driven than the screen suggests, and how lazy spy fiction feeds the conspiracy theories they now debunk on their podcast Mission Implausible. Their conversation ranges across the economics of pitching subtlety to risk-averse studios, the moral gray zones that make for better drama than propaganda ever could, the "deep state" as misnomer, and the unsung assets who are the real heroes of most operations. Along the way: a bubble in Moscow for marital fights, a 16-year-old Yazidi girl who helped bring down ISIS, and why the Glomar Explorer remains the great white whale of the genre.

    Subscribe and share to stay ahead in the world of intelligence, global issues, and current affairs.

    Learn more about Spycraft Entertainment: https://spycraftentertainment.com/

    Listen to John and Jerry’s podcast, Mission Implausible: https://podcasts.apple.com/fm/podcast/mission-implausible/id1728340033

    Follow John on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/johnsipher.bsky.social

    Please share this episode using these links

    Audio: https://pod.fo/e/401167
    YouTube: https://youtu.be/MhJxmS2MItQ

    Support Secrets and SpiesBecome a “Friend of the Podcast” on Patreon for £3/$4: https://www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies
    Buy merchandise from our shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996
    Buy us a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/secretsandspies
    Subscribe to our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDVB23lrHr3KFeXq4VU36dg

    For more information about the podcast, check out our website: https://secretsandspiespodcast.com

    Connect with us on social media

    Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/secretsandspies.bsky.social
    Instagram: https://instagram.com/secretsandspies
    Facebook: https://facebook.com/secretsandspies
    Spoutible: https://spoutible.com/SecretsAndSpies

    Follow Chris and Matt on Bluesky:
    https://bsky.app/profile/chriscarrfilm.bsky.social
    https://bsky.app/profile/mattfulton.net

    Secrets and Spies is produced by Films & Podcasts LTD: https://filmsandpodcasts.co.uk/
    Music by Andrew R. Bird
    Photo by Spycraft Entertainment

    Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode examines the very topics that real intelligence officers and analysts consider on a daily basis through the lens of global events and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and journalists.

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    1 hr and 19 mins
  • S10 Ep39: Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks with Sean Wiswesser
    Apr 11 2026

    Sean Wiswesser spent three decades in the U.S. intelligence community, much of it running operations against Russia for the CIA. His new book, Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks, dissects of how the FSB, SVR, and GRU actually do their work: dead drops, signal sites, surveillance detection routes, and the street tradecraft that protected agents like Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen for years. Wiswesser explains why Russian services keep returning to Cold War–era methods, breaks down the operational differences between the SVR and GRU, and assesses elite units like Alpha, Vympel, and Spetsnaz whose mythology often outpaces their record. He also charts the sharp escalation in Russian sabotage across Europe, the mafia-like culture driving increasingly reckless operations, and Moscow's use of AI-enhanced active measures to deepen division in Western democracies.

    Subscribe and share to stay ahead in the world of intelligence, global issues, and current affairs.

    Order Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: https://www.usni.org/press/books/tradecraft-tactics-and-dirty-tricks

    Connect with Sean on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-wiswesser-a86603133/

    Please share this episode using these links

    Audio: https://pod.fo/e/3fb9a1
    YouTube: https://youtu.be/WI7IChkSNps

    Support Secrets and SpiesBecome a “Friend of the Podcast” on Patreon for £3/$4: https://www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies
    Buy merchandise from our shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996
    Buy us a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/secretsandspies
    Subscribe to our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDVB23lrHr3KFeXq4VU36dg

    For more information about the podcast, check out our website: https://secretsandspiespodcast.com

    Connect with us on social media

    Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/secretsandspies.bsky.social
    Instagram: https://instagram.com/secretsandspies
    Facebook: https://facebook.com/secretsandspies
    Spoutible: https://spoutible.com/SecretsAndSpies

    Follow Chris and Matt on Bluesky:
    https://bsky.app/profile/chriscarrfilm.bsky.social
    https://bsky.app/profile/mattfulton.net

    Secrets and Spies is produced by Films & Podcasts LTD: https://filmsandpodcasts.co.uk/
    Music by Andrew R. Bird
    Photo by Dmitry Astakhov / REX

    Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode examines the very topics that real intelligence officers and analysts consider on a daily basis through the lens of global events and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and journalists.

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 2 mins
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