7 Countries, 26 People. We saw the largest prisoner exchange between the West and Russia since the Cold War last week.

We thought there was no one better to sit down with to explain how this went down than longtime negotiator, Mickey Bergman. He joined the podcast last month to talk about his new book, "In the Shadows,” where he shared gripping stories from his high-stakes talks to free American hostages from Iran, North Korea, and Russia. 

Bergman returns to give us insight into this deal. It turns out that he was literally speaking with Russian officials as he learned about this offer. He describes their reaction, why Vladimir Putin made the deal now, what it means for the Russian calculation about who will win the US presidential election. Bergman talks about the Americans still left in Russia, whose families are hoping for another deal. Beyond Russia, we also discuss the latest in the Hamas-Israel ceasefire/hostage talks and what the assassination of the Hamas leader in Iran means for what comes next.

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Mosheh Oinounou (@mosheh) is an Emmy and Murrow award-winning journalist. He has 20 years of experience at networks including Fox News, Bloomberg Television and CBS News, where he was the executive producer of the CBS Evening News and launched the network's 24 hour news channel. He founded the @mosheh Instagram news account in 2020 and the Mo News podcast and newsletter in 2022.

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