Podcast appearances and mentions of David E Hoffman

FAT LEONARD: #1 New York Times bestselling author Craig Whitlock's masterful account of one of the biggest public corruption scandals in American history-exposing how a charismatic Malaysian defense contractor bribed scores of high-ranking military officers, defrauded the US Navy of tens of millions of dollars, and jeopardized our nation's security. All the admirals in the US Navy knew Leonard Glenn Francis-either personally or by his legendary reputation. He was the larger-than-life defense contractor who greeted them on the pier whenever they visited ports in Asia, ready to show them a good time after weeks at sea while his company resupplied their ships and submarines. He was famed throughout the fleet for the gluttonous parties he hosted for officers: $1,000-per-person dinners at Asia's swankiest restaurants, featuring unlimited Dom Pérignon, Cuban cigars, and sexy young women. On the surface, with his flawless American accent, he seemed like a true friend of the Navy. What the brass didn't realize, until far too late, was that Francis had seduced them by exploiting their entitlement and hubris. While he was bribing them with gifts, lavish meals, and booze-fueled orgies, he was making himself obscenely wealthy by bilking American taxpayers. Worse, he was stealing military secrets from under the admirals' noses and compromising national security. Based on reams of confidential documents-including the blackmail files that Francis kept on Navy officers-FAT LEONARD is the full, unvarnished story of a world-class con man and a captivating testament to the corrosive influence of greed within the ranks of the American military. "Explosive, brilliantly reported and meticulously documented, Craig Whitlock's Fat Leonard reads like a thriller but depicts one of the most sordid chapters in U.S. military history, a tale of brazen corruption that soiled the Navy and is an infuriating insult to the American taxpayer. You won't be able to put this book down, and you won't stop wondering how it could have happened."-David E. Hoffman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Billion Dollar SpyBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

FAT LEONARD: #1 New York Times bestselling author Craig Whitlock's masterful account of one of the biggest public corruption scandals in American history-exposing how a charismatic Malaysian defense contractor bribed scores of high-ranking military officers, defrauded the US Navy of tens of millions of dollars, and jeopardized our nation's security. All the admirals in the US Navy knew Leonard Glenn Francis-either personally or by his legendary reputation. He was the larger-than-life defense contractor who greeted them on the pier whenever they visited ports in Asia, ready to show them a good time after weeks at sea while his company resupplied their ships and submarines. He was famed throughout the fleet for the gluttonous parties he hosted for officers: $1,000-per-person dinners at Asia's swankiest restaurants, featuring unlimited Dom Pérignon, Cuban cigars, and sexy young women. On the surface, with his flawless American accent, he seemed like a true friend of the Navy. What the brass didn't realize, until far too late, was that Francis had seduced them by exploiting their entitlement and hubris. While he was bribing them with gifts, lavish meals, and booze-fueled orgies, he was making himself obscenely wealthy by bilking American taxpayers. Worse, he was stealing military secrets from under the admirals' noses and compromising national security. Based on reams of confidential documents-including the blackmail files that Francis kept on Navy officers-FAT LEONARD is the full, unvarnished story of a world-class con man and a captivating testament to the corrosive influence of greed within the ranks of the American military. "Explosive, brilliantly reported and meticulously documented, Craig Whitlock's Fat Leonard reads like a thriller but depicts one of the most sordid chapters in U.S. military history, a tale of brazen corruption that soiled the Navy and is an infuriating insult to the American taxpayer. You won't be able to put this book down, and you won't stop wondering how it could have happened."-David E. Hoffman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Billion Dollar Spy "A relentless investigative reporter, Craig Whitlock has unearthed the truly jaw-dropping story the U.S. Navy hoped you'd never learn: how a master operator and defense contractor named Fat Leonard wined, dined and blackmailed senior Navy brass so they would help him bilk taxpayers of millions of dollars. This book has the receipts, down to the names of the sex clubs, the menus for the $30,000 dinners, and Fat Leonard's own confessions."-Carol Leonnig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret ServiceBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Case study: Traits of contributors to a significant policy success, published by Tom Green on April 1, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Summary As the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the fate of its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs presented a new type of catastrophic risk: what would happen to all the nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and materials, and the scientists who worked on them? The nuclear weapons were distributed across what were about to become four separate countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine). Plus, the thousands of experts in those weapons, many of whom went unpaid for months at a time as the Soviet economy collapsed, could be easily tempted to sell information to, or even work directly for, states who were then seeking to build out WMD programs such as Iran and North Korea. But, by the end of the decade, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine had agreed to dismantle or return all their nuclear weapons to Russia[1] and joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapon state.[2] And across all four countries, thousands of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons had been destroyed or deactivated by 2013.[3] All this was achieved via the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (CTR), about which a lot has already been documented and written. I'll aim to summarize its key events here, but the main purpose of this article is to look at some of the key people who have worked on CTR, particularly on the policy side: what are some of the individuals' qualities, behaviors, and approaches that helped to make CTR a success? I've identified three high-level groups of factors; the lines between these groups are blurry and there's inevitable overlap between them, but overall it seemed useful to cluster the factors around bigger themes. The first group of factors is interpersonal skills: this includes building trust and relationships; bringing people together across disciplines and countries; mentoring and getting the most out of others; and communicating effectively. The second group is strategy and leadership: this includes establishing a vision and energizing others to work on it; big-picture, long-run thinking; an entrepreneurial approach to foundation/NGO work; and modeling good epistemics and norms. The third group is personal qualities and values: this includes mission orientation; boldness and risk-taking; and a willingness to put oneself forward and embrace responsibility, even in daunting or uncertain circumstances. Methodology and research notes Most of my work on this post was desk research; I also conducted a few interviews with experts on CTR which were mostly background / off the record, and mostly not with people who'd worked directly on CTR. This piece is far from exhaustive; its goal is just to infer some of the qualities and behaviors that might have made some CTR contributors successful, not to provide a comprehensive history or analysis of CTR, nor to give a comprehensive list of all of the most important contributors to CTR. Sources are all linked or in the footnotes; some that I drew on the most were: David E. Hoffman's The Dead Hand. Carnegie's oral history interviews with David Hamburg: all videos are available via this link, and I've also linked to the full transcript in the footnotes. Benjamin Soskis's 2013 Nunn-Lugar report for Givewell. I can't find the Givewell page where this is linked now, but this is the direct download URL. Sarah Kutchesfahani's 2010 PhD thesis, "Politics & The Bomb: Exploring the Role of Epistemic Communities in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Outcomes." A lot of easily-available CTR content is mostly technical or implementation-focused (e.g. the NSA's Nunn-Lugar resources) rather than people-focused. This makes sense; I only note this because peop...

