? What actually happens in the world of espionage is, by design, meant to stay hidden. But I Spy, a podcast by Foreign Policy, gets former intelligence agents and those closest to them to talk. Each season takes on a single story or a set of related incidents from some of the world’s most notorious political cases — assassinations, political disasters, covert operations — and breaks them down across several episodes.
The production quality won’t leave you wanting. Foreign Policy uses cinematic soundscapes, reporting excerpts, and documentary-style narration to draw you further into an already-compelling subject matter, but it’s the storytelling that holds your attention.
The latest season, After Hotel Rwanda, is a four-part series hosted by National Security Reporter Robbie Gramer. It follows Paul Rusesabagina, the activist and former hotelier whose story was depicted in the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda starring Don Cheadle. During the Rwandan genocide, Rusesabagina sheltered hundreds of people — an act of quiet heroism that later made him a national figure. Years later, he found himself back in Rwanda, this time as a prisoner.
Gramer pieces together the story with help from Rusesabagina himself and his daughter Anaïse Kanimba, who originally reached out to get her father’s case more attention. “Every minute you have a cloud above you that does not allow you to do anything but worry,” Kanimba says in the series. The season unpacks Rwanda’s political climate, Rusesabagina’s actions during the genocide, and how his circumstances reversed so dramatically. How that happened is worth discovering on your own.
WHERE TO LISTEN- You can tune in on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anghami | YouTube.