Podcast
Narativ with Zev Shalev (Audio)
Hosted by Zev Shalev · EN
Uncover the hidden forces shaping our world.
Zev applies his skills gained as a journalist and news executive for 30 years to give viewers and listeners an unparalleled view of events changing our world.
Narativ is Where Truth Lives.
www.narativ.org
www.narativ.org
68episodes
Episodes
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Michael Cohen's Stunning Admission To Right Wing Talk Show: "I never wanted to testify"
Feb 1402:03:44Tap to summarizeMichael Cohen secretly taped a two-hour interview with far-right podcaster Patrick Bet-David in early January — and told that audience things he’s never told his Substack subscribers. He said he never wanted to testify against Trump. He called the Russia investigation a “hoax.” He praised Trump as a great baseball player, reminisced about their breakfasts together, and admitted that if someone had shown him “a shred of loyalty,” he would have kept his mouth shut and done three to six months like Allen Weisselberg. “I would never have testified,” Cohen said. “I didn’t want to.” Even the right-wing host seemed stunned.Lev Parnas, who lived that world and broke from it completely, was blunt: this wasn’t meant for MAGA. It was a two-hour plea to Donald Trump. Cohen himself said his Substack audience “would kill me” if they knew. Parnas noted that Cohen never actually cut ties with Trump’s orbit — he still knows Lutnick, still knows Witkoff, still operates in that world. “Michael Cohen never had a mea culpa,” Parnas said. “He never gave up that world.”Cohen also tried to separate the Katie Johnson rape allegation into two different cases on PBD, claiming he only handled a “Jane Doe” complaint. But his own timeline collapsed. He described sending private investigators to the accuser’s address, calling it a “vacant parking lot.” Shalev pulled up the actual location — it’s a house. And the lawyer Cohen contacted turned out to be the same lawyer connected to Katie Johnson. His own words confirmed what investigators had been saying: it was the same case all along.The timing matters. Around that same interview, Cohen advised 100 university presidents on a Yale-hosted call to settle with Trump rather than fight — the exact opposite of what works against Trump’s bullying. He was spotted near Mar-a-Lago. And he published a Substack letter claiming prosecutors coerced his testimony, which Trump himself reposted. Parnas and a team of volunteers drafted a letter to every university president who attended, warning them about Cohen’s motivations and his connections to the Epstein files.Before the Cohen exposé, Shalev reported on his investigation connecting Peter Thiel to Jeffrey Epstein and Russian intelligence. The Epstein archive reveals Epstein arranged meetings for Thiel with two senior Russian officials connected to the FSB — Sergei Beliakov, deputy minister of economy, in 2015, and Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s UN ambassador, five weeks before the 2016 election. During this period, Epstein invested $40 million into Thiel’s Valar fund while Thiel was simultaneously one of Trump’s biggest donors and a key member of the transition team. Parnas added that Thiel lent his private jet to Parnas and Rudy Giuliani for a 2018 midterm campaign swing.Meanwhile, accountability is happening everywhere except America. A UAE sultan with close Trump ties was arrested. Norway’s former prime minister was arrested. Goldman Sachs lawyer Kathy Rumler resigned. Prince Andrew faces new charges. Around the world, people in the Epstein files are losing titles, jobs, and freedom. In the United States, Lutnick, Bondi, Witkoff, and Trump remain in power.Parnas also announced that a coalition of independent journalists has established a direct crowdsourcing channel with House Democrats to deliver Epstein file research to Congress, with a 30,000-signature petition to be delivered next week.Subscribe to Narativ and the independent journalists doing this work. The truth has teeth.Narativ Live streams Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 PM ET. Subscribe at narativ.org.Thank you Ellie Leonard, Nick Paro, Cat: Poli-Psych, Lyudmila and Daniel, Stephanie G Wilson, PhD, and many others for tuning into my live video with Lev Parnas! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
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SPECIAL COFFEE And TEA 🫖 With LEV And DEAN: WHITE HOUSE IN A MELTDOWN
