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  • The Colonel Who Sold Secrets on a Moscow Bridge, 1960

    The Colonel Who Sold Secrets on a Moscow Bridge, 1960
    Oct 9 2026
    The Colonel Who Sold Secrets on a Moscow Bridge, 1960

    A Soviet colonel walked up to strangers on a Moscow bridge in July 1960 and handed them military documents from inside the GRU - then vanished back into the city. He later told the West that the Soviet nuclear arsenal was smaller than claimed and that mass production of ICBMs had not yet happened; how much did Moscow know about him at the time, and when did that knowledge arrive?

    In this episode, you will hear the account of Oleg Penkovsky’s decision to pass GRU secrets to Western intelligence, the failed initial approach to the American Embassy, and how a British industrial salesman became the crucial conduit. What did Penkovsky risk by revealing the exact signatures and footprints of Soviet missiles, and how did those revelations reshape the Cold War standoff?

    Person: Oleg Penkovsky
    Date (birth): April 23, 1919
    Event (bridge handoff): July 1960 on Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge
    Contact: Greville Wynne met Penkovsky in London, April 1961
    Revelation: Exact visual signatures and physical footprints of Soviet intermediate-range ballistic missiles

    - Penkovsky was born on April 23, 1919 during the Russian Civil War.
    - He graduated from the Kiev Artillery Academy and was commissioned in 1939.
    - He joined the GRU in 1953 and was posted to Ankara in 1955 before being recalled.
    - In July 1960 he handed a package of military documents to two American students on a Moscow bridge.
    - Penkovsky’s first direct meeting with Western intelligence took place in London in April 1961 with four officers present.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 Min.
  • The Spy Who Bicycled Home: How "Sonja" Escaped the Atom Case

    The Spy Who Bicycled Home: How "Sonja" Escaped the Atom Case
    Oct 8 2026
    The Spy Who Bicycled Home: How "Sonja" Escaped the Atom Case

    Sonja cycled through Oxfordshire lanes as a mother of three while also burying a radio transmitter in her garden and running one of the twentieth century's most sustained Soviet espionage operations. How could a decorated Red Army major live openly in the English countryside, meet the man who helped build the bomb, and leave the country before being named-without ever being charged?

    In this episode, we follow Ursula Maria Maria from her Berlin childhood to Shanghai, Moscow training, Manchuria, Warsaw, and finally the English Cotswolds, tracing the skills and decisions that let her operate undetected and depart England before being implicated. What choices and blind spots made her escape possible?

    Person: Ursula Maria Maria
    Date of birth: 15 May 1907
    Code name: Sonja
    Award: Order of the Red Army
    Location in England: Oxfordshire

    - She joined the Young Communists in 1924 at age 17.
    - She was fired from Ullstein publishing in 1928 for political activity at age 21.
    - She traveled to Shanghai in July 1930 and met Richard Sorge in November 1930.
    - She spent seven months in Moscow training in radio operation and clandestine transmitters in autumn 1931.
    - She was presented the Order of the Red Army by Mikhail Kalinin in June 1937.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    25 Min.
  • The Spy Who Traded Her Mother's Medicine for a Secret Life

    The Spy Who Traded Her Mother's Medicine for a Secret Life
    Oct 7 2026
    The Spy Who Traded Her Mother's Medicine for a Secret Life

    Fear and moral compromise collide: a 21-year-old woman traded scarce cancer drugs for her mother's survival in 1947 and wound up inside the heart of a cold-war intelligence battle. How did one desperate bargain turn a librarian into an insider in the SED and then a lifelong opponent of political persecution?

    In this episode, we tell the story of that bargain and the decades that followed, following the woman from a Baltic guesthouse to the Karl Marx Academy and across the Berlin divide - and asking how a choice made to save a life reshaped hers and the institutions she touched.

