Lever Time with David Sirota by The Lever

05.03.2024

Big Brother Is Watching The Protesters, Sponsored By Corporate America

As colleges and police departments crack down on campus protests, law enforcement are using tools borrowed from corporate America’s ballooning surveillance regime to spy on students — and anyone else they deem a threat. When New York City police raided...

05.01.2024

Congress Wants To Make Sure Flying Still Sucks

After years of pressure, the Department of Transportation announced it would require airlines to automatically refund flyers the cost of canceled or significantly delayed flights. Days later, a bipartisan group of senators — who also happen to be some of...

04.26.2024

Amazon is Eating the Economy

Thirty years ago, Amazon was a quirky internet bookseller. But even back then, founder Jeff Bezos wanted to build an empire. Today, Amazon has inserted itself into almost every facet of daily life, and it’s done so by ruthlessly muscling...

04.19.2024

Dissent Will Not Be Tolerated in the Democratic Party

Today, we’re excited to announce the relaunch of The Lever’s flagship podcast Lever Time. In this week’s episode, David Sirota and Senior Podcast Producer Arjun Singh discuss the 2024 presidential election and the Democratic Party’s efforts to prevent a real...

02.22.2024

The Future Of Lever Podcasts

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota introduces the Lever’s brand new podcast, Master Plan, which tells the gripping inside story of how extremists and tycoons orchestrated a system of legalized corruption in America. Hosted by David Sirota,...

02.15.2024

Amazon Is Afraid Of Its New Union Organizers

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, producer Frank Cappello and reporter Amos Barshad are joined by union organizers Griffin Ritze and Fatou Souare, who are both involved in a current union drive at an Amazon warehouse in Kentucky. Griffin,...

02.08.2024

The Anxious Generation, Brought To You By Smartphones

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by scientist Zach Rausch, lead researcher for social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of the new book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic...

02.01.2024

The Wonk Attempting To Change Republican Economics

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Oren Cass, executive director of the conservative economics think tank American Compass, for a long-form discussion about Oren’s new brand of conservative economic policy — one that calls...

01.24.2024

The State That Could Cost Biden The Election

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota sits down with Hill Harper, a Democratic candidate for Michigan’s open senate seat, to discuss how the state could swing the 2024 presidential election. Michigan, which proved to be a key...

01.17.2024

Trump Won Iowa – Can He Beat The Supreme Court?

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota speaks with Denver Post columnist and longtime Republican Krista Kafer, one of the plaintiffs in the landmark Colorado lawsuit that resulted in the state’s Supreme Court removing Donald Trump from the...

01.11.2024

Amid Boeing Crisis, Is It Still Safe To Fly?

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Bill McGee, a Senior Fellow for Aviation and Travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, and investigative journalist Maureen “Moe” Tkacik to discuss how the air travel industry...

01.04.2024

DECONSTRUCTED: “The Squad,” Part 2: From Obama to Bernie, a Crisis and a Crossroads

Today, we’re sharing another episode of the podcast Deconstructed, from our friends over at The Intercept, an award-winning investigative news organization. The 2008 economic crisis changed the world. In the United States, the meager response by Barack Obama and the...

12.28.2023

DECONSTRUCTED: “The Squad,” Part 1: The Rise and (First) Fall of Bernie

Today, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast Deconstructed, from our friends over at The Intercept, an award-winning investigative news organization. When Bernie Sanders launched his first presidential campaign in 2015, the political world could not have been more different...

12.21.2023

We Need To Talk About Zionism

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Vox senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp, who recently authored a provocative article about how Israel’s mass violence against Palestinians in Gaza could prompt a backlash to right-wing Zionism and...

12.14.2023

How Big Oil Buys The News

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by award-winning climate journalist Amy Westervelt to discuss her recent bombshell report on how news outlets are raking in millions from the fossil fuel industry to produce greenwashed sponsored...

12.07.2023

Sound And Fury Over Israel-Palestine

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by author and Washington Post Editorial board member Shadi Hamid to discuss the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza, specifically how this current iteration of the decades-long hostilities is...

11.30.2023

Artificial Intelligence Is Denying Americans Health Care

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, producer Frank Cappello and senior editor and reporter Andrew Perez are joined by health care journalist Bob Herman, who recently co-authored a report for health care industry news organization STAT detailing how the...

