State Secrets

Suzanne Kelly

Booking Overview

A weekly interview show focused on national security, intelligence, military strategy, cyber warfare, and geopolitical conflict, typically featuring senior military and intelligence leaders, diplomats, and individuals with significant firsthand national-security experience. Credible pitches include former senior government officials, defense and intelligence executives, cybersecurity authorities, foreign-policy experts, and notable firsthand witnesses; booking is likely very difficult because the guest roster includes highly prominent national-security figures.

Metrics

Episodes: 100

Frequency: Weekly

Rating: 4.6/5.0

Estimated listeners: 1k-10k

Gender skew: Male

Location: USA

YouTube: 54.9k subscribers

Instagram: 2.9k followers

Contact Information

Publicly listed emails

info@thecipherbrief.com

bchristian@thecipherbrief.com

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Host

Suzanne Kelly - CEO and Publisher of The Cipher Brief.

Booking Intelligence

Booking Requirements

very_high

Typical Credentials:

Senior military, intelligence, diplomatic, defense, or cybersecurity leadership; established national-security expertise; or significant firsthand experience involving international conflict, detention, intelligence operations, or military innovation.

Required Achievements:

Senior government, military, intelligence, or diplomatic leadership, Recognized expertise in defense, cybersecurity, geopolitics, or international security, Significant firsthand experience with a major national-security event

Recent Guest Discussions

Emad Shargi - His Detention In Iran, Evin Prison, Attempted Escape, The Iranian Security Apparatus, Economic Pressure, And U.s. Policy Toward Tehran.

David Petraeus - The Future Of Warfare, Iran, Ukraine, China, Taiwan, Drones, Autonomous Weapons, And Changing Battlefield Technology.

Paul Nakasone - Artificial Intelligence And Cyber Warfare, Threats To Critical Infrastructure, Ransomware, Quantum Computing, And Autonomous Systems.

Mark Montgomery - Ukraine's Battlefield Innovation, Long-range Drones, Air Defenses, Military Innovation, And Lessons For The United States, NATO, And Taiwan.

Nick Fishwick - Nato's Strategic Challenges, European Defense Spending, Ukraine, Russia, Intelligence Sharing, And Military Interoperability.

Recent Topics

National Security, Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Military Strategy, Geopolitics

Episodes

Here's the recent few episodes on

State Secrets

Held Hostage by Iran: What Emad Shargi Wants America to Understand

August 25, 2026

Iranian-American businessman Emad Shargi spent more than five years detained in Iran, enduring solitary confinement, brutal interrogations, a mock execution and a 10-year prison sentence after being accused of cooperating with the United States. Now, Shargi joins The Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly to tell the extraordinary story of his arrest, imprisonment, attempted escape from Iran and eventual release — and to offer a stark warning about how the Iranian regime operates. Shargi ...

Gen. David Petraeus: The U.S. Must Prepare for a Revolution in Warfare | Iran, Ukraine, China & Drones

August 18, 2026

Former CIA Director and retired U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus joins The Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly for a wide-ranging conversation about the wars reshaping the global security landscape — and why the United States needs to fundamentally rethink how it prepares for the conflicts of the future. From the war with Iran and Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine to China's military calculations over Taiwan, Petraeus explains how drones, autonomous weapons and rapidly changing battlef...

Former NSA Chief Gen. Paul Nakasone: AI Is Changing the Cyber Battlefield

August 12, 2026

Artificial intelligence is transforming cyber warfare - and former NSA Director and U.S. Cyber Command Commander Gen. Paul Nakasone says the speed of that transformation demands a new approach to America's defense. In this episode of The Cipher Brief's State Secrets podcast, Suzanne Kelly sits down with Gen. Nakasone to discuss how AI is reshaping offensive and defensive cyber operations - and why increasingly autonomous systems could fundamentally change the role humans play in cyber conflic...

Publicly listed emails

info@thecipherbrief.com

bchristian@thecipherbrief.com

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