Whale Hunting Podcast
1) Sudden Russian Death Syndrome
It’s a precarious time for the Russian elite. Caught up in the invasion of Ukraine and an immovable dictator, the noblesse russe have to tip-toe through economic and political conflict to survive. In ...Show More
2) From Atlas Geographica: How did MBS rise to power?
Thanks for listening to season three of Whale Hunting. We've heard from the biographer of the world’s most secretive billionaire, the man running a TV network under the Taliban, the undercover agent w...Show More
3) How did federal agents infiltrate the world’s dirtiest bank?
A rare opportunity arises when global financial institutions implode: a brief window into how the world really works. There’s an opportunity to learn how money is laundered and where it’s coming from,...Show More
4) Why does Elon Musk need private spies?
For the right price, a billionaire can buy almost anything in the private intelligence industry. Investigators will covertly dig through bins, pose as friendly faces to deceptively extract information...Show More
5) What does Iran achieve by outsourcing assassination attempts in the West?
Iran’s war with Israel and the U.S. has been waged through numerous proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen — but more recently, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, have been “out...Show More
6) Do Hezbollah's booby-trapped pagers herald a new era of warfare?
Conventional warfare no longer exists. Drones, offensive hacking techniques and even sonic weaponry is upending how conflict is waged — and the recent Israeli intelligence operation to plant explosive...Show More
7) Why was the FBI fascinated by the artist Mark Lombardi?
Mark Lombardi was on the cusp of international success with his provocative artwork. So why was the 48-year-old found hanged and deemed suicidal? And why did the FBI ask to examine one of his artworks...Show More
8) How did the FSB infiltrate one of Sweden’s biggest banks?
Honeypot operations are one of the oldest tricks in the espionage playbook — get access to sensitive information through a wily femme fatale. Scandinavian banking giant Swedbank was recently the targe...Show More
9) How did Credit Suisse become the most scandal-ridden bank of all time?
Swiss banking has long been synonymous with secrecy, a harbinger of two things in the financial world: opportunity and risk. And Credit Suisse struggled to handle this balancing act for years, leading...Show More
10) How do you stop Putin’s war machine?
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Western economies scrambled to coordinate an offensive of their own: sanctions. They weaponized economic tools in the hope of blunting Putin’s attacks, an...Show More