True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics

True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics

Author: SPYSCAPE Language: English Episodes: 100
Imagine pulling back the curtain on the most secretive missions ever conducted. That’s the experience offered by True Spies, a podcast from SPYSCAPE that moves beyond the Hollywood gloss to sit down with the actual intelligence officers, detectives, and operatives who lived these events. Hosted by a compelling roster including Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, and Daisy Ridley, each episode is a direct conversation with the people who know the answers. You’ll hear firsthand about the split-second decisions, the specialized skills, and the profound moral dilemmas faced in the shadows. This isn’t speculative fiction; it’s a deep exploration of authentic espionage cases, political intrigues, unsolved murders, and complex investigations that have shaped real-world events. The narratives covered in this podcast consistently reveal how the most astonishing truths are often more gripping than any invented thriller. By focusing on documentary-style storytelling and historical context, the series provides a rare, unfiltered look into the high-stakes worlds of crime and national security. Each story invites you to consider not just what happened, but how it felt to be in the room, and what you might have done when everything was on the line.
Episodes
True Spies Classic: The Sociopathic Spy | CIA [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:14
Jim Lawler is one of the CIA's most successful recruiters of foreign spies. But even he had to start somewhere. In this classic episode of True Spies, Vanessa Kirby joins Jim on his first foreign posting. His mission? To…
True Spies Debriefs: John Taylor on the Psychology of Spies [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:43
John Taylor is an author, lecturer and advisor on handling human sources of secret intelligence. He joins True Spies producer Morgan Childs to discuss the psychology of those who play the espionage game - agent and handl…
The Great Illegals, Part Two: The Ambassador | NKVD [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:37
In this two-part True Spies story, author and journalist Shaun Walker unmasks the greatest generation of Russian spies - the Great Illegals. In Part Two, Shaun tells the story of Iosif Grigulevich - the Lithuanian Illega…
True Spies - Brief Histories: Information Warfare [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:58
NEW from True Spies: Brief Histories. From Ancient Roman propaganda apparatus to burgeoning MI6 operations, hear how the very information we consume has throughout history been orchestrated. In Brief Histories, the new m…
The Great Illegals, Part One: The Whistler | NKVD [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:15
In this two-part True Spies story, author and journalist Shaun Walker unmasks the greatest generation of Russian spies - the Great Illegals. In Part One, Shaun tells the story of Nikolai Khokhlov - the music-hall 'whistl…
True Spies Classic: Exit Strategy | CIA [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:02
In this classic episode of True Spies, CIA analyst Sarah Carlson drops Vanessa Kirby into the pressure-cooker of post-revolutionary Libya. In 2011, the Arab Spring swept Colonel Gaddafi from office, leaving a deadly powe…
Introducing... True Spies: Brief Histories [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:15
The history of espionage is long and shrouded in mystery... Hear it chronicled in True Spies: Brief Histories, the new monthly episodes of True Spies. From the intricacies of Ancient Roman tradecraft and Medieval propaga…
True Spies Debriefs: Seth Thévoz on Espionage in London's Clubland [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:38
True Spies producer Morgan Childs joins researcher and author Seth Thévoz to discuss the origins of London's elite gentlemen's clubs - and the movers, shakers and spies who have called them a home-from-home. From SPYSCAP…
The Baltic Baron | MI6 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:13
Author, historian and former British Foreign Office official Tim Willasey-Wilsey tells the incredible story of Wilhelm Von De Ropp - the high-born chameleon who had Hitler's ear in the build-up to WW2. But unbeknownst to…
True Spies Classic: I Was Never Here | CSIS [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:44
Rediscover a classic from the vaults with Andrew Kirsch - a Special Operations officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. True Spies work in all sorts of far-flung locales - but some assignments are closer…