Mission Implausible
by Jon Stern
Latest episode
So You Want to Join the CIA (with Jim Burke)
So You Want to Join the CIA (with Jim Burke)
About this podcast
Do you want to know the truth behind the world’s wildest conspiracy theories? Former CIA officers John Sipher & Jerry O’Shea try to determine where misinformation is coming from, when we’re being lied to and when a conspiracy theory is an actual real conspiracy. In the world of espionage, they were part of creating conspiracies. Now they and their circle of experts probe what’s true and when we’re being manipulated. New episodes every week. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
• Executive Producers: Adam Davidson, John Sipher, Jerry O'Shea & Jonathan Stern. Producer: Rachel Harner
• A production of Honorable Mention and Abominable Pictures
Episodes
The newest 20 of 133 episodes
- So You Want to Join the CIA (with Jim Burke) · 37 min · Season 8 Episode 21The Oscar-winning producer turns the tables on John & Jerry and interviews them about their early life in CIA, from recruitment to training to assignment. With a digression into…
- This Week in Conspiracy Theories: Pedophile Cannibals and Much Much More · 37 min · Season 8 Episode 20Jerry & 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…
- It Was Never About Oil: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Conspiracy Theories That Followed (Toby Harnden) · 51 minThe 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…
- Why Americans Are Such Suckers for Conspiracy Theories (with Jesse Walker) · 46 min · Season 8 Episode 18The 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…
- Tulsi Gabbard and The Guru: Inside Her Cult (with Rebecca Saltzburg) - Part Two · 42 min · Season 8 Episode 17Former 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…
- Tulsi Gabbard and The Guru: Inside Her Cult (with Rebecca Saltzburg) - Part One · 35 min · Season 8 Episode 16Rebecca 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…
- Operation Sparrow: Three Americans Who Wanted to Be Captured by the Nazis (with Jason Bell) · 51 min · Season 8 Episode 15In 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…
- When Did We Lose Faith in Our Institutions? (with Garrett Graff) - ENCORE · 45 min · Season 6 Episode 12Our 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…
- What the Steele Dossier Got Right—and Why It Still Matters (with Christopher Steele) - ENCORE · 1 h 2 min · Season 7 Episode 12In 2016, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele produced a series of intelligence memos that were leaked and widely called “The Steel Dossier” containing…
- The Five Eyes: Can It Survive (with Richard Kerbaj) · 50 min · Season 8 Episode 14Investigative 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…
- No More Secrets: AI and the Future of Espionage (with Adam Davidson) · 37 min · Season 8 Episode 13Now 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…
- The Corruption of American Intelligence (with Julia Curlee) · 33 min · Season 8 Episode 12What'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…
- The National Security Council Purge (with Julia Curlee) · 33 min · Season 8 Episode 11Stephen 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…
- CIA's Best-Kept Secret: It Was Fun (with Paul Kolbe & Doug Wise) · 34 min · Season 8 Episode 10Two 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…
- Trump’s Presidential Payday (with Adam Davidson) · 30 min · Season 8 Episode 9More 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…
- Did the CIA Poison the World’s Best Goalkeeper at the 1970 World Cup? (with Gabriel Gatehouse) - Part 2 · 32 min · Season 8 Episode 8- 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…
- Did the CIA Poison the World’s Best Goalkeeper at the 1970 World Cup? (with Gabriel Gatehouse) - Part 1 · 36 min · Season 8 Episode 7Journalist 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…
- Inside the Kremlin's Playbook: How Russia Really Works (with Michael Carpenter) · 45 min · Season 8 Episode 6Former 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…
- What the CIA Knows About Iran That Washington Keeps Getting Wrong (with Mark Fowler) · 52 min · Season 8 Episode 5Former 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…
- Swinging at Curveball: When You Want It Bad, You Get It Bad (with Bob Drogin) · 53 min · Season 8 Episode 4In 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…
