Greg Olear talks to Candace Rondeaux about her book “Putin’s Sledgehammer,” which delves into the Wagner Group mercenary group and the complexities of Russia’s political landscape. Rondeaux shares her background in journalism and her journey into understanding Russian geopolitics, particularly through the lens of the Wagner Group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin. The discussion covers the origins of the Wagner Group, Prigozhin’s rise and fall, the influence of figures like Alexander Dugin, and the implications of the Internet Research Agency's actions during the 2016 election. Rondeaux also reflects on US policy failures regarding Russia and the future of democracy in Ukraine, the US, and beyond.

Candace Rondeaux directs Future Frontlines, a public intelligence service for next generation security and democratic resilience, and the Planetary Politics initiative at the New America Foundation. A writer and public-policy analyst, Rondeaux is a professor of practice and fellow at the Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies and the Center on the Future of War at Arizona State University. Before joining New America, Rondeaux served as a senior program officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace where she launched the RESOLVE Network, a global research consortium on conflict and violent extremism and as a strategic advisor to the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Rondeaux has documented and analyzed political violence in South Asia, and around the world for the Washington Post and the International Crisis Group. Before going abroad for the Post in 2009, Rondeaux covered criminal justice in Maryland and Virginia, where she covered capital punishment and was part of the Pulitzer Prize winning team of Post reporters who covered the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.

Buy the book:

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/candace-rondeaux/putins-sledgehammer/9781541703063/?lens=publicaffairs

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Greg Olear talks to John B. King, Jr., former U.S. Secretary of Education and current SUNY chancellor, about what the Department of Education actually does; what proposed cuts to the D.O.E. mean for students, teachers, parents, and communities; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning; the stakes of the Trump Administration’s ongoing attacks on higher education; and his powerful and moving new memoir, “Teacher by Teacher: The People Who Save Our Lives.”

John B. King Jr. served in President Barack Obama's cabinet as the tenth U.S. Secretary of Education. Over the course of his extensive and influential career in public education, he has been a high school social stud-les teacher, a middle school principal, the first African American and Puerto Rican to serve as New York State Education Commissioner, a college professor, and the president and CEO of the Education Trust, a national education civil rights organization. King is currently the chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), the nation's largest comprehensive system of public higher education. Both of King's parents were career New York City public school educators. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, an education researcher and former teacher, and his two daughters.

Buy the book:

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/john-b-king-jr/teacher-by-teacher/9781538757772/?lens=grand-central-publishing

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Greg Olear talks to Nicolo Majnoni about his new podcast, 'Shadow Kingdom, God's Banker,' which delves into the mysterious death of banker Roberto Calvi and the intricate financial systems of the Vatican. Majnoni shares his personal connection to the Vatican, the complexities of its banking operations, the historical context of its wealth, and the shadowy organization P2, as well as the future challenges facing the papacy amidst financial chaos. They discuss the connections between organized crime and the Vatican, culminating in the mysterious disappearance of Calvi's briefcase, which held secrets that could have changed the course of history.

ABOUT SHADOW KINGDOM

Roberto Calvi, a man guarding a dangerous secret about the Vatican Bank’s criminal activities, sends a threatening letter to the Pope. A week later on June 17th, 1982 he’s found dead hanging from a bridge in London. British police call it suicide, but questions and conspiracies swirl. Forty years on, lawyer Nicolo Majnoni gets a tip there might be more to the story and embarks on a quest to uncover the truth. Was Roberto Calvi, aka God’s Banker, killed? And if so, by whom?

Listen to the podcast:

https://www.campsidemedia.com/stories/godsbanker

Visit Nicolo’s website:

https://www.nicolomajnoni.com/about

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Who owns the land? Who DECIDES who owns the land? Who has the power to redistribute land ownership? If land ownership IS redistributed, who gets to take possession and who doesn’t? And what adverse impact can the reshuffling of land ownership have on our society and our planet?

Greg Olear talks to Michael Albertus, a professor at the University of Chicago and the author of Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn't, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies, about these and other questions pertaining to the relationship between land and power.

Follow Mike:

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Check out his website:

https://www.michaelalbertus.com/

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To, ahem, sever himself from the news, Greg Olear brings on his wife, Stephanie St. John, a huge fan of “Severance,” to discuss the second season. Cold Harbor, fetid moppet, devour feculence, Helly/Helena, the Glasgow Block, ORTBO, the four tempers, and more goats than anyone asked for: they cover it all, with verve and wiles.

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The Overwhelm: Trump, Musk, stupidity, banality, artlessness, lack of decency, betrayal by our leadership, rage, fear, grief from what we’ve lost. We are living through a period of national, if not global, trauma. Actor and trauma coach Claudia Black returns to PREVAIL to talk about the causes of trauma, how to heal from it, emotional aid, and what we can do to regulate ourselves.

Claudia’s website is here:

https://claudiablackconsulting.com/what-i-do

Make America Great Gatsby Again!

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Katherine Stewart is the author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, the award-winning book upon which the documentary feature, God & Country, produced by Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner, is based. She has covered the intersection of faith and politics for over 15 years; her work appears in the New York Times, The Washington Post, the New Republic, the Guardian, and Religion News Service, and she has been featured on broadcast media outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, and NPR. Her 2012 book, The Good News Club, covered the religious right’s effort to infiltrate and undermine public education. Her spectacular new book, MONEY, LIES, AND GOD: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy, came out this week.

Greg Olear talks to Stewart about the rise of Christian nationalism in the United States, the impetus for writing the book, her research process, the rhetoric of the movement and the lies used to boost its popularity, reactionary nihilism, the various factions within the movement, and what we can do to take democracy back.

Find her at @kathsstewart and katherinestewart.me.

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Christopher Steele began his twenty-two-year career as an intelligence professional and Russia expert within the British government in 1987, soon after graduating from Cambridge University. He was posted to Moscow, where he served through the fall of the Soviet Union, and Paris, before returning to London to become one of the government’s senior intelligence experts and advisers on Russia. In 2009, he founded the private intelligence company Orbis Business Intelligence. His series of intelligence reports, collectively known as the Steele Dossier, helped expose Donald Trump’s ties to the Kremlin.

Greg Olear talks to Steele about the Dossier, the kompromat tape, Dmitri Simes, Prague, Rosneft, Ukraine, the FBI, political cowardice, lawfare, Putin, Trump, Xi, Keir Starmer, the political situation in Canada and Western Europe, Elon Musk, and Steele’s excellent new book, “Unredacted: Russia, Trump, and the Fight for Democracy.”

Buy the book:

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/unredacted-christopher-steele?variant=43103633899554

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