Mission Implausible

This Week in Conspiracy Theories: Pedophile Cannibals and Much Much More

Jerry & John’s thoughts on the latest malfeasance (Ilhan Omar’s home raid, intel on the U.S. airbase attack in England, James Talarico, the Germany spy scandal, Russian bots, etc.) and their predictions of what will come next, including potential...

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It Was Never About Oil: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Conspiracy Theories That Followed (Toby Harnden)

The former Royal Navy officer, war correspondent for the Telegraph and the Sunday Times, and author of the Orwell Prize-winning Dead Men Risen and First Casualty — joins to discuss his new book, his covering of Northern Ireland, and the recent history...

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Why Americans Are Such Suckers for Conspiracy Theories (with Jesse Walker)

The author of The United States of Paranoia and the editor of Reason sees the enemies within, outside, above and below. The true believers and the manipulators. Every religion and political affiliation in American is uniquely credulous. But maybe...

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Tulsi Gabbard and The Guru: Inside Her Cult (with Rebecca Saltzburg) - Part Two

Former Science of Identity Foundation insider Rebecca Saltzburg, a source for the Washington Post's investigation into Tulsi Gabbard, goes deeper into how its guru Chris Butler shaped Gabbard's political career. Then, as Director of National...

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Tulsi Gabbard and The Guru: Inside Her Cult (with Rebecca Saltzburg) - Part One

Rebecca Saltzburg spent years living with Tulsi Gabbard’s family, inside the Science of Identity Foundation, and in the inner circle of Chris Butler, the leader of its Hawaiian sect, of which Tulsi and her parents were long-time members. Years after...

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Operation Sparrow: Three Americans Who Wanted to Be Captured by the Nazis (with Jason Bell)

In March 1944, three American OSS officers parachuted into Hungary on a mission to be taken prisoner. A story that was classified for decades, the team — a Dartmouth graduate, a World War I fighter pilot and a former New York Giants lineman who became...

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When Did We Lose Faith in Our Institutions? (with Garrett Graff) - ENCORE

Our summer holiday is over. All new episodes coming soon. We didn't always assume the government was hiding aliens. The Manhattan Project was a crash course in how to run a secret program. Some secrets were real and necessary. Some were real and...

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What the Steele Dossier Got Right—and Why It Still Matters (with Christopher Steele) - ENCORE

 In 2016, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele produced a series of intelligence memos that were leaked and widely called “The Steel Dossier” containing allegations about Russia's interference in the US election and links between...

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The Five Eyes: Can It Survive (with Richard Kerbaj)

Investigative journalist and BAFTA-winning filmmaker Richard Kerbaj discusses The Defector, his book on Oleg Lyalin — the KGB officer who walked into a North London police station in 1971 and exposed over 200 Soviet spies in Britain, partly to escape...

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No More Secrets: AI and the Future of Espionage (with Adam Davidson)

Now that Adam Davidson is a national expert on AI, he worries about how it will change worldwide politics, military power and international economic structures. Not just the AI itself, but all its underlying physical infrastructure. When it comes to...

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The Corruption of American Intelligence (with Julia Curlee)

What's been done to American intelligence and what it costs: the 35 declassified documents that don't say what the president claims they say, analysts fired for accurate assessments, clearances stripped as punishment, rumored loyalty oaths, and the...

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The National Security Council Purge (with Julia Curlee)

Stephen Miller runs National Security now. Julia Curlee spent over 20 years as a CIA analyst, rising to being Acting Senior Director for Intelligence Programs at the NSC. When Trump 2 began, she stayed on, as is custom, to help transition. Her team...

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CIA's Best-Kept Secret: It Was Fun (with Paul Kolbe & Doug Wise)

Two of John & Jerry’s old friends and agency colleagues swap war stories and tall tales, starting with their training at The Farm and including their time in Moscow. Some of the characters in their anecdotes: Nazi Bob, Steven Seagal and the CIA...

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Trump’s Presidential Payday (with Adam Davidson)

More on Trump's $2 billion is new money in the past year -- Financial investigative journalist (and Mission Implausible producer) Adam Davidson illuminates Trump's business model: money-laundering, ass-kissing and rent-seeking. His zero-sum view of...

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Did the CIA Poison the World’s Best Goalkeeper at the 1970 World Cup? (with Gabriel Gatehouse) - Part 2

- Journalist Gabriel Gatehouse returns to Mission Implausible with the strange premise behind his podcast Foul Play: the claim that the CIA poisoned England goalkeeper Gordon Banks before the 1970 World Cup quarter-final in Mexico in order to help the...

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Did the CIA Poison the World’s Best Goalkeeper at the 1970 World Cup? (with Gabriel Gatehouse) - Part 1

Journalist Gabriel Gatehouse returns to Mission Implausible with the strange premise behind his podcast Foul Play: the claim that the CIA poisoned England goalkeeper Gordon Banks before the 1970 World Cup quarter-final in Mexico in order to help the...

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Inside the Kremlin's Playbook: How Russia Really Works (with Michael Carpenter)

Former OSCE ambassador and Pentagon and NSC official Michael Carpenter argues Russia is weaker than it appears yet keeps being rescued by a West gripped by fear of escalation. And that the newly transactional, alliance-busting American foreign policy...

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What the CIA Knows About Iran That Washington Keeps Getting Wrong (with Mark Fowler)

Former CIA Iran ops officer Mark Fowler joins Jerry and John to explain why Iran is one of the hardest targets on earth. From running agents and sources, Fowler has insight into the Iranian worldview: a persecuted Shia minority that sees walls behind...

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Swinging at Curveball: When You Want It Bad, You Get It Bad (with Bob Drogin)

In 2003, a single Iraqi refugee — codenamed Curveball — fabricated stories about Iraqi weapons. The U.S. intelligence community, desperate for sources after 9/11, laundered his claims into a National Intelligence Estimate produced in under three...

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How Everyone Else Sees America (with Gabriel Gatehouse) - ENCORE

ENCORE EPISODE - Gabriel Gatehouse is a journalist and broadcaster and author of “The Coming Storm” that looks at Q Anon and the January 6th conspiracies. And he’s British! Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube:...