SpyCast 8.27.24
Ep 648 | 8.27.24

Lethal Action - Understanding Poison with Neil Bradbury

Show Notes

Summary

Neil Bradbury (Website, LinkedIn) joins Andrew (XLinkedIn) to discuss the deadly history of poison and espionage. Neil is an author and biochemist.  

What You’ll Learn

Intelligence

  • How different poisons affect the human body 
  • The usage of poisons as a covert assassination method
  • The deaths of defectors Alexander Litvinenko and Georgi Markov
  • The Soviet Union’s Lab X and the production and research of poisons on the state level

Reflections

  • The double edge of creativity 
  • The necessity for research and experimentation

And much, much more …

Episode Notes

This week, Andrew was joined in the studio by Dr. Neil Bradbury, author of the book A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Substances and the Killers who Used Them. Neil is an author, a researcher, and a professor of physiology and biophysics at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. In this episode, Neil and Andrew discuss some of the most famous cases of poison within espionage, and explore how exactly these deadly devices affect the human body. We really can’t think of a better person to give us a lesson on this fascinating, and quite scary, method of lethal action!

And… 

Perhaps the only people who have a greater “Taste for Poison” than spies are authors – Readers of Shakespeare will recall Juliet’s tragic demise at the hands of a potion, thought to be deadly nightshade, or the witches’ brew in Macbeth that included root of hemlock. Agatha Christie fans in particular will recall a number of murders at the hand of poison in her many novels – Test your literary poison knowledge here

Quotes of the Week

“In order to counteract lots of the poisons, you have to know how they work, and you have to be able to develop your own. So, yes, undoubtedly, Western governments are just as actively involved in creating these chemicals and also the antidotes to them.” – Dr. Neil Bradbury.

Resources 

SURFACE SKIM

*Spotlight Resource*

  • A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them, Neil Bradbury (St. Martin’s Press, 2022) 

*SpyCasts*

*Beginner Resources*

DEEPER DIVE

Books

  • Poison: The History of Potions, Powders and Murderous Practitioners, B. Hubbard (Welbeck Publishing, 2020)
  • Poison: A History: An Account of the Deadly Art and its Most Infamous Practitioners, J. Davis (Chartwell Books, 2018)
  • The KGB's Poison Factory: From Lenin to Litvinenko, B. Volodarsky (Zenith Press, 2010) 

Articles

Video

Primary Sources 

*Wildcard Resource*

  • This week’s companion song can only be Waterloo Sunset (1967) by The Kinks. 
  • Heralded as one of the most beautiful songs of the swingin’ sixties, “Waterloo Sunset” is appropriately incorporated into the title of Neil’s chapter on the assassination of Georgi Markov, which took place on London’s Waterloo Bridge.