ClandesTime: Recent Episodes
Tom Secker
Podcast series with Tom Secker featuring film and book reviews and discussions and investigations into military and intelligence involvement in popular culture.
The Watchdogs Didn’t Bark was the last great book on the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks. In this episode I... The post ClandesTime 283 – 9/11: The Watchdogs Didn’t Bark first appeared on Spy Culture.
Godzilla movies vary enormously, from goofy to serious, from smart to utterly moronic. In this subscribercast we look at the... The post Subscribercast #99 – Godzilla vs Godzilla Minus One first appeared on Spy Culture.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 London Bombings, a terrorist mass murder that I investigated for many... The post ClandesTime 282 – The 7/7 London Bombings Revisited first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Union is the latest big spy film to hit streaming and has proven a success despite being a 10...
The post ClandesTime 275 – The Union first appeared on Spy Culture.
The topic of Israel and Hollywood tends to attract racists and conspiracy theorists but for this month’s subscribercast I put...
The post Subscribercast #93 – Israel and Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
I hate reality TV but it’s cheap, nasty and has taken over the TV entertainment industry. In this episode we...
The post ClandesTime 274 – The US Military and Reality TV first appeared on Spy Culture.
Most of you will have read or heard some of the coverage of the relationship between the military and video...
The post Subscribercast #92 – The US Military and Video Games first appeared on Spy Culture.
The government involvement in Hollywood marches on so in today’s episode we examine two films that were released this year,...
The post ClandesTime 273 – The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare vs My Spy: The Eternal City first appeared on Spy Culture.
In the many years I’ve been doing this I’ve got a lot of suggestions and recommendations from listeners. In this... The post Subscribercast #91 – Listener Recommendations first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
When you specialise in an area of research you tend to be asked the same questions, or the same kinds... The post ClandesTime 272 – FAQs first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
Why did the US military support a film about a drunken, abusive husband and father who is a textbook narcissist?... The post ClandesTime 271 – The Great Santini first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
Gangster finds God, with the help of a non-linear storyline. In this month's subscriber-only episode I have a long, rambling... The post Subscribercast #90 – Pulp Fiction first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
The original TV series of Mission: Impossible was inspired by the life and work of CIA contract agent Robert Maheu,... The post ClandesTime 270 – The CIA and Mission: Impossible first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
Gary Webb is one of the journalists who inspired me, and his Dark Alliance series on the CIA complicity in... The post Subscribercast #89 – Gary Webb, the CIA and Cocaine first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
Very few major films have been made about the wars in Yugoslavia, but two are certainly worth examining. In this... The post ClandesTime 269 – The Balkan Line vs Behind Enemy Lines first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
What connects Kris Kristofferson, Willem Dafoe, Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman? They have all starred in Iran-Contra themed movies. In... The post ClandesTime 268 – The Cinema of Iran-Contra: Part II first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
Lone Survivor. Black Hawk Down. Kandahar. Stick them in a blender and you get this episode’s movie – Land of... The post ClandesTime 267 – Land of Bad first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
What connects the Glazer family, owners of Manchester United football club, and the CIA? Three companies: the Zapata Corporation, founded... The post Subscribercast #88 – The Glazers, Manchester United and the CIA first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
The spy movie is dying, despite efforts to reform it in recent years. In this episode we examine Argylle, the... The post ClandesTime 266 – Argylle first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
Continuing our vaguely Gary Devore-related explorations, in this month’s subscribercast we look at two unconventional bank heist films where the... The post Subscribercast #87 – The Bank Job vs Inside Man first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
| | | Kevin Gosztola joins us to talk about his new Medium publication The Wide Shot, a film review and industry analysis...The post ClandesTime 265 – The Wide Shot, David Robb and Phil Strub first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | What does a military movie with no heroes look like? It looks like Buffalo Soldiers, a tale of bored, criminally...The post Subscribercast #86 – Buffalo Soldiers, etc. first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | It isn’t often that you get a long-term inside view of a government propaganda office, but that’s what I’ve got...The post ClandesTime 264 – The US Marine Corps in Hollywood: 1974 to 1982 first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Apocalypse Now and Francis Ford Coppola were rejected by the Pentagon when they asked for production support. A decade later...The post ClandesTime 263 – Gardens of Stone first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | 15 years after podcasts first became a popular medium, the CIA has cottoned onto the value of pre-recorded audio content....The post ClandesTime 262 – The CIA and Podcasts Decoded first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Two years on from my investigation into over 3000 pages of Bureau of Prisons files on Jeffrey Epstein we return...The post Subscribercast #85 – The Epstein-Maxwell Cover-Up first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Dying of the Light. Dark. The Card Counter. Aside from all being written and directed by Paul Schrader, what do...The post ClandesTime 261 – A Paul Schrader Trilogy first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | In this month’s subscriber-only podcast we tackle the final season of The Shield, and do so head on. In this...The post Subscribercast #84 – The Shield Season Seven first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Netflix’s The Diplomat marks the first time that the British Foreign Office and the US State Department have made a...The post ClandesTime 260 – The Diplomat first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | For this Christmastime subscribercast we welcome back Henri to discuss the 1980s sci-fi comedy classic Back to the Future. We...The post Subscribercast #83 – Back to the Future first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Between 2018 and 2022, three major OSS spies have been canonised in film and TV – Julia Child, Moe Berg...The post ClandesTime 259 – The OSS in Popular Culture first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Continuing our review series, on this month’s subscribercast we look at the sixth and penultimate season of The Shield. We...The post Subscribercast #82 – The Shield Season 6 first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | The CIA’s Museum is a monument to lies, murder and secret power. Not officially, of course, they use much prettier...The post ClandesTime 258 – The CIA Museum first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | How do you hold the police accountable if Internal Affairs are corrupt? That’s the core question in The Shield season...The post Subscribercast #81 – The Shield Season Five first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Ted Kaczynski a.k.a. the Unabomber died earlier this year. As a tribute, in this episode we look at the latest...The post ClandesTime 257 – Was the Unabomber Wrong? first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | In this special report we examine the documentary accusing celebrity Russell Brand of sex crimes. We look at the troubling...The post ClandesTime Special – The Russell Brand Allegations first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | One thing the Pentagon love to do is ‘showcase’ absurdly costly technologies to the public. This military product placement helps...The post ClandesTime 256 – Military-Industrial Product Placement first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Should the government be allowed to seize people’s property because they think it was bought with the profits from crime? ...The post Subscribercast #80 – The Shield Season Four first appeared on Spy Culture.
