To Die For - 1) The Perfect Weapon (REPUBLISH)

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

A source from a mafia-connected family introduces a true crime podcaster to a KGB-trained sex spy. What could possibly go wrong?   Show Credits: Produced by Tenderfoot TV in association with iHeart Podcasts Host/Writer: Neil Strauss Guest: Aliia Roza Executive Producers: Neil Strauss, Donald Albright and Payne Lindsey Lead Producer and Editor: Tristen Bankston Additional Editing: Miles Clark and Christian Brown Supervising Producer: Tracy Kaplan Consultants: Nooshin Valizadeh, Chelsey Goodan and Jaime Albright  Cover Art Design: Byron McCoy Original Music: Makeup and Vanity Set, with additional music by Ben Fleisch Mixed and Mastered: Dayton Cole Theme song: Killer Shangri-lah by Pshycotic Beats featuring Pati Amor Special thanks to: Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, Oren Segal, Rebecca Jensen, Rose Baruc, The Nord Group, Meredith Stedman, and Alex Vespestad    For free, confidential, 24/7 support for survivors of sexual assault, as well as information and resources, visit rainn.org, or call 1-800-656-4673. For more podcasts like To Die For, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app, or visit us at tenderfoot.tv.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. off. That means you can binge this entire series, plus over 30 additional shows, completely ad-free. Your subscription will also unlock dozens of exclusive episodes, like my bonus interview with Lea Rosa. If you're on the fence about subscribing, you can try it out free with an extended 14-day trial. Visit Apple Podcasts to grab this limited-time summer offer. For more details, visit tenderfootplus.com. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. On the new podcast, America's Crime Lab, every case has a story to tell, and the DNA holds the truth. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen, I was just like, ah, gotcha. This technology is already solving so many cases.

Listen to America's Crime Lab on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Girlfriends is back with a new season, and this time I'm telling you the story of Kelly Harnett. Kelly spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. As she fought for her freedom she taught herself the law. He goes, oh god, Harnett, jailhouse lawyer. And became a beacon of hope for the women locked up alongside her.

You're supposed to have faith in God but I had nothing but faith in her. I think I was put here to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay, and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from

Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts, where we dive into the stories that shape us, on the page and off. Each week, I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars, and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TBR pile. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All eight episodes of To Die For are available now to binge absolutely free. But for ad-free listening and exclusive bonuses,

subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus.com or on Apple Podcasts. Warning, the following episode contains explicit language and sexual themes. Listener discretion is advised. List in our discretion is advised. Every woman can seduce a man and it doesn't matter how does she look. It's all about your skills. What do you say?

How do you touch? And how you're good in sex. That's it. The most important thing not to give him everything at the same moment. So you cannot go to bed and sleep with him at the first day. Unless it's a special mission where you have to kill your target. Some spies use poisons, others use guns.

But for Lea Rosa, who's sitting in front of me right now, her body was made into a weapon by the Russian military. Her mission? To seduce powerful men for their secrets, or sometimes their lives. This type of intelligence work is known as sex espionage. And it's much more dangerous than you think. What is sex espionage, actually? These sex becomes like a drug.

And your target becomes like drug addicted. When a drug dealer wants to put someone on the needle, he gives a little bit. He doesn't give straight away everything. So the same way you do, you give a little bit sex, you give a little bit taste, and you tease, you tease, till you make sure that your target becomes addicted to you. Because you put so many anchors around him him in his brain, in his body. Basically the body gets used to you so he physically cannot be with someone else. Kill you, I'm really sorry

I had to do it, gotta go on my own You didn't guess that we're high I was holding my gun I got you, I tell you no I had to kill you Was it so much fun? Episode 1, Chapter 1, The Meeting. Our story begins with the Mafia. I come from a Mafia family.

It's a real Mafia family. I mean, not like some of the people that will be say, I'm connected and all that. My father actually did go before Robert Kennedy and McClellan. The interview you're listening to is me many years ago speaking with Johnny Fratto, also known as the Beverly Hills gangster. His father worked under Al Capone,

and his brother was killed in the tragic plane crash that also took the life of boxer Rocky Marciano. I have a question about the mob. Has it changed? It's all movies. It's all movies. It absolutely doesn't exist. No.

Never did. I was publishing a book with Johnny about his colorful and controversial life. We'd get together, and he'd tell stories for hours. And I said, Judge, I don't belong in here. I'm 24 years old. My wife is now pregnant with my son Johnny. I don't belong in here. After Fratto moved to Los Angeles, he set his sights more on fame than racketeering and unexpectedly became a recurring guest on the Howard Stern Show. The son he just mentioned grew up and wanted to leave the family business and get into the film business.

