Audio by Roy Epstein and Darren Guzzone | Defense Intelligence Agency | 04.01.2025
Forty years ago, spies were being exposed at an alarming rate, which led the press to dub 1985 the Year of the Spy. In this episode, you'll hear about two DIA analysts involved in espionage that year — one working for us and the other against us. Additionally, you'll hear from DIA's chief of counterintelligence, known as CI, who explains why his team’s mission is crucial to U.S. national......
Audio by Roy Epstein and Darren Guzzone | Defense Intelligence Agency | 02.14.2025
As a specialist in a maintenance company during the Iraq War in 2003, the last thing Shoshana Johnson expected to happen was to be captured by the enemy and held in captivity for 22 days. In this episode, you’ll hear about her rescue and the attention that followed, which included appearances on Ellen and Oprah. She also shares how she’s spent the last two decades coping with......
Audio by Roy Epstein and Darren Guzzone | Defense Intelligence Agency | 12.16.2024
During the Iraq War in 2003, U.S. Special Operations Forces rescued Pfc. Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Baghdad. It was the first successful rescue of an American prisoner of war since World War II, and the first-ever rescue of a woman. In this episode, you’ll learn how a DIA team hid a camera in a gym bag to record video of the hospital’s interior, which was used for the rescue mission.......
Audio by Roy Epstein and Darren Guzzone | Defense Intelligence Agency | 11.15.2024
Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. On this episode, you’ll hear a DIA counter narcotics officer discuss the agency’s efforts to combat the most devastating drug epidemic in U.S. history. We also spoke with Mariana Van Zeller, an investigative reporter who went deep inside the fentanyl pipeline to Mexico’s cartel country to see how it’s......
Audio by Roy Epstein and Darren Guzzone | Defense Intelligence Agency | 08.23.2024
This episode of DIA Connections features highlights from Season Four. Catch up on this season's best moments with an American pilot who landed his plane safely after a mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter jet, a cosmochemistry professor who led NASA’s mission to an asteroid, a DIA analyst turned screenwriter, the speechwriter behind President Reagan’s challenge to “tear down this......
Audio by Roy Epstein and Darren Guzzone | Defense Intelligence Agency | 07.11.2024
Wouldn’t it be unbelievable if a spaceship could land on an asteroid, collect rocks that could reveal the secrets of life’s origins, and then return to Earth? Well, believe it, because it already happened! On this episode, a conversation with Dante Lauretta, leader of NASA’s expedition to the most dangerous rock in our solar system. You’ll also hear from the chief of DIA’s Space and......
Audio by Roy Epstein | Defense Intelligence Agency | 04.12.2024
Does public speaking cause you to quiver in fear? You're not alone - but it's not a good trait to have when briefing policymakers! On this episode, we’ll get tips on how to speak in public from DIAloguers, a group that helps DIA officers overcome their glossophobia. You’ll also hear how a great speech from a skilled speaker can echo through history. Peter Robinson, President Ronald......
Audio by Roy Epstein and Darren Guzzone | Defense Intelligence Agency | 02.19.2024
Who said writing intelligence reports for policymakers is boring? Not us--and certainly not former DIA intelligence analyst turned Hollywood screenwriter Mitchell LaFortune. On this episode of DIA Connections, LaFortune talks about his creative approach to intelligence writing. Learn how it helped him when he left DIA for LA to write the screenplay for the action thriller Kandahar, a movie......
