Episodes

  • ZELENSKY HAS 'THE CARDS'

    ZELENSKY HAS 'THE CARDS'
    Apr 3 2026
    On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore breaks it all down with journalist, author, and longtime Kremlin-watcher Casey Michel, head of the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human RIghts Foundation and author of the books American Kleptocracy, Foreign Agents, and United States of Oligarchy.
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    47 mins
  • TOWARD A POST-LIBERAL WORLD

    TOWARD A POST-LIBERAL WORLD
    Mar 27 2026
    On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Michael Carpenter, who served as the NSC's Senior Director for Europe as well as the US Ambassador to the OSCE in the Biden administration; and former U.S. State Department official Max Bergmann, who served as a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff and as a speechwriter for former Secretary of State John Kerry.
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    58 mins
  • REFLEXIVE CONTROL AND USEFUL IDIOTS - EPSTEIN AND THE RUSSIANS

    REFLEXIVE CONTROL AND USEFUL IDIOTS - EPSTEIN AND THE RUSSIANS
    Mar 20 2026
    On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore breaks it all down with John Sipher, a 28-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency's National Clandestine Service. John also served as a member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service and is the recipient of the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal. These days, John is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at The Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, a Senior Fellow at the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence and Policy at George Mason University, and the founder of Spycraft Entertainment.
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    47 mins
  • GRU UNIT 29155 & THE 'HAVANA SYNDROME'

    GRU UNIT 29155 & THE 'HAVANA SYNDROME'
    Mar 13 2026
    On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with veteran journalist Michael Weiss, author of the report "The biggest cover-up of my adult life': Inside the CIA’s attempt to make Havana Syndrome disappear," which was published this week in The Insider. Michael is the author of the Substack newsletter Foreign Office, a contributing editor at New Lines magazine, and a reporter for The Insider. He is also the author of the book ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror and is currently working on a new book about Russia's GRU.
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • FOUR YEARS OF WAR

    FOUR YEARS OF WAR
    Feb 27 2026
    On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with James Sherr, an honorary fellow at the International Center for Defense and Security; and Serhiy Kudelia, a professor of political science at Baylor University and author of the recently published book, "Seize the City, Undo the State: The Inception of Russia's War on Ukraine."
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • WAR BY OTHER MEANS - THE KREMLIN'S NEGOTIATING PLAYBOOK

    WAR BY OTHER MEANS - THE KREMLIN'S NEGOTIATING PLAYBOOK
    Feb 20 2026
    On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with two veteran diplomats, former U.S. State Department official Donald Jensen, who is currently an an adjunct professor in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University and an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; and Osmolovska, a 15-year veteran of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry who now serves as the head of GLOBSEC's Kyiv office. They are the co-authors of an important, exhaustively researched, and very timely report, "Adversary at the Table: Negotiating with Putin's Russia," which was released this week by the Atlantic Council.
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    53 mins
  • RUSSIA AND THE EMERGING WORLD ORDER

    RUSSIA AND THE EMERGING WORLD ORDER
    Feb 13 2026
    On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Mikhail Zygar, author of the bestselling books All The Kremlin's Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin, War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine, and the recently published The Dark Side of the Earth: Russia's Short-lived Victory over Totalitarianism.
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    59 mins
  • THE DARK ART OF GEOPOLITICAL EXTORTION

    THE DARK ART OF GEOPOLITICAL EXTORTION
    Feb 6 2026
    On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Craig Kennedy, an associate at Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, author of the must-read Substack newsletter Navigating Russia, where he published the recent reports "The Mystery of the Bella 1: Why Did Moscow Mount a ‘Spetsoperatsiia' to Save a Stateless Shadow Tanker?" and "Restraining Russian Oil."
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    1 hr and 3 mins