This is Johnny introducing his son, Johnny Jr., to Stan Lee, the legendary Marvel Comics writer. This kid my son, he thinks he can write a movie. Everybody who's written his first movie has never written a movie before. And why couldn't he do it? Stan Lee says, I look like a writer. I look like one, okay?

Not long after this, Johnny Fratto died of lung cancer at the age of 61. I didn't talk to his son Johnny Jr. much after that. But one afternoon, after years of silence, he called with an incredible story. So, I have got a weird thing, like it's going to sound fucking strange to you. And I don't even really know how to pitch this to you. Where do I begin? Because you wrote the book, The Game, I met this girl that basically says she knows how to seduce men, pick up men, do whatever, you know, like basically she can own any man in two fucking seconds. What Johnny's referring to here is an infamous book I wrote over a decade ago about two years I spent undercover in a secret society of pickup artists.

And here's the crazy part, she says she was a Russian spy at one time. I mean, it's the craziest shit you ever heard. She told me that there's like a school that she had to attend in Russia where she had to like literally like have sex with her teachers in front of the class and have sex with different students in front of the class and learn how to give perfect blow jobs.

And I'm sitting here. I literally never heard of anything like this. And frankly, found it hard to believe. I'm sure the crude way Johnny Jr. was speaking about it wasn't helping any. She was trained by the Russian government to seduce men and get their secrets or whatever. Yeah, she was trained by Russia, she says,

to fucking give the perfect blowjob job to fuck a guy perfectly. And I kind of believe her, man. I mean, I really do think she's telling the truth. And it's a little weird, but I thought, you know, if there's any one guy in the fucking world that it would be up his alley, it's you. And can I ask the obvious question, which is how did you meet her? Can I ask the obvious question, which is how did you meet her? I met her through an Armenian guy named Art. And Art's a dapper, probably the most dapper little guy I've ever met.

And he said, you know, Johnny, there's somebody that you got to meet. You got to come over here. It's very special. I said, OK, well, what is it? So I get there. He introduces me. Obviously, she's beautiful. I mean, like she said, she was trained to go in and fucking be with like fucking heads of state and shit like that. Wow. And then how would you describe, like, her just as a person in general?

You know, she's very kind of like a cool, seductress that looks you straight in the eye all the time and kind of always knows the right thing to say. Every single thing I was saying to her, she just had the perfect retort. Because I was, you know, I'm not trying to be an asshole, but you know, look, this town is hard. Couple more questions. How do we know she's not still working for the Russian government?

Johnny said I could ask her that question and any others I had when I met her. I figured if the Russian government wanted to get me, there were probably easier ways. Hey man, what's going on? How you been? I really miss you man. I mean, Jesus, last time I saw you was what, my dad's funeral or something? I think it was my dad's funeral or something? What was it? I think it was your dad's funeral. Jesus Christ.

Johnny introduced me to the woman standing next to him. She was tall, with dyed blonde hair, cut short and stylish, and wearing what looked like very expensive designer clothing. This was the reputed former Russian spy, Alia Rosa. Alia Rosa, Neil Strauss,

I want you guys to meet each other. Thank you so much for an introduction, Neil. Thank you. Nice meeting you. I'm telling you, by the end of the night, you guys are meet each other. Thank you so much for an introduction, Neil. Thank you. Nice meeting you. I'm telling you, by the end of the night you guys are going to be best friends. We sat down for dinner with a few other people I'd invited to get their take on the situation, including a former top-ranking agent at the CIA. That's what you had both on the spot.

Do you want to tell a little bit about Aliyah and then… I'll tell you. I always have to get permission first because their story is kind of crazy. Do I have permission to basically get fucking crazy with it? Tell them what you're up to. Fantastic. I'm going to tell the truth. So I'm going to say something. This woman right here, and this is no shit, went through a fucking training thing that she literally...

Johnny Jr. then repeats much of what he told me earlier in the same crass language. I know that sounds like a bad joke, but I'm just telling the truth. So anyway, that's it. Is that... Is that introduction... Putting the thoughts into the introduction? Okay, I'm fine with that. I mean, it was authentic, right?

It's authentic, right? I'm just going by... I'm just saying what I... You know. I know. Yes. I know.? It's authentic, right? I'm just going by, I'm just saying what I, you know, you get. I know. Yes. I know.