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Life is like this sometimes: you wait ages for a movie to take corporate personhood and turn it into the... The post ClandesTime 255 – Cultural Capitalism: Air vs Tetris vs Blackberry first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
Reality Winner was an NSA contractor who leaked a single document to The Intercept, and received a five year prison... The post ClandesTime 254 – Reality first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
The Department of Justice’s office of public affairs is the nation’s hub for information on true crime. In this episode... The post Subscribercast 79 – How the Department of Justice Manipulates the News Media first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
Amazon have finally pulled the plug on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, going out with a smudged inkblot of a final... The post ClandesTime 253 – Jack Ryan Season Four (and Specials Ops: Lioness) first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
The Mafia. Hollywood starlets. Foreign leaders. Fake sex tapes. Illegal surveillance. Watergate. The CIA. And Howard Hughes. Robert Maheu’s life... The post ClandesTime 252 – Robert Maheu: The CIA’s Fixer in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
You know how it goes: you wait years for a movie that reframes the war in Afghanistan as a Saving... The post ClandesTime 251 – Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant vs Kandahar first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
Did Joe Colombo approve the script for The Godfather? Was Dorothy Hunt murdered by the CIA as part of the... The post Subscribercast #78 – White House Plumbers vs The Offer first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
1996’s Independence Day is corny, schlocky, nationalistic and pro-nuclear weapons. So how did it end up being rejected by the... The post ClandesTime 250 – Independence Day vs The Pentagon first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
Desert Storm. A female Army Captain. Friendly fire killings. Mutiny. White Phosphorous. Lies and cover-ups. The story of the writing,... The post ClandesTime 249 – Courage Under Fire first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
In this subscribercast we examine how the season-long arc in The Shield is a metaphor for the legacy of Iran-Contra,... The post Subscribercast #77 – The Shield Season 3 first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
The CIA helps to make movies, but what does it think of them? In this episode we delve into how... The post ClandesTime 248 – The CIA on The CIA in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
What does the Deputy Director of the CIA think about spy movies? And what about the founders of the first... The post Subscribercast #76 – More of the CIA on the CIA in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.(Read more...)
| | | The public inquiry into the 2017 Manchester bombing recently published its full and final report. In this episode, we take...The post ClandesTime 246 – The Manchester Bombing Inquiry first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | The US military’s targeting of children goes back decades. In this episode we look at a classic of the children’s...The post ClandesTime 245 – Lassie vs the Pentagon first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | The Shield season two ups the stakes on season one in every way – political, societal, personal. In this month’s...The post Subscribercast #75 – The Shield Season Two first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | If a military supported romance drama with Twitter-level gender politics sounds like a terrible movie then you aren’t wrong. In...The post ClandesTime 244 – Purple Hearts first appeared on Spy Culture.
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Short answer: yes, with an if. Long answer: no, with a but. In this subscribercast we look at two movies...
The post Subscribercast #74 – Does Representation Matter? first appeared on Spy Culture.
Films about torture are often exploitative and sadistic, and even more so when they are state sponsored. In this episode...
The post ClandesTime 243 – The Cinema of the Torture Program first appeared on Spy Culture.
In the first of several subscriber-only podcasts we look at season one of the unique and award-winning cop drama The...
The post Subscribercast #73 – The Shield Season One first appeared on Spy Culture.
The CIA-sponsored streaming wars hit a new high recently, when Netflix premiered The Recruit and within days Amazon released the...
The post ClandesTime 242 – Jack Ryan vs The Recruit first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this quick podcast I review the biographical moral drama Worth (2020) a.k.a. What is Life Worth?. It tells the...
The post Subscribercast #72 – What is Life Worth? first appeared on Spy Culture.
In early 1977 a retired NATO general put together a team of elite military officers to write a report on...
The post ClandesTime 241 – World War III first appeared on Spy Culture.
The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was America’s longest war. In this episode we take an overview of the war...
The post ClandesTime 240 – The Cinema of the War in Afghanistan first appeared on Spy Culture.
The CIA recently launched a new outreach effort – its own podcast. In this subscribercast I review and analyse The...
The post Subscribercast #71 – The Langley Files first appeared on Spy Culture.
Football is the world’s biggest sport, and perhaps the most state-sponsored sport. In this episode we take a critical look...
