Mission Implausible

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 there’s good reason to be.

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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 Intelligence, who was she working for? Why was the deal with her and Syria, China and Russia?

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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 leaving, Saltzburg took here archives - emails, encrypted memoranda, internal communications - and gave more than 25,000 pages to the Washington Post, which published its investigation in June 2026 — days after Gabbard resigned as Director of National Intelligence. But Saltzburg has more to say that didn’t make it into The Washington Post. The big questions: Who really wanted Tulsi to be DNI? What was their agenda? And how could she take that post without being able to pass a security clearance?

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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 an advertising executive — planned to get caught, tortured by The Gestapo, and “confess” to an Allied invasion that was a complete fiction. The OSS (the precursor to the CIA) knew what Hitler wanted to hear and how he’d react. This is what it looks like when an actual conspiracy of deception works.

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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 needing exposure - The Vietnam War, The Pentagon Papers, Watergate. So now people distrust everything the government tells us -- from UFO's to 9/11. Bestselling author and historian Garrett Graff has been reporting on this phenomenon via oral histories. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

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 intelligence on — going all the way back to the death of Princess Diana and through Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement with Russian espionage. And how Trump’s behavior has made America so untrustworthy that it can no longer function effectively at worldwide intelligence gathering. 

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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 his marriage. He and the hosts trace how MI5's decision to withhold him from the CIA broke James Angleton's decade of paranoia, then take apart the Five Eyes: its origins, its budget imbalance, and whether it survives the current moment.

Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod


Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

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.
Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

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 watching closely enough, what a protracted fight with Iran looks like, and why America's allies have stopped waiting for things to go back to normal. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

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 the erosion of institutions and processes that otherwise allow presidents to make decisions based on objective evidence rather than politics.” Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod