Sep 09 2022 91 mins
****Ways to support this podcast****
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/undersimplified
Venmo: @UnderSimplified
PayPal: paypal.me/UnderSimplified
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/3d1b01b4
UnderSimplified Home: https://www.undersimplified.org/
John Sipher is a senior CIA officer who retired after 28 years, serving many times as a CIA Chief of Station across the world and as the head of CIA’s Russia Operations. As a co-founder of Spycraft Entertainment he now works closely with Hollywood to advise on spy movies, write and produce more accurate espionage films, and push the industry to take greater risks. We chat about CIA, Russia, risk taking, innovation, and how British MI6 flew him and a Soviet defector first class to Scotland solely to drink expensive scotches and brainstorm about how to catch Russia’s spies. But John’s story is interesting for a host of other reasons too, especially for the UnderSimplified podcast, because he has also, reluctantly by his account, entered into the public political fray since leaving CIA; with 250k followers, he is very likely the most followed former CIA officer on twitter. He was also one of the 50 senior intelligence officials that signed a now infamous letter related to Hunter Biden’s laptop and Russian misinformation, which has been weaponized by both sides of the political spectrum. And it is here that we get into one of the central missions of this podcast: difficult conversations.
John considers himself a radical centrist, but because of this letter, which is often held up as proof of the deep state, and John’s public comments about Donald Trump (which he stress that for him is less about politics and more about his deep appreciation for America’s institutions), it’s hard for John to establishing himself as a centrist while having these challenging conversations. But we must have these conversations… so how do we do it?
This is the first episode of the UnderSimplified podcast and we hope to have many more from as many angles as we can manage. If you like this episode, or even the idea behind this effort, please subscribe to and rate this podcast in Apple or Spotify. The ratings on these two platforms are absolutely consequential in these early stages.
John Sipher on Twitter: @john_sipher
Spycraft Entertainment: https://spycraftentertainment.com/
Music by: Arethusa Strings
****Ways to support this podcast****
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/undersimplified
Venmo: @UnderSimplified
PayPal: paypal.me/UnderSimplified
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/3d1b01b4
UnderSimplified Home: https://www.undersimplified.org/
UnderSimplified on Twitter: @undersimplified
UnderSimplified on Instagram: undersimplified_podcast