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

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.

Subscribe to Secrets and Spies today on all major podcast streaming platforms.


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 Ep22: John le Carré and the Russian Mafia with Federico Varese

    S10 Ep22: John le Carré and the Russian Mafia with Federico Varese
    Dec 24 2025
    Criminologist Federico Varese joins Chris to talk John le Carré—David Cornwell—and what his fiction got right about power, corruption, and the criminal underside of the modern Russian state. Varese, a co-curator of Oxford’s Tradecraft exhibition at the Bodleian, shares how he first met Cornwell in the early 1990s and later advised him on Our Game and Our Kind of Traitor, drawing directly on his research into Russian organized crime. From there, Varese unpacks the post-Soviet trajectory he traces in Russia in Four Criminals—how “free markets” without a strong rule-of-law state produced predation, oligarchic capture, and ultimately what he calls a “mafia state,” where independent organized crime is squeezed out by a system that fuses political and economic power. The conversation also gets into how Russian security services use criminals for deniable operations abroad and how cybercrime functions as a tolerated ecosystem—until the state needs it—turning hackers into a ready-made tool of hybrid warfare.

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

    Learn more about Federico and his work: https://federicovarese.com

    Order Russia in Four Criminals: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=russia-in-four-criminals--9781509563609

    Visit the Bodleian Libaries’ John le Carré: Tradecraft exhibition: https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/lecarre

    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 F & P LTD.
    Music by Andrew R. Bird
    Photo by Bodleian Libraries & Federico Varese

    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 9 mins
  • S10 Ep21: Myths and Realities of Russian Intelligence with John Sipher

    S10 Ep21: Myths and Realities of Russian Intelligence with John Sipher
    Dec 20 2025
    Former senior CIA officer John Sipher joins Chris to break down what Western audiences get wrong about Russian intelligence—starting with what it’s actually like to operate inside one of the world’s most hostile counterintelligence environments. Sipher explains the KGB-to-Putin throughline, why Moscow treats intelligence as a frontline tool of regime survival, and how “active measures” and reflexive control shape Russia’s political warfare abroad. He also pushes back on myths of intelligence work, digs into how the West misread Russia’s strength and Ukraine’s will to fight, and lays out what containment—and a post-Putin future—might realistically look like. The conversation closes with a sharp look at disinformation, conspiracy culture, and why Hollywood keeps getting espionage wrong.

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

    More about John and Spycraft Entertainment: https://spycraftentertainment.com/john-sipher

    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 F & P LTD.
    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.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 10 mins
  • S10 Ep20: Espionage and Drug Trafficking: The Life of Harold Durber with David Tuch

    S10 Ep20: Espionage and Drug Trafficking: The Life of Harold Durber with David Tuch
    Dec 17 2025
    David Tuch, author of The Wireless Operator, joins Chris to tell the stranger-than-fiction story of Harold Durber—a wartime wireless operator who later ran blockade-busting weapons to Israel before reinventing marijuana smuggling in the 1970s. David explains how a loophole created by the 1970 Controlled Substances Act briefly made it legal to hold drugs in international waters—and how Durber exploited it with a “mothership” fleet, offloading tons of marijuana at sea. They break down why Durber’s flagship, the Night Train, became law enforcement’s obsession, built on counter-surveillance and tradecraft designed to keep informants out. The conversation then moves into Miami and Wall Street—money laundering, the Gambinos, and First Jersey Securities—alongside Durber’s documented ties to Cuban intelligence.

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

    Learn more about David and his work: https://davidtuch.com

    Order The Wireless Operator: https://www.iconbooks.com/ib-title/the-wireless-operator/

    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 F & P LTD.
    Music by Andrew R. Bird
    Photo by David Tuch, Ted Akey, Wolfson Archives & Icon Books

    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
    59 mins
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