Find all episodes and newsletters at TheRacket.newsAtlanta: Home of Coca-Cola, Jermaine Dupri, and the country’s most open-ended racketeering law. Two very different cases of national importance are headed to trial under Georgia’s version of th

'If somebody's going to conduct a coup, it is going to be him'

Sep 8th, 2023 2m 16s

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit katz.substack.comLast week, in its story on the latest African coup the New York Times included precisely one line of context about the United States: National Security Council spoke

The 'world's coolest dictator' and his American fanboys

Aug 13th, 2023 3m 7s

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit katz.substack.comSubscribe and read the full transcript at TheRacket.newsIn his non-apology apology for his just-revealed years of genocidal racism, Richard Hanania made a brief allu

Gangsters Movie Night 5: White Zombie

Apr 10th, 2022 52m 11s

A break from the war to go back in time, and beyond the grave. That’s right, it’s time for another Gangsters Movie Night — our irregular series where I and a guest talk about a movie about a place or theme I explore in Gangsters of Capitalism.T

Gangsters Movie Night 4: Hands of Stone

Feb 15th, 2022 49m 46s

“Spheres of influence” are hot again these days. Here’s what Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had to say about the controversial geopolitical concept, as it regards the showdown with Russia over Ukraine:But look, the President’s been extremel

Gangsters Movie Night 3: Goyo The Boy General

Feb 4th, 2022 50m 30s

This morning, Russia and China announced a “no limits” strategic partnership against what Reuters summarized as the “malign global influence” of the United States. The reactions of the rest of the world remain to be seen. But if their current p

Gangsters Movie Night 2: 55 Days at Peking

Jan 19th, 2022 59m 23s

Folks, the day has arrived: Gangsters of Capitalism is in the world. You can find it at your local bookstore. If you order it online, it will be shipped or appear in your e-reader or audiobook app immediately. Hallelujah. Oorah.Elsewhere, thing

Gangsters Movie Night: Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (feat. Spencer Ackerman)

Jan 11th, 2022 44m 56s

Happy belated new year! We are dangerously close to the Jan. 18 release of Gangsters of Capitalism, my book about Smedley Butler and the making and breaking of America’s empire. (Thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered so far—if you haven’t, her

What We Talk About When We Talk About Vaccination (feat. Eula Biss)

Nov 10th, 2021 42m 43s

Are the unvaccinated entitled, deprived, or just misunderstood? What would be a more effective way of controlling the COVID pandemic—shame or providing healthcare for all? (Or both?)I talked with Eula Biss, author of On Immunity: An Inoculation

Can a lawsuit stop the Nazis? (feat. Amy Spitalnick and Heidi Beirich)

Oct 29th, 2021 1h 12m

For the debut podcast edition of The Racket I talked to Amy Spitalnick, Executive Director of Integrity First for America, the organization behind the federal lawsuit against the organizers of the 2017 Charlottesville rampage. I also talked wit

Back to Guantánamo

Oct 1st, 2021 51m 32s

Audio editing by Evan RobertsFor the Biden administration, the arrival of thousands of Haitian immigrants on the southern border has been a telling moment. Instead of rushing relief to and expediting the admission of asylum seekers, the White H

Audio Edition: The Pandemic Prevention Project Trump Gutted in 2019

Apr 10th, 2020 34m 57s

Trump has described COVID-19 as a problem that “came out of nowhere.” “Nobody would have ever thought a thing like this could have happened,” he said on March 26, as he steered his country to the worst nightmare of the pandemic so far.That’s a

Audio Edition: Did Sharpiegate cross a line? feat. Gabriel Snyder

Sep 16th, 2019 34m 27s

With Trump again threatening war with Iran, last week’s best-known scandal—the president doctoring a hurricane map with a marker—might already seem quaint. But #Sharpiegate was revealing. It showed the depths to which the federal bureaucracy, i

Audio Edition: Is a Trump a Fascist? (Yes.) feat. Prof. Jason Stanley

Jul 30th, 2019 1h 7m

The president’s authoritarian rhetoric, racist tweets, and tolerance for surging white supremacist violence make one question more urgent than ever: Is Donald Trump a fascist?According to Prof. Jason Stanley, the author of How Fascism Works, th

Audio Edition: My visit to the concentration camps, feat. AOC

Jul 5th, 2019 42m 11s

Happy Friday. Hope everyone had a good — and dry — Independence Day. This week I was on the U.S.-Mexico border, getting as close as I could to America’s concentration camps.I was following a congressional delegation led by Rep. Joaquin Castro o