{"podcast":{"title":"John Kiriakou's Dead Drop","slug":"john-kiriakou-s-dead-drop-7529115","podcast_index_feed_id":7529115,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13","website_url":"https://shows.acast.com/john-kiriakous-dead-drop","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/cover/1759941899317-186901d5-69b8-40c5-9a84-1671d66f0c9c.jpeg","author":"Costard & Touchstone Productions","episode_count":41,"summary":"Join ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou on a very personal deep dive into what makes a spy tick. One of the most famous spies in the whole world, John - a spy with a conscience - blew the whistle on the CIA's torture program after the war on terror and spent 23 months in federal prison for it. As John explains, no spy is ever an \"ex-spy\". Why is that so? Listen to the podcast and you'll understand why. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-05T06:21:49.586029+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/john-kiriakou-s-dead-drop-7529115"},"episode":{"title":"S1E19 Torture","slug":"s1e19-torture","published_at":"2026-03-16T07:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/john-kiriakou-s-dead-drop-7529115/s1e19-torture","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/john-kiriakou-s-dead-drop-7529115","url":"https://shows.acast.com/john-kiriakous-dead-drop/episodes/s1e19-torture","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/69b2005cbba705d7aa461cda/media.mp3","summary":"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.","meta_description":"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 yo…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1587,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/john-kiriakou-s-dead-drop-7529115/episodes/s1e19-torture/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/john-kiriakou-s-dead-drop-7529115/s1e19-torture.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}