11.21.2023

How Shareholder Advocates Transform Corporations

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, news editor Lucy Dean Stockton is joined by researcher Rosanna Landis Weaver and Andrew Behar, CEO of the non-profit shareholder advocacy organization As You Sow, to discuss how they’re using stock ownership in...

11.16.2023

What The Sam Bankman-Fried Verdict Means For Crypto

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, producer Frank Cappello is joined by researcher, software engineer, and cryptocurrency critic Molly White, who helps break down everything you need to know about the trial of former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried. On...

11.09.2023

Pennsylvania Matters In 2024 (w/ Gov. Josh Shapiro)

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) to examine his first year in office as well as President Joe Biden’s poor poll numbers in the state. According to a recent...

11.06.2023

BONUS: The Lobbyists Who Don’t Want A Ceasefire

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota sits down with Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) to discuss the House’s Israel-Palestine ceasefire resolution as well as the public pushback from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has been...

11.02.2023

How Conservatives Won The Courts

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by lawyer Caroline Fredrickson, who recently penned an op-ed for The Atlantic titled, “What I Most Regret About My Decades of Legal Activism.” As the former head of the...

10.30.2023

BONUS: The Corporate Takeover of Music (Lessons From Bandcamp)

On this week’s bonus episode of Lever Time Premium, The Lever’s Nick Campbell speaks with music writer Robin James and drummer Greg Saunier from the band Deerhoof to discuss the shifting corporate landscape of the music industry, and the larger...

10.26.2023

How To Talk About Gaza (w/ Naomi Klein & Omar Baddar)

On Wednesday, October 18, The Lever’s David Sirota hosted a live event with Canadian journalist and activist Naomi Klein and Palestinian-American political analyst Omar Baddar to discuss the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas and the mounting humanitarian crisis in...

10.19.2023

The King Of The ‘Self-Help’ Grift

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by journalist and Citations Needed podcast co-host Adam H. Johnson to discuss the contradictions and hypocrisies of the multibillion-dollar self-help industry — an industry that has long convinced people...

10.12.2023

The Fog Of War In Israel And Palestine

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy think tank, and Daniel Bessner, an international studies professor at the University of Washington, both of whom...

10.05.2023

The Hidden Flaws Of ‘Bidenomics’

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Matt Stoller, the director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project, who explains the failures and successes of President Joe Biden’s economic policies, also known as “Bidenomics.” ...

09.28.2023

American Intervention And Its Blowback

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Brendan James and Noah Kulwin, producers and hosts of the wildly popular historical narrative podcast Blowback. Their new season covers the history of foreign intervention in Afghanistan and...

09.21.2023

The Serious Science Of Extraterrestrial Research

On this week’s Lever Time, David Sirota and journalist Laura Krantz are joined by Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb to discuss his research into extraterrestrial life. In 2017, a Maui telescope discovered an interstellar object that astronomers named Oumuamua (Hawaiian for “scout”...

09.14.2023

Inside The U.S.-China War Over Clean Energy

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota and Peter Goodman, The New York Times’ global economics correspondent, explore the pivotal role of Indonesia’s vast nickel reserve in the global electric vehicle (EV) revolution and the high-stakes geopolitical chess...

09.07.2023

The American Masculinity Crisis

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota talks with author Richard Reeves about the growing evidence that men are struggling in modern America. In his latest book, Reeves delves into recent economic and social shifts that have negatively...

08.31.2023

Autoworkers Are Ready To Strike

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, producer Frank Cappello speaks with Labor Notes staff writer Luis Feliz Leon about why a potential autoworkers strike could be transformational for younger union members struggling under depressed wages and limited benefits. ...

08.24.2023

The Deadliest Wildfire In 100 Years

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, Lever news editor Lucy Dean Stockton speaks with former Hawaii state representative and national director of the Green New Deal Network Kaniela Ing about the recent wildfires in Maui. On August 8th, a...

08.17.2023

Montana’s Monumental Climate Win

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, Julia Rock and Frank Cappello speak with environmental lawyer Julia Olson to discuss a recent historic win for young climate activists who she represents in Montana. This past Monday, a judge in Montana...

08.10.2023

How PragerU’s Propaganda Machine Infiltrated Florida’s Schools

On this week’s Lever Time, Audit hosts and friends of the show Josh Olson and Dave Anthony are joined by journalist and media expert John Knefel to discuss how the conservative propaganda operation PragerU landed a major new partnership with...

