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Every episode
John Kiriakou's Dead Drop
30 episodes
S2E14 The Torture Report
Ep 14 · Aug 17, 2026 · 35 min
IN THIS EPISODE At Loretto Federal Prison, John can almost see the light of his release date in the not-too-distant future. Returning to the Outside World will mean having to shed the prison persona John worked so hard to create - if only for survival purposes. Meanwhile in the outside world, the suibject of John's whistleblowing - the CIA's torture program - is finally getting its day in the court of public opinion as the Senate finally gets up the nerve to release its damning report on torture…
S2E13 The Crusader
Ep 13 · Aug 10, 2026 · 47 min
IN THIS EPISODE John was hardly the first person to point out corruption in America's penal system. Paul Wright was serving a 17 year sentence for murdering a drug dealer when, in May 1990, he started The Prison Legal News. Prison changes people; it changed Paul profoundly. He transformed from a rudderless young man into a veritable crusader for prison amd legal reform. SHOW NOTES Learn more about Paul Wright and The Prison Legal News here. If you're enjoying this podcast, please sample our othe…
S2E12 Dangerous
Ep 12 · Aug 3, 2026 · 36 min
IN THIS EPISODE When he first arrived at Loretto Federal Prison to start serving his 30 month term, John expected to serve that term where the judge and prosecutor both advocated that John be in the minimum security camp. But someone at the Federal Bureau of Prisons decided that John was too dangerous - and assigned him to the actual prison instead. John was not even remotely dangerous. Not nearly as dangerous as the FBP is to every inmate in its charge. But, the FBP wasn't entirely wrong. John…
S2E11 Unfinished Business
Ep 11 · Jul 27, 2026 · 35 min
IN THIS EPISODE With his out date - the end of his prison sentence - now starting to come into view (albeit still in the distance), John would have been best served by keeping his head down. But there remained unfinished business - with sevveral fellow prisoners and especially with the Soretto Prison authorities. And then there was all the unfinished business - all related to torture - happening outside Loretto. SHOW NOTES If you're enjoying this show, please check out all our other podcasts at…
S2E10 Food, Glorious Food!
Ep 10 · Jul 20, 2026 · 51 min
IN THIS EPISODE, meet Joey Casolo. These days, Joey owns a great pizzaria in South Carolina. But, back in the day, Joey was one of the greatest prison chefs ever at Loretto. If you remember from the movie Goodfellas, the Italians weren't interested in the prison chow. Instead they cooked their own food - gourmet Italian meals - all prepared using a rudimentary (and incredibly dangerous) cooking system: a bucket of water and a live electrical wire that makes the water boil immediately. SHOW NOTES…
S2E9 Killing Fascism
Ep 9 · Jul 13, 2026 · 36 min
IN THIS EPISODE: How do you fight corruption when most of the corrupt deck is stacked against you? In John's case, he used his words - and the fact that becoming a federal prisoner does not mean you surrender your rights - like the one to free speech. The prison authorities genuinely feared John's power to expose them and their corruption and plotted endlessly to find ways to silence John and cut him off from the outside world and cut the outside world's access to him. SHOW NOTES If you're enjoy…
S2E8 Snowden
Ep 8 · Jul 6, 2026 · 40 min
THE BLURB: While John was serving his sentence, the American government faced the consequences of other whistleblowers speaking their truths about the corruption they'd encountered inside the government. One of the more prominent was Edward Snowden who blew the whistle on the NSA - the National Security Agency - and the fact that it was breaking the law, violating its charter and spying on American citizens by scooping up data on their phone calls. Snowden claimed that he'd been inspired in part…
S2 Bonus Episode: Expert Witness
Jul 4, 2026 · 9 min
THE BLURB: In this bonus episode, John tells the story of a legal case in which he testified as an expert witness - against the FBI in a case against an accused terrorist. As John learned from personal experience, democracy and secrecy don't always play well together. The people holding the secrets tend to disregard democracy in order to protect their secrets. In this instance, the FBI went after a homeless man, determined - despite a complete lack of actual evidence - that he was a dangerous te…
S2E7 Letters From Loretto
Ep 7 · Jun 29, 2026 · 28 min
IN THIS EPISODE John arrived at Loretto Federal Prison having promised to write about his experiences for various independent news media outlets. He had no idea just how powerful that connection - John's prison experiences and the news media - would prove. In this episode, John tells the story of how his prison blog - "Letters From Loretto" - became a national sensation and an ever-more-damning indictment of the corruption inside our prisons and prison system. SHOW NOTES For more great podcasts,…
S2E6 Use Your Words
Ep 6 · Jun 22, 2026 · 28 min
THE BLURB: Already a succesful, best-selling author when the CIA put John in prison, he quickly realized that his writing - his words - were going to be his super power. John wasn't worried about his fellow prisoners; his training as a spy gave him advantages over them. But the prison authorities - corrupt to their marrow - did pose problems to John. Until they realized just how much of a super power John's writing was. Turns out, the pen is mightier than the sword and the corrupt federal prison…
