New York Times bestselling author Chris Whipple will provide a remarkable, behind-the-scenes look at the world’s most powerful intelligence agency, in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kai Bird, who has also written authoritatively on the men behind U.S. counter espionage efforts.
The Spymasters resonates with themes from today’s headlines. It is the story of how CIA directors have stood up to rogue presidents, from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump. It was Director Richard Helms’s refusal to carry out the Watergate coverup that brought down Nixon; in the scandal over President Trump’s shakedown of Ukraine’s president, it was a CIA whistleblower who brought Trump to the verge of being removed from office. Most important, in times of national crisis, including deadly pandemics, the CIA director must be the president’s, and the nation’s, honest broker of information.
New York Times bestselling author Chris Whipple will provide a remarkable, behind-the-scenes look at the world’s most powerful intelligence agency, in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kai Bird, who has also written authoritatively on the men behind U.S. counter espionage efforts.
The Spymasters resonates with themes from today’s headlines. It is the story of how CIA directors have stood up to rogue presidents, from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump. It was Director Richard Helms’s refusal to carry out the Watergate coverup that brought down Nixon; in the scandal over President Trump’s shakedown of Ukraine’s president, it was a CIA whistleblower who brought Trump to the verge of being removed from office. Most important, in times of national crisis, including deadly pandemics, the CIA director must be the president’s, and the nation’s, honest broker of information.
Chris Whipple is one of the most accomplished multimedia journalists of our era: a writer, documentary filmmaker, and speaker. He is a multiple Peabody and Emmy Award–winning producer at CBS’s 60 Minutes and ABC’s Primetime.
He is currently the chief executive officer of CCWHIP Productions and is a frequent guest on MSNBC and CNN. Chris served as the executive producer and writer of Showtime’s 2015 documentary film The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs.
His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Politico, the Daily Beast, and many other publications.
Kai Bird is an author and columnist who has written on numerous topics and won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography on Oppenheimer. His books have received critical acclaim and popular success, including The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames, which was a New York Times best-seller. His memoir, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
In January 2017 he was appointed Executive Director and Distinguished Lecturer of CUNY Graduate Center's Leon Levy Center for Biography. He is also the recipient of the McArthur Genius Grant for research and writing.