Feb 801:53:07Tap to summarizeThe White House is in full meltdown — and it’s not because of what’s already come out of the Epstein files. It’s because of what they don’t know is still coming.Lev opened by dropping a bomb: his son Aaron broke news that Howard Lutnick wasn’t just a neighbor of Epstein’s on the island — he was in business with him. This goes far beyond the “my wife said he’s disgusting, I never went back” story Lutnick sold the public. Emails show Lutnick bringing other people’s children to the island, ages 7 through 16, and maintaining contact with Epstein all the way through 2019. With only a fraction of the 3.5 million document dump reviewed so far, the panic inside Trump’s circle is about the unknown — what else is buried in those files.Zev Shalev joined to break down the Russian intelligence angle. He revealed that Epstein held multiple Russian visas from 2002 onward — at least four — and on two occasions listed his destination as Vimpel, an FSB-linked organization, and Putin’s Ministry of Economic Development. Shalev connected this to $1.1 billion in transactions through now-sanctioned Russian banks, at least two Russian women in Epstein’s circle with direct ties to Putin, and the proximity of Russia’s UN office on 67th Street — just four blocks from Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, where Ambassador Churkin was a frequent visitor.Shalev traced the financial warfare back to the late 1980s, when about $50 billion exited the Soviet Union as part of a deliberate KGB strategy to corrupt Western capitalism. Robert Maxwell facilitated much of that money movement. The operation created billionaires out of nowhere, engineered market crashes, and planted seeds that grew into the system now controlling the U.S. government.Lev added firsthand testimony about the Russian mob’s takeover of New York’s underworld — the gas tax scam that generated billions, the weekly runs to Trump’s Taj Mahal casino to launder millions in cash, and the direct lines between the Brighton Beach mob, the Italian crime families, and Trump’s real estate empire.On breaking news, Dean laid out the Tulsi Gabbard whistleblower situation: an NSA analyst intercepted a call between someone in the Oval Office and a foreign intelligence service, taking direction on U.S. policy. Gabbard took a paper copy to Susie Wiles, who ordered it buried. Eight months later, the whistleblower is talking.Lev also revealed that Trump is terrified of the Clinton testimony precedent — not because of what Bill might say, but because if Democrats take the House, Melania gets subpoenaed next.Nick Parro closed the show with a warning about the SAVE Act — disguised as immigration enforcement but designed to strip voting access from 86 million women and anyone who’s changed their name. “This is the new Confederacy,” Parro said. “Come try it, Donald Trump. See what happens.”Share this far and wide — and sign the Epstein petition before Lev hand-delivers it to Congress on February 11th.Oh and Happy Birthdays to Lev and Dean!Thank you Cat: Poli-Psych, Lyudmila and Daniel, Cheech Previti, John Liccione, ESBC NFL And SportsBetting, and many others for tuning into my live video with Dean Blundell, Lev Parnas, and Nick Paro! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
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EPSTEIN SPECIAL: TWO FBI TIPS CLAIM GIRLS MURDERED AND BURIED AT TRUMP GOLF COURSE
Feb 501:16:20Tap to summarizeTwo separate individuals, calling the FBI years apart, made the same allegation: that girls were murdered at Donald Trump’s Rancho Palos Verdes golf course in California and buried on the property.The allegations appear in documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Both reports describe sex parties hosted by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at the Trump facility. Both name Robin Leach—host of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”—as present. Both claim a young girl was strangled to death during rough sex. Both say she is buried behind the 19th hole.These are not anonymous tips forwarded without vetting. These are FBI intake documents—reports serious enough to be logged into the Bureau’s National Threat Operations Center system. One was filed in 2021. The other in 2025. Two people. Two separate reports. Years apart. The same allegation.THE FIRST REPORTDocument EFTA01249507, dated June 21, 2021, contains detailed allegations from a complainant identified only as “X.”According to the intake, X called the FBI to report that Donald Trump “knew about and funded underage sex parties” at the Rancho Palos Verdes golf course. The parties were brokered by Ghislaine Maxwell.X claims to possess recordings of Trump, Epstein, and Maxwell “discussing marketing strategies for high profile sex parties” at the facility. In these recordings, according to the document, “Trump stated he was aware of the underage sex parties and charged the house money of the golf course to fund the sex parties.”X witnessed Robin Leach strangle a young girl during one of these parties. “He claims she is buried behind the 19th hole at the Donald