But there's much more to the story. It's clear that Aliyah is a little uncomfortable and that there's a lot more to her story. Never, ever before I shared this story with anyone, including my parents. Nobody knows. Those people who knew it, they were killed. Those people who knew it, they were killed. After the dinner, I spoke with my source from the CIA, who didn't want his name or voice to be used, and asked what he thought.

She seems credible, he replied. But her story is incredible. It was an great dinner. Thank you. Thank you. It was really a dense one. Seriously, thank you all for coming. It was an odd dinner with basically the CIA, the KGB, and the mafia. And I was left with more questions about Alia Rosa than answers. And to me, that's always a good sign to move forward. A foot washed up, a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable.

These are the coldest of cold cases, but everything is about to change. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA. Using new scientific tools, they're finding clues and evidence so tiny you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. On America's Crime Lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors, and you'll meet the team behind the scenes at Authram, the Houston lab that takes on the most hopeless cases,

to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the iHeart radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News.

It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you. The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president? Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal.

The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people.

Well, women said something like, you know, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is glory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they love to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history, and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it.

Listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts. Every week I sit down with your favorite book lovers, authors, celebrities, book talkers, and more

to explore the stories that shape us, on the page and off. I've been reading every Reese's Book Club pick, deep diving book talk theories, and obsessing over book to screen casts for years. And now, I get to talk to the people making the magic. So if you've ever fallen in love with a fictional character or cried at the last chapter or passed a book to a friend saying, you have to read this, this podcast is for you. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Chapter 2. A Dirty Organization

After meeting Aliyah, I decided to look more into her story. There wasn't a lot online, but I did find a few items legitimizing her, a few items delegitimizing her, and a social media page that was very…influensory. Then I looked into actual evidence of a seduction program operated by the Russian government. And there was no in-depth information online. It seemed like something out of a spy movie. You made such a bold entrance into a little drama. Who doesn't appreciate the occasional twists, Mr.

Bond. James Bond. I probably wouldn't have believed it at all if not for a strange experience I had a decade earlier. I received a call out of the blue from a special agent at the FBI. We are dedicated to national security investigations of the highest order, he told me. He went on to reveal two things that shocked me. The first is that my book, The Game, was required reading for his agents. The second was that he'd like me to fly to Washington and train a group of field agents and analysts on the art of seduction. It was an offer I couldn't say no to. When we're talking, you know, I would say,

what do you feel like doing tonight? What feels right for you? You know, because I'm talking in your language. Because I'm talking to a visual person, I'm like, what do you see yourself doing tonight? How do you see yourself going out to this world? Because I know they're going to be visualizing. And these things are really big for getting reported,

it's called modalities. If you want to talk in a primary modality. And this is what I'll be doing. So I called Robin Dreak, one of the agents who was present at that session and the former head of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Program, to ask, why was the FBI learning the art of seduction? We brought you in a benefit of what you brought to us

was a deep understanding of human psychology. And in our work what you brought to us was a deep understanding of human psychology. And in our work where you're developing confidential human sources and recruiting spies, the understanding of how to develop quick rapport and attraction is key and critical, minus going for romantic interactions. A lot of those other techniques were extremely effective and you brought a vast amount of personal real life experience to that with the book and you're coming in training with us. It's so interesting so I'll fill you in and get your thoughts.

At dinner, Aliyah said she'd worked for a Russian intelligence agency called the FSB, which I'd never heard of before. So I asked Robin to give me a little background on how Russian spy programs operate. So in general, it mirrors ours pretty closely. Their SVR is the equivalent of our CIA and their GRU, that's the Russian Military Intelligence, is the equivalent of our DIA, Defense Intelligence Agency. Their FSB is the equivalent of our FBI. They see intelligence more as a factory event in a sense of this, an assembly line. I don't remember the exact number, but at the height of the Cold War, before the KGB broke into the SVR and the FSB, I think that the number of employees that were part

of the KGB were in the millions, compared to a handful of our operatives overseas for the CIA and DIA. They are an intelligence machine. They suck it all in and they collect it all. Why, I asked Robin, does Russia have this evidently deserved reputation as the world capital of spying? The gross domestic product and GDP of Russia, it's like Italy's or Texas. It's not huge.

When you're a country that relies on hydrocarbons for your economy and that can fluctuate as much as it's been fluctuating definitely in the last bunch of years, they don't have a huge economy. It's not very strong. So, when you're cash strapped and you're trying to be the big boy on the world stage, if you don't have the military because you can't support it, you're going to do it in another way. And they do it in intelligence because intelligence collection, the way they do it is a lot cheaper than anything else. And they send their messages, whether they're going to publicly, even though

they say it's not public, but you know, killing people with depleted uranium, there's a lot of other ways to take someone out silently. Those things are made for public statements saying we can find you anywhere in the world and we'll take you out and that's intelligence operations and it's a lot cheaper doing that than anything else and so that's why they utilize their intelligence organizations to do just that. I fill in Robin who spent 22 years recruiting Russian spies on Aliyah's seduction training with the FSB, and asked him what he thinks. Anecdotally and totally believable. The FSB, that is a dirty organization. It's an organization that is founded on doing things just like that.

