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The 2020 cancellation of the radio programme John Kiriakou co-hosted at Sputnik, and what he says followed — a five-thousand-dollar crowdfunder for a camera and a microphone that became one of the more successful independent political podcasts.
The Sputnik shutdown is John Kiriakou’s account of losing his broadcasting job in 2020, given on the DeProgram programme in August 2025 while discussing a former colleague’s later success.[1]
Before it
The programme in question is the one on which Kiriakou first met his eventual DeProgram co-host. Asked where they had met, he answered that it was “when you came on the show that Brian Becker and I were doing in 2017” — a date that places the collaboration with Ted Rall eight years before the conversation.[2]
The closure
Kiriakou describes the ending with a correction about his own position. “When we lost our jobs at — actually, I had left Sputnik briefly. I ended up going back, but when our show was shut down at Sputnik back in 2020…”[1]
He gives no reason for the closure and does not describe any dispute over it.
What followed
What interests him is the recovery, and how small the capital requirement turned out to be. His co-host “did a GoFundMe to raise five grand just for some sound equipment, a decent camera, and a microphone. And that’s how he started” his own programme.[1]
Kiriakou’s assessment of the outcome is admiring and blunt: “And now he’s a monster. He’s making more money than he’s ever made in his life.”[1]
He adds that he holds the example up deliberately: “I point to Brian as an example of what I hope we can accomplish, all the time.” He had last seen him in February, at a counter-inauguration event.[2]
Its place in his career
The episode marks the transition in Kiriakou’s post-prison working life from institutional broadcasting to independent, audience-funded programmes — the model under which the DeProgram show itself operates.
Sourced from John Kiriakou's on-record public statements. See his profile for the full body of his interviews, podcast appearances, and short-form video.
