On Jeffrey Epstein

4 snips

Nov 28, 2025

Guest

Ryan Grim

Guest

Noah Kulwin

Noah Kulwin, writer and co-host of Blowback, and Ryan Grim, investigative reporter from Drop Site News, delve into the intricate web surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. They explore Epstein's rise, his ambiguous financial roles, and his connections to intelligence networks, particularly in Israel. The guests discuss Epstein's role as a global broker among elite circles and the implications of his actions within capitalism and political power dynamics. They also confront the potential dangers of framing his story through antisemitic lenses, while examining why mainstream media has hesitated to investigate these connections.

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INSIGHT

From Dalton Teacher To Global Broker

Jeffrey Epstein rose from a nontraditional background to become a central broker in elite finance and politics.
His exact financial role remained opaque but he gained trust from figures like Les Wexner and Leon Black.

INSIGHT

A Connector In The Davos Network

Epstein functioned as a unique connector across the Davos-style global elite, enabling meetings with presidents and autocrats.
His lack of formal credentials may have made him more willing to bend rules and pioneer shady financial maneuvers.

INSIGHT

Willingness To Do The Dirty Work

Epstein advised on envelope-pushing tax and money-movement schemes that mainstream advisers avoided.
That willingness made him valuable to sanctioned figures and resource-extraction operators.

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“Real life conspiracies pose a certain challenge for political analysis,” wrote Jewish Currents contributors Noah Kulwin and Ari Brostoff in their 2019 piece on Jeffrey Epstein, the child sex trafficker, financier, and international rainmaker. As recently reported in a series of articles at Drop Site News, Epstein had close ties to the Israeli intelligence community, and frequently brokered meetings for former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, including meetings that resulted in the establishment of security ties with Mongolia and the sale of mass surveillance infrastructure to Cote d’Ivoire’s authoritarian government. What do these revelations tell us about the flows of power and money across the billionaire class? And what do we do with the extent to which Epstein’s story reads like an antisemitic conspiracy come to life? To explore these questions, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel spoke with Kulwin, a co-host of Blowback, a podcast about US empire and interventionism, and Ryan Grim, co-founder of Drop Site News and the co-author of multiple recent reports about Epstein.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Articles and Media Mentioned and Further Reading

Drop Site reporting on “Epstein and Israel” by Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussein

“The Right Kind of Continuity,” Ari Brostoff and Noah Kulwin, Jewish Currents

“The worst thing about Davos? The Masters of the Universe think they are do-gooders,” Hamilton Nolan, The Guardian

Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence by James Bamford

The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills

Doppleganger by Naomi Klein

The art of Marc Lombardi

“Jeffrey Epstein Claimed to Have Meddled in Israel’s Elections,” Branko Marcetic, Jacobin

“JPMorgan Alerted U.S. to Epstein Transfers Involving Wall St. Figures,” Matthew Goldstein, David Enrich, Jessica Silver-Greenberg, and Steve Eder, The New York Times

“The Book of Epstein,” Chapo Trap House

Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers by Gus Russo

Transcript forthcoming.