They use honey traps, they use it with Clayton Loan Tree, And I know there's been others that just don't hit the news. We'll get into the story of Clayton Lone Tree and some of those others later in this podcast. And we'll also talk more about honey traps. The honey in this term is the agent who's seducing a target. And the trap is, now that I have evidence you've slept with me, or now that you've fallen completely in love with me, here's what I want from you. No one volunteers to the FSB. That's why they have to use honey traps and train people to do that because they're dicks.

If you're a foreign diplomat over in their country, they're going to harass to live in hell out of you and then they're going to try to trap you and coerce you into cooperation. That is not the way to recruit a human being. That does not make anyone feel safe. I ask if the United States has seduction spies. And Robin claims that they do not. Even taking a source to a strip club and using government money for that, he says, would be a political liability. When she was talking about her experience, you just there and and you stay there out of fear There's like if you leave your life's gonna be destroyed. I mean, you know this for the world you've been in that's a broken toy and Broken toys have an unhealthy outlook on the world unless they've realized it they've been through counseling

Now find what you mean by broken toy been through counseling. Now, find what you mean by broken toy. First of all, people that are susceptible to being recruited or trafficked, because basically she's human trafficked is what she is, there was a need in her life that wasn't being fulfilled somewhere else. And the FSB came in and fulfilled that need to be seen, heard and valued by others. And then they manipulated that against her. Keep in mind that I don't know a lot yet about Aliyah's story or how she was recruited,

and neither does Robin. He's basing this analysis on his intelligence experience. To me, there's no difference between a child predator and what they did to her. But welcome to the world of Russian intelligence? Hi Neil! How are you? Nice to see you. Thank you so much for your time. Yeah, of course. Really excited to share with you. Awesome. It's a sunny Wednesday afternoon in Malibu, and Alia Rosa has come over to discuss the podcast. When someone says they've been trained their whole life in the art of seduction, you tend

to question everything they say and do, and wonder if it's all a manipulation. I love your shoes. They're so cool. I know, I think they're so kind of unique, right? Yes, very. I have never seen anything like this. Yeah, that's why I come. Really stylish.

Like, my son would really love it. There's a controversial and often hurtful technique that the pickup artists in the game taught. And it's called the neg. You give someone what appears to be a compliment and then say something slightly backhanded so that they're not quite sure if they're being complimented or insulted. And that's exactly what Iiyah just did to me. Aliyah's brought over a bottle of wine, which doesn't often happen in the meetings I attend. I hand her the corkscrew while I go to check on my son.

When I get back, the wine is unopened and she hands the corkscrew back to me. I get the funny feeling that she's trying to prove to me that she hasn't tampered with the wine. Okay. Cheers. Happy Thanksgiving. Yes. Did you purposely not open the wine just so you knew I could trust the wine? You left to see, to check on your son. I could drop something, you know. You know, like, yeah, I know that you have this kind of, like, thoughts. It's normal.

You and Putin, you are the kind of, like, thoughts. It's normal. You and Putin, you are the same type, believe it or not. You protect yourself, your environment, your family, of course. It's a good thing. That's what Putin does. He also protects his country. I'm not sure how to feel about that Putin comment. And that's probably just what Aliyah wants.

Another neg. She then shares something else that really messes with my mind. Something that just may be true, given what Robin Drake from the FBI just shared with me. Actually, like, you'd be surprised. There are so many agents working in America. Like, so many.

Yeah. Even in Malibu, like, you know, seriously, just be aware. Don't say anything about Putin. I mean, yeah, I sound like, like, kind of like, don't say it's kind of like Putin some fears, but like, it's better not really to. I mean, when Americans discuss like Biden or Trump, it's kind of like, yeah, okay. But once they discuss about like Putin, there are always many ears around.

A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire They put washed up a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases, but everything is about to change. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA.

Using new scientific tools, they're finding clues and evidence so tiny you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. On America's crime lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors. And you'll meet the team behind the scenes at Aut at authoring the Houston lab that takes on the most hopeless

Cases to finally solve the unsolvable Listen to America's crime lab on the iHeart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts So what happened at Chappaquiddick well, it really depends on who you talk to there are many versions of what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you.