S2E5 The Abyss
Ep 5 · Jun 15, 2026 · 47 min
THE BLURB: Frederich Nietsche warned us about staring into the abyss and becoming the monster we most feared. He could have been talking about being in prison. Or being a spy. In this episode, John tells how he increasingly relied on the rules of spying to navitage prison life. But, in becoming a monster in order to survive, the question becomes: when John's sentence ends, will he be able to separate himself from the monster - or will the monster he had to become follow him into the outside worl…
S2E4 With Friends Like These
Ep 4 · Jun 8, 2026 · 33 min
THE BLURB: While, on the one hand prison is NOT the place you go to make friends, once you're there, you need to have (and be able to rely on) a tight circle of friends just to survive. In the last episode, John introduced you to some of that tight circle. In this episode, John dives a little deeper into those relationships plus a few others that were essential parts of his prison experience. But, you can't befriend killers, conmen and pathological liars without having your own humanity ding-ed.…
S2E3 Circle Of Friends
Ep 3 · Jun 1, 2026 · 60 min
THE BLURB: In prison, nobody helps anybody. Except their friends. In this episode, John will introduce you to his circle of friends, some of whom remained his friend long after they all got out of prison. Relationships that would probably never have happened except for prison can become some of the most profound, satisfying relationships one has. As you'lll hear... SHOW NOTES If you enjoy this podcast, please check out our other podcasts at Coastard & Touchstone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p…
S2E2 Rules Of The Game
Ep 2 · May 25, 2026 · 35 min
THE BLURB: One thing about prison, there are rules upon rules. Upon rules. In this episode, John realizes that he's going to have to live by his own rules in order to survive. Those rules will be entirely based on the rules John learned - and had to live by - as a spy. As John keeps learning, there's an amazing amount of similarity between living life as a federal prisoner and living life as a spy. SHOW NOTES If you are enjoying Dead Drop, please check out our other podcasts at Costard & Touchst…
S2E1 Welcome To Loretto
Ep 1 · May 18, 2026 · 31 min
THE BLURB: In season one, we told the story of how CIA counter terrorism officer John Kiriakou chose to tell ABC journalist Jonathan Ross the truth - that the CIA had tortured and waterboarded detainees like Abu Zubaydah. The CIA went on the warpath against John, finally forcing him to accept a plea deal of thirty months reducible to 23 months in federal prison. In season two, John arrives at Loretto Federal Prison and enters a world unlike anything he'd ever encountered before. Though John had…
S1E27 Prisoner Ex
Ep 27 · May 11, 2026 · 36 min
THE BLURB: Having been a prisoner despite not deserving that fate, John is extremely interested in others similarly incarcerated. To that end, back before the 2024 election, we put together an episode of a podcast called "Prisoner Ex" where we told the story of Donnie Reynolds, Jr, a young, ambitious Black entrepreneur who got swept up in the US government's failed attempt to catch and prosecute Mexican drug cartel leaders by supplying them with GPS-carrying firearms. Donnie and his whole family…
S1E26 Did John Le Carre Invent The Modern Spy?
Ep 26 · May 4, 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
THE BLURB: In this episode, we ask a question: did author and ex-spy John Le Carre invent the modern spy by channeling his experiences as a Cold War spy into novels like "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold", "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", "The Night Manager, The Constant Gardner, Russia House and The Little Drummer Girl? What about real spies did le Carre capture that makes real spies respond to his fictional spies - and then imitate them and their language? We'll also talk shop about writing an…
S1E25 The Whistleblower
Ep 25 · Apr 27, 2026 · 52 min
THE BLURB: As John's date with prison looms, he begins prepping - financially and mentally. In the end, John's plea deal would put him inside for 30 months reduceable to 23. At least it would be in a relatively benign, low security work camp setting. That was what the prosecution agreed to! Meanwhile, public opinion about John begins to shift; They go from seeing him as a pariah to a whistleblower - and an American hero. Still, prison is prison and John approaches his sentence more and more like…
S1E24 Moment Of Truth
Ep 24 · Apr 20, 2026 · 57 min
THE BLURB: John demanding to see his lawyer saved him getting arrested on the spot. Almost all of the government's case against John was nonsense - which John and his lawyers wanted to prove in court. But, one of the government's charges against John had the very real potential to stick. In the end, the economic pressures won out. Still, if John was going to prison, he'd be doing it both in style and alongside the encouragemet of a growing list of celebrity friends. Still, can anything really pr…
S1E23 Good Company, Bad Company
Ep 23 · Apr 13, 2026 · 56 min
THE BLURB: John wasn't the only CIA officer who refused training in the CIA's new "enhanced interrogation" techniques - despite assurances from the CIA's legal team. This episode's guest, author and former CIA officer Glenn Carle spent two decades in the agency. Like John, Glenn broke with the CIA over the subject of torture. Glenn was part of a team interrogating another high value Al Qaeda target, and, like John, came to appreciate that torture was completely ineffectiv"The Interrogator" heree…