The post ClandesTime Special – State Sponsored Football and the Qatar World Cup first appeared on Spy Culture.
Imagine a world where secret government agencies used deep fakes to create evidence of events that never happened, and used...
The post Subscribercast #70 – Deep Fakes and The Capture first appeared on Spy Culture.
Somehow, in the midst of all the identity politics and culture war noise, the fact that Captain Marvel was the...
The post ClandesTime 239 – Captain Marvel and Space Force first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Rampart Scandal has been called the worst police corruption story in the history of Los Angeles, and altered a...
The post ClandesTime 238 – The Cultural Impact of the Rampart Scandal first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 2012 attacks on a US diplomatic outpost and a nearby CIA base in Benghazi caused enormous controversy and political...
The post ClandesTime 237 – 13 Hours and the Benghazi Scandal first appeared on Spy Culture.
Mujahideen. False Flags. US interference in the peace process. Ethnic cleansing. The United Nations’ peacekeepers. All this and more as...
The post Subscribercast #69 – Black Ops and Geopolitics in the War in Bosnia first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Leopold and Loeb case was one of ‘crimes of the century’, and inspired many books, plays and movies. On...
The post Subscribercast #68 – Compulsion vs Rope first appeared on Spy Culture.
Amazon Prime are making the most expensive TV show of all time. Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power...
The post ClandesTime 236 – Culture Ministries and The Rings of Power first appeared on Spy Culture.
Obviously, I’m a movie addict but many of my favourites are low-budget features or belong to tiny sub-genres. In this...
The post ClandesTime 235 – These are a Few of My Favourite Films first appeared on Spy Culture.
As youtube has become a centre for emerging pop culture brands, it has also become the target of the US...
The post ClandesTime 234 – Dude Perfect and the US Navy first appeared on Spy Culture.
Pam and Tommy tells the story of the stolen Pamela Anderson-Tommy Lee sextape. Minx tells the story of a 1970s...
The post Subscribercast 67 – Pam and Tommy vs Minx first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 1998 asteroid disaster film Armageddon is often mocked, but rarely taken seriously despite its cultural relevance and impact. While...
The post ClandesTime 233 – Armageddon first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 2018, the US Air Force ran its annual Hollywood ‘industry leader tour’, this time to Air Force Special Operations...
The post ClandesTime 232 – Hollywood Goes to Special Operations Command first appeared on Spy Culture.
When it comes to British intelligence, there are three rules: (1) Trust no one, (2) Trust nothing that they say...
The post Subscribercast #66 – The Undeclared War vs Slow Horses first appeared on Spy Culture.
When it comes to fondly remembered cult 80s action movies, Commando has near-legendary status. In this episode we take a...
The post ClandesTime 231 – Commando first appeared on Spy Culture.
Imagine a world where Nicholas Cage plays himself and is recruited by the CIA to spy on a drug kingpin,...
The post Subscribercast #65 – The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent first appeared on Spy Culture.
Over a hundred governments across the world have a culture ministry – though they often go by other names. These...
The post ClandesTime 230 – The Ministries of Culture first appeared on Spy Culture.
Well, it’s here. The least-needed film in cinematic history, and therefore likely the box office smash of 2022. In this...
The post ClandesTime Special – Top Gun: Maverick first appeared on Spy Culture.
In the summer of 2020 a former CIA officer published a book with the overt aim of countering the tide...
The post Subscribercast #64 – The CIA and Fake News first appeared on Spy Culture.
Black operations make the world go round, and have become the subject of major movies and TV, from Jack Ryan...
The post ClandesTime 229 – Black Operations and the Entertainment Liaison Offices first appeared on Spy Culture.
Can you make an environmentalist movie with the help of the Pentagon? In this episode we answer this and other...
The post ClandesTime 228 – Don’t Look Up first appeared on Spy Culture.
Moonfall is the latest Roland Emmerich disaster movie, and while it isn’t as bad as Don’t Look Up, it isn’t...
The post Subscribercast #63 – Moonfall first appeared on Spy Culture.
Roger Ailes founded and ran Fox News for the first 20 years of its existence, making it the highest rated...
The post ClandesTime 227 – The Loudest Voice first appeared on Spy Culture.
The invasion of Iraq has been called the greatest intelligence failure of all time. This is – of course –...
The post ClandesTime 226 – In the Loop vs Shock and Awe first appeared on Spy Culture.
Perhaps unavoidably, in this month’s subscriber-only podcast we discuss the war in Ukraine – what led up to this point,...
The post Subscribercast #62 – Cultural Warfare Over Ukraine, and the Polandistan Option first appeared on Spy Culture.
Perhaps the most infamous story in the history of James Bond is the plagiarism lawsuit brought against Ian Fleming for...
The post ClandesTime 225 – The Battle for Bond first appeared on Spy Culture.
Epstein didn’t kill himself. Or at least, there’s nothing in 3674 pages of his Bureau of Prisons files from his...
The post Subscribercast #61 – The Epstein Prison Files first appeared on Spy Culture.
From the same ‘what the fuck are the CIA up to now?’ school of thought as the episode of Top...
The post Subscribercast #60 – Pawn Stars Goes to Langley first appeared on Spy Culture.
Since it’s Christmas, I thought we’d do something Biblical and look at an extremely stupid TV show that I happen...
The post Subscribercast #59 – Media Breakdown: Sodom and Gomorrah first appeared on Spy Culture.
The third season of the popular LAPD-supported cop show The Rookie is markedly different to its first two seasons. Or...