08.03.2023

Heat Is The Deadliest Type Of Weather

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Jeff Goodell, author of the new book The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, to discuss recent deadly heat waves and how...

07.27.2023

The Great Bank Robbery Of 2023

On today’s Lever Time, David Sirota sits down with law professor and policy advocate Robert Hockett and former FDIC attorney Todd Phillips, to explain “The Great Bank Robbery of 2023” — a financial grift that very well could be impacting...

07.20.2023

The Do-Or-Die Stakes Of The Hollywood Strikes

On this week’s Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by The Bear writer and Writers Guild of America (WGA) union member Alex O’Keefe to discuss the stakes of the current Hollywood strike. The WGA has been on strike since early...

07.18.2023

Deconstructed Podcast: An Inflation Solution That Doesn’t Screw Workers

Today, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast Deconstructed from our friends over at The Intercept, an award-winning investigative news organization. Centrist and right-wing economists continue to advocate for laying off workers and engineering a recession to address inflation. But...

07.13.2023

The Stealth Supreme Court Rulings No One Is Talking About

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by law professor Stephen Vladeck, author of the new book, The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic. The Supreme...

07.06.2023

Deconstructed Podcast: Inside Joe Manchin's Rise, Alliances, and Potential Presidential Ambitions

Today, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast Deconstructed from our friends over at The Intercept, an award-winning investigative news organization. In this episode, Daniel Boguslaw, a politics reporter for The Intercept, interviews Senator Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) former political advisor...

06.29.2023

The Supreme Court Has A Billionaire Problem

On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota and Andrew Perez are joined by ProPublica’s Justin Elliott, who recently co-authored an exposédetailing how Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito failed to disclose luxury gifts provided by billionaire hedge fund manager...

06.27.2023

Deconstructed Podcast: Why Dems Must Play “Chess, Not Checkers” With Political Messaging

Today, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast Deconstructed with Ryan Grim, D.C. bureau chief of The Intercept, an award-winning investigative news organization. In this episode, Grim, speaks with communications consultant Anat Shenker-Osorio, host of the podcast Words to...

06.22.2023

Boots Riley On The Writers Strike, Organized Labor, And His New TV Show

As the Writers Guild of America strike enters its eighth week, David Sirota sits down with writer, director, musician, and activist Boots Riley to discuss the ongoing labor struggle, as well as his radical new TV show. In all of...

06.15.2023

Pentagon Whistleblower: The Government Is Hiding “Non-Human” Technology

David sits down with prominent investigative journalist Leslie Kean, who earlier this month published a blockbuster report about a potential secret government UFO effort. According to Kean and her co-author, a former U.S. intelligence official-turned-whistleblower recently gave Congress classified information...

06.08.2023

The Fix Was In With Biden’s Debt Ceiling Deal

The country may have narrowly avoided a debt default catastrophe by passing a debt ceiling deal on June 3, but that doesn’t mean we should allow the fiasco to fall into the memory hole. David Dayen, executive editor of The...

05.31.2023

Social Media Is Killing Our Kids — Sen. Chris Murphy Has a Plan

David Sirota sits down with U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) for a wide-ranging interview. They discuss the proposed debt ceiling deal and whether Democrats could have done more to stop Republicans from holding the U.S. economy hostage. They also discuss...

05.25.2023

What Succession Taught Us About Corporate Media (w/ Frank Rich)

On this week’s episode of Lever Time: David Sirota sits down with writer and executive producer Frank Rich to discuss the series finale of HBO’s Succession. As the award-winning series comes to an end this Sunday, David and Frank take...

05.18.2023

Meet The Pundits Who Falsely Blamed Inflation on Workers

On this week’s episode of Lever Time: After corporate pundits spent the last year gaslighting the American public into believing that rising corporate profits were definitely not driving inflation, now economists and financial institutions are arriving at consensus that rising...

05.11.2023

This Right-Wing “University” Is Coming For Your Kids

On this week’s episode of Lever Time: David Sirota is joined by Josh Olson and Dave Anthony, hosts of The Audit podcast, to discuss the dangerous influence of the conservative media network Prager University (also known as PragerU). PragerU has...

What's Lever Time with David Sirota about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Lever Time with David Sirota episodes: