Spy Craft

Some spies steal secrets from embassies or recruit sources inside governments, but the most patient intelligence operations begin with something more ambitious: creating an entirely new human being. During the Cold War...

What happens when the person recruiting you into espionage isn’t a mysterious intelligence officer, but your own father? John Walker built one of the most damaging Soviet spy networks in American history—and eventually...

In 1981, a KGB officer secretly handed French intelligence thousands of documents exposing one of the Soviet Union’s most important technology-theft programs. Instead of simply shutting the operation down, American...

In 1981, a KGB officer secretly handed French intelligence thousands of documents exposing one of the Soviet Union’s most important technology-theft programs. Instead of simply shutting the operation down, American...

In this episode, we separate the gripping fiction of The Americans from the gritty operational realities of the Cold War. While television depicts undercover Soviet operatives as lethal martial artists outsmarting...

When former Russian security officer Alexander Litvinenko fell mysteriously ill in London, doctors couldn't explain what was happening to him — until forensic testing revealed polonium-210, an almost unheard-of poison...

Britain's NCSC, the FBI, and the Dutch AIVD have jointly warned about spyware they attribute to Iranian state-linked actors, including Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The malware is delivered through...

On Sept. 14, 2026, German federal prosecutors charged a German-Ukrainian woman identified as Ilona W. with spying for Russia. She is accused of maintaining contacts since at least October 2023 with an intelligence...

A legend is not a costume. It is a second biography, assembled brick by brick so that a man may walk through another country’s streets and answer its questions without the tremor of invention. This piece examines how...

A mole does not confess. He blends, he performs loyalty better than the loyal, and he waits inside an institution built entirely on the assumption that everyone in the room can be trusted. This is the story of how...

In late August, U.S. Green Berets put Polish special forces through a first-of-its-kind NATO exercise: crossing a simulated front line, covering roughly sixty miles, and striking a target with a drone while more than a...

On August 26 the Justice Department said it had seized the domains behind two Chinese state-linked hacking platforms, QScan and QTRouter, used since at least 2018. Some U.S. networks were compromised; others, including...

Kim Philby was a high-ranking British intelligence officer who spent decades secretly working for the Soviet Union. As a member of the "Cambridge Five" spy ring, he passed classified information to Moscow while rising...

Even in an era of pervasive digital surveillance, classic espionage tradecraft like dead drops and brush passes hasn't disappeared — it's adapted. This episode breaks down the operational logic behind these techniques...

Surveillance detection routes, the tactics civilians pick up from movies, and the reality of how professional surveillance teams actually operate are three very different things. This episode breaks down what it...