Episode 571: The Ripple Effect Podcast (Ex-CIA John Kiriakou | War On Whistleblowers: The High Cost of Speaking Truth To Power)
The Ripple Effect Podcast
Ricky Varandas
4.6 • 603 Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John Kiriakou, from a decorated high-ranking CIA counter-terrorism chief who led the 2002 capture of al-Qaeda’s Abu Zubaydah, to a federal inmate, John Kiriakou’s life is a masterclass in the high cost of speaking truth to power. In 2007, he became the first CIA official to publicly confirm the agency’s use of waterboarding, explicitly calling it torture—an act of whistleblowing that eventually led to him being the only person imprisoned in connection with the torture program. After serving 23 months, he reinvented himself as a sharp-witted author and commentator, hosting the Deep Focus podcast and penning books like The Reluctant Spy, and the gritty survival manual Doing Time Like a Spy, effectively using his intelligence background to critique the very systems he once served.
JOHN KIRIAKOU
Website: https://johnkiriakou.com/
X: https://x.com/JohnKiriakou
IG: https://www.instagram.com/realjohnkiriakou
Deep Focus Podcast (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@DeepFocuswithJohnKiriakou
DeProgram Podcast (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@DeProgramShow
Dead Drop Podcast (iTunes): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-kiriakous-dead-drop/id1844905790
Substack: https://johnkiriakou.substack.com/subscribe
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | believe in the ripple fact. |
| 0:25.6 | The ripple fact. I'm gonnae' I'm gonna I'm |
| 0:38.3 | Avaughan What's up, what's up another episode of the Ripple Effect podcast. |
| 1:13.0 | Of course, I'm your host, Rikadha, the friend. |
| 1:14.8 | This is also known as Rickie Wrenz, and a great, great episode for you today. |
| 1:18.1 | Today we have returning guests, CIA whistleblower, author, researcher, podcaster, |
| 1:23.8 | and sincerely one of the nicest people I've ever met, John Kariaku. |
| 1:28.3 | If you're new to the Ripple Effect podcast, you definitely did not catch last time John was on the podcast |
| 1:34.2 | because I think it was back in 2017, episode 129, which is crazy because I'm in the 500s. |
| 1:42.3 | And since then, he's been on Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, Danny Jones, |
| 1:47.5 | Pierce Morgan, and many other large shows. |
| 1:50.3 | And I couldn't be happier about his recent success. |
| 1:53.0 | His new podcast, Deep Focus, is also killing it. |
| 1:56.4 | And I have a soft spot for one, people who came on the show years ago before I really had a platform |
| 2:03.3 | and a large audience, but also a soft spot for whistleblowers. |
| 2:08.0 | Much like John, most of the time, just for trying to expose something that you don't think |
| 2:14.1 | is morally right or legally right, your whole life is ruined. And it takes |
| 2:18.9 | courage to risk just about everything to expose some injustice. And I know many of us think that |
| 2:25.7 | we would do the same thing if we're in the same position. But when you have a family, when you have |
| 2:30.2 | bills, when you have people who depend on you, or maybe you just have a job that everything |
| 2:34.8 | is going well and you don't want to stir things up, a lot of people wouldn't risk all those things |
| 2:40.4 | to become a whistleblower, especially when historically they have not been treated very well. |
... |
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