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Welcome to Spycast.

My name is Dr. Andrew Hammond, a historian and curator here at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.

Every week, Spycast explores a world of intelligence and espionage by bringing you in-depth conversations, spies, spymasters, intelligence officers and authors.

We explore the stories, secrets, tradecraft and technology of a world that looms beneath the surface of everyday life.

Welcome to this week's episode of Spycast.

On the weekend, the United States celebrates its 245th birthday.

We thought it would be good to release a spycast on the birthplace of American espionage.

Did you think Philip was all cheese sticks, rocky running up the steps and baseball? Think again.

From the committee on spies during the revolution, there's a committee that actually sounds like it would be fun to be on,

to the Pinkerton's during the Civil War, up through the Cold War and the Global War on Terror, the city of brotherly love has all kinds of fascinating links to the world of intelligence and espionage.

This week's guests are H. Keith Melton, the world's preeminent collector of espionage-related artifacts and Bob Wallace.

Former director of the CIA's Office of Technical Services, who has been called the real-life queue of the CIA.

I sat down with both of them to discuss their latest collaboration, spy sites of Philadelphia.

This is the third in their trilogy on spy sites.

The first was an acidity famous for the Washington Nationals baseball team.

The second for acidity famous for the New York Metz. Happy birthday, America.

I'm really excited to speak to both of you about this, especially because it's about Philadelphia, which is one of my favorite cities on the United States.

But before we look at the spy sites of Philadelphia, the thought did strike me.

How did you gentlemen first meet and how is your partnership lasted so long and been so successful?

Because I know a lot of authors and I know a lot of people that have tried to co-author stuff and it doesn't always end well.

But you guys are really going strong and this is yet another quality Melton, Wallace production.

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