Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment

Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment is a new podcast from The Cipher Brief hosted by Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly and Cipher Brief Senior Book Editor and author, Bill Harlow exploring the entertainment side of espionage as well as non-fiction books and media on national security issues that are making a difference. Join us each week for new episodes with authors, former intelligence officers, actors, directors, television and movie producers, agents, publishers and more.

January 16th, 2025

The Eurasian Century

Hal Brands, a renowned expert on global affairs, talks with us about his new book: “The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World. Brands argues that Eurasia’s strategic geography can illuminate the contours of rivalry and conflict in today’s world. We will talk with him about what can be learned from Eurasian wars of the past century and the implications of those lessons for the next.

January 8th, 2025

Professional Courage – Telling It Like It Is

To say that retired Army Major General Jack Leide had a remarkable military career would be an understatement.. He has been inducted into four different halls of fame - the US Military Attaché Hall of Fame, the US Military Intelligence Hall of Fame, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s “Torch Bearers Hall of Fame” and the Army Foreign Area Officer Hall of Fame.He had four combat tours - three as an airborne company commander and the fourth as Director of Intelligence for the U.S. Central Command during Desert Storm. We will talk with him about his book “Professional Courage: My Journey in Military Intelligence Through Peace, Crisis and War.” We will ask him about all that and the challenges of telling a demanding boss what they need to know – rather than what they want to hear.

December 18th, 2024

The Penguin Press Publisher’s Perspective

Scott Moyers is a veteran executive of the publishing industry. Today he is Vice President and Publisher of Penguin Press. He has acquired and edited countless bestsellers – including many authored by Cipher Brief experts. He was also director of the New York office of the Wylie Agency – one of the most prominent and influential literary agencies in the U.S. We talk with him about his insights about publishing books touching on the national security, foreign policy and intelligence arenas – both fiction and non-fiction. We also ask about do’s and don’t for aspiring authors, changes in the publishing industry – and what does someone who reads for a living – read for pleasure?

December 12th, 2024

Jack Carr’s Transition from Navy SEAL to Author

Thriller writer Jack Carr didn’t just serve 20 years in the elite Navy SEALS teams – retire and write a book about his experiences. He retired from a career of service (as a sniper) and then followed his ‘other’ passion – writing. His first book, The Terminal List is now an Amazon Prime television series starring Chris Pratt. Since then, he’s written six more novels and has co-authored a non-fiction book called Targeted Beirut, about the 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Story of the War on Terror. Cover Stories talked to Jack about his journey from SEAL teams to author and he has some advice for others making similar transitions from military to civilian life.

December 5th, 2024

The Paranormal Ranger

From 2007 – 2012, the Pentagon secretly funded a small program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program tasked with investigating reports of military encounters with Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. In 2020, the Defense Department launched a new unit called the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force led by the U.S. Navy. And in 2022, the Pentagon created the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office – meant to identify, track and better share information with Congress and the public about the events they could not explain and looking at those events through the lens of national security. But Navajo Ranger Stanley Milton, Jr. was way ahead of them in terms of tracking and sharing information he was gleaning during his three decades working as a law enforcement officer in the Navajo Nation. So what does he want you to know about UFOs?

November 30th, 2024

Mystery and Intrigue in 1930s Shanghai: Marty Petersen on the Creation of “City of Lost Souls”

Long-time CIA officer Marty Petersen is an acknowledged expert on Asia. He is a current Cipher Brief exert who writes frequently on Asian matters. But rather than focusing on modern day China policy for once, he has just published his first novel: City of Lost Souls which is set in 1932 Shanghai and tells of a private detective who helps a young woman search for her missing brother. We’ll ask him about what attracted him to writing fiction and particularly this region and era. We’ll also discuss how writing a novel requires a different skill set from that required of a top Asia analyst for the CIA and if there are lessons and insights that can be derived from his novel that can be applied to current U.S. - China relations. After listening to the podcast – be sure an check out the review of City of Lost Souls in The Cipher Brief.