S1E22 The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Ep 22 · Apr 6, 2026 · 26 min
THE BLURB: John finds that working in the private sector (doing corporate intel at Deloitte and Touche) for big money, perks and benefits has its advantages over working a lot more for a lot less at the agency. Then one day - when everything's going gangbusters for John, he gets a call from Brian Ross at ABC News. And everything changes. But, how did Ross find John? And why was the news media so slow to take up and believe the torture story? By the time reporters like Ross found their way to Joh…
S1E21 End Of Times
Ep 21 · Mar 30, 2026 · 35 min
THE BLURB: Everything must end - including a CIA career. While John had planned to make a lifetime career of the agency, circumstances dictated otherwise. So, to a large degree, did his new immediate boss-from-hell. In this episode, John begins to suss out a new, post-CIA life just over the horizon. The problem will be getting out of the CIA in one piece. SHOW NOTES For more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for m…
S1E20 Changes
Ep 20 · Mar 23, 2026 · 54 min
THE BLURB: Returning from the mission in Pakistan, John decided his kids needed him to stay closer to home for a whie. He applied for and got a domestic assignment. The problem? His new boss, a pencil-pusher named Mary Margaret hated him and did everything she could think of to prove it. SHOW NOTES For more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E19 Torture
Ep 19 · Mar 16, 2026 · 26 min
THE BLURB: If this story has a heart of darkness, this is it. How did American policy find its way to legitimizing torture? In this episode, we'll take you down that terrible road. America became a torturer because certain people - including then Vice President Dick Cheney - wanted us to be that thing. We'll also describe how the Bush Administration's wordplay, dancing around the word "torture", made torture inevitable. SHOW NOTES For more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://cost…
S1E18 Cross Currents
Ep 18 · Mar 9, 2026 · 32 min
THE BLURB: After John watched Abu Zubaydah's plane rendition him to what turned out to be a black site in Thailad, he still had lots of other terrorists to interrogate. He felt contrite after getting overly physical with a detainee - but no one else in the chain of command felt John had been out of line. Returning stateside, John is approached by the agency. They want to know if he's interested in learning enhanced interrogation techniques. He wasn't. And, so began the fracture that would ultima…
S1E17 Zain
Ep 17 · Mar 2, 2026 · 28 min
THE BLURB: For 70 hours, almost three days, John was responsible for handling Abu Zubaydah, the terrorist the agency believed was Al Qaeda's number three. Though their time togeter was relatively short - and Zain (Abu Zubaydah's actual name) spent much of it unconscious - John did manage to build a human connection with him and began to appreciate the person inside the nom de guerre. Zain is renditioned elsewhere. John goes back to work interrogating all the other terrorists they'd grabbed along…
S1E16 Captured
Ep 16 · Feb 23, 2026 · 44 min
THE BLURB: The hunt for Al Qaeda's number three, an elusive terrorist with the nom de guerre Abu Zubaydah, intensifies but seems to go nowhere. The team scoops up lots of smaller prey, but can never seem to pin down Abu Zubaydah himself. And then an anonymous walk-in tip leads to a (literal) phone line which leads to... Abu Zubaydah? SHOW NOTES For more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S1E15 The Hunt Begins
Ep 15 · Feb 16, 2026 · 37 min
THE BLURB: John lands in Pakistan where the hunt for Al Qaeda's leadership begins with the hunt for the perfect safe house. John also begins to coordinate his team with Pakistani intelligence (not a very trusting relationship). And then a tip comes in: Al Qaeda's number three, a terrorist with the nom de guerre Abu Zubaydah, has been spotted in Pakistan. John is tasked with coming up with the plan to capture Abu Zubaydah. SHOW NOTES For more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://co…
Mini Episode 5 Betrayal
Feb 13, 2026 · 13 min
THE BLURB: Aldrich Ames was a CIA counterintelligence officer who was convicted of espionage on behalf of the soviet Union and Russia in 1994. Ames was responsible for the arrest and eventual execution of numerous Soviet and Russian officials secretly working on behalf of US intellifence, and had compromised more highly classified CIA assets than any other intelligence officer at the time of his arrest. What caused Rich Ames to betray his craft and his country? Why does any spy go rogue? SHOW NO…
S1E14 Game On
Ep 14 · Feb 9, 2026 · 28 min
THE BLURB: With America - and the CIA - at war, everyone wants to fight, especially John. But, his skill sets aren't the required ones as the War On Terror begins. The CIA, it turns out, had an actual plan to deal with Osama bin Laden. After settling some old business back in Greece, John begins to work on the CTC's leadership, looking for a way to in to Afghanistan. And then one opens up... SHOW NOTES For more great podcasts like Dead Drop, please visit https://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted…
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