The post ClandesTime 224 – The Rewriting of The Rookie first appeared on Spy Culture.
‘Propaganda has been in existence since the time human society came into being; it has always been most closely associated...
The post Subscribercast #58 – Reflections on War Propaganda first appeared on Spy Culture.
From our ‘cancelled after one season’ file come The Code, a CBS legal procedural set in the JAG corps of...
The post ClandesTime 223 – The Code first appeared on Spy Culture.
Iron Man launched the world’s biggest film franchise, as well as one of the most effective vehicles for military propaganda....
The post ClandesTime 222 – Iron Man first appeared on Spy Culture.
Identity has become perhaps the key political term of our age, but how and why did identity politics rise to...
The post Subscribercast #57 – The Origins and Pitfalls of Identity Politics first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Philadelphia Experiment is one of the most enduring paranormal conspiracy theories in American history. In this episode we examine this theory, its sociological and cultural impact, why the Pentagon refused to help make a movie based on the story, and why it has persisted for so long.
The post ClandesTime 221 – The Philadelphia Experiment first appeared on Spy Culture.
From the ‘cancelled after one season’ file comes Rubicon, an intricate conspiracy thriller series set in the world of private...
The post ClandesTime 220 – Rubicon first appeared on Spy Culture.
The state make a claim to a monopoly on the righteous use of violence, but throughout history people have challenged...
The post Subscribercast #56 – Revolutionary Violence first appeared on Spy Culture.
Benedict Cumberbatch is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get. In this episode...
The post ClandesTime 219 – The Courier vs The Mauritanian first appeared on Spy Culture.
Completing our look at the HBO series The Newsroom, we examine season 3, focusing in on the whistleblower storyline and...
The post The Newsroom Season 3 Review first appeared on Spy Culture.
On the surface, Demolition Man is a glossy, cheesy 90s action comedy set in an absurd future, but what lies...
The post Subscribercast #55 – Demolition Man first appeared on Spy Culture.
On this month’s subscriber-only podcast I break down two recent CIA supported productions codifying their new story of the manhunt...
The post Subscribercast #54 – Media Breakdown: The CIA and the Hunt for Bin Laden first appeared on Spy Culture.
Good friend Henri from Fortress on a Hill joined me to discuss the 1990s Iran-Contra political mockumentary Bob Roberts, which...
The post ClandesTime 218 – Bob Roberts first appeared on Spy Culture.
Are humans rational? Should they be? Is logic just a language game? Is ‘rational self-interest’ a bunch of bullshit? On...
The post Subscribercast #53 – Rationality and Irrationality first appeared on Spy Culture.
In November 1983 ABC aired The Day After – a one-off TV movie depicting a nuclear war between NATO and...
The post ClandesTime 217 – The Day After first appeared on Spy Culture.
Amazon are making the world’s most expensive TV show – an adaptation of Lord of the Rings, with the New...
The post Subscribercast #52 – The Amazon – New Zealand – Lord of the Rings Deal first appeared on Spy Culture.
I continue my review of HBO’s The Newsroom by looking at season two – wherein a series of whistleblowers accuse...
The post The Newsroom Season 2 Review (Preview) first appeared on Spy Culture.
The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it. In this episode we examine dozens of films...
The post ClandesTime 216 – The Movies That Were Never Made first appeared on Spy Culture.
12 Angry Men is a Hollywood classic about a jury trying to decide whether a young man is guilty of...
The post Subscribercast #51 – 12 Angry Men first appeared on Spy Culture.
In a year of very few theatrical releases it’s been a bad time for state-sponsored culture, so in this episode...
The post ClandesTime 215 – Greenland vs Operation Christmas Drop vs My Spy first appeared on Spy Culture.
I continue the more philosophical theme in recent subscribercasts by outlining the ancient Greek model of moral philosophy known as...
The post Subscribercast #50 – Virtue Ethics vs Virtue Signalling first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this subscriber-only podcast we take a sideways look at one of the most popular philosophical conflicts. I explore some...
The post Subscribercast #49 – Individualism vs Collectivism first appeared on Spy Culture.
Tom Hanks is perhaps the last of the classic Hollywood leading men, and has starred in some of the most...
The post ClandesTime 214 – The Secret World of Tom Hanks first appeared on Spy Culture.
I decided to do a subscriber-only review of the HBO TV series The Newsroom, with an episode looking at each...
The post The Newsroom Season 1 Review (Preview) first appeared on Spy Culture.
On this Christmas edition of the subscribercast we examine the daddy of all Christmas movies – Die Hard. I outline...
The post Subscribercast #48 – Die Hard first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Department of Homeland Security is one of the biggest agencies of the US government, and has a highly active...
The post ClandesTime 213 – Homeland Security in Hollywood (and the Boston Bombing) first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 1968 Chicago riots at the Democrat National Convention, and the subsequent trial of 8 leaders of different radical left...
The post Subscribercast #47 – The Trial of the Chicago 7 first appeared on Spy Culture.
2017’s Wonder Woman was hailed and criticised in equal measure, mostly because it featured a female superhero protagonist. But what...
The post ClandesTime 212 – Wonder Woman first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this subscribercast I review and analyse a recent conference hosted by the US Naval Institute and the US Naval...
The post Subscribercast #46 – Media Breakdown: Through the Camera Lens first appeared on Spy Culture.
Combat Obscura is a documentary shot on the ground in Afghanistan at the height of the war. In this episode...
