Norman Ohler, a best-selling novelist and journalist known for "Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany," dives into the dark history of psychedelics. He discusses their post-war applications in intelligence and the military, including the controversial MKUltra program. Ohler reveals personal anecdotes about the healing potential of psychedelics for ailments like Alzheimer's. He urges a reevaluation of these substances' potential benefits while contrasting their historical misuse with modern therapeutic exploration.

In this engaging conversation, journalist Craig Unger discusses his book, "Den of Spies," which exposes the alleged October Surprise treachery that aided Ronald Reagan's ascension to the presidency. He delves into the historical intricacies of the Iranian hostage crisis and how backdoor negotiations influenced the political landscape. The dialogue also uncovers CIA conflicts during Carter's presidency and the implications of arms dealings. Unger's insights shed light on the intersection of secrecy and politics that shaped a pivotal moment in U.S. history.

This week Justin talks with Caleb Daniels. Caleb is a lifelong fan of the James Bond films and novels, as well as a firearms enthusiast from Kansas City, Missouri. For seven years, he worked in the firearms industry. In 2020, he started the website and social media pages titled Commando Bond, which are a passion project of his to bridge the gap between pop culture and the world of firearms by analyzing how to live like James Bond from his daily carry to his wardrobe and lifestyle.Todya he discusses his book, Licensed Troubleshooter: The Guns of James Bond, which is available for pre order now from Headstamp Publishing. Caleb has spent years researching all the firearms that appeared in the Bond books and films, and is now finally sharing that research with us.Connect with Caleb:IG: @CommandoBondYouTube: @CommandBondYouTube: @Steel-and-StyleCheck out presale for the book, Licensed Troubleshooter, here.https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/licensed-troubleshooter?ref=1oee53Connect with Spycraft 101:Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: shop.spycraft101.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.Support the show

Today Justin sits down with Vladimir McMillin. Vlad was born in Moscow and worked for 20 years for the TASS Russian news agency as a sports reporter. He immigrated to the United States in 1990 and has lived here since then. At a very young age, Vlad realized that there was something different about his family, because they were the only family named McMillin in all of Russia. Vlad's father was James McMillan, a former U.S. Army NCO stationed at the American Embassy in Moscow in the late 1940s. At the end of his tour, rather than come home, he decided to defect to remain in Moscow with his new wife. Vlad was born two years later. He's here to discuss the story of his father's service at the U.S. Embassy, his shocking decision to defect, and how he created a new family and built a life for himself in the Soviet Union. It's also the story of just what it cost him to never be able to go home again.Connect with Vlad:Facebook: Vladimir McMillinCheck out the book, Stationed in Moscow ... for Good, here.https://a.co/d/2uQbuxsConnect with Spycraft 101:Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: shop.spycraft101.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.Support the show

Today Justin talks with Dr. Paul McGarr. Paul is a researcher, lecturer, and author who has focused particularly on security and intelligence interventions by the U.S. and U.K. governments into the global south. He's published more than two dozen articles in professional journals over the past 15 years and teaches several courses on intelligence and diplomacy at King's College London. He is also a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Asiatic Society.  He's here to discuss the story of the often overlooked history of intelligence, espionage, and covert operations which took place in India during the Cold War, as well as how those events shaped India's place in the world today.Connect with Paul:paul.mcgarr@kcl.ac.ukTwitter/X: @Paul_McGarrLinkedIn: Paul McGarrCheck out the book, Spying in South Asia, here.https://a.co/d/9AFbtZAConnect with Spycraft 101:Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: shop.spycraft101.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.Support the show

Today's guest is Jacek Waliszewski. Jacek is an Army Special Forces warrant officer.  During his career, he has served primarily with 10th Group and has deployed 18 times on three different continents to date and trained more than 2, 500 soldiers worldwide in special operations tactics and strategies. He's also published two novels. He's here to discuss his newest book, the true memoirs of an OSS agent on the ground in Southern Europe in 1944, working with local partisans in the fight against Axis forces. It's also the story of the origins of modern U.S. special forces.Connect with Jacek:IG: @jw_jack_official @codenamespikeGoFundMe: Code Name: SPIKE the moviehttps://www.gofundme.com/f/code-name-spike-the-movie?qid=df4b1499d5a074929ec6d0c1d1afab37Check out the book, Code Name SPIKE, here.https://www.amazon.com/CODE-NAME-SPECIAL-FORCES-GROUNDBREAKING/dp/B0D52QP3G3Connect with Spycraft 101:Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: shop.spycraft101.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.Support the show

