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 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
May 22, 2023 • 44min
Extracting Eichmann, Part 1/2: The Ratline | 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 One 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
May 15, 2023 • 46min
Atomic Spies, Part 2/2: Nuclear Families | WW2
As a World War rages, humanity stands on the precipice of a new era in warfare. The atomic age is dawning - and Earth's great powers are determined to secure their place in it.In these episodes of True Spies, Sophia Di Martino meets the spies who shared nuclear secrets that still influence global geopolitics today. In Part 2, Professor Paul Broda tells the story of his stepfather, Alan Nunn May - an English physicist who became a spy of conscience.From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Hannah Dean. Music by Nick Ryan. Additional voiceover by Frank Palmer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 8, 2023 • 46min
Atomic Spies, Part 1/2: The Klaus Fuchs Effect | WW2
As a World War rages, humanity stands on the precipice of a new era in warfare. The atomic age is dawning - and Earth's great powers are determined to secure their place in it.In these episodes of True Spies, Sophia Di Martino meets the spies who shared nuclear secrets that still influence global geopolitics today. In Part 1, Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at Oxford University, Frank Close, tells the story of the scientist who helped Soviet Russia build the bomb - Klaus Fuchs.From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Hannah Dean. Music by Nick Ryan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 1, 2023 • 43min
The Queen of Cuba, Part 2/2: The Known Unknown | FBI
Meet one of the most notorious double agents in the history of US intelligence - a spy so effective that she was able to operate with impunity for 17 years. Until her arrest in 2001, Ana Belén Montes used her position at the Defence Intelligence Agency to funnel classified documents to Cuba. Sophia Di Martino and FBI Special Agent Pete Lapp follow the trail of breadcrumbs that led to her downfall. In Part Two, Pete and his partner use old-fashioned detective work to turn up a killer piece of evidence - and Ana Montes meets her match.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