    Person: Erika Assmus
    Date of birth: 14 November 1925
    Age at recruitment: 21
    Year she crossed to West Berlin: 1951
    Location of early work: Rabe Institute, Bleicherode

    - In autumn 1947 a man calling himself Mr. Becker offered cancer medicine in exchange for information.
    - Erika Assmus was 21 years old when she accepted the offer to get drugs for her hospitalized mother.
    - By 1945 she was working as a librarian at the Rabe Institute in Bleicherode, a site housing former Peenemünde personnel.
    - She joined the SED and served as a reader at the Karl Marx Academy in the Hakeburg in Kleinmachnow.
    - On 21 June 1951 she crossed into West Berlin after being denounced and summoned by the Party's Control Commission.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 Min.
  • He Lived Three Lives: The Man Who Secretly Betrayed a Party

    He Lived Three Lives: The Man Who Secretly Betrayed a Party
    Oct 6 2026
    He Lived Three Lives: The Man Who Secretly Betrayed a Party

    He spent nine years living three simultaneous lives: a Boston advertising executive, a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA, and a secret FBI informant - all at once. He watched closed-door sessions where scientists, lawyers, and academics received instruction about overthrowing the government; how did one ordinary family man sustain that double existence, and what did it cost him in the end?

    In this episode, we tell the story of Herbert Arthur Philbrick and the nine-year span that placed him inside local Party cells in Wakefield and Malden and later within a professionals' cell whose members had institutional access. What he witnessed in those rooms ultimately contributed to putting eleven men on trial and reached the Supreme Court of the United States.

    Person: Herbert Arthur Philbrick
    Date of birth: May 11, 1915
    Location: Little Boar's Head, North Hampton, New Hampshire
    Organization: Communist Party of the United States; Federal Bureau of Investigation
    Event: Eleven men put on trial reaching the Supreme Court

    - Lived three simultaneous lives for nine years: advertising executive, Communist Party member, and FBI informant.
    - Born May 11, 1915, in Little Boar's Head, North Hampton, New Hampshire.
    - Had six children named Dale, Brenda, Leslie, Connie, Sandra, and Herbert Junior.
    - Operated inside local cells in Wakefield and Malden, Massachusetts, and later a professionals' cell.
    - His eyewitnessing of Party instruction about overthrowing the government contributed to trials of eleven men and a Supreme Court case.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 Min.
  • He Lived Two Lives: The FBI Man Who Pretended to Be a Communist

    He Lived Two Lives: The FBI Man Who Pretended to Be a Communist
    Oct 5 2026
    He Lived Two Lives: The FBI Man Who Pretended to Be a Communist

    Fear and curiosity collide: a Baptist youth leader who ran a seaside shop spent nine years inside the CPUSA while secretly feeding the FBI names, meetings and directives - then stood in Foley Square to testify at the 1949 Smith Act trial. How does a man who lived two lives reckon with a government payment record and a sudden public unmasking?

    In this episode, we trace Herbert Arthur Arthur’s path from advertising executive and church youth leader to undercover informant, his infiltration of Young Communist League cells and the professional cell tied to the 1948 Wallace campaign, and the courtroom moment that made his secret public. What did his memories of rooms and voices add that documents could not?

    Person: Herbert Arthur Arthur
    Date (birth): May 11, 1915
    Date (trial testimony): April 6, 1949
    Location: Foley Square, lower Manhattan
    Event: Smith Act trial of eleven Communist Party leaders

    - Arthur was 24 years old in 1940 and grew up in North Hampton, New Hampshire, in Little Boar's Head.
    - He contacted the FBI of his own initiative around 1940 and then spent nine years acting as an informant inside communist organizations.
    - His infiltration progressed from the Cambridge Youth Council to the Young Communist League, then to full membership in the Communist Party USA and cells in Wakefield and Malden, Massachusetts.
    - The professional cell he joined was tasked with supporting Henry A. Wallace’s 1948 Progressive Party presidential campaign.
    - On April 6, 1949, Arthur testified in federal court in lower Manhattan, providing firsthand accounts of internal cell structures and activities used by the prosecution in the Smith Act case.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 Min.
  • The Secret Life That Turned a Baptist Father into a Cold War Mole

    The Secret Life That Turned a Baptist Father into a Cold War Mole
    Oct 4 2026
    The Secret Life That Turned a Baptist Father into a Cold War Mole

    He spent nine years living two lives: a Baptist youth leader and family man by day, a trusted Communist Party insider by night - and he told the FBI everything. The disguise was his real name, his real family, and a habit of vigilance that never left him; what did that double life cost him in the end?

    In this episode, we follow the path that took Herbert Arthur Philbrick from Little Boar's Head to the inner circles of the American Communist Party and into a long FBI collaboration, asking how an ordinary civic profile became an extraordinary operational asset and what broke him free of the Party when Moscow intervened.

