100 episodes

State Secrets is a weekly interview podcast featuring Cipher Brief experts and national security leaders.

State Secrets The Cipher Brief

    • News
    • 4.7 • 81 Ratings

State Secrets is a weekly interview podcast featuring Cipher Brief experts and national security leaders.

    Live from Taiwan :A Debrief with RADM Mike Studeman (Ret)

    Live from Taiwan :A Debrief with RADM Mike Studeman (Ret)

    Retired Rear Admiral Mike Studeman is the former Commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence. He has extensive experience in intelligence, foreign policy, defense and China.  So, it wasn’t a surprise when Taiwan’s Vice President-Elect Hsiao – someone he had briefed along with President Tsai when he was the Navy’s Indo-Pacom Director for Intelligence – invited him back to Taiwan, this time for a series of high-level visits. Studeman met with the chief of the general staff in Taiwan as well as the chief of the Navy.  He visited shipbuilding centers and met with leaders of think tanks and when we met up with him, he and his delegation had just returned from the Kinman Islands.  Those are the off-shore islands, just a few miles from the coast of China where there have been a series of confrontations as Chinese Coast Guards have flexed their ability to enter the restricted waters.

    • 25 min
    Villains, Victims and Vendors in Cyberspace

    Villains, Victims and Vendors in Cyberspace

    Former Director of CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence (and Cipher Brief Expert) Andrew Boyd talks to State Secrets about the dynamic relationship between villains, victims and vendors operating in cyberspace. The CIA, he says, has been paying close attention to cyberspace “since the dawn of IP”, so what lessons can he share about how spies, thieves and nation states are using the domain to find and exploit victims and how the private sector and government are partnering to track them down.

    • 34 min
    Iran's Proxy War Against The U.S.

    Iran's Proxy War Against The U.S.

    Recent U.S strikes against Iranian proxy groups in Syria and Iraq may be just the beginning of a multi-tier response by the U.S. after the killing of three service members in Jordan last month and it’s raising questions about just how far the U.S. should go in limiting Iran’s ability to use these groups to launch attacks against Americans. Former CIA Deputy Assistant Director of the Near East Mission Center and former Chief of Analysis in the Iran Mission Center Andy Dunn talks to State Secrets about what it will take to deter Iran.

    • 28 min
    Gen Z and CIA is a Relationship in Need of Counseling

    Gen Z and CIA is a Relationship in Need of Counseling

    Former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos recently wrote an article exploring the intriguing dynamics of Gen Z in the CIA workplace, sparking a controversial debate. While research suggests Gen Z may display slower independence behaviors and cause tension with older workers in professional environments, they're redefining things like work-life balance and what it takes to succeed in the workplace. We wanted to hear more from Marc about why he felt compelled to take up this issue and what he learned.

    • 24 min
    The Innovation Gap

    The Innovation Gap

    Former NSA Chief of Innovation Kevin Keaton left his government job last year – before the age of retirement - to accept a role as a founding partner at a venture capital firm.  Today, he’s focused on closing a gap between government and the private sector that he believes is a serious issue when it comes to U.S. national security.  In his first podcast interview since leaving government, State Secrets sat down with Keaton to talk about what he sees as the ‘innovation gap’, China is exploiting it, and how he’s now working from the private sector, to try and close it.

    • 37 min
    Secrets of Espionage

    Secrets of Espionage

    Alan Kohler spent 27 years at the FBI, where his priority for decades, was hunting down spies who were operating in the United States.  As Assistant Director of the Bureau’s Counterintelligence Division, Kohler had a hand in nearly every espionage operation the Bureau conducted.  He also served as Acting Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch and was Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence Division before he retired last year and joined The Cipher Brief’s Expert Network.  He is also President of Pamir Consulting. State Secrets sat down with Kohler to uncover some of the highlights of the cases he was involved in that made national and global headlines. 
    In his first podcast interview, we also talked about why espionage and elections are still very top-of-mind for him – particularly when it comes to Russia and China.
     

    • 32 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
81 Ratings

81 Ratings

GeneM68 ,

Steve Blank EXCEPTIONAL

That interview with Steve Blank was exceptional ”at scale!”

Tomes JT ,

Great Practitioner and Thought Leader Interviews

Love the community of leaders, authors, and academics TCB has assembled. The insight is unmatched by any other media outlets that I have listened to in last decade. Keep it up and I’ll be subscribing to TCB premium access accounts.

chipsotoole1 ,

Lame

These people act like they are still talking with their lingo using buds.. it’s boring and not useful to anyone except people wanting to stroke themselves with people who they fashion as important or relevant… go back to Panera and have the Mac and cheese..

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