AFIO Podcast

AFIO Now Presents: Alexander Rose PhD

Author Alexander Rose PhD discusses his book, "Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring" with AFIO President, James Hughes. 

"Fascinating…. tells how the work of the spies proved to be the tipping point in the summer of 1778, helping Washington begin breaking the stalemate with the British…. [and] brings to light their crucial help in winning American independence."—Dallas Morning News

"After working on Washington, I knew there was a story to tell about his reliance on spies during the Revolutionary War. But I believed the story could never be told because the evidence did not exist. Well, I was wrong, and Alexander Rose tells this important story with style and wit."—Joseph Ellis, author of His Excellency: George Washington

"Making brilliant use of documentary sources, Rose gives us intrigue, crossed signals, derring-do, and a priceless slice of 18th century life…Rose unfolds the story of a Long Island-based spy ring of idealists and misfits who kept George Washington informed of what was going on in enemy-occupied New York."         —Richard Brookhiser, author of Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington

Interview of Friday, 29 March 2025. Interviewer and Host: AFIO President, James Hughes. 

AFIO Now Presents: Leon Carroll

Leon Carroll Jr, co-author (with Mark Harmon) on "Ghosts of Panama: A Strongman Out of Control, A Murdered Marine, and the Special Agents Caught in the Middle of an Invasion." The warm relationship in 1989 between US and Gen. Manuel Noriega has eroded dangerously. President George Bush declares Noriega a drug trafficker and a rigger of elections causing intimidation on streets for U.S. personnel. The nation becomes a powder keg.

Naval Investigative Service (NIS) Special Agent Rick Yell has worked the job in Panama since 1986, and lives there with wife Annya and a child. Yell develops an intelligence source with access to the Noriega regime turning into spy-versus-spy with secret meetings and hidden documents. A source has info on an imprisoned CIA asset and helps track Noriega’s movements. The reports shape the decisions made in Washington D.C., CIA headquarters, and the Pentagon. The powder keg is lit on December 16, 1989, when a young U.S. Marine is gunned down at a checkpoint in Panama City. This is the rest of that story.

Interview of Friday, 28 March 2025. Interviewer and Host: AFIO President James Hughes.

AFIO Now Presents: Mike Mears

Mike Mears, former CIA Chief of HR, on his book Certainty: How Great Bosses Can Change Minds and Drive Innovation. Discover how great leaders draw out the best of human nature. That our Stone Age brains are hardwired for survival and programmed to fear the unknown, yet the work world demands constant innovation. The enemy of better leadership is uncertainty deeply buried in the minds of your workforce. Mears urges greater understanding of human nature. Work with it rather than push against it. He draws on neuroscience and psychology -- plus compelling stories from his Agency career -- to provide practical leadership advice, including: Science-backed explanations of how our brains think and how our primitive brains are colliding with the demands of the modern workplace; New feedback, change management, and delegation tools to build an environment of certainty rather than of fear; Fresh insights to overcome innate change resistance in yourself and others; and Time-saving ideas to empower yourself while empowering your employees.

These steps engender loyalty, trust, and great performance from a team. You learn to identify the limitations and strengths of the human mind and create a dynamic and innovative workplace.

 

Interview of Thursday, 20 March 2025. Interviewed by: AFIO President, James Hughes. 

AFIO Now Presents: Joseph Finder

Joseph Finder, author and Russian Studies expert discusses his novel, "The Oligarch's Daughter." It is a breakneck thriller that marries the dynastic opulence of Succession with the tense and disorienting spycraft of The Americans.

Interview of Tuesday, 13 March 2025. Interviewer and Host: AFIO President James Hughes. 

AFIO Now Presents: Nicholas Reynolds

Nicholas Reynolds PhD discussing his 2022 book "Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence" with AFIO President, James Hughes. 

Interview of Tuesday, 4 March 2025. Interviewer and Host: AFIO President James Hughes.

AFIO Now Presents: Douglas Waller

Douglas Waller, Historian, Author, and Foreign Correspondent, discusses his new book "The Determined Spy: The Turbulent Life and Times of CIA Pioneer Frank Wisner" with AFIO President, James Hughes. Frank Wisner was one of the most powerful men in 1950s Washington, though few knew it. Reporting directly to senior U.S. officials--his work largely hidden from Congress and the public--Wisner masterminded some of the CIA’s most controversial operations in the early years of the Cold War, commanding thousands of clandestine agents around the world.

Interview of Monday, 31 March 2025. Host: James Hughes, AFIO President. 

AFIO Now Presents: Leon Carroll

Leon Carroll Jr, co-author (with Mark Harmon) on "Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor" A U.S. naval counterintelligence officer working to safeguard Pearl Harbor; a Japanese spy ordered to Hawaii to gather information on the American fleet. On December 7, 1941, their hidden stories are exposed by a morning of bloodshed that would change the world forever. Scrutinizing long-buried historical documents, NCIS star Mark Harmon and co-author Leon Carroll, a former NCIS Special Agent, have brought forth a true-life NCIS story of deception, discovery, and danger.

Interview of Thursday, 6 February 2025. Host: James Hughes, AFIO President 

AFIO Now Presents: Joby Warrick

Author, Joby Warrick discusses his 2020 book "RED LINE on The Unraveling of Syria and America's Race to Destroy the Most Dangerous Arsenal in the World" with AFIO President, James Hughes. 

Interview of Monday, 27 January 2025. Host: James Hughes, AFIO President 

AFIO Now Presents: James Scott

James M. Scott, co-author with Jack Carr, of "Targeted: Beirut: The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Story of the War on Terror." A behind-the-scenes account of a mission and a fight that changed America. It was the event that ushered in the War on Terror. And it shows the pitfalls of American hubris, overreach, and irresponsible military intervention. Paints the entire picture of mind-boggling events before, during, and after the Beirut Bombing, from ancient history to present day. The authors tell the story through voices of Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers who endured the two-year “peacekeeping” operation. We also experience the tragedy through the president, generals, and policymakers back in Washington. Another sad chapter in the Middle East's centuries old internecine struggle among its inhabitants and the price America pays for problematic policies despite history and seemingly dismissed lessons owing as much to hubris and breathtaking naivete.

Interview of Thursday, 12 December 2024. Host: James Hughes, AFIO President. 

AFIO Now Presents: Mickey Bergman

Michael "Mickey" Bergman, the CEO of Global Reach and the Vice President and Executive Director of the Richardson Center for Global Engagement. He is also the author (with Ellis Henican) of "In the Shadows: True Stories of High-Stakes Negotiations to Free Americans Captured Abroad."

Bergman is responsible for the negotiations that brought many high-profile prisoners home, including Brittney Griner, Danny Fenster, Otto Warmbier, and Trevor Reed. In the Shadows details his never-before-told stories inside the secret negotiations to free Americans from some of the world’s most repressive countries, including North Korea, Russia, Hamas, and more.

Interview of Thursday, 26 November 2024. Host: AFIO President James Hughes, a former senior CIA Operations Officer.