{"podcast":{"title":"The Team House","slug":"the-team-house-817706","podcast_index_feed_id":817706,"rss_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/5960890/episodes/feed","website_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-team-house_2","image_url":"https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/693990662d90e6b6f786f563f8b2f5ce.jpg","author":"dee takos","episode_count":625,"summary":"The Team House is a long-form, fiercely apolitical national security podcast hosted by Jack Murphy, featuring special operations veterans, intelligence professionals, frontline reporters, and guests who have never spoken publicly before. It delivers deep-dive conversations on conflict, tradecraft, and the forces shaping the world, alongside the sister show Eyes On Geopolitics hosted by Mick Mulroy, Andy Milburn, and Jason Lyons, focused on breaking down current geopolitical events and what they mean for national security. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support .","last_synced_at":"2026-08-01T14:18:50.951962+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-team-house-817706"},"episode":{"title":"Former “Diplomat” on Iraq, Gaza, and Espionage | Chris Merritt","slug":"former-diplomat-on-iraq-gaza-and-espionage-chris-merritt","published_at":"2026-05-30T07:09:39+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-team-house-817706/former-diplomat-on-iraq-gaza-and-espionage-chris-merritt","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-team-house-817706","url":"https://www.spreaker.com/episode/former-diplomat-on-iraq-gaza-and-espionage-chris-merritt--72227599","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/clrtpod.com/m/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72227599/chris_merrit_spreaker.mp3","summary":"Former British Foreign Office official Chris Merritt joins us to discuss his time as a diplomat in Iraq, Gaza, and Jerusalem, including Basra’s deteriorating security situation, Iranian-backed militias, Hamas, the Fatah split, and the realities of doing diplomacy in war zones. He also breaks down how those experiences shaped his later work as a trauma psychologist and spy novelist, including Committed and his new book Octagon. Grab Chris' new book here:⬇️ https://amzn.eu/d/0haKB5uW Chris' other books:⬇️ https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07B9ZHBF5/allbooks?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=aufs_ap_ahdr_dsk_ab&pd_rd_w=O64uG&content-id=amzn1.sym.7e190e19-9f6f-4df8-807a-5a7608594741&pf_rd_p=7e190e19-9f6f-4df8-807a-5a7608594741&pf_rd_r=144-9783160-8516900&pd_rd_wg=RnoiZ&pd_rd_r=09cfe4a7-daad-4ab8-9dc1-dc378f894a38&ccs_id=6c35d69b-90e0-4701-8fc4-178090b51c0e Today's Sponsors: GhostBed ⬇️ https://www.ghostbed.com/house FOR 10% off! Van Man ⬇️ Go to http://vanman.shop/teamhouse and use code TEAMHOUSE for 15% off your first order. Quince⬇️ go to: https://www.quince.com/house for free shipping and 365 day returns For ad free video and audio and access to live streams and Eyes On Geopolitics...JOIN OUR PATREON! https://www.patreon.com/c/TheTeamHouse To help support the show and for all bonus content including: -live shows and asking guest questions -ad free audio and video -early access to shows -Access to ALL bonus segments with our guests Subscribe to our Patreon! ⬇️ https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouse Support the show here:⬇️ https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouse ___________________________________________________ PRE ORDER JACK'S NEW BOOK \"THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN\" ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/803651/the-most-dangerous-man-by-jack-mu…","meta_description":"Former British Foreign Office official Chris Merritt joins us to discuss his time as a diplomat in Iraq, Gaza, and Jerusalem, including Basra’s deteriorat…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5972,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-team-house-817706/episodes/former-diplomat-on-iraq-gaza-and-espionage-chris-merritt/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-team-house-817706/former-diplomat-on-iraq-gaza-and-espionage-chris-merritt.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}