Trump golf course.”The complainant says he is “aware of three separate occasions in which girls were murdered and buried” at the facility.X was told that if he ever spoke about what he witnessed, “he would end up in the hole as well.”The document also states that X “gave Maxwell the idea to put cameras in the golf course to review the cartel members and understand how to market the 12 to 14-year-old victims to the cartel.”THE SECOND REPORTA separate FBI intake, filed in 2025, contains a strikingly similar account from a different complainant—this time a woman.This second individual also reported sex parties at the Trump golf course. Also named Robin Leach. Also described a girl dying during rough sex. Also said she was buried on the property.Two people. Two genders. Two separate reports. Years apart. The same allegation.WHAT THE FBI DID NOT DOThere is no indication in the released files that the FBI investigated these claims.No cadaver dogs. No ground-penetrating radar. No search of the property behind the 19th hole.Robin Leach died in August 2018—before either of these reports was filed. He cannot be questioned. He cannot face justice.But the property still exists. The ground behind the 19th hole can still be searched.1994In 1994, Robin Leach sat across from Donald Trump on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” The subject turned to Trump’s one-year-old daughter Tiffany. When asked what she inherited from her parents, Trump replied she had “Marla’s legs.” Then, gesturing toward his chest, he added: “We don’t know whether or not she’s got this part yet, but time will tell.”That same year—1994—a 13-year-old girl named Katie Johnson alleges she was repeatedly raped by Donald Trump at parties hosted by Jeffrey Epstein. Her federal lawsuit describes “extreme sexual and physical abuse” including “forcible rape” over a four-month period.Also in 1994—according to the FBI documents—sex parties were being held at Trump’s California golf course where girls would later be murdered and buried.Robin Leach. Donald Trump. Jeffrey Epstein. 1994.THE FIFTH AMENDMENTIn 2010, Jeffrey Epstein was asked under oath: “Have you ever socialized with Donald Trump in the presence of females under the age of 18?”Epstein paused. Then he replied: “Though I’d like to answer that question, at least today, I’m going to have to assert my Fifth, Sixth, and 14th Amendment rights, sir.”What did Epstein know about Trump and underage girls that he refused to answer?“A PIECE OF ASS”Trump’s comments about his own daughters form their own pattern.About Ivanka: “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”Asked what he and Ivanka have in common: “Well, I was going to say sex, but I can’t relate that.”About Ivanka’s body: “She’s six feet tall. She’s got the best body.”On Howard Stern, when asked if he could call Ivanka “a piece of ass”: “Yeah.”About one-year-old Tiffany’s future breasts: “We don’t know whether or not she’s got this part yet, but time will tell.”These are not isolated comments. This is a pattern of sexualizing his own children in public—the same man now accused in FBI documents of funding sex parties with 12 to 14-year-old victims.THE PATTERNAt Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, a former staff member reported in 2019 that two foreign girls are buried in the hills—strangled during “rough, fetish sex” on orders of “Jeffrey and Madam G.”At Trump’s golf course in California, two separate FBI complainants report girls murdered and buried behind the 19th hole.The allegations span decades. The properties span the country. The pattern is consistent: rough sex, strangulation, burial.Survivors have described Epstein’s preferred victims as “waif-ish girls” who “looked younger, were thinner, less strong, felt weak, looked childlike.” When you combine that with men whose thing was to choke girls until they passed out—like Ehud Barak, according to testimony—the likelihood of someone not coming to because someone took it too far is not unlikely.They weren’t going to call the EMT to revive a girl from an Eastern European country who came in with no name. They would just deal with it.Thank you to our panel Lev Parnas, THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali, Ellie Leonard and Kait Justice for the tireless work that you do to expose the truth. Please subscribe and support their individual publications. Thank you THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali, Notes from the Apocalypse, Cat: Poli-Psych, IAMPEGS, Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA, and many others for tuning into my live video with Lev Parnas, Ellie Leonard, and Kait Justice! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
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LIVE SPECIAL: Sebastian Junger on Fascism, Near-Death, and Why Trump Will Fail
