Today on Lever Time , we unpack how corporations built and then broke the supply chain — and more importantly, how they took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to price gouge everybody else. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it felt like we ran out of everything: toilet paper, hand sanitizer, microchips, exercise bikes, and more. High demand and supply shortages rocked the economy. Now we know that it was the corporations that did it to themselves. In his new book How the World Ran out of Everything...
Jul 05, 2024•49 min
How is it that the Democrats’ main bulwark between America and a Trump regime is an impaired president whose White House reportedly tried to hide his decline? On this episode of Lever Time , we talk to the Democratic operative who first tried to sound the alarm to avert this disaster — and who then faced a “quiet throat-slitting” by party bosses. We also explore how Democrats are trying to blackmail voters with an impossible choice: vote for a struggling Biden or get Trump and the potential end ...
Jul 01, 2024•1 hr 9 min
Last night’s debacle of a presidential debate raised a huge question: Why did Democratic Party powerbrokers prevent a serious, contested presidential primary against Joe Biden? It’s a question that our podcast Lever Time dared to explore a while ago when it was a taboo topic. At the time, we were criticized for even discussing it — even though this morning, it seems everyone in America is now finally asking the question we had the temerity to ask. So today we’re re-releasing that original episod...
Jun 28, 2024•57 min
Today on Lever Time , David Sirota sits down with Semafor co-founder and editor-in-chief Ben Smith to grapple with journalism’s industry-wide reckoning — and explore why independent news might come out on top. There’s a crisis in journalism. Major media outlets like The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NPR, and NBC News have laid off hundreds of staff this year, while other publications like Vice and Pitchfork have shut down their flagship websites. In January alone, one report estimated that...
Jun 21, 2024•53 min
The National Basketball Association wants you to gamble. Since 2014, the league has championed the legalization of sports betting nationwide, partially due to its own business interests in gambling. But the emergence of online gambling has coincided with a rise in troubling health outcomes like increased rates of depression and substance abuse. Today on Lever Time , we explore the recent growth of online gambling, sitting down with sports writers and an addiction expert to learn how it’s impacte...
Jun 14, 2024•37 min
Yesterday, the government introduced a new rule to remove $49 billion in medical debt that’s currently listed on Americans’ credit reports. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) wants to go even further by establishing a grant program to actually cancel the $220 billion in medical debt that Americans owe. If signed into law, the program could relieve the debt burden for more than 100 million people. Today on Lever Time , Khanna sits down with senior podcast producer Arjun Singh to discuss the bill he’s cosp...
Jun 12, 2024•26 min
Today, we're excited to share the first episode of a new series from our friends over at the podcast City Cast Denver . City Cast Denver is a daily news podcast that connects listeners with what's happening in and around Denver. In their first spinoff series, "Lauren Boebert Can't Lose," the team at City Cast Denver look at key moments from Congresswoman Lauren Boebert's life just ahead of Colorado's June 25th Republican primary, where Boebert's congressional career could come to an end. You can...
Jun 09, 2024•35 min
Is the TurboTax era over? Recently, the IRS announced they plan to roll out a free program that will let Americans directly file their taxes online without using expensive tax-assistance programs. The move could have happened more than two decades ago, if not for corporate lobbyists. Today on Lever Time , we look at the 20-year war waged by tax-prep companies like Intuit and H&R Block to stop the government from letting people file online for free. In the early 2000s, alarmed by calls from t...
Jun 07, 2024•35 min
Behind nearly every hamburger or chicken nugget handed out in a school cafeteria is JBS Foods, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate run by a billionaire butcher family who bribed their way to become the world’s largest meat processor. Today on Lever Time , we look at how JBS captured the meat market, harmed workers, pulverized the environment, and generally tainted all your lunch meats with a hefty dose of corporate corruption. Every year, the U.S. government gives JBS Foods millions of dollars i...
May 31, 2024•27 min
Is Ticketmaster too big to fail? It’s the question some musicians and small venue owners are asking in the wake of the Justice Department’s decision to sue Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment over its alleged monopoly in the music industry. Today on Lever Time , Morgan Harper, an antitrust expert, and Greg Saunier, founder of the indie band Deerhoof, debate the strength of the Justice Department’s case, and whether a win in court would meaningfully benefit musicians , i...
