Spy Valley: An Engineer's Nuclear Betrayal

Brazen

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In their own words

“The past is never dead. It's not even past.” Silicon Valley is an espionage innovator—it has been since its inception. During the dawn of the high-tech age, an engineer named James Harper begins his industrious climb. But as Silicon Valley blossoms into what it is today, so too does the dark side of all this newfound wealth and ambition—right as the cold war reaches its final crescendo. As Harper works to build his fortune, his ambition endangers his nation’s safety. He sells nuclear secrets to the Soviet Bloc—intelligence that might still help Moscow in a nuclear exchange tod...

Why you'd press play

A nuclear spy asks for immunity and cash; you get the messy route to his arrest.

Press play if you want

  • to see Harper's immunity pitch collide with FBI leads already in motion
  • to follow the Polish mole whose family made getting out more complicated
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Best episodes of Spy Valley: An Engineer's Nuclear Betrayal

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

The Doomsday Machine

A bid for immunity exposes hidden links from Karabu to Silicon Valley.

A desperate push for immunity turns the missile-document espionage case into a tight knot of clues and motives. By the fall of 1981, James Harper is still carrying classified missile documents to Mexico for sale to the Soviet bloc, while Bill Doherty, the prominent lawyer he…

Tinkerers, Traders, Solderers, Spies

A missile-document handoff turns Harper's treason into a study of desperation, blackmail, and strange self-exposure.

James Harper's espionage scheme has entered its messiest phase: stolen missile documents crowding his apartment, a Polish contact who has not paid, and personal alliances coming apart.

Live Bonus: Producing Spy Valley

A live conversation on how Spy Valley became an audio series, with craft notes and a measured sense of espionage stakes.

The live bonus frames Spy Valley as a reported series still thinking through its own making, with producer Ian Enright and host Zach Dorfman in conversation at KQED in San Francisco.

From SpyCast and Spy Valley: a night at the museum

A focused James Harper discussion that turns a double-cross into a broader look at espionage, risk, and national security.

James Harper's case comes into focus through the choices that exposed him and the investigative trail that followed. The episode is strongest when it stays close to the mechanics: Harper carrying documents to Warsaw, the KGB flying in 20 experts overnight to inspect them in…

Crossing the Rubicon

A nuclear spy case tightens when its star witness becomes the prosecution's hardest problem.

The episode opens on an urgent 1983 call to John Gibbons, a senior lawyer in the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco, and quickly frames a case where nuclear espionage meets a strange proposed deal.

The Shadow of the Valley of Wealth

A Cold War spy story where early Silicon Valley and secret loyalties keep colliding.

The episode tracks James Harper, presented as one of the Cold War's most notorious nuclear spies, from a voicemail into a long chain of conversations with the narrator.

Podcasts like Spy Valley: An Engineer's Nuclear Betrayal

Episodes

  1. 1

    Introducing Spy Valley: An Engineer's Nuclear Betrayal

    This episode introduces James Harper, a Silicon Valley engineer and startup founder who was revealed to be one of the most damaging nuclear spies of the Cold War.

    ·4m
  2. 2

    The Professor, Episode 1: The Nativity

    ·40m
  3. 3

    Introducing The Illuminator: Art, Conspiracy and Madness

    This episode explores the life and work of Mark Lombardi, a conceptual artist who used investigative techniques to create visual charts exposing political conspiracies and corruption, ultimately facing surveillance and an untimely death.

    ·3m
  4. 4

    Tinkerers, Traders, Solderers, Spies

    Hidden gem

    James Harper hides up to 100 pounds of missile documents in the Sacramento River Delta before selling them to Polish intelligence.

    ·34m·2 clips
  5. 5

    From SpyCast and Spy Valley: a night at the museum

    Hidden gem

    Spy Valley: An Engineer's Nuclear Betrayal presents a panel at the International Spy Museum about James Harper, a Silicon Valley technologist who became a Cold War nuclear spy.

    ·1h 30m·5 clips
  6. 6

    The Doomsday Machine

    James Harper asks lawyer Bill Doherty to secure immunity after selling classified missile documents to the Soviet bloc, proposing to become a CIA double agent.

    ·35m·2 clips
  7. 7

    Live Bonus: Producing Spy Valley

    Hidden gem

    Ian Enright and Zach Dorfman discuss how Spy Valley became an audio series about Silicon Valley engineer James Harper and Cold War espionage.

    ·1h 4m·4 clips
  8. 8

    Crossing the Rubicon

    Spy Valley: An Engineer's Nuclear Betrayal, "Crossing the Rubicon" follows prosecutors John Gibbons and Buck Farmer as they build a case against Silicon Valley engineer James Harper in 1983.

    ·43m·2 clips
  9. 9

    Caribou: An American Agent in Communist Warsaw with Hanna Kozlowska

    Hidden gem

    Spy Valley: An Engineer's Nuclear Betrayal examines Caribou, the FBI codename for Polish intelligence officer Kory Chinsky, who secretly passed science and technology information to U.S.

    ·24m·1 clip
  10. 10

    Listen Now—Agent of Betrayal: The Double Life of Robert Hanssen

    Spy Valley presents Agent of Betrayal: The Double Life of Robert Hanssen, a CBS News episode about FBI agent Robert Hanssen's secret espionage for the Kremlin.

    ·42m·2 clips
  11. 11

    The Shadow of the Valley of Wealth

    This episode explores the life of James Harper, a Silicon Valley engineer who became a nuclear spy for the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War.

    ·28m·2 clips
  12. 12

    A Wilderness of Mirrors

    The episode opens with a scorching day in San Francisco, where black smoke from the Russian consulate signals a frantic document-burning spree, triggered by President Trump's expulsion of 60 diplomats, linking to Silicon Valley's long history of espionage and nuclear betrayal.

    ·29m·2 clips
  13. 13

    Get as Much as You Can

    This episode explores the story of engineer James Harper, who sold U.S.

    ·34m·3 clips