Feb 400:40:03Tap to summarizeSebastian Junger has spent decades documenting war, and his family has spent generations fleeing fascism. So when the bestselling author of The Perfect Storm, War, and Tribe sat down for Narativ Live, he brought a perspective few others can offer on America’s current moment.His father Miguel fled fascism twice before turning 18 - first from Franco’s Spain in 1936, then from Nazi-occupied France in 1940. “I like to say that because of the fascists, my father spoke five languages fluently,” Junger said. That father became a physicist, raised his son as a rationalist and atheist, and never returned to Europe because he wasn’t convinced fascism wouldn’t come back.Now Junger watches America with the same question in mind. He calls Trump “a wannabe fascist” who “fulfills the definition of fascism” - noting Trump once asked a general if the military could shoot protesters in the legs. “That’s the kind of thing fascists say,” Junger observed. But unlike many on the left, he believes Trump will fail. “Dictators always look good until the last five minutes,” he said, quoting a Czech statesman who watched fascism rise in the 1930s. “Only Franco survived to die a natural death. It’s a very, very unstable form of government.”Junger pointed to Trump’s string of failures - Greenland, the wall, Minneapolis blowing up in his face - and the Democrats winning special elections in conservative Texas districts. “Bloodbaths for the ruling party do not happen in a fascist state,” he said. “We are not a fascist country.” He attributes America’s resilience to 250 years of democratic tradition that Germany in the 1930s simply didn’t have.But the conversation took its most profound turn when Junger described the summer of 2020, when a ruptured aneurysm nearly killed him at his Cape Cod home. He was bleeding internally at a pint every 10-15 minutes, an hour from the hospital. “I was literally a human hourglass,” he said. In end-stage hemorrhagic shock, minutes from death, something extraordinary happened: he saw his dead father.“A big black pit opened up underneath me that I was getting pulled into, and I was terrified of it. And my dead father appeared above me and basically communicated to me: it’s okay, you don’t have to fight it, you can come with me, I’ll take care of you.” Junger, the lifelong atheist, the son of a physicist, had no framework for what he experienced. “There aren’t words in English for what I was looking at. It was his essence. An energy field that was immediately and intimately recognizable to me as my father.”What haunts him isn’t the vision itself - science can explain dying brain chemistry - but the universality of it. “The dying seem to all have the same vision. If you give a roomful of people LSD, they see wildly different things. But the dying see the dead - even people they didn’t know had died.” He can’t quite explain that through brain chemistry alone.The ICU nurse who saved him offered a reframe he’s been thinking about ever since: “Instead of thinking about it like something scary, try thinking about it like something sacred.” His latest book, In My Time of Dying, is his attempt to follow that advice.Junger now lives on Manhattan’s Lower East Side with his wife and two daughters. He doesn’t own a smartphone - “I think they’re ghastly, addictive, and awful” - and plays accordion for strangers in Tompkins Square Park. At 64, having nearly died while his daughters were still babies, he has a different relationship with time. “I’m an older father. I have an awareness of mortality that many younger parents might not have.”When asked what gives him hope, Junger didn’t offer easy comfort. “I don’t think good really won in the early 1940s until ‘45 rolled around. It’s a tennis game.” But he pointed to the brave people who have vowed with their lives to fight sociopaths. “Human morality comes from humans. It’s not divinely directed. And to me there’s great hope there.”His father fled fascism. He will die an antifascist. But he doesn’t think Americans need to run - not yet, maybe not ever. The system is holding. The question is whether we can hold it together.Watch the full conversation on Narativ Live.Sebastian Junger’s latest book In My Time of Dying is available now. His Substack, Tribe, is free to subscribe.Thank you Lyudmila and Daniel, Stephanie G Wilson, PhD, Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA, Karen Hinton, Social SLP, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
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Epstein’s Last Interview: How He Advised the 2008 Crisis From Jail: A Special Sunday Edition