In this solo episode, Justin discusses how the world's intelligence agencies have captured foreign case officers, spies, and even their own defectors alive after they've already escaped to other countries. Killing a target in another country is difficult enough, especially when they are enjoying the security of the host nation that welcomed them in, but it's often even more difficult than that to get them back alive. Different methods have been used over the years, and despite all the planning and preparation that goes into it, it often goes wrong at the critical moment—sometimes the target escapes, and other times they are inadvertently killed during the operation. Today, Justin shares five instances from the Cold War and beyond where these kidnappings or renditions occurred. Connect with Spycraft 101:Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: shop.spycraft101.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.Support the show

Justin's guest today is Dr. Mark Stout, who has held many positions, both inside and outside the U.S. intelligence community. He's worked as an intelligence analyst for the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research for the CIA, and was a civilian employee for the U.S. Army at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. He was also the historian for the International Spy Museum from 2010 until 2013, and was the director of the Master's in Arts Program for Global Security Studies at John Hopkins University, former and founding president of the North American Society for Intelligence History. He's also authored and edited several books, and his articles have been published in many professional journals over the years. He's returned to the podcast to discuss his new book on U.S. intelligence before WWII.Hear Mark's first appearance on episode 44, A Secret US Intelligence Organization: Mysteries of the Pond, here.Connect with Mark:Bluesky: @markstout.bsky.socialCheck out the book, World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence, here. https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700635856/Connect with Spycraft 101:Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: shop.spycraft101.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.Support the show

Today Justin talks with Constance Huff. She retired from the U.S. Army as a Chief Warrant Officer IV. Connie spent more than 24 years in Army Intelligence, holding three occupational specialties, Interrogator, CI Special Agent, and Case Officer. She spent the majority of her career in counterintelligence, where she specialized in counterespionage investigations and operations. Connie was a senior instructor for the U.S. Army's Advanced Foreign Counterintelligence Training course, which was a 15 week course where journeyman level special agents were taught advanced investigation skills, physical surveillance, and offensive CI operations. Connie was named as the Department of Defense's Investigator of the Year in  1992. She earned a Master's degree in education from Boston University and is currently a senior instructor with CTCI Training Partners, which provides training to public and private organizations on counterterrorism and counterintelligence matters.On the eve of Operation Desert Storm, she and her team investigated Specialist 4 Albert Sombolay after learning he'd approached several foreign embassies. offering information on the U. S. Army's plans and movements in Kuwait, as well as their chemical warfare capabilities. Connie and her team pulled off a successful investigation that resulted in a long prison sentence for a traitor inside the U.S. Army.Connect with Connie:ctcitraining.orgConnect with Spycraft 101:Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: shop.spycraft101.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.Support the show

Today Justin is joined by Zach Dorfman. Zach is a national security reporter whose work has appeared in Politico, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. He received his Bachelor's degree from Skidmore College and a Master's degree in International Relations and Affairs from the University of Chicago. Zach is a former senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. He's also the host of the Spy Valley Podcast from Project Brazen, which debuted last year, about a Cold War era spy in the heart of Silicon Valley. This week he discusses his newest article, published on August 4th of this year. It's the story of Operation Entering, a highly successful and never before reported operation against Soviet bloc intelligence operatives targeting U.S. technology in the early 1980s.Connect with Zachthebrushpass1@protonmail.comTwitter/X: @zachsdorfmanSpy Valley Podcast: brazen.fm/podcasts/spy-valleyCheck out Zach's Politico story: "Moscow’s Spies Were Stealing US Tech — Until the FBI Started a Sabotage Campaign" here.And his new Rolling Stone article: "The CIA Sent Him Deep Undercover to Spy on Islamic Radicals. It Cost Him Everything" here. Connect with Spycraft 101:Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here.spycraft101.comIG: @spycraft101Shop: shop.spycraft101.comPatreon: Spycraft 101Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here.Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here.Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here.Support the show