From stories from the frontlines in Ukraine to tales of corruption in the Navy, spycraft in Havana, and a secret affair at the heart of the Spanish royal house: Brazen has podcasts from the hidden and hard to reach corners of the world. Here’s a run-down of our 10 most popular podcast episodes:
Jericho from The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome
The Sound is a story about spycraft, technology, and the brain – and Jericho is the first instalment of the eight episode series. There’s a mysterious outbreak of neurological problems among American spies and diplomats in Cuba. By the time the story went public in summer 2017, dozens of US diplomats, as well as some Canadians, had come down with what was becoming known as “Havana Syndrome.” Host Nicky Woolf documents the first cases with never before heard accounts from Havana, while parsing through classified intelligence to learn how this mystery began.
Where is Jho Low? An update on the search for the 1MDB fraudster from Brazen Presents
Listen to this one-off audio special on Project Brazen’s live investigation tracking down Jho Low, the fugitive businessman at the heart of 1MDB – the world’s biggest financial fraud. In this episode, Brazen co-founders Bradley Hope and Tom Wright recap on Jho Low’s crimes and his time on the run, as well as sharing new evidence indicating he may still be doing business out of Taiwan. If you’re interested in the hidden worlds of wealth and power, this is a story for you. Not only is $8bn in stolen funds still missing, but Jho Low remains at large – even as former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak faces 12 years behind bars.
Paper Ships from Fat Leonard
Leonard Francis became the most powerful military contractor in the Pacific, running a mafia organization at the heart of the U.S. Navy. He’s over 300 pounds, and charming. In Project Brazen’s first ever podcast series, Fat Leonard, we meet Francis in jail, and explore why he’s talking exclusively to our host, author and journalist Tom Wright. Under arrest and battling cancer, Leonard is angry, and he’s talking for the first time. His explosive story will change the way you look at the U.S. Navy forever. There’s been more than 100,000 listens for Paper Ships, the first episode of the series, so far. Don’t miss it.
The Inside Story of Facebook’s Biggest Acquisition from The Closer
WhatsApp and Facebook: not the match made in heaven you might think. This episode is from Brazen’s series, The Closer, bringing listeners the inside story of the deals that changed the world, as told by the people who know how it all went down. Landmark deals can change everything. They can transform how we live. They can alter the course of the economy. The Closer asks: Who made these deals, and why? In this episode, an exec at the center of Whatsapp’s $19 billion sale explains how the deal finally came together and the dispiriting conflict that roiled the companies after the deal closed.
The Fall: Escape from Afghanistan Begins from Kabul Falling
The Fall: Escape from Afghanistan Begins is the first episode from Brazen’s Peabody Award nominated series, Kabul Falling. On August 15, 2021, the Taliban regained control of Kabul, nearly 20 years after the US Army and Coalition Forces had cast them out of power. To many Afghans and observers watching from abroad, the fall of Kabul came as a shock. In this episode, you’ll hear from Ogai Wardak, a young journalist at a women’s TV station, and Abdul, a former CIA interpreter and father of four, describing how they began planning their escape as Taliban fighters patrolled the streets. With the Taliban back in power, Afghans are watching their dreams go up in smoke — and racing to get out of the country any way they can.
La Casita – Juan Carlos I and the Hunting Party from Corinna and the King
Corinna and the King is Brazen’s chart-topping podcast telling the unbelievable true story of a love affair that brought the Spanish royal family to its knees and La Casita is the first episode of the eight-part series. It’s February 2004, and 39-year-old businesswoman Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein attends an aristocratic hunting party in the Spanish countryside. The host? Juan Carlos I, the king of Spain. An expert in guns, Corinna catches the king’s attention, and he later invites her for lunch at the Madrid hunting lodge Corinna would come to call their casita. The king makes his intentions clear — he might be married, but he wants to be more than friends. Soon after, hundreds of hand-written letters and bouquets of flowers arrive at Corinna’s door. But as her romance with Juan Carlos intensifies, she discovers a darker side to the palace, hidden from the public.
Greatest Art Heist from Dynamite Doug
How Douglas Latchford, a nobody from colonial India, makes a name for himself dealing in Cambodian art. It’s the 1960s, and no one cares about Westerners stealing ancient statues from poor countries to sell in London and New York. But, as attitudes start to change, gossip mounts about Douglas.
For 50 years, Douglas Latchford was the world’s premier expert on Cambodian art, supplying priceless statues to Western museums and rich collectors. But his fame masked a dirty secret. Douglas had colluded with the Khmer Rouge, a genocidal regime, to loot Cambodia’s entire cultural heritage. As the country descended into bloodshed, Douglas stole almost everything. A network of art world cronies were on hand to help him sell these blood statues, including a senior curator at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. When a band of art sleuths get on their case, Douglas and his co-conspirators mount a rearguard action to save themselves. This is a story the art world doesn’t want told – and Greatest Art Heist is the first instalment.
The Rebel and the Kingdom: The Secret Mission to Overthrow the North Korean Regime from Brazen Presents
In this popular episode of Brazen Presents, we bring you exclusive insight into the true story of the ordinary people who created an underground organization to fight the North Korean regime. In this audio episode, based on Bradley Hope’s book, The Rebel and the Kingdom, Bradley recounts his first encounter with Adrian Hong, who led an underground organization to undermine the Kim Jong-un regime by helping top North Korean diplomats defect. After a fake kidnapping of a top North Korean diplomat in Madrid went awry, a wanted poster for Adrian was circulated by the U.S. Marshals, sending him into hiding.
Kharkiv Under Attack, Part 1 from RESISTANCE: Stories from Ukraine
From the groundbreaking series, RESISTANCE: Stories from Ukraine, this is Kharkiv Under Attack, Part 1. Under devastating Russian shelling in Ukraine’s second largest city, a community fights to survive. Explosions from Grad rockets and artillery shells to phosphorus and thermobaric bombs are destroying much of Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine. It’s only 30 miles from the Russian border. In this episode, photojournalist Laurel Chor meets with the locals surviving these attacks. In one apartment complex, a family clears broken glass after the windows are blown out by a recent blast. Downtown, a youth pastor shelters parishioners in the basement of his church. And in one of the worst-hit neighborhoods in the city, volunteers rush to evacuate a disabled woman who has been unable to leave her apartment even as the shelling collapses buildings around her.
Prince’s Super Bowl Comeback Shakes the Music Industry – and Michael Jackson from Night of Show
In Night of Show, accomplished concert promoter Adam Wilkes joins music industry legends as they share behind-the-scenes stories about the pressures superstar artists faced when staging some of their biggest performances. In this episode – the most popular so far – Brazen takes you backstage with Prince at the Super Bowl. Most Prince fans forget he was once in the wilderness after his 1980s heyday. He’d walked away from his record contract and had released a slew of albums that didn’t chart. Then, with John and Paul as promoters, he stages a major comeback. In 2007, he played the Super Bowl half-time show, considered one of the best ever live performances, followed by a popular Vegas residency. Micheal Jackson, whose career has failed to reignite like Prince’s, seeks inspiration in his old rival’s renaissance.