Feb 101:13:17Tap to summarizeFor the first time, the public has heard Jeffrey Epstein speak at length about the 2008 financial crisis, and what he reveals is stunning. A two-hour interview between Epstein and Steve Bannon, recorded in 2019 and released this weekend, shows the convicted sex offender describing in detail how he advised world leaders and financial institutions during the worst economic collapse since the Depression - all while sitting in a Palm Beach County jail cell. As Zev Shalev explained on Sunday’s special edition, the footage is remarkable because we’ve never heard Epstein discuss anything at this length, and what he says confirms much of what The Greatest Heist investigation has been documenting about his central role in the financial crisis. The interview is believed to be Epstein’s last before his death later that year, and it was apparently part of a media rehabilitation campaign that Bannon was helping orchestrate.The most striking revelation comes when Epstein describes September 14, 2008 - the night Lehman Brothers collapsed. Epstein was in an 8x10 cell in Palm Beach County Jail, wearing a brown jumpsuit, confined to a metal bed with a chrome sink and toilet. A guard informed him that Wall Street was crashing. Epstein was allowed two collect phone calls per day, and he used both of them that night in a way that reveals the depth of his financial network connections. His first call went to Jimmy Cayne, the president of Bear Stearns, the firm that had collapsed six months earlier in March 2008, triggering the crisis everyone was now watching unfold. His second call went to a contact at JP Morgan, the bank that was trying to buy what remained of Bear Stearns. As Shalev described it, Epstein held both phones simultaneously, one in each hand, advising both sides of a major financial transaction from his jail cell during the worst financial crisis in 80 years.But Epstein’s influence extended far beyond those two phone calls. In the interview, he confirms that he was in contact with the Treasury Secretary during the crisis, offering advice on how to handle the collapsing financial system. Even more remarkably, Steve Bannon at one point in the interview reveals Epstein’s client list for financial advisory work - a list that includes Vladimir Putin, the President of China, and the King of Saudi Arabia. Epstein doesn’t dispute this, and the exchange makes clear that world leaders were consulting with him about American financial decisions even as he sat in jail for sex crimes. Lev Parnas emphasized the significance of this timing, noting that in 2019, while Trump was in office, Bannon and Epstein had this level of interest, control, and influence over global financial matters. The interview also addresses whether institutions like Harvard should accept donations from a convicted sex criminal, with Epstein defending the practice by invoking the Derek Bok principle that taking money for good causes is a good thing, regardless of the source.The interview comes at a critical moment as independent journalists continue to dig through millions of newly released Epstein files. @EllieLeonard, who first flagged the Bannon interview footage, has been working late into the night reviewing documents alongside researchers like Kait Justice Justice, and others in a crowdsourced investigation that could be the biggest of all time. Aaron Parnas and Joy-Ann Reid and Lev Parnas continue to advocate for greater transparency Parnas says the DOJ never anticipated would be so effective. As Shalev noted, every single bit of evidence they find confirms they’re on the right path, showing clear connections between financial crimes, sexual crimes, and the network that helped elect Donald Trump. Parnas announced that he and others will travel to Washington DC on February 11-12 to meet with survivors, face Attorney General Pam Bondi, and deliver investigative packages to every member of Congress they can reach. The goal is to ensure that elected officials have the real proof they need to pursue justice, walking the halls of Congress to personally hand-deliver the evidence that has been painstakingly assembled by this growing community of investigators.The full two-hour interview reveals Epstein as articulate and affable, which Shalev acknowledged was clearly the point of the media training exercise Bannon was conducting. While Epstein doesn’t confess to collapsing the 2008 market, he certainly confirms that he was involved and talking to all the key parties at the exact moment when the financial system was in freefall. The footage provides an unprecedented window into how Epstein presented himself, how he justified his actions, and how deeply embedded he was in the global financial and political power structure - right up until the end of his life.PAID SUBSCRIBERS CAN ACCESS A LONGER CLIP OF THE INTERVIEW BELOW. This is a special Sunday edition. For more investigative reporting on the Epstein network and the 2008 financial crisis, visit narativ.org.Thank you Ellie Leonard, Cash Flow Collective, Lesley Jane Seymour, Cheech Previti, Debbie Hupp, and many others for tuning into my live video with Lev Parnas! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
