Podcast
Deconstructed
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"Lever Time": Dissent Will Not Be Tolerated in the Democratic Party
Apr 19, 2024Tap to summarizeToday, we’re sharing the re-launch 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 primary challenge to President Biden.Since 2008, Democratic Party leadership have worked to suppress primary challengers and support incumbent politicians. It’s not uncommon to see the party intervene in a primary on behalf of their preferred candidate in congressional and presidential races. That mentality was on full display during the 2024 Democratic primaries, where the DNC worked with its state affiliates to ensure that, in some cases, Biden’s two primary challengers didn’t even appear on the ballot.Given Biden’s consistently low approval ratings and now palpable anger over his handling of the war in Gaza, it raises the question: did the party intentionally prevent a proper primary from taking place because they wanted to suppress any challenges to Biden?Sirota and Singh unpack Biden’s popularity, and look back at what happened in the 1980 Democratic primary, when Democratic senator Ted Kennedy challenged incumbent president Jimmy Carter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →“Lever Time” Presents: Artificial Intelligence Is Denying Americans Health Care
Dec 22, 2023Tap to summarizeToday, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast “Lever Time” from our friends at the reader-supported investigative news outlet The Lever. On this week’s episode of “Lever Time,” Lever 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 the 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 rehab services, is used solely as a recommendation. But its subsidiary’s case managers allege the company pressures them to adhere to the algorithm’s suggestions in order to cut off payments as quickly as possible. This issue is affecting Americans enrolled in Medicare Advantage health insurance plans, the privatized version of Medicare operated by private insurers as an alternative to traditional Medicare.“Lever Time” is available on all major podcast players. You can also check out The Lever’s original investigative reporting over at LeverNews.com, and make sure to subscribe to their free newsletter.If you like Deconstructed, be sure to search for “Lever Time” on your podcast player to subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Lever Time with David Sirota Presents: The Stealth Supreme Court Rulings No One Is Talking About
Jul 18, 2023Tap to summarizeToday, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast Lever Time with David Sirota from our friends at the investigative news site The Lever. On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by law professor Stephen Vladeck, author of the new book, "The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic."The Supreme Court has received a lot of attention in the last several years for its extreme rulings on matters such as abortion rights, environmental regulations, and affirmative action. But there’s another very important court procedure that doesn’t receive nearly as much attention: the aptly named “shadow docket.”These are the cases that occur outside of the court’s regular docket and usually involve urgent matters, such as requests for emergency stays, injunctions, and other types of temporary relief. These cases are often decided through brief orders, meaning without oral arguments, full written opinions, or even disclosing how the justices voted. But in recent years, the court has increasingly used the shadow docket to effectively leapfrog over the appeals court system on major decisions, sometimes with devastating effects.David and Stephen dive deep into the shadow docket’s history, how it continues to undermine the Supreme Court’s credibility, and how most of these decisions are not based on any kind of legal rationale or precedent. A transcript of this episode is available here.Links:The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic (Hachette Book Group, 2023)Supreme Court “Shadow Docket” Under Review by U.S. House of Representatives (American Bar Association, 2021)If you like Deconstructed, be sure to search for Lever Time with David Sirota on your podcast player to subscribe.For a special discount on a full subscription to The Lever’s investigative reporting and news, go to Levernews.com/Deconstructed Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Lever Time with David Sirota Presents: The Supreme Court Has A Billionaire Problem
Jul 3, 2023Tap to summarizeToday, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast Lever Time with David Sirota from our friends at the investigative news site The Lever. David and The Lever’s Andrew Perez are joined by ProPublica journalist Justin Elliott, who recently co-authored an exposé detailing how Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito failed to disclose luxury gifts provided by billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer. This story follows ProPublica’s reporting from earlier this year about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who also failed to disclose gifts he received from his own billionaire benefactor, Harlan Crow. They discuss how these new revelations raise questions about the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, why a lack of judicial oversight contributes to the problem, and how powerful GOP operative Leonard Leo ties all of these stories together.If you like Deconstructed, be sure to search for Lever Time with David Sirota on your podcast player to subscribe.For a special discount on a full subscription to The Lever’s investigative reporting and news, go to Levernews.com/Deconstructed Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Lever Time with David Sirota Presents: Pentagon Whistleblower, The Government Is Hiding “Non-Human” Technology
Jun 19, 2023Tap to summarizeToday, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast Lever Time with David Sirota from our friends at the investigative news site The Lever. David sits down with prominent investigative journalist Leslie Kean, who earlier this month published a blockbuster report about a potential secret government UFO effort. According to Kean and her co-author, a former U.S. intelligence official-turned-whistleblower recently gave Congress classified information about covert programs that he says possess intact and partially intact aircraft of non-human origin.Kean has become known for her diligent reporting on UFOs (they’re now officially called “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAP) and how the government is hiding information about them from the public. David and Leslie dig into her new story as well as the long history of UFO sightings and official obfuscation: What does the government know? How long have they known it? And why aren’t they telling us?If you like Deconstructed, be sure to search for Lever Time with David Sirota on your podcast player to subscribe.For a special discount on a full subscription to The Lever’s investigative reporting and news, go to Levernews.com/Deconstructed Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Greening Red America: Breaking Down Build Back Better’s Climate Ag Policy
Dec 3, 2021Tap to summarizeThe Build Back Better Act is one of the biggest and most complicated pieces of spending legislation in American history. If it becomes law, it will be (among other things) the biggest investment in climate mitigation ever made. So what does it actually do on the climate front? Eric Deeble from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition joins Ryan Grim to discuss the bill’s climate and agriculture provisions.https://join.theintercept.com/donate/now Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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How “The People’s Mayor” Saved Public Power
Jul 2, 2021Tap to summarize25 years before he first ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, 31-year-old Dennis Kucinich was elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio — at the time, that made him the youngest mayor of a major city in the country. His tenure would be dominated by the fight to prevent the privatization of the city’s public electrical utility, a fight that would pit Kucinich against powerful politicians, the Cleveland Trust bank, and even the mob. Kucinich tells the story of the fight to save Municipal Light in his new book, “The Division of Light and Power.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Case Against AIPAC
Mar 28, 2019Tap to summarizeThis week AIPAC came to town for its annual policy conference in the capital, with speakers including Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But the biggest name at this year’s event wasn’t even in the room. Speaker after speaker took turns taking veiled (and not so veiled) jabs at freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar for comments she made on Twitter in February about the nature of AIPAC’s influence in Washington. Yousef Munayyar of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights and Debra Shushan of Americans for Peace Now join Mehdi Hasan to discuss AIPAC’s obsession with Rep. Omar and its Islamophobia problem. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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