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Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod. A show about the past, rediscovered.

So we're standing here in the, probably the coolest museum you can't get into in the Washington, D.C. area.

So unfortunately, CIA Museum is not open to the public. It is located here at CIA

headquarters, and you need operational justification to come on in. The museum serves...

Sorry, I just want to, I don't even interrupt, but you can also get here if you have a podcast.

That sounds operational. That's Robert Beyer, the director of the CIA Museum at the Intelligence Services

headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

The museum winds around several long hallways, and the materials there have been declassified

to explain the CIA's history and mission to incoming case officers.

We went there and to the new spy museum in Washington, D.C., the one you can get into.

For the next five days, we're going to tell you some incredible tales of subterfuge, daring missions, assassins, things that will just plain blow

your mind. And we thought we'd start with a rat. I'm putting on an extremely tight latex

gloves. No, not a snitch, not a turncoat. I'm putting on a glove because I'm about to reach into a box, and this box contains a rat.

And this rat has a very large gash in his belly, poor rat.

This rat has been dead for a long time.

And the important thing about this rat is that this rat helped us in the Cold War.

This rat, it's usually hanging on the wall of the museum.

But I was allowed to hold it and look straight into its beady little eyes

to help explain just how crafty the CIA was in trying to outsmart the Russians.

Actually, I've got an expert to help.

My name's Janelle, and I am the deputy director here at the CIA Museum.

...