May 29, 2024•44 min
Today on Lever Time, we dive into the heart of Capital One and hear from a former employee about the credit card titan’s tactics to keep customers forever submerged in debt. When President Joe Biden moved to cap credit card late fees in March, the financial industry revolted — filing multiple lawsuits against the administration of a man once dubbed one of the banking industry’s favorite senators. Why are the credit card giants so threatened by losing their junk fees? How exactly have they assume...
May 24, 2024•27 min
Today on Lever Time , David Sirota sits down with Jerusalem-based journalist Nathan Thrall to discuss what life has been like in both Gaza and the West Bank since the Oct. 7 attack in Israel. The pair also explores what is motivating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue the war, and why Netanyahu’s iron-fisted approach to the Palestinian territories may be the norm, not an outlier, in Israeli politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
May 17, 2024•37 min
For months, Joe Biden has struck a defiant tone in his support of Israel despite the concerns of allies and nationwide protests. Biden has been a fervent supporter of Israel throughout his political career, but his current moves appear to be driven by three close advisors who have consolidated control over the administration’s Israel policy. Today on Lever Time , David Sirota and Arjun Singh look at the people shaping Biden’s Israel decisions and get an on-the-ground report on how the war has pl...
May 10, 2024•36 min
Since 2021, economists and pundits have tried to blame inflation on workers and rising wages. But a new bombshell exposé spotlights a different cause: oil companies engaging in an alleged price-fixing scheme with Saudi Arabia and other countries that may have fueled roughly one-third of all U.S. inflation in 2021. A recent Federal Trade Commission case uncovered text messages and documents suggesting the founder of a big oil company colluded with the Saudi government and other oil-producing coun...
May 09, 2024•31 min
As colleges and police departments crack down on campus protests, law enforcement are using tools borrowed from corporate America’s ballooning surveillance regime to spy on students — and anyone else they deem a threat. When New York City police raided Columbia University on Tuesday to remove student protesters from a building they’d occupied, Mayor Eric Adams justified the move by claiming “outside agitators” had infiltrated the group. If the claim was even true, how did authorities get that in...
May 03, 2024•31 min
After years of pressure, the Department of Transportation announced it would require airlines to automatically refund flyers the cost of canceled or significantly delayed flights. Days later, a bipartisan group of senators — who also happen to be some of the largest recipients of campaign cash from the airline industry — unveiled new legislation that could undermine that rule. In this episode of Lever Time, Lever reporter Katya Schwenk unpacks how a small line in a massive bill could quietly kil...
May 01, 2024•27 min
Thirty years ago, Amazon was a quirky internet bookseller. But even back then, founder Jeff Bezos wanted to build an empire. Today, Amazon has inserted itself into almost every facet of daily life, and it’s done so by ruthlessly muscling out competition — likely using illegal market tactics. For years, regulators watched Amazon’s growth and failed to investigate claims that the company violated federal law by engaging in predatory pricing. That changed last year when Federal Trade Commission Cha...
Apr 26, 2024•33 min
Today, we’re excited to announce the relaunch of The Lever ’s flagship podcast Lever Time . In this week’s episode, David Sirota and Senior Podcast Producer Arjun Singh discuss the 2024 presidential election and the Democratic Party’s efforts to prevent a real primary challenge to President Joe Biden. Since 2008, the Democratic Party leadership has worked to suppress primary challengers and support incumbent politicians. That approach was on full display during the 2024 Democratic primaries, whe...
Apr 19, 2024•37 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, producer Frank Cappello and reporter Amos Barshad are joined by union organizers Griffin Ritze and Fatou Souare, who are both involved in a current union drive at an Amazon warehouse in Kentucky. Griffin, an Amazon employee who was recently fired as alleged retaliation, and Fatou, a local community leader with the Kentucky African Women’s Association, speak to The Lever about the unique challenges of organizing a large, diverse workforce in one of Amazon’s l...
