American Scandal

If you'd like to learn more about Aaron Hernandez, check out the episode of Murder by James Patterson, as well as the Boston Globe Series, Gladiator, Aaron Hernandez and Football, Inc.

If you'd like to learn more about Jonestown, we recommend the book The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Gwin, Raven by Tim Reiterman, and the San Diego State University Special Collection Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and People's Temple, available online.

If you'd like to learn more about Jonestown, we recommend the book The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Quinn, Raven by Tim Reiderman and the San Diego State University Special Collection Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and People's Temple available online.

Natapoff is a law professor at Harvard and an expert in criminal justice. She's also the author of Snitching, Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice.

The Prater story is a great and terrible example of so many things that can go wrong in the informant market.

In our conversation, Natapoff offers a withering critique about the use of criminal informants, a practice she describes as both unregulated and woven into the fabric of law enforcement.

She was on probation, and she cut a deal with the local police to produce drug arrests. And she lined up case after case. They turned out to be innocent people. She had framed them. She had faked the drugs. And the police never checked behind her.

They went ahead and arrested and indicted dozens of people in this small town before they got sued to get them to stop doing it.

If you'd like to learn more about Abscam, we recommend the book The Stingman by Robert Green

If you'd like to learn more about Abscam, we recommend the book The Stingman by Robert Greene and the U.S. Senate's exhaustive study on the operation from December 1982.

If you'd like to learn more about the opioid epidemic, we recommend the books Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, Dovesick by Beth Macy, American Overdose by Chris McGreal, Painkiller by Barry Meyer, Dreamland by Sam Quinonez, the documentary The Climb of the Century directed by Alex Gibney, airing on HBO.

If you'd like to learn more about the opioid epidemic, we recommend the books Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, Dovesick by Beth Macy, American Overdose by Chris McGreal, Painkiller by Barry Meyer, Dreamland by Sam Canonas, and the documentary The Crime of the Century directed by Alex Gibney, airing on HBO.

Your book, American Dreamers, makes arguments about who might have won and lost battles in the culture wars. What have you found?

Well, this book is a history of the American left. And the American left, most historians would argue, has been pretty much a failure.

By left, I mean radical left. I mean people who call themselves socialists or sometimes communists, anarchists, left liberals, radicals is a more general term, because obviously there's been no socialist party or communist party or even labor party that's had any strength for any period of time in this country.

But my argument is that by engaging in debates about cultural values, debates about what the American dream should mean for people, how to extend it to most Americans, a lot of leftists, especially American artists, American writers, movie makers, sometimes politicians, speakers, have had a lot of impact on what you can call the common sense of society.

I mean, the very idea that, for example, the idea of same-sex marriage, now the law of the land. I mean, that was totally out of question, a radical idea up until really the 21st century. But radicals were talking about this as early as 1950s and early 1960s.

Well, actually, my most recent book, if I don't mind me pushing it, is called What It Took to Win in the History of the Democratic Party.

And the point I make in that book is that successful parties are always broad coalitions because we're a very broad, diverse country.

She's been listening to another book on Audible, Stanley Tucci's Taste My Life Through Food.

My guest today is Nathan Masters, host of the PBS series Lost LA and author of the book Crooked, the roaring 20s tale of a corrupt attorney general, a crusading senator and the birth of the American political scandal.

So you have a book Crooked and it's primarily about Harry Doherty, the attorney general of the United States in this time period from 1921 to 1924.

But to answer your question about why scandal was so pervasive during the Harding administration, you have to look at what happened before.

What if the man who's charged with upholding the rule of law and punishing those culprits, the Attorney General of the United States, he's the one who ultimately decides whether to investigate, whether to prosecute. What if he himself is corrupt?

To learn more about the Teapot Dome scandal and the Harry Doherty story, we recommend Master's book, Crooked, The Roaring Twenties Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, A Crusading Senator, and The Birth of the American Political Scandal.

I got to preview the show and it is gripping edge-of-your-seat television, and even more terrifying by the fact that it is inspired by true events.

And I think it was an amazing story. And that's the thing that happened that we felt was the biggest positive thing that came out of that.

They were inspired by that book and they read it at a very young age.