Would that every museum could do a podcast. Your Podthinker wouldn’t mind a shot of content from, say, the Museum of Jurassic Technology, the Computer History Museum or the Liberace Museum sent to his iPod on a regular basis. Since those organizations inexplicably don’t seem to podcast as yet — come on, people, it’s 2009 already! — the neatest podcasting museum at present is The International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.
The content of their SpyCast [iTunes link] is almost explained by its very title: talking about spy stuff. That concept might at first conjure visions of endless hours yammering on about pen bugs and shoe phones and navel cameras and whatnot, but fortunately — or, depending on one’s bent, unfortunately — the producers don’t get all hung up on that James Bondy stuff. The podcast’s conversations actually have much more to do with the world of espionage and intelligence as it’s perceived by its own people. Indeed, the host himself, museum director and former CIA operations officer Peter Earnest, put in well over three decades in the spy game himself.
Representative inside guests include Larry Devlin, the CIA’s well-known station chief in 1960s Congo [MP3], former Saigon Military Mission man Rufus Phillips [MP3] and master of disguise — well, former head of the CIA’s Office of Technical Services, but “master of disguise” sounds fancier — Jonna Hiestand Mendez [MP3]. Some of the spy types who show up are surprisingly high-profile; a certain Valerie Plame [MP3], for instance. A fair number of outsiders stop by to discuss their subjects of study as well; though the topic was a bit of a departure, Earnest’s chat with scholar of conspiracy theorists Robert Alan Goldberg is particularly illuminating [MP3] (“Illuminati” pun withheld). Some appearances are totally unexpected, though, true, Robert de Niro [MP3] did once put Ben Stiller through a polygraph test.
Much of SpyCast‘s value comes from how different it is from all the other podcasts floating around the net. Whatever one thinks of spy stuff, rarely have podcasters had such long, unusual careers as Earnest’s, and almost never do they inhabit the role of the friendly, laid-back old agent — who’s probably revealing less than the tip of the iceberg that is his vast knowledge of espionage — as well as he does. What is a tad disheartening is how amateurish the show’s production can be. For an organization as well-respected as the International Spy Museum — it’s International, after all — it sure puts out one rough-edged podcast. Music cuts out jaggedly, strange background noises bleed into the conversations, volume levels vary widely from episode to episode and the editing can be clumsy. (Occasionally, the interviews even start before they’re supposed to, and it’s possible to hear Earnest giving the word to the guy behind the recording computer before officially beginning.) But it’s spies. Who dares say no to spies?
Vital stats:
Format: spying-related conversations
Running since: October 2006
Duration: 15m-30m
Frequency: monthly, though occasionally two come in one month
Archive available on iTunes: all
[Podthinker Colin Marshall withholds more puns that he’s allowed to tell you, especially through colinjmarshall at gmail. Discuss Podthoughts on the forum here or submit your own podcast for the next by-Max-Funsters column here.]