October 29th, 2024

Admiral Stavridis Navigates The Restless Wave

Description: Admiral Jim Stavridis (Ret.) is out with his fourteenth book, The Restless Wave - a tale of historical fiction taking place during World War II. Cover Stories co-host Suzanne Kelly caught up with the retired Admiral for a Cipher Brief Book Club virtual meeting to talk about just how much of ‘himself’ was written into his main character – about what inspired his writing and then, she couldn’t help but ask about those love scenes.

October 15th, 2024

The Accidental Joe: A Spy Novel That Really Cooks

Tom Straw is a former Top 40 radio disc jockey, TV weathercaster, and someone who has written and executive produced prime time and late night TV shows. He is also a best-selling writer of crime novels (under the pseudonym “Richard Castle,”) so friends like to say he can’t keep a job. For his latest gig he has served up a spy novel called “The Accidental Joe”about a maverick celebrity chef whose travel TV series ends up as cover for a dangerous CIA espionage mission. Former CIA officer Rodney Faroan’s review of the book for The Cipher Brief called it a “refreshing, rip-roaring tale of a spy operation gone awry.” We talk with Straw about his multifaceted career, his process of cooking up tasty plots – and how writing spy thrillers differs from detective novels and TV comedies.

August 29th, 2024

Might of the Chain

We talk with retired Navy Rear Admiral Mike Studeman about his book “Might of the Chain: Forging Leaders of Iron Integrity about why trust in leaders in the public and private sector has sunk to all-time lows and his formula for restoring and keeping that trust.Drawing on his naval experience (and heritage) Studeman explains how every person in an organization must pull their share of the load – because one weak link may sink the enterprise.The book has great value for sailors and non-sailors alike, giving readers insights on how to harden their own leadership mettle.

August 22nd, 2024

The Many Lives of the Prisoner of Lies – Jack Downey

Jack Downey was an up and coming young Yale student. When he graduated in 1951, like a surprising number of his fellow Elis, he signed up to work for the CIA looking to serve and for adventure. A little more than a year later, during the Korean War, he found himself on a transport airplane attempting an “agent extraction” over China. The plane was shot down and Downey spent the next 21 years in captivity – the longest serving prisoner in an undeclared war in U.S. history. But his story does not end with his release in 1972. Downey went to law school, married a Chinese-American classmate and became a juvenile court judge in Connecticut. We will talk with author Barry Werth whose new book: Prisoner of Lies: Jack Downey’s Cold War has just been published. After listening to the podcast: check out The Cipher Brief’s review of the book.

August 7th, 2024

Tracking Putin’s Propagandists – With Julia Davis

Julia Davis joins us to discuss her new book: “In Their Own Words: How Russian Propagandists Reveal Putin’s Intentions.” Davis regularly monitors Russian state TV and posts videos and writes columns providing translations and context about some of the crazy things are being fed to Russian viewers. We talk with her about the odd collection of TV hosts, commentators and pundits who over the past several years have spun wild tales regarding the Kremlin’s intentions regarding Ukraine, paranoia over NATO, musing about possible Russian intervention in U.S. elections and amazingly – why nuclear war might be a good thing. Davis’ motto on X is “I watch Russian state TV so you don’t have to.” We ask her what she has learned from her immersion in that swamp.

July 11th, 2024

David Ignatius’ Phantom Orbit

David Ignatius is an award-winning columnist for the Washington Post, a frequent national security commentator on cable TV, and the author of New York Times bestselling novels. His twelfth novel, Phantom Orbit, like all the previous ones - reveals a deep understanding of the way governments and espionage agencies work. Many of his novels have presciently foreshadowed real-world threats. We’ll talk to him about what his latest page-turner reveals about the vulnerability of the satellites that the world relies so heavily on. We’ll also discuss his process for writing books which are consistently praised for their fidelity to the real world of espionage and how he balances his journalistic duties with that of his second-calling as a novelist. After listening to the podcast, be sure to check out the review of Phantom Orbit in The Cipher Brief by former National Reconnaissance Office Director Jeffrey Harris.

