Greg Palast

Investigative journalist Greg Palast joins The Rick Smith Show to tear open the newly uncovered emails between Harvard’s Larry Summers and Jeffrey Epstein — emails in which the very-married Summers leans on the convicted predator as his “wingman,” seeking tips on how to seduce a young economist he was mentoring. Palast lays out how Summers — Clinton’s Treasury Secretary and Obama’s National Economic Council Director — helped engineer the global deregulation spree that detonated economies from Wall Street to Latin America. And he returns to the infamous secret “End-Game” memo he first exposed in VICE: a blueprint showing how U.S. Treasury insiders quietly colluded with a cabal of banking titans to bulldoze financial protections worldwide. Will this Epstein scandal finally push Democrats to cut loose the high priest of neoliberalism? Is this the long-overdue Summers reckoning? Learn more: Read Larry Summers and the Secret "End-Game" Memo: https://www.gregpalast.com/larry-summers-and-the-secret-end-game-memo/ For more from Palast, subscribe to his Substack: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh  

LBC's Matt Frei talks to Greg Palast about the latest madness in MAGA-land in this interview first broadcast on Nov 15, 2025.   For more from Palast, subscribe to his Substack: gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh  

In this edition of the Election Crimes Bulletin, first broadcast on Nov 6, 2025, investigative journalist Greg Palast and Flashpoints host Dennis J. Bernstein unpack the results from Tuesday’s election. Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election by 181,000 votes. The early vote in New York was a record-breaking 735,000. That's where Mamdani’s margin came in. When you let people vote, they vote progressive. That’s why Trump has gone after mail-in voting and early voting, because that is how minorities vote these days. In a democracy, the voters are supposed to pick the politicians. But now we have politicians picking the voters. Around 22 states have made it more difficult to vote by mail or use dropboxes. They cut the number of voting stations and dropboxes in low income, student and minority areas to engineer long lines, while the people in the white suburbs have zero wait to vote. These states are also “caging” voters, using the euphemism “voter-roll hygiene” to remove mostly poor, young, and minority voters from the rolls. Onerous ID laws, heavy restrictions on early and mail-in voting, gerrymandering, laws that allow mass challenges — it's a soft coup. It's not troops in the street grabbing ballot boxes. It's seizing control of the procedure to make it impossible or difficult for people of color, students, and low income voters to vote. To stay informed, and to learn how to save your vote, subscribe to our newsletter (GregPalast.com/subscribe) or Substack (Substack.com/@GregPalastInvestigates).

For years, I was BBC Television’s correspondent covering Venezuela and US attempts to overthrow their elected government. Trump invented nothing. This is at least the fourth US-backed attempt at overthrow and assassination of a Venezuelan president. To understand why Trump has ordered a covert operation to overthrow their government, you need to understand three things about Venezuela... Get the full story, read my Substack report: I met Chávez and Maduro. I know drugs are not the reason Trump wants war with Venezuela: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/p/i-met-chavez-and-maduro-i-know-drugs Watch the film of my BBC reports, The Assassination of Hugo Chavez, produced with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Richard Rowley, on YouTube: https://youtu.be/syExbfVPDnU Get the DVD: https://donorbox.org/palast-the-assassination-of-hugo-chavez-dvd Or download it: https://donorbox.org/palast-the-assassination-of-hugo-chavez-download Support our work with a tax-deductible donation: https://donorbox.org/palast-fund  

"When cowards are ordering around heroes, there could not be anything more dangerous for America." — Greg Palast Greg Palast's full speech from the #NoKings rally in Waterfront Park, San Diego on Saturday, October 18, 2025.   For more from Greg Palast, subscribe to his Substack: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/ Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh

Thom Hartmann’s new book, The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party and a World on the Brink, is one giant fact check on the Whopper-in-Chief, and much more — a disturbing dive into the roiling miasma of self-aggrandizing, self-deluding, psychologically shattered, wailing man-child who is Commander-in-Chief. Don’t read Hartmann’s book twice, as I have. It’s not just the nightmares it induces; it’s the fact that you’ll wake up to the nightmare that is our new reality. “Democracy,” Hartmann concludes, “doesn’t announce its departure with trumpets. It slips away in silence, one institution at a time.”   But we do have Hartmann’s bugle blast. Hopefully, it’s a wake-up reveille and not Taps for this fragile experiment called America. * * * * *    Thom Hartmann and Greg Palast will be speaking in San Diego on Friday, October 17 and in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 18 at fundraisers for the Pacifica Radio Network. Follow the links for more info: https://www.gregpalast.com/the-last-american-president/ Get a copy of Hartmann’s Last American President signed by the author for a tax-deductible donation to the Palast Investigative Fund. Only 5 signed copies available: https://donorbox.org/the-last-american-president-a-broken-man-a-corrupt-party-and-a-world-on-the-brink

Trump and Hegseth's gathering of the generals wasn’t patriotism — it was theater for authoritarianism. When you tell the military that America's “inner cities” are "a big part of war now” you’re not defending America — you’re declaring war on it.  The question now is stark: when the illegal order comes — to turn U.S. troops with live ammunition on the American people — will these generals follow it? And are they more or less likely to after this gathering? Learn more and stay updated, subscribe to our Substack: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/ Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh

On Tuesday, Pete Hegseth told our military’s top brass that they must restore the “male warrior spirit” to the armed forces. “Male” spirit, Pete? My Mom would’ve kicked your a** Get the full story on Substack. https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/p/mom-wouldve-kicked-pete-hegseths Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee. https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh  

What would Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s father, Robert F. Kennedy, the man who saved Martin Luther King’s life, think of his son now? By endorsing Trump, Bobby Kennedy Jr. has endorsed everything he ever fought against. Trump is undoing all the environmental laws that Bobby fought for. To Bobby, the issue of global warming was paramount. And now he’s joined up with Agent Orange to say let the planet burn. Bobby, what’s happened to you? Trump won the election by removing voters he didn’t like. And we’re just at the beginning of that — that’s the dangerous thing. Bobby was a voting rights advocate. How could he stand there next to that man who is mass challenging voters of color? Bobby used to say — and it was kind of creepy, but I understood ‘cause he had his mental issues and he went through trauma — that he thought “daddy” was watching his every action and could still reward or punish him like a parent. He would suddenly become a little boy and talk about his daddy looking at him from Heaven and watching him. Well, hey, Bobby, if your daddy’s looking at you from Heaven now, what do you think he’s thinking? What do you think he’s thinking? As I told Off The Record host Egberto Willies in this clip, Bobby’s father saved Martin Luther King’s life. Not many people know this story. Read it, then imagine what King would say to Bobby Jr. now. https://www.gregpalast.com/rfk-saved-mlks-life/ Stay informed, subscribe to our Substack: @gregpalastinvestigates Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee.  

RFK Jr. is putting lives at risk — I can’t stay silent. His attacks on mRNA research and science funding aren’t politics — they’re threats to our health and future. This is painful. This is horrible and feels a bit like a betrayal. But I have no choice. Bobby Kennedy Jr. was my friend and co-author. We wrote stories together for Rolling Stone. Bobby introduced my New York Times bestseller and wrote a chapter for Billionaires and Ballot Bandits. And, with Jesse Jackson, we co-authored the Number 1 selling adult single issue comic book of all time, Steal Back Your Vote. But then, Bobby lost his mind... This is my story: https://www.gregpalast.com/i-was-on-the-phone-with-rfk-jr-when-he-lost-his-mind/