Oswaldo Paya attempted to bring Cuba closer towards all the broken promises of Fidel Castro by peaceful, democratic means, which in the end cost Paya his life. Pulitzer Prize winner David E. Hoffman has written a biography call “Give Me Liberty” which tells both the story and thinking of Oswaldo Paya. Join us as we talk with the author about both Paya and the situation of Cuba before and after the communist takeover in 1959.   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

David E Hoffman and I talk about Story of a Secret State by Jan Karski and about Give Me Liberty.  Live from the Miami Book Fair!Story of a Secret State:https://www.amazon.com/Story-Secret-State-Penguin-Classics/dp/0241407389/ref=asc_df_0241407389/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=509360428472&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13696059285196103915&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031144&hvtargid=pla-658372651120&psc=1Give Me Liberty:https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Give-Me-Liberty/David-E-Hoffman/9781982191191

Heartland's Tim Benson is joined by David E. Hoffman, contributing editor and member of the editorial board of The Washington Post, to discuss his new book, Give Me Liberty: The True Story of Oswaldo Payá and his Daring Quest for a Free Cuba. They chat about how democracy for Cuba became Payá's life work, the remarkable achievement of the Varela Project, and whether Payá's death really was an accident or if Castro's regime had a part in it.  Get the book here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Give-Me-Liberty/David-E-Hoffman/9781982191191Show Notes:National Endowment for Democracy: “Give Me Liberty: Examining the Legacy of Oswaldo Payá” (VIDEO) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T4o7VLXI84Times Literary Supplement: Anthony DePalma – “‘We are not afraid'” https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/give-me-liberty-david-e-hoffman-book-review-anthony-depalma/Washington Free Beacon: Flagg Taylor – “The Courage to Counter Castro” https://freebeacon.com/culture/the-courage-to-counter-castro/The Washington Post: Vanessa Garcia – “The Legacy for which this Cuban dissident fought is still unfolding” https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/07/01/legacy-which-this-cuban-dissident-fought-is-still-unfolding/

