True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics
SPYSCAPE
True Spies takes you inside the world's greatest espionage and detective operations. Our hosts Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Sophia Di Martino, Daisy Ridley and Rhiannon Neads talk to the real spies behind the missions. What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in their position? We explore and investigate real life thrillers, mysteries and crimes - stories that prove truth is stranger than fiction! These stories cover lies, murder, theft, sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. You’ll meet experts from the top intelligence agencies including FBI, CIA, MI5, MI6 (SIS), KGB, GRU, Mossad and many others. You’ll discover characters who spied because of money, ideology, coercion or just plain old ego. And, if you’d like to dig deeper into the world of secrets, and test your own secret intelligence skills, head over to spyscape.com for articles, games, experiences, puzzles and videos.For episodes first and ad-free, subscribe to Spyscape+ at: plus.Spyscape.comA Cup & Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Music: Nick Ryan.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jul 31, 2023 • 38min
Dancing With Jackals, Part One: The Idealist | CIA
In June 1970, a young man is arrested at the Israeli port of Haifa. On his person, police officers discover pro-Palestine propaganda, a Super-8 video camera, and 2 kilograms of high explosive. His name is Bruno Breguet - and his story only gets stranger from here.In this 2-part True Spies story, intelligence historian Adrian Hänni joins Daisy Ridley to uncover the life of a little-known, but fascinating figure. In Part 1, you'll follow Bruno's journey from sleepy southern Switzerland to the frontlines of pro-Palestinian terror in the 1970s - and the inner circle of one of the world's most notorious terrorists, Carlos the Jackal.From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Joe Foley. Music by Nick Ryan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 24, 2023 • 46min
The Oswald Project, Part Two: The Cuban Connection | CIA
A new season of True Spies kicks off with Daisy Ridley as the Narrator and Edward Norton as Lee Harvey Oswald - the alleged assassin behind the killing of President John F Kennedy.The Oswald Project tells the shocking story of Oswald and his relationship with the CIA. Was he being trained by the Agency to become a KGB double-agent – or to take the fall for JFK's murder? Was he, as he claimed just before his own assassination, “a patsy”?Featuring expert insight from Professor John Newman and investigative journalist Jefferson Morley, and making use of Oswald's own private writings, you'll discover a new perspective on history's most famous whodunnit.In Part 2, Ricardo Morales Jr. joins Daisy, John and Jefferson to dig into the murky links between JFK's assassination and Cuba.From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Justin Trefgarne. Music by Nick Ryan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 17, 2023 • 42min
The Oswald Project, Part One: From Russia With Love | CIA
A new season of True Spies kicks off with Daisy Ridley as the Narrator and Edward Norton as Lee Harvey Oswald - the alleged assassin behind the killing of President John F Kennedy.The Oswald Project tells the shocking story of Oswald and his relationship with the CIA. Was he being trained by the Agency to become a KGB double-agent – or to take the fall for JFK's murder? Was he, as he claimed just before his own assassination, “a patsy”?Featuring expert insight from Professor John Newman and investigative journalist Jefferson Morley, and making use of Oswald's own private writings, you'll discover a new perspective on history's most famous whodunnit.In Part One, we explore Oswald's complex connections to intelligence services on both sides of the Cold War.From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Justin Trefgarne. Music by Nick Ryan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 10, 2023 • 42min
A Taste for Treason, Part 2: Agent Crown | WW2
A Scottish hairdresser, a wannabe actor-slash-stunt pilot, and a Nazi spy ring spanning both sides of the Atlantic. Three different shows? No. One True Spies special.In this two-part story, intelligence historian Andrew Jeffrey joins Sophia Di Martino to tell a story that has to be heard to be believed.In the 1930s, a resurgent Germany was determined to steal Allied secrets to gain an advantage in the coming war. Through a series of improbable twists, turns, and intelligence coups, MI5 and the FBI were able to target and eliminate a spy network that posed a very real threat to the Free World.In Part 2, the FBI investigation against the New York spy ring begins in earnest. In Europe, intelligence officers are about to discover a truly existential danger on the waves of the Mediterranean.From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Joe Foley. Music by Nick Ryan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 3, 2023 • 47min
A Taste for Treason, Part 1: PO BOX 629 | WW2
A Scottish hairdresser, a wannabe actor-slash-stunt pilot, and a Nazi spy ring spanning both sides of the Atlantic. Three different shows? No. One True Spies special.In this two-part story, intelligence historian Andrew Jeffrey joins Sophia Di Martino to tell a story that has to be heard to be believed.In the 1930s, a resurgent Germany was determined to steal Allied secrets to gain an advantage in the coming war. Through a series of improbable twists, turns, and intelligence coups, MI5 and the FBI were able to target and eliminate a spy network that posed a very real threat to the Free World.In Part 1, Andrew traces the origins of the spy network from the cockpit of a British monoplane to the streets of Manhattan.From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Joe Foley. Music by Nick Ryan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 26, 2023 • 41min
Operation Inter | StB
In the late 1980s, change is in the air in Eastern Europe. For a young journalist like Mark Baker, Czechoslovakia is an interesting place to be. But Mark has attracted some unwanted attention - a fact that he'll only discover several decades later.Sophia Di Martino joins Mark to travel through the True Spies looking-glass, and discover what it's like to become the target of a recruitment effort by an intelligence agency - whether you know it or not.From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Morgan Childs. Music by Nick Ryan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 19, 2023 • 45min
Operation Ivy Bells | DoD
In 1970, Captain James Bradley had a daydream - a daydream that inspired one of the most audacious aquatic espionage missions of all time.Operation Ivy Bells gave the USA unprecedented access to Soviet undersea communications cables, and hastened the end of the nuclear stand-off between the two nations. Sophia Di Martino joins journalists Christopher Drew and Sherry Sontag for a thrilling and often claustrophobic tale of covert submarine warfare.From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Ashley Clivery. Music by Nick Ryan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 12, 2023 • 50min
Behind the Bamboo Curtain | CIA
When two CIA officers were captured in an ambush on Chinese territory, it seemed as though their story was over. In fact, their ordeal had only just begun. Two decades later, their fates still hung in the balance between the power-players of Beijing and Washington.Professor John Delury, a historian of China and US-China affairs, joins Sophia Di Martino to discuss one of the great forgotten stories of the Cold War. A tale of resilience, complex political gamesmanship, and the transforming power of a mother's love.From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Frank Palmer. Music by Nick Ryan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 5, 2023 • 45min
The Courier | Mossad
As a student in the early 1970s, espionage was never on the cards for Howard Kaplan. But when he was given the opportunity to smuggle documents out of Soviet Russia for the Israeli government, he could hardly turn down the adventure.Sophia Di Martino joins Howard - now an author of spy novels - to tell a story of close calls, covert tradecraft and undercover cabbies in the Cold War.From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Joe Foley. Music by Nick Ryan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 29, 2023 • 48min
Extracting Eichmann, Part 2/2: Rat Trap | Mossad
In the aftermath of WW2, war criminals scatter to the four winds. Using international escape routes known as 'Ratlines', scores of Nazis begin new lives in South America. Among them is one of the Holocaust's chief architects - Adolf Eichmann.In Part Two of this two-part story, Sophia Di Martino explores the origins of an audacious Mossad operation in 1960s Argentina. Told by a cast of experts and descendants of central figures inside the mission, this is the story of how Eichmann was finally brought to justice.From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Max Bower. Music by Nick Ryan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