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WATCH: The Evidence That Proves It Was an Execution
Jan 2500:55:47Tap to summarizeThe Department of Homeland Security says a man “approached Border Patrol officers with a 9mm handgun” and “violently resisted efforts to disarm him.”The video shows something completely different.We synced three angles of the shooting. What you see is clear:An agent in a gray jacket pulls Alex Pretti’s gun from his pants while Pretti is restrained on the ground. The agent walks away with the weapon. Pretti is now disarmed. Both arms are secured by federal agents. He cannot move.Then—and only then—do you hear the gunshots.At least 10 shots fired into a restrained, disarmed man surrounded by six federal agents.What Actually HappenedAlex Pretti was filming federal agents with his cell phone. First Amendment activity. Legal.An ICE agent assaulted a woman. Alex intervened to help her.Federal agents tear gassed him.They tackled him to the ground. Six agents surrounded him. Both arms secured.While he was restrained, an agent reached into his clothing and pulled out his legal firearm—Alex had a valid Minnesota permit to carry.That agent walked away from the scene with the gun.Alex was now completely disarmed. Restrained. No threat to anyone.Federal agents shot him anyway.Multiple times. While he was pinned to the ground. While his hands were secured. After his gun had been removed.This Wasn’t a ShootingThis was an execution.Executed by the federal government on a Minneapolis street for filming police and helping a woman.Alex Pretti was 37 years old. He was an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. He cared for America’s veterans. He had no criminal record—just two traffic tickets in his life.He was a U.S. citizen exercising his First Amendment right to document what federal agents were doing in his city.And federal agents executed him for it.Stephen Miller Called Him a TerroristWithin hours of the shooting—before any investigation, before Alex’s family was even notified—White House advisor Stephen Miller called Alex Pretti a “domestic terrorist” who “tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.”An ICU nurse. Who saved veterans’ lives. Who was filming police. Who was helping a woman being assaulted.Stephen Miller called him a terrorist.They Blocked the InvestigationAfter killing Alex, federal agents prevented Minneapolis police from accessing the crime scene. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension—the state agency responsible for investigating officer-involved shootings—was denied access. Even with a search warrant.BCA Superintendent Drew Evans, with over 20 years in law enforcement, said he’d never seen anything like it. Federal agents controlled the scene. Controlled the evidence. Controlled the narrative.Then they released that staged photo of the gun—the gun their own agent had removed before shooting Alex.This Is the Insurrection Act StrategyThis execution isn’t random violence. It’s part of a documented strategy:* Deploy federal agents to create confrontations* Execute U.S. citizens* Stage evidence to justify killings* Fabricate narratives about “violent resistance”* Block state investigators* Smear victims as terrorists* Provoke local officials* Use “chaos” to invoke Insurrection Act* Remove elected officials* Install federal controlWe’re at Step 6. Governor Walz activated the Minnesota National Guard today. They remain under state control—for now. But that activation is exactly what Stephen Miller needs to claim the state has lost control.Watch the Full AnalysisTonight’s Narativ Live show breaks down the video evidence frame by frame. We show you the agent in the gray jacket. We show you when the gun is removed. We show you the execution.Warning: The footage is disturbing. But it’s important you see what federal agents are doing on American streets.Say His Name:Alex Jeffrey Pretti37 years old. ICU nurse. U.S. citizen. Legal gun owner. No criminal record.He filmed police. He helped a woman. Federal agents tear gassed him, restrained him, disarmed him, and executed him.This is what America becomes when we let it happen.Don’t let them get away with this.Watch the full forensic analysis on Narativ Live. Share this story. The video proves everything.Thank you Dean Blundell, Nick Paro, Cat, John Liccione, Caro Henry, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
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What's Inside the Epstein Files That Trump Is Hiding?
