This week, Shane Harris and David Priess team up and talk with John Sipher, a former senior intelligence officer who has gone Hollywood. With his partners at Spycraft Entertainment, John is bringing compelling and, yes, accurate stories about espionage to the screen. Before working in the entertainment industry, he spent 28 years in the CIA, where he served multiple overseas tours as a chief of station. Shane, David, and John talked about their favorite spy movies, the fine line between the espionage and action-adventure genres, and the kinds of stories they’d like to see more of.   

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo, with engineering assistance from Ian Enright. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.

Among the works cited in this episode:

Movies: The Good Shepherd, The Spy, Sneakers, Bridge of Spies, The Courier, 12 Strong, Argo, Spy Kids, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, The Hunt for Red October, A View To a Kill, Mission Impossible, The Lives of Others, Breach, The Mauritanian, Snowden, Citizenfour, The Little Drummer Girl, Clear and Present Danger, Rogue One, Ronin

TV shows: Homeland, Mare of Easttown, The Americans, The Bureau, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Night Manager

Books: Betrayal in Berlin (Steve Vogel), Damascus Station (David McCloskey), The Spy’s Son (Bryan Denson), Billion Dollar Spy (David Hoffman), First Casualty (Toby Harnden), Russians Among Us (Gordon Corera), The Dead Hand (David Hoffman), Playing to the Edge (Michael Hayden), The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (John le Carré), The Little Drummer Girl (John le Carré), The Night Manager (John le Carré), The Nightingale’s Song (Robert Timberg), The Book of Honor (Ted Gup)

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