From the Cold War to Hollywood: An FBI Spy Hunt You’d Swear Was Fiction

Former FBI counterintelligence agent and author Wayne Barnes pulls back the curtain on real‑life spycraft that rivals any thriller. Barnes, a 29‑year FBI veteran, recounts his role in uncovering a Russian mole inside the Bureau—an investigation that led him from Cold War counterintelligence work in Washington, D.C., to an “almost Mission: Impossible‑level” operation at a California film festival aimed at identifying a long‑embedded traitor. Barnes also details the intense internal pushback he faced after the case, including a seven‑year battle with FBI pre‑publication review to release his book, A Traitor in the FBI, offering listeners a gripping reminder that some of the most dramatic moments in American history were happening quietly, and dangerously, in real time.