Jan 2201:04:27Tap to summarizeThis show connects the dots on the last few weeks. Coordinated attacks on Substack from Don Lemon to disinformation operations intensified at the exact moment Substack investigators via Ellie Leonard exposed a secret in Michael Cohen’s files. Tonight’s Narativ Live with Lev Parnas, Wajahat Ali, and Nick Paro revealed the pattern: independent journalists pushed the Epstein story when mainstream media refused to touch it. Then came the discovery of a secret proffer attempt by Michael Cohen reveals he knows more that he is saying. Why does Michael Cohen matter? Because he was Trump’s fixer during the critical period when Trump was allegedly raping children at Epstein’s properties, when multiple women came forward with allegations that were then buried. Cohen admitted under oath he threatened over 500 people to keep them quiet for Trump in 2016, the exact year Katie Johnson accused Trump of raping her at Epstein’s mansion when she was 13, then withdrew her lawsuit after death threats. And that is why Cohen feels he can get a pardon from Trump - if he helps Trump by claiming his testimony was coerced. And Trump may give in because nobody has ever asked Cohen under oath whether Katie Johnson was one of those 500 people he silenced. The clips played tonight demonstrated Cohen’s methods, his access, and his willingness to do whatever Trump needed. That’s why his silence on Epstein specifically is so telling, and why the growing petition demands Ro Khanna subpoena Cohen, Michael Wolff, and Steve Bannon about what they know.As Wajahat Ali emphasized, this is a generational moment, potentially the only real opportunity in the next decade to force accountability before Trump consolidates power further. The independent journalism community forced Trump into defense, attacks on Substack revealed they’re desperate to shut down the investigation.Subscribe to support tonight’s independent voices: Lev Parnas, THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali, Nick Paro and Zev Shalev Thank you THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali, Stephanie G Wilson, PhD, Cat, Cheech Previti, Caro Henry, and many others for tuning into my live video with Lev Parnas and Nick Paro! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
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NATO’s Collapse, Vets File Amicus Brief in Mark Kelly Case, Insurrection Act, and the Sasha Riley Mystery
Jan 2101:21:18Tap to summarizeOne year after Donald Trump promised a “golden age,” the president marked his anniversary with a 90-minute press conference threatening to seize Greenland by military force. The first year delivered broken promises across the board: Ukraine war still raging despite Trump’s “24 hours” pledge, inflation rising from 2.3% to 2.7% after his tariffs, 22 million Americans losing health coverage, half the Education Department eliminated, and negative net migration for the first time in 50 years. Tonight’s Narativ Live examined three critical stories revealing the stakes of year two with three extraordinary members of thsi extraordinary community Olga Lautman, Janessa Goldbeck, and Ellie Leonard.🌍 NATO CANNOT SURVIVE Olga Lautman delivered a stark assessment of the transatlantic alliance: “NATO is finished. I can promise you there is not one European country who feels comfortable with Americans today.” She explained that whether Trump uses force to invade Greenland or not, the trust essential to NATO has been irreparably broken. “Once you break that trust, it’s finished. So NATO, as we know it, is finito.” Lautman advocated for a reconstituted alliance excluding the United States and Hungary, while including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, and Ukraine—”the only country that has fighting experience.” She warned that Europe’s biggest obstacle has been itself, but with 1.5 million standing troops and advanced military technology, European forces are formidable. “This is not one of those forces that you can just overrun,” she emphasized, noting the interconnected nature of global conflicts as Russia and China conduct joint surveillance flights near South Korea and Japan.⚖️ FIRST AMENDMENT UNDER SIEGEJanessa Goldbeck, Marine Corps veteran and CEO of Vet Voice Foundation, discussed the extraordinary amicus brief filed by 41 former military leaders defending Senator Mark Kelly against censure by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Kelly reminded service members of their duty to refuse illegal orders—settled military law since Nuremberg—and Hegseth responded with formal censure and threats to retirement benefits. “This is an extraordinary story,” Goldbeck explained, noting that filing the brief required these distinguished officers to risk retaliation themselves. The brief emphasizes that veteran participation in public discourse “is not a threat to civilian control of the military—it is a safeguard.” With nearly 100 members of Congress being veterans, plus veterans throughout state and local government, businesses, and the press, silencing these voices would devastate democratic oversight. “If Hegseth can punish a sitting U.S. Senator for accurate statements of law, what protection exists for anyone else?” The case sets precedent for every veteran in America.