The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president? Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people.

Well women said something like, you know, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is glory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they love to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than

to do it. Listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay, and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts.

Every week I sit down with your favorite book lovers, authors, celebrities, book talkers, and more to explore the stories that shape us on the page and off. I've been reading every Reese's Book Club pick, deep diving book talk theories, and obsessing over book to screen casts for years. And now I get to talk to the people making the magic. So if you've ever fallen in love with a fictional character or cried at the last chapter or passed a book to a friend saying, you have to read this. This podcast is for you. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or

wherever you get your podcasts. I turned the discussion to the podcast. Even though the period Alia is talking about was many years ago, I assume Putin still wouldn't be happy about her sharing state secrets. Speaking of that, are there concerns for safety in speaking out and telling your story and sharing all this information. To say I'm not scared, I would lie. Yes, of course, I am mother of 13 years old son. I, yes, of course I'm scared.

I don't know what might happen, right? If I will be that tomorrow, let's say, I know that my son, even it would be so hard for him, he will grow up and he will respect me for that. At least I had enough courage and bravery to stand up and speak out against this evil. That evil, she explains, is more than just Putin. Sharing that life event is a proof of how corrupt the whole system is and how the male

dominance is just so strong there that being a female in Russia, it means that you're almost like, you have the same rights like a dog. And it's just not even like it's not right, but this is anti-human. This is anti-human. The other question is if we're going to go tell the story, are you comfortable just sharing all your experiences, good or bad, no matter what people may think? I don't feel comfortable at all, honestly. I don't want people to think that I can kill people, I'm a murderer.

It's bad, kind of like, you know, if she could kill people, then maybe she can do it now, who knows. She doesn't have this stop. You know, she doesn't have this stop. Because on the good side, I protected my country, right? And I tried to survive. On the bad side, I'm still a murderer. I still killed some people and I still feel guilty for that. I'd asked Johnny when I first spoke to him, oh, how do I know she's not still working for Russian intelligence?

You know what? I don't know how to answer this question really. How do you know if I'm like, I may still work for Putin, right? Because I will reveal the real truth what's going on there and what was happening before when I heard about the Ukrainian war. I felt that moment that I really want to speak out. I felt like I can't just sit down there and just be silenced like I was all this time.

Looking back on the time you were in Russian intelligence, do you think you were a hero or a victim? Hmm... Definitely a victim. But brainwashed that I was a hero. I play Alia my interview with Robin Drake. She pauses and reflects when he calls her a broken toy. I ask her what she's thinking about it.

I mean, for so many years, I didn't feel that I was broken. But it's hard, you know, Neil, it's so hard to accept that because it's such a big guilt, it's such a big pain. When you realize and when you accept that you, I, was a part of this evil system. So yeah, I guess I am broken and yes, I'm a toy. As Alia talks further, I'm reminded of the grim reality that the victims in sex espionage are not just the targets, but the seducers themselves. It's been an intense discussion, and I tell Alia afterward

that I would like to move forward and share the story of her training, her espionage work, and her escape from the Russian military. I just have one last question. Is she ever able to turn off the role she was forced to play? Her answer confirms one of my deepest fears? No, I mean like seduction is, I think, yeah, it's a lifestyle. It's definitely a lifestyle. Once you learn it, it's just like a habit. You go everywhere with this.

You live like that. I wanted to work with you and you in this case like were my target. So I did it for this goal which we are having right now and it's yeah I can tell this is seduction and when I realized that you're my perfect target I seduced you. I seduced you. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. On the new podcast, America's Crime Lab, every case has a story to tell and the DNA

holds the truth. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen, I was just like, ah, gotcha. This technology is already solving so many cases. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Girlfriends is back with a new season, and this time I'm telling you the story of Kelly Harnett.

Kelly spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. As she fought for her freedom she taught herself the law. He goes, oh God, Harnett, jailhouse lawyer. And became a beacon of hope for the women locked up alongside her. You're supposed to have faith in God but I had nothing but faith in her. I think I was put here to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay, and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts, where we dive into the stories that shape us, on the page and off. Each week I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars, and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TBR pile.

Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join iHeartRadio and Sarah Spayne in celebrating the one-year anniversary of iHeart Women's Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis, our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's sports. In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows and built a community united by passion. Podcasts that amplify the voices of women in sports.

Thank you for supporting iHeart Women's Sports and our founding sponsors, Elf Beauty, Capital One, and Novartis. Just open the free iHeart app and search iHeart Women's Sports to listen now. This is an iHeart podcast.