Radiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio.

Welcome to the show Radiculous Historians. Thank you so much for tuning in. My name is Ben.

My name is Noel. You ever had spicy honey, Ben? Yes. It's pretty good. Like a coffee. It makes it like a spicy coffee. Or you put it on some chicken. It's good stuff.

You know who else is pretty good? Noel, that's our super producer, Casey Peggroom. And spicy.

And spicy indeed. Now have you ever been in a situation where a stranger approaches you and there seems to be this instant chemistry, this instant connection you just as they say click.

Have you already asked me if I've ever been propositioned? I'm asking, well maybe it was a proposition. How did your story turn out? It was an indecent proposal, Ben. That's what it was.

You were in an indecent proposal situation. I was indecently proposed to yes. And I accepted. Oh, how to work out. It was very indecent. I can't go into it here as the family show.

It's weird because hopefully in this situation that was not a proposal was indecent for hopefully some family friendly reasons. You know maybe you guys just liked each other.

You just sat around and told a lot of really blue jokes. Oh, okay. That makes sense. Sometimes when people get hit upon or propositioned out of the blue, there is an ulterior motive involved.

Wait a minute. People aren't always as with the scene, Ben. It's true. No. It's true. It hurts me.

This episode is about spy craft, but maybe not in the way you think. It turns out that one of the most famous espionage strategies in history is seducing someone.

Have you ever seen the show Americans? I haven't. I've been told that it's quite good and that I should watch it. Well, I don't like tell people what they should do, but I enjoyed the show.

I should get me to a television situation right now. Casey, have you seen the Americans? I have not. No. You really watch TV shows much to you. No, it takes a lot for me to check out a TV series. So nothing against the Americans. What about law and order? You ever seen that a few times? Yeah. Casey on the case.

So the trade name for this kind of spy craft via seduction is the honey trap. Yep. And spies use their sexual prowess, their charisma, and that thrill of living life on the edge as bait.

This is like, you know, how there have been rumors bouncing around for months, if not years, about the concept of compromise. Yes. Right. Well, what was that? Also known as compromise. I think they're the same thing. I mean, it's just the idea. I mean, it's basically just blackmail material. Right. It's like when someone is compromised, whether you know something about a crime they've committed or you have, let's say, a tape of them getting peed on.

Or some such other nefarious behavior, that would be considered compromise or compromise. Are they just different tenses? Why are there two different words? That's an interesting question. I know compromise is the Russian phrase, which has been picked up by the US media. Even has been making the rounds much more these days than I'd ever heard it in the past in terms of like in the parlance of our times to quote the big Lebowski. But there's a really I haven't seen the film, but it's got Jennifer Lawrence. And I believe it's called red sparrow, if I'm not mistaken. And she plays a Russian spy.

That is like trained in these sexual wilds. It's literally a school for young women that are trained to do this very thing.

It's a huge plot point in the Americans without spoiling it. The Americans is about sleeper agents living in the US. And in both red sparrow and the Americans, there's this method of spycraft via seduction employed called honey traps.

Or you may have heard it referred to as honey pots. These tactics have been around for a long, long, long time. In fact, as our pal gave pointed out of air, the earliest honey trap on record. Maybe this is how old it is. It's biblical.

One of the oldest ones that we know of is the anecdotal betrayal of Samson by Delilah.

Oh, yeah. That's a classic story. And then what is it? She like sneaks in and cuts his hair wherein all of his magical strong man powers lie in exchange for 1100 pieces of silver.

That's right. And then I think he gets his head lobbed off at some point. That may be in a different story though. Solomon is the one who has Samson's head cut off.

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