This episode of The Live Drop, I talk with James Stejskal — a former U.S. Army Special Forces operator from Detachment “A” in Cold War Berlin who later worked in intelligence before turning to history and fiction. He’s the author of Special Forces Berlin and the Snake Eater Chronicles, and his latest books — The Ratcatcher and The Berlin Spy Guide — bring that same mix of lived experience and deep research. We dig into The Ratcatcher, a Berlin spy novel that fuses counterintelligence, crime, and military thriller — following the murder of a CI officer and the hunt for a U.S. traitor--the premise of which comes from a real case buried deep in the Stasi files. James talks about class and culture inside Cold War espionage — Ivy League analysts versus scrappy gumshoe operators — and what it really took to recruit sources behind the Wall. We also get into his research adventures in the archives, Berlin’s Cold War landmarks including a McDonalds, and how today’s Russia mirrors old Soviet tactics through imperial nostalgia and opportunism abroad.

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James Stejskal: Author, Soldier, Snake-eater, Spy