NSA to debut podcast to boost public awareness of classified missions

The U.S. government’s lead signals intelligence titan is launching a podcast series in an effort to better inform the public about how it conducts clandestine activities that have supported American armed forces, tracked terrorists and stopped cyberattacks.

The National Security Agency’s podcast — dubbed “No Such Podcast” to play off its No Such Agency nickname that stems from the secretive nature of its work — is coming soon, according to a trailer made available for reporting on Thursday. It will host experts across NSA to discuss the agency’s role in combat support, signals intelligence and cybersecurity missions, according to a spokesperson.

“NSA is known as home to the world’s greatest codemakers and codebreakers — their stories are now being decoded,” the spokesperson said. An exact release date for the series was not made publicly available by press time.

The podcast trailer, just around 30 seconds long, is appropriately cryptic in its nature, but hints that it will explore stories about the agency’s past work in landmark military and intelligence events while educating listeners about NSA’s day-to-day activities.

“Success is the attack that never happened. For decades, the No Such Agency has protected the nation, our armed forces and built partnerships across the globe,” a narrator in the trailer says. “We’ve served in silence, and now it’s time to share that story.”

The podcast would mark a notable shift in how the NSA seeks to engage with the public and media about its work. In 2013, it faced virulent pushback from press groups, government officials, tech companies and the American public about its mass surveillance activities disclosed by former agency contractor Edward Snowden. The incident fueled an overhaul of how NSA works with the press, which included a sweeping outreach plan written in 2014.

The podcast’s launch echoes when the Central Intelligence Agency first joined Twitter — now X — a decade ago with its first post reading: “We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.” At the time, through the use of Twitter, the CIA’s media team had reported an increase in visitors to its CIA.gov site, particularly to its historical blogs and career pages. Notably, the CIA, which serves as America’s leading foreign intelligence agency, runs its own podcast dubbed “The Langley Files” in reference to its headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Intelligence and security agencies under the Biden administration have pushed to share information about hackers and terror groups with the private sector, a move that first came in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that officials say could have been prevented if agencies weren’t stovepiped in their information sharing activities.

The podcast takes a similar approach with a different angle, likely seeking to upend what it views as misconceptions about its work, which has often been shrouded in mystery and controversy. The agency has faced such scrutiny even as recently as this year, when it backed a White House effort that pushed for the renewal of a contested surveillance power that allows spy agencies to target foreigners’ conversations overseas.