Feb 15, 2024•36 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by scientist Zach Rausch, lead researcher for social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of the new book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness . According to new research, children in the U.S. are producing lower test scores, becoming more easily distracted, growing less sociable, and are generally feeling more anxious than they were several years ago. Now, researchers are ...
Feb 08, 2024•52 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time , David Sirota is joined by Oren Cass, executive director of the conservative economics think tank American Compass, for a long-form discussion about Oren’s new brand of conservative economic policy — one that calls for empowering workers and labor unions, rather than crushing them into dust. According to American Compass’ website, their work focuses on “developing the conservative economic agenda to supplant blind faith in free markets with a focus on worker...
Feb 01, 2024•1 hr 6 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time , David Sirota sits down with Hill Harper, a Democratic candidate for Michigan’s open senate seat, to discuss how the state could swing the 2024 presidential election. Michigan, which proved to be a key battleground in 2016 and 2020, is currently heavily leaning towards Donald Trump. That could spell trouble for President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign — not to mention down-ballot races in a state that, until recently, appeared to be increasingly shifting b...
Jan 24, 2024•56 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota speaks with Denver Post columnist and longtime Republican Krista Kafer , one of the plaintiffs in the landmark Colorado lawsuit that resulted in the state’s Supreme Court removing Donald Trump from the presidential ballot. On Dec. 19, the Colorado Supreme Court decided in a 4-to-3 ruling that former president Donald Trump would not be allowed to appear on the state’s primary ballot because of the Constitution’s “Insurrection Clause,” which bars ...
Jan 17, 2024•45 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Bill McGee, a Senior Fellow for Aviation and Travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, and investigative journalist Maureen “Moe” Tkacik to discuss how the air travel industry has been transformed from the paragon of engineering and innovation into cost-cutting, regulation-dodging piggy banks for Wall Street investors. Last Friday, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 experienced what could have been a deadly disaster when a plug do...
Jan 11, 2024•1 hr 4 min
Today, we’re sharing another episode of the podcast Deconstructed , from our friends over at The Intercept , an award-winning investigative news organization. The 2008 economic crisis changed the world. In the United States, the meager response by Barack Obama and the Democratic Party produced a recovery that was far too slow, drove an eviction crisis, and fueled a populist backlash. On the left, that backlash took the form of Occupy Wall Street, which put the problem of wealth and income inequa...
Jan 04, 2024•43 min
Today, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast Deconstructed , from our friends over at The Intercept , an award-winning investigative news organization. When Bernie Sanders launched his first presidential campaign in 2015, the political world could not have been more different than how it is today. His run set in motion a movement — or, really, a series of movements that clashed and blended over the ensuing years, reshaping both the Democratic Party and the country. In this episode of Deconstru...
Dec 28, 2023•34 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Vox senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp , who recently authored a provocative article about how Israel’s mass violence against Palestinians in Gaza could prompt a backlash to right-wing Zionism and a resurgence of the “Liberal Zionist” political tradition. The modern debate surrounding Zionism tends to be fraught, accompanied by decades of historical baggage and confusion over the term’s many meanings. In a literal sense, Zionism is...
Dec 21, 2023•1 hr 3 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by award-winning climate journalist Amy Westervelt to discuss her recent bombshell report on how news outlets are raking in millions from the fossil fuel industry to produce greenwashed sponsored content. Amy’s report reveals how outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, and Politico work directly with the oil and gas industry to produce branded “advertorials,” which straddle the line between advertisements and ...
Dec 14, 2023•46 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by author and Washington Post Editorial board member Shadi Hamid to discuss the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza, specifically how this current iteration of the decades-long hostilities is being debated, protested, perceived, and exacerbated by people in America and across the globe. In what has already been a bitterly polarizing decade in American history, the deadly conflict unfolding in Israel and Gaza has somehow managed to inte...
Dec 07, 2023•52 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, producer Frank Cappello and senior editor and reporter Andrew Perez are joined by health care journalist Bob Herman , who recently co-authored a report for health care industry news organization STAT detailing how the country’s largest health insurer has used artificial intelligence to deny rehabilitation services for older and disabled Americans. The insurer, UnitedHealth Group, has claimed that its algorithm, which predicts how long patients will require r...
Nov 30, 2023•32 min
