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Hosted by John Kiriakou & Alan Katz · history · EN
Join ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou on a very personal deep dive into what makes a spy tick. One of the most famous spies in the whole world, John - a spy with a conscience - blew the whistle on the CIA's torture program after the war on terror and spent 23 months in federal prison for it. As John explains, no spy is ever an "ex-spy". Why is that so? Listen to the podcast and you'll understand why. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
33%
Guest openness
Selective
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Signup to Generate a PitchJoin ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou on a very personal deep dive into what makes a spy tick. One of the most famous spies in the whole world, John - a spy with a conscience - blew the whistle on the CIA's torture program after the war on terror and spent 23 months in federal prison for it.
John Kiriakou's Dead Drop is hosted by John Kiriakou & Alan Katz. The show has published 57 episodes to date.
Recent episodes include "S3E6 An Enemy Within: The Stay-Behinds" (26 October 2026, 62 minutes), "S3E5 How To Interrogate A Monster: Saddam Hussein" (19 October 2026, 88 minutes), and "S3E3 Liars (And Lying) 101" (5 October 2026, 47 minutes).
John Kiriakou's Dead Drop publishes roughly weekly, with episodes averaging 48 minutes across 57 episodes.
Booking probability for John Kiriakou's Dead Drop is 33%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. John Kiriakou's Dead Drop requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. John Kiriakou's Dead Drop's contact route on record: verified email.
The strongest fits for John Kiriakou's Dead Drop are Defense & International Affairs. John Kiriakou's Dead Drop has a history audience.
John Kiriakou & Alan Katz hosts John Kiriakou's Dead Drop, a history podcast with 57 episodes published.
Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.
Episode #6
IN THIS EPISODE One of the most remarkable stories that no one knows - which is remarkable in itself - is the assassinatioin of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme on a Stockholm street on February 28, 1986. Palme's...
IN THIS EPISODE In the previous two Spy Academy episodes, we talked about liars and how to spot them. Now it's time to put all that knowledge to good use as we deep dive into interrogating a true psychopath, the former...
Episode #3
IN THIS EPISODE Welcome to John Kiriakou's Spy Academy! Whether chatting with someone informally or conducting a full-on interrogation, every spy needs to know whether or not the person they're talking to is being...
Episode #2
IN THIS EPISODE Every whistleblower should know one thing before they step forward with their secrets that demand exposing - at some point, the legal system will engage with you. When that happens, each and every...
Episode #1
IN THIS EPISODE Welcome to Season 3! As the title of this episode suggests, season 3 will refocus the podcast on spying and, this season, on whistleblowing, too. We may be in a Golden Age of Corruption, but that's a...
IN THIS EPISODE We draw the curtain on season 2 with a preview of season 3 wherein we'll ask "What Makes A Whistleblower Tick?" To get us kicked off, John roundtables with whistleblower Tom Drake. A longtime member of...
Episode #17
IN THIS EPISODE We join with another podcast in the Costard & Touchstone Family - The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast - to explore how NOT to make a SPY movie. John and Alan Katz (he's both the host of The How NOT To...
Episode #16
IN THIS EPISODE John's time at Loretto finally comes to an end - but not without a near hiccup. Though he's free of Loretto, he's not free from the federal Bureau of Prisons; John must report every day to "Hope...
Episode #15
IN THIS EPISODE When John first entered the gates of Loretto Federal Prison, his goal was to use all his training as a spy to survive prison. But, just as with spying, prison can be very unpredictable. In fact, John...
Episode #14
IN THIS EPISODE At Loretto Federal Prison, John can almost see the light of his release date in the not-too-distant future. Returning to the Outside World will mean having to shed the prison persona John worked so hard...
Episode #13
IN THIS EPISODE John was hardly the first person to point out corruption in America's penal system. Paul Wright was serving a 17 year sentence for murdering a drug dealer when, in May 1990, he started The Prison Legal...
Episode #12
IN THIS EPISODE When he first arrived at Loretto Federal Prison to start serving his 30 month term, John expected to serve that term where the judge and prosecutor both advocated that John be in the minimum security...
Episode #11
IN THIS EPISODE With his out date - the end of his prison sentence - now starting to come into view (albeit still in the distance), John would have been best served by keeping his head down. But there remained...
Episode #10
IN THIS EPISODE, meet Joey Casolo. These days, Joey owns a great pizzaria in South Carolina. But, back in the day, Joey was one of the greatest prison chefs ever at Loretto. If you remember from the movie Goodfellas...
Episode #9
IN THIS EPISODE: How do you fight corruption when most of the corrupt deck is stacked against you? In John's case, he used his words - and the fact that becoming a federal prisoner does not mean you surrender your...
Episode #8
THE BLURB: While John was serving his sentence, the American government faced the consequences of other whistleblowers speaking their truths about the corruption they'd encountered inside the government. One of the more...
John Kiriakou's Dead Drop
THE BLURB: In this bonus episode, John tells the story of a legal case in which he testified as an expert witness - against the FBI in a case against an accused terrorist. As John learned from personal experience...
Episode #7
THE BLURB: John arrived at Loretto Federal Prison having promised to write about his experiences for various independent news media outlets. He had no idea just how powerful that connection - John's prison experiences...
Episode #6
THE BLURB: Already a succesful, best-selling author when the CIA put John in prison, he quickly realized that his writing - his words - were going to be his super power. John wasn't worried about his fellow prisoners...
Episode #5
THE BLURB: Frederich Nietsche warned us about staring into the abyss and becoming the monster we most feared. He could have been talking about being in prison. Or being a spy. In this episode, John tells how he...
Recent guests on John Kiriakou's Dead Drop. Study who booked and why before you pitch.
senior vice president and system chair of the Neuroscience Institute at Nuvance Health, British Phantom Aviation Group
Freedom of the Press Foundation
folk singer and social activist, Smithsonian Folkways
CIA anti-torture whistleblower, JohnKiriakou.com
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