    Person: Herbert Arthur Philbrick
    Date of birth: May 11, 1915
    Location: Little Boar's Head district of North Hampton, New Hampshire
    Period: 1930s-1940s
    Event: Dissolution and reconstitution of the Communist Party in 1944-1945

    - Philbrick lived undercover for nine years while reporting to the FBI.
    - He raised six children with his first wife, Eva: Dale, Brenda, Leslie, Connie, Sandra, and Herbert Jr.
    - In 1944 Earl Browder dissolved the Party into the Communist Political Association.
    - In July 1945 a letter attributed to Jacques Duclos from Moscow denounced Browder and reversed the Party's course.
    - Eleven men were convicted at a federal trial based on Philbrick's testimony.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 Min.
  • The Number That Crossed To Moscow: Victor Perlo's Hidden Ledger

    The Number That Crossed To Moscow: Victor Perlo's Hidden Ledger
    Oct 3 2026
    The Number That Crossed To Moscow: Victor Perlo's Hidden Ledger

    A single data point - 2,416 aircraft - traveled from a War Production Board desk in Washington toward Moscow, carried by Victor Perlo, a government economist who also published in Biometrika at age twenty. How did one number link six federal agencies, three accused supervisors, and a lifetime of Communist Party service into an intelligence question that was never legally resolved?

    In this episode, we tell how Perlo's career, from Columbia mathematics prodigy to senior wartime economist, intersected with networks and offices later flagged by declassified records and the Venona intercepts. We trace the paths that number took, the agencies it passed through, and the unanswered implications that remain: who else knew, and why was Perlo never charged?

    Person: Victor Perlo
    Date of birth: May 15, 1912
    Number: 2,416 aircraft
    Agencies: National Recovery Administration; Federal Home Loan Bank Board; Home Owners' Loan Bank; Brookings Institution; Department of Commerce; Office of Price Administration; Treasury Division of Monetary Research
    Age at death: 87

    - Perlo published a technical note in Biometrika on Student's ratio at age 20 in 1933.
    - He joined the Communist Party around late 1932 or early 1933 and served on its National Recovery.
    - From 1933 to 1945 he worked across six federal agencies over twelve years.
    - The aircraft production figure he carried out of the War Production Board was exactly 2,416.
    - At the Treasury Division of Monetary Research in late 1945, his supervisors included Harry Dexter White, Frank Coe, and Harold Glasser, all later accused in investigations.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 Min.
  • She Was Erased by Empire - Why Sophie Sat in That Car

    She Was Erased by Empire - Why Sophie Sat in That Car
    Oct 2 2026
    She Was Erased by Empire - Why Sophie Sat in That Car

    The Habsburg bureaucracy spent two decades erasing Sophie Chotek from dynastic life, and on 28 June 1914 she sat in an open car in Sarajevo because a military loophole had briefly made her visible - would that visibility cost her life? The world remembers the shots that killed Franz Ferdinand; few recall the woman who received one of them and the legal oath he signed fourteen years earlier to keep her by his side.

    In this episode, we tell the story of Sophie Chotek and Franz Ferdinand and the institutional rules that shaped their fate, from a locket found on a tennis court around 1894 to the renunciation sworn in the Hofburg Palace; we trace why Sophie chose to sit beside him that morning and what the empire’s decisions meant for her and their children.

    Person: Sophie Chotek
    Date: 1 March 1868
    Event: Renunciation signed by Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1900
    Location: Reichstadt (marriage on 1 July 1900) and Sarajevo (shooting on 28 June 1914)
    Princess of Hohenberg, style Serene Highness

    - Sophie lost her position as lady-in-waiting immediately after Archduchess Isabella found a locket around 1894 showing Sophie's portrait.
    - Franz Ferdinand signed a public renunciation in the Hofburg Palace on 28 June 1900, surrendering titles and rights for Sophie and their future children.
    - The couple married on 1 July 1900 in Reichstadt (now Zákupy) three days after the renunciation.
    - Sophie was born on 1 March 1868 in Stuttgart as the fifth child of Count Bohuslav Chotek and Countess Wilhelmine Kinsky.
    - On 28 June 1914 Sophie sat in an open car in Sarajevo and received one of the fatal shots within the hour.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    25 Min.