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The AFIO Now series offers the association’s members and the public prerecorded interviews and presentations that feature intelligence experts, historians and officers from the U.S. intelligence community. Content includes historical reviews and analyses of past and current domestic and global events, career insight, intelligence related author and national security reporter interviews.
AFIO NOW videos are released first to our members. Please consider joining AFIO to have access to these videos months before they are released to the public. Already a member? Log in to your account.
Released to members on 1 Dec 2025
Run time: 55 minutes with several Q&As
AFIO Now Series Host: James Hughes, AFIO President and former CIA Operations Officer, and Former NSA Associate Deputy Director of Operations.
Interview of Tuesday, 14 October 2025 of Alexander Rose PhD, author and historian, on Phantom Fleet: The Hunt for Nazi Submarine U-505 and World War II’s Most Daring Heist. Host: James Hughes, AFIO President, a former CIA Operations Officer and Former NSA Associate Deputy Director of Operations.
TOPIC: In this episode Rose and Hughes discuss Rose's 2025 book: Phantom Fleet: The Hunt for Nazi Submarine U-505 and World War II’s Most Daring Heist -- which draws on long-classified encrypted documents and intercepted German transmissions to reveal how an owlish egghead and a glory-seeking buccaneer teamed up to score the richest prize on the high seas during WWII.
Released to members on 2 Dec 2025
Run time: 36 minutes and includes several Q&As
AFIO Now Series Host: James Hughes, AFIO President and former CIA Operations Officer, and Former NSA Associate Deputy Director of Operations.
Interview of Monday, 3 November 2025 of Stephen Mercado discussing his new book "Japanese Spy Gear and Special Weapons: How Noborito’s Scientists and Technicians Served in WWII and the Cold War"
TOPIC: In this episode Stephen Mercado and James Hughes discuss "Japanese Spy Gear and Special Weapons: How Noborito’s Scientists and Technicians Served in the Second World War and the Cold War" War, and the threat of war, spurs governments to invest in secret military technologies and weapons. Imperial Japan, ahead of the Second World War, was no exception. After the First World War, Japan set up the Noborito Research Institute: a division of scientists and technicians to invest in overt and clandestine warfare. Mercado dives into this history in his new book Japanese Spy Gear and Special Weapons: How Noborito’s Scientists and Technicians Served in the Second World War and the Cold War. At Noborito, Japanese scientists researched fanciful weapons, like balloon bombs and death rays; covert techniques like poisons and counterfeiting—and more insidious activities, like biological weapons.
To view our publicly available AFIO Now videos, please visit AFIO on YouTube or browse through the playlists below. To view other items in the playlists, select the icon with three lines and a small arrow on the bottom that is to the right of the title.
To listen to the AFIO Now series as audio only, please download from wherever you get your podcasts.
"AFIO Now" Interviews and Podcasts are sponsored by Northwest Financial Advisors. Read the Press Release on this new Joint Arrangement.