About
History from the documents. Every claim traced to a declassified file.
From the File is a non-fiction history podcast. Seasons run about ten episodes, one declassified operation each, twenty to twenty-eight minutes per episode. Season 1 covers the Bay of Pigs.
Method
The show is the friction between layers of the record — not a dramatized retelling:
- What the operation was
- What the Agency wrote at the time
- What they wrote later
- What investigations and the official history added
- What is still blacked out or missing
Contradictions, redactions, and missing records are part of the story. We do not invent dialogue, scenes, or connective facts. Contemporaneous papers are never merged with later histories. Every factual claim on air and in the show notes traces to a cited document or credible source.
Hosts
Two hosts, two jobs: Elliot reads the operational and contemporaneous record — what happened, what the Agency wrote at the time. Nora reads the later record — investigations, official histories, contradictions, and redactions. They are not reversed.
Show notes
Each episode page is a sourced essay with full citations (titles, dates, record numbers, Reading Room pointers) and a short section on what the files do not settle. That essay is the same substance as the show notes that ship with the audio.