David Talbot’s latest book, The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA and the Rise of America’s Secret Government, examines the post-WWII U.S. intelligence sector and the power it wields, by following the career of Wall Street lawyer, diplomat and spymaster Allen Dulles. Talbot discussed his new book with fellow author Peter Dale Scott, in a public event at the Mechanics’ Institute Library in San Francisco on December 2, 2015. Talbot says he believes CIA assassins were responsible for the death of John F. Kennedy.

David Talbot founded the website Salon.com He was an editor at Mother Jones magazine, and he’s written for Rolling Stone, the New Yorker and other publications. His earlier books include Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years.

Peter Dale Scott is a retired Canadian diplomat, professor emeritus of English at UC Berkeley, and a prolific author. His most recent book is The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy. He writes extensively about the “deep state,” a de facto government that exists beneath the elected one.