The post ClandesTime 211 – Combat Obscura first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this subscribercast I take a more philosophical turn and explore what I think is the greatest philosophical mistake we’ve...
The post Subscribercast #45 – Our Greatest Philosophical Mistake first appeared on Spy Culture.
‘Cultural Marxism’ is a term that these days is almost exclusively used by hard right wing critics of the popular...
The post ClandesTime 210 – Conspiracy Theories: Cultural Marxism in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
On this month’s subscriber-only podcast I examine four very different movies, three with a ‘social action’ or political element and...
The post Subscribercast #44 – Battle of the Genres first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this episode I welcome back friend and journalist James Oddy so we could discuss the 8th and final season...
The post ClandesTime 209 – Good Riddance to Homeland first appeared on Spy Culture.
Platoon is one the great American anti-war films, beloved by many veterans for its realistic combat sequences and its full-blooded...
The post ClandesTime 208 – Platoon first appeared on Spy Culture.
On this month’s subscribercast I break down and analyse an interview by the Hollywood Reporter with Warren Leight, the showrunner...
The post Subscribercast #43 – Media Breakdown: Hollywood and Copaganda first appeared on Spy Culture.
There are dozens of films about the ‘Troubles’ but very few of them engage with the covert operations run by...
The post ClandesTime 207 – Hidden Agenda vs ‘71 first appeared on Spy Culture.
How much responsibility does the TV crime genre have for police racism, brutality and corruption? On this month’s subscriber-only podcast...
The post Subscribercast #42 – Systemic Racism and Cop Shows first appeared on Spy Culture.
This three-part radio documentary produced by CBC (and featuring Matt, Tanner Mirrlees and myself, among others) explores the role Hollywood...
The post Myths on Screen – The Full Series first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Little Drummer Girl is an espionage drama based on Operation Wrath of God – the Mossad operation to track...
The post ClandesTime 206 – The Little Drummer Girl first appeared on Spy Culture.
In these times of strife, confusion, hostility and boredom it is important to keep ourselves amused. In this month’s subscriber-only...
The post Subscribercast #41 – Keeping Amused first appeared on Spy Culture.
Hi everyone and thanks for tuning in – this is just a quick intro because a listener said I should...
The post The Rookie: Made by the LAPD (audio version) first appeared on Spy Culture.
Spy Games is a recent reality TV game show where 10 dipshits compete for the approval of three ex-spooks who...
The post ClandesTime 205 – Spy Games first appeared on Spy Culture.
Over more than a century the US government’s entertainment liaison offices have supported over 1000 movies, along with thousands of...
The post ClandesTime 204 – Why the Entertainment Liaison Offices Matter first appeared on Spy Culture.
‘Movies don’t create psychos, movies make psychos more creative.’ That is a quote from the 1996 horror-comedy Scream, but it...
The post ClandesTime 203 – Psychopaths and the Copycat Effect first appeared on Spy Culture.
After many of my patreon subscribers said I should make the full podcast available to everyone I decided to unlock...
The post Lockdown: The Dark Side of Social Distancing (FULL EPISODE) first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this subscriber-only podcast I explore the haphazard and irrational implementation of the COVID-19 social distancing lockdowns currently in place...
The post Subscribercast #40 – Lockdown: The Dark Side of Social Distancing first appeared on Spy Culture.
The recent Netflix series Messiah depicts what would happen if a Jesus-like figure suddenly appeared and started influencing geopolitics. In...
The post ClandesTime 202 – Messiah first appeared on Spy Culture.
So what the hell is going on? Are we all going to die in the great corona-zombie apocalypse of 2020...
The post Subscribercast #39 – Rorschach Politics: Coronavirus first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this episode I welcome Kevin Gosztola, a journalist, editor of Shadowproof and co-host of Unauthorized Disclosure. We talk about...
The post ClandesTime Special – Kevin Gosztola on the Assange Extradition Case first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 1962 the US and the Soviet Union came to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis...
The post ClandesTime 201 – Thirteen Days and the Cuban Missile Crisis first appeared on Spy Culture.
To mark the 200th episode of this podcast I decided to combine several ideas into an open buffet of information...
The post ClandesTime 200 – Extravaganza first appeared on Spy Culture.
When you think of radical or counter-establishment films the 1998 thriller The Negotiator probably doesn’t come to mind, especially if...
The post Subscribercast #38 – The Negotiator and Israel’s Nuclear Smuggling Ring first appeared on Spy Culture.
What’s the connection between the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and the resurgent Neo-Nazi movements popping up in Western...
The post ClandesTime 199 – Neo Nazism and the Yugoslav Wars first appeared on Spy Culture.
Perhaps the most insidious rewriting of recent history by Hollywood is Zero Dark Thirty‘s narrative that torture helped find Bin...
The post Subscriber Podcast #37 – The CIA, Torture and Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Day Shall Come is the latest film from Chris Morris, the maker of Four Lions, and tells the story...
The post ClandesTime 198 – The Day Shall Come first appeared on Spy Culture.
Just like many federal agencies the Los Angeles Police Department have a dedicated entertainment liaison office for dealing with Hollywood....
The post Subscriber Podcast #36 – The LAPD’s Hollywood Office first appeared on Spy Culture.
For decades undercover British intelligence officers have infiltrated almost every notable political movement in the UK. In this episode I...