Heartland's Tim Benson is joined by David E. Hoffman, contributing editor and member of the editorial board of The Washington Post, to discuss his new book, Give Me Liberty: The True Story of Oswaldo Payá and his Daring Quest for a Free Cuba. They chat about how democracy for Cuba became Payá's life work, the remarkable achievement of the Varela Project, and whether Payá's death really was an accident or if Castro's regime had a part in it.  Get the book here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Give-Me-Liberty/David-E-Hoffman/9781982191191Show Notes:National Endowment for Democracy: “Give Me Liberty: Examining the Legacy of Oswaldo Payá” (VIDEO) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T4o7VLXI84Times Literary Supplement: Anthony DePalma – “‘We are not afraid'” https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/give-me-liberty-david-e-hoffman-book-review-anthony-depalma/Washington Free Beacon: Flagg Taylor – “The Courage to Counter Castro” https://freebeacon.com/culture/the-courage-to-counter-castro/The Washington Post: Vanessa Garcia – “The Legacy for which this Cuban dissident fought is still unfolding” https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/07/01/legacy-which-this-cuban-dissident-fought-is-still-unfolding/

Spy stories are all the more fun to read when they are not made up. David E. Hoffman's “The Billion Dollar Spy” tells the true story of Soviet engineer Adolf Tolkachev, who spied for the CIA for half a decade without ever leaving Moscow. Join us for a thrilling story of Cold War intrigue, tradecraft, and betrayal.

This conversation between the American journalist David E.Hoffman and David Freeman took place in London in 2002. David Hoffman had been Moscow Bureau Chief for the Washington Post. Prior to this he has studied Russian at Oxford University and found himself fascinated by the rise of what was then a new force in Russia, the Oligarchs.

In this episode, David E. Hoffman goes into detail on the long-running espionage of Russian radar scientist, Adolf Tolkachev. Tolkachev was so determined to bring down the USSR that he approached the CIA in Moscow himself and risked his life to bring the US hundreds of secret documents that would prove invaluable.Connect with Spycraft 101:IG: @spycraft101Patreon: Spycraft 101Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/spycraft101)

On today's Defence Deconstructed Podcast, we feature a discussion with CGAI fellow Roger Hilton, who wrote the CGAI primer, "Back to Business: NATO's June Defence Ministerial Meeting." Defence Deconstructed is part of the CGAI Podcast Network and today's episode is brought to you by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI). Subscribe to and rate the CGAI Podcast Network on your podcast app! Participant Bios: - Roger Hilton: Defence and Security Fellow at GLOBSEC, an international think-tank based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Host Bio: 

- Dave Perry (host): Senior Analyst and Vice President with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. Recommended Readings:
 - "The Oligarchs: Wealth And Power In The New Russia" by David E. Hoffman (https://www.amazon.ca/Oligarchs-Wealth-Power-New-Russia-ebook/dp/B005FYF4EI) Related Links: 

- "Back to Business: NATO's June Defence Ministerial Meeting" [CGAI Primer] by Roger Hilton(https://www.cgai.ca/back_to_business_natos_june_defence_ministerial_meeting) Recording Date: 19 June 2020 Follow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Facebook, Twitter (@CAGlobalAffairs), or on Linkedin. Head over to our website at www.cgai.ca for more commentary. Produced by Jay Rankin. Music credits to Drew Phillips.

Pulitzer prize-winning author and journalist David E. Hoffman, author of the Billion Dollar Spy.

Pulitzer prize-winning author and journalist David E. Hoffman, author of the Billion Dollar Spy.

