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Welcome to Spycast, the official podcast of the International Spy Museum.

I'm your host, Sasha Ingberg, and each week I take you into the shadows of espionage,

intelligence, and covert operations across the globe.

Hi, everyone.

It's our first episode of 2025, and we're starting out the year with Brian Stern,

a veteran and Purple Heart recipient who was recently on the ground in Syria, searching for

captive Americans. In 2022, Brian had a hunch that Russia would invade Ukraine, and that the

skills he used working with the Navy

seals would be meted, and he was right. Brian ended up leading a rescue operation that saved

Carrillo Alexandrov, an American living in Ukraine who was accused by the Russians of being a spy.

Brian's missions happened through the Grable Rescue Foundation, a nonprofit he founded.

And for the first time ever, he reveals the tradecraft he used to fool the Russian intelligence services in Moscow and occupied Ukraine.

Good to have you here, Brian.

What's a day like in the life of a person who rescues Americans overseas? What's the stress level? On a scale of one to ten?

Yeah. About 105, pretty much. When I started this journey, I had a full head of dark hair.

My beard was solid black. And now I am squarely salt and pepper. And it's only been 38, 39 months. So the stress level is hard. It's hard leading an organization. It's hard being in the field. It's hard doing these operations. Everything we do is hard. But it's our specialty. Our specialty is

...