The post ClandesTime 197 – The Spycops Scandal first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Final Countdown is a classic of good bad cinema, featuring an aircraft carrier that goes through a wormhole and...
The post ClandesTime 196 – The Final Countdown first appeared on Spy Culture.
Over the last few weeks a storm has been brewing about the Chinese government’s censorship of American movies, as well...
The post Subscriber Podcast #35 – China, Censorship and South Park first appeared on Spy Culture.
The original Cultural Cold War has been the subject of numerous books and articles on both sides of the divide,...
The post ClandesTime 195 – The New Cultural Cold War first appeared on Spy Culture.
This week, I welcome to the show author and friend James Oddy to discuss the JFK assassination case and its...
The post ClandesTime 194 – Oliver Stone’s JFK first appeared on Spy Culture.
Why is it that capitalist economies and cultures produce anti-capitalist products? In this month’s subscriber podcast I examine three examples...
The post Subscriber Podcast #34 – Anti-Capitalist Pop Culture first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 1998 the CIA got an opportunity to infiltrate one of their spies into the Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan,...
The post ClandesTime 193 – An Alternative History of Al Qaeda: Aukai Collins first appeared on Spy Culture.
The US Navy SEALs are known as the ‘quiet professionals’, but in recent times they have become the highest-profile of...
The post ClandesTime 192 – The Cinema of the Navy SEALs first appeared on Spy Culture.
Why isn’t the ‘political film’ a genre of cinema? Hollywood puts out a consistent stream of politically-themed films, but rarely...
The post ClandesTime 191 – The ‘Disguised’ Political Film in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, President Bush’s chief spin doctor and senior advisor Karl Rove enlisted Hollywood’s...
The post ClandesTime 190 – Karl Rove and the Cultural Impact of 9/11 first appeared on Spy Culture.
Omar Nasiri was a Moroccan who spent 6 years spying on Al Qaeda for several European intelligence agencies. In this...
The post ClandesTime 189 – An Alternative History of Al Qaeda: Omar Nasiri first appeared on Spy Culture.
Did we really go to the moon? Yes, probably, but American Moon is an epic 3 1/2 hour documentary that...
The post Subscriber Podcast #33 – American Moon first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 2006 arrests of the Toronto 18 was a key moment in the post-9/11 war on terror. It helped internationalise...
The post ClandesTime 188 – An Alternative History of Al Qaeda: Mubin Shaikh first appeared on Spy Culture.
The relationship between government liaison offices and the entertainment industry usually works well, resulting in added production value for the...
The post ClandesTime 187 – When Entertainment Liaison Offices Go Bad first appeared on Spy Culture.
NCIS is a wildly successful TV drama, one of the most popular series of the last 20 years. This week...
The post ClandesTime 186 – NCIS first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this month’s feature-length subscriber podcast I analyse the Hulu TV drama The Looming Tower (based on the original book...
The post Subscriber Podcast #32 – The Looming Tower first appeared on Spy Culture.
Morten Storm is a Danish man who converted to Islam in the 1990s and got involved in the jihadi scene...
The post ClandesTime 185 – An Alternative History of Al Qaeda: Morten Storm first appeared on Spy Culture.
What happens when people are given too much information? They feel overwhelmed, which quickly becomes apathy and political paralysis. In...
The post ClandesTime 184 – Political Paralysis in the Information Age first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this month’s subscriber-only podcast I examine the 1975 movie Rollerball, about an ultra-violent bloodsport and the corporate dystopian society...
The post Subscriber Podcast #31 – Rollerball first appeared on Spy Culture.
Fields of Fire is one of the greatest movies that was never made. A brutal but sympathetic portrait of the...
The post ClandesTime 183 – Fields of Fire first appeared on Spy Culture.
1994’s Clear and Present Danger is one of the most important movies in the cinema of the war on drugs,...
The post ClandesTime 182 – Clear and Present Danger first appeared on Spy Culture.
Iran-Contra is in many ways the definitive government conspiracy – involving guns, drugs, anti-communism and black operations, it went all...
The post ClandesTime 181 – The Cinema of Iran-Contra first appeared on Spy Culture.
Monster movies are one of the most beloved and distinctive genres in cinema, featuring a winning combination of exotic spectacle,...
The post ClandesTime 180 – The Politics of Monster Movies first appeared on Spy Culture.
On this month’s subscriber-only podcast I review one of my favourite films of all time – Starship Troopers. I discuss...
The post Subscriber Podcast #30 – Starship Troopers first appeared on Spy Culture.
Superman is one of the world’s most recognisable cultural icons. A symbol of human idealism, he has been subject to...
The post ClandesTime 179 – The Philosophy and Politics of Superman first appeared on Spy Culture.
Black Panther and Django Unchained are perhaps the two most successful movies featuring black actors in lead roles that Hollywood...
The post ClandesTime 178 – Black Panther vs Django Unchained first appeared on Spy Culture.
While it is now considered a Cold War classic Ice Station Zebra was a flop when it was first released....
The post ClandesTime 177 – Ice Station Zebra first appeared on Spy Culture.
On this month’s subscriber-only podcast I break down a 2016 interview with British political satirist Armando Iannucci by Chatham House,...
The post Subscriber Podcast #29 – Media Breakdown: Armando Iannucci at Chatham House first appeared on Spy Culture.
Vice has won awards along with praise from audiences and critics alike, but how well does it inform its audience...
The post ClandesTime 176 – What Vice Doesn’t Tell You about Dick Cheney first appeared on Spy Culture.
