The Chatter Podcast: Spy Movies and the Oscars with Alyssa Rosenberg

David Priess, Shane Harris, Alyssa Rosenberg
Thursday, March 16, 2023, 12:00 PM
Meet The Authors

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

Subscribe to Lawfare

The Academy loves a good spy flick, and so do we! This week, Shane talks with Washington Post culture critic Alyssa Rosenberg about the enduring power of espionage on the big screen. 

Movies like Zero Dark Thirty, the Mission: Impossible franchise, and this year’s Top Gun: Maverick and All Quiet on the Western Front, which both took home Oscars, help us understand global conflict as they wrestle with questions of personal morality. How do the stories of James Bond and George Smiley help us make sense of the fate of nations? And why is Hollywood finding it nearly impossible to tell stories about great power competition between the U.S. and China? 

Shane and Alyssa go way back, and this is a fun, lively conversation about spy stories that have resonated through the decades. Alyssa has written for years about popular culture, books, and more recently parenting. 

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Ian Enright and Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.

Alyssa’s work at The Post

Alyssa on Twitter

Alyssa’s podcast on movies, Across the Movie Aisle

Movies discussed in this episode:

  • Zero Dark Thirty 
  • Top Gun: Maverick
  • Mission: Impossible 
  • All Quiet on the Western Front 
  • Casino Royale 
  • Skyfall 
  • The Hunt for Red October 
  • Breach 
  • Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Back to Top
David Priess

David Priess

davidpriess
Read More
David Priess is Director of Intelligence at Bedrock Learning, Inc. and a Senior Fellow at the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. He served during the Clinton and Bush 43 administrations as a CIA officer and has written two books: “The President’s Book of Secrets,” about the top-secret President’s Daily Brief, and "How To Get Rid of a President," describing the ways American presidents have left office.
Shane Harris

Shane Harris

Read More
Shane Harris is a staff writer at The Atlantic covering national security and intelligence. He can be reached on Signal at shaneharris.64. He has written about intelligence, security, and foreign policy for more than two decades, including as a staff writer for The Washington Post, where he was part of the team that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. In 2023, he co-reported the documentary The Discord Leaks with PBS Frontline, which was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding investigative news coverage. He is the author of two books, The Watchers and @War.
Alyssa Rosenberg

Alyssa Rosenberg

Read More
Alyssa Rosenberg writes about mass culture, parenting, and gender for The Washington Post's Opinions section.
}

Subscribe to Lawfare