# S1E19 Torture Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/john-kiriakou-s-dead-drop-7529115/s1e19-torture Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/john-kiriakou-s-dead-drop-7529115/s1e19-torture.md Podcast: [John Kiriakou's Dead Drop](https://stenobird.com/podcast/john-kiriakou-s-dead-drop-7529115) Published: 2026-03-16T07:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/john-kiriakous-dead-drop/episodes/s1e19-torture Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69b2005cbba705d7aa461cda/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/john-kiriakou-s-dead-drop-7529115/episodes/s1e19-torture Duration seconds: 1587 ## Resource 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://costardandtouchstone.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/john-kiriakou-s-dead-drop-7529115/episodes/s1e19-torture/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/john-kiriakou-s-dead-drop-7529115/s1e19-torture.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.