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The Arts Intel Report

The Rest Is Classified

Streaming on Spotify

The latest addition to Gary Lineker’s chart-topping podcast empire explores titillating tales of espionage from the past 100 years. Hosts David McCloskey (a former C.I.A. analyst and best-selling spy novelist) and Gordon Corera (a longtime national security correspondent for the BBC) first revisit the Cold War, specifically the C.I.A. and M.I.6.-backed coup, in 1953, against the Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. The story’s central figure is Kermit Roosevelt Jr., the American intelligence officer tasked with leading the seditious efforts (and Theodore Franklin’s grandson). Disinformation, diplomacy, and drunkenness abounds. Later episodes look at the C.I.A. in Afghanistan, in the days after 9/11; the story of M.I.6.’s eccentric first Chief; and, of course, the infamous N.S.A. whistleblower Edward Snowden. A capering, highly entertaining newcomer to The Rest Is … family. —Paulina Prosnitz

Photo courtesy of Goalhanger