Osama Bin Laden’s death is the perfect postmodern event, in that most of the reports detailing how, where and when...
The post ClandesTime 175 – An Alternative History of Al Qaeda: The Death of Osama Bin Laden first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 2008 Wall Street crash has inspired little more than a staccato response from Hollywood, with very few films taking...
The post ClandesTime 174 – The Big Short vs Margin Call first appeared on Spy Culture.
Public Enemies is a 2009 historical drama/thriller film that tells the story of the Bureau of Investigation’s manhunt for Public...
The post ClandesTime 173 – Public Enemies first appeared on Spy Culture.
George Crile’s book Charlie Wilson’s War is the most in-depth account of the CIA’s support to the Afghan mujahideen, based...
The post ClandesTime 172 – An Alternative History of Al Qaeda: Charlie Wilson’s War first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this month’s subscriber-only podcast I break down the BBC’s Panorama episode on the Skripal affair. One year on from...
The post Subscriber Podcast #28 – Panorama Breakdown: The Skripal Affair first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Last Ship is one of the most popular cable TV shows of recent years, as well as one of...
The post ClandesTime 171 – The Last Ship first appeared on Spy Culture.
Anwar al Awlaki rose to notoriety in the 2000s as a leading internet jihadist whose lectures and videos were very...
The post ClandesTime 170 – An Alternative History of Al Qaeda: Anwar al Awlaki first appeared on Spy Culture.
The British government’s role in using the entertainment industry is smaller than in America, but nonetheless involves many of the...
The post ClandesTime 169 – Margaret Thatcher and the Entertainment Industry first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this month’s subscriber-only podcast I explore several DOD-supported films and the files on them from the Lawrence Suid archive. ...
The post Subscriber Podcast #27 – The Suid Archive first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 1996 action thriller Executive Decision was an early example of what should be called ‘irregular war films’, pitting a...
The post ClandesTime 168 – Executive Decision first appeared on Spy Culture.
I recently found out that Strub retired from his job as the DOD’s Hollywood liaison last July, though this wasn’t...
The post ClandesTime 167 – Phil Strub’s Greatest Hits first appeared on Spy Culture.
In my final review of The Wire I discuss how the core theme of season 5 – truth – plays...
The post The Wire Season 5 Review (preview) first appeared on Spy Culture.
Aimen Dean, born Ali Al-Duranni, was MI6’s spy inside Al Qaeda from 1998 to 2006. In this episode I do...
The post ClandesTime 166 – An Alternative History of Al Qaeda: Aimen Dean first appeared on Spy Culture.
Since the publication of National Security Cinema last summer, we have seen an uptick in the media coverage of the...
The post ClandesTime 165 – Military Meta-Propaganda first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this penultimate review episode I look at how the education system is a poor place to learn anything, how...
The post The Wire Season 4 Review (Preview) first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this month’s subscriber-only podcast I discuss the links between the sacking of the manager of Manchester United, why there...
The post Subscriber Podcast #26 – What Connects Star Wars, Manchester United and Brexit? first appeared on Spy Culture.
China is without doubt a major player in Hollywood. Both private investment and state regulations and censorship have played a...
The post ClandesTime 164 – China’s Influence in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
Nazis make the perfect Hollywood villains – instantly recognisable, obviously deplorable and easy to recreate. So why were there no...
The post ClandesTime 163 – Nazis in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
This week, I welcome Matt Alford to the show to talk about the media manipulation of the image of the...
The post ClandesTime Special – The Royal Family, Brexit and Union Jackboot first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Spook Who Sat by the Door tells the story of the first African-American to be recruited by the CIA....
The post ClandesTime 162 – The Spook Who Sat by the Door first appeared on Spy Culture.
In part 3 of this subcriber-only review series I look at season three of The Wire. In this season the...
The post The Wire Season 3 Review (Preview) first appeared on Spy Culture.
The men and women who are employed by the US military to fight its hegemonic wars often suffer from serious...
The post ClandesTime 161 – How the Pentagon Censors Military Mental Illness in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this month’s susbcriber-only podcast I talk about my new screenplay project – a political satire of Hollywood. I talk...
The post Subscriber Podcast #25 – A New Direction first appeared on Spy Culture.
Hollywood doesn’t make war films any more. This isn’t entirely true, but compared to the post-WW2 period there are a...
The post ClandesTime 160 – Why Doesn’t Hollywood Make War Films Any More? first appeared on Spy Culture.
In the second of my subscriber-only reviews of The Wire I look at season 2. Focusing on smuggling through the...
The post The Wire Season 2 Review (Preview) first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Founder is a 2016 biopic of Ray Kroc, the man who created McDonald’s. Or did he? In this episode...
The post ClandesTime 159 – The Founder first appeared on Spy Culture.
This is part 1 of a new subscriber-only review series where I talk about The Wire. In this episode I...
The post The Wire Season 1 Review (preview) first appeared on Spy Culture.
On this month’s subscriber-only podcast I dissect the 1994 movie Swimming with Sharks, about a young man who goes to...
The post Subscriber Podcast #24 – Swimming with Sharks first appeared on Spy Culture.
The new Amazon series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is the first TV show to film at CIA headquarters for several...
The post ClandesTime 158 – Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan first appeared on Spy Culture.
The CIA’s Office of Public Affairs (OPA) was established in the late 1970s and contains their entertainment liaison office. This...
