Mission Implausible

Mission Implausible

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

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

August 9, 2026 • 37 mins
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 spycraft, it can help sort through the millions of pages of data collected every day, but it also makes it impossible to keep a secret.
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The Corruption of American Intelligence (with Julia Curlee)

August 2, 2026 • 32 mins
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 question of how any future administration cleans this up without another round of retribution. Looking outward — what Beijing is taking faway rom the Iran war, whether Taiwan is wa...
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The National Security Council Purge (with Julia Curlee)

July 26, 2026 • 32 mins
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 was fired on Day 3, and Curlee on Day 69, leaving The White House woefully uninformed to this day. But maybe that was the point.“Vulnerability isn't really a foreign adversary, but...
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CIA's Best-Kept Secret: It Was Fun (with Paul Kolbe & Doug Wise)

July 19, 2026 • 33 mins
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 mermaids.
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Trump’s Presidential Payday (with Adam Davidson)

July 12, 2026 • 29 mins
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 how things work doesn't just enrich himself, it damages overall world economic growth. He's more a post-Soviet oligarch than a Western capitalist. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: h...
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Did the CIA Poison the World’s Best Goalkeeper at the 1970 World Cup? (with Gabriel Gatehouse) - Part 2

July 5, 2026 • 31 mins
- 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  Brazil to support Brazil’s government. It turns out that international sporting events are hotbeds of attempted  subterfuge and quasi-governmental manipulation. Watch...
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Did the CIA Poison the World’s Best Goalkeeper at the 1970 World Cup? (with Gabriel Gatehouse) - Part 1

June 28, 2026 • 35 mins
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  Brazil to support Brazil’s government. It turns out that international sporting events are hotbeds of attempted  subterfuge and quasi-governmental manipulation.   ...
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Inside the Kremlin's Playbook: How Russia Really Works (with Michael Carpenter)

June 21, 2026 • 44 mins
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 undermines the remarkable success of NATO. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
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What the CIA Knows About Iran That Washington Keeps Getting Wrong (with Mark Fowler)

June 14, 2026 • 52 mins
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 every wall, craves American attention while calling us the Great Satan, and negotiates by treating signed contracts as opening bids. He separates the educated, reform-minded Iranian pe...
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Swinging at Curveball: When You Want It Bad, You Get It Bad (with Bob Drogin)

June 7, 2026 • 53 mins
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 weeks. Bob Drogin, the award-winning journalist who broke the story and wrote the definitive book on it, joins John & Jerry to examine how political will, institutional grou...
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How Everyone Else Sees America (with Gabriel Gatehouse) - ENCORE

May 31, 2026 • 41 mins
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: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
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The Hawaiian Cult that raised Tulsi Gabbard (with Christine Gralow) - ENCORE

May 24, 2026 • 37 mins
In light of this week's resignation of Tulsi Gabbard, we're re-running our recent very illuminating episode about her. Also, check out John Sipher's timely piece on her in The Bullwark on May 19. https://www.thebulwark.com/p/tulsi-gabbard-office-shouldnt-exist-director-national-intelligence-9-11 Our current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was born into The Science of Identity Foundation, a secretive, authoritarian r...
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Hunting Weapons of Mass Destruction (with Andy Weber)

May 17, 2026 • 42 mins
Nuclear weapons-usable uranium, biolabs for biological warfare, secret chemical facilities -- In Operation Sapphire, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Andy Weber found and disposed of them. Where are the current threats? What does Iran still have? Biological threats may ultimately prove even more dangerous than nuclear ones. How do we control them? https://thesteadystate.org Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.you...
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How the CIA Decides What’s Legal (with James Petrila)

May 10, 2026 • 49 mins
Former CIA and NSA attorney Jim Petrila explains the legal decisions about covert action, presidential power, and the legal guardrails surrounding America’s intelligence agencies. He argues that the Trump-era expansion of executive power, combined with the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling and the dismantling of institutional oversight, represents a fundamental threat to the rule of law.  Watch Mission Implausible on...
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Crypto: The Trump Family Business (with Zach Everson)

May 3, 2026 • 48 mins
Forget hotel rooms and presidential merch, this time around, the Trumps are making untraceable billions with ventures like World Liberty Financial and a Trump-backed stablecoin. It’s a new world of buying influence and access. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
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Serving in the Middle East, then Writing About It (with Ilana Berry)

April 26, 2026 • 42 mins
Award-winning author Ilana Berry explores the gap between how espionage is portrayed and how it actually works. Drawing on her experience in the CIA, the Department of Defense, and er firsthand view of the Arab Spring in Bahrain. She explains why secrecy fuels conspiracy theories, and why even insiders often struggle to separate truth from manipulation. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausib...
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Modern Conspiracy Culture: How Real Scandals Fueled False Narratives (with Kathryn Olmsted)

April 19, 2026 • 39 mins
Real government secrecy, intelligence failures, and historic scandals created the conditions for today’s conspiracy culture. Pearl Harbor, The Red Scare, JFK, 9/11, QAnon - a small truth can explode into a dangerous paranoid belief in hidden power and control. Genuine conspiracies often make it harder—not easier—to separate fact from fiction. How do democracies survive when citizens no longer agree on what’s...
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The Terrible Thing People Say When They Think No One Is Listening (with Ben Palmer)

April 12, 2026 • 37 mins
Comedian Ben Palmer (Palmer Trolls) does sort-of-pranks that have evolved from satire to social experiment. Using aliases, fake websites and a “deportation hotline,” Palmer reveals how easily ordinary people are drawn into exposing their own bad behavior and unabashed racism (he would make a terrific CIA case officer). Watch his video about pretending to be the social media person for three months for Republican Congres...
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What the Steele Dossier Got Right—and Why It Still Matters (with Christopher Steele)

April 5, 2026 • 62 mins
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 Trumpworld and the Kremlin. In a highly unique conversation, Steele and John & Jerry look into the many hot-button conspiracy theories and real conspiracies that Steele has...
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Havana Syndrome Is Real - and They Tried to Bury It (with Michael Weiss) - Part Two

March 29, 2026 • 27 mins
We continue to look at Havana Syndrome and Russian intelligence operations. Investigative journalist Michael Weiss expands on evidence suggesting that a covert unit within Russian military intelligence may have targeted Western operatives, particularly those involved in countering Russian activities in Ukraine and other strategic regions. We discuss geopolitical miscalculations, including U.S. responses to Russian aggression, the w...
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Adam Davidson

Adam Davidson

John Sipher

John Sipher

Jerry O'Shea

Jerry O'Shea

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