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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 DC.

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

This is Edward Snowden, a traitor or a hero.

Does the surveillance state threaten freedom or secure it?

This week I sat down with an investigative reporter, Barton Gellman, to discuss these issues and more.

Bart has a serious resume that Atlantic, the Washington Post, LA Times book prize, MA awards, yes plural.

To pull its surprises, kind of greedy if you ask me, but I think you get the general idea.

This one might make you scream yourself to sleep like a baby or not once away, but it will definitely get you thinking.

If it does, our work here is done.

Okay, well, it's great to speak to you again, Bart.

I really enjoyed speaking to you the other month and thanks for taking the time to speak to me this morning.

It's a pleasure. Glad to be back.

And I think a good place to start is just tell us a lot about more about your book.

What is your book? What is it you set out to do? What is the story that you tried to tell?

Well, there are really three books here. Three for the prize of one.

There are certainly three interweaving narratives.

There's the question of who is Edward Snowden.

What's he really like? What's he stand for? What's his history?

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