June 1st, 2024

The Art Of Diplomacy – With Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat

Stuart Eizenstat is one of the most experienced diplomats in U.S. history. In this episode we talk with him about his new book “The Art of Diplomacy” in which he discusses some of the most important international agreements over the past 50 years. For his book, Ambassador Eizenstat interviewed about 150 key U.S. and foreign officials ranging from Presidents, Secretaries of State and Defense and many more. We’ll ask him what he learned over the course of his career about why diplomacy did (and sometimes did not) work. And what these lessons might mean for current crises like the ongoing one between Israel and Hamas. After listening to the podcast - be sure to check out the review of “The Art of Diplomacy” in The Cipher Brief by Jonathan Winer.

May 28th, 2024

If Confirmed – How to earn the consent of the Senate – with Arnold Punaro

Arnold Punaro spent 24 years as a U.S. Senate staffer including 14 years as the Staff Director of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Since leaving government in 1997 he has advised the Senate, Department of Defense and other Executive Branch agencies on navigating the complex process of getting Senate approval for Presidentially appointed positions. We’ll talk with him about why getting a nominee confirmed takes so long, what candidates can do to increase their chances of success and systemic improvements that the executive and legislative branch should take to help ensure that the best possible candidates get through the process more quickly. If Confirmed: An Insider’s View of the National Security Confirmation Process.

May 14th, 2024

The (Situation) Room Where It Happens

ABC News journalist George Stephanopoulos joins us to discuss his new book “The Situation Room: The Inside Story of President in Crisis.” As someone who became intimately familiar with the SITROOM during the Clinton administration, Stephanopoulos is our guide with stories about the crisis management center came to be created under JFK and shares dramatic stories of hinge points in history that were seen within the walls of this small but pivotal part of the Executive Mansion.

May 10th, 2024

Is the World on the Brink of World War III? A Conversation with author Dmitri Alperovitch

Dmitri Alperovitch likes to sound alarm bells when it comes to global security. He -- like many others -- started piecing together what was happening along the Russian border with Ukraine in late 2021 and predicted that Russia would indeed invade Ukraine. In his new book, World on the Brink, Alperovitch shares his thoughts on how World War III might begin ... and no surprise, Taiwan is at the heart of it. Here's my conversation with Silverado Policy Accelerator Executive Chairman and Cyber Initiatives Group Principal, Dmitri Alperovitch on his new book, World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the 21st Century.

May 2nd, 2024

David Sanger’s New Cold Wars

Long-time New York Times correspondent David Sanger joins us to discuss his new book: “New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West”. Sanger addresses the complicated challenges facing the U.S. from the autocratic regimes in China and Russia.  Listen to it wherever you listen to podcasts. Read The Cipher Brief print review of the book here.

March 21st, 2024

CNN’s Jim Sciutto On His Book: “The Return of Great Powers”

CNN anchor and Chief National Security Analyst Jim Sciutto is out with a new book called “The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China and the Next World War.” Drawing on his reporting from current hot spots like Ukraine, Taiwan and the Middle East - and in depth interviews with top U.S. and foreign leaders, Sciutto has written about the precarious nature of global security and how developments in each of these hot spots impacts the other. We’ll talk to him about how Chinese President Xi and Russian President Putin have similar views about their destinies in expanding their countries borders.

March 14th, 2024

2054: Consider Yourself Warned

Cipher Brief Expert Retired Admiral Jim Stavridis has witnessed today’s complicated national security environment firsthand while he served in the Navy and now, as he helps others navigate it from the private sector. He has teamed up with author and former Marine Elliott Ackerman – who served in Iraq and Afghanistan - to foreshadow what national security threats are lurking around the corner and they’re using fiction to do it. In the pair’s first book together, 2034: A Novel of the Next World War, they examine - in page-turning fashion - how the U.S. might stumble into war with China. In their new novel 2054, they revisit some of their favorite characters to examine how technology and civil conflict can be used as a weapon as great nations vie for power.

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