The post ClandesTime 157 – Two Years Inside the CIA’s Office of Public Affairs first appeared on Spy Culture.
To unsuspecting movie audiences Pitch Perfect 3 is a piece of lighthearted family-friendly entertainment to be enjoyed and then forgotten...
The post ClandesTime 156 – The Pentagon and Pitch Perfect 3 first appeared on Spy Culture.
Streaming content on-demand has changed the way people think about their relationship with entertainment, and drastically changed people’s viewing habits...
The post Subscriber Podcast #23 – The Merits and Demerits of Netflix first appeared on Spy Culture.
Most government agencies sign contracts with Hollywood producers when they agree to provide support on a film or TV show....
The post ClandesTime 155 – Production Assistance Agreements or How the Pentagon Broke the Rules for Transformers first appeared on Spy Culture.
As part of their outreach efforts the Air Force’s entertainment liaison office has started running annual tours for dozens of...
The post ClandesTime 154 – Hollywood Goes to Space Command first appeared on Spy Culture.
Mark Felt is a 2017 biopic starring Liam Neeson as FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt, telling the story of his...
The post ClandesTime 153 – Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House first appeared on Spy Culture.
Condor is a TV reboot of Three Days of the Condor, and centres around a CIA officer who goes on...
The post ClandesTime 152 – Condor first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this special episode I reflect on the war in Syria and the propaganda emanating from governments on both sides. ...
The post ClandesTime Special – Rorschach Politics: The War in Syria first appeared on Spy Culture.
The military legal drama Rules of Engagement is perhaps the greatest modern example of racist, warmongering propaganda. Unsurprisingly, it benefited...
The post ClandesTime 151 – Rules of Engagement first appeared on Spy Culture.
Marvel have enjoyed a long-running and mutually beneficial relationship with the Pentagon, but there was a falling out during production...
The post Subscriber Podcast #22 – Did the Marvel Cinematic Universe Troll the Pentagon? first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Weather Underground were the most active and successful militant left-wing group in US history. As part of their anti-Vietnam...
The post ClandesTime 150 – The Weather Underground first appeared on Spy Culture.
Rear Window is one of my all-time favourite films so in this episode I discuss its unique production, the ethics...
The post ClandesTime 149 – Rear Window first appeared on Spy Culture.
The American President is a romantic comedy set in the White House, set against a backdrop of political issues that...
The post ClandesTime 148 – The American President first appeared on Spy Culture.
For movie censors, crime is perhaps the most complex issue to make decisions about. They want the public to be...
The post ClandesTime 147 – Crime, Censorship and the Copycat Effect first appeared on Spy Culture.
For the last several weeks the British media has been in full panic mode after two people were apparently poisoned...
The post ClandesTime Special – Just When You Thought it was Safe to Go Back in the Novichok first appeared on Spy Culture.
While most entertainment supports or promote the military, police and intelligence agencies there is a smaller but important sub-genre that...
The post Subscriber Podcast #21 – Satirising the Security State first appeared on Spy Culture.
The death of weapons expert and UN inspector Dr David Kelly in the summer of 2003 is one of the...
The post ClandesTime 146 – The Death of David Kelly first appeared on Spy Culture.
John Paisley was a senior CIA officer who worked on Team B, was the Agency’s liaison to the Watergate burglars,...
The post ClandesTime 145 – Conspiracy Theories: John Paisley first appeared on Spy Culture.
One of the growing markets in spy fiction is pop culture aimed at teenagers or ‘young adults’. The CHERUB series...
The post ClandesTime 144 – The Recruit (by Robert Muchamore) first appeared on Spy Culture.
A year ago I published the book National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood. On...
The post Subscriber Podcast #20 – National Security Cinema: One Year On first appeared on Spy Culture.
This week I am joined by long-time 9/11 researcher and activist Jon Gold, to talk about his new book We...
The post ClandesTime 143 – We Were Lied to About 9/11 with Jon Gold first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Last Supper is a 1990s black comedy where a group of ultra-liberal post-graduate students invite right-wingers over for debate,...
The post ClandesTime 142 – The Last Supper first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 1995 the Pentagon supported an episode of the popular sitcom Home Improvement, where Tim and Jill get to drive...
The post ClandesTime 141 – The Pentagon, Feminism and Home Improvement first appeared on Spy Culture.
For decades the Eurovision Song Contest has been a platform for projecting soft power and engaging in cultural warfare. In...
The post Subscriber Podcast #19 – The Politics of Eurovision first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 1974 former CIA officer Victor Marchetti and former State Department official John Marks published their book The CIA and...
The post ClandesTime 140 – How the CIA Censored The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence first appeared on Spy Culture.
This week I review the most recent Star Wars film The Last Jedi and analyse its politics. I discuss its...
The post ClandesTime 139 – The Politics of Star Wars first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this month’s subscriber-only podcast I take a look at three TV series which predicted or reinforced various aspects of...
On March 4th Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in the sleepy British city of Salisbury, by forces...
I am joined today by Robbie Martin and Pearse Redmond to talk about the 2008 9/11 conspiracy thriller The Reflecting...
Russiagate has become both the gift that keeps on giving and the scandal that will not die. This week we...
In this special podcast just for Pearse’s patreon subscribers (also available to my subscribers) we discuss all things Cambridge Analytica,...
On this month’s subscriber-only podcast I talk about my new job and why it means I’ve been unable to produce...
From racism and sexism to the military-industrial complex, the politics both within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and surrounding it here...