Christmas Must Buy Books

The Black Spy Podcast 224, Season 23, Episode 0004

This week's Black Spy Podcast sees host Carlton King step away from headlines and hard geopolitics to offer listeners something more seasonal – a carefully curated list of books he believes make powerful, thought-provoking Christmas stocking fillers, each chosen for its ability to inform, challenge and inspire.

At the heart of the episode is Carlton's own memoir, Black Ops – The Incredible True Story of a (Black) British Secret Agent, which he frames not as self-promotion, but as an essential corrective to the narrow way British intelligence history is usually told. From there, the discussion broadens into history, politics, race, psychology and power. Titles such as Der Unvergessene Krieg and Winston Churchill's Young Winston are explored as windows into how wars are remembered, mythologised and used to shape national identity.

Carlton places particular emphasis on works that reclaim obscured histories, including Great Men of Colour by Joel Rogers, UNESCO's monumental History of Africa, They Came Before the Mayflower by Dr Ivan Van Sertima, and Black Athena by Martin Bernal. Together, these books challenge Eurocentric narratives and ask listeners to rethink who is written into – and out of – world history.

The episode also highlights contemporary relevance through Male Menopause – The Hidden Crisis by Dr Rachel Taylor and Carlton King, linking mental health, masculinity and social silence, while Rupert Alison's The Branch offers insight into the often-misunderstood machinery of British intelligence.

To close, Carlton turns to dystopian classics – George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World – arguing they are no longer warnings about the future, but commentaries on the present. He rounds off by recommending the enduring moral clarity found in the works of Charles Dickens.

It's an episode that treats books not as escapism, but as tools for awakening – perfect gifts for curious minds.

So, please get informed and don't miss these discussions by subscribing to the Black Spy Podcast for free, so you never miss another fascinating episode.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

To contact Firgas Esack of the DAPS Agency go to LinkedIn

Contact Dr.. Rachel via Substack

And contact Carlton King by utilising any of the following:

Email: carltonking2003@gmail.com

Facebook: The Black Spy Podcast

Facebook: Carlton King Author

Twitter@Carlton_King

Instagram@carltonkingauthor

To read Carlton's Autobiography:

"Black Ops – The incredible true story of a (Black) British secret agent"

Click the link below:

https://amzn.eu/d/fmzzq9h

To read:

Male Menopause the hidden crisis

By Dr. Rachel Taylor & Carlton King

Search ISBN-13 : 979-8276993768

The Myth of Anxiety with Neuroscientist Dr. Rachel Taylor (Part 2)

The Black Spy Podcast 223, Season 23, Episode 0002

Episode 2 – The Anxiety Myth Part II: Power, Identity & the Business of Fear

In this episode, the investigation deepens. Carlton King and Dr. Rachel Taylor explore how power structures—from governments to global tech platforms—exploit anxiety to shape behaviour, control populations and drive profit. If fear is currency, who are the brokers?

Why do modern societies appear more anxious despite unprecedented comfort and safety? Is the rise in anxiety actually a symptom of social fragmentation, digital overstimulation and identity disruption rather than individual pathology? And what role does race, class and lived experience play in how anxiety is labelled, treated or ignored?

Carlton draws on decades in state security to examine how fear is manufactured, manipulated and monetised. Dr. Taylor challenges the neurological oversimplifications used to justify a multi-billion-pound mental-health economy. Together, they ask whether anxiety is being systematically weaponised against the public.

If anxiety is an evolutionary alarm system, what happens when it is hijacked? More importantly—can we reclaim it?

This episode confronts one unsettling truth: perhaps anxiety isn't a personal failure, but a rational response to an irrational world.

So, please get informed and don't miss these discussions by subscribing to the Black Spy Podcast for free, so you never miss another fascinating episode.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

To contact Firgas Esack of the DAPS Agency go to LinkedIn

Contact Dr.. Rachel via Substack

And contact Carlton King by utilising any of the following:

To donate - Patreon.com/TheBlackSpyPodcast

Email: carltonking2003@gmail.com

Facebook: The Black Spy Podcast

Facebook: Carlton King Author

Twitter@Carlton_King

Instagram@carltonkingauthor

To read Carlton's Autobiography:

"Black Ops – The incredible true story of a (Black) British secret agent"

Click the link below:

https://amzn.eu/d/fmzzq9h

The Myth of Anxiety with Neuroscientist Dr. Rachel Taylor (Part 1)

The Black Spy Podcast 222, Season 23, Episode 0002

Episode 1 – The Anxiety Myth: What If Everything We Think We Know Is Wrong?

Is anxiety really a mental health crisis—or have we misunderstood the entire phenomenon? In this week's Black Spy Podcast, Carlton King and Neuroscientist Dr. Rachel Taylor dismantle the assumptions, narratives and commercial interests shaping our modern understanding of anxiety. Why are anxiety diagnoses skyrocketing in the West while resilience appears to be collapsing? Has society medicalised normal human emotion to the point where stress, fear and discomfort are now rebranded as pathology?

Dr. Taylor brings cutting-edge neuroscience to the table, challenging listeners to rethink the brain's threat systems, the role of trauma, and the possibility that anxiety may not be a "disorder" at all but a misinterpreted survival mechanism. Carlton interrogates the political, economic and cultural drivers behind the anxiety industry: who benefits from defining millions as "unwell"?

Is the modern world genuinely more dangerous, or have we simply lost the tools to cope? And crucially—if anxiety is not what we've been told—what does that mean for treatment, medication and human agency?

This episode asks one radical question: What if anxiety isn't the enemy—but the message?

So, please get informed and don't miss these discussions by subscribing to the Black Spy Podcast for free, so you never miss another fascinating episode.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

To contact Firgas Esack of the DAPS Agency go to LinkedIn

Contact Dr.. Rachel via Substack

And contact Carlton King by utilising any of the following:

To donate - Patreon.com/TheBlackSpyPodcast

Email: carltonking2003@gmail.com

Facebook: The Black Spy Podcast

Facebook: Carlton King Author

Twitter@Carlton_King

Instagram@carltonkingauthor

To read Carlton's Autobiography:

"Black Ops – The incredible true story of a (Black) British secret agent"

Click the link below:

https://amzn.eu/d/fmzzq9h