CISO podcasts and newsletters: where security leaders actually go

A security leader who types "CISO podcast" into a search bar wants the actual list, not a single company's promotional page. There are, at the time of this writing, at least ten active or recently active shows made specifically for people who run or report to a security program, produced by four different organizations, plus one running newsletter from the largest of the four. This guide names each one, who hosts it, how it's structured, and how often it publishes — each fact read from the show's or network's own site.

CISO Series: the largest network, six shows and a newsletter

CISO Series is a media company built around one founder, David Spark, and a stable of shows that share a sponsor and audience base rather than a single format. Its own homepage, read this run, lists six current shows: Cyber Security Headlines, Super Cyber Friday, Security You Should Know, CISO Series Podcast, Defense in Depth and Capture the CISO.

CISO Series Podcast (also called the CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast) is the show that started the network, in June 2018. It runs about 35 minutes, co-hosted by David Spark and Mike Johnson — at the time the page was captured, Johnson was described as CISO of Fastly, formerly CISO of Lyft. Each weekly episode takes a scenario from the working relationship between security practitioners and the vendors who sell to them and asks the co-hosts, a guest and the audience how they'd handle it.

Defense in Depth is a weekly show built around a single contested question in security practice each episode — the page gives "cybersecurity's most controversial and confusing debates" as its own description of the format. David Spark co-hosts every episode alongside a rotating guest drawn from the security-practitioner community, rather than a fixed second host.

Cyber Security Headlines is CISO Series' daily news show: a six-minute rundown of eight to ten security headlines released every weekday morning. A separate weekly extension, Cyber Security Headlines – Week in Review, runs live on Thursday evenings, hosted by reporter Steve Prentice with a different security professional joining each week to discuss what that week's stories mean in practice. Rich Stroffolino is credited on the network's own site as a host and editor across its news-format shows.

Super Cyber Friday is CISO Series' recurring live event, run under a "Hacking [Topic]" title for each session — the network's own homepage, captured in October 2026, shows an upcoming session on October 16, 2026 titled "Hacking the Jump Into Cyber Leadership," confirming the format was still running on a near-term schedule as of that snapshot.

Security You Should Know is CISO Series' newest show at the time of its own launch announcement, dated March 24, 2025. Rich Stroffolino hosts; each roughly 15-minute episode pairs one security vendor working on a specific problem with two security-practitioner panelists who question the approach.

Capture the CISO is a competitive format CISO Series describes, in its own May 2022 launch announcement, as its fifth show: security vendors present their product in conversation with CISO judges who have already watched a demo, and each episode's judges score the vendor on whether the pitch is innovative, solves a real need and is easy to deploy. Season one launched May 18, 2022, hosted by Johna Till Johnson, CEO of the analyst firm Nemertes, with a season finale recorded live on June 17, 2022. The network's October 2026 homepage still lists the show among its current lineup.

Beyond the shows, CISO Series runs its own newsletter on beehiiv — the same platform used for both show-launch posts cited above — which is where the network posts show announcements, hiring notices for its own contract journalists, and short security-news write-ups between episodes.

Three independently produced shows

Not every CISO-focused show comes out of the CISO Series network. Three other producers run shows aimed at the same audience, each with a different angle.

Smashing Security, hosted by Graham Cluley since 2016 with co-host Carole Theriault, is a weekly show — the producers' own site states new episodes release at 7pm EST (midnight UK) every Wednesday — that covers hacking, cybercrime and privacy stories with a lighter, more conversational tone than most of the field, often bringing on a guest alongside the two hosts. A paid tier, Smashing Security PLUS, offers early, ad-free access.

CISO Tradecraft is co-hosted by Ross Young and G Mark Hardy and is built specifically around the career jump into security leadership rather than daily news. The show's own site describes itself as a podcast and community for security practitioners aiming at executive-level roles, and pairs the podcast with a companion newsletter on Substack, a CISO certificate program and free templates — the site does not itself state a release cadence or an exact launch date.

Razorwire, produced by the UK consultancy Razorthorn Security, is hosted by the firm's founder, James Rees, an information-security specialist the show's own page describes as having more than 25 years in the field. Episodes bring in outside guests to cover risk management, governance, security leadership, human factors and technical strategy; the show's own listening page does not state how often new episodes are released.

What this list leaves out

This is not every security podcast — it is every show this guide could confirm, directly from its own site, is made specifically for people who hold or are moving toward a security-leadership seat. A fourth candidate, Click Here (produced by Recorded Future News and hosted by Dina Temple-Raston), covers the people and stories behind cyber and intelligence events more broadly; its own site returned a server error on every attempt this run, so it is left out rather than sourced secondhand. A CISO Series sponsorship package referred to elsewhere as "Inside the 90" is a 90-second advertising slot CISO Series sells against its shows, not a separate show in its own right, and its own page could not be read this run — it belongs in a guide about sponsoring these shows, not a guide about which shows to listen to.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best-known CISO podcast?

By network size, CISO Series is the largest single producer of CISO-focused audio, with six shows sharing one sponsor base and audience, anchored by the CISO Series Podcast it has run since June 2018.

Which of these shows is a daily listen?

Cyber Security Headlines, CISO Series' six-minute weekday news show, is the only one on this list built for a daily cadence. Everything else here is weekly, biweekly, or built around live or seasonal events.

Are any of these shows aimed specifically at people becoming a CISO, not already in the seat?

CISO Tradecraft is framed that way most directly — its own site centers the show on the career path into security executive roles, paired with a certificate program and templates for that transition. This site's own guide on what it takes to become a CISO and its tenure record cover the same transition from the filings and data side.

Do any of these shows let vendors pay to appear?

Two of CISO Series' six shows are built around vendor participation by design: Security You Should Know pairs a vendor with two practitioner panelists, and Capture the CISO is a structured competition between vendor presenters judged by CISOs. Both state this format openly on the network's own site; it is a different arrangement from a news or debate show like Cyber Security Headlines or Defense in Depth, where the host sets the agenda.

Where else on this site can I hear what CISOs say in public?

This site's own what CISOs say on podcasts and webinars guide takes a different angle: it reads the transcripts and summaries of specific CISO appearances on company-produced podcasts and webinars, rather than cataloguing the shows themselves.