Books can have the best mentorship moments. This week we have a story about Boris Berezovsky from The Oligarchs by David E. Hoffman. We recorded this episode on our drive from Boston to New York City this Sunday, so lucky for you Sergei's Nissan 300ZX makes a guest appearance. In this episode we discuss how it was possible for a career academic to become a billionaire, and how the same thing can be done today to create opportunities. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to The Wild Card Podcast!  This is episode 68 of our attempt at this whole podcasting thing!! Today's episode features: Jared Eaton definitely not being a drug kingpin, Jeff going on the Blair vacation (because of course he did) a few months after the Blairs did (they wondered why Ron came back), and Ron Blair eating Fudge Flies with his friends! Throughout the episode, you'll hear the three of us discuss such varied topics as: the way this podcast is about learning to play the rubber band (give instant feedback, please) our favorite adventures from the previous couple of weeks, Jeff's daughter discovering that something has gone terribly amiss at The Wild Card Studio....., the amount of fun that can be had using your pants to smuggle, and occasionally we part from our tangents to discuss spycraft in the Cold War! Specifically we talk about the book, The Billion Dollar Spy, by David E. Hoffman. We look into the story of Adolf Tolkachev: how he made contact with the CIA, how he stole over 2 Billion dollars worth of Soviet secrets, and the impact of his efforts on the United States during the 1970s and 80s. Join us on this journey to wherever and we're sure that you'll never see this most Provacative Podcast coming!Please like/subscribe and leave comments below! Let us know your thoughts on the Adolf Tolkachev and spycraft in the Cold War, your thoughts on Universal Studios and/or haunted tours, and if you are interested in being an official Deckhead! P.S. “The Cold War isn't thawing; it is burning with a deadly heat. Communism isn't sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, and fighting.”~Richard NIxonP.P.S. Bite the Edge!P.P.P.S. Check out The Wild Card Podcast on Buzzsprout! And, hopefully coming soon: Apple Podcasts and more!

Spoilers!!! Also a warning: we use adult language, make adult jokes, and drink heavily. There. Now feel free to kick back and chat with us today for another entry into the Tactical Book Club with "The Billion Dollar Spy" by David E. Hoffman. Update about the numbering of our podcast episodes! What we're drinking. Pat tells his #1 and #2 pet peeves. Who should read this book? What this book has a LOT of, thankfully! And will Pat go down a rabbit hole or not today, we'll see! Discord Link and Amazon Link in today's source article.

Throughout the Cold War, both the Soviet Union and the United States used espionage extensively to gather information about the opposing side. To do this, they often relied on individual operatives to provide the information that technology often couldn’t. This episode will focus on one lesser-known Eastern European operative named Ryszard Kukliński, an officer in the Polish Army and a spy for American intelligence. We’ll discuss how Kukliński joined the army and his swift rise through the ranks. We’ll try to understand why he became disillusioned with the army and decided to work with American intelligence. Towards the end of the episode, we explore how his fascinating story can help us to better understand the nature of Cold War espionage. Like our show? Sign up for our newsletter! Time stamps [02:46] Kukliński’s early years [06:00] What made Kukliński decide to work with the CIA? [09:50] How did he communicate with the Americans? [12:15] A few of the close calls Kukliński experienced [13:20] The end of his mission and the exfiltration [17:30] Putting Kukliński’s mission into the wider context of the Cold War [22:40] What happened to Kukliński after the fall of communism in Poland?   Further reading Kukliński: How the CIA’s Best-Placed Cold War Spy Escaped the Eastern Bloc / on Culture.pl CIA – The Villification and Vindication of Colonel Kukliński / on CIA.gov Jack Strong – the movie by Władysław Pasikowski / on Culture.pl Colonel Kuklinski’s obituary / on New York Times He Betrayed His State, But Not His Nation? / on Visegrad/Insight David Hoffman’s official website and books / on davidhoffman.com A Secret Life: The Polish Colonel, His Covert Mission, And The Price He Paid To Save His Country (EN) / by Benjamin Weiser Ryszard Kukliński Życie ściśle tajne (PL) / by Benjamin Weiser The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal (US edition) / by David E. Hoffman The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal (UK edition) / by David E. Hoffman Thanks Benjamin Weiser / for kindly explaining all the details of Kuklinski’s mission to us. Benjamin Weiser is a reporter covering the Manhattan federal courts for New York Times. Before joining The Times in 1997, he worked for 18 years at The Washington Post. There he received the George Polk Award and the Livingston Award. David E. Hoffman / for providing us with an outsider’s perspective and putting Kukliński’s deeds into a wider context. David E. Hoffman is an American writer and journalist for The Washington Post and the PBS flagship investigative television series, FRONTLINE. He won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for his book The Dead Hand about the legacy of the Cold War arms race.   SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, John Beauchamp, Nitzan Reisner & Michael Keller

Recent declassified information shows that in 1983, the US and Soviet Union came much closer to nuclear war then anyone had previously known. I talked with the Pulitzer Prize winning author about this, how a lowly Soviet Lt. Colonel saved the world from nuclear annihilation, how a top secret American spy saved the US $2 billion dollars before he was ultimately betrayed, and the Soviet biological weapons program that attempted to make nightmares into reality.

David E. Hoffman‘s The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal (Doubleday, 2015) was first brought to my attention in a superb interview conducted with the author at The International Spy Museum. The story immediately captivated my attention and I realized this would be a perfect book to feature on New Books in National Security. I was not disappointed; Mr. Hoffman is as captivating a speaker as he is a writer, capable of weaving together immaculately recreated historical threads. The book is as compelling as it is revealing, delving deep into what Hoffman calls the “sweaty” reality of the intelligence battles fought behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Drawing on extensive interviews, declassified CIA cables, and personal experience walking the very streets of Moscow where his subjects lived and died, Hoffman offers an impressive standard for future storytelling on the realities of spycraft. The Billion Dollar Spy is among the most fascinating and thrilling reads I have enjoyed in recent memory, and I highly recommend it to anyone at all interested in the Cold War or espionage writ large. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David E. Hoffman‘s The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal (Doubleday, 2015) was first brought to my attention in a superb interview conducted with the author at The International Spy Museum. The story immediately captivated my attention and I realized this would be a perfect book to feature on New Books in National Security. I was not disappointed; Mr. Hoffman is as captivating a speaker as he is a writer, capable of weaving together immaculately recreated historical threads. The book is as compelling as it is revealing, delving deep into what Hoffman calls the “sweaty” reality of the intelligence battles fought behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Drawing on extensive interviews, declassified CIA cables, and personal experience walking the very streets of Moscow where his subjects lived and died, Hoffman offers an impressive standard for future storytelling on the realities of spycraft. The Billion Dollar Spy is among the most fascinating and thrilling reads I have enjoyed in recent memory, and I highly recommend it to anyone at all interested in the Cold War or espionage writ large. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David E. Hoffman‘s The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal (Doubleday, 2015) was first brought to my attention in a superb interview conducted with the author at The International Spy Museum. The story immediately captivated my attention and I realized this would be a perfect book to feature on New Books in National Security. I was not disappointed; Mr. Hoffman is as captivating a speaker as he is a writer, capable of weaving together immaculately recreated historical threads. The book is as compelling as it is revealing, delving deep into what Hoffman calls the “sweaty” reality of the intelligence battles fought behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Drawing on extensive interviews, declassified CIA cables, and personal experience walking the very streets of Moscow where his subjects lived and died, Hoffman offers an impressive standard for future storytelling on the realities of spycraft. The Billion Dollar Spy is among the most fascinating and thrilling reads I have enjoyed in recent memory, and I highly recommend it to anyone at all interested in the Cold War or espionage writ large. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David E. Hoffman‘s The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal (Doubleday, 2015) was first brought to my attention in a superb interview conducted with the author at The International Spy Museum. The story immediately captivated my attention and I realized this would be a perfect book to feature on New Books in National Security. I was not disappointed; Mr. Hoffman is as captivating a speaker as he is a writer, capable of weaving together immaculately recreated historical threads. The book is as compelling as it is revealing, delving deep into what Hoffman calls the “sweaty” reality of the intelligence battles fought behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Drawing on extensive interviews, declassified CIA cables, and personal experience walking the very streets of Moscow where his subjects lived and died, Hoffman offers an impressive standard for future storytelling on the realities of spycraft. The Billion Dollar Spy is among the most fascinating and thrilling reads I have enjoyed in recent memory, and I highly recommend it to anyone at all interested in the Cold War or espionage writ large. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David E. Hoffman‘s The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal (Doubleday, 2015) was first brought to my attention in a superb interview conducted with the author at The International Spy Museum. The story immediately captivated my attention and I realized this would be a... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the Cold War, the CIA and KGB were in a constant game of cat and mouse to steal each other's secrets. David E. Hoffman talks with us about the work of one incredibly important spy, who is the subject of his latest book. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Pulitzer prize-winning author and journalist David E. Hoffman, author of the Billion Dollar Spy.

Pulitzer prize-winning author and journalist David E. Hoffman, author of the Billion Dollar Spy.