Rackets Podcast

This episode's guest is Michael Ames. He is an investigative reporter and book author based in Brooklyn, New York. After a decade working in media in southern Idaho, Ames moved east and shifted to national issues, writing mostly for the Daily Beast and Harper's and Newsweek magazines. His first book, American Cipher, which he co-authored with former US Army infantryman Matt Fa

(The audio for this episode isn't great. This issue will be corrected in the following episodes.) The highlights include: Censorship in Arizona's state prisons Backlash against the maker of OxyContin and the heirs to the company's fortune Racketeering by Big Pharma Lindsey Graham's buffoonery Central American Narco-State Wasteful Military Spending Former CIA Director's Ironic Choic

This episode covers a range of topics including: Robert Kraft's lawsuit Possible Chinese espionage A Federal Lawsuit involving Trump's Emolument Violations Trump's Pay to Play System A Number of Revolving Door Officials Finding High-Paying Work in the Private Sector Boeing Whistleblowers Foreign Lobbying War Crimes Bribery by Shell/ENI of Nigerian officials --- Support this podcast

Leon Lee is the Peabody Award winning director of the documentary film, Human Harvest. Lee explained that the Chinese government began persecuting a group known as Falun Gong in the 1990s. They can best be described as prisoners of conscious. Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured, harassed, falsely imprisoned, etc. And many of them have been executed with the sole purpose of

The latest episode covers a bribery scandal involving the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, corporate drug pushers, Russian election interference in  Madagascar, corrupt foreign and domestic officials, and much more.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rackets/support

This episode covers a range of topics. That includes the murder of the leader of the Gambino crime family, a break-in at the North Korean embassy in Spain, the international weapons racket, a hip-hop artist / credit card  fraudster,  cartel warfare and much more.   --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rackets/support

Nathan Smith is a former Army Captain and intelligence officer at the command headquarters in Kuwait. Notably, he filed a federal lawsuit in 2016 against the President of the U.S. challenging the legality of the war in Syria and Iraq. This was obviously a difficult decision to make, but it was ultimately a principled decision. Nathan's story illustrates the stunning lack of checks

There were too many fascinating details from the trial of the world's most notorious criminal, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, to list. However, this episode breaks down many aspects of the Sinaloa cartel's structure, allies, foes, corrupt enablers, etc. There was so much to unravel, but here's a concise, yet jammed-packed wrap up of the most important drug trafficking conviction in Ame

   Richard Bronson is the CEO of 70 Million Jobs, which is the first for-profit recruitment company for people with criminal records. He worked at the infamous brokerage, Stratton Oakmont, which was portrayed in Martin Scorsese's “Wolf of Wall Street.” After serving 2 years in prison, Richard has dedicated his life and career to an underserved aspect of criminal justi

Dame Catherine Healy is the founder of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective. This year, she was awarded the title of "Dame" by Queen Elizabeth II due to her advocacy efforts on behalf of sex workers and leading the way to the decriminalization of sex work in New Zealand in 2003. Her organization has contracted by the New Zealand government to do variety of tasks, such as HIV pre