🔍 THE SASHA RILEY INVESTIGATIONInvestigative journalist Ellie Leonard presented findings from her weeks-long investigation into the Sasha Riley Substack account, which published explosive Epstein claims that spread through the investigative community before raising red flags. Leonards explained her verification process: “I pull police records, I pull court records, I pull obituaries, I pull newspaper articles from the time. I mean, anything that can give me a timestamp and verifiable information.” Key concerns emerged around timeline inconsistencies, particularly claims involving Jim Jordan that didn’t align chronologically. The Bill Reilly reference—matching a name from the actual Epstein investigation rather than providing new information—suggested someone “had picked a name in the Epstein world and sort of matched it versus the other way around.” While Leonard emphasized she cannot definitively prove the account is disinformation, the inconsistencies were significant enough to warrant skepticism. The investigation serves as a critical reminder about verification standards when dealing with powerful networks capable of weaponizing both truth and lies. “If we can’t tell the difference between genuine survivors and sophisticated disinformation, we become tools of the very networks we’re trying to expose.”Three stories. One through-line: institutions under attack, truth under siege, democracy defenders standing ground.Ready to publish! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
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The Appeaser
Dec 9, 202400:25:35Tap to summarizeDonald Trump is Backing Putin and Selling Out Ukrainians. My guest is Volodymyr Dubovyk, a Senior Fellow at CEPA. In South Korea this week, the specter of authoritarianism briefly materialized when Prime Minister Yoon declared martial law. Although it lasted only hours, Yoon may have felt encouraged by the incoming Trump administration. While democratic forces prevailed in South Korea this time, Ukraine's situation is very different. In Kyiv, we witnessed something previously unthinkable: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has steadfastly maintained Ukraine's right to complete territorial integrity since Russia's invasion, appeared to blink against Putin. Zelenskyy's new apparent openness to the temporary Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory marks a dramatic shift in position—one that reveals both the mounting pressure on Ukraine's military and democracy and the growing recognition of the evaporating Western resolve. The Trump administration is stumbling over itself in floating peace proposals that align with Russian interests, even before potentially taking office. They even dispatched their new advisor to the Kremlin, only to be dismissed by Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov. However, this dismissal wasn't a rejection of diplomacy but a calculated message. Why rush to negotiate when military realities and global dynamics increasingly favor Russian objectives? It seems unavoidable that we will march into 2025 in a manner reminiscent of how the world marched into Munich in 1938. Just as Chamberlain convinced himself that sacrificing part of Czechoslovakia might satisfy Hitler's ambitions, we are watching the potential next U.S. administration craft peace proposals that would effectively validate Putin's territorial conquests. Get used to it, folks—we're witnessing a seismic shift in the global democratic order. It’s the first time we've sacrificed the principles of territorial integrity and democratic self-determination, which are the cornerstones of the post-World War II international system. These principles are being reconsidered in real time. So yes, elections have consequences, and these developments do not make one feel very good. However, there is a lesson in the events that just happened in South Korea: it took a unanimous vote of parliament and some street protests, but martial law only lasted six hours, and now Yoon faces impeachment. Putin may feel emboldened by recent events and by Zelenskyy's apparent concession, but he is still facing the resolve of the Ukrainian people. When people stand up to these paper strongmen, they are often defeated. When the rule of law is maintained, strongmen will back down. When the American people apply pressure—publicly and through the media—we too can urge Donald Trump to protect the people of Ukraine and never surrender.
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How Russia Made Trump President
Nov 25, 202400:43:15Tap to summarizeA Special Report: Revealing Vladimir Putin's Military-Grade Information War That Elected Donald Trump President READ MORE OF OLGA LAUTMAN’S WORK AT HER SUBSTACK. This revealing episode deconstructs the sophisticated Russian influence operation that delivered Trump's 2024 victory. While conventional wisdom suggests Harris lost due to poor messaging and economic concerns, our investigation exposes a military-grade information warfare campaign orchestrated by the Kremlin and executed through Elon Musk's media empire. Expert guest Olga Lautman explains how Russia spent over $45 billion building an "information laundering machine" that weaponized X/Twitter and right-wing media to divide American voters systematically. The operation included a sophisticated $45 million psychological warfare campaign targeting specific demographics with contradictory messages, coordinated bomb threats in Georgia, and strategic algorithm manipulation. Most chillingly, Putin's likely successor, Nikolai Patrushev, issued what amounts to a mafia-style threat, declaring Trump has "obligations to fulfill" after receiving Russian help. We explore what these obligations likely entail: a $2 trillion "shock therapy" economic plan designed to destabilize America, withdraw from global leadership, and enable Russian expansion. As Germany prepares for potential war and Russia eyes further territorial gains, we examine how America faces its greatest crisis since the Civil War. This wasn't just election interference—it was a carefully orchestrated operation to capture American democracy itself. With expert insight from Lautman, we discuss what to expect in the coming months and how Americans can resist as their country faces unprecedented challenges.
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