Secrets and Spies Podcast 🌻🍸

Former CIA officers John Sipher & Jerry O’Shea join Matt & Chris to expose what Hollywood gets wrong about spies—and how lazy fiction fuels conspiracy myths. Real intel work is quieter, grayer, and far more human. Hear it all Links below 👇👇👇 #spymovies #espionage #cia

Historian @TimothyDSnyder sums up a year of Trump choices and policies in one overall conceptual framework, which he calls “Superpower suicide.”

I hope the US plans to say “thank you” to Ukraine.

For nearly four decades, NATO’s eyes in the sky have been American. The Boeing E-3 Sentry, a militarized 707 with a rotating radar dish on top, has been the alliance’s airborne early warning backbone since the 1980s. Washington built it. Washington sold it. Washington serviced it. That era ended this week. NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency has selected the Swedish Saab GlobalEye to replace all 14 of the alliance’s aging E-3 aircraft, in a deal worth around 5 billion euros. The contract goes to Sweden and Canada. Not a single American company involved. The decision follows the US cancelling its own E-7 Wedgetail procurement in June 2025, shifting instead toward satellite surveillance under the Golden Dome concept. When Washington pulled out, it assumed NATO would wait. NATO didn’t wait. The GlobalEye uses a fixed AESA radar rather than the E-3’s rotating dish, enabling faster target detection across air, sea, and land at ranges exceeding 550 kilometres, with endurance of over 13 hours per sortie. It is smaller, cheaper to operate, and requires fewer crew. Unit cost sits at roughly 550 million euros, against significantly higher estimates for the E-7. France had already ordered two. Poland and Germany were circling. Now NATO has formalised it for the whole alliance. Trump spent 14 months telling Europe to spend more on defence and rely less on America. Europe listened. He just didn’t expect them to mean it quite so literally. Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

So, so good.

Meetings about no meetings now.

Anti vax might be the dumbest single political movement of my lifetime…which is perfect for this Pentagon.

🎮NEW EPISODE!🎮 Ivor Novello Award-winning composer @grantkirkhope joins us to celebrate his iconic score for GoldenEye 007 on the N64! Plus, we dive into Perfect Dark, voicing Donkey Kong + more from his legendary career! 🎧 pod.fo/e/402dac 📺 youtu.be/hFl9rTwv6VU

“Using language that would until recently have been unthinkable, Zelensky has indicated that he no longer views the U.S. as a reliable ally and, even more astonishingly, that all of Europe needs to start moving on from the transatlantic relationship” theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/…

He’s sadly right

Bibi torched U.S. support for Israel for a generation. Older Republicans and white Evangelicals are the last groups to hold majority favorable views of Israel, according to recent Pew polling, @AndrewSolender and Justin Green write for @axios axios.com/2026/04/18/isr…

NEW: Sweden has intelligence that Russia is systematically manipulating data to fool Ukraine’s western allies into believing its economy has withstood the strain of its lavish war spending and western sanctions, its intel chief tells me and @ChristopherJM ft.com/content/04a9d0…

The Trouble in Trump’s Venezuela wsj.com/opinion/the-tr…

Sorry if I’ve been less responsive these past few days. It was my birthday and I was in London. A friend who preordered my book received it before I got my copies, so holding it for the first time felt like a special gift. Thank you all for the support. It means a lot.

The New York Times: In the months leading up to the midterm elections, hundreds of A.I.-generated pro-Trump influencer accounts have emerged on social media

If only they read my report from last month revealing that a Telegram channel claiming to represent Iranian intelligence is recruiting individuals in the UK to carry out violent acts and espionage.

God…every time I see her speak, my heart breaks into a million pieces.

Supporting friends is always the right thing to do. Supporting friends who write killer books is even easier…. Ending of @mccloskeybooks ‘s “The Persian” is as good as it gets. Hint: exfil ops r pretty damn hairy. The real ones. David nailed that feeling in this present day classic.

Two of my CIA (former) clients who especially know what they're talking about.

What does Hollywood get wrong about espionage in spy films? Find out on our latest podcast below 👇👇👇

Really enjoyed this one. John Sipher and Jerry O'Shea know the spy world inside out. Their take on what Hollywood gets wrong about espionage, and why the real stories are better, out now on @SecretsAndSpies. Links below.