The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep372: Brett Forrest explores grim theories regarding Billy's fate with a Russian contact. Later, at a Department of Justice event, he confronts high-ranking FBI official Paul Abbate. Abbate admits immediate knowledge of the unpublished Riley case, confirming t

S8 Ep372: In Russia, Brett Forrest investigates Billy's path, visiting a Rostov-on-Don volunteer camp and seeking associates like Mikhail Polynov. He analyzes Billy's strange travel photos and highlights the suspicious timing of FBI handler Tim Reintjes' visit to t

S8 Ep372: Brett Forrest recounts receiving a tip about a missing American FBI source in Russia. He investigates, visiting Riley's parents in Michigan to review Billy's WhatsApp travel logs. Forrest details Billy's journey to Rostov-on-Don near the Ukrainian war zon

S8 Ep372: Brett Forrest introduces Billy Riley, a Michigan youth recruited as an FBI Confidential Human Source after 9/11 due to his online skills. Forrest details Billy's cancelled mission to the Philippines and his parents' concerns regarding his mysterious 2015

S8 Ep371: The Jesse Scouts crippled Lee's retreat by intercepting supply trains, forcing the Confederate surrender at Appomattox. Rejecting guerrilla warfare to preserve the nation, Lee accepted Grant's respectful terms. Post-war, former partisan Mosby surprisingly

S8 Ep371: Lewis Powell worked with the Confederate Secret Service on a plot to kidnap Lincoln, while Union scout Harry Young took command of the Jesse Scouts. Young's disguised scouts provided crucial intelligence, enabling Sheridan to communicate with Grant via me

S8 Ep371: General Grant ordered Philip Sheridan to destroy resources and hang partisans, leading to a "burning season" in the Shenandoah Valley. After Blazer's scouts were annihilated by Mosby's rangers at Kabletown, Blazer was captured and escorted to Richmond by

S8 Ep371: Confederate General Jubal Early marched on Washington, D.C., hoping to free prisoners, but was delayed by Union resistance at Monocacy. Although Early reached Fort Stevens, where President Lincoln famously stood under fire, the attack failed partly due to

S8 Ep371: A failed 1864 Union raid led by Dahlgren intended to burn Richmond and kill Confederate leaders, prompting a Confederate Secret Service response involving political subversion. Meanwhile, author Herman Melville embedded with Union cavalry, writing poetry

S8 Ep371: Union manhunter Richard Blazer led the "Legion of Honor" to hunt Confederate partisans like the ruthless Thurman brothers in West Virginia. Blazer utilized detective work to build a "mosaic" of enemy locations, conducting lightning raids in rugged terrain

S8 Ep371: The Confederate Partisan Ranger Act attempted to regulate irregular guerrilla fighters, leading to the rise of John Singleton Mosby in Northern Virginia. Though General Lee was ambivalent about the lack of discipline among partisans, he recognized the val

S8 Ep371: John Batchelor introduces Patrick K. O'Donnell and his book The Unvanquished, focusing on the "Jesse Scouts" and their leader, Captain John Charles Carpenter. Named after Jesse Frémont, these Union scouts utilized disguises and "trade craft" to infiltrate

S8 Ep370: Leila Philip describes how a flow device installed by Mike Callahan saved an Audubon sanctuary pond during Hurricane Ida, proving that coexistence strategies are often more cost-effective than repairing flood damage. She concludes by emphasizing beavers a

S8 Ep370: Leila Philip at the Hubbard Brook watershed discusses how beavers act as a keystone species that aids environmental recovery, challenging the necessity of lethal culling given modern non-lethal management options. She notes that beaver complexes actually

S8 Ep370: Leila Philip visits the Yale Myers Forest with ecologist Dr. Denise Burchsted and learns to view river systems not as single channels but as interconnected veins where beaver ponds act like "beads along a chain." This perspective reveals how beavers resto

S8 Ep370: Leila Philip explores beaver intelligence through the work of Harvard researcher Jordan Kennedy, who studies their collective behavior and connections to Indigenous Blackfeet knowledge. Beavers possess sensors in their tails to measure water flow rates, a

S8 Ep370: Leila Philip shares the story of Dorothy Richards, who established "Beaver Sprite" in the 1930s as the country's first beaver sanctuary, eventually living with over a dozen beavers inside her home. Anecdotes illustrate the animals' engineering instincts,