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Master Plan
SEASON TWO: THE KINGMAKERS IS HERE For early access to future episodes and exclusive bonus content, click here to upgrade to a paid subscription to The Lever. Master Plan, the award-winning investigative podcast series from The Lever, reveals the hidden forces behind today’s biggest problems — and how small groups of powerful people engineered those problems to serve their own interests. We are exposing their schemes. Narrated by David Sirota, an award-winning investigative journalist and…
Episodes
Master PlanENCORE: The Inside Story Of Citizens United
You’ve probably heard of Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that helped unleash billionaire money into American elections. But few know the inside…
Master PlanENCORE: How The Powell Memo Changed America
With the 2026 midterms approaching and billions of dollars flooding into American elections, we're revisiting one of our most popular episodes of Master Plan…
Master PlanIntroducing “The Future of Our Former Democracy: Season 3”
Today, we are sharing the Season 3 premiere of The Future of Our Former Democracy, the Signal Award-winning podcast from More Equitable Democracy and Mori…
Master PlanIntroducing “You Might Be Right:” Will Redistricting Shape the Midterms?
This week we’re sharing a special episode from You Might Be Right, the chart-topping politics podcast from the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs…
Master PlanEpisode 8: The Inheritance | The Kingmakers
In the season finale of Master Plan: The Kingmakers, we ask Democratic leaders what the next U.S. president should do with the expanded executive powers that…
Master PlanEpisode 7: The King’s Man | The Kingmakers
A little-known conservative operative spends years figuring out how to bend the machinery of government to a president's will. By the time Donald Trump returns…
Master PlanEpisode 6: Obama’s Kill List | The Kingmakers
Obama vowed to restore the rule of law after the War on Terror. But behind closed doors, his administration created a secret system that allowed the president…
Master PlanEpisode 5: State of Emergency | The Kingmakers
September 11, 2001 brought chaos and terror to the United States. It also brought an unprecedented opportunity. After decades of watching what he felt was the…
Master PlanEpisode 5: State of Emergency (Free Preview)
Season 2 of Master Plan is back, with new episodes available now for paid subscribers. In Episode 5 of The Kingmakers, Vice President Dick Cheney uses a…
Master PlanThe Return of the Kingmakers
Every crisis creates an opportunity. The final chapters of The Kingmakers reveal the plot to build an all-powerful presidency — and put it in the hands of a…
Master PlanIntroducing ‘The Political Scene’ from The New Yorker
This week, we're sharing an episode from The New Yorker's The Political Scene examining the political forces reshaping America's intelligence community. The…
Master PlanIntroducing: First America
Today, we are sharing the debut episode of First America, the brand-new history podcast from Critical Frequency and Pushkin Industries. Hosted by award-winning…
Master PlanIntroducing Scene on Radio’s The News
The Master Plan team is hard at work on the next batch of Season 2 episodes. In the meantime, we’re sharing an episode from our friends at Scene on Radio…
Master PlanBONUS: The Untouched Power That Could Stop Trump's Iran War
As Trump’s war in Iran approached a critical 60-day deadline, we took a deep dive into the War Powers Resolution, the Nixon-era law designed to limit…
Master PlanEpisode 4: The Meese Doctrine | The Kingmakers
Rather than retreat from Iran-Contra and other scandals, conservative operatives inside the White House — led by Attorney General Edwin Meese — went on the…
Master PlanEpisode 3: President Rambo | The Kingmakers
Emboldened by a landslide election, the president’s men began to see themselves as 1980s action-movie heroes, willing to break the law to get what they want…
Master PlanEpisode 2: Mandate for Power | The Kingmakers
How did Project 2025 take control of the White House? It all began decades ago, when a beer-baron-backed think tank handed President Ronald Reagan an…
Master PlanEpisode 1: After The Fall | The Kingmakers
Before Trump, there was Nixon. His attempts to seize the power of the purse and secretly expand the Vietnam War forged a constitutional crisis, a backlash, and…
Master PlanSeason 2 Trailer: The Kingmakers
A new season of Master Plan debuts on March 16. For early access to new episodes and exclusive bonus content, click here to upgrade to a paid subscription to…
Master PlanThe Master Plan Book Is Here
We’ve got big news — Master Plan is now a book! Master Plan: The Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America, co-authored by David Sirota and Jared Jacang…
Master PlanS1 BONUS: The Master Planners’ Election (With Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse)
In a special Master Plan bonus episode, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse joins David Sirota to break down the impact of the Supreme Court’s’ 2010 Citizens United…
Master PlanS1 E11: Hell Or High Water | Legalizing Corruption
We all live in the master planners’ world now, immersed in an ocean of corruption. The 2024 Republican presidential campaign is bankrolled by billionaires…
Master PlanS1 E10: The Heist | Legalizing Corruption
Unleashed by the Citizens United ruling, the master planners launch a three-part heist to crack the vault protecting democracy itself. First, the schemers take…
Master PlanS1 E9: Going Big | Legalizing Corruption
An anti-abortion legal activist starts using the federal courts to chip away at campaign finance restrictions, setting his sights on the Supreme Court. Indiana…
Master PlanS1 E8: Shock and Awe | Legalizing Corruption
As President George W. Bush declares “Mission Accomplished” in the Iraq War, his administration wages a different war with swing-state senators defying his…
Master PlanS1 E7: Rise of the Machine | Legalizing Corruption
After a series of setbacks in the push to legalize corruption, the master planners know they must take over the U.S. Supreme Court and halt the trend of…
Master PlanS1 E6: The Maverick | Legalizing Corruption
When five U.S. senators get caught pressuring a regulator on behalf of a financial magnate, they become known as the “Keating Five.” The public is predictably…
Master PlanS1 E5: Corporations Are People | Legalizing Corruption
You might remember Mitt Romney’s infamous line: “Corporations are people, my friend.” But where did this idea come from? In this episode: how the Ford…
Master PlanS1 E4: The Secret Task Force | Legalizing Corruption
How did corporate executives and politicians turn Lewis Powell’s memo from a blueprint into a master plan — and begin executing it? In this episode, we uncover…
Master PlanS1 E3: The Powell Memo | Legalizing Corruption
A seemingly moderate corporate lawyer grows alarmed by anti-corruption reformers’ policy wins and writes a manifesto detailing how corporations and oligarchs…
Master PlanS1 E2: The Other Watergate | Legalizing Corruption
There’s a lost tale behind Watergate: corporate bagmen, suitcases of illegal cash, and Nixon circumventing the very campaign finance rules he’d just signed…
Master PlanS1 E1: Milk Money | Legalizing Corruption
Ever wonder how America became so corrupt? It didn’t have to be this way. Our series begins in 1971, a time when hot pants were hot, bell bottoms were…
Master PlanS1 Trailer | Legalizing Corruption
A secret plot. A public theft. A democracy corrupted. Discover the truth. The first season of Master Plan, a new podcast from The Lever is avalable now…