Episode 1: Project Acoustic Kitty — The CIA’s Most PURR-Posterous Idea

Actually... Forgotten Stories for Curious Minds · Jul 21, 2026 · 27m

In 1966, the CIA spent five years and roughly $20 million (in today's money) turning a house cat into a surveillance device — implanting a microphone in its ear canal, a transmitter at the base of its skull, a battery in its abdomen, and threading an antenna wire down its spine and out through its tail. The mission to eavesdrop on Soviet agents outside their embassy in Washington, D.C. lasted less than 30 seconds before it ended in the street. This week on Actually..., we dig into the real, declassified story behind Project Acoustic Kitty — the surgeries, the training that never stood a…