SpyCast

Auctioning Off the Key to Kryptos

At the CIA headquarters in Langley, you will find Kryptos, a large curved copper panel that holds the letters to four encrypted messages. The first three messages- K1, K2, and K3- were solved in the nineties, but K4 continued to mystify cryptographers for decades. That is until Jim Sanborn, the artist who created Kryptos, decided to auction off the plain text and the coding charts that can crack the very code to K4. This week, guest host Flora Warshaw sits down to talk with Bobby Livingston, the auctioneer who recently sold Jim Sanborn's private Kryptos archive for a staggering amount. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ [https://sashaingber.substack.com/] For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit:  https://www.spymuseum.org/x [https://www.spymuseum.org/] And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org [http://spycast.spymuseum.org],  This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

An Interview with the CIA’s Former “Q”

Bob Wallace was appointed Deputy Director of the CIA’s Office of Technical Service in 1995 and became its director three years later. In other words, he was the CIA’s “Q.” The storied office dealt in microdots and secret writing, creating innovations that spanned concealments, forged documents, surveillance equipment, covert communications, and special weapons. In this interview, Sasha and Bob sit down to discuss the tactics and innovations he has never shared before, ranging from the low-tech to the Internet Age, to the devices and techniques used in the Global War on Terrorism. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ [https://sashaingber.substack.com/] And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org [http://spycast.spymuseum.org],  This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Inside the CIA’s Book Club Designed to Bring Down Communism

The CIA’s book club, known by the codename QRHELPFUL, was a secret 35-year program born of the fear that communism would dominate the globe. About 10 million books were smuggled into the Soviet Union during the Cold War, transported by trucks and yachts, in tins and luggage, and even dropped from balloons. The agency believed that the literature could win hearts and minds, turning citizens of the Soviet Bloc into dissidents. It’s all documented in author Charlie English’s new book, The CIA Book Club, the first narrative account of this program. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ [https://sashaingber.substack.com/] And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org [http://spycast.spymuseum.org],  This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

The Hunt for China’s Spy Family

For decades, California-based engineer Chi Mak quietly stole secrets on war-fighting technologies. He and his family members shared the intelligence with spies in China, giving Beijing astounding insights they hadn’t earned. Former FBI Special Agent James Gaylord takes us back to the elaborate investigation in 2004. Evidence gathered by his squad, call sign “SARA-4,” broke a string of FBI failures in the courtroom. Chi went to prison, but new problems arose. Jim’s account is documented in his book, Chasing Chi. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ [https://sashaingber.substack.com/] And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org [http://spycast.spymuseum.org],  This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

A Family of Spies and a Bloodline of Secrets

No other American has a family history quite like Christine Kuehn. Through years of doing painstaking interviews, hunting down letters, and pouring through FBI records, Christine learned that her German-born aunt had a fling with Nazi politician Joseph Goebbels. When he found out she was half-Jewish, Goebbels sent the family to Hawaii to spy. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Christine’s grandfather was found guilty of providing intelligence to the Japanese. In this episode we hear how Christine Kuehn strung together her family secrets to tell her family history in her book, Family of Spies, which is coming out November 25th.  Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ [https://sashaingber.substack.com/] And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by E-mail at SpyCast@Spymuseum.org [http://spycast.spymuseum.org],  This show is